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CIVILIZATION   IN   ENGLAND. 


vol.  n. 


fcONDON  :    PRINTED    BY 

SrOTTISWOODE    AND    CO.,    NEW-STREET     SQUARE 

AND   PARLTA3IENT    STREET 


HISTORY 


OP 


CIVILIZATION   IN   ENGLAND. 


BY 


HENRY    THOMAS    BUCKLE. 


IN    THREE    VOLUMES. 

VOL.  II. 
NEW  EDITION. 


LONDON . 

^LONGMANS,    GREEN,    AND     CO. 

1873. 


(X 


ANALYTICAL   TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


OUTLINE  OP  THE  HISTORY  OE  THE  FRENCH  INTELLECT  EROM 
THE  MIDDLE  OE  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY  TO  THE  ACCES- 
SION  TO   POWER   OE  LOUIS  XIV. 

W  PAGE 

Importance  of  the  question,  as  to  whether  the  historian 
should  begin  with  studying  the  normal  or  the  abnormal 
condition  of  society     .         .         .         .         .     "    .         .  1-3 

Greater  power  of  the  church  in  France  than  in  England  4 

Hence  in  France  during  the  sixteenth  century  everything 

was  more  theological  than  in  England  .         .         .  6-8 

Hence,  too,  toleration  was  impossible  in  France         .         .         9-11 
But  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  scepticism  appeared 
in  France,  and  with  it  toleration  began,  as  was  seen  in 

the  Edict  of  Nantes 11-15 

The  first  sceptic  was  not  Rabelais,  but  Montaigne    .         .       15-18 
Continuation  of  the  movement  by  Charron  .         .       18-21 

Henry  IV.  encouraged  the  Protestants     ....       23-24 
And  they  were  tolerated  even  by  the  queen-regent  during 

the  minority  of  Louis  XIII. 24-26 

The  most  remarkable  steps  in  favour  of  toleration  were, 
however,  taken  by  Richelieu,  who  effectually  humbled 

the  church 27-34 

He  supported  the   new  secular  scheme   of   government 

against  the  old  ecclesiastical  scheme     ....       34-42 

His  liberal  treatment  of  the  Protestants  ....       42-46 

They  are  deserted  by  their  temporal  leaders,  and  the  ma- 
nagement of  the  party  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy       46-51 
Hence  the  French  Protestants,  being  headed  by  the  clergy, 
become  more  intolerant  than  the  French  Catholics,  who 
are  headed  by  statesmen         ......       51-56 

Evidence  of  the  illiberality  of  the  French  Protestants       .       55-73 
They  raise  a  civil  war,  which  was  a  struggle  of  classes 

rather  than  of  creeds 7? 

Richelieu  put  down  the  rebellion,  but  still  abstained  from 

persecuting  the  Protestants 73-7t> 

This  liberal  policy  on  the  part  of  the  government  was 

only  part  of  a  much  larger  movement    ....       76-77 
Illustration  of  this  from  the  philosophy  of  Descartes       .       77-93 


Vi      ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OP  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Analogy  between  Descartes  and  Richelieu  .  .  .  92-93 
The  same  anti-ecclesiastical  spirit  was  exhibited  by  their 

contemporaries      ........       93—95 

AndbyMazarin 96-98 

It  was  also  seen  in  the  wars  of  the  Fronde       .         .         .     99-102 
But  notwithstanding  all  this,  there  was  a  great  difference 
between  France  and  England ;  and  the  prevalence  of  the 
protective  spirit  prevented  the  French  from  becoming 
free 102-107 

CHAPTER  II. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT,  AND   COMPARISON   OF   IT 
IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

About  the  eleventh  century  the  spirit  of  inquiry  began  to 

weaken  the  church 108-110 

Coinciding  with  this,  the  feudal  system  and  an  hereditary 

aristocracy  appeared 110-112 

The  nobles  displace  the  clergy,  and  celibacy  is  opposed 

by  the  principle  of  hereditary  rank      .         .         .         .  112 

In  England  the  nobles  were  less  powerful  than  in  France  113-116 
And  were  glad  to  ally  themselves  with  the  people  against 

the  crown 116-118 

Hence  a  spirit  of  popular  independence  unknown  in  France, 

where  the  nobles  were  too  powerful  to  need  the  help  of 

the  people 118-119 

Effects  of  this  difference  between  the  two  countries  in  the 

fourteenth  century 119-122 

Centralization  was  in  France  the  natural  successor  of 

feudality 122-126 

This  state  contrasted  with  that  of  England      .  •      .         .  126-127 

Power  of  the  French  nobles 128-131 

Illustration  from  the  history  of  chivalry  .  .  .  .131-135 
Another  illustration  from  the  -vanity  of  the  French  and 

pride  of  the  English 135-137 

Also  from  the  practice  of  duelling   .         .         .         .         .  137 

The  pride  of  Englishmen  encouraged  the  Reformation      .  138 

Analogy  between  the  Reformation  and  the  revolutions  of 

the  seventeenth  century  .....  138-139 
Both  were  opposed  by  the  clergy  and  nobles.     Natural 

alliance  between  these  two  classes  ....  139-142 
In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  both  classes  were  weakened  .  143-146 
James  I.  and  Charles  I.  vainly  attempted  to  restore  their 

power         .........  147 


ANALYTICAL    TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  vii 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  ENERGY  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  EX- 
PLAINS THE  FAILURE  OF  THE  FRONDE.  COMPARISON  II K- 
TWEEN  THE  FRONDE  AND  THE  CONTEMPORARY  ENGLISH 
REBELLION. 

PAOB 

Difference  between  the  Fronde  and  the  great  English  re- 
bellion           148-150 

The  English  rebellion  was  a  war  of  classes       .        .        .  150-159 

But  in  France  the  energy  of  the  protective  spirit  and  the 

power  of  the  nobles  made  a  war  of  classes  impossible  .  160-162 

Vanity  and  imbecility  of  the  French  nobles      .         .         .  162-170 

As  such  men  were  the  leaders  of  the  Fronde,  the  rebellion 

naturally  failed 167-173 

But  the  English  rebellion  succeeded  because  it  was  a  de- 
mocratic movement  headed  by  popular  leaders     .        .  174-175 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  CARRIED  BY  LOUIS  XTV.  INTO  LI- 
TERATURE. EXAMINATION  OF  THE  CONSEQUENCES  OF  THIS 
ALLIANCE  BETWEEN  THE  INTELLECTUAL  CLASSES  AND  THE 
GOVERNING   CLASSES. 

The  protective  spirit  in  France,  having  produced  these 
political  evils,  was  carried  into  literature  under  Louis 
XIV.,  and  caused  an  alliance  between  literature  and 

government 176-177 

Servility  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  ....  177-181 
Men  of  letters  grateful  to  Louis  XIV.      ....  182 

But  his  system  of  protecting  literature  is  injurious  .  .  183-188 
Its  first  effect  was  to  stop  the  progress  of  science  .  .  188-192 
Even  in  mechanical  arts  nothing  was  effected  .  .  .  192-194 
Decline  in  physiology,  in  surgery,  and  in  medicine  .         .  194-197 

Also  in  zoology  and  in  chemistry 197 

Nor  was  anything  dono  in  botany 198-202 

Intellectual  decay  under  Louis  XIV.  was  seen  in  every 
department  of  thought,  and  was  the  natural  consequence 

of  patronage 202-205 

Illustrations  from  the  history  of  French  art     .        .        .  205-208 
And  from  every  branch  of  literature         ....  208-210 
Universal  decline  of  France  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
reign  of  Louis  XIV. 210-212 


Vlll  ANALYTICAL   TABLE    OF   CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK  V. 

DEATH   OP  LOUIS   XIV.      REACTION    AGAINST    THE    PROTECTIVE 
SPIRIT,  AND   PREPARATIONS   FOR  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

PAGH 

English  literature  unknown  in  France  in  the  reign  of 

Louis  XIV.         .        .        .  _ 213-214 

But  began  to  be  studied  after  his  death,  when  the  most 
eminent  Frenchmen  visited  England.     This  caused  a 
junction  of  French  and  English  intellects     .         .         .  215-227 
Admiration  of  England  expressed  by  Frenchmen      .         .  228-229 
Hence  liberal  opinions  in  France,  which  the  government 

attempted  to  stifle 229 

Consequent  persecution  of  literary  men  by  the  French 

government 230-242 

Violence  of  the  government 242-246 

In  France  literature  was  the  last  resource  of  liberty .         .  246-247 
Reasons  why  literary  men  at  first  attacked  the  church  and 

not  the  government 247-253 

Hence  they  were  led  to  assail  Christianity        .         .         .  254-258 
But  until  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.  the  political 
institutions  of  France  might  have  been  saved;    after 
that  period  all  was  over 258-259 

CHAPTER  VI. 

STATE  OP  HISTORICAL  LITERATURE  IN  FRANCE  FROM  THE 
END  OF  THE  SIXTEENTH  TO  THE  END  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

Historical  literature  in  France  before  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century 261-265 

Improvement  in  the  method  of  writing  history  late  in  the 

sixteenth  century 266-267 

Still  further  progress  early  in  the  seventeenth  century      .  268-270 

Which  became  more  marked  in  Mezeray's  history  in  1643  271-272 

Retrograde  movement  under  Louis  XIV.  .         .         .  273-279 

Illustration  of  this  from  the  work  of  Audigier  .         .         .  279-282 

And  from  that  of  Bossuet 282-291 

Immense  improvements  introduced  by  Voltaire         .         .  292-313 

His  History  of  Charles  XII 292-295 

His  Age  of  Louis  XIV 296-297 

His  Morals,  Manners,  and  Character  of  Nations       .         .  297-298 
His    views  adopted  by  Mallet,  Mably,  Velly,    Villaret, 

Duclos,  and  Henault 299-300 

His  habit  of  looking  at  epochs 301 

A  remark  of  his  adopted  by  Constant       ....  302 

He  advocated  free  trade 304 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OP  CONTENTS.  ix 

His  anticipation  of  Malthus 304-305 

His  attack  on  the  Middle  Ages 305-306 

And  on  the  pedantic  admirers  of  antiquity       .         .         .  306-308 
He  weakened  the  authority  of  mere  scholars  and  theo- 
logians           308-309 

Who  had  repeated  the  most  childish  absurdities  respecting 

the  early  history  of  Rome 309-310 

In  attacking  which  Voltaire  anticipated  Niebuhr      .         .  310-313 

Ignorant  prejudice  against  him  in  England       .         .         .  313 

His  vast  labours  were  aided  by  Montesquieu   .         .         .  314 

The  works  of  Montesquieu,  and  value  of  his  method        .  314-319 

The  discourses  of  Turgot,  and  their  influence   .         .         .  320-321 

All  this  hastened  the  advance  of  the  French  Revolution    .  321-322 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PROXIMATE   CAUSES   OP  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  AFTER  THE 
MIDDLE   OF   THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Recapitulation  of  preceding  views 323 

Difference  between  certainty  and  precision  .  .  .  324-326 
The  intellect  of  France  began  to  attack  the  Btate  about 

1750 326-327 

Rise  of  the  political  economists 327-330 

Influence  of  Rousseau 330-331 

Just  at  the  same  time  the  government  began  to  attack  the 

church 332-334 

And  to  favour  religious  toleration 334-336 

Abolition  of  the  Jesuits 336-346 

Calvinism  is  democratic  ;  Arminianism  is  aristocratic       .  339-342 
Jansenism  being  allied  to  Calvinism,  its  revival  in  France 
aided  the  democratic  movement,  and  secured  the  over- 
throw of  the  Jesuits,  whose  doctrines  are  Arminian       .  343-345 
After  the  fall  of  the  Jesuits  the  ruin  of  the  French  clergy 

was  inevitable 347-348 

But  was  averted  for  a  time  by  the  most  eminent  French- 
men directing  their  hostility  against  the  state  rather 

than  against  the  church 349-351 

Connexion  between  this  movement  and  the  rise  of  atheism  351-353 
Same  tendency  exhibited  in  Helvetius  ....  353-357 
And  in  Condillac  .  .  .  .  _  .  .  ^  .  .  357-360 
The  ablest  Frenchmen  concentrate  their  attention  on  the 

external  world 360-361 

Effects  of  this  on  the  sciences  of  heat,  light,  and  electricity  361-363 

Also  on  chemistry  and  geology 364-373 

In  England  during  the  same  period  there  was  a  dearth  of 

great  thinkers 374-375 

But  in  France  immense  impetus  was  given  to  zoology  by 

Cuvier  and  Bichat 375-376 


X       ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OP  CONTENTS. 

PAOE 

Bichat's  views  respecting  the  tissues  ....  377-421 
Connexion  between  these  views  and  subsequent  discoveries  383-386 
Kelation  between  inventions,   discoveries,  and  method ; 

and  immense  importance  of  Bichat's  method  .         .  386-389 

Bichat's  work  on  life 390-395 

Great  and  successful  efforts  made  by  the  French  in  Botany  395-399 
And  in  mineralogy  by  De  Lisle  and  Haiiy  .  .  .  399-403 
Analogy  between  this  and  Pinel's  work  on  insanity  .  403-404 

All  these  vast  results  were  part  of  the  causes  of  the  French 

Revolution 405 

Physical  science  is  essentially  democratic  .  .  .  406-410 
The  same  democratic  tendency  was  observable  in  changes 

of  dress 410-412 

And  in  the  establishment  of  clubs  .....  412-415 
Influence  of  the  American  Bebellion  ....  415-418 
Summary  of  the  causes  of  the  French  Revolution  .  .  418-420 
General  reflections 420-424 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

OUTLINES  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  SPANISH  INTELLECT 
FROM  THE  FIFTH  TO  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  NINETEENTH 
CENTURY. 

In  the  preceding  Chapters  four  propositions  have  been  es- 
tablished       425-426 

The  truth  of  which  may  be  further  verified  by  studying 

the  history  of  Spain 426 

In  Spain,  superstition  is  encouraged  by  physical  pheno- 
mena    426-434 

It  was  also  encouraged  by  the  great  Arian  war  with 

France         434-439 

And,  subsequently,  by  the  war  with  the  Mohammedans  .  439-444 

These  three  causes  influenced  the  policy  of  Ferdinand  and 

Isabella 444-446 

Continuation  of  the  same  policy  by  Charles  V.  and  by 

Philip  II 446-453 

Philip  II.,  notwithstanding  his  repulsive  qualities,  was 

loved  by  the  nation 453-455 

Their  affection  for  him  was  the  result  of  general  causes, 
which,  during  several  centuries,  have  made  the  Spaniards 
the  most  loyal  people  in  Europe 455 

Origin  of  Spanish  loyalty,  and  evidence  of  it    .         .         .455-461 

Loyalty    became    united    with    superstition,    and    each 

strengthened  the  other 461-462 

In  consequence  of  this  union,   great  foreign   conquests 

were  made,  and  a  great  military  spirit  was  developed  .  461-465 

But  this  sort  of  progress,  depending  too  much  upon  indi- 
viduals, is  necessarily  unstable 465-466 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.      XI 

PAOB 

The  progress  of  England,  on  the  other  hand,  depends 
upon  the  ability  of  the  nation,  and  therefore,  continues, 
whether  individual  rulers  are  skilful,  or  ■whether  they 
are  unskilful 466-467 

In  Spain,  the  ruling  classes  were  supreme;  the  people 
counted  for  nothing ;  and  hence  the  grandeur  of  the 
country,  which  was  raised  up  by  the  able  princes  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  was  as  quickly  pulled  down  by 
the  weak  princes  of  the  seventeenth     ....  467-472 

The  decay  of  Spain,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  was  con- 
nected with  the  increasing  influence  of  the  clergy .         .  472-483 

The  first  use  which  the  clergy  made  of  their  power  was 

to  expel  all  the  Moors 483-496 

Effect  of  this  expulsion  in  impoverishing  Spain        .         .  497-499 

Decline  of  manufactures,  and  of  population,  and  increase 

of  poverty 499-511 

In  1700,  when  affairs  were  at  their  worst,  the  Austrian 

dynasty  was  succeeded  by  the  Bourbon        .         .         .  513-514 

Spain  was  now  ruled  by  foreigners 514-520 

Who  endeavoured  to  improve  the  country  by  weakening 

the  church 521-525 

But  the  authority  of  the  church  had  so  enfeebled  the  na- 
tional intellect,  that  the  people,  immersed  in  ignorance, 
remained  inert 525-543 

Government  attempted  to  remedy  this  ignorance  by  calling 

in  foreign  aid 534-545 

The  influence  of  foreigners  in  Spain  was  displayed  in  the 

expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  in  1767 545-546 

And  in  the  attacks  made  on  the  Inquisition      .         .         .  647— ">4N 

It  was  also  displayed  in  the  foreign  policy  of  Spain  .         .  548-550 

All  this  was  promoted  by  the  authority  and  high  character 

of  Charles  III .         ...  552-554 

But  it  was  of  no  avail ;  because  politicians  can  do  nothing, 

when  the  spirit  of  the  country  is  against  them       .         .  534-555 

Still,  Charles  III.  effected  great  improvements,  from  which, 
on  a  superficial  view,  permanent  benefit  might  have 
been  expected      .         .         .         ••.•••         .  555-568 

Summary  of  what  was  accomplished  for  Spain,  by  the  go- 
vernment, between  the  years  1700  and  1788  .         .  668-670 

Inasmuch,  however,  as  these  ameliorations  were  opposed 
to  the  habits  of  the  national  character,  a  reaction  was 
inevitable    ....  ....  570-571 

In  1788,  Charles  III.  was  succeeded  by  Charles  IV.,  and 

the  new  king,  being  a  true  Spaniard,  the  reaction  began  571-673 

In  the  nineteenth  century,  political  reformers  again  endea- 
voured to  improve  Spain       .         .         •         •         •         •  "'* 

For  the  reasons  already  stated,  thoir  efforts  wore  fruitless, 
notwithstanding  the  early  establishment  in  that  country 
of  municipal  privileges,  and  of  popular  representation     675-676 


Xll 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

In  this  way,  general  causes  always  triumph  over  par- 
ticular actions 577-578 

Those  general  causes  predetermined  the  country  to  super- 
stition, and  it  was  impossible  for  individuals  to  make 
head  against  them 578-583 

Nothing  can  weaken  superstition  but  knowledge       .         .  583 

Such  failures  are  the  more    observable,  because  Spain 

enjoys  immense  natural  advantages      ....  583-585 

And  has  possessed  great  patriots  and  great  legislators      .  585 

The  Spaniards  have,  moreover,  long  been  celebrated  for 
honour,  courage,  temperance,  humanity,  and  religious 
sincerity 585-588 

So  far,  however,  as  national  progress  is  concerned,  these 
noble  qualities  are  useless,  while  ignorance  is  so  gross 
and  so  general 588-592 

This  it  is,  which,  isolating  Spain  from  the  rest  of  the  civi- 
lized world,  keeps  alive  that  spirit  of  superstition,  that 
reverence  for  antiquity,  and  that  blind  and  6ervile 
loyalty,  which,  as  long  as  they  last,  will  render  im- 
provement impossible ;  and  which  must  last  until  ig- 
norance is  removed 592-597 


HISTORY 

OP 

CIVILIZATION  IN  ENGLAND. 

CHAPTER  I. 

OUTLINE  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THB 
MIDDLE  OF  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY  TO  THE  ACCESSION  TO 
POWER    OF   LOUIS   XTV. 

The  consideration  of  these  great  changes  in  the  English 
mind,  has  led  me  into  a  digression,  which,  so  far  from 
being  foreign  to  the  design  of  this  Introduction,  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  a  right  understanding  of  it.  In  this, 
as  in  many  other  respects,  there  is  a  marked  analogy  be- 
tween investigations  concerning  the  structure  of  society 
and  investigations  concerning  the  human  body.  Thus, 
it  ha3  been  found,  that  the  best  way  of  arriving  at  a 
theory  of  disease  is  by  beginning  with  the  theory  of 
health  ;  and  that  the  foundation  of  all  sound  pathology 
must  be  first  sought  in  an  observation,  not  of  the  ab- 
normal, but  of  the  normal  functions  of  life.  Just  in  the 
same  way,  it  will,  I  believe,  be  found,  that  the  best 
method  of  arriving  at  great  social  truths,  is  by  first 
investigating  those  cases  in  which  society  has  deve- 
loped itself  according  to  its  own  laws,  and  in  which  the 
governing  powers  have  least  opposed  themselves  to  the 
spirit  of  their  times.1     It  is  on  this  account  that,  in 

1  The  question  as  to  whether  a  neglect  of  it  has  introduced 
the  study  of  normal  phenomena  confusion  into  every  work  I  have 
should  or  should  not  precede  seen  on  general  or  comparative 
the  study  of  abnormal  ones,  is  history.  For  this  preliminary 
of  the  greatest  importance ;  and    being  unsettled,  there  haa  been 

VOL.  n.  B 


FKENOH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 


order  to  understand  the  position  of  France,  I  have 
begun  by  examining  the  position  of  England.  In  order 
to  understand  the  way  in  which  the  diseases  of  the 
first  country  were  aggravated  by  the  quackery  of  igno- 


no  recognized  principle  of  ar- 
rangement ;  and  historians,  in- 
stead of  following  a  scientific 
method  suited  to  the  actual  exi- 
gencies of  our  knowledge,  have 
adopted  an  empirical  method 
suited  to  their  own  exigencies ; 
and  have  given  priority  to  dif- 
ferent countries,  sometimes  ac- 
cording to  their  size,  sometimes 
according  to  their  antiquity, 
sometimes  according  to  their 
geographical  position,  some- 
times according  to  their  wealth, 
sometimes  according  to  their 
religion,  sometimes  according 
to  the  brilliancy  of  their  lite- 
rature, and  sometimes  accord- 
ing to  the  facilities  which  the 
historian  himself  possessed  for 
collecting  materials.  All  these 
are  factitious  considerations ; 
and,  in  a  philosophic  view,  it  is 
evident  that  precedence  should 
be  given  to  countries  by  the 
historian  sslely  in  reference  to 
the  ease  with  which  their  his- 
tory can  be  generalized ;  follow- 
ing in  this  respect  the  scientific 
plan  of  proceeding  from  the 
simple  to  the  complex.  This 
leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that, 
in  the  study  of  Man,  as  in  the 
study  of  Nature,  the  question  of 
priority  resolves  itself  into  a 
question  of  aberration ;  and  that 
the  more  aberrant  any  people 
have  been,  that  is  to  say,  the 
more  they  have  been  interfered 
with,  the  lower  they  must  be 
placed  in  an  arrangement  of  the 
history  of  various  countries. 
Coleridge  (Lit.  Remains,  vol.  i. 
p.   326,    and    elsewhere  in  his 


works)  seems  to  suppose  that 
the  order  should  be  the  reverse 
of  what  I  have  stated,  and  that 
the  laws  both  of  mind  and  body 
can  be  generalized  from  patho- 
logical data.  Without  wishing 
to  express  myself  too  positively 
in  opposition  to  so  profound  a 
thinker  as  Coleridge,  I  cannot 
help  saying  that  this  is  contra- 
dicted by  an  immense  amount  of 
evidence,  and,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  is  supported  by  none.  It 
is  contradicted  by  the  fact,  that 
those  branches  of  inquiry  which 
deal  with  phenomena  little  af- 
fected by  foreign  causes,  have 
been  raised  to  sciences  sooner 
than  those  which  deal  with 
phenomena  greatly  affected  by 
foreign  causes.  The  organic 
world,  for  example,  is  more 
perturbed  by  the  inorganic 
world,  than  the  inorganic  world 
is  perturbed  by  it.  Hence  we 
find  that  the  inorganic  sciences 
have  always  been  cultivated 
before  the  organic  ones,  and  at 
the  present  moment  are  far 
more  advanced  than  they.  In 
the  same  way,  human  physiology 
is  older  than  human  pathology  ; 
and  while  the  physiology  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom  has  been 
successfully  prosecuted  since  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  pathology  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom  can  scarcely 
be  said  to  exist,  since  none  of 
its  laws  have  been  generalized, 
and  no  systematic  researches,  on 
a  large  scale,  have  yet  been 
made  into  the  morbid  anatomy 
of  plants.   It  appears,  therefore. 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTUBY.       3 


rant  rulers,  it  was  necessary  to  understand  the  way  in 
which  the  health  of  the  second  country  was  preserved 
by  being  subjected  to  smaller  interference,  and  allowed 
with  greater  liberty  to  continue  its  natural  march. 
"With  the  light,  therefore,  which  we  have  acquired  by 
a  study  of  the  normal  condition  of  the  English  mind, 
we  can,  with  the  greater  ease,  now  apply  our  prin- 
ciples to  that  abnormal  condition  of  French  society,  by 
the  operations  of  which,  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  some  of  the  dearest  interests  of  civilization 
were  imperilled. 

In  France,  a  long  train  of  events,  which  I  shall  here- 
after relate,  had,  from  an  early  period,  given  to  the 
clergy  a  share  of  power  larger  than  that  which  they 


that  different  ages  and  different 
sciences  bear  unconscious  testi- 
mony to  the  uselessness  of  pay- 
ing much  attention  to  the  abnor- 
mal, until  considerable  progress 
has  been  made  in  the  study  of 
the  normal ;  and  this  conclusion 
might  be  confirmed  by  innume- 
rable authorities,  who,  differing 
from  Coleridge,  hold  that  physi- 
ology is  the  basis  of  pathology, 
and  that  the  laws  of  disease  are 
to  be  raised,  not  from  the  phe- 
nomena presented  in  disease,  but 
from  those  presented  in  health; 
in  other  words,  that  pathology 
should  be  investigated  deduc- 
tively rather  than  inductively, 
and  that  morbid  anatomy  and 
clinical  observations  may  verify 
the  conclusions  of  science,  but 
can  never  supply  the  means  of 
creating  the  science  itself.  On 
this  extremely  interesting  ques- 
tion, compare  Geoffrey  Saint 
Hilairc,  Hist,  des  Anomalies  de 
V  Organisation,  vol.  ii.  pp.  9,  10, 
127 ;  Bowman's  Surgery,  in  En- 
cyclop,  of  the  Medical  Sciences, 
p.  824 ;  Bichat,  Anatomie  Gine- 
rale,    vol.    i.    p.    20;    Cullen's 


Works,  vol.  i.  p.  424 ;  Comte, 
Philos.  Positive,  vol.  iii.  pp.  334, 
335 ;  Bobin  et  Verdeil,  Chimie 
Anatomique,  vol.  i.  p.  68 ;  Es- 
quirol,  Maladies  Men  tales,  vol.  i. 
p.  Ill ;  Georget,  de  la  Folic, 
pp.  2,  391,  392;  Brodie's  Pa- 
thology and  Surgery,  p.  3 ; 
Blainville,  Physiologic  comparee, 
vol.  i.  p.  20;  'Feuchtersleben's 
Medical  Psychology,  p.  200; 
Lawrence's  Lectures  on  Man, 
1844,  p.  45;  Simon's  Pathology, 
p.  6.  • 

Another  confirmation  of  the 
accuracy  of  this  view  is,  that 
pathological  investigations  of 
the  nervous  system,  numerous 
as  they  have  been,  have  effected 
scarcely  anything ;  th8  reason 
evidently  being,  that  the  pre- 
liminary knowledge  of  the  nor- 
mal state  is  not  sufficiently  ad- 
vanced. See  Noble  on  the  Brain, 
pp.  76-92,  337,  338 ;  Henry  on 
the  Nervous  System,  in  Third 
Report  of  Brit.  Assoc,  p.  78; 
Holland's  Medical  Notes,  p.  608 ; 
Jones  and  Sicveking's  Patholog. 
Anat.  p.  211. 


b2 


4        FRENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

possessed  in  England.  The  results  of  this  were  for  a 
time  decidedly  beneficial,  inasmuch  as  the  church  re- 
strained the  lawlessness  of  a  barbarous  age,  and  secured 
a  refuge  for  the  weak  and  oppressed.  But  as  the  French 
advanced  in  knowledge,  the  spiritual  authority,  which 
had  done  so  much  to  curb  their  passions,  began  to  press 
heavily  upon  their  genius,  and  impede  its  movements. 
That  same  ecclesiastical  power,  which  to  an  ignorant 
age  is  an  unmixed  benefit,  is  to  a  more  enlightened 
age  a  serious  evil.  The  proof  of  this  was  soon  ap- 
parent. For  when  the  Reformation  broke  out,  the 
church  had  in  England  been  so  weakened,  that  it  fell 
almost  at  the  first  assault ;  its  revenues  were  seized  by 
the  crown,2  and  its  offices,  after  being  greatly  dimi- 
nished both  in  authority  and  in  wealth,  were  bestowed 
upon  new  men,  who,  from  the  uncertainty  of  their 
tenure,  and  the  novelty  of  their  doctrines,  lacked  that 
long-established  prescription  by  which  the  claims  of 
the  profession  are  mainly  supported.  This,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  was  the  beginning  of  an  uninterrupted 
progress,  in  which,  at  every  successive  step,  the  eccle- 
siastical spirit  lost  some  of  its  influence.  In  France,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  clergy  were  so  powerful,  that  they 
were  able  to  withstand  the  Reformation,  and  thus  pre- 
serve for  themselves  those  exclusive  privileges  which 
their  English  brethren  vainly  attempted  to  retain. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  that  second  marked  diver- 
gence between  French  and  English  civilization,3  which 
had  its  origin,  indeed,  at  a  much  earlier  period,  but 
which  now  first  produced  conspicuous  results.  Both 
countries  had,  in  their  infancy,  been  greatly  benefited 
by  the  church,  which  always  showed  itself  ready  to 
protect  the  people  against  the  oppressions  of  the  crown 


2  A  circumstance  which  Har-  nue,   vol.   i.   pp.   181-184,    and 

ris  relates  with  evident  delight,  Eccleston's  English    Antiquities, 

and  goes  out  of  his  way  to  men-  p.  228. 

tion  it.     Lives  of  the   Stuarts,         3  The  first  divergence   arose 

vol.  iii.  p.  300.     On  the  amount  from  the  influence  of  the  protec- 

of  loss  the  church  thus  sustained,  tive  spirit,  as  I  shall  endeavour 

6ee  Sinclair's  Hist,  of  the  Beve-  to  explain  in  the  next  chapter. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTUBY.      5 

and  the  nobles.4  But  in  both  countries,  as  society  ad- 
vanced, there  arose  a  capacity  for  self-protection ;  and 
early  in  the  sixteenth,  or  probably  even  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  it  became  urgently  necessary  to  diminish  that 
spiritual  authority,  which,  by  prejudging  the  opinions 
of  men,  has  impeded  the  march  of  their  knowledge.6 
It  is  on  this  account  that  Protestantism,  so  far  from 
being,  as  its  enemies  have  called  it,  an  aberration 
arising  from  accidental  causes,  was  essentially  a  normal 
movement,  and  was  the  legitimate  expression  of  the 
wants  of  the  European  intellect.  Indeed,  the  Reforma- 
tion owed  its  success,  not  to  a  desire  of  purifying  the 
church,  but  to  a  desire  of  lightening  its  pressure ;  and 
it  may  be  broadly  stated,  that  it  was  adopted  in  every 
civilized  country,  except  in  those  where  preceding 
events  had  increased  the  influence  of  the  ecclesiastical 
order,  either  among  the  people  or  among  their  rulers. 
This  was,  unhappily,  the  case  with  Prance,  where  the 
clergy  not  only  triumphed  over  the  Protestants,  but 
appeared,  for  a  time,  to  have  gained  fresh  authority  by 
the  defeat  of  such  dangerous  enemies.6 

4  On  the  obligations  Europe  aus  jenem  Supremat  der  Theo- 

is  under  to  the  Catholic  clergy,  logieflossen.beengtundgehemmt. 

see  some  liberal  and  very  just  Der  erstewar:  die  menschliche 

remarks  in  KembUs  Saxons  in  Vernunft  kann   nicht  iiber  die 

England,  vol.  ii.  pp.  374,  375;  Offenbarunghinausgehen.  .... 

and  in   Guizofs   Civilisation  en  Der  zweite :   die  Vernunft  kann 

France.    See  also  Neander's  Hist,  nichts  als  wahr  erkennen,  'was 

of  the  Church,  vol.  iii.  pp.  199-  dem   Inhalte    der    Offenbarung 

206,  256-257,  vol.  v.  p.  138,  vol.  widerspricht,    und    nichts    fv 

vi.    pp.    406,    407 ;     Palgrave's  falsch  erkennen,  was  derselben 

Anglo-Saxon  Commonwealth,  vol.  angemessen  ist, — folgte  aus  dem 

i.   p.   655;    Lingard's  Hist,    of  ersten.'     Gesch.  der  Philos.  vol. 

England,  vol.  ii.p.  44 ;  Klimrath,  viii.  part  i.  p.  8. 

Travaux  sur  I' Hist,  du  droit,  vol.  *  As  to  the  influence  of  the 

i.  p.  394 ;  Carwitherts  Hist,  of  the  Reformation    generally,   in    in- 

Church     of    England,     vol.    i.  creasing  the  power  of  the  Catho- 

p.  157.  lie  clergy,  see  M.  Ranke's  impor- 

8  The  way  in  which  this  acted  tant  work  on  the  History  of  the 

is  concisely   stated   by  Tenne-  Popes;   and  as  to  the  result  in 

mann  :  '  Wenn  sich  nun  auch  ein  France,   see  Monteil,   Hist,   des 

freierer    Geist    der    Forschung  divers  Etats,  vol.  v.  pp.  23S-235. 

regte,   so   fand    er  sich    gleich  Corero,  who  was  ambassador  m 

durch  zwei  Grundsatze,  wolche  France  in  1669,  writes,  'H  P*P* 


FEENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 


The  consequence  of  all  this  was,  that  in  France, 
every  thing  assumed  a  more  theological  aspect  than  in 
England.  In  our  country,  the  ecclesiastical  spirit  had, 
by  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  become  so 
feeble,  that  even  intelligent  foreigners  were  struck  by 
the  peculiarity.7  The  same  nation,  which,  during  the 
Crusades,  had  sacrificed  innumerable  lives  in  the  hope 
of  planting  the  Christian  standard  in  the  heart  of  Asia,8 
was  now  almost  indifferent  to  the  religion  even  of  its 
own  sovereign.     Henry  VIIL,  by  his  sole  will,  regn- 


puo  dire  a  mio  giudizio,  d'  aver 
in  questi  romori  piuttosto  guad- 
agnato  che  perduto,  percioche 
tanta  era  la  lieenza  del  vivere, 
seeondo  che  ho  inteso,  prima  che 
quel  regno  si  dividesse  in  due 
parti,  era  tanta  poca  la  devo- 
zione  che  avevano  in  Roma  c  in 
quei  che  vi  abitavano,  che  il  papa 
era  piu  considerato  come  principe 
grande  in  Italia,  che  come  capo 
della  chiesa  e  pastore  universale. 
Ma  scoperti  che  si  furono  gli 
ugonotti,  coniinciarono  i  cattolici 
a  riverire  il  suo  nome,  e  riconos- 
cerlo  per  vero  vicario  di  Cristo, 
confirmandosi  tanto  piu  in  opin- 
ione  di  doverlo  tener  per  tale, 
quanto  piu  lo  sentivano  sprez- 
zare  e  negare  da  essi  ugonotti.' 
Relations  desAmbassadcurs  Veni- 
tiens,  vol.  ii.  p.  162.  This  inter- 
esting passage  is  one  of  many 
proofs  that  the  immediate  advan- 
tages derived  from  the  Reforma- 
tion have  been  overrated ;  though 
the  remote  advantages  were  un- 
doubtedly immense. 

7  The  indifference  of  the 
English  to  theological  disputes, 
and  the  facility  with  which  they 
changed  their  religion,  caused 
many  foreigners  to  censure  their 
fickleness.  See,  for  instance, 
Essais  de  Montaigne,  livre  ii. 
chap.  xii.  p.  365.     Perlin,   who 


travelled  in  England  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  sixteenth  century,  says, 
'  The  people  are  reprobates,  and 
thorough  enemies  to  good  man- 
ners and  letters ;  for  they  don't 
know  whether  they  belong  to 
God  or  the  devil,  which  St.  Paul 
has  reprehended  in  many  people, 
saying,  Be  not  transported  with 
divers  sorts  of  winds,  but  be 
constant  and  steady  to  your  be- 
lief.' Antiquarian  Repertory. 
vol.  iv.  p.  511,  4to.  1809.  See 
also  the  remarks  of  Michele  in 
1557,  and  of  Crespet  in  1590 ; 
Ellis's  Original  Letters,  2nd 
series,  vol.  ii.  p.  239 ;  Hallam's 
Constitutional  History,  vol.  i. 
p.  102  ;  Southey's  Commonplace 
Book,  3rd  series,  p.  408. 

8  An  historian  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  strikingly  ex- 
presses the  theological  feelings 
of  the  English  crusaders,  and 
the  complete  subordination  of 
the  political  ones  :  '  Indignum 
quippe  judicabant  animarum 
suarum  salutem  omittere,  et 
obsequium  ccelestis  Regis,  clien- 
telse  regis  alicujus  terreni  post- 
pones ;  constituerunt  igitur 
terminum,  videlicet  festum  nativi- 
tatis  beati  Johannis  Baptistse.' 
MattiMsi  Paris  Historia  Major, 
p.  671.  It  is  said,  that  the  first 
tax  ever  imposed  in  England  on 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.       7 

lated  the  national  creed,  and  fixed  the  formularies  of 
the  church,  which,  if  the  people  had  been  in  earnest, 
he  could  not  possibly  have  done  ;  for  he  had  no  means 
of  compelling  submission ;  he  had  no  standing  army ; 
and  even  his  personal  guards  were  so  scanty,  that 
at  any  moment  they  could  have  been  destroyed  by  a 
rising  of  the  warlike  apprentices  of  London.9  After 
his  death,  there  came  Edward,  who,  as  a  Protestant 
king,  undid  the  work  of  his  father ;  and,  a  few  years 
later,  there  came  Mary,  who,  as  a  Popish  queen,  undid 
the  work  of  her  brother ;  while  she,  in  her  turn,  was 
succeeded  by  Elizabeth,  under  whom  another  great 
alteration  was  effected  in  the  established  faith.10  Such 
was  the  indifference  of  the  people,  that  these  vast 
changes  were  accompanied  without  any  serious  risk.11 
In  France,  on  the  other  hand,  at  the  mere  name  of  re- 
ligion, thousands  of  men  were  ready  for  the  field.  In 
England,  our  civil  wars  have  all  been  secular ;  they 
have  been  waged,  either  for  a  change  of  dynasty,  or 


personal  property  was  in  1166,  10  Locke,  in  his  first  Letter  on 

and  was  for  the  purpose  of  cm-  Toleration,  has  made  some  pun- 

sading.     Sinclair's  Hist,  of  the  gent,  and,  I  should  suppose,  very 

Revenue,  vol.  i.  p.  88  :  '  It  would  offensive,  observations  on  these 

not  probably  have  been  easily  ^  rapid  changes.     Locke's  Works, 

submitted  to,  had  it  not  been  vol.  v.  p.  27. 

appropriated  for  so  popular  a  M  But,  although  Mary  easily 

purpose.'  effected  a  change  of  religion,  the 

9  Henry  VIII.  had,  at  onetime,  anti-ecclesiastical  spirit  was  far 

fifty  horse-guards,  but  they  being  too  strong  to  allow  her  to  restore 

expensive,  were  soon  given  up ;  to  the  church  its  property.     '  In 

and  his  only  protection  consisted  Mary's   reign,   accordingly,   her 

of  '  the  yeomen   of  the  guard,  parliament,  so  obsequious  in  all 

fifty  in  number,  and  the  common  matters  of  religion,  adhered  with 

servants  of  the  king's  household.'  a  firm  grasp  to  the  possession  of 

Hallam's    Const.    Hist.    vol.    i.  church-lands.'     Hallam's  Const. 

p.  46.    These  'yeomen    of   the  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.   77.      See   also 

guard   were   raised    by    Henry  Shorfs  Hist,  of  the  Church  of 

VII.  in  1485.'    Grose's  Military  England,    p.     213 ;     Livgard's 

Antiquities,  vol.  i.  p.  167.     Com-  Hist,  of  England,   vol.   iv.  pp. 

pare  Turner's  Hist,  of  England,  339,  340  ;  Butler's  Mem.  of  the 

vol.  vii.  p.  54 ;    and  Lingard's  Catholics,   vol.  i.    p.  253  ;   and 

Hist,   of   England,    vol.   iii.   p.  Carwithen's  Hist,  of  the  Church 

298.  of  England,  vol.  i.  p.  346. 


8        FBENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

for  an  increase  of  liberty.  But  those  far  more  horrible 
■wars,  by  which,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  France  was 
desolated,  were  conducted  in  the  name  of  Christianity, 
and  even  the  political  struggles  of  the  great  families 
were  merged  in  a  deadly  contest  between  Catholics  and 
Protestants.12 

The  effect  this  difference  produced  on  the  intellect  of 
the  two  countries  is  very  obvious.  The  English,  con- 
centrating their  abilities  upon  great  secular  matters, 
had,  by  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  produced  a 
literature  which  never  can  perish.  But  the  French, 
down  to  that  period,  had  not  put  forth  a  single  work, 
the  destruction  of  which  would  now  be  a  loss  to  Europe. 
What  makes  this  contrast  the  more  remarkable  is,  that 
in  France  the  civilization,  such  as  it  was,  had  a  longer 
standing ;  the  material  resources  of  the  country  had 
been  earlier  developed ;  its  geographical  position  made 
it  the  centre  of  European  thought  ;13  and  it  had  pos- 
sessed a  literature  at  a  time  when  our  ancestors  were 
a  mere  tribe  of  wild  and  ignorant  barbarians. 

The  simple  fact  is,  that  this  is  one  of  those  innumer- 
able instances  which  teach  us  that  no  country  can  rise 
to  eminence  so  long  as  the  ecclesiastical  power  pos- 
sesses much  authority.  For,  the  predominance  of  the 
spiritual  classes  is  necessarily  accompanied  by  a  cor- 
responding predominance  of  the  topics  in  which  those 
classes  delight.  Whenever  the  ecclesiastical  profession 
is  very  influential,  ecclesiastical  literature  will  be  very 
abundant,  and  what  is  called  profane  literature  will  be 
very  scanty.  Hence  it  occurred,  that  the  minds  of  the 
French,  being  almost  entirely  occupied  with  religious 


12  "'Quand  eclata  la  guerre  des  France,    p.    25,    'des   querelles- 

opinions  religieuses,  les  antiques  d'autant    plus     vives,    qu'elles 

rivalries    des    barons   se  trans-  avoient  la  religion  pour  base.' 
formerent  en  baine  du  precbe  ou         13  Tbe  intellectual  advantages 

de  la  messe.'     Capefigue,  Hist,  de  of  France,  arising  from  its  posi- 

la  Reforme  et  de  la  Ligue,  vol.  iv.  tion  between  Italy,  Germany,  and 

p.  32.     Compare  Duplessis  Mor-  England,  are  very  fairly  stated 

nay,  Mem.  et  Correspond,  vol.  ii.  by  M.  Lerminier  (Philosophie  du 

pp.    422,    563  ;     and    Bouilier,  Droit,  vol.  i.  p.  9). 
Maison    Militaire    des  Bois  de 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTTJBY.      9 

disputes,  had  no  leisure  for  those  great  inquiries  into 
which  we  in  England  were  beginning  to  enter  ;14  and 
there  was,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  an  interval  of  a 
whole  generation  between  the  progress  of  the  French 
and  English  intellects,  simply  because  there  was  about 
the  same  interval  between  the  progress  of  their  scepti- 
cism. The  theological  literature,  indeed,  rapidly  in- 
creased ;15  but  it  was  not  until  the  seventeenth  century 
that  France  produced  that  great  secular  literature,  the 
counterpart  of  which  was  to  be  found  in  England  before 
the  sixteenth  century  had  come  to  a  close. 

Such  was,  in  France,  the  natural  consequence  of  the 
power  of  the  church  being  prolonged  beyond  the  period 
which  the  exigencies  of  society  required.  But  while 
this  was  the  intellectual  result,  the  moral  and  physical 
results  were  still  more  serious.  While  the  minds  of 
men  were  thus  heated  by  religious  strife,  it  would  have 
been  idle  to  expect  any  of  those  maxims  of  charity  to 
which  theological  faction  is  always  a  stranger.  While 
the  Protestants  were  murdering  the  Catholics,16  and 
the  Catholics  murdering  the  Protestants,  it  was  hardly 
likely  that  either  sect  should  feel  tolerance  for  the 
opinions  of  its  enemy.17    During  the  sixteenth  century  r 


14  Just  in  the  same  way,  the  of  the  Catholics,  and  quite  as- 
religious  disputes  in  Alexandria  numerous  relatively  to  the  num- 
injured  the  interests  of  know-  bers  and  power  of  the  two  par- 
ledge.  See  the  instructive  re-  ties.  Compare  Sismondi,  Hist. 
marks  of  M.  Matter  (Hist,  de  des  Frangais,  vol.  xviii.  pp.  516, 
I'Ecole  d'Alexandrie,  vol.  ii.  p.  517,  with  Capefigue,  Hist,  de  la 
131).  Reforme,  vol.  ii.  p.  173,  vol.  vi. 

15  Monteil,  Hist,  des  divers  p.  54 ;  and  Smedley,  Hist,  of  the 
Etats,  vol.  vi.  p.  136.  Indeed,  Reformed  Religion  in  France, 
the  theological  spirit  seized  the  vol.  i.  pp.  199,  200,  237. 
theatre,  and  the  different  eecta-  17  In  1569  Corero  writes  : 
rians  ridiculed  each  other's  '  Ritrovai  quel  regno,  certo,  posto 
principles  on  the  stage.  See  a  in  grandissima  confusione ;  per- 
curious  passage  at  p.  182  of  the  che,  stante  quella  divisione  di 
same  learned  work.  religione  (convertita  quasi  in  due 

16  The  crimes  of  the  French  fazioni  e  inimicizie  particolari), 
Protestants,  though  hardly  no-  era  causa  ch'  ognuno,  senza  cho 
ticed  in  Felice's  History  of  the  amicizia  o  parentela  potesso  aver 
Protestants  of  France,  pp.  138-  luoco,  stava  con  l'orecchie  at- 
143,  were  as  revolting  as  those  tentejepienodisospcttoascoltava 


10 


EEENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 


treaties  were  occasionally  made  between  the  two  parties ; 
but  they  were  only  made  to  be  immediately  broken  ;18 
and,  with  the  single  exception  of  l'Hopital,  the  bare 
idea  of  toleration  does  not  seem  to  have  entered  the 
head  of  any  statesman  of  the  age.  It  was  recommended 
by  him  ;19  but  neither  his  splendid  abilities,  nor  his 
unblemished  integrity,  could  make  head  against  the 
prevailing  prejudices,  and  he  eventually  retired  into 
private  life  without  effecting  any  of  his  noble  schemes.20 
Indeed,  in  the  leading  events  of  this  period  of  French 
history,  the  predominance  of  the  theological  spirit  was 
painfully  shown.  It  was  shown  in  the  universal  deter- 
mination to  subordinate  political  acts  to  religious 
opinions.21  It  was  shown  in  the  conspiracy  of  Amboise, 
and  in  the  conference  of  Poissy  ;  and  still  more  was  it 


da  che  parte  nasceva  qualche 
romore.'  Bdat.  des  Ambassad. 
Venitiens,  vol.  ii.  p.  106.  He 
emphatically  adds,  'Temevano 
gl'  ugonotti,  temevano  licattolici, 
temeva  il  prencipe,  temevano  li 
sudditi.'  See  also,  on  this  hor- 
rible state  of  opinions,  Sismondi, 
Hist,  des  Frangais,  vol.  xviii.  pp. 
21,  22,  118-120,  296,  430.  On 
both  sides,  the  grossest  calumnies 
were  propagated  and  believed; 
and  one  of  the  charges  brought 
against  Catherine  de  Medici  was, 
that  she  caused  the  Cesarean 
operation  to  be  performed  on  the 
wives  of  Protestants,  in  order 
that  no  new  heretics  might  be 
born.  Sprengel,  Hist,  de  la 
Medecine,  vol.  vii.  p.  294. 

18  Mably,  Observations  sur 
THist.  de  France,  vol.  iii.  p.  149. 
In  the  reign  of  Charles  IX.  alone, 
there  were  no  less  than  five  of 
these  religious  wars,  each  of 
which  was  concluded  by  a  treaty. 
See  Flassan,  Hist,  de  la  Diplo- 
matic Frangaise,  vol.  ii.  p.  69. 

19  For  which  l'Hopital  was 


accused  of  atheism  :  •  Homo 
doctus,  sed  verus  atheus.'  Diet. 
Philos.  article  Atheisme,  in  (Euvres 
de  Voltaire,  vol.  xxxvii.  pp.  181, 
182. 

20  I  have  not  been  able  to 
meet  with  any  good  life  of  this 
great  man :  that  by  Charles 
Butler  is  very  superficial,  and  so 
is  that  by  Bernard!,  in  Biog. 
Univ.  vol.  xxiv.  pp.  412-424. 
My  own  information  respecting 
l'Hopital  is  from  Sismondi,  Hist, 
des  Frangais,  vol.  xviii.  pp.  431- 
436 :  Capefigue,  Hist,  de  la  Re- 
forme,  vol.  ii.  pp.  135-137,  168- 
170 ;  De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ.  vol. 
iii.  pp.  519-523,  vol.  iv.  pp.  2-8, 
152-159,  vol.  v.  pp.  180-182, 
520,  521,  535,  vol.  vi.  pp.  703, 
704 ;  Sully,  (Economies  Boyales, 
vol.  i.  p.  234.  Duvernet  {Hist, 
de  la  Sorbonne  vol.  i.  pp.  215- 
218)  is  unsatisfactory,  though 
fully  recognizing  his  merit. 

n  'Ce  fut  alors  que  la  nation 
ne  prit  conseil  que  de  son  fana- 
tisme.  Les  esprits,  de  jour  en 
jour  plus   echauffes,    ne  virent 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.      11 

shown  in  those  revolting  crimes  so  natural  to  supersti- 
tion, the  massacres  of  Vassy  and  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
the  mnrder  of  Guise  by  Poltrot,  and  of  Henry  HI.  by 
Clement.  These  were  the  legitimate  results  of  the  spirit 
of  religious  bigotry.  They  were  the  results  of  that 
accursed  spirit,  which,  whenever  it  has  had  the  power, 
has  punished  even  to  the  death  those  who  dared  to 
differ  from  it ;  and  which,  now  that  the  power  has 
passed  away,  still  continues  to  dogmatize  on  the  most 
mysterious  subjects,  tamper  with  the  most  sacred  prin- 
ciples of  the  human  heart,  and  darken  with  its  miser- 
able superstitions  those  sublime  questions  that  no  one 
should  rudely  touch,  because  they  are  for  each  accord- 
ing to  the  measure  of  his  own  soul,  because  they  He  in 
that  unknown  tract  which  separates  the  Finite  from  the 
Infinite,  and  because  they  are  as  a  secret  and  individual 
covenant  between  Man  and  his  Grod. 

How  long  these  sad  days22  would,  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  affairs,  have  been  prolonged  in  France,  is  a 
question  which  we  now,  perhaps  have  no  means  of  an- 
swering ;  though  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  progress 


plus  d'autre  objet  que  celui  de  la  de  la  religion,  on  ne  respiroit 

religion,  et  par  piete  se  firent  les  que  la  haine,  la  vengeance,   le 

injures  les  plus  atroces.'     MaUy,  massacre   et   1'incendie.'     Mem. 

Observations     sur      I'Hist.    de  de  la  Vie,  in  Histoire  Univ.  vol. 

France,  vol.  iii.  p.  145.  i.  p.  120;  and  the  same  writer, 

22  The  19th  and  20th  volumes  in  his  great  history,  gives  almost 

of  SismondCs  Histoire  des  Fran-  innumerable    instances    of   the 

cats  contain  painful  evidence  of  crimes     and    persecutions  con- 

t.he  internal  condition  of  France  stantly  occurring.  See.for  some  of 

before  the  accession   of  Henry  the  most  striking  cases,  vol.  ii. 

IV.     Indeed,  as  Sismondi  says  p.  383,  vol.  iv.  pp.  378,  380,  387, 

(vol.  xx.  pp.  11-1 6),  it  seemed  at  495,  496,  539,  vol.  v.  pp.  189, 

one  time  as  if  the  only  prospect  518,  561,  647,  vol.  vi.  pp.  421, 

■was  a  relapse  into    feudalism.  422,   424,   426,  427,  430,  469. 

See  also  MonteU,  Hist,  des  divers  Compare    Duplessis,    Mim.    et 

Etats,  vol.  v.  pp.  242-249  :'  plus  Correspond,  vol.  ii.  pp.  41,  42, 

de  trois  cent  mille  maisons  de-  322,  335,  611,  612,  vol.  iii.  pp. 

truites.'     De  Thou,  in  the  me-  314,  445,  vol.  iv.  pp.  112-114; 

moirs  of  his  own  life,  says,  'Les  Ihnoist  Hist.de  VFdit  de  Nantes, 

loix  furent  meprisees,  et  l'hon-  vol.  i.  pp.  307,  308 ;  Duvernct, 

neur  de  la  France  fut  presquo  Hist,   de  la    Sorbonne,    vol.   x. 

aneanti   .  .  .  .   et  sous  lo  voile  p.  217. 


12 


FRENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 


even  of  empirical  knowledge  must,  according  to  the 
process  already  pointed  out,  have  eventually  sufficed  to 
rescue  so  great  a  country  from  her  degraded  position. 
Fortunately,  however,  there  now  took  place  what  we 
must  he  content  to  call  an  accident,  hut  which  was  the 
beginning  of  a  most  important  change.  In  the  year 
1589,  Henry  IV.  ascended  the  throne  of  France.  This 
great  prince,  who  was  far  superior  to  any  of  the  French 
sovereigns  of  the  sixteenth  century,23  made  small  ac- 
count of  those  theological  disputes  which  his  predeces- 
sors had  thought  to  be  of  paramount  importance. 
Before  him,  the  kings  of  France,  animated  by  the  piety 
natural  to  the  guardians  of  the  church,  had  exerted  all 
their  authority  to  uphold  the  interests  of  the  sacred 
profession.  Francis  I.  said,  that  if  his  right  hand  were 
a  heretic,  he  would  cut  it  off.24     Henry  II.,  whose  zeal 


13  This,  indeed,  is  not  saying 
much ;  and  far  higher  praise 
might  be  justly  hesto"wed.  As 
to  his  domestic  policy,  there  can 
be  only  one  opinion ;  and  M. 
Flassan  speaks  in  the  most  fa- 
vourable terms  of  his  manage- 
ment of  foreign  affairs.  Flassan, 
Hist,  de  la  Diplomatic  Frang. 
vol.  ii.  pp.  191,  192,  294-297, 
vol.  iii.  p.  243.  And  see,  to  the 
same  effect,  the  testimony  of  M. 
Capefigue,  an  unfriendly  judge. 
Hist,  de  la  Beforme,  vol.  vii. 
p.  xiv.  vol.  viii.  p.  156.  Fontenay 
Mareuil,  who  was  a  contempo- 
rary of  Henry  IV.,  though  he 
wrote  many  years  after  the  king 
was  murdered,  says,  '  Ce  grand 
roy,  qui  estoit  en  plus  de  consi- 
deration dans  le  monde  que  pas 
tin  de  ses  predecesseurs  n'avoit 
este  depuis  Charlesmagne.'  Mem. 
de  Fontenay,  vol.  i.  p.  46.  Du- 
plessis  Mornay  calls  him  '  le  plus 
grand  roy  que  la  chrestiente  ait 
porte  depuis  cinq  cens  ans ;'  and 


Sully  pronounces  him  to  be  '  le 
plus  grand  de  nos  rois.'  Duples- 
sis  Mornay,  Mem.  et  Correspond. 
vol.  xi.  pp.  30,  77,  131.  Sully, 
(Economies  Boyales,  vol.  vii. 
p.  15.  Compare  vol.  vi.  pp.  397, 
398,  vol.  ix.  pp.  35,  242,  with 
some  sensible  remarks  in  Mem. 
de  Genlis,  Paris,  1825,  vol.  ix. 
p.  299. 

24  So  it  is  generally  related: 
but  there  is  a  slightly  different 
version  of  this  orthodox  declara- 
tion in  Smedley's  Hist,  of  the 
Beformation  in  France,  vol.  i. 
p.  30.  Compare  Maclaine's  note 
in  Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist.  vol.  ii. 
p.  24,  with  Sismondi,  Hist,  des 
Frangais,  vol.  xvi.  pp.  453,  454, 
and  Belat.  des  Ambassad.  Veni- 
tiens,  vol.  i.  p.  50,  vol.  ii.  p.  48. 
It  was  also  Francis  I.  who  ad- 
vised Charles  V.  to  expel  all 
the  Mohammedans  from  Spain. 
Llorcnte,  Hist,  de  V Inquisition, 
vol.  i.  p.  429. 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.      13 


was  still  greater,25  ordered  tlie  judges  to  proceed  against 
the  Protestants,  and  publicly  declared  that  he  would 
'make  the  extirpation  of  the  heretics  his  principal 
business.'26  Charles  IX.,  on  the  celebrated  day  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  attempted  to  relieve  the  church  by  de- 
stroying them  at  a  single  blow.  Henry  III.  promised 
to  '  oppose  heresy  even  at  the  risk  of  his  life  ;'  for  he 
said,  '  he  could  not  find  a  prouder  grave  than  amidst 
the  ruins  of  heresy.'27 

These  were  the  opinions  expressed,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  by  the  heads  of  the  oldest  monarchy  in 
Europe.28  But  with  such  feelings,  the  powerful  intel- 
lect of  Henry  IV.  had  not  the  slightest  sympathy.  To 
suit  the  shifting  politics  of  his  age,  he  had  already 
changed  his  religion  twice  ;  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
change  it  a  third  time,29  when  he  found  that  by  doing  so 


23  The  historian  of  the  French 
Protestants  says,  in  1548,  '  le 
nouveau  roi  Henry  II.  fut  encore 
plus  rigoureux  que  son  pere.' 
Benoist,  Hist,  de  I' Edit  de  Nantes, 
vol.  i.  p.  12. 

26  M.  Eanke  (Civil  Wars  in 
France,  vol.  i.  pp.  240,  241)  says, 
that  he  issued  a  circular  '  ad- 
dressed to  the  parliaments  and 
to  the  judicial  tribunals,  in  which 
they  were  urged  to  proceed 
against  the  Lutherans  with  the 
greatest  severity,  and  the  judges 
informed  that  they  would  be  held 
responsible,  should  they  neglect 
these  orders ;  and  in  which  he 
declared  plainly,  that  as  soon  as 
the  peace  with  Spain  was  con- 
cluded, he  was  determined  to 
make  the  extirpation  of  the 
heretics  his  principal  business.' 
See  also,  on  Henry  II.,  in  con- 
nexion with  the  Protestants, 
Mably,  Observ.  sur  VHist.  de 
France,  vol.  iii.  pp.  133,  134  ;  De 
Thou,  Hist.  Univ.  vol.  i.  pp.  334, 
335,  387,  vol.  ii.  p.  640,  vol.  iii. 


pp.  365,  366;  Felice's  Hist,  of  the 
French  Protestants,  p.  58. 

27  He  said  this  to  the  Estates 
of  Blois  in  1588.  Eanke' s  Civil 
Wars  in  France,  vol.  ii.  p.  202. 
Compare  his  edict,  in  1585,  in 
Capejigue,  Hist,  de  la  Reforme, 
vol.  iv.  pp.  244,  245,  and  his 
speech  in  vol.  v.  p.  122  ;  and  see 
Benoist,  Hist,  de  I' Edit  de  Nantes, 
vol.  i.  p.  328;  Duplessis  Mornay, 
Mem.  ct  Corresp.  vol.  i.  p.  110  ; 
Be  Thou,  Hist.  Vniv.  vol.  L 
p.  250,  vol.  viii.  p.  651,  vol.  x 
pp.  294,  589,  674,  675. 

28  With  what  zeal  these  opin- 
ions were  enforced,  appears,  be- 
sides many  other  authorities, 
from  Marino  Cavalli,  who  writes 
in  1546,  '  Li  maestri  di  Sorbona 
hanno  autorita  estrema  di  casti- 
gare  li  eretici,  il  che  fanno  con  il 
fuoco,  brustolandoli  Vivi  a  poco 
a  poco.'  Bclat.  des  Ambassad. 
Venitiens,  vol.  L  262;  and  see 
vol.  ii.  p.  24. 

28  Indeed,  Clement  VHI.  wan 
afterwards  apprehensive    of    a 


14       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

lie  could  ensure  tranquillity  to  Iris  country.  As  lie  had 
displayed  such,  indifference  about  his  own  creed,  he 
could  not  with  decency  show  much  bigotry  about  the 
creed  of  his  subjects.30  "We  find,  accordingly,  that  he 
was  the  author  of  the  first  public  act  of  toleration  which 
any  government  promulgated  in  Prance  since  Chris- 
tianity had  been  the  religion  of  the  country.  Only  five 
years  after  he  had  solemnly  abjured  Protestantism,  he 
published  the  celebrated  Edict  of  Nantes,31  by  which, 
for  the  first  time,  a  Catholic  government  granted  to 
heretics  a  fair  share  of  civil  and  religious  rights.  This 
was,  unquestionably,  the  most  important  event  that  had 
yet  occurred  in  the  history  of  French  civilization.32  If 
it  is  considered  by  itself,  it  is  merely  an  evidence  of  the 
enlightened  principles  of  the  king  ;  but  when  we  look 
at  its  general  success,  and  at  the  cessation  of  religious 
war  which  followed  it,  we  cannot  fail  to  perceive  that 
it  was  part  of  a  vast  movement,  in  which  the  people 
themselves  participated.  Those  who  recognize  the 
truth  of  the  principles  I  have  laboured  to  establish,  will 
expect  that  this  great  step  towards  religious  liberty 
was  accompanied  by  that  spirit  of  scepticism,  in  the 


fourth  apostasy:  'Ermeintenoch  See  also  Banke,  Civil  Wars  in 

immer,  Heinrich  IV.  werde  zu-  France,  vol.   ii.   pp.    257,    355 ; 

letzt  vielleicht  wieder  zum  Pro-  Capefigue,  Hist,  de  la  Beforme, 

testantismus  zuriickkehren,  wie  vol.  vi.  pp.  305,  358. 

er     es     schon    einmal    gethan.'  31  The  edict  of  Nantes  was  in 

Banke,  die  Pdpste,  vol.  ii.  p.  246.  1598;    the  abjuration  in  1593. 

M.  Ranke,  from  his  great  know-  Sismondi,   Hist,    des    Frangais, 

ledge  of  Italian  manuscripts,  has  vol.  xxi.  pp.  202,  486.     But  in 

thrown    more    light    on    these  1590   it  was  intimated  to  the 

transactions    than    the   French  pope  as  probable,  if  not  certain, 

historians  have  been  able  to  do.  that    Henry    would     '  in     den 

30  On  his  conversion,  the  cha-  Schooss  der  katholischen  Kirche 

racter  of  which  was  as  obvious  zuriickkehren.'         Banke,       die 

then  as  it  is  now,  compare  Bu-  Pdpste,  vol.  ii.  p.  210. 

plessis  Mornay,  Mem.  et  Corre-  32  Of  this  edict,  Sismondi  says, 

spond.  vol.  i.  p.  257,  with  Sully,  '  Aucune  epoque  dans  l'histoire 

(Economies     Boy  ales,     vol.     ii.  de  France  ne  marque  mieux  peut- 

p.  126.  See  also  How  elV  s  Letters,  6tre  la  fin  d'un  monde   ancien, 

book  i.  p.  42  ;  and  a  letter  from  le    commencement  d'un  monde 

Sir  H.  Wotton  in  1593,  printed  nouveau.'    Hist,    des    Frangais, 

in  Beliquue  Wottoniancs,  p.  711.  vol.  xxi.  p.  489. 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.      15 


absence  of  which  toleration  has  always  been  unknown. 
And  that  this  was  actually  the  case,  may  be  easily 
proved  by  an  examination  of  the  transitionary  state 
which  France  began  to  enter  towards  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

The  writings  of  Rabelais  are  often  considered  to  afford 
the  first  instance  of  religious  scepticism  in  the  French 
language.33  But,  after  a  tolerably  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  the  works  of  this  remarkable  man,  I  have 
found  nothing  to  justify  such  an  opinion.  He  certainly 
treats  the  clergy  with  great  disrespect,  and  takes  every 
opportunity  of  covering  them  with  ridicule.34  His  at- 
tacks, however,  are  always  made  upon  their  personal 
vices,  and  not  upon  that  narrow  and  intolerant  spirit  to 
which  those  vices  were  chiefly  to  be  ascribed.  In  not 
a  single  instance  does  he  show  any  thing  like  con- 
sistent scepticism  ;35  nor  does  he  appear  to  be  aware 
that  the  disgraceful  lives  of  the  French  clergy  were  but 


33  On  Kabelais,  as  the  sup- 
posed founder  of  French  scepti- 
cism, compare  Lavallee,  Hist,  des 
Frangais,vo\.'\\.p.  306;  Stephen's 
Lectures  on  the  History  of  France, 
vol.  ii.  p.  242 ;  Sismondi,  Hist, 
des  Frangais,  vol.  xvi.  p.  376. 

34  Particularly  the  monks. 
See,  among  numerous  other  in- 
stances, vol.  i.  pp.  278,  282,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  284,  285,  of  (Euvres  de 
Eabelais,  edit.  Amsterdam,  1725. 
However,  the  high  dignitaries  of 
the  church  are  not  spared;  for 
he  says  that  Gargantua*'se  mor- 
voit  en  archidiacre,'  vol.  i.  p.  132 ; 
and  on  two  occasions  (vol.  iii. 
p.  65,  vol.  iv.  pp.  199,  200)  ho 
makes  a  very  indecent  allusion 
to  the  pope.  In  vol.  i.  pp.  260, 
261,  he  satirically  notices  the 
way  in  which  the  services  of  the 
church  were  performed :  '  Dont 
luy  dist  le  moyne:  Je  ne  dors 
jamais  a,  mon  aisc,  sinon  quand 


je  suis  au  sermon,  ou  quand  j© 
prie  Dieu.' 

35  His  joke  on  the  strength  of 
Samson  ((Euvres  de  Eabelais, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  29,  30),  and  his  ridi- 
cule of  one  of  the  Mosaic  laws 
(vol.  iii.  p.  34),  are  so  unconnected 
with  other  parts  of  his  work,  as 
to  have  no  appearanco  of  belong- 
ing to  a  general  scheme.  The 
commentators,  who  find  a  hidden 
meaning  in  every  author  they 
annotate,  have  represented  Rabe- 
lais as  aiming  at  the  highest  ob- 
jects, and  seeking  to  effect  the 
most  extensive  social  and  reli- 
gious reforms.  This  I  greatly 
doubt,  at  all  evonts  I  have  soon 
no  proof  of  it ;  and  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  Eabelais  owes 
a  large  sharo  of  his  reputation 
to  the  obscurity  of  his  language. 
On  tho  othor  sido  of  the  ques- 
tion, and  in  favour  of  his  com- 
prehensiveness, see  a  bold  postage 


16       FRENCH  INTELLECT  PROM  THE 

the  inevitable  consequence  of  a  system,  "which,  corrupt 
as  it  was,  still  possessed  every  appearance  of  strength 
and  vitality.  Indeed,  the  immense  popularity  which  he 
enjoyed  is,  almost  of  itself,  a  decisive  consideration; 
since  no  one,  who  is  well  informed  as  to  the  condition 
of  the  French  early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  will  be- 
lieve it  possible  that  a  people,  so  sunk  in  superstition, 
should  delight  in  a  writer  by  whom  superstition  is  con- 
stantly attacked. 

But  the  extension  of  experience,  and  the  consequent 
increase  of  knowledge,  were  preparing  the  way  for  a 
great  change  in  the  French  intellect.  The  process, 
which  had  just  taken  place  in  England,  was  now  begin- 
ning to  take  place  in  France ;  and  in  both  countries  the 
order  of  events  was  precisely  the  same.  The  spirit 
of  doubt,  hitherto  confined  to  an  occasional  solitary 
thinker,  gradually  assumed  a  bolder  form :  first  it  found 
a  vent  in  the  national  literature,  and  then  it  influenced 
the  conduct  of  practical  statesmen.  That  there  was, 
in  France,  an  intimate  connexion  between  scepticism 
and  toleration,  is  proved,  not  only  by  those  general 
arguments  which  make  us  infer  that  such  connexion 
must  always  exist,  but  also  by  the  circumstance,  that 
only  a  few  years  before  the  promulgation  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes,  there  appeared  the  first  systematic  sceptic 
who  wrote  in  the  French  language.  The  Essays  of 
Montaigne  were  published  in  1588,36and  form  an  epoch, 
not  only  in  the  literature,  but  also  in  the  civilization,  of 
France.  Putting  aside  personal  peculiarities,  which  have 
less  weight  than  is  commonly  supposed,  it  will  be  found 
that  the  difference  between  Rabelais  and  Montaigne  is 
a  measure  of  the  difference  between  1545 37  and  1588, 


in  Cderidg d s Lit. Bemains,\6Li.  Pantagruel  of  Eabelais  has  no 

pp.  138,  139.  date  on  the  title-page;  but  it  is 

38  The  two  first  books  in  1580;  known  that  the  third  book  was 

the  third  in  1588,  with  additions  printed  in  1545,  and  the  fourth 

to  the  first  two.     See  Niceron,  book    in    1546.       See    Brunei, 

Mem.  pour  servir  a  VHist.  des  Manuel  du  Libraire,  vol.  iv.  pp. 

Homines  illustres,  vol.  xvi.  p.  210,  4-6,  Paris,  1843.    The  statement 

Paris,  1731.  in  Biog.   Univ.  vol.  xxxvi.  pp. 

•'  The  first  impression  of  the  482,  483,  is  rather  confused. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTUET.      17 


and  that  it,  in  some  degree,  corresponds  with  the  rela- 
tion I  have  indicated  between  Jewel  and  Hooker,  and 
between  Hooker  and  Chillingworth.  For,  the  law  which 
governs  all  these  relations  is  the  law  of  a  progressive 
scepticism.  What  Rabelais  was  to  the  supporters  of 
theology,  that  was  Montaigne  to  the  theology  itself. 
The  writings  of  Rabelais  were  only  directed  against 
the  clergy  ;  but  the  writings  of  Montaigne  were 
directed  against  the  system  of  which  the  clergy  were 
the  offspring.38  Under  the  guise  of  a  mere  man  of 
the  world,  expressing  natural  thoughts  in  common 
language,  Montaigne  concealed  a  spirit  of  lofty  and 
audacious  inquiry.39  Although  he  lacked  that  com- 
prehensiveness which  is  the  highest  form  of  genius, 
he  possessed  other  qualities  essential  to  a  great  mind. 
He  was  very  cautious,  and  yet  he  was  very  bold.  He 
was  cautious,  since  he  would  not  believe  strange  things 


**  Mr.  Hallam  (Lit.  of  Europe, 
vol.  ii.  p.  29)  says,  that  his  scep- 
ticism '  is  not  displayed  in  reli- 
gion.' But  if  we  use  the  word 
'  religion '  in  its  ordinary  sense, 
as  connected  with  dogma,  it  is 
evident,  from  Montaigne's  lan- 
guage, that  he  was  a  sceptic,  and 
an  unflinching  one  too.  Indeed, 
he  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  all 
religious  opinions  are  the  result 
of  custom  :  '  Comme  de  vray 
nous  n'avons  aultre  mire  de  la 
verite  et  de  la  raison,  que  l'ex- 
emple  et  idee  des  opinions  et 
usances  du  pais  ou  nous  sommes : 
Id  est  touswurs  la  par/aide  reli- 
gion, la  parfaicte  police,  parfaict 
et  accomply  usage  de  toutcs 
choses.'  Essais  de  Montaigne, 
p.  121,  livre  i.  chap.  xxx.  As  a 
natural  consequence,  he  lays 
down  that  religious  error  is  not 
criminal,  p.  53  ;  compare  p.  28. 
See  also  how  he  notices  the 
usurpations  of  the  theological 
spirit,  pp.   116,  508,  528.     The 

VOL.  II.  C 


fact  seems  to  he,  that  Montaigne, 
while  recognizing  abstractedly 
the  existence  of  religious  truths, 
doubted  our  capacity  for  knowing 
them ;  that  is  to  say,  he  doubted 
if,  out  of  the  immense  number  of 
religious  opinions,  there  were 
any  means  of  ascertaining  which 
were  accurate.  His  observations 
on  miracles  (pp.  541,  653,  654, 
675)  illustrate  the  character  of 
his  mind ;  and  what  he  6ays  on 
prophetic  visions  is  quoted  and 
confirmed  by  Pinel,  in  his  pro- 
found work  Alibiation  Mentale, 
p.  256.  Compare  Maury,  Li- 
gendes  Pieuses,  p.  268  note. 

39  His  friend,  the  celebrated 
De  Thou,  calls  him  '  homme 
franc,  ennemide  toute  contrainte.' 
Mimoires,  in  De  Thou,  Hist. 
Univ.  vol.  i.  p.  59 :  seo  also  vol. 
xi.  p.  590.  And  M.  Lamartino 
classes  him  with  Montesquieu, 
as  '  ces  deux  grands  republicans 
de  la  pensee  francaise.'  Hist, 
des  Girondins,  vol.  l.  p.  174. 


18       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

because  they  had  been  handed  down  by  his  forefathers  j 
and  he  was  bold,  since  he  was  undaunted  by  the  re- 
proaches with  which  the  ignorant,  who  love  to  dogma- 
tize, always  cover  those  whose  knowledge  makes  them 
ready  to  doubt.40  These  peculiarities  would,  in  any 
age,  have  made  Montaigne  a  useful  man :  in  the  six- 
teenth century  they  made  him  an  important  one.  At 
the  same  time,  his  easy  and  amusing  style41  increased 
the  circulation  of  his  works,  and  thus  contributed  to 
popularize  those  opinions  which  he  ventured  to  recom- 
mend for  general  adoption. 

This,  then,  is  the  first  open  declaration  of  that  scep- 
ticism, which,  towards  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
publicly  appeared  in  Prance.42  During  nearly  three 
generations,  it  continued  its  course  with  a  constantly 
increasing  activity,  and  developed  itself  in  a  manner 
similar  to  that  which  took  place  in  England.  It  will 
not  be  necessary  to  follow  all  the  steps  of  this  great 
process  ;  but  I  will  endeavour  to  trace  those  which, 
by  their  prominence,  seem  to  be  the  most  important. 

A  few  years  after  the  appearance  of  the  Essays  of 
Montaigne,  there  was  published  in  France  a  work,  which 
though  now  little  read,  possessed  in  the  seventeenth 


40  He  says  (Essais,  p.  97), '  Ce  Sevigne,  vol.  iii.  p.  491,  edit, 
n'est  pas  a  l'adventure  sans  rai-  Paris,  1843,  and  Lettres  de 
son  que  nous  attribuons  a  sim-  Dudeffand  a  Walpole,  vol.  i.  p. 
plesse  et  ignorance  la  facilite  de  94. 

croire  et  de  se  laisser  persuader.'  42  '  Mais  celui  qui  a  repandu 

Compare  two  striking  passages,  et  popularise  en  France  le  scep- 

pp.  199   and  685.     Nothing  of  ticisme,  c'est  Montaigne.'  Cousin, 

this  sort  had  ever  appeared  be-  Hist,  de  la  Philos.,  n.  serie,  vol. 

fore  in  the  French  language.  ii.   pp.   288,    289.      '  Die   erste 

41  Dugald  Stewart,  whose  turn  Eegung  des  skeptischen  Geistes 
of  mind  was  very  different  from  finden  war  in  den  Versuchen  des 
that  of  Montaigne,  calls  him  Michael  von  Montaigne.'  Tenne- 
'this  most  amusing  author.'  mann,  Gesch.  der  Philos.  vol.  ix. 
Stewarts  Philos.  of  the  Mind,  p.  443.  On  the  immense  influ- 
vol.  i.  p.  468.  But  Rousseau,  in  ence  of  Montaigne,  compare 
every  respect  a  more  competent  Tennemann,  vol.  ix.  p.  458 ; 
judge, enthusiastically  praises  'la  Monteil,  Divers  Etats,  vol.  v.  pp. 
naivete,  la  grace  et  l'lnergie  de  263-265;  Sorel,  Sibliotheque 
son  style  inimitable.'  Musset  Frangoise,  pp.  80-91 ;  Le  Long* 
Pathay,  Vie  de  Rousseau,  vol.  i.  BMiothhque  Historique,  vol.  iv. 
p.    185.      Compare    Lettres  de  p.  527. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     19 

century  a  reputation  of  the  highest  order.  This  was 
the  celebrated  Treatise  on  Wisdom,  by  Charron,  in  which 
we  find,  for  the  first  time,  an  attempt  made  in  a  modern 
language  to  construct  a  system  of  morals  without  the 
aid  of  theology.43  What  rendered  this  book,  in  some 
respects,  even  more  formidable  than  Montaigne's,  was 
the  air  of  gravity  with  which  it  was  written.  Charron 
was  evidently  deeply  impressed  with  the  importance  of 
the  task  he  had  undertaken,  and  he  is  honourably  dis- 
tinguished from  his  contemporaries,  by  a  remarkable 
purity  both  of  language  and  of  sentiment.  His  work 
is  almost  the  only  one  of  that  age  in  which  nothing 
can  be  found  to  offend  the  chastest  ears.  Although  he 
borrowed  from  Montaigne  innumerable  illustrations,44 
he  has  carefully  omitted  those  indecencies  into  which 
that  otherwise  charming  writer  was  often  betrayed. 
Besides  this,  there  is  about  the  work  of  Charron  a 
systematic  completeness  which  never  fails  to  attract 
attention.  In  originality,  he  was,  in  some  respects, 
inferior  to  Montaigne ;  but  he  had  the  advantage  of 
coming  after  him,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he 
rose  to  an  elevation  which,  to  Montaigne,  would  have 

43  Compare  the  remarks  on  pkie,  vol.  ii.  pp.  918-925)  and 
Charron  in  Tennemann,  Ge-  Cousin  {Hist,  de  la  Philos.  ii. 
schichte  der  Philosophic,  vol.  ix.  serie,  vol.  ii.  p.  289)  are  short 
p.  527,  with  two  insidious  pas-  and  unsatisfactory.  Even  Dr. 
sages  in  Charron,  Be  la  Sagesse,  Parr,  who  was  extensively  read 
vol.  i.  pp.  4,  366.  in  this  sort  of  literature,  appears 

44  The  obligations  of  Charron  only  to  have  known  Charron 
to  Montaigne  were  very  consider-  through  Bayle  (see  notes  on  the 
able,  but  are  stated  too  strongly  Spital  Sermon,  in  Parr's  Works, 
by  many  writers.  Sorel,  Biblio-  vol.  ii.  pp.  520,  621);  while 
theque  Frangoise,  p.  93  ;  and  Dugald  Stewart,  with  suspicious 
Hallam's  Literature  of  Europe,  tautology,  quotes,  in  three  differ- 
vol.  ii.  pp.  362,  509.  On  the  ent  places,  the  same  passage 
most  important  subjects,  Charron  from  Charron.  Stewart's  PhUo- 
■was  a  bolder  and  deeper  thinker  sophy  of  the  Mind,  vol.  ii.  p.  233, 
than  Montaigne ;  though  he  is  vol.  iii.  pp.  365,  393.  Singularly 
now  so  little  read,  that  the  only  enough,  Talleyrand  was  a  great 
tolerably  complete  account  I  admirer  of  Be  la  Sagesse,  and 
have  seen  of  his  system  is  in  presented  his  favourite  copy  of 
Tennemann,  Gesch.  der  Philoso-  it  to  Madame  de  GenlisI  See 
phie,  vol.  ix.  pp.  458-487.  Buhle  her  own  account,  in  Mini,  de 
{Geschichte  der  neuern  Philoso-  Gcnlis,  vol.  iv.  pp.  352,  353. 

c2 


20       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

been  inaccessible.  Taking  bis  stand,  as  it  were,  on  tbe 
snmmit  of  knowledge,  he  boldly  attempts  to  enumerate 
tbe  elements  of  wisdom,  and  tbe  conditions  under  wbicb 
those  elements  will  work.  In  the  scheme  which  he  thus 
constructs,  he  entirely  omits  theological  dogmas  ;45  and 
he  treats  with  undissembled  scorn  many  of  those  con- 
clusions which  the  people  had  hitherto  universally 
received.  He  reminds  bis  countrymen  that  their  reli- 
gion is  the  accidental  result  of  their  birth  and  educa- 
tion, and  that  if  they  had  been  born  in  a  Mohammedan 
country,  they  would  have  been  as  firm  beHevers  in  Mo- 
hammedanism as  they  then  were  in  Christianity.46  From 
this  consideration,  he  insists  on  the  absurdity  of  their 
troubling  themselves  about  the  variety  of  creeds,  seeing 
that  such  variety  is  the  result  of  circumstances  over 
which  they  have  no  control.  Also  it  is  to  be  observed, 
that  each  of  these  different  religions  declares  itself  to 
be  the  true  one  ;47  and  all  of  them  are  equally  based 
upon  supernatural  pretensions,  such  as  mysteries,  mi- 
racles, prophets,  and  the  like.48  It  is  because  men 
forget  these  things,  that  they  are  the  slaves  of  that 
confidence  which  is  the  great  obstacle  to  all  real  know- 
ledge, and  which  can  only  be  removed  by  taking  such 
a  large  and  comprehensive  view,  as  will  show  us  how 
all  nations  cling  with  equal  zeal  to  the  tenets  in  which 
they  have  been  educated.49     And,  says  Cbarron,  if  we 


45  See  his  definition,  or  rather  used    by  M.    Charles   Compte, 

description,  of  wisdom,  in  Char-  Traite    de    Legislation,    vol.    i. 

ron,  Be  la  Sagesse,  vol.  i.  p.  295,  p.  233. 

vol.  ii.  pp.  113,  115.  48  '  Toutes  trouvent  et  fournis- 

48  Be  la  Sagesse,  vol.  i.  pp.  63,  sent  miracles,  prodiges,  oracles, 

351.  mysteres  sacres,  saints  prophetes, 

47  '  Chacune   se    prefere   aux  fetes,  certains  articles  de  foy  et 

autres,  et  se  confie  d'etre  la  meil-  creance    necessaires    au    salut.' 

leure  et  plus  vraie  que  les  autres.  Be  la  Sagesse,  vol.  i.  p.  346. 

et  s'entre-reprochent    aussi  les  49  Hence    he    opposes   prose- 

unes  aux  autres  quelque  chose,  lytism,  and  takes  up  the  philoso- 

etpar-la,  s'entre-condamnent  et  phic     ground,     that     religious 

rejettent.'     Be  la  Sagesse,  vol.  i.  opinions,  being  governed  by  un- 

p.  348  ;  see  also  vol.  i.  pp.  144,  deviating  laws,  owe  their  varia- 

304,   305,   306,  vol.  ii.  p.  116.  tions     to    variations     in    their 

Expressions  almost  identical  are  antecedents,  and  are  always,  if 


SIXTEENTH   TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     21 


look  a  little  deeper,  we  shall  see  that  each  of  the  great 
religions  is  built  upon  that  which  preceded  it.  Thus, 
the  religion  of  the  Jews  is  founded  upon  that  of  the 
Egyptians ;  Christianity  is  the  result  of  Judaism ;  and, 
from  these  two  last,  there  has  naturally  sprung  Moham- 
medanism.50 We,  therefore,  adds  this  great  writer, 
should  rise  above  the  pretensions  of  hostile  sects,  and, 
without  being  terrified  by  the  fear  of  future  punish- 
ment, or  allured  by  the  hope  of  future  happiness, 
we  should  be  content  with  such  practical  religion  as 
consists  in  performing  the  duties  of  life ;  and,  uncon- 
trolled by  the  dogmas  of  any  particular  creed,  we  should 
strive  to  make  the  soul  retire  inward  upon  itself,  and 
by  the  efforts  of  its  own  contemplation,  admire  the 
ineffable  grandeur  of  the  Being  of  beings,  the  supreme 
cause  of  all  created  things.51 


left  to  themselves,  suited  to  the 
existing  state  of  things :  '  Et  de 
ces  conclusions,  nous  apprendrons 
a  n'epouser  rien,  ne  jurer  a  rien, 
n'admirer  rien,  ne  se  troubler  de 
rien,  mais  quoi  qu'il  advienne, 
que  l'oncrie,tempete,  se  resoudre 
a  ce  point,  que  c'est  le  cours  du 
monde,  c'est  nature  qui  fait  des 
siennes.'  Dela  Sagesse,vol.i.j).<Sll. 
50  '  Mais  comme  elles  naissent 
l'une  apres  l'autre,  la  plus  jeune 
batit  toujours  sur  son  ainee  et 
prochaine  precedente,  laquelle 
elle  n'improuve,  ni  ne  condamne 
de  fond  en  comble,  autrement 
elle  ne  seroit  pas  ou'ie,  et  ne 
pourroit  prendre  pied  ;  mais 
seulement  1' accuse  ou  d'imperfec- 
tion,  ou  de  son  terme  fini,  et  qu'a 
cette  occasion  elle  vient  pour  lui 
succeder  et  la  parfaire,  et  ainsi 
la  ruine  peu-a-peu,  et  s'enrichit 
de  ses  depouilles,  comme  la 
Juda'ique  a  fait  a  la  Gentille  et 
Egyptienne,  la  Chretienne  a  la 
Juda'ique,  la  Mahometane  a  la 
Juda'ique  et  Chretienne  ensemble : 


mais  les  vieilles  condamnent  bien 
tout-a-fait  et  entierement  leg 
jeunes,  et  les  tiennent  pour  en- 
nemies  capables.'  De  la  Sagesse, 
vol.  i.  p.  349.  This,  I  believe, 
is  the  first  instance  in  any  mo- 
dern language  of  the  doctrine  of 
religious  development;  a  doctrine 
which,  since  Charron,  has  been 
steadily  advancing,  particularly 
among  men  whose  knowledge  is 
extensive  enough  to  enable  them 
to  compare  the  different  religions 
which  have  prevailed  at  different 
times.  In  this,  as  in  other  sub- 
jects, they  who  are  unable  to 
compare,  suppose  that  everything 
is  isolated,  simply  because  to 
them  the  continuity  is  invisible. 
As  to  the  Alexandrian  doctrine 
of  development,  found  particu- 
larly in  Clement  and  Origen,  see 
Neander's  Hist,  of  the  Church, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  234-257  ;  and  in  par- 
ticular pp.  241,  246. 

41  Se  la  Sagesse,  vol.  i.  pp. 
356,  365  ;  two  magnificent  pas- 
sages.   But  the  whole  chapter 


22 


FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 


Such,  were  the  sentiments  which,  in  the  year  1601, 
were  for  the  first  time  laid  before  the  French  people  in 
their  own  mother-tongue.52  The  sceptical  and.  secular 
spirit,  of  which  they  were  the  representatives,  con- 
tinued, to  increase;  and,  as  the  seventeenth  century 
advanced,  the  decline  of  fanaticism,  so  far  from  being 
confined  to  a  few  isolated  thinkers,  gradually  became 
common,  even  among  ordinary  politicians.53  The  clergy, 
sensible  of  the  danger,  wished  the  government  to  check 
the  progress  of  inquiry  ;54  and  the  pope  himself,  in  a 
formal  remonstrance  with  Henry,  urged  him  to  remedy 
the  evil,  by  prosecuting  the  heretics,  from  whom  he 


ought  to  be  read,  livre  ii.  chap.  v. 
In  it  there  is  an  occasional  am- 
biguity. Tennemann,  however, 
in  the  -most  important  point, 
understands  Charron  as  I  do  in 
regard  to  the  doctrine  of  future 
punishments.  Geschichte  der 
Philosophic,  vol.  ix.  p.  473. 

i2  The  first  edition  of  La 
Sagesse  -was  published  at  Bour- 
deaux  in  1601.  Niceron,  Homines 
Ulustres,  vol.  xvi.  p.  224 ;  Hal- 
lam's  Lit.  of  Europe,  vol.  ii.  p. 
509;  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  viii.  p.  250. 
Two  editions  were  susequently 
published  in  Paris,  in  1604  and 
1607.  Brunei,  Manuel  du  Li- 
braire,  vol.  i.  p.  639. 

43  Sismondi  (Hist.  desFrangais, 
vol.xxii.p.86)  and  Lavallee  (Hist, 
des  Francais,  vol.  iii.  p.  84)  have 
noticed  the  diminution  ofreligious 
zeal  early  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury; and  some  curious  evidence 
will  alsobe  found  in  the  correspon- 
dence of  Duplessis  Mornay.  See, 
for  instance,  a  letter  he  wrote  to 
Diodati,  in  1609:  'A  beaucoup 
aujourd'hui  il  fault  commencer 
par  la,  qu'il  y  a  une  religion, 
premier  que  de  leur  dire  quelle.' 
Duplessis,  Mem.  et  Corresp.  vol.  x. 


p.  415.  This  middle,  or  secu- 
lar party,  received  the  name  of 
'  Politiques,'  and  began  to  be 
powerful  in  1592  or  1593. 
Benoist  (Hist,  de  TEdit  de  Nantes, 
vol.  i.  p.  113),  under  the  year 
1593,  contemptuously  says :  'II 
s'eleva  une  foule  de  conciliateurs 
de  religion;'  see  also  pp.  201, 
273.  In  1590,  and  in  1594,  the 
'  Politiques '  are  noticed  by  De 
Thou  (Hist.  Univ.  vol.  xi.  p.  171, 
vol.  xii.  p.  134) ;  and  on  the  in- 
crease, in  1593,  of  '  le  tiers  parti 
politique  et  negociateur,'  Bee 
Capefigue,  Hist,  de  la  Reforme, 
vol.  vi.  p.  235.  See  also,  respect- 
ing '  les  politiques,'  a  letter  from 
the  Spanish  ambassador  to  his 
own  court,  in  1615,  in  Capefigue' s 
Richelieu,  vol.  i.  p.  93  ;  and  for 
the  rise  in  Paris,  in  1592,  of  a 
'  politisch  und  kirchlich  gemas- 
sigte  Gesinnung,'  see  Ranke,  die 
Papsle,  vol.  ii.  p.  243. 

44  The  Sorbonne  went  so  far 
as  to  condemn  Charron's  great 
work,  but  could  not  succeed  in 
having  it  prohibited.  Compare 
Buvernet,  Hist,  de  la  Sorbonne, 
vol.  ii.  p.  139,  withZfayfe,  article 
Charron,  note  F. 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTUEY.      23 


thought  all  the  mischief  had  originally  proceeded.55  But 
this  the  king  steadily  refused.  He  saw  the  immense 
advantages  that  would  arise,  if  he  could  weaken  the 
ecclesiastical  power  by  balancing  the  two  sects  against 
«ach  other  ;56  and  therefore,  though  he  was  a  Catholic, 
his  policy  rather  leaned  in  favour  of  the  Protestants, 
as  being  the  weaker  party.57  He  granted  sums  of 
money  towards  the  support  of  their  ministers  and  the 
repair  of  their  churches;58  he  banished  the  Jesuits, 
who  were  their  most  dangerous  enemies  ;59  and  he 
always  had  with  him  two  representatives  of  the  re- 
formed church,  whose  business  it  was  to  inform  him  of 


■  In  the  appendix  to  Eanke 
(Die  Rb'mischen  Papste,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  141, 142),  there  will  be  found 
the  instructions  which  were  given 
to  the  nuncio,  in  1603,  when  he 
was  sent  to  the  French  court; 
and  which  should  be  compared 
with  a  letter,  written  in  1604,  in 
Sully,  (Economies  Roy  ales,  vol.  v. 
p.  122,  edit.  1820. 

58  '  Sein  Sinn  war  im  Allge- 
meinen,  ohne  Zweifel.dasGleich- 
gewicht  zwischen  ihnen  zu  er- 
lialten.'  Eanke,  die  Pdpste,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  430,  431.  'Henri  IV, 
1' expression  de  l'indifferentisme 
religieux,  se  posa  comme  une 
transaction  entre  ces  deux 
6ystemes.'  Capefigue,  Hist,  de  la 
Reforme,  vol.  vi.  p.  358.  '  Henry 
IV.  endeavoured  to  adjust  the 
balance  evenly.'  Smedley's  Hist, 
of  the  Reformed  Religion  in 
France,  vol.  iii.  p.  19.  See  also 
Benoist,  Hist,  de  PEdit  de  Nantes, 
vol.  i.  p.  136.  Hence,  of  course, 
neither  party  was  quite  satisfied. 
Matty's  Observations,  vol.  iii. 
p.  220 :  Mezeray,  Histoire  de 
France,  vol.  iii.  p.  959. 

57  Compare  Capcfigue,  Hist,  de 
la  Reforme,  vol.  viii.  p.  61,  with 
Basin,  Hist,  de  Louts  XIII,  vol.  i. 


pp.  32,  33.  See  also,  on  his 
inclination  towards  the  Protes- 
tants, Mtm.  de  Fontenay  Mareuil, 
vol.  i.  p.  91.  Fontenay,  p.  94, 
mentions,  as  a  singular  instance, 
that  •  il  se  vist  de  son  temps  des 
huguenots  avoir  des  abbayes.' 

48  Sully,  (Economies  Royales, 
vol.  iv.  p.  134,  vol.  vi.  p.  233; 
Duplessis  Mornay,  MSm.  et  Cor- 
resp.  vol.  xi.  p.  242  ;  Benoist, 
Hist,  de  I'Edit  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  68,  205.  These  grants  were 
annual,  and  were  apportioned  by 
the  Protestants  themselves.  See 
their  own  account,  in  Quick's 
Synodicon  in  Gallia,  vol.  i.  pp. 
198,  222,  246,  247,  249,  275-277. 

59  Henry  IV.  banished  the 
Jesuits  in  1594 ;  but  they  were 
allowed,  later  in  his  reign,  to 
make  fresh  settlements  in  France. 
Flassan,  Hist,  de  la  Diplomatic, 
vol.  vi.  p.  485 ;  Basin,  Hist,  de 
Louis  XIII,  vol.  i.  p.  106  ;  Mon- 
teil,  Divers  Etats,  vol.  v.  p.  192 
note ;  De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ.  vol. 
xiv.  p.  298.  Compare  the  notices 
of  them  in  Sully,  (Economies,  vol. 
ii.  p.  234,  vol.'iv.  pp.  200,  235, 
245.  But  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  they  owed  their  recall  to 
the  dread  entertained  of  their 


24       TRENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

any  infraction  of  those  edicts  which  he  had  issued  mi 
favour  of  their  religion.60 

Thus  it  was,  that  in  France,  as  well  as  in  England, 
toleration  was  preceded  by  scepticism  ;  and  thus  it 
was,  that  out  of  this  scepticism  there  arose  the  humane 
and  enlightend  measures  of  Henry  IV.  The  great 
prince,  by  whom  these  things  were  effected,  unhap- 
pily fell  a  victim  to  that  fanatical  spirit  which  he  had 
done  much  to  curb  ;G1  but  the  circumstances  which 
occurred  after  his  death,  showed  how  great  an  impetus 
had  been  given  to  the  age. 

On  the  murder  of  Henry  TV.,  in  1610,  the  govern- 
ment fell  into  the  hands  of  the  queen,  who  administered 
it  during  the  minority  of  her  son,  Louis  XIII.  And  it 
is  a  remarkable  evidence  of  the  direction  which  the 
mind  was  now  taking,  that  she,  though  a  weak  and 
bigoted  woman,62  refrained  from  those  persecutions 
which,  only  one  generation  before,  had  been  considered 
a  necessary  proof  of  religious  sincerity.  That,  indeed, 
must  have  been  a  movement  of  no  common  energy, 
which  could  force  toleration,  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  upon  a  princess  of  the  house  of  Medici,  an 
ignorant  and  superstitious  Catholic,  who  had  been  edu- 


intrigues    ( Gregoire,    Hist,    des  ete  excite  par  l'interet  de  la  re- 

Confesseurs,  p.  316);  and  Henry  ligion,    et    par    line    impulsion 

evidently    disliked    as   well  as  irresistible.'      Bazin,    Hist,    de 

feared  them.      See  two  letters  Louis  XIII,  vol.  i.  p.  38.     This- 

from  him  in  Duplessis,  Mem.  et  work  contains  the  fullest  account 

Corresp.   vol.   vi.  pp.  129,  151.  I  have  met  with  of  Eavaillac; 

It  would  appear,  from  the  Mem.  of  whom  there   is,    moreover,  a 

de  Bichelieu,  vol.  v.  p.  350,  Paris,  description  in  Les  Historiettes  de 

1823,   that  the  king  never  re-  Tall ement  des  Beaux,  vol.  i.p.  85, 

Btored    to    them    their    former  Paris,  1840,  a  very  curious  book, 

authority  in  regard  to  education.  62  Le  Vassor   (Hist,  de  Louis 

*•  Bazin,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  XIII,  vol.  i.  p.  279)  calls  her 

vol.  i.  pp.  142,  143;  Le  Vassor,  ' suporstitieuse  au  dernier  point;' 

vol.  i.  p.  156;  Sismondi,  vol.  xxii.  and,  in  vol.  v.  p.  481,   'femme 

p.  116;  Duplessis  Mornay,  vol.  i.  credule   et  superstitieuse.'     See 

p.  389 ;  Sully,  (Economics,  vol.  vii.  also  vol.  iii.  p.  250,  vol.  vi.  p.  628  ^ 

pp.  105,  432,  442.  and  Gregoire,  Hist,  des  Confes- 

61  When   Eavaillac    was    ex-  seurs,  p.  65. 
amined,  he  said,  'qu'il  y  avait 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTUET.     25 


cated  in  the  midst  of  her  priests,  and  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  look  for  their  applause  as  the  highest  object 
of  earthly  ambition. 

Yet  this  was  what  actually  occurred.  The  queen 
continued  the  ministers  of  Henry  IV.,  and  announced, 
that  in  every  thing  she  would  follow  his  example.63  Her 
first  public  act  was,  a  declaration,  that  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  should  be  inviolably  preserved ;  for,  she  says, 
'  experience  has  taught  our  predecessors,  that  violence, 
so  far  from  inducing  men  to  return  to  the  Catholic 
church,  prevents  them  from  doing  so.64  Indeed,  so 
anxious  was  she  upon  this  point,  that  when  Louis,  in 
1614,  attained  his  nominal  majority,  the  first  act  of  his 
government  was  another  confirmation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes.68  And,  in  1615,  she  caused  the  king,  who  still 
remained  under  her  tutelage,66  to  issue  a  declaration, 


6S  '  Elle  annonca  qu'elle  vou- 
loit  suivre  en  tout  l'exemple  du 

feu  roi Le  ministere  de 

Henri  IV,  que  la  reine  conti- 
nuoit.'  Sismondi,  Hist,  des 
Frangais,  vol.  xxii.  pp.  206, 210  ; 
and  see  two  letters  from  her,  in 
Duplessis  Mornay,  Mem.  et  Cor- 
resp.  vol.  xi.  p.  282,  vol.  xii. 
p.  428.  Sully  had  feared  that  the 
death  of  Henry  IV.  would  cause 
a  change  of  policy :  '  que  Ton 
s'alloit  jeter  dans  des  desseins 
tous  contraires  aux  regies,  ordres 
et  maximes  du  feu  roy.'  (Eco- 
nomies Eoyales,  vol.  viii.  p.  401. 

84  Seethe  declaration  in  Bazin, 
Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  i.  pp. 
74,  75 ;  and  notices  of  it  in  Mem. 
de  Bichelieu,  vol.  i.  p.  58;  Cape- 
■figue's  Bichelieu,  vol.  i.  p.  27 ; 
Benoist,  Hist,  de  VEdit  de  Nantes, 
voL  ii.  p.  7 ;  Le  Vassor,  Hist,  de 
Louis  XIII,  vol.  i.  p.  68.  But 
none  of  these  writers,  nor  Sis- 
mondi (vol.  xxii.  p.  221),  appear 
to  he  awaro  that  the  issuing  of 
this  declaration  was  determined 


on,  in  council,  as  early  as  the 
17th  of  May ;  that  is,  only  three 
days  after  the  death  of  Henry 
IV.  This  is  mentioned  by  Pont- 
chartrain,  who  was  then  one  of 
the  ministers.  See  Mbn.  de 
Pontchartrain,  edit.Petitot,  1822, 
vol.  i.  p.  409 ;  a  book  little 
known,  but  well  worthy  of  being 
read. 

65  Bazin,  Hist,  de  Louis  XLTI, 
vol.  i.  p.  262 ;  Benoist,  Hist,  de 
VEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  p.  140  ; 
Mkm.  de  Fontenay  Mareuil,  vol. 
i.  p.  257 ;  Le  Vassor,  vol.  i. 
p.  604. 

66  '  Laissant  neanmoins  1' ad- 
ministration du  royaume  a  la 
reine  sa  mere.'  Mem.  de  Bas- 
sompierre,  vol.  ii.  p.  52.  Com- 
pare Sully,  (Economies,  vol.  ix. 
p.  177.  She  possessed  complete 
authority  over  the  king  till  1617. 
See  Memoires  de  Montglat,  vol.  i. 
p.  24 :  '  aroit  ete  tenu  fort  bas 
par  la  reine  sa  mere.'  See  also 
Le  Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  640,  677,  716,  764. 


26       FBENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

by  which  all  preceding  measures  in  favour  of  the  Pro- 
testants were  publicly  confirmed.67  In  the  same  spirit, 
she,  in  1611,  wished  to  raise  to  the  presidency  of  par- 
liament the  celebrated  De  Thou ;  and  it  was  only  by 
making  a  formal  announcement  of  his  heresy,  that  the 
pope  succeeded  in  frustrating  what  he  considered  an 
impious  design.68 

The  turn  which  things  were  now  taking,  caused  no 
little  alarm  to  the  friends  of  the  hierarchy.  The  most 
zealous  churchmen  loudly  censured  the  policy  of  the 
queen  ;  and  a  great  historian  has  observed  that  when, 
during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII. ,  such  alarm  was  caused 
in  Europe  by  the  active  encroachments  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical power,  France  was  the  first  country  that  ventured 
to  oppose  them.69  The  nuncio  openly  complained  to 
the  queen  of  her  conduct  in  favouring  heretics  ;  and  he 
anxiously  desired  that  those  Protestant  works  should 
be  suppressed,  by  which  the  consciences  of  true  be- 
lievers were  greatly  scandalized.70  But  these,  and 
similar  representations,  were  no  longer  listened  to  with 
the  respect  they  would  formerly  have  received ;  and  the 
affairs  of  the  country  continued  to  be  administered  with 
those  purely  temporal  views,  on  which  the  measures  of 
Henry  IV.  had  been  avowedly  based.71 

Such  was  now  the  policy  of  the  government  of  France ; 


67  Bazin,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  several  times,  but  in  vain : 
vol.  i.  pp.  381,  382.  '  Gem  hatten  die  NuntienWerke 

68  In  1611,  '  le  pape  le  rejeta  wie  von  Thou  und  Kicher  verbo- 
formellement  comme  heretique.'  ten,  aber  es  war  ihnen  nicht 
Bazin,  vol.  i.  p.  174.  This  is  moglich.'  RanJce,  die  Pdpste, 
glossed  over  by  Pontchartrain  vol.  iii.  p.  181,  Anhang.  Com- 
(Memoires,  vol.  i.  p.  450) ;  but  pare  Mem.  de  Richelieu,  vol.  ii. 
the  statement  of  H.  Bazin  is  p.  68 ;  Mem.  de  Pontchartrain, 
confirmed  in  the  preface  to  Be  vol.  i.  p.  428. 

Thou,  Histoire  Universelle,  vol.  i.  71  This  decline  of  the  ecclesi- 

p.  xvi.  astical  power  is  noticed  by  many 

69  '  Der  erste  Einhalt  den  die  writers  of  the  time ;  but  it  is 
kirchliche  Eestauration  erfuhr,  sufficient  to  refer  to  the  very 
geschah  in  Frankreich.'  Banke,  curious  remonstrance  of  the 
die  Bomischen  P'dpste,  vol.  iii.  French  clergy,  in  1605,  in  Be 
p.  160.  Thou,  Hist.    Univ.  vol.  xiv.  pp. 

70  This  desire  was  expressed  446,  447. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTUBY.     27 

a  government  which,  not  many  years  before,  had  con- 
sidered it  the  great  dnty  of  a  sovereign  to  punish  heretics 
and  extirpate  heresy.  That  this  continued  improve- 
ment was  merely  the  result  of  the  general  intellectual 
•development,  is  evident,  not  only  from  its  success,  but 
also  from  the  character  of  the  queen-regent  and  the  king. 
No  one  who  has  read  the  contemporay  memoirs,  can  deny 
that  Mary  de  Medici  and  Louis  XIII.  were  as  supersti- 
tious as  any  of  their  predecessors  ;  and  it  is,  therefore, 
evident,  that  this  disregard  of  theological  prejudices  was 
due,  not  to  their  own  personal  merits,  but  to  the  ad- 
vancing knowledge  of  the  country,  and  to  the  pressure 
of  an  age  which,  in  the  rapidity  of  its  progress,  hurried 
along  those  who  believed  themselves  to  be  its  rulers. 

But  these  considerations,  weighty  as  they  are,  will 
only  slightly  diminish  the  merit  of  that  remarkable 
man,  who  now  appeared  on  the  stage  of  public  affairs. 
During  the  last  eighteen  years  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIII.,  France  was  entirely  governed  by  Riche- 
lieu,72 one  of  that  extremely  small  class  of  statesmen 
to  whom  it  is  given  to  impress  their  own  character  on 
the  destiny  of  their  country.  This  great  ruler  has,  in 
his  knowledge  of  the  political  art,  probably  never  been 
surpassed,  except  by  that  prodigy  of  genius  who,  in  our 
time,  troubled  the  fortunes  of  Europe.  But,  in  one 
important  view,  Richelieu  was  superior  to  Napoleon. 
The  life  of  Napoleon  was  a  constant  effort  to  oppress 
the  liberties  of  mankind ;  and  his  unrivalled  capacity 
exhausted  its  resources  in  struggling  against  the  ten- 
dencies of  a  great  age.  Richelieu,  too,  was  a  despot ; 
but  his  despotism  took  a  nobler  turn.  He  displayed, 
what  Napoleon  never  possessed,  a  just  appreciation  of 
the  spirit  of  his  own  time.  In  one  great  point,  indeed, 
he  failed.     His  attempts  to  destroy  the  power  of  the 

72  As  M.  Monteil  says  {Hist,  adds,  pp.  218,  219,  that  he  'avoit 

des  Franqais  des  divers  Etats,  gouverne  dix-huit  ans  la  France 

vol.  vii.  p.  114),  'Richelieu  tint  avec  un  pouvoir  absolu  et  une 

le  sceptre  ;  Louis  XIII.  porta  la  gloire  sans  pareille.'     Compare 

couronne.'     And  Campion  (Mi-  Mfrn.  du  Cardinal  de  Bets,  vol.  L 

moires,  p.  37)  calls  him  'plutot  p.  63. 
le  maitre  que  le  ministre  ; '  and 


28       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

French  nobility  were  altogether  futile  ;73  for,  owing  to 
a  long  course  of  events,  the  authority  of  that  insolent 
class  was  so  deeply  rooted  in  the  popular  mind,  that  the 
labours  of  another  century  were  required  to  efface  its 
ancient  influence.  But,  though  Richelieu  could  not 
diminish  the  social  and  moral  weight  of  the  French 
nobles,  he  curtailed  their  political  privileges  ;  and  he 
chastised  their  crimes  with  a  severity  which,  for  a  time 
at  least,  repressed  their  former  license.74  So  little, 
however,  can  even  the  ablest  statesman  effect,  unless  he 
is  seconded  by  the  general  temper  of  the  age  in  which 
he  lives,  that  these  checks,  rude  as  they  were,  produced 
no  permanent  result.  After  his  death,  the  French 
nobles,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  quickly  rallied ;  and, 
in  the  wars  of  the  Fronde,  debased  that  great  struggle 
into  a  mere  contest  of  rival  families.  Nor  was  it  until 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  that  France  was 
finally  relieved  from  the  overweening  influence  of  that 
powerful  class,  whose  selfishness  had  long  retarded  the 
progress  of  civilization,  by  retaining  the  people  in  a 
thraldom,  from  the  remote  effects  of  which  they  have 
not  yet  fully  recovered. 

Although  in  this  respect  Richelieu  failed  in  achieving 
his  designs,  he  in  other  matters  met  with  signal  success. 
This  was  owing  to  the  fact,  that  his  large  and  compre- 

n  The  common  opinion,   put  century,   when  the   intellect  of 

forth  in  Alison's  Hist,  of  Europe,  France  rehelled  against  it,  over- 

vol.  i.  pp.  101-104,  and  in  many  threw  it,  and  finally  effected  the 

other  books,   is  that  Eichelieu  French  [Revolution, 
did  destroy  their  influence ;  but        71  Eichelieu  appears  to  have 

this  error  arises  from  confusing  formed  the  design  of  humbling 

political  influence  'with  social  in-  the  nobles,  at  least  as  early  as 

fluence.    What  is  termed  the  po-  1624.     See  a  characteristic  pas- 

litical  power  of  a  class,  is  merely  sage  in  his  Memoires,    vol.    ii. 

the  symptom  and  manifestation  of  p.  340.  In  Swinburne's  Courts  of 

its  real  power ;  and  it  is  no  use  Europe,  vol.  ii.  pp.  63-65,  there 

to  attack  the  first,  unless  you  can  is  a  curious  traditional  anecdote, 

also  weaken  the  second.      The  which,    though    probably  false, 

real  power  of  the  nobles   was  shows,  at  all  events,  the  fear  and 

social,  and  that  neither  Eiche-  hatred  with  which  the  French 

lieu  nor  Louis  XIV.  could  im-  nobles  regarded  the  memory  of 

pair;  and  it  remained  intact  un-  Eichelieu  more  than  a  century 

til  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  after  his  death. 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.      29 

hensive  views  harmonized  with,  that  sceptical  tendency, 
of  which  I  have  just  given  some  account.  For  this 
remarkable  man,  though  he  was  a  bishop  and  a  cardinal, 
never  for  a  moment  allowed  the  claims  of  his  profession 
to  make  him  forego  the  superior  claims  of  his  country. 
He  knew,  what  is  too  often  forgotten,  that  the  governor 
of  a  people  should  measure  affairs  solely  by  a  political 
standard,  and  should  pay  no  regard  to  the  pretensions 
of  any  sect,  or  the  propagation  of  any  opinions,  except 
in  reference  to  the  present  and  practical  welfare  of  men. 
The  consequence  was,  that,  during  his  administration, 
there  was  seen  the  marvellous  spectacle  of  supreme 
authority  wielded  by  a  priest,  who  took  no  pains  to  in- 
crease the  power  of  the  spiritual  classes.  Indeed,  so 
far  from  this,  he  often  treated  them  with  what  was  then 
considered  unexampled  rigour.  The  royal  confessors, 
on  account  of  the  importance  of  their  functions,  had 
always  been  regarded  with  a  certain  veneration  ;  they 
were  supposed  to  be  men  of  unspotted  piety ;  they  had 
hitherto  possessed  immense  influence,  and  even  the 
most  powerful  statesmen  had  thought  it  advisable  to 
show  them  the  deference  due  to  their  exalted  position.75 
Richelieu,  however,  was  too  familiar  with  the  arts  of 
his  profession,  to  feel  much  respect  for  these  keepers  of 
the  consciences  of  kings.  Caussin,  the  confessor  of 
Louis  XIII.,  had,  it  seems,  followed  the  example  of  his 
predecessors,  and  endeavoured  to  instil  his  own  views 
of  policy  into  the  mind  of  the  royal  penitent.76     But 

75  On  their  influence,  see  Gri-  (Hist.  Univ.  vol.  x.  pp.  666,  667) 

goire,  Histoire  des  Confesseurs ;  says  of  that  prince :  '  Soit  tem- 

and  compare  the  remarks  of  Mr.  perament,  soit  education,  la  pre- 

Grote,  a  great  writer,  whose  mind  sence  d'un  moine  faisait  toujours 

is  always  ready  with  historical  plaisir  a  Henri ;  et  je  lui  ai  moi- 

analogies.  Grote's  Hist,  of  Greece,  meme  souvent  entendu  dire,  que 

vol.  vi.  p.  393,  2nd  edit.  1851.  leur  vue  produisoit  le  meme  effet 

Many  of  the  French  kings  had  sur  son  ame,  que  le  chatouille- 

a    strong  natural   affection    for  ment    le    plus     delicat    sur    le 

monks ;   but  the  most  singular  corps.' 

instance  I  have  found  of  this  7*  One  of  his  suggestions  was, 

sort  of  love  is  mentioned  by  no  •  sur  les  dangers  que  couroit  le 

less  a  man  than  De  Thou,  re-  catholicisme  en  Allemagne,  par 

specting  Henry  III.     De  Thou  ses  liaisons  avec  les  puissances 


80 


FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 


Richelieu,  so  soon  as  he  heard  of  this,  dismissed  him 
from  office,  and  sent  him  into  exile  ;  for,  he  contemptu- 
ously says,  '  the  little  father  Caussin '  should  not  inter- 
fere in  matters  of  government,  since  he  is  one  of 
those  '  who  have  always  been  brought  up  in  the  inno- 
cence of  a  religious  life.77  Caussin  was  succeeded  by 
the  celebrated  Sirmond ;  but  Richelieu  would  not  allow 
the  new  confessor  to  begin  his  duties,  until  he  had 
solemnly  promised  never  to  interfere  in  state  affairs.78 

On  another  occasion  of  much  more  importance, 
Richelieu  displayed  a  similar  spirit.  The  French  clergy 
were  then  possessed  of  enormous  wealth  ;  and,  as  they 
enjoyed  the  privilege  of  taxing  themselves,  they  were 
careful  not  to  make  what  they  considered  unnecessary 
contributions  towards  defraying  the  expenses  of  the 
state.  They  had  cheerfully  advanced  money  to  carry 
on  war  against  the  Protestants,  because  they  believed  it 
to  be  their  duty  to  assist  in  the  extirpation  of  heresy.79 


protestantes.'  Grigoire,  Histoire 
des  Confesseurs,  p.  342.  The 
fullest  account  of  Caussin  is  in 
Le  Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII, 
vol.  ix.  pp.  287-299;  to  which, 
however,  Gregoire  never  refers. 
As  I  shall  have  frequent  occa- 
sion to  quote  Le  Vassor,  I  may 
observe,  that  he  is  far  more  ac- 
curate than  is  generally  sup- 
posed, and  that  he  has  been  very 
unfairly  treated  by  the  majority 
of  French  writers,  among  whom 
he  is  unpopular,  on  account  of  his 
constant  attacks  on  Louis  XTV. 
Sismondi  {Hist,  des  Frangais, 
vol.  xxii.  pp.  188,  189)  speaks 
highly  of  his  Hist,  of  Louis  XHI. ; 
and  so  far  as  my  own  reading 
extends,  I  can  confirm  his  favour- 
able opinion. 

77  'Le  petit  pere  Caussin.' 
Mem.  de  Richelieu,  vol.  x.  p.  206 ; 
and  at  p.  217,  he  is  classed  among 
the  '  personnes  qui  avoient  tou- 
jours  ete  nourries  dans  l'inno- 


cence  d'une  vie  religieuse:'  see 
also  p.  215,  on  his  '  simplicite  et 
ignorance.'  Respecting  Riche- 
lieu's treatment  of  Caussin,  see 
Mem.  deMontglat,  vol.  i.  pp.  173- 
175 ;  Lettres  de  Patin,  vol.  i. 
p.  49 ;  Des  Beaux,  Historiettes, 
vol.  ii.  p.  182. 

78  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Frangais, 
vol.  xxiii.  p.  332 ;  Tallemant  des 
BSaux,  Historiettes,  vol.  iii.  p.  78 
note.  Le  Vassor  (Hist,  de  Louis 
XHI,  vol.  x.  part  ii.  p.  761)  says, 
that  Sirmond  'se  soutint  a  la 
cour  sous  le  ministere  de  Riche- 
lieu, parce  qu'il  ne  se  meloit 
point  des  affaires  d'etat.'  Ac- 
cording to  the  same  writer  (vol. 
viii.  p.  156),  Richelieu  thought 
at  one  time  of  depriving  the 
Jesuits  of  their  post  of  confessor 
to  the  king. 

70  Lavallee,  Hist,  des  Frangais, 
vol.  iii.  p.  87 ;  Le  Vassor,  Hist, 
de  Louis  XHI,  vol.  iv.  p.  208  ; 
Bazin,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  ii. 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTUET.      31 

But  they  saw  no  reason  why  their  revenues  should  be 
wasted  in  effecting  mere  temporal  benefits  ;  they  con- 
sidered themselves  as  the  guardians  of  funds  set  apart 
for  spiritual  purposes,  and  they  thought  it  impious  that 
wealth  consecrated  by  the  piety  of  their  ancestors 
should  fall  into  the  profane  hands  of  secular  statesmen. 
Richelieu,  who  looked  on  these  scruples  as  the  arti- 
fices of  interested  men,  had  taken  a  very  different  view 
of  the  relation  which  the  clergy  bore  to  the  country.80 
So  far  from  thinking  that  the  interests  of  the  church 
were  superior  to  those  of  the  state,  he  laid  it  down  as 
a  maxim  of  policy,  that  '  the  reputation  of  the  state 
was  the  first  consideration.'81  With  such  fearlessness 
did*  he  carry  out  this  principle,  that  having  convoked 
at  Mantes  a  great  assembly  of  the  clergy,  he  compelled 
them  to  aid  the  government  by  an  extraordinary  supply 
of  6,000,000  francs ;  and  finding  that  some  of  the 
highest  dignitaries  had  expressed  their  discontent  at  so 
unusual  a  step,  he  laid  hands  on  them  also,  and  to  the 
amazement  of  the  church,  sent  into  exile  not  only  four 
of  the  bishops,  but  likewise  the  two  archbishops  of 
Toulouse  and  of  Sens.82 


p.  144;  Benoist,  Hist,  de  VEdit  il  n'y  a  rien  de  plus  agreable  au 

de  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  pp.  337,  338.  Pere  commun  des  hommes,  que 

Benoist    says :    '  Le    clerge    de  de  garantir  une  nation  de   sa 

France,   ignorant  et  corrompu,  mine.    Dieu  n'ayant  besoin  de 

croyoit  tout  son  devoir  compris  rien,    lui    consacrer   des  biens, 

dans  l'extirpation  des  heretiques;  c'est  les  destiner  a  des  usages 

et  meme  il  ofiroit  de  grandes  qui  lui   soient  agreables.       De 

sommes,  a  condition  qu'on  les  plus,   les  biens  de    l'eglise,  de 

employat  a  cette  guerre.'  l'aveu  du  clerge  lui-m&me,  sont 

80  In  which  he  is  fully  borne  en  grande  partie  destines  aux 

out  by  the  high    authority   of  pauvres.    Quand  l'etat  est  dans 

Vattel,  whose  words  I  shall  quote,  le  besoin,  il  est  sans  doute  le 

for  the  sake  of  those  politicians  premier  pauvre,  et  le  plus  digne 

who  still  cleave  to  the  superan-  de  secours.'     Vattel,  le  Droit  des 

nuated  theory  of  the  sacredness  Gens,  vol.  i.  pp.  176,  177. 

of  church-property :    '  Loin  que  8I  '  Que  la  reputation  de  l'etat 

l'exemption     appartienne      aux  est  preferable  a  toutes  choses.' 

biens  d'eglise  parce   qu'ils   sont  Mhn.  de  Bichelieu,  vol.  ii.  p.  482. 

consacres  a  Dieu,  c'est  au  con-  This  was  in  1625,  and  by  way  of 

traire    par  cette  raison   meme,  refuting  the  legate, 

qu'ils  doivent  etre  pris  les  pre-  82  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Francais, 

miers  pour  le  salut  de  l'etat ;  car  vol.  xxiii.  pp.  477,  478 ;  Basin, 


32 


FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 


If  these  things  had  been  done  fifty  years  earlier,  they 
would  most  assuredly  have  proved  fatal  to  the  minister 
who  dared  to  attempt  them.  But  Richelieu,  in  these 
and  similar  measures,  was  aided  by  the  spirit  of  an  age 
which  was  beginning  to  despise  its  ancient  masters. 
For  this  general  tendency  was  now  becoming  apparent, 
not  only  in  literature  and  in  politics,  but  even  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  ordinary  tribunals.  The  nuncio  in- 
dignantly complained  of  the  hostility  displayed  against 
ecclesiastics  by  the  French  judges ;  and  he  said  that, 
among  other  shameful  things,  some  clergymen  had  been 
hung,  without  being  first  deprived  of  their  spiritual 
character.83  On  other  occasions,  the  increasing  con- 
tempt showed  itself  in  a  way  well  suited  to  the  coarse- 
ness of  the  prevailing  manners.  Sourdis,  the  archbishop 
of  Bourdeaux,  was  twice  ignominiously  beaten ;  once 
by  the  Duke  d'Epernon,  and  afterwards  by  the  Mare- 
chal  de  Vitry.84  Nor  did  Richelieu,  who  usually  treated 
the  nobles  with  such  severity,  seem  anxious  to  punish 

Louis  XIII,  vol.  v.  pp.  51,  seq.) 
has  given  some  curious  details 
respecting  the  animosity  between 
the  clergy  and  the  secular  tri- 
bunals of  Erance  in  1624. 

M  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Franeais, 
vol.  xxiii.  p.  301  ;  Mim.  deBas- 
sompierre,  vol.  iii.  pp.  302,  353. 
Bazin,  who  notices  this  disgrace- 
ful affair,  simply  says  (Hist,  de 
Louis  XIII,  vol.  iii.  p.  453)  : 
'  Le  marechal  de  Vitry,  suivant 
l'exemple  qui  lui  en  avoit  donne 
le  due  d'Epernon,  s'emporta  jus- 
qu'a  le  frapper  de  son  baton.' 
In  regard  to  Epernon,  the  best 
account  is  in  Mem.  de  Richelieu, 
where  it  is  stated  (vol.  viii. 
p.  194)  that  the  duke,  just  before 
flogging  the  archbishop,  'disoit 
au  peuple,  "Rangez-vous,  vous 
verrez  comme  j'etrillerai  votre 
archeveque.'"  This  was  stated 
by  a  witness,  who  heard  the  duke 
utter  the  words.     Compare,  for 


de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  325,  326.  The  Cardinal  de 
Retz,  who  knew  Richelieu  per- 
sonally, says :  '  M.  le  cardinal 
de  Richelieu  avoit  donne  une 
atteinte  cruelle  a  la  dignit6  et  a 
la  liberte  du  clerg6  dans  l'as- 
semblee  de  Mante,  et  il  avoit 
exil6,  avec  des  circonstances 
atroces,  six  de  ses  prelats  les 
plus  considerables.'  Mim.  de 
Betz,  vol  i.  p.  50. 

83  '  Die  Nuntien  finden  kein 
Ende  der  Beschwerden  die  sie 
machen  zu  mussen  glauben, 
vorziiglich  iiber  die  Beschran- 
kungen  welche  die  geistliche 
Jurisdiction  erfahre  ....  Zu- 
weilen  werde  ein  Geistlicher  hin- 
gerichtet  ohne  erst  degradirt  zu 
seyn.'  Banke,  die  Pdpste,  vol. 
iii.  p.  157  :  a  summary,  in  1641, 
of  the  complaints  of  the  then 
nuncio,  and  of  those  of  his  pre- 
decessors.    Le  Vassor  (Hist,  de 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     33 

this  gross  outrage.  Indeed,  the  archbishop  not  only 
received  no  sympathy,  but,  a  few  years  later,  was  pe- 
remptorily ordered  by  Richelieu  to  retire  to  his  own 
diocese ;  such,  however,  was  his  alarm  at  the  state  of 
affairs,  that  he  fled  to  Carpentras,  and  put  himself  under 
the  protection  of  the  pope.85  This  happened  in  1641  j 
and  nine  years  earlier,  the  church  had  incurred  a  still 
greater  scandal.  For  in  1632,  serious  disturbances 
having  arisen  in  Languedoc,  Richelieu  did  not  fear  to 
meet  the  difficulty  by  depriving  some  of  the  bishops,  and 
seizing  the  temporalities  of  the  others.86 

The  indignation  of  the  clergy  may  be  easily  imagined. 
Such  repeated  injuries,  even  if  they  had  proceeded  from 
a  layman,  would  have  been  hard  to  endure  ;  but  they 
were  rendered  doubly  bitter  by  being  the  work  of  one 
of  themselves — one  who  had  been  nurtured  in  the  pro- 
fession against  which  he  turned.  This  it  was  which 
aggravated  the  offence,  because  it  seemed  to  be  adding 
treachery  to  insult.  It  was  not  a  war  from  without, 
but  it  was  a  treason  from  within.  It  was  a  bishop 
who  humbled  the  episcopacy,  and  a  cardinal  who 
affronted  the  church.87    Such,  however,  was  the  general 


further  •information,  Le  Vassor,  pentras  sous    la  protection  du 

Hist,  de  Louis    XIII,   vol.    x.  pape.' 

part  ii.  p.  97,  with  Tallemant  des  86  '  Les  eV6ques  furent  punis 

Beaux,  Historiettes,  vol.  iii.  p.  par  la  saisie  de  leur  temporel ; 

116.     Des  Keaux,   who,  in  his  Alby,  Nimes,  Uzis,  furent  pri- 

own  way,  was  somewhat  of  a  vdes  de    leurs  prilats.'     Cape- 

philosopher,    contentedly  says:  fgue's    Eichelieu,    Paris,   1844, 

*  Cet     archev£que     se    pouvoit  vol.  ii.  p.  24.     The  Protestants 

vanter  d'etre  le  prilat  du  monde  were  greatly  delighted    at  the 

qui  avoit  6te  le  plus  battu.'    His  punishment   of   the  bishops  of 

brother  was  Cardinal  Sourdis ;  a  Alby    and    Nimes,  which    '  les 

man  of  some  little  reputation  in  ministres  regardoient  comme  une 

his  own  time,   and  concerning  vengeance  divine.'  Benoist,  Hist. 

whom  a  curious  anecdote  is  re-  de  PEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  pp. 

lated  in  Mini,  de  Conrart,  pp.  528,  529. 

231-234.  87  In  a  short  account  of  Ei- 

85  Sismondi,  Hist.desFrangais,  chelieu,    which    was    published 

vol.   xxiii.   p.  470.     Le  Vassor  immediately  after  his  death,  the 

(Hist,    de  Louis  XIII,  vol.   x.  writer    indignantly    says,    that 

part  ii.  p.  149)  says :  '  II  8*en-  '  being  a  cardinal,  he  afflicted 

fuit  done   honteusement  a  Car-  the     church.'     Somcrs    Tracts, 

VOL.  II.  D 


34       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

temper  of  men,  that  the  clergy  did  not  venture  to  strike 
an  open  blow ;  but,  by  means  of  their  partisans,  they 
scattered  .the  most  odious  libels  against  the  great  mi- 
nister. They  said  that  he  was  unchaste,  that  he  was 
guilty  of  open  debauchery,  and  that  he  held  incestuous 
commerce  with  his  own  niece.88  They  declared  that  he 
had  no  religion  ;  that  he  was  only  a  Catholic  in  name ; 
that  he  was  the  pontiff  of  the  Huguenots ;  that  he  was 
the  patriarch  of  atheists  ;89  and  what  was  worse  than 
all,  they  even  accused  him  of  wishing  to  establish  a 
schism  in  the  French  church.90  Happily  the  time  was 
now  passing  away  in  which  the  national  mind  could  be 
moved  by  such  artifices  as  these.  Still  the  charges  are 
worth  recording,  because  they  illustrate  the  tendency 
of  public  affairs,  and  the  bitterness  witti  which  the 
spiritual  classes  saw  the  reins  of  power  falling  from 
their  hands.  Indeed,  all  this  was  so  manifest,  that  in 
the  last  civil  war  raised  against  Richelieu,  only  two 
years  before  his  death,  the  insurgents  stated  in  their 
proclamation,  that  one  of  their  objects  was  to  revive  the 
respect  with  which  the  clergy  and  nobles  had  formerly 
been  treated.91 

The  more  we  study  the  career  of  Richelieu,  the  more 
prominent  does  this  antagonism  become.  Every  thing 
proves  that  he  was  conscious  of  a  great  struggle  going 
on  between  the  old  ecclesiastical  scheme  of  government 
and  the  new  secular  scheme ;  and  that  he  was  determined 
to  put  down  the  old  plan,  and  uphold  the  new  one. 
For,  not  only  in  his  domestic  administration,  but  also 


vol.  v.  p.  540.     Compare  Bazin,  89  •  De  la  ces  petits  ecrits  qui 

Hist,   de   Louis   XIII,   vol.    iv.  le  denoncaient  comme  le  "  pon- 

p.  322.  tife    des     huguenots "    ou    "  le 

88  This  scandalous  charge  in  patriarche  des  athees." '     Cape- 

regard  to  his  niece  was  a  fa-  Jigue's  Bichelieu,  vol.  i.  p.  312. 

vourite  one  with  the  clergy;  and  90  Compare  Des  Beaux,  Histo- 

among  many  other  instances,  the  riettes,  vol.  ii.  p.  233,  with  Le 

accusation  was  brought  by  the  Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  vol. 

Cardinal    de  Valencay  in    the  viii.  part  ii.  pp.  177, 178,  voLix. 

grossest  manner.     See  Tallemant  p.  277. 

des  Beaux,  Historiettes,  vol.  iii.  D1  See  the  manifesto  in  Sis- 

p.  201.  rnondi,   Hist,  des  Francais,  vol. 

xxiii.  pp.  452,  453. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTUET.     $5 

in  his  foreign  policy,  do  we  find  the  same  unprecedented 
disregard  of  theological  interests.  The  House  of  Austria, 
particularly  its  Spanish  branch,  had  long  been  respected 
by  all  pious  men  as  the  faithful  ally  of  the  church ;  it 
was  looked  upon  as  the  scourge  of  heresy  ;  and  its  pro- 
ceedings against  the  heretics  had  won  for  it  a  great 
name  in  ecclesiastical  history.98  When,  therefore,  the 
French  government,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  IX.,  made 
a  deliberate  attempt  to  destroy  the  Protestants,  France 
naturally  established  an  intimate  connexion  with  Spain 
-as  well  as  with  Rome  ;93  and  these  three  great  powers 
were  firmly  united,  not  by  a  community  of  temporal  in- 
terests, but  by  the  force  of  a  religious  compact.  This 
theological  confederacy  was  afterwards  broken  up  by 
the  personal  character  of  Henry  IV.,94  and  by  the  grow- 
ing indifference  of  the  age ;  but  during  the  minority  of 
Louis  XTIL,  the  queen-regent  had  in  some  degree  re- 
newed it,  and  had  attempted  to  revive  the  superstitious 
prejudices  upon  which  it  was  based.96  In  all  her  feel- 
ings, she  was  a  zealous  Catholic ;  she  was  warmly 
attached  to  Spain ;  and  she  succeeded  in  marrying  her 
son,  the  young  king,  to  a  Spanish  princess,  and  her 
daughter  to  a  Spanish  prince.96 


92  Late  in  the  sixteenth  cen-  more  on  the  feelings,  of  Henry 
tury,  '  tils  aine  de  l'Eglise  was  IV.  towards  the  Honse  of  Aus- 
the  recognized  and  well-merited  tria,  see  Sully, (EconomksRoyales 
title  of  the  kings  of  Spain.  Be  vol.  ii.  p.  291,  vol.  iii.  pp.  162, 
Thou,  Hist.  Univ.  vol.  xi.p.  280.  166,  vol.  iv.  pp.  289,  290,  321, 
Compare  Buplessis  Mornay,  343,  344,  364,  vol.  v.  p.  123, 
Mem.  et  Correspond,  vol.  xi.  vol.  vi.  p.  293,  vol.  vii.  p.  303, 
p.  21.  And  on  the  opinions  vol.  viii.  pp.  195,  202,  348. 
which  the  Catholics,  early  in  the  •*  Capefiyue's  Richelieu,  vol  i. 
seventeenth  century,  generally  pp.  26,  369  ;  Mim.  de  Montglat, 
held  respecting  Spain,  see  Mem.  vol.  i.  pp.  16,  17  ;  Le  Fassor, 
de  Fontenay,  Mareuil,  vol.  i.  Hist,  de  Louis XIII,  voLi.  p.  268, 
p.  189;  Mem.  de  Bassompierre,  vol.  vi.  p.  349;  Sismondi,  Hi*'. 
vol.  i.  p.  424.  des  Fran^ais,  vol.  xxii.  p.  227. 

93  As  to  the  connexion  be-  Her  husband,  Henry  IV.,  taid 
tween  this  foreign  policy  and  the  that  she  had  '  the  soul  of  a 
massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew,  Spaniard.'  Capefiyue,  Hist,  de  la 
see  Capefiyue,  Hist.de  la  Riforme,  Reforr/ir,\o\.  viii.  p.  160. 

vol.  iii.  pp.  253,  268,  269.  M  Tin's  was,  in  her  opinion,  a 

94  On   the  policy,    and    still  master-stroke  of  policy : 'Entet  to 

s2 


36       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  when  Richelieu,  a 
great  dignitary  of  the  Romish  church,  was  placed  at 
the  head  of  aifairs,  he  would  have  reestablished  a  con- 
nexion so  eagerly  desired  by  the  profession  to  which  he 
belonged.97  But  his  conduct  was  not  regulated  by 
such  views  as  these.  His  object  was,  not  to  favour  the 
opinions  of  a  sect,  but  to  promote  the  interests  of  a 
nation.  His  treaties,  his  diplomacy,  and  the  schemes 
of  his  foreign  alliances,  were  all  directed,  not  against 
the  enemies  of  the  church,  but  against  the  enemies  of 
France.  By  erecting  this  new  standard  of  action, 
Richelieu  took  a  great  step  towards  secularizing  the 
whole  system  of  European  politics.  For  he  thus  made 
the  theoretical  interests  of  men  subordinate  to  their 
practical  interests.  Before  his  time,  the  rulers  of 
France,  in  order  to  punish  their  Protestant  subjects, 
had  not  hesitated  to  demand  the  aid  of  the  Catholic 
troops  of  Spain ;  and  in  so  doing,  they  merely  acted 
upon  the  old  opinion,  that  it  was  the  chief  duty  of  a 
government  to  suppress  heresy.  This  pernicious  doc- 
trine was  first  openly  repudiated  by  Richelieu.  As  early 
as  1617,  and  before  he  had  established  his  power,  he, 
in  an  instruction  to  one  of  the  foreign  ministers  which  is 
still  extant,  laid  it  down  as  a  principle,  that,  in  matters 
of  state,  no  Catholic  ought  to  prefer  a  Spaniard  to  a 
French  Protestant.98     To  us,  indeed,  in  the  progress  of 


du  double  mariageavecl'Espagne  of  '  les  z£lez  catholiques,  et  ceux 

qu'elle  avoit  menage  avec  tant  qui  desiroient,   a  quelque   prix 

d'application,  et  qu'elle  regardoit  que   ce  fust,  1' union   des   deux 

comme  le  plus  ferme  appui  de  roys,  et  des  deux  couronnes  de 

son  autorite.'     Le  Vassor,  Hist.  France  et  d'Espagne,  comme  le 

de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  i.  pp.  453,  seul  moyen  propre,   selon  leur 

454.  advis,     pour    l'extirpation    des 

97  So  late  as  1656,  the  French  heresies    dans    la    chrestiente.' 

clergy  wished  '  to  hasten  a  peace  Sully,  (Econ.  Royales,  vol.  ix.  p. 

with   Spain,   and    to    curb   the  181 :  compare  vol.  vii.  p.  248,  on 

heretics  in  France.'  Letter  from  'les  zelez  catholiques  espagno- 

Pell  to  Thurloe,  written  in  1656,  lisez  de  France.' 
•and  printed  in  VaugharCs  Pro-        M  See     Sismondi,     Hist,    des 

tectorate  of  Cromwell,  vol.  i.  p.  Frangais,  vol.  xxii.  pp.  387-389, 

436,    8vo,    1839.      During    the  where    the  importance  of    this 

minority  of  Louis  XIII.  we  hear  document  is  noticed,   and  it  is 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     87 


society,  such,  preference  of  the  claims  of  our  country  to 
those  of  our  creed,  has  become  a  matter  of  course  ;  but 
in  those  days  it  was  a  startling  novelty."  Richelieu, 
however,  did  not  fear  to  push  the  paradox  even  to  its 
remotest  consequences.  The  Catholic  church  justly  con- 
sidered that  its  interests  were  bound  up  with  those  of 
the  House  of  Austria  ;100  but  Richelieu,  directly  he  was 
called  to  the  council,  determined  to  humble  that  house 
in  both  its  branches.101  To  effect  this,  he  openly  sup- 
ported the  bitterest  enemies  of  his  own  religion.  He 
aided  the  Lutherans  against  the  Emperor  of  Germany;  he 
aided  the  Calvinists  against  the  king  of  Spain.  During 
the  eighteen  years  he  was  supreme,  he  steadily  pursued 
the  same  undeviating  policy. 102  When  Philip  attempted 
to  repress  the  Dutch  Protestants,  Richelieu  made  com- 
mon cause  with  them ;  at  first,  advancing  them  large 
Bums  of  money,  and  afterwards  inducing  the  French 


said  that  Richelieu  had  drawn  it 
up  '  avec  beaucoup  de  soin.'  The 
language  of  it  is  very  peremp- 
tory :  '  Que  nul  catholique  n'est 
si  aveugle  d'estimer  en  matiere 
d'etat  un  Espagnol  meilleur 
qu'un  Francais  huguenot.' 

99  Even  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
IV.  the  French  Protestants  were 
not  considered  to  be  Frenchmen : 
'The  intolerant  dogmas  of  Eoman 
Catholicism  did  not  recognize 
them  as  Frenchmen.  They 
■were  looked  upon  as  foreigners, 
or  rather  as  enemies  ;  and  were 
treated  as  such.'  Felice  Hist,  of 
the  Protestants  of  France,  p.  2}  6. 

100  '  Sismondi  says,  under  the 
year  1610,  'Toute  l'eglise  catho- 
lique croyoit  son  sort  lie  a  celui 
de  la  maison  d'Autriche.'  Hist, 
des  Francais,  vol.  xxii.  p.  180. 

,0'  '  Sa  vue  dominante  fut 
l'abaissement  de  la  maison 
d'Autriche.'  Flassan,  Hist,  de  la 
JHplomatie  Francaise,  vol.  iii. 
j>.  81.     And,  on  the  early  forma- 


tion of  this  scheme,  see  Mem.  de 
la  Rochefoucauld,  vol.  i.  p.  350. 
De  Retz  says,  that  before  Riche- 
lieu, no  one  had  even  thought  of 
such  a  step :  '  Celui  d'attaquer  la 
formidable  maison  d'Autriche 
n'avoit  ete  imagine  de  personne.' 
Mem.  de  Retz,  vol.  i.  p.  45.  This 
is  rather  too  strongly  expressed ; 
but  the  whole  paragraph  is 
curious,  as  written  by  a  man  who 
possessed  great  ability,  which  De 
Retz  undoubtedly  did,  and  who, 
though  hating  Richelieu,  could 
not  refrain  from  bearing  testi- 
mony to  his  immense  services. 

102  '  Obwohl  Cardinal  der 
romischen  Kirche,  trug  Richelieu 
kein  Bedenken,  mit  den  Pro- 
testanten  selbst  unverhohlen  in 
Bund  zu  treten.'  Eanke,  die 
Pdpste,  vol.  ii.  p.  510.  Compare, 
in  Mem.  de  Fontenay  Mareuil, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  28,  29,  the  reproach 
which  the  nuncio  Spadaaddressed 
to  Richelieu  for  treating  with 
the  Protestant*,  '  de  la  paix  qui 


38 


FEENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 


king  to  sign  a  treaty  of  intimate  alliance  "with  those- 
who,  in  the  opinion  of  the  church,  he  ought  rather  to 
have  chastized  as  rebellious  heretics.103  In  the  same 
way,  when  that  great  war  broke  out,  in  which  the  em- 
peror attempted  to  subjugate  to  the  true  faith  the  con- 
sciences of  German  Protestants,  Richelieu  stood  forward 
as  their  protector ;  he  endeavoured  from  the  beginning 
to  save  their  leader  the  Palatine  ;104  and,  failing  in  that, 
he  concluded  in  their  favour  an  alliance  with  Gustavus 
Adolphus,105  the  ablest  military  commander  the  Re- 
formers had  then  produced.  Nor  did  he  stop  there. 
After  the  death  of  Gustavus,  he,  seeing  that  the  Pro- 
testants were  thus  deprived  of  their  great  leader,  made 
still  more  vigorous  efforts  in  their  favour.106     He  in- 


se  traitoit  avec  les  huguenots.' 
See  also  Le  Vassor,  Hist,  de 
Louis  XIII,  vol.  v.  pp.  236,  354- 
356,  567  ;  and  a  good  passage  in 
Lavallee,  Hist,  des  Frangais,  vol. 
iii.  p.  90, — an  able  little  work, 
and  perhaps  the  best  small 
history  ever  published  of  a  great 
country. 

103  De  Retz  mentions  a  curious 
illustration  of  the  feelings  of  the 
ecclesiastical  party  respecting 
this  treaty.  He  says,  that  the 
Bishop  of  Beauvais,  who,  the 
year  after  the  death  of  Richelieu, 
was  for  a  moment  at  the  head  of 
affairs,  began  his  administration 
by  giving  to  the  Dutch  their 
choice,  either  to  abandon  their 
religion,  or  else  forfeit  their 
alliance  with  France:  'Et  il 
demanda  des  le  premier  jour  aux 
Hollandois  qu'ils  seconvertissent 
a  la  religion  catholique,  s'ils 
vouloient  demeurer  dans  l'al- 
liance  de  France.'  Mem.  du 
Cardinal  de  Retz,  vol.  i.  p.  39. 
This,  I  suppose,  is  the  original 
authority  for  the  statement  in 
the  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xiv.  p.  440  ; 
though,  as  is  too  often  the  case 


in  that  otherwise  valuable  work, 
the  writer  has  omitted  to  indi- 
cate the  source  of  his  information. 

101  In  1628,  he  attempted  to 
form  a  league  •  en  faveur  du, 
Palatin.'  Sismondi,  Hist,  des 
Frangais,  vol.  xxii.  p.  576. 
Sismondi  seems  not  quite  certain 
as  to  the  sincerity  of  his  pro- 
posal; but  as  to  this  there  can, 
I  think,  be  little  doubt;  for  it 
appears  from  his  own  memoirs, . 
that  even  in  1624  he  had  in  view 
the  recovery  of  the  Palatinate. 
Mem.  de  Richelieu,  vol.  ii.  p.  405  ; 
and  again  in  1625,  p.  468. 

105  Sismondi,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  173 ; 
Capefiffue's  Richelieu,  vol.  i.  p. 
415;  Le  Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis 
XIII,  vol.  vi.  pp.  12,  600  ;  and  at 
p.  489 :  '  Le  roi  de  Suede  qui 
comptoit  uniquement  sur.  le 
cardinal.' 

10B  Compare  Mem.  de  Mont- 
glat,  vol.  i.  pp.  74,  75,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
92,  93,  with  Mem.  de  Fontenay 
Mareuil,  vol.  ii.  p.  198 ;  and 
HowdVs  Letters,  p.  247.  Tho 
different  views  which  occurred  to 
his  fertile  mind  in  consequence- 
of  the  death  of  Gustavus,  are. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     39 

trigued  for  them  in  foreign  courts  ;  he  opened  negotia- 
tions in  their  behalf ;  and  eventually  he  organized  for 
their  protection  a  public  confederacy,  in  which  all 
ecclesiastical  considerations  were  set  at  defiance.  This 
league,  which  formed  an  important  precedent  in  the 
international  polity  of  Europe,  was  not  only  contracted 
by  Richelieu  with  the  two  most  powerful  enemies  of  his 
own  church,  but  it  was,  from  its  tenor,  what  Sismondi 
emphatically  calls  a  •  Protestant  confederation' — a  Pro- 
testant confederation,  he  says,  between  France,  England, 
and  Holland.10' 

These  things  alone  would  have  made  the  adminis- 
tration of  Richelieu  a  great  epoch  in  the  history  of 
European  civilization.  For  his  government  affords  the 
first  example  of  an  eminent  Catholic  statesman  system- 
atically disregarding  ecclesiastical  interests,  and  show- 
ing that  disregard  in  the  whole  scheme  of  his  foreign, 
as  well  as  of  his  domestic,  policy.  Some  instances, 
indeed,  approaching  to  this,  may  be  found,  at  an  earlier 
period,  among  the  petty  rulers  of  Italian  states;  but, 
even  there,  such  attempts  have  never  been  successful ; 
they  had  never  been  continued  for  any  length  of  time, 
nor  had  they  been  carried  out  on  a  scale  large  enough 
to  raise  them  to  the  dignity  of  international  prece- 
dents. The  peculiar  glory  of  Richelieu  is,  that  his 
foreign  policy  was,  not  occasionally,  but  invariably, 
governed  by  temporal  considerations  ;  nor  do  I  believe 
that,  during  the  long  tenure  of  his  power,  there  is  to 
be  found  the  least  proof  of  his  regard  for  those  theo- 
logical interests,  the  promotion  of  which  had  long  been 
looked  upon  as  a  matter  of  paramount  importance. 
By  thus  steadily  subordinating  the  church  to  the  state ; 
by  enforcing  the  principle  of  this  subordination,  on  a 


strikingly  summed  up  in  Mem.  de  confederation  protestante.'  Sis- 
Richelieu,  vol.  vii.  pp.  272-277.  mondi,  Hist,  des  Francois,  vol. 
On  his  subsequent  pecuniary  xxiii.  p.  221.  Compare,  in  Whiie- 
advances,  see  vol.  be.  p.  395.  locke's  Swedish  Embassy,  voL  i.  p. 
107  In  1633,  '  les  ambassa-  275,  the  remark  made  twenty 
deurs  de  France,  d' Angleterre  et  years  later  by  Christina,  daughter 
deHollandemirent  a  profit  lere-  of  Gustavus,  on  the  union  with 
pos  de  l'hiver  pour  resserrer  la  '  papists.' 


40 


FRENCH  INTELLECT  PEOM  THE 


large  scale,  with  great  ability,  and  with  unvarying  suc- 
cess, he  laid  the  foundation  of  that  purely  secular 
polity,  the  consolidation  of  which  has,  since  his  death, 
been  the  aim  of  all  the  best  European  diplomatists. 
The  result  was  a  most  salutary  change,  which  had 
been  for  some  time  preparing,  but  which,  under  him, 
was  first  completed.  For,  by  the  introduction  of  this 
system,  an  end  was  put  to  religious  wars;  and  the 
chances  of  peace  were  increased,  by  thus  removing  one 
of  the  causes  to  which  the  interruption  of  peace  had 
often  been  owing.108  At  the  same  time,  there  was  pre- 
pared the  way  for  that  final  separation  of  theology  from 
politics,  which  it  will  be  the  business  of  future  genera- 
tions fully  to  achieve.  How  great  a  step  had  been 
taken  in  this  direction,  appears  from  the  facility  with 


108  This  change  may  be  illus- 
trated by  comparing  tie  work  of 
Grotius  with  that  of  Vattel. 
These  two  eminent  men  are  still 
respected  as  the  most  authorita- 
tive expounders  of  international 
law ;  but  there  is  this  important 
difference  between  them,  that 
Vattel  wrote  more  than  a  century 
after  Grotius,  and  when  the 
secular  principles  enforced  by 
Richelieu  had  penetrated  the 
minds  even  of  common  politicians. 
Therefore,  Vattel  says  {Le  Droit 
des  Gens,  vol.  i.  pp.  379,  380) : 
•  On  demande  s'il  est  permis  de 
faire  alliance  avec  une  nation  qui 
ne  professe  pas  la  meme  religion  ? 
Si  les  traites  faits  avec  les  en- 
nemis  de  la  foi  sont  valides? 
Grotius  a  traite  la  question  assez 
au  long.  Cette  discussion  pouvait 
£tre  necessaire  dans  un  temps  ou 
la  fureur  des  partis  obscurcissait 
encore  des  principes  qu'elle  avait 
long-temps  fait  oublier,  osons 
croire  qu'elle  serait  superflue 
dans  notre  siecle.  La  loi  natu- 
relle  seule  regit  les  traites  des 


nations  ;  la  difference  de  religion 
y  est  absolument  etrangere.'  See 
also  p.  318,  and  vol.  ii.  p.  151. 
On  tho  other  hand,  Grotius 
opposes  alliances  between  nations 
of  different  religion,  and  says, 
that  nothing  can  justify  them 
except '  une  extreme  necessity.  .  . 
Car  il  faut  chercher  premiere- 
ment  le  regne  celeste,  c'est  a 
dire  penser  avant  toutes  choses  a 
la  propagation  de  l'evangile.' 
And  he  further  recommends  that 
princes  should  follow  the  advice 
given  on  this  subject  by  Foulques, 
Archbishop  of  Eheims !  Grotius, 
le  Droit  de  la  Guerre  et  de  la 
Paix,  livre  ii.  chap  xv.  sec.  xi. 
vol.  i.  pp.  485,  486,  edit.  Bar- 
beyrac,  Amsterdam,  1724,  4to; 
a  passage  the  more  instructive, 
because  Grotius  was  a  man  of 
great  genius  and  great  humanity. 
On  religious  wars,  as  naturally 
recognized  in  barbarous  times, 
see  the  curious  and  important 
work,  Institutes  of  Timour,  pp. 
141,  333,  335. 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.     41 

which,  the  operations  of  Richelieu  were  continued  by 
men  every  way  his  inferiors.  Less  than  two  years  after 
his  death,  there  was  assembled  the  Congress  of  West- 
phalia ;109  the  members  of  which  concluded  that  cele- 
brated peace,  which  is  remarkable,  as  being  the  first 
comprehensive  attempt  to  adjust  the  conflicting  in- 
terests of  the  leading  European  countries.110  In  this 
important  treaty,  ecclesiastical  interests  were  alogether 
disregarded;111  and  the  contracting  parties,  instead  of, 
as  heretofore,  depriving  each  other  of  their  possessions, 
took  the  bolder  course  of  indemnifying  themselves  at 
the  expense  of  the  church,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  seize 
her  revenues,  and  secularize  several  of  her  bishoprics.112 
From  this  grievous  insult,  which  became  a  precedent 
in  the  public  law  of  Europe,  the  spiritual  power  has 
never  recovered ;  and  it  is  remarked  by  a  very  com- 
petent authority  that,  since  that  period,  diplomatists 
have,  in  their  official  acts,  neglected  religious  interests, 
and  have  preferred  the  advocacy  of  matters  relating 
to   the    commerce    and  colonies   of  their    respective 


109 'Le  Congres  de  Westpha-  IM  Compare  the  indignation  of 

lie  s'ouvrit   le    10   avril    1643.'  the  pope  at  this  treaty  (  Vattd,  le 

LavalUe,  Hist,  des  Francais,  vol.  Droit  des  Gens,  vol.  ii.  p.  28), 

iii.  p.  156.  Its  two  great  divisions  with  Range's  Pdpste,  vol.  ii.  p. 

at  Munster  and  Osnabruck  were  576 :  '  Das  religiose  Element  ist 

formed  in  March  1644.  Flassan,  zuriickge  reten  ;  die  politischen 

Hist,  de  la  Diplomatic,  vol.  iii.  Riicksichten     beherrschen     die 

p.   110.     Eichelieu  died  in  De-  Welt :' a  summary  of  the  general 

cember,  1642.  Biog.    Univ.  vol.  state  of  affairs, 

xxxviii.  p.  28.  m  'La  France  obtint  par  ce 

110   'Les  regnes  de   Charles-  traiti,  en  indemnite,  la  souve- 

•Quintetde  Henri  IV  font  epoque  rainete  des  trois  eveches,  Metz, 

pour  certaines  parties  du  droit  Toul  et  Verdun,  ainsi  que  celle 

international  ;  mais  le  point  de  d' Alsace.    La  satisfaction  ou  in- 

depart    le    plus     saillant,    e'est  demnite  des  autres  parties  in- 

la  paix  de  Westphalia.'  Eschbach,  teressees  fut  convenue,  en  grande 

Introduc.   a  V Etude    du   Droit,  partie,  aux  depens  de  l'eglise,  et 

Paris,    1846,   p.    92.     Compare  moyennant  la  secularisation  de 

the  remarks  on  Mably,  in  Biog.  plusieurs  eveches  et  benefices  ec- 

Univ.  vol.  xxvi.  p.  7,  and  Sis-  clesiastiques.'  Koch,  Tableau  des 

mondi,  Hist,  des  Francois,  vol.  Revolutions,  vol.  i.  p.  328. 
3xiv.   p.    179 :    '  base  au  droit 
public  de  l'Europe.' 


42  FRENCH   INTELLECT   PROM   THE 

countries.113  The  truth  of  this  observation  is  confirmed 
by  the  interesting  fact,  that  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  to- 
which  this  same  treaty  put  an  end,  is  the  last  great  re- 
ligious war  which  has  ever  been  waged  ;114  no  civilized 
people,  during  two  centuries,  having  thought  it  worth 
while  to  peril  their  own  safety  in  order  to  disturb  the 
belief  of  their  neighbours.  This,  indeed,  is  but  a  part 
of  that  vast  secular  movement,  by  which  superstition 
has  been  weakened,  and  the  civilization  of  Europe  se- 
cured. "Without,  however,  discussing  that  subject,  I 
will  now  endeavour  to  show  how  the  policy  of  Richelieu, 
in  regard  to  the  French  Protestant  church,  corresponded 
with  his  policy  in  regard  to  the  French  Catholic  church; 
so,  that,  in  both  departments,  this  great  statesman, 
aided  by  that  progress  of  knowledge  for  which  his  age 
was  remarkable,  was  able  to  struggle  with  prejudices 
from  which  men,  slowly  and  with  infinte  difficulty, 
were  attempting  to  emerge. 

The  treatment  of  the  French  Protestants  by  Richelieu 
is,  undoubtedly,  one  of  the  most  honourable  parts  of 
his  system  ;  and  in  it,  as  in  other  liberal  measures,  he 
was  assisted  by  the  course  of  preceding  events.  His  ad- 
ministration, taken  in  connexion  with  that  of  Henry  TV. 
and  the  queen-regent,  presents  the  noble  spectacle  of 
a  toleration  far  more  complete  than  any  which  had 
then  been  seen  in  Catholic  Europe.  While  in  other  Chris- 
tian countries,  men  were  being  incessantly  persecuted, 


,M  Dr.  Vaughan  (Protectorate  m  The    fact    of   the    Thirty 

of  Cromwell,  vol.  i.  p.  civ.)  says :  Years'  War  being  a    religious 

'  It  is  a  leading  fact,  also,  in  the  contest,  formed  the  basis  of  one 

history  of  modern  Europe,  that,  of  the  charges  which  the  church 

from  the  peace  of  Westphalia,  in  party  brought  against  Richelieu : 

1 648,  religion,  as  the  great  object  and  an  author,   ■who   wrote  in 

of  negotiation,  began  everywhere  1 634,  t  montroit  bien  au  long  que 

to  give  place  to  questions  re-  l'alliance  du  roy  de  France  avee 

lating  to  colonies  and  commerce.'  les  protestantes   etoit  contraire 

Charles  Butler    observed,    that  aux  interets  de  la  religion  catho- 

this  treaty  'considerably  lessened  lique  ;   parce  que  la  guerre  des 

the  influence  of  religion  on  poli-  Provinces  Unies,  et  celle  d'Alle- 

tics.'      Butler's     Reminiscences,  magne  etoiont  des  guerres  de  re- 

vol.  i.  p.  181.  ligion.'     Benoist,  Hist,  de  VEdit 

de  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  p.  536. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     43 

simply  because  they  held  opinions  different  from  those 
professed  by  the  established  clergy,  France  refused  to 
follow  the  general  example,  and  protected  those  heretics 
whom  the  church  was  eager  to  punish.  Indeed,  not 
only  were  they  protected,  but,  when  they  possessed 
abilities,  they  were  openly  rewarded.  In  addition  to 
their  appointments  to  civil  offices,  many  of  them  were 
advanced  to  high  military  posts ;  and  Europe  beheld, 
with  astonishment,  the  armies  of  the  king  of  France 
led  by  heretical  generals.  Rohan,  Lesdiguieres,  Cha- 
tillon,  La  Force,  Bernard  de  "Weimar,  were  among  the 
most  celebrated  of  the  military  leaders  employed  by 
Louis  XIII. ;  and  all  of  them  were  Protestants,  as  also 
were  some  younger,  but  distinguished  officers,  such  as 
Grassion,  Rantzau,  Schomberg,  and  Turenne.  For  now, 
nothing  was  beyond  the  reach  of  men  who,  half  a  cen- 
tury earlier,  would,  on  account  of  their  heresies,  have 
been  persecuted  to  the  death.  Shortly  before  the  ac- 
cession of  Louis  XIII.,  Lesdiguieres,  the  ablest  general 
among  the  French  Protestants,  was  made  marshal  of 
France.115  Fourteen  years  later,  the  same  high  dignity 
was  conferred  upon  two  other  Protestants,  Chatillon 
and  La  Force ;  the  former  of  whom  is  said  to  have 
been  the  most  influential  of  the  schismatics.116  Both 
these  appointments  were  in  1622  ;117  and,  in  1634,  still 
greater  scandal  was  caused  by  the  elevation  of  Sully, 
who,  notwithstanding  his  notorious  heresy,  also  re- 
ceived the  staff  of  marshal  of  France.118     This  was  the 


115  According  to  a  contempo-  the   transactions   which   he  de- 

rary,  he  received  this  appoint-  scribes. 

ment  without  having  asked  for        U8  '  II  n'y  avoit  personne  dans 

it :  '  sans  6tre  a  la  cour  ni  l'avoir  le  parti  huguenot  si  considerable 

demandeV    Mem.  de  Fontenay,  que  lui.'     Tallemant  des  Rlaux, 

Mareuil,  vol.  i.  p.  70.    In  1622,  Historiettes,  vol.  v.  p.  204. 
even  the  lieutenants  of  Lesdi-        m  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xv.p.  247; 

guieres  were  Protestants :  '  ses  Benoist,  Hist,  de  VEdit  de  Nantes, 

lieutenants,  qui  estant  tons  hu-  vol.  ii.  p.  400. 
guenots.'    Rid.  vol.  i.  p.  538.        IU  Additions  to  Sidly,  (Econo' 

These  memoirs  are  very  valuable  mies  Royales,  vol.  viii.  p.  496 ; 

in  regard  to  political  and  mili-  Smedley's  Hist,  of  the  Reformed 

tary  matters ;  their  author  hav-  Religion  in  France,  vol.  iii.  p. 


lary  matters ;  tneir  atituor  nav-     iteiu 
ing  played  a  conspicuous  part  in     204. 


44       FBENCH  INTELLECT  FKOM  THE 

work  of  Richelieu,  and  it  gave  serious  offence  to  the 
friends  of  the  church ;  but  the  great  statesman  paid  so 
little  attention  to  their  clamour,  that,  after  the  civil 
war  was  concluded,  he  took  another  step  equally  ob- 
noxious. The  Duke  de  Rohan  was  the  most  active  of 
all  the  enemies  of  the  established  church,  and  was 
looked  up  to  by  the  Protestants  as  the  main  support 
of  their  party.  He  had  taken  up  arms  in  their  favour, 
and,  declining  to  abandon  his  religion,  had,  by  the  fate 
of  war,  been  driven  from  France.  But  Richelieu,  who 
was  acquainted  with  his  ability,  cared  little  about  his 
opinions.  He,  therefore,  recalled  him  from  exile,  em- 
ployed him  in  a  negotiation  with  Switzerland,  and  sent 
him  on  foreign  service,  as  commander  of  one  of  the 
armies  of  the  king  of  France.119 

Such  were  the  tendencies  which  characterized  this 
new  state  of  things.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  observe 
how  beneficial  this  great  change  must  have  been ;  since 
by  it  men  were  encouraged  to  look  to  their  countiy  as 
the  first  consideration,  and,  discarding  their  old  dis- 
putes, Catholic  soldiers  were  taught  to  obey  heretical 
generals,  and  follow  their  standards  to  victory.  In  ad- 
dition to  this,  the  mere  social  amalgamation,  arising 
from  the  professors  of  different  creeds  mixing  in  the 
same  camp,  and  fighting  under  the  same  banner,  must 
have  still  further  aided  to  disarm  the  mind,  partly  by 
merging  theological  feuds  in  a  common,  and  yet  a  tem- 
poral, object,  and  partly  by  showing  to  each  sect,  that 
their  religious  opponents  were  not  entirely  bereft  of 
human  virtue  ;  that  they  still  retained  some  of  the 
qualities  of  men ;  and  that  it  was  even  possible  to  com- 
bine the  errors  of  heresy  with  all  the  capabilities  of  a 
good  and  competent  citizen.120 


Ml  Capefigue's  Richelieu,  vol.  Eohan  took  place  at    different 

ii.  p.  57  ;  Mem.  de  Eohan,  vol.i.  times  between  1632  and  1635. 

pp.  66,    69 ;  Mem.   de  Bassom-  12°  Late  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 

pierre,   toI.   iii.    pp.    324,  348 ;  tury,  Duplessis  Mornay  had  to 

Mem.  de  Montglat,  vol.  i.  p.  86  ;  state  what  was  then  considered 

Le   Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  by  the  majority  of  men  an  in- 

vol.  vii   p.  157,  vol.  viii.  p.  284.  credible  paradox,  '  que  ce  n'cs- 

This  great  rise  in  the  fortunes  of  toit  pas  chose  incompatible  d'es- 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTUET.     45 

But,  while  the  hateful  animosities  by  which  France 
had  long  been  distracted,  were,  under  the  policy  of  Riche- 
lieu, gradually  subsiding,  it  is  singular  to  observe  that, 
though  the  prejudices  of  the  Catholics  obviously  dimi- 
nished, those  of  the  Protestants  seemed,  for  a  time,  to 
retain  all  their  activity.  It  is,  indeed,  a  striking  proof 
of  the  perversity  and  pertinacity  of  such  feelings,  that  it 
was  precisely  in  the  country,  and  at  the  period,  when 
the  Protestants  were  best  treated*  that  they  displayed 
most  turbulence.  And  in  this,  as  in  all  such  cases,  the 
cause  principally  at  work  was  the  influence  of  that  class 
to  which  circumstances,  I  will  now  explain,  had  se- 
cured a  temporary  ascendency. 

For,  the  diminution  of  the  theological  spirit  had  effect- 
ed in  the  Protestants  a  remarkable  but  a  very  natural 
result.  The  increasing  toleration  of  the  French  govern- 
ment had  laid  open  to  their  leaders  prizes  which  before 
they  could  never  have  obtained.  As  long  as  all  offices 
were  refused  to  the  Protestant  nobles,  it  was  natural 
that  they  should  cling  with  the  greater  zeal  to  their  own 
party,  by  whom  alone  their  virtues  were  acknowledged. 
But,  when  the  principle  was  once  recognised,  that  the 
state  would  reward  men  for  their  abilities,  without  re- 
gard to  their  religion,  there  was  introduced  into  every 
sect  a  new  element  of  discord.  The  leaders  of  the  Re- 
formers could  not  fail  to  feel  some  gratitude,  or,  at  all 
events,  some  interest  for  the  government  winch  em- 
ployed them  ;  and  the  influence  of  temporal  consider- 
ations being  thus  strengthened,  the  influence  of  reli- 
gious ties  must  have  been  weakened.  It  is  impossible 
that  opposite  feelings  should  be  paramount,  at  the 
same  moment,  in  the  same  mind.  The  further  men 
extend  their  view,  the  less  they  care  for  each  of  the 
details  of  which  the  view  is  composed.  Patriotism  is 
a  corrective  of  superstition  ;  and  the  more  we  feel  for 
our  country,  the  less  we  feel  for  our  sect.     Thus  it  is, 


tre  bon  huguenot  et bon  Francoys  46,  77,  677,  vol.  vii.  p.  294,  voL 

tout  ensemble.'     Buplessis,  Mem.  xi.  pp.  31,  68  ;  interesting  pas- 

et    Correspond,   vol.  i.    p.   146.  sages  for  the  history  of  opinions 

Compare  p.  213,  vol.  ii.  pp.  45,  in  France. 


46       FBENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

that  in.  the  progress  of  civilization,  the  scope  of  the 
intellect  is  widened ;  its  horizon  is  enlarged ;  its 
sympathies  are  multiplied ;  and,  as  the  range  of  its 
excursions  is  increased,  the  tenacity  of  its  grasp  is 
slackened,  until,  at  length,  it  begins  to  perceive  that 
the  infinite  variety  of  circumstances  necessarily  causes 
an  infinite  variety  of  opinions  ;  that  a  creed,  which  is 
good  and  natural  for  one  man,  may  he  had  and  un- 
natural for  another ;  and  that,  so  far  from  interfering 
with  the  march  of  religious  convictions,  we  should  be 
content  to  look  into  ourselves,  search  our  own  hearts, 
purge  our  own  souls,  soften  the  evil  of  our  Own  passions, 
and  extirpate  that  insolent  and  intolerant  spirit,  which 
is  at  once  the  cause  and  the  effect  of  all  theological 
controversy. 

It  was  in  this  direction,  that  a  prodigious  step  was 
taken  by  the  French  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  advantages  which 
arose  were  accompanied  by  serious  drawbacks.  From 
the  introduction  of  temporal  considerations  among  the 
Protestant  leaders,  there  occurred  two  results  of  con- 
siderable importance.  The  first  result  was,  that  many 
of  the  Protestants  changed  their  religion.  Before  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  they  had  been  constantly  persecuted, 
and  had,  as  constantly,  increased.121  But,  under  the 
tolerant  policy  of  Henry  IV.  and  Louis  XIII.,  they  con- 
tinued to  diminish.122  Indeed,  this  was  the  natural 
consequence  of  the  growth  of  that  secular  spirit  which, 


121  See  Benoist,  Hist,  de  VFdit  testants  diminished  absolutely, 
de  Nantes,  vol.  i.  pp.  10,  14,  18  ;  as  well  as  relatively,  to  the  Ca- 
De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ.  vol.  iii.  pp.  tholics.  In  1598  they  had  760 
181,  242,  357,  358,  543,  558,  churches;  in  1619  only  700. 
vol.  iv.  p.  155;  Eelat.  des  Am-  Smedley's  Hist,  of  the  Beformed 
bassadeurs  Vinitiens,  vol.  i.  pp.  Beligion  in  France,  vol.  iii.  pp. 
412,  536,  vol.  ii.  pp.  66,  74;  46,  145.  De  Thou,  in  the  pre- 
Banke's  Civil  Wars  in  France,  face  to  his  History  (vol.  i.  p. 
vol.  i.  pp.  279,  280,  vol.  ii.  p.  94.  320),   observes,   that  the    Pro- 

122  Compare  Hallam's  Const,  testants  had  increased  during 
Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  173,  with  Banke,  the  wars  carried  on  against 
die  Bbmischen  Pdpste,  vol.  ii.  pp.  them,  but '  diminuoient  en  nom- 
477-479.  In  spite  of  the  in-  bre  et  en  credit  pendant  la 
crease  of  population,  the  Pro-  paix.' 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTUET.     47 

in  every  country,  has  assuaged  religious  animosities. 
For,  by  the  action  of  that  spirit,  the  influence  of  social 
and  political  views  began  to  outweigh  those  theological 
views  to  which  the  minds  of  men  had  long  been  con- 
fined. As  these  temporal  ties  increased  in  strength, 
there  was,  of  course,  generated  among  the  rival  factions 
an  increased  tendency  to  assimilate  ;  while,  as  the  Catho- 
lics were  not  only  much  more  numerous,  but  in  every 
respect,  more  influential,  than  their  opponents,  they 
reaped  the  benefit  of  this  movement,  and  gradually  drew 
over  to  their  side  many  of  their  former  enemies.  That 
this  absorption  of  the  smaller  sect  into  the  larger,  is 
due  to  the  cause  I  have  mentioned,  is  rendered  still 
more  evident  by  the  interesting  fact,  that  the  change 
began  among  the  heads  of  the  party  ;  and  that  it  was 
not  the  inferior  Protestants  who  first  abandoned  their 
leaders,  but  it  was  rather  the  leaders  who  deserted  their 
followers.  This  was  because  the  leaders,  being  more 
educated  than  the  great  body  of  the  people,  were  more 
susceptible  to  the  sceptical  movement,  and  therefore  set 
the  example  of  an  indifference  to  disputes  which  still 
engrossed  the  popular  mind.  As  soon  as  this  indiffer- 
ence had  reached  a  certain  point,  the  attractions  offered 
by  the  conciliating  policy  of  Louis  XIII.  became  irre- 
sistible ;  and  the  Protestant  nobles,  in  particular,  being 
most  exposed  to  political  temptations,  began  to  alienate 
themselves  from  their  own  party,  in  order  to  form  an 
alliance  with  a  court  which  showed  itself  ready  to  reward 
their  merits. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  fix  the  exact  period  at 
which  this  important  change  took  place.123  But  we 
may  say  with  certainty,  that  very  early  in  the  reign  of 


123  M.  Ranke  has  noticed  how  woher  im  Jahr  1621  die  Verluste 

the  French  Protestant  nobles  fell  des  Protestantismus  hauptsach- 

off  from  their  party;  but  he  does  lich  kamen,  so  war  es  die  Ent- 

not  seem  aware  of  the  remote  zweiungderselben,  der  Abfalldes 

causes  of  what  he  deems  a  sud-  Adels.'     Banke,  die  Papste,  vol. 

den  apostasy:  'Indcmnamlichen  ii.  p.  476.     Compare  a  curious 

Momente    trat    nun    auch    die  passage    in    Benoist,    Hist,    de 

grosse  Wendung  der  Dinge  in  VEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  p.  33, 

Frankreich    ein.     Fragen    wir,  from  which  it  appears  that  in 


48 


FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 


Louis  XIII.  many  of  the  Protestant  nobles  cared  nothing* 
for  their  religion,  while  the  remainder  of  them  ceased 
to  feel  that  interest  in  it  which  they  had  formerly  ex- 
pressed. Indeed,  some  of  the  most  eminent  of  them 
openly  abandoned  their  creed,  and  joined  that  very 
church  which  they  had  been  taught  to  abhor  as  the  man 
of  sin,  and  the  whore  of  Babylon.  The  Duke  de  Lesdi- 
guieres,  the  greatest  of  all  the  Protestant  generals,124 
became  a  Catholic,  and,  as  a  reward  for  his  conversion, 
was  made  constable  of  Prance.125  The  Duke  de  la 
Tremouille  adopted  the  same  course  ;126  as  also  did  the 
Duke  de  la  MeHleraye,127  the  Duke  de  Bouillon,128  and 
a  few  years  later  the  Marquis  de  Montausier.129  These 
illustrious  nobles  were  among  the  most  powerful  of  the 
members  of  the  Reformed  communion ;  but  they  quitted 
it  without  compunction,  sacrificing  their  old  associations 


1611  the  French  Protestants 
were  breaking  into  three  parties, 
one  of  which  consisted  of  'les 
seigneurs  d'eminente  qualiteV 

124  'Le  plus  illustre  guerrier 
du  parti  protestant.'  Sismondi, 
Hist,  des  Frangais,  vol.  xxii.  p. 
505.  In  the  contemporary  de- 
spatches of  the  Spanish  ambassa- 
dor, he  is  called  '  l'un  des  hugue- 
nots les  plus  marquans,  homme 
d'un  grand  poids,  et  d'un  grand 
creait.'  Capejigue's  Bichelieu, 
voL  i.  p.  60.  His  principal  in- 
fluence was  in  Dauphine.  Be- 
noist,  Hist,  de  VEdit  de  Nantes, 
vol.  i.  p.  236. 

125  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxiv.  p. 
293 ;  and  a  dry  remark  on  his 
'  conversion'  in  Mem.  de  Biche- 
lieu, vol.  ii.  p.  215,  which  may 
be  compared  with  (Euvres  de 
Voltaire,  vol.  xviii.  p.  1 32,  and 
Bazin,  Hist,  de  Louis  XUI,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  195-197.  Eohan  {Mem. 
vol.  i.  p.  228)  plainly  says,  •  le 
ducdeLesidiguilres.ayant  hard6 
sa  religion  pour  la  charge  de  con- 


notable  de  France.'  See  also  p. 
91,  and  Mem.  deMontglat,  vol.  i. 
p.  37. 

126  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Fran- 
gais, vol.  xxiii.  p.  67  ;  Le  Vassor, 
Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  v.  pp. 
809,  810,  865. 

127  Tallemant  des  Beaux,  His- 
toriettes,  vol.  iii.  p.  43.  La 
Meilleraye  was  also  a  duke  ;  and 
what  is  far  more  in  his  favour, 
he  was  a  friend  of  Descartes. 
Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxviii.  pp.  152, 
153. 

128  Sismondi  (Hist,  des  Fran- 
gais, vol.  xxiii.  p.  27)  says,  '  il 
abjura  en  1637  ;'  but  according 
to  Benoist  (Hist,  de  VEdit  de 
Nantes,  vol.  ii.  p.  550)  it  was  in 
1635. 

129  Tallemant  des  Beaux,  His- 
toriettes,  vol.  iii.  p.  245.  Des 
Eeaux,  who  saw  these  changes 
constantly  happening,  simply 
observes,  '  notre  marquis,  voyant 
que  sa  religion  etoit  un  obstacle 
a  son  dessein,  en  change.' 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTUET.     49 

in  favour  of  the  opinions  professed  by  the  state.  Among 
the  other  men  of  high  rank,  who  still  remained  nomi- 
nally connected  with  the  French  Protestants,  we  find  a 
similar  spirit.  We  find  them  lukewarm  respecting 
matters,  for  which,  if  they  had  been  born  fifty  years 
earlier,  they  would  have  laid  down  their  lives.  The 
Marechal  de  Bouillon,  who  professed  himself  to  be  a 
Protestant,  was  unwilling  to  change  his  religion  ;  but 
he  so  comported  himself  as  to  show  that  he  considered 
its  interests  as  subordinate  to  political  considerations.130 
A  similar  remark  has  been  made  by  the  French 
historians  concerning  the  Duke  de  Sully  and  the 
Marquis  de  Chatillon,  both  of  whom,  though  they  were 
members  of  the  Reformed  church,  displayed  a  marked 
indifference  to  those  theological  interests  which  had 
formerly  been  objects  of  supreme  importance.131  The 
result  was,  that  when,  in  1621,  the  Protestants  began 
their  civil  war  against  the  government,  it  was  found 
that  of  all  their  great  leaders,  two  only,  Rohan  and  his 
brother  Soubise,  were  prepared  to  risk  their  lives  in 
support  of  their  religion.132 


1,0  '  Mettoit  la  politique  avant  vol.  xii.  p.  79,   182,  263,   287, 

la    religion.'      Sismondi,    Hist.  345,  361,  412,  505. 

des  Francais,  vol.  xxii.  p.  264.  m  Bcnoist,  Hist,  de  VEdit  de 

This  was  Henry  Bouillon,  whom  Nantes,  vol.    i.    pp.    121,    298, 

some  writers  have  confused  with  vol.  ii.  pp.   5,    180,   267,    341; 

Frederick    Bouillon.     Both   of  Capejigue's  Richelieu,    vol.  i.  p. 

them  were   dukes ;  but  Henry,  267 ;   Felice's  Hist,  of  the  Pro- 

who  was  the  father,   and  who  testants  of  France,  p.  206.    Sully 

did  not  actually  change  his  re-  advised    Henry    IV.,    on   mere 

ligion,  was  the  marshal.     The  political  considerations,    to    be- 

following   notices   of   him    will  come  a  Catholic  ;  and  there  were 

more  than  confirm  the  remark  strong,  but  I  believe  unfounded 

made  by    Sismondi;   Mem.    de  rumours,  that  he  himself  intended 

Bassompierrc,    vol.    i.    p.   455 ;  taking    the    same   course.     See 

Smedley's  Reformed  Religion  in  Sully,  (Economies  Royales,  vol.  ii. 

France,   vol.  iii.    p.  99 ;    Cape-  p.  81,  vol.  vii.  pp.  362,  363. 

figue's  Richelieu,  vol.  i.  p.  107;  1K  'There    were,    among   all 

Le  Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  the   leaders,   but  the   Duke  do 

vol.  ii.  pp.  420,  467,  664,  vol.  iv.  Eohan  and  his  brother  the  Duke 

p.  519;  Mem.  de  Richelieu,  vol.  i.  de  Soubise,  who  showed  them- 

p.  104,  vol.  ii.  p.  259  ;  Mem.  de  selves  disposed   to  throw  their 

Duplessis  Mornay,  vol.  xi.  p.  450,  whole    fortunes    into    the   new 

VOL.  II.  E 


50 


FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 


Thus  it  was.  that  the  first  great  consequence  of  the 
tolerating  policy  of  the  French  government  was  to  de- 
prive the  Protestants  of  the  support  of  their  former  lead- 
ers, and,  in  several  instances,  even  to  turn  their  sympa- 
thies on- the  side  of  the  Catholic  church.  But  the  other 
consequence,  to  which  I  have  alluded,  was  one  of  far 
greater  moment.  The  growing  indifference  of  the 
higher  classes  of  Protestants  threw  the  management 
of  their  party  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy.  The  post, 
which  was  deserted  by  the  secular  leaders,  was  naturally 
seized  by  the  spiritual  leaders.  And  as,  in  every  sect, 
the  clergy,  as  a  body,  have  always  been  remarkable  for 
their  intolerance  of  opinions  different  to  their  own,  it 
followed,  that  this  change  infused  into  the  now  mutilated 
ranks  of  the  Protestants  an  acrimony  not  inferior  to 
that  of  the  worst  times  of  the  sixteenth  century.133 
Hence  it  was,  that  by  a  singular,  but  perfectly  natural 
combination,  the  Protestants,  who  professed  to  take 
their  stand  on  the  right  of  private  judgment,  became, 


wars  of  religion.'  Felice's  Hist, 
of  the  Protestants  of  France,  p. 
241.  For  this,  M.  Felice,  as 
usual,  quotes  no  authority;  but 
Rohan  himself  says  :  '  C'est  ce 
qui  s'est  passe"  en  cette  seconde 
guerre  (1626),  ou  Eohan  et 
Soubise  ont  eu  pour  contraires 
tous  les  grands  de  la  religion  de 
France.'  Mem.  de  Rohan,  vol.  i. 
p.  278.  Eohan  claims  great 
merit  for  his  religious  sincerity ; 
though,  from  a  passage  in  Mem. 
de  Fontenay  Mareuil,  vol.  i.  p. 
418,  and  another  in  Benoist, 
Hist,  de  FEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii. 
p.  173,  one  may  be  allowed  to 
doubt  if  he  were  so  single-minded 
as  is  commonly  supposed. 

133  Sismondi  notices  this  re- 
markable change;  though  he 
places  it  a  few  years  earlier  than 
the  contemporary  writers  do: 
'  Depuis  que  les  grands  seigneurs 
s'etoient    eloigned    des    eglises, 


c'eloient  les  ministres  qui  etoient 
devenus  les  chefs,  les  represen- 
tans  et  les  demagogues  des  hu- 
guenots ;  et  ils  apportoient  dans 
leurs  deliberations  cette  aprete 
et  cette  inflexibilite  theologiques 
qui  semblent  caraeteriser  les  pre- 
tres  de  toutes  les  religions,  et 
qui  donnent  a,  leurs  haines  une 
amertume  plus  offensante.'  Sis- 
mondi, Hist,  des  Frangais,  vol. 
xxii.  p.  87.  Compare  p.  478.  In 
1621,  '  Eohan  lui-meme  voyait 
continuellement  ses  operations 
contraries  par  le  conseil-g£n£- 
ral  des  eglises.'  Lavallee,  Hist, 
des  Frangais,  vol.  iii.  p.  88.  In 
the  same  year,  M.  Capefigue 
{Richelieu,  vol.  i.  p.  271)  says, 
'Le  parti  modern  cessa  d' avoir 
action  sur  le  preche  ;  la  direction 
des  forces .  huguenotes  6tait  pas- 
see  dans  les  mains  des  ardente, 
conduits  par  les  ministres.' 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.     51 

early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  more  intolerant  than 
the  Catholics,  who  based  their  religion  on  the  dictates 
of  an  infallible  ehurch. 

This  is  one  of  the  many  instances  which  show  how 
superficial  is  the  opinion  of  those  speculative  writers, 
who  believe  that  the  Protestant  religion  is  necessarily 
more  liberal  than  the  Catholic.  If  those  who  adopt 
this  view  had  taken  the  pains  to  study  the  history  of 
Europe  in  its  original  sources,  they  would  have  learned, 
that  the  liberality  of  every  sect  depends,  not  at  all  on 
its  avowed  tenets,  but  on  the  circumstances  in  which  it 
is  placed,  and  on  the  amount  of  authority  possessed  by 
its  priesthood.  The  Protestant  religion  is,  for  the  most 
part,  more  tolerant  than  the  Catholic,  simply  because 
the  events  which  have  given  rise  to  Protestantism  have 
at  the  same  time  increased  the  play  of  the  intellect,  and 
therefore  lessened  the  power  of  the  clergy.  But  who- 
ever has  read  the  works  of  the  great  Calvinist  divines, 
and  above  all,  whoever  has  studied  their  history,  must 
know,  that  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
the  desire  of  persecuting  their  opponents  burnt  as  hotly 
among  them,  as  it  did  among  any  of  the  Catholics  even 
in  the  worst  days  of  the  papal  dominion.  This  is  a  mere 
matter  of  fact,  of  which  any  one  may  satisfy  himself,  by 
consulting  the  original  documents  of  those  times.  And 
even  now,  there  is  more  superstition,  more  bigotry,  and 
less  of  the  charity  of  real  religion,  among  the  lower 
order  of  Scotch  Protestants,  than  there  is  among  the 
lower  order  of  French  Catholics.  Yet  for  one  intolerant 
passage  in  Protestant  theology,  it  would  be  easy  to 
point  out  twenty  in  Catholic  theology.  The  truth,  how- 
ever, is,  that  the  actions  of  men  are  governed,  not  by 
dogmas,  and  text-books,  and  rubrics,  but  by  the 
opinions  and  habits  of  their  contemporaries,  by  the 
general  spirit  of  their  age,  and  by  the  character  of  those 
classes  who  are  in  the  ascendant.  This  seems  to  be  the 
origin  of  that  difference  between  religious  theory  and 
religious  practice,  of  which  theologians  greatly  complain 
as  a  stumbling-block  and  an  evil.  For,  religious  theo- 
ries being  preserved  in  books,  in  a  doctrinal  and  dog- 
matic form,  remain  a  perpetual  witness,  and,  therefore, 
b2 


52       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

cannot  be  changed  -without  incurring  the  obvious  charge 
of  inconsistency,  or  of  heresy.  But  the  practical  part 
of  every  religion,  its  moral,  political,  and  social  work- 
ings, embrace  such  an  immense  variety  of  interests,  and 
have  to  do  with  such  complicated  and  shifting  agencies, 
that  it  is  hopeless  to  fix  them  by  formularies :  they, 
even  in  the  most  rigid  systems,  are  left,  in  a  great  mea- 
sure, to  private  discretion ;  and,  being  almost  entirely 
unwritten,  they  lack  those  precautions  by  which  the 
permanence  of  dogmas  is  effectually  secured. 134  Hence 
it  is,  that  while  the  religious  doctrines  professed  by  a 
people  in  their  national  creed  are  no  criterion  of  their 
civilization,  their  religious  practice  is,  on  the  other 
hand,  so  pliant  and  so  capable  of  adaptation  to  social 
wants,  that  it  forms  one  of  the  best  standards  by  which 
the  spirit  of  any  age  can  be  measured. 

It  is  on  account  of  these  things,  that  we  ought  not 
to  be  surprised  that,  during  many  years,  the  French 
Protestants,  who  affected  to  appeal  to  the  right  of 
private  judgment,  were  more  intolerant  of  the  exercise 
of  that  judgment  by  their  adversaries  than  were  the 


134  The  church  of  Home  has  pp.  6,  7,  241) ;  and  their  prefer- 
always  seen  this,  and  on  that  ence  of  dogmas  to  moral  truths 
account  has  been,  and  still  is,  is  also  mentioned  by  M.  C. 
very  pliant  in  regard  to  morals,  Comte,  Traite  de  Legislat.  vol.  i. 
and  very  inflexible  in  regard  to  p.  245 ;  and  is  alluded  to  by 
dogmas  ;  a  striking  proof  of  the  Kant  in  his  comparison  of  '  ein 
great  sagacity  with  which  her  moralischer  Katechismus'  with 
affairs  are  administered.  In  a  '  Religionskatechismus.'  Die 
Blanco  White's  Evidence  against  Metaphysik  der  Sitten  (Ethische 
Catholicism,  p.  48,  and  in  Parr's  Methodenlehre),  in  Kant's  Werke, 
Works,  vol.  vii.  pp.  454,  455,  vol.  v.  p.  321.  Compare  Tern- 
there  is  an  unfavourable  and,  pie's  Observations  upon  the  Uni- 
indeed,  an  unjust  notice  of  this  ted  Provinces,  in  Works  of  Sir 
peculiarity,  which,  though  strong-  W.  Temple,  vol.  i.  p.  154,  with 
ly  marked  in  the  Eomish  church,  the  strict  adhesion  to  formularies 
is  by  no  means  confined  to  it,  noticed  in  Wards  Ideal  Church, 
but  is  found  in  every  religious  p.  358 ;  and  analogous  cases  in 
sect  which  is  regularly  organized.  Mill's  Hist,  of  India,  vol.  i.  pp. 
Locke,  in  his  Letters  on  Tolera-  399,  400,  and  in  Wilkinson's 
tion,  observes,  that  the  clergy  are  Ancient  Egyptians,  vol.  iii.  p.  87 ; 
naturally  more  eager  against  error  also  Combe's  Notes  on  the  United 
than  against  vice  (  Works,  vol.  v.  States,  vol.  iii.  pp.  256,  257. 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTUET.     58 

Catholics ;  although  the  Catholics,  by  recognising  an 
infallible  church,  ought,  in  consistency,  to  be  super- 
stitious, and  may  be  said  to  inherit  intolerance  as  their 
natural  birthright.135  Thus,  while  the  Catholics  were 
theoretically  more  bigoted  than  the  Protestants,  the 
Protestants  became  practically  more  bigoted  than  the 
Catholics.  The  Protestants  continued  to  insist  upon 
that  right  of  private  judgment  in  religion,  which 
the  Catholics  continued  to  deny.  Yet,  such  was  the 
force  of  circumstances,  that  each  sect,  in  its  practice, 
contradicted  its  own  dogma,  and  acted  as  if  it  had  em- 
braced the  dogma  of  its  opponents.  The  cause  of  this 
change  was  very  simple.  Among  the  Prench,  the  theo- 
logical spirit,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  decaying ; 
and  the  decline  of  the  influence  of  the  clergy  was,  as 
invariably  happens,  accompanied  by  an  increase  of 
toleration.  But,  among  the  French  Protestants,  this 
partial  diminution  of  the  theological  spirit  had  pro- 
duced different  consequences  ;  because  it  had  brought 
about  a  change  of  leaders,  which  threw  the  command  into 
the  hands  of  the  clergy,  and,  by  increasing  their  power, 
provoked  a  reaction,  and  revived  those  very  feelings  to 
the  decay  of  which  the  reaction  owed  its  origin.  This 
seems  to  explain  how  it  is,  that  a  religion,  which  is 
not  protected  by  the  government,  usually  displays 
greater  energy  and  greater  vitality  than  one  which  is 
so  protected.  In  the  progress  of  society,  the  theolo- 
gical spirit  first  declines  among  the  most  educated 
classes ;  and  then  it  is  that  the  government  can  step 
in,  as  it  does  in  England,  and,  controlling  the  clergy, 
make  the  church  a  creature  of  the  state ;  thus  weak- 
ening the  ecclesiastical  element  by  tempering  it  with 
secular  considerations.  But,  when  the  state  refuses  to 
do  this,  the  reins  of  power,  as  they  fall  from  the  hands 
of  the  upper  classes,  are  seized  by  the  clergy,  and  there 

134  Blanco  White  (Evidence  not  of  sincerity,  but  of  consis- 
against  Catholicism,  p.  vi.)  harsh-  tency.  A  sincere  Eoman  Catho- 
ly  says,  '  sincere  Eoman  Catho-  lie  may  be,  and  often  is,  con- 
lies  cannot  conscientiously  be  scientiously  tolerant;  a  consistent 
tolerant.  But  he  is  certainly  Eoman  Catholic,  never, 
mistaken;  for  the  question  is  one, 


54       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

arises  a  state  of  tilings  of  which,  the  French  Protestants 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  the  Irish  Catholics  in 
our  own  time,  form  the  best  illustration.  In  such  cases, 
it  will  always  happen,  that  the  religion  which  is  tole- 
rated by  the  government,  though  not  fully  recognised 
by  it,  will  the  longest  retain  its  vitality ;  because  its 
priesthood,  neglected  by  the  state,  must  cling  closer  to 
the  people,  in  whom  alone  is  the  source  of  their  power.136 
On  the  other  hand,  in  a  religion  which  is  favoured  and 
richly  endowed  by  the  state,  the  union  between  the 
priesthood  and  inferior  laity  will  be  less  intimate  ;  the 
clergy  will  look  to  the  government  as  well  as  to  the 
people ;  and  the  interference  of  political  views,  of  con- 
siderations of  temporal  expediency,  and,  if  it  may  be 
added  without  irreverence,  the  hopes  of  promotion 
will  secularize  the  ecclesiastical  spirit,137  and,  according 
to  the  process  I  have  already  traced,  will  thus  hasten 
the  march  of  toleration. 

These  generalizations,  which  account  for  a  great 
part  of  the  present  superstition  of  the  Irish  Catholics, 
will  also  account  for  the  former  superstition  of  the 
French  Protestants.  In  both  cases,  the  government 
disdaining  the  supervision  of  an  heretical  religion, 
allowed  supreme  authority  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
priesthood,  who  stimulated  the  bigotry  of  men,  and 

136  yfe  ajso  see  this  very  137  Kespecting  the  working  of 
clearly  in  England,  where  the  this  in  England,  there  are  some 
dissenting  clergy  have  much  shrewd  remarks  made  by  Le 
more  influence  among  their  Blanc  in  his  Lettres  cPun  Fran- 
hearers  than  the  clergy  of  the  gais,  vol.  i.  pp.  267,  268 ;  which 
Establishment  have  among  theirs,  may  be  compared  with  Lord 
This  has  often  been  noticed  by  Holland's  Mem.  of  the  Wliig 
impartial  observers,  and  we  are  Party,  vol.  ii.  p.  253,  where  it  is 
now  possessed  of  statistical  proof  suggested,  that  in  the  case  of 
that  '  the  great  body  of  Pro-  complete  emancipation  of  the 
testant  dissenters  are  more  as-  Catholics,  '  eligibility  to  worldly 
siduous'  in  attending  religious  honours  and  profits  would  some- 
worship  than  churchmen  are.  what  abate  the  fever  of  religious 
See  a  valuable  essay  by  Mr.  zeal.'  On  this,  there  are  obser- 
Mann  On  the  Statistical  Position  vations  worth  attending  to  in 
of  Religious  Bodies  in  England  Lord  Cloncurry's  Recollections, 
and  Wales,  in  Journal  of  Statist.  Dublin,  1849,  pp.  342,  343. 
Soc.  vol.  xviii.  p.  152. 


SIXTEENTH   TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTTJET.     55 

encouraged  them  in  a  hatred  of  their  opponents.  What 
the  results  of  this  are  in  Ireland,  is  best  known  to  those 
•of  our  statesmen,  who,  with  unusual  candour,  have  de- 
clared Ireland  to  he  their  greatest  difficulty.  What 
the  results  were  in  France,  we  will  now  endeavour  to 
ascertain. 

The  conciliating  spirit  of  the  French  government 
having  drawn  over  to  its  side  some  of  the  most  emi- 
nent of  the  French  Protestants,  and  having  disarmed 
the  hostility  of  others,  the  leadership  of  the  party  fell, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  into  the  hands  of  those  inferior 
men,  who  displayed  in  their  new  position  the  intole- 
rance characteristic  of  their  order.  Without  pretending 
to  write  a  history  of  the  odious  feuds  that  now  arose, 
I  will  lay  before  the  reader  some  evidence  of  their  in- 
creasing bitterness  ;  and  I  will  point  out  a  few  of  the 
steps  by  which  the  angry  feelings  of  religious  contro- 
versy became  so  inflamed,  that  at  length  they  kindled 
a  civil  war,  which  nothing  but  the  improved  temper 
of  the  Catholics  prevented  from  being  as  sanguinary 
as  were  the  horrible  struggles  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
For,  when  the  French  Protestants  became  governed 
by  men  whose  professional  habits  made  them  consider 
heresy  to  be  the  greatest  of  crimes,  there  naturally 
sprung  up  a  missionary  and  proselytizing  spirit,  which, 
induced  them  to  interfere  with  the  religion  of  the  Ca- 
tholics, and,  under  the  old  pretence  of  turning  them 
from  the  error  of  their  ways,  revived  those  animosities 
which  the  progress  of  knowledge  tended  to  appease. 
And  as,  under  such  guidance,  these  feelings  quickly 
increased,  the  Protestants  soon  learned  to  despise  that 
great  Edict  of  Nantes,  by  which  their  liberties  were 
secured ;  and  they  embarked  in  a  dangerous  contest, 
in  which  their  object  was,  not  to  protect  their  own 
religion,  but  to  weaken  the  religion  of  that  very  party 
to  whom  they  owed  a  toleration,  which  had  been  re- 
luctantly conceded  by  the  prejudices  of  the  age. 

It  was  stipulated,  in  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  that  the 
Protestants  should  enjoy  the  full  exerciso  of  their  reli- 
gion ;  and  this  right  they  continued  to  possess  until  the 
reign  of  Louis  XI V.     To  this  there  were  added  several 


56       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

other  privileges,  such  as  no  Catholic  Government,  ex- 
cept that  of  France,  would  then  have  granted  to  its 
heretical  subjects.  But  these  things  did  not  satisfy  the 
desires  of  the  Protestant  clergy.  They  were  not  con- 
tent to  exercise  their  own  religion,  unless  they  could 
also  trouble  the  religion  of  others.  Their  first  step  was, 
to  call  upon  the  government  to  limit  the  performance 
of  those  rites  which  the  French  Catholics  had  long 
revered  as  emblems  of  the  national  faith.  For  this  pur- 
pose, directly  after  the  death  of  Henry  TV.  they  held 
a  great  assembly  at  Saumur,  in  which  they  formally 
demanded  that  no  Catholic  processions  should  be 
allowed  in  any  town,  place,  or  castle  occupied  by  the 
Protestants.138  As  the  government  did  not  seem  in- 
clined to  countenance  this  monstrous  pretension,  these 
intolerant  sectaries  took  the  law  into  their  own  hands. 
They  not  only  attacked  the  Catholic  processions 
whorever  they  met  them,  but  they  subjected  the  priests 
to  personal  insults,  and  even  endeavoured  to  prevent 
them  from  administering  the  sacrament  to  the  sick.  If 
a  Catholic  clergyman  was  engaged  in  burying  the  dead, 
the  Protestants  were  sure  to  be  present,  interrupting 
the  funeral,  turning  the  ceremonies  into  ridicule,  and 
attempting,  by  their  clamour,  to  deaden  the  voice  of  the 
minister,  so  that  the  service  performed  in  the  church 
should  not  be  heard.139  ISTor  did  they  always  confine 
themselves  even  to  such  demonstrations  as  these.    For, 

1S8  'Les     processions     catho-  l'administration  des    sacremens 

liques   seraient   interdites  dans  aux  malades;  l'enterrement  des 

toutes  les  places,  villes  et  eha-  morts  avec  les  ceremonies  accou- 

teaux  occupes  par  ceux  de  la  re-  tumees ;  .  .  .  .  que   les   Refor- 

ligion.'     Capefigue's      Richelieu,  mez  s'etoient  emparez  des  cloches 

vol.  i.  p.  39.  en  quelques  lieux,  et  en  d'autres 

139  Of  these  facts  we  have  the  se  servoient  de  celles  des  Catho- 
most  unequivocal  proof;  forthey  liques  pour  avertir  de  l'heure  du 
were  not  only  stated  by  the  Ca-  preche ;  qu'ils  affectoient  defaire 
tholics  in  1623,  but  they  are  re-  du  bruit  autour  des  eglises  pen- 
corded,  without  being  denied,  by  dant  le  service ;  qu'ils  tournoient 
the  Protestant  historian  Benoist:  en  derision  les  ceremonies  de 
*  On  y  aceusoit  les  Reformez  l'eglise  romaine.'  Benoist,  Hist, 
d'injurier  les  pretres,  quand  ils  de  VEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
les  voyoient  passer;  d'empecher  433,  434;  see  also  pp.  149,  150. 
les  processions  des  Cathohques ; 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     57 

certain  towns  having  been,  perhaps  imprudently,  placed 
under  their  control,  they  exercised  their  authority  in 
them  with  the  most  wanton  insolence.  At  La  Rochelle, 
which  for  importance  was  the  second  city  in  the  king- 
dom, they  would  not  permit  the  Catholics  to  have  even 
a  single  church  in  which  to  celebrate  what  for  centuries 
had  been  the  sole  religion  of  France,  and  was  still  the 
religion  of  an  enormous  majority  of  Frenchmen.140 
This,  however,  only  formed  part  of  a  system,  by  which 
the  Protestant  clergy  hoped  to  trample  on  the  rights  of 
their  fellow-subjects.  In  1619,  they  ordered  in  their 
general  assembly  at  Loudun,  that  in  none  of  the  Pro- 
testant towns  should  there  be  a  sermon  preached  by  a 
Jesuit,  or  indeed  by  any  ecclesiastical  person  commis- 
sioned by  a  bishop.141  In  another  assembly,  they  for- 
bade any  Protestant  even  to  be  present  at  a  baptism, 
or  at  a  marriage,  or  at  a  funeral,  if  the  ceremony  was 
performed  by  a  Catholic  priest.142  And,  as  if  to  cut  off 
all  hope  of  reconciliation,  they  not  only  vehemently 
opposed  those  intermarriages  between  the  two  parties, 
by  which,  in  every  Christian  country,  religious  animosi- 
ties have  been  softened,  but  they  publicly  declared,  that 
they  would  withhold  the  sacrament  from  any  parents 
whose  children  were  married  into  a  Catholic  family.143 
Not,  however,  to  accumulate  unnecessary  evidence, 
there  is  one  other  circumstance  worth  relating,  as  a 
proof  of  the  spirit  with  which  these  and  similar  regula- 
tions were  enforced.  When  Louis  XIII.,  in  1620, 
visited  Pau,  he  was  not  only  treated  with  indignity,  as 
being  an  heretical  prince,  but  he  found  that  the  Pro- 
testants had  not  left  him  a  single  church,  not  one  place, 
in  which  the  king  of  France,  in  his  own  territory,  could 

140  'On  pouvait  dire  que  La  (Economies  Boy  ales,  vol.  vii.  p. 
Kochelle  etait  la  capitale,  le  164;  Benoist,  Hist.  de  F Edit  de 
saint  temple  du  calvinisme;  car  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  pp.  70,  233,  279. 
on  ne  voyait  la  aucune  eglise,  142  Quick's  Synodicon  in  Gal~ 
aucune  ceremonie  papiste.'  Cape-  lia,  vol.  ii.  p.  196. 

Ague's  Bichelieu,  vol.  i.  p.  342.  14S  For  a  striking  instance  of 

141  Mini,  de  Bichelieu,  vol.  ii.  the  actual  enforcement  of  this 
p.  100.  For  other  and  similar  intolerant  regulation,  see  Quick's 
evidence,  see  Buplessis  Mornay,  Synodicon  in  Gallia,  vol.  ii.  p. 
Mkmoires,  vol.  xi.  p.  244 ;  Sully,  344. 


58       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

perform  those  devotions  which  he  believed  necessary 
for  his  future  salvation.144 

This  was  the  way  in  which  the  French  Protestants, 
influenced  by  their  new  leaders,  treated  the  first  Catholic 
government  which  abstained  from  persecuting  them; 
the  first  which  not  only  allowed  them  the  free  exercise 
of  their  religion,  but  even  advanced  many  of  them  to 
offices  of  trust  and  of  honour.145  All  this,  however,  was 
only  of  a  piece  with  the  rest  of  their  conduct.  They, 
who  in  numbers  and  in  intellect  formed  a  miserable 
minority  of  the  French  nation,  claimed  a  power  which 
the  majority  had  abandoned,  and  refused  to  concede  to 
others  the  toleration  they  themselves  enjoyed.  Several 
persons,  who  had  joined  their  party,  now  quitted  it, 
and  returned  to  the  Catholic  church  ;  but  for  exercising 
this  undoubted  right,  they  were  insulted  by  the  Pro- 
testant clergy  in  the  grossest  manner,  with  every  term 
of  opprobrium  and  abuse.146  For  those  who  resisted  their 
authority,  no  treatment  was  considered  too  severe.  In 
1612,  Ferrier,  a  man  of  some  reputation  in  his  own  day, 
having  disobeyed  their  injunctions,  was  ordered  to  ap- 
pear before  one  of  their  synods.  The  gist  of  his  offence 
was,  that  he  had  spoken  contemptuously  of  ecclesiastical 
assemblies;  and  to  this  there  were,  of  course,  added 
those  accusations  against  his  moral  conduct,  with  which 
theologians  often  attempt  to  blacken  the  character  of 
their  opponents.147  Readers  of  ecclesiastical  history 
are  too  familiar  with  such  charges  to  attach  any  impor- 
tance to  them ;  but  as,  in  this  case,  the  accused  was 


144  Bazin,  Hist.  deLouis  XIII,  swine  wallowing  in  the  mire  of 
vol.  ii.  p.  124;  Mem.  de  Richelieu,  idolatry.  Quick's   Synodicon  in 
vol.   ii.   pp.   109,    110;   Felice's  Gallia,  vol.  i.  pp.  385,  398. 
Hist.of  the  Protestants  of  France,  14T  It  is  observable,   that  on 
p.  238.  the  first  occasion  (Quick's  Sy- 

145  In  1625,  Howell  writes  nodicon,  vol.  i.  p.  362)  nothing  is 
that  the  Protestants  had  put  up  an  said  of  Terrier's  immorality; 
inscription  on  the  gates  of  Mon-  and  on  the  next  occasion  (p.  449) 
tauban,  *  Koy  sans  foy,  ville  sans  the  synod  complains,  among 
peur.'     Howell's  Letters,  p.  178.  other  things,  that  'he  hath  most 

146  Sometimes  they  were  called  licentiously  inveighed  against, 
dogs  returning  to  the  vomit  of  and  satirically  lampooned,  the 
popery ;    sometimes   they    were  ecclesiastical  assemblies.' 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.     59 

tried  by  men  who  were  at  once  his  prosecutors,  his 
enemies,  and  his  judges,  the  result  was  easy  to  anticipate. 
In  1613  Eerrier  was  excommunicated,  and  the  excom- 
munication was  publicly  proclaimed  in  the  church  of 
Mmes.  In  this  sentence,  which  is  still  extant,  he  is 
declared  by  the  clergy  to  be  '  a  scandalous  man,  a  per- 
son incorrigible,  impenitent  and  ungovernable.'  "We, 
therefore,  they  add,  '  in  the  name  and  power  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  by  the  conduct  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
with  authority  from  the  church,  have  cast,  and  do  now 
cast  and  throw  him  out  of  the  society  of  the  faithful, 
that  he  may  be  delivered  up  unto  Satan.'148 

That  he  may  be  delivered  up  unto  Satan !  This  was 
the  penalty  which  a  handful  of  clergymen,  in  a  corner 
of  France,  thought  they  could  inflict  on  a  man  who 
dared  to  despise  their  authority.  In  our  time  such  an 
anathema  would  only  excite  derision  ;149  but,  early  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  the  open  promulgation  of  it 
was  enough  to  ruin  any  private  person  against  whom  it 
might  be  directed.  And  they  whose  studies  have  en- 
abled them  to  take  the  measure  of  the  ecclesiastical 
spirit  will  easily  believe  that,  in  that  age,  the  threat  did 
not  remain  a  dead  letter.  The  people,  inflamed  by  their 
clergy,  rose  against  Ferrier,  attacked  his  family,  de- 
stroyed his  property,  sacked  and  gutted  his  houses,  and 
demanded  with  loud  cries,  that  the  '  traitor  Judas ' 
should  be  given  up  to  them.  The  unhappy  man,  with 
the  greatest  difficulty,  effected  his  escape ;  but  though 
he  saved  his  life  by  flying  in  the  dead  of  the  night,  he 
was  obliged  to  abandon  for  ever  his  native  town,  as  he 


148  See  this  frightful  and  im-  Gens,  vol.  i.  pp.  177,  178.     In 

pious  document,  in  Quick's  Si/-  England,  the  terrors  of  excom- 

nodicon,  vol.  i.  pp.  448,  450.  munication  fell  into    contempt 

140  The  notion  of  theologians  towards  the  end  of  the  seven- 
respecting  excommunication  may  teenth  century.  See  Life  of 
be  seen  in  Mr.  Palmer's  enter-  Archbishop  Sharpe,  edited  by 
taining  book,  Treatise  on  the  Newcome,  vol.  i.  p.  216:  com- 
Church,  vol.  i.  pp.  64,  67,  vol.  ii.  pare  p.  363 ;  and  see  the  mourn- 
pp.  299,  300 ;  but  the  opinions  ful  remarks  of  Dr.  Mosheim,  in 
of  this  engaging  writer  should  his  Eccles.  Hist.  vol.  ii.  p.  79 ; 
be  contrasted  with  the  indignant  and  Sir  Philip  Warwick 's  Me- 
language  of  Vattel,  Le  Droit  des  inoirs,  pp.  175,  176. 


60       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

dared  not  return  to  a  place  where  he  had  provoked  so 
active  and  so  implacable  a  party.150 

Into  other  matters,  and  even  into  those  connected 
with  the  ordinary  functions  of  government,  the  Pro- 
testants carried  the  same  spirit.  Although  they  formed 
so  small  a  section  of  the  people,  they  attempted  to  con- 
trol the  administration  of  the  crown,  and,  by  the  use 
of  threats,  turn  all  its  acts  to  their  own  favour.  They 
would  not  allow  the  state  to  determine  what  ecclesias- 
tical councils  it  should  recognize ;  they  would  not  even 
permit  the  king  to  choose  his  own  wife.  In  1615, 
without  the  least  pretence  of  complaint,  they  assembled 
in  large  numbers  at  Grenoble  and  at  Mmes.151  The 
deputies  of  Grenoble  insisted  that  government  should 
refuse  to  acknowledge  the  Council  of  Trent  ;152  and 
both  assemblies  ordered  that  the  Protestants  should 
prevent  the  marriage  of  Louis  XIII.  with  a  Spanish 
princess.153  They  laid  similar  claims  to  interfere  with 
the  disposal  of  civil  and  military  offices.  Shortly  after 
the  death  of  Henry  TV.,  they,  in  an  assembly  at  Sau- 
mur,  hasisted  that  Sully  should  be  restored  to  some 
posts  from  which,  in  their  opinion,  he  had  been  un- 
justly removed.154     In  1619,  another  of  their  assem- 


150  On  the  treatment  of  Per-        151  Capefigue's  Bichdieu,  vol. 

rier,  which  excited  great  atten-  i.  p.  123. 

tion  as  indicating  the  extreme        152  Capefgue,  vol.  i.  p.  123 ; 

lengths  to  which  the  Protestants  Basin,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  vol. 

were  prepared  to  go,  see  Mem.  i.    p.    364 ;    Bcnoist,   Hist,    de 

de  Bichdieu,  vol.  i.  p.  177;  Mem.  VEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  p.  183; 

de  Pontchartrain,  vol.  ii.  pp.  5,  6,  Mem.  de  Bohan,  vol.  i.  p.  130. 
12,  29,  32;  Mem.  de  Buplessis        lb3  Capejigue's  Bichdieu,  vol. 

ilforaay.vol.xii.pp. 317, 333,341,  i.p.  124;  Mem.de Pontchartrain, 

350,  389,  399,  430;  Felice's  Hist.  vol.  ii.  p.  100  ;  Le  Vassor,  Hist, 

of  the  Protestants   of  France,  p.  de  Louis  XHI,  vol.  ii.  pp.  333, 

235 ;  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xiv.  p.  440 ;  334.     The  consequence  was,  that 

Tallement  desBeaux,  Historiettes,  the  king  was  obliged  to  send  a 

vol.  v.  pp.  48-54.     Mr.  Smedley,  powerful   escort  to   protect  his 

who  refers  to  none  of  these  au-  bride  against  his  Protestant  sub- 

thorities,  except  two  passages  in  jects.     Mim.  de  Bichdieu,  vol.  i. 

Duplessis,  has  given  a  garbled  p.  274. 

account  of  this  riot.     See  his        IM  Capejigue's  Bichdieu,  vol.  i. 

History  of  the  Beformed  Beligion  p.   38;  Benoist,  Hist,  de  VEdit 

in  France,  vol.  iii.  pp.  119,  120.  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  pp.  28,  29,  63. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.     61 

blies  at  Loudun  declared,  that  as  one  of  the  Protestant 
councillors  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris  had  become  a 
Catholic,  he  must  be  dismissed ;  and  they  demanded 
that,  for  the  same  reason,  the  government  of  Lectoure 
should  be  taken  from  Fontrailles,  he  also  having 
adopted  the  not  infrequent  example  of  abandoning  his 
sect  in  order  to  adopt  a  creed  sanctioned  by  the  state.155 
By  way  of  aiding  all  this,  and  with  the  view  of  ex- 
asperating still  further  religious  animosities,  the  prin- 
cipal Protestant  clergy  put  forth  a  series  of  works, 
which,  for  bitterness  of  feeling,  have  hardly  ever  been 
equalled,  and  which  it  would  certainly  be  impossible  to 
surpass.  The  intense  hatred  with  which  they  regarded 
their  Catholic  countrymen  can  only  be  fully  estimated 
by  those  who  have  looked  into  the  pamphlets  written 
by  the  French  Protestants  during  the  first  half  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  or  who  have  read  the  laboured 
and  formal  treatises  of  such  men  as  Chamier,  Drelin- 
court,  Moulin,  Thomson,  and  Vignier.  Without,  how- 
ever, pausing  on  these,  it  will  perhaps  be  thought  suffi- 
cient if,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  I  follow  the  mere 
outline  of  political  events.  Great  numbers  of  the  Pro- 
testants had  joined  in  the  rebellion  which,  in  1615, 
was  raised  by  Conde  ;156  and,  although  they  were  then 
easily  defeated,  they  seemed  bent  on  trying  the  issue 
of  a  fresh  struggle.  In  Beam,  where  they  were  unu- 
sually numerous,157  they,  even  during  the  reign  of 
Henry  IV.,  had  refused  to  tolerate  the  Catholic  reli- 


155  Mem.  de  Fontenay  Mareuil,  that  their  privileges,  so  far  from 

vol.  i.  p.  450;  Mem.  de  Bassom-  being  diminished  since  the  Edict 

pierre,  vol.  ii.  p.    161.    See  a  of  Nantes,  had  been  confirmed 

similar  instance,  in  the  case  of  and  extended. 

Berger,    in    Benoist,    Hist,    de  '"  M.  Felice  (Hist,  of  the  Pro- 

VEditde  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  p.  136,  testants  of  France,  p.  237)  says 

whom  the  Protestants  sought  to  of  Lower  Navarre  and  Beam,  in 

deprive  because  'il  avoit  quitte  1617:  '  Three-fourthB  of  the  po- 

leur  religion.'  pulation,  some  say  nine-tenths, 

158  Basin,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  belonged  to  the  reformed  com- 
vol.  i.  p.  381.  Sismondi  (Hist,  munion.'  This  is  perhaps  over- 
sea Frangais,  vol.  xxii.  p.  349)  estimated ;  but  wo  know,  from 
says  that  they  had  no  good  rea-  De  Thou,  that  they  formed  a 
uon  for  this;  and  it  is  certain  majority  in  Beam  in  1566:  'Lea 


62       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

gion;  'their  fanatical  clergy,'  says  the  historian  of 
France,  '  declaring  that  it  would  be  a  crime  to  permit 
the  idolatry  of  the  mass.'168  This  charitable  maxim 
they  for  many  years  actively  enforced,  seizing  the 
property  of  the  Catholic  clergy,  and  employing  it  in 
support  of  their  own  churches  ;159  so  that,  while  in  one 
part  of  the  dominions  of  the  king  of  France  the  Pro- 
testants were  allowed  to  exercise  their  religion,  they, 
in  another  part  of  his  dominions,  prevented  the  Ca- 
tholics from  exercising  theirs.  It  was  hardly  to  be 
expected  that  any  government  would  suffer  such  an 
anomaly  as  this  ;  and,  in  1618,  it  was  ordered  that  the 
Protestants  should  restore  the  plunder,  and  reinstate 
the  Catholics  in  their  former  possessions.  But  the  re- 
formed clergy,  alarmed  at  so  sacrilegious  a  proposal, 
appointed  a  public  fast,  and  inspiriting  the  people  to 
resistance,  forced  the  royal  commissioner  to  fly  from 
Pau,  where  he  had  arrived  in  the  hope  of  effecting  a 
peaceful  adjustment  of  the  claims  of  the  rival  parties.160 
The  rebellion  thus  raised  by  the  zeal  of  the  Protest- 
ants, was  soon  put  down;  but,  according  to  the  con- 
fession of- Rohan,  one  of  the  ablest  of  their  leaders,  it 
was  the  beginning  of  all  their  misfortunes.161  The 
sword  had  now  been  drawn  ;  and  the  only  question  to 

Protestans   y  fussent    en    plus  Louis  XIII,  vol.   ii.  pp.    62-64. 

grand   nombre  que   les   Catho-  The  pith  of  the   question  was, 

Hques.'    Be  Thou,   Hist.   Univ.  that    '  l'edit  de    Nantes    ayant 

vol.  v.  p.  187.  donne  pouvoir,  tant  aux  catho- 

158  '  Les  ministres  fanatiques  hques  qu'aux  huguenots,  de  ren- 
declaroient  qu'ils  ne  pouvaient  trer  partout  dans  leurs  biens,  les 
sans  crime  souffrir  dans  ce  pays  ecclesiastiques  de  Beam  deman- 
regenere  l'idolatrie  de  la  messe.'  derent  aussytost  les  leurs.'  Mem. 
Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Frangais,  de  Fontenay  Mareuil,  voL  i.  p. 
vol.  xxii.  p.  415.  392. 

159  Notice  sur  les  Memoires  de  161  '  L'affaire  de  Beam,  source 
Rohan,  vol.  i.  p.  26.  Compare  de  tous  nos  maux.'  Mem.  de 
the  account  given  by  Pontchar-  Rohan,  vol.  i.  p.  156;  see  also 
train,  who  was  one  of  the  minis-  p.  183.  And  the  Protestant  Le 
ters  of  Louis  XIII.  Mem.  de  Vassor  says  (Hist,  de  Louis  XIII, 
Pontchartrain,  vol.  ii.  pp.  248,  vol.  iii.  p.  634) :  '  L'affaire  du 
264 ;  and  see  Mem.  de  Richelieu,  Beam  et  l'assemblee  qui  se  con- 
vol.  i.  p.  443.  voqua  ensuite  a,  la  Eochelle,  sont 

160  Bazin,  Hist,  de  France  sous  la  source  veritable  des  malheura 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     63 


be  decided  was,  whether  France  should  be  governed 
according  to  the  principles  of  toleration  recently  esta- 
blished, or  according  to  the  maxims  of  a  despotic  sect, 
which,  while  professing  to  advocate  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  was  acting  in  a  way  that  rendered  all  private 
judgment  impossible. 

Scarcely  was  the  war  in  Beam  brought  to  an  end, 
when  the  Protestants  determined  on  making  a  great 
effort  in  the  west  of  France.162  The  seat  of  this  new 
struggle  was  Rochelle,  which  was  one  of  the  strongest 
fortresses  in  Europe,  and  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of 
the  Protestants,163  who  had  grown  wealthy,  partly  by 
their  own  industry  and  partly  by  following  the  occu- 
pation of  public  pirates.164  In  this  city,  which  they 
believed  to  be  impregnable,165  they,  in  December,  1620, 
held  a  Great  Assembly,  to  which  their  spiritual  chiefs 
flocked  from  all  parts  of  France.  It  was  soon  evident 
that  their  party  was  now  governed  by  men  who  were 
bent  on  the  most  violent  measures.   Their  great  secular 


des  eglises  reformees  de  France 
sous  le  regne  dont  j'ecris  l'his- 
toire.' 

162  On  the  connexion  between 
the  proceedings  of  Beam  and 
those  of  Kochelle,  compare  Mem. 
de  Montglat,  vol.  i.  p.  33,  with 
Mem.  de  Richelieu,  vol.  ii.  p.  113, 
and  Mem.  de  Rohan,  vol.  i.  p.  446. 

163  Their  first  church  was  es- 
tablished in  1556  (Ranke's  Civil 
Wars  in  France,  vol.  i.  p.  360) ; 
but,  by  the  reign  of  Charles  IX. 
the  majority  of  the  inhabitants 
were  Protestants.  See  Be  Thou, 
Hist.  Univ.  vol.  iv.  p.  263,  vol. 
v.  p.  379,  ad.  ann.  1562  and 
1567. 

184  Or,  as  M.  Capefigue  cour- 
teously puts  it,  '  les  Kochelois 
ne  respectaient  pas  toujours  les 
pavilions  amis.'  Capefigue' s  Riche- 
lieu, vol.  i.  p.  332.  A  delicate 
circumlocution,  unknown  to 
Mezeray,    who    says   (Hist,    de 


France,  vol.  iii.  p.  426)  in  1587: 
'  et  les  Kochelois,  qui  par  le 
moyen  du  commerce  et  de  In 
piraterie,'  &c. 

165  '  Ceste  place,  que  les  hugue- 
nots tenoient  quasy  pour  impre- 
nable.'  MSm.  de  Fontenay  Ma- 
reuil,  vol.  i.  p.  512.  '  Cette  or- 
gueilleuse  cite,  qui  se  croyoit 
imprenable.'  Mem  de  Montglat, 
vol.  i.  p.  45.  Howell,  who 
visited  Kochelle  in  1620  and 
1622,  was  greatly  struck  by  its 
strength.  HowelVs  Letters,  pp. 
46,  47,  108.  At  p.  204,  he 
calls  it,  in  his  barbarous  style, 
'  the  chiefest  propugnacle  of  the 
Protestants  there.'  For  a  de- 
scription of  the  defences  of  Ko- 
chelle, see  De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ. 
vol.  vi.  pp.  615-617 ;  and  some 
details  worth  consulting  in  Meze- 
ray, Hist,  de  France,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
977-980. 


64 


FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 


leaders  were,  as  we  have  already  seen,  gradually  falling 
off;  and,  by  this  time,  there  only  remained  two  of  much 
ability,  Rohan  and  Mornay,  both  of  whom  saw  the  in- 
expediency of  their  proceedings,  and  desired  that  the 
assembly  should  peaceably  separate.166  But  the  autho- 
rity of  the  clergy  was  irresistible  ;  and,  by  their  prayers 
and  exhortations,  they  easily  gained  over  the  ordinary 
citizens,  who  were  then  a  gross  and  uneducated  body.167 
Under  their  influence,  the  Assembly  adopted  a  course 
which  rendered  civil  war  inevitable.  Their  first  act 
was  an  edict,  by  which  they  at  once  confiscated  all  the 
property  belonging  to  Catholic  churches.168  They  then 
caused  a  great  seal  to  be  struck  ;  under  the  authority 
of  which  they  ordered  that  the  people  should  be  armed, 
and  taxes  collected  from  them  for  the  purpose  of 
defending  their  religion.169     Finally,  they  drew  up  the 


166  Bazin,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII, 
rol.  ii.  p.  139;  Sismondi,  Hist, 
des  Frangais,  vol.  xxii.  pp.  480, 
481.  Eohan  himself  says  {Mem. 
vol.  i.  p.  446)  :  '  je  ni'efforcai  de 
la  separer.'  In  a  remarkable 
latter,  which  Mornay  wrote  ten 
years  before  this,  he  shows  his 
apprehensions  of  the  evil  that 
would  result  from  the  increasing 
violence  of  his  party;  and  he 
advises,  'que  nostre  zele  soit 
tempere  de  prudence.'  Mem.  et 
Correspond,  vol.  xi.  p.  122  ;  and 
as  to  the  divisions  this  caused 
among  the  Protestants,  see  pp. 
154,  510,  yoI.  xii.  pp.  82,  255; 
and  Sully,  (Economies  Royales, 
vol.  ix.  pp.  350,  435. 

167  '  Les  seigneurs  du  parti,  et 
surtout  lesage  Duplessis  Mornay, 
firent  ce  qu'ils  purent  pour  en- 
gager les  r^formes  a  ne  pas  pro- 
voquer  l'autorite  royale  pour  des 
causes  qui  ne  pouvoient  justifier 
une  guerre  civile ;  mais  le  pou- 
voir  dans  le  parti  avoit  passe 
presque  absolument  aux  bour- 
geois des  villes  et  aux  ministres 


qui  se  livroient  aveuglement  a 
leur  fanatisme,  et  a  leur  orgueil, 
et  qui  etoient  d'autant  plus  ap- 
plaudis  qu'ils  montroientplus  de 
violence.'  Sismondi,  Hist,  des 
Frangais,  vol.  xxii.  p.  478. 

,6S  •  On  confisqua  les  biens 
des  eglises  catholiques.'  Laval- 
lee  des  Frangais,  vol.  iii.  p.  85  : 
and  see  Capcfigue's  Richelieu, 
vol.  i.  p.  258. 

169  '  lis  donnent  des  commis- 
sions d'armer  et  de  faire  des  im- 
positions sur  le  peuple,  et  co 
sous  leur  grand  sceau,  qui  etoit 
une  Religion  appuyee  sur  une 
croix,  ayant  en  la  main  un  livre 
de  l'evangile,  foulant  aux  pieds  un 
vieux  squelette,  qu'ils  disoient 
etre  l'^glise  romaine.'  Mem.  de 
Richelieu,  vol.  ii.  p.  120.  M. 
Capefigue  {Richelieu,  vol.  i.  p. 
259)  says  that  this  seal  still 
exists ;  but  it  is  not  even  alluded 
to  by  a  late  writer  {Felice,  Hist, 
of  the  Protestants  of  France,  p. 
240),  who  systematically  sup- 
presses every  fact  unfavourable 
to  his  own  party. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     65 

regulations,  and  organized  the  establishment  of  what 
they  called  the  Reformed  Churches  of  France  and  of 
Beam ;  and,  with  a  view  to  facilitate  the  exercise  of 
their  spiritual  jurisdiction,  they  parcelled  out  France 
into  eight  circles,  to  each  of  which  there  was  allotted 
a  separate  general,  who,  however,  was  to  be  accom- 
panied by  a  clergyman,  since  the  administration,  in  all 
its  parts,  was  held  responsible  to  that  ecclesiastical 
assembly  which  called  it  into  existence.170 

Such  were  the  forms  and  pomp  of  authority  assumed 
by  the  spiritual  leaders  of  the  French  Protestants ;  men 
by  nature  destined  to  obscurity,  and  whose  abilities  were 
so  despicable,  that,  notwithstanding  their  temporary 
importance,  they  have  left  no  name  in  history.  These 
insignificant  priests,  who,  at  the  best,  were  only  fit  to 
mount  the  pulpit  of  a  country  village,  now  arrogated  to 
themselves  the  right  of  ordering  the  affairs  of  France, 
imposing  taxes  upon  Frenchmen,  confiscating  property, 
raising  troops,  levying  war ;  and  all  this  for  the  sake  of 
propagating  a  creed,  which  was  scouted  by  the  country 
at  large  as  a  foul  and  mischievous  heresy. 

In  the  face  of  these  inordinate  pretensions,  it  was 
evident  that  the  French  government  had  no  choice,  ex- 
cept to  abdicate  its  functions,  or  else  take  arms  in  its 
own  defence.171  Whatever  may  be  the  popular  notion 
respecting  the  necessary  intolerance  of  the  Catholics,  it 
is  an  indisputable  fact,  that,  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  they  displayed  in  France  a  spirit  of  forbear- 
ance, and  a  Christian  charity,  to  which  the  Protestants 
could  make  no  pretence.  During  the  twenty-two 
years  which  elapsed  between  the  Edict  of  ISTantes  and 
the  Assembly  of  Rochelle,  the  government,  notwith- 
standing   repeated  provocations,   never    attacked    the 

170  Lc  Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis  Protestant,  was  naturallypreju- 
XIII,  vol.  iv.  p.  157 ;  Basin,  diced  in  favour  of  the  Hugu  e- 
Hist.  de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  ii.  p.  nots,  says,  that  they  had  esta- 
145 ;  Benoist,  Hist,  de  VEdit  de  blished  •  imporium  in  imperio ;' 
Nantes,  vol.  ii.  pp.  353-355 ;  and  he  ascribes  to  tho  violence 
Capejigue's  Richelieu,  voL  i.  p.  of  their  rulers  the  war  of  1621. 
258.  Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist.  voL  ii. 

171  Even  Mosheim,  who,  as  a    pp.  237,  238. 
VOL.  II.  S 


66  FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

Protestants  ;m  nor  did  they  make  any  attempt  to  de- 
stroy the  privileges  of  a  sect,  which  they  were  bound  to 
consider  heretical,  and  the  extirpation  of  which  had 
been  deemed  by  their  fathers  to  be  one  of  the  first 
duties  of  a  Christian  statesman. 

The  war  that  now  broke  out  lasted  seven  years,  and 
was  uninterrupted,  except  by  the  short  peace,  first  of 
Montpelier,  and  afterwards  of  Rochelle;  neither  of 
which,  however,  was  very  strictly  preserved.  But  the 
difference  in  the  views  and  intentions  of  the  two  parties 
corresponded  to  the  difference  between  the  classes  which 
governed  them.  The  Protestants,  being  influenced 
mainly  by  the  clergy,  made  their  object  religious  domi- 
nation. The  Catholics  being  led  by  statesmen,  aimed 
at  temporal  advantages.  Thus  it  was,  that  circum- 
stances had  in  Prance  so  completely  obliterated  the 
original  tendency  of  these  two  great  sects,  that,  by  a 
singular  metamorphosis,  the  secular  principle  was  now 
represented  by  the  Catholics,  and  the  theological  prin- 
ciple by  the  Protestants.  The  authority  of  the  clergy, 
and  therefore  the  interests  of  superstition,  were  up- 
held by  that  very  party  which  owed  its  origin  to  the 
diminution  of  both ;  they  were,  on  the  other  hand,  at- 
tacked by  a  party  whose  success  had  hitherto  depended 
on  the  increase  of  both.  If  the  Catholics  triumphed, 
the  ecclesiastical  power  would  be  weakened;  if  the 
Protestants  triumphed,  it  would  be  strengthened.  Of 
this  fact,  so  far  as  the  Protestants  are  concerned,  I  have 
just  given  ample  proof,  collected  from  their  proceedings, 
and  from  the  language  of  their  own  synods.  And  that 
the  opposite,  or  secular  principle,  predominated  among 
the  Catholics,  is  evident,  not  only  from  their  undeviat- 
ing  policy  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  IV.  and  Louis  XILT., 
but  also  from  another  circumstance  worthy  of  note.  For, 
their  motives  were  so  obvious,  and  gave  such  scandal 
to  the  church,  that  the  pope,  as  the  great  protector  of 
religion,  thought  himself  bound  to  reprehend  that  dis- 
regard of  theological  interests  which  they  displayed, 

m  Compare  Mem.  de  Fonte-    Flassan,  Hist,  de  la  Diplomatie 
siay  Mareuil,  vol.  ii.  p.  88,  with    Frangaise,  vol.  ii.  p.  351. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     67 

and  which  he  considered  to  be  a  crying  and  unpardon- 
able offence.  In  1622,  only  one  year  after  the  struggle 
between  the  Protestants  and  Catholics  had  begun,  he 
strongly  remonstrated  with  the  French  government 
upon  the  notorious  indecency  of  which  they  were  guilty, 
in  carrying  on  war  against  heretics,  not  for  the  purpose 
of  suppressing  the  heresy,  but  merely  with  a  view  of 
procuring  for  the  state  those  temporal  advantages  which, 
in  the  opinion  of  all  pious  men,  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  of  subordinate  importance.173 

If,  at  this  juncture,  the  Protestants  had  carried  the 
day,  the  loss  to  Prance  would  have  been  immense,  per- 
haps irreparable.  For  no  one,  who  is  acquainted  with 
the  temper  and  character  of  the  French  Calvinists, 
can  doubt,  that  if  they  had  obtained  possession  of  the 
government,  they  would  have  revived  those  religious 
persecutions  which,  so  far  as  their  power  extended,  they 
had  already  attempted  to  enforce.  Not  only  in  their 
writings,  but  even  in  the  edicts  of  their  assemblies,  we 
hnd  ample  proof  of  that  meddling  and  intolerant  spirit 
which,  in  every  age,  has  characterized  ecclesiastical 
legislation.  Indeed,  such  a  spirit  is  the  legitimate  con- 
sequence of  the  fundamental  assumption  from  which 
theological  lawgivers  usually  start.  The  clergy  are 
taught  to  consider  that  their  paramount  duty  is  to  pre- 
serve the  purity  of  the  faith,  and  guard  it  against  the 
invasions  of  heresy.  Whenever,  therefore,  they  rise  to 
power,  it  almost  invariably  happens,  that  they  carry 
into  politics  the  habits  they  have  contracted  in  their 
profession  ;  and  having  long  been  accustomed  to  con- 
sider religious  error  as  criminal,  they  now  naturally 
attempt  to  make  it  penal.     And  as  all  the  European 

m  See  the  paper  of  instruc-  teresse.'    Bazin  (Hist,  de  Louis 

tions  from  Pope   Gregory  XV.  XIII,  vol.  ii.  p.  320)  says,  that 

in  the  appendix  to  Banke,  die  Richelieu  attacked  the  Hugue- 

Rom.  Papste,  vol.  iii.  pp.  173,  nots  'sans  aucune  idee  de  perse- 

174 :  '  Die  Hanptsache  aber  ist  cution   religieuso.'     See,   to  the 

was  er  dem  Konige  von  Frank-  same  effect,  Capefigue's  BicMieu, 

reich  vorstellen  soil:  1,  dass  er  vol.  i.  p.  274;  and  the  candid 

ja  nicht  den  Verdacht  auf  sich  admissions  of  the  Protestant  Le 

laden  werde  als  verfolge  er  die  Vassor.in  his  Hist,  de  Louis XIII, 

Protestanten  bloss  aus  Staatsin-  vol.  v.  p.  11. 
f2 


68       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

countries  have,  in  the  period  of  their  ignorance,  been 
once  ruled  by  the  clergy,  just  so  do  we  find  in  the  law- 
books of  every  land  those  traces  of  their  power  which 
the  progress  of  knowledge  is  gradually  effacing.     We 
find  the  professors  of  the  dominant  creed  enacting  laws 
against  the  professors  of  other  creeds  :  laws  sometimes 
to  burn  them,  sometimes  to  exile  them,  sometimes  to 
take  away  their  civil  rights,   sometimes  only  to  take 
away  their  political  rights.    These  are  the  different  gra- 
dations through  which  persecution  passes  ;  and  by  ob- 
serving which,  we  may  measure,  in  any  country,  the 
energy  of  the  ecclesiastical  spirit.     At  the  same  time, 
the  theory   by  which  such   measures   are   supported 
generally  gives  rise  to  other  measures  of  a  somewhat 
different,  though  of  an  analogous  character.     For,  by 
extending  the  authority  of  law  to  opinions  as  well  as 
to  acts,  the  basis  of  legislation  becomes  dangerously 
enlarged ;  the  individuahty  and  independence  of  each 
man  are  invaded ;  and  encouragement  is  given  to  the 
enactment  of  intrusive  and  vexatious  regulations,  which 
are  supposed  to  perform  for  morals  the  service  that  the 
other  class  of  laws  performs  for  religion.     Under  pre- 
tence of  favouring  the  practice  of  virtue,  and  maintain- 
ing the  purity  of  society,  men  are  troubled  in  their  most 
ordinary  pursuits,  in  the  commonest  occurrences  of  life, 
in  their  amusements,  nay,  even  in  the  very  dress  they 
may  be  inclined  to  wear.    That  this  is  what  has  actually 
been  done,  must  be  known  to  whoever  has  looked  into 
the  writings  of  the  fathers,  into  the  canons  of  Christian 
councils,  into  the  different  systems  of  ecclesiastical  law, 
or  into  the  sermons  of  the  earlier  clergy.     Indeed,  all 
this  is  so  natural,  that  regulations,  conceived  in  the  same 
spirit,  were  drawn  up  for  the  government  of  Geneva  by 
the  Calvinist  clergy,  and  for  the  government  of  England 
by  Archbishop  Cranmer  and  his  coadjutors ;  while  a 
tendency,  precisely  identical,  may  be  observed  in  the 
legislation  of  the  Puritans,  and  to  give  a  still  later  in- 
stance, in  that  of  the  Methodists.     It  is,  therefore,  not 
surprising  that,  in  France,  the  Protestant  clergy,  having 
great  power  among  their  own  party,  should  enforce  a 
similar  discipline.     Thus,  to  mention  only  a  few  exam- 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     69 

pies,  they  forbade  any  one  to  go  to  a  theatre,  or  even 
to  witness  the  performance  of  private  theatricals.174 
They  looked  npon  dancing  as  an  nngodly  amusement, 
and,  therefore,  they  not  only  strictly  prohibited  it,  but 
they  ordered  that  all  dancing-masters  shonld  be  admo- 
nished by  the  spiritual  power,  and  desired  to  abandon 
so  unchristian  a  profession.  If,  however,  the  admoni- 
tion failed  in  effecting  its  purpose,  the  dancing-masters, 
thus  remaining  obdurate,  were  to  be  excommunicated.175 
With  the  same  pious  care  did  the  clergy  superintend 
other  matters  equally  important.  In  one  of  their 
synods,  they  ordered  that  all  persons  should  abstain 
from  wearing  gay  apparel,  and  should  arrange 
their  hair  with  becoming  modesty.176  In  another 
synod,  they  forbade  women  to  paint ;  and  they 
declared  that  if,  after  this  injunction,  any  woman 
persisted  in  painting,  she  should  not  be  allowed  to  re- 
ceive the  sacrament.177  To  their  own  clergy,  as  the 
instructors  and  shepherds  of  the  flock,  there  was  paid 
an  attention  still  more  scrupulous.  The  ministers  of 
the  Word  were  permitted  to  teach  Hebrew,  because  He- 
brew is  a  sacred  dialect,  uncontaminated  by  profane 
writers.  But  the  Greek  language,  which  contains  all 
the  philosophy  and  nearly  all  the  wisdom  of  anti- 
quity, was  to  be  discouraged,  its  study  laid  aside,  its 
professorship  suppressed.178  And,  in  order  that  the 
mind  might  not  be  distracted  from  spiritual  things,  the 
study  of  chemistry  was  likewise  forbidden ;  such  a  mere 
earthly  pursuit  being  incompatible  with  the  habits  of 


174  Quick's  Synodicon  in  Gal-  But  it  is  not  seemly  for  him  to 

lia,  vol.  i.  p.  62.  profess  the  Greek  also,  because 

l"  Ibid,  vol.  i.   pp.   lvii.  17,  the  most  of  his  employment -mil 

131,  vol.  ii.  p.  174.  be  taken  up  in  the  exposition  of 

178  'And  both   sexes    are  re-  Pagan  and  profane  authors,  un- 

quired  to  keep  modesty  in  their  less  he  be  discharged  from  the 

hair,' &c.  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  119.  ministry.'      Quick's    Synodicon, 

177  Quick's  Synodicon,  voL  i.  vol.  ii.  p.  57.  Three  years  later, 
p.  165.  the  synod    of    Charenton    sup- 

178  The  synod  of  Alez,  in  1620,  pressed  altogether  the  Greek 
says,  'A  minister  may  at  the  professorships,  '  as  being  super- 
same  time  bo  professor  in  di-  fluous  and  of  small  protit.'  Ibid. 
vinity  and  of  the  Hebrew  tongue,  vol.  ii.  p.  115. 


70  FRENCH   INTELLECT    FROM    THE 

the  sacred  profession.179  Lest,  however,  in  spite  of 
these  precautions,  knowledge  should  still  creep  in  among 
the  Protestants,  other  measures  were  taken  to  prevent 
even  its  earliest  approach.  The  clergy,  entirely  forget- 
ting that  right  of  private  judgment  upon  which  their 
sect  was  founded,  became  so  anxious  to  protect  the  un- 
wary from  error,  that  they  forbade  any  person  to  print 
or  publish  a  work  without  the  sanction  of  the  church  ; 
in  other  words,  without  the  sanction  of  the  clergy  them- 
selves.180 When,  by  these  means,  they  had  destroyed 
the  possibility  of  free  inquiry,  and,  so  far  as  they  were 
able,  had  put  a  stop  to  the  acquisition  of  all  real  know- 
ledge, they  proceeded  to  guard  against  another  circum- 
stance to  which  their  measures  had  given  rise.  For, 
several  of  the  Protestants,  seeing  that  under  such  a 
system,  it  was  impossible  to  educate  their  families  with 
advantage,  sent  their  children  to  some  of  those  cele- 
brated Catholic  colleges,  where  alone  a  sound  education 
could  then  be  obtained.  But  the  clergy,  so  soon  as  they 
heard  of  this  practice,  put  an  end  to  it,  by  excommuni- 
cating the  offending  parents  ;181  and  to  this  there  was 
added  an  order  forbidding  them  to  admit  into  their  own 
private  houses  any  tutor  who  professed  the  Catholic 
religion.182  Such  was  the  way  in  which  the  French 
Protestants  were  watched  over  and  protected  by  their 
spiritual  masters.  Even  the  minutest  matters  were  not 
beneath  the  notice  of  these  great  legislators.  They 
ordered  that  no  person  should  go  to  a  ball  or  masque- 
rade ;183  nor  ought  any  Christian  to  look  at  the  tricks 
of  conjurors,  or  at  the  famous  game  of  goblets,  or  at 
the  puppet-show ;  neither  was  he  to  be  present  at  mor- 
ris-dances ;  for  all  such  amusements  should  be  sup- 
pressed by  the  magistrates,  because  they  excite  curiosity, 

1,9  The  synod  ofSt.Maixant,  in  ,81   Quick's  Synodicon,  vol.  i. 

1609,  orders  that '  colloquies  and  pp.  lv.  235,  419,  vol.  ii.  pp.  201, 

6ynods  shall  have  a  watchful  eye  509,    515.       Compare    Benoist, 

over  those  ministers  who  study  Hist,  de  FEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii. 

chemistry,  and  grievously  reprove  p.  473. 

andcensurethem.'i5ttZ.vol.i.p.314.  m  Quick's  Synodicon,  vol.  ii. 

180  Ibid.  vol.  i.  pp.  140,  194,  p.  81. 

voL  ii.  p.  110.  I33  Ibid,  vol.ii.p.  174. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.      71 

cause  expense,  waste  time.184  Another  thing  to  he  at- 
tended to,  is  the  names  that  are  "bestowed  in  haptism. 
A  child  may  have  two  christian  names,  though  one  is 
preferable.185  Great  care,  however,  is  to  be  observed 
in  their  selection.  They  ought  to  be  taken  from  the 
Bible,  but  they  ought  not  to  be  Baptist  or  Angel ; 
neither  should  any  infant  receive  a  name  which  has 
been  formerly  used  by  the  Pagans.186  "When  the  chil- 
dren are  grown  up,  there  are  other  regulations  to  which 
they  must  be  subject.  The  clergy  declared  that  the 
faithful  must  by  no  means  let  their  hair  grow  long,  lest 
by  so  doing  they  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  '  lascivious 
curls.'187  They  are  to  make  their  garments  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  avoid  'the  new-fangled  fashions  of  the 
world : '  they  are  to  have  no  tassels  to  their  dress  :  their 
gloves  must  be  without  silk  and  ribbons  :  they  are  to 
abstain  from  fardingales  :  they  are  to  beware  of  wide 
sleeves.188 

Those  readers  who  have  not  studied  the  history  of 
ecclesiastical  legislation,  will  perhaps  be  surprised  to 
find,  that  men  of  gravity,  men  who  had  reached 
the  years  of  discretion,  and  were  assembled  together 
in  solemn  council,  should  evince  such  a  prying  and 
puerile  spirit ;  that  they  should  display  such  mise- 
rable and  childish  imbecility.  But,  whoever  will  take 
a  wider  survey  of  human  affairs,  will  be  inclined  to 

184  '  All  Christian  magistrates  to  observe  herein  Christian  sim- 

are  advised  not  in  the  least  to  plicity.'     Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  178. 

suffer  them,    because    it    feeds  ,86  Ibid.  vol.  i.  pp.  xlvi.  25. 

foolish  curiosity,  puts  upon  un-  ,87  I  quote  the  language  of  the 

necessary  expenses,  and  wastes  synod  of  Castres,  in  1626.  Ibid. 

time.'    Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  194.  vol.  ii.  p.  174. 

183  This  was   a  very  knotty  ,88  Quick's  Synodicon,  vol.  i. 

question  for  the  theologians ;  but  p.  165,  vol.  ii.  pp.  7,  174,  574, 

it  was  at  length  decided  in  the  583.      In    the    same  way,   the 

affirmative  by  the  synod  of  Sau-  Spanish    clergy,    early    in    the 

mur :  '  On   the   13th  article  of  present    century,    attempted  to 

the  same  chapter,  the  deputies  of  regulate  the  dress  of    women. 

Poictou  demanded,  whether  two  SeeDoblado's  Letters from  Spain, 

names  might  be  given  a  child  at  pp.  202-205 :  a  good  illustration 

baptism  ?     To  which  it  was  re-  of  the  identity  of  the  ecclesiasti- 

plied :  The  thing  was  indifferent ;  cal  spirit,  whether  it  be  Catholic 

however,  parents  were  advised  or  Protestant. 


72       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

blame,  not  so  much  the  legislators,  as  the  system  of 
•which  the  legislators  formed  a  part.  For  as  to  the 
men  themselves,  they  merely  acted  after  their  kind. 
They  only  followed  the  traditions  in  which  they  were 
bred.  By  virtue  of  their  profession,  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  hold  certain  views,  and,  when  they  rose 
to  power,  it  was  natural  that  they  should  carry  those 
views  into  effect ;  thus  transplanting  into  the  law-book 
the  maxims  they  had  already  preached  in  the  pulpit. 
Whenever,  therefore,  we  read  of  meddling,  inquisitive, 
and  vexatious  regulations  imposed  by  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority, we  should  remember,  that  they  are  but  the 
legitimate  result  of  the  ecclesiastical  spirit;  and  that 
the  way  to  remedy  such  grievances,  or  to  prevent  their 
occurrence,  is  not  by  vainly  labouring  to  change  the 
tendencies  of  that  class  from  whence  they  proceed, 
but  rather  by  confining  the  class  within  its  proper 
limits,  by  jealously  guarding  against  its  earliest  en- 
croachments, by  taking  every  opportunity  of  lessening 
its  influence,  and  finally,  when  the  progress  of  society 
will  justify  so  great  a  step,  by  depriving  it  of  that  poli- 
tical and  legislative  power  which,  though  gradually 
falling  from  its  hands,  it  is,  even  in  the  most  civilized 
countries,  still  allowed  in  some  degree  to  retain. 

But,  setting  aside  these  general  considerations,  it 
will,  at  all  events,  be  admitted,  that  I  have  collected 
sufficient  evidence  to  indicate  what  would  have  hap- 
pened to  France,  if  the  Protestants  had  obtained  the 
upper  hand.  After  the  facts  which  I  have  brought 
forward,  no  one  can  possibly  doubt,  that  if  such  a 
misfortune  had  occurred,  the  liberal,  and,  considering 
the  age,  the  enlightened  policy  of  Henry  IV.  and 
Louis  XTLT.  would  have  been  destroyed,  in  order  to 
make  way  for  that  gloomy  and  austere  system,  which, 
in  every  age  and  in  every  country,  has  been  found 
to  be  the  natural  fruit  of  ecclesiastical  power.  To 
put,  therefore,  the  question  in  its  proper  form,  in- 
stead of  saying  that  there  was  a  war  between  hostile 
creeds,  we  should  rather  say  that  there  was  a  war 
between  rival  classes.  It  was  a  contest,  not  so  much 
between  the  Catholic  religion  and  the  Protestant  re- 
ligion,  as   between  Catholic  laymen   and  Protestant 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.      73 

clergy.  It  was  a  struggle  between  temporal  interests 
and  theological  interests, — between  the  spirit  of  the 
present  and  the  spirit  of  the  past.  And  the  point  now 
at  issue  was,  whether  France  should  be  governed  by 
the  civil  power  or  by  the  spiritual  power, — whether 
she  should  be  ruled  according  to  the  large  views  of 
secular  statesmen,  or  according  to  the  narrow  notions 
of  a  factious  and  intolerant  priesthood. 

The  Protestants  having  the  great  advantage  of  being 
the  aggressive  party,  and  being,  moreover,  inflamed  by 
a  rebgious  zeal  unknown  to  their  opponents,  might, 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  have  succeeded  in  their 
hazardous  attempt ;  or,  at  all  events,  they  might  have 
protracted  the  struggle  for  an  indefinite  period.  But,  for- 
tunately for  France,  in  1624,  only  three  years  after  the 
war  began,  Richelieu  assumed  the  direction  of  the  go- 
vernment. He  had  for  some  years  been  the  secret  adviser 
of  the  queen-mother,  into  whose  mind  he  had  always 
inculcated  the  necessity  of  complete  toleration.189  When 
placed  at  the  head  of  affairs,  he  pursued  the  same 
policy,  and  attempted  in  every  way  to  conciliate  the 
Protestants.  The  clergy  of  his  own  party  were  con- 
stantly urging  him  to  exterminate  the  heretics,  whose 
presence  they  thought  polluted  France.190  But  Riche- 
lieu, having  only  secular  objects,  refused  to  embitter 
the  contest  by  turning  it  into  a  religious  war.  He  was 
determined  to  chastise  the  rebellion,  but  he  would  not 
punish  the  heresy.  Even  while  the  war  was  raging, 
he  would  not  revoke  those  edicts  of  toleration  by 
Which  the  full  Hberty  of  rebgious  worship  was  granted 

189  On  his  influence  over  her  urging  him'  assiegerlaRochelle, 

in  and  after  1616,  see  Le  Vassor,  et  chatier  ou,  pour  mieux  dire, 

Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  ii.  p.  exterminer  les  huguenots,  toute 

608 ;    Mem.    de   Pontcfuirtrain,  autre  affaire  cessante.'     Bazin, 

vol.  ii.  p.  240 ;  Mem.  de  Mont-  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  ii.  p. 

glat,  vol.  i.  p.  23  ;  and  compare,  276.   See  also,  on  the  anxiety  of 

in  Mem.  de  Richelieu,  vol.  ii.  pp.  the  clergy  in  the  reign  of  Louis 

183-200,  the  curious  arguments  XIII.  to  destroy  the  Protestant*, 

which  he  put  in  her  mouth  re-  Benoist,  Hist,  de  F  Edit  de  Nantes, 

spectinp  the  impolicy  of  making  vol.  ii.  pp.  155,   166,   232,  245, 

•war  on  the  Protestants.  338,   378,  379,  427;    Sismondi, 

150  In  1G25,    the  Archhishop  Hist,    des    Francois,  vol.    xxii. 

of   Lyons    wrote  to  Richelieu,  p.  485. 


74       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

to  the  Protestants.  And  when  they,  in  1626,  showed 
signs  of  compunction,  or  at  all  events  of  fear,  he  pub- 
licly confirmed  the  Edict  of  Nantes,191  and  he  granted 
them  peace ;  although,  as  he  says,  he  knew  that  by 
doing  so  he  should  fall  under  the  suspicion  of  those  '  who 
so  greatly  affected  the  name  of  zealous  Catholics.' 192 
A  few  months  afterwards,  war  again  broke  out;  and 
then  it  was  that  Richelieu  determined  on  that  cele- 
brated siege .  of  Rochelle,  which,  if  brought  to  a  suc- 
cessful issue,  was  sure  to  be  a  decisive  blow  against 
the  French  Protestants.  That  he  was  moved  to  this 
hazardous  undertaking  solely  by  secular  considerations 
is  evident,  not  only  from  the  general  spirit  of  his  prece- 
ding policy,  but  also  from  his  subsequent  conduct. 
With  the  details  of  this  famous  siege  history  is  not 
concerned,  as  such  matters  have  no  value  except  to  mili- 
tary readers.  It  is  enough  to  say  that,  in  1628,  Rochelle 
was  taken;  and  the  Protestants,  who  had  been  induced 
by  their  clergy193  to  continue  to  resist  long  after  relief 
was  hopeless,  and  who,  in  consequence,  had  suffered  the 
most  dreadful  hardships,  were  obliged  to  surrender  at 
discretion.194  The  privileges  of  the  town  were  revoked, 
and  its  magistrates  removed ;  but  the  great  minister 
by  whom  these  things  were  effected,  still  abstained  from 
that  religious  persecution  to  which  he  was  urged.195 


191  H.e  confirmed  it  in  March  m  On  the  sufferings  of  the 
1626 ;  Flassan,  Hist,  de  la  Di-  inhabitants,  see  extract  from  the 
plomatie  Frangaise,  vol.  ii.  p.  399 ;  Dupuis  Mss.,  in  Capefigurfs  Ricke- 
and  also  in  the  preceding  Jami-  lieu,  vol.  i.  p.  351.  Fontenay 
ary.  See  Bcnoist,  Hist,  de  VEdit  Mareuil,  who  was  an  eye-wit- 
de  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  appendix,  ness,  says,  that  the  besieged,  in 
pp.  77,  81.  some    instances,   ate  their  own 

192  '  Ceux  qui  affectent  autant  children ;  and  that  the  burial- 
le  nom  de  zel£s  catholiques.'  grounds  were  guarded,  to  prevent 
Mem.  de  Richelieu,  voL  iii.  p.  16 ;  the  corpses  from  being  dug  up 
and  at  p.  2,  he,  in  the  same  year  and  turned  into  food.  Mem.  de 
(1626),  says,  that  he  was  op-  Fontenay  Mareuil,  vol  ii.  p.  119. 
posed  by  those  who  had  '  un  trop  19s  And  in  which  he  would 
ardent  etprecipit^desir  deruiner  most  assuredly  have  been  sup- 
les  huguenots.'  ported  by  Louis  XIII. ;  of  whom 

193  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Fran-  an  intelligent  writer  says  ■  '  H 
caw,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  66.  etoitplein  de  piet6  etde  zelepour 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.      75 

He  granted  to  the  Protestants  the  toleration  which  he 
had  offered  at  an  earlier  period,  and  he  formally  con- 
ceded the  free  exercise  of  their  public  worship.196  But, 
such  was  their  infatuation,  that  because  he  likewise 
restored  the  exercise  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  thus 
gave  to  the  conquerors  the  same  liberty  that  he  had 
granted  to  the  conquered,  the  Protestants  murmured 
at  the  indulgence ;  they  could  not  bear  the  idea  that 
their  eyes  should  be  offended  by  the  performance  of 
Popish  rites.197  And  their  indignation  waxed  so  high, 
that  in  the  next  year  they,  in  another  part  of  France, 
again  rose  in  arms.  As,  however,  they  were  now 
stripped  of  their  principal  resources,  they  were  easily 
defeated ;  and,  their  existence  as  a  political  faction 
being  destroyed,  they  were,  in  reference  to  their  reli- 
gion, treated  by  Richelieu  in  the  same  manner  as 
before.198  To  the  Protestants  generally,  he  confirmed 
the  privilege  of  preaching  and  of  performing  the  other 
ceremonies  of  their  creed.199  To  their  leader,  Rohan, 
he  granted  an  amnesty,  and,  a  few  years  afterwards, 
employed  him  in  important  public  services.  After  this, 
the   hopes  of  the   party  were  destroyed ;    they  never 


le  service  do  Dieu  et  pour  la  leur  ville.'    Capefigue's  Richelieu, 

grandeur  de  l'eglise ;  et  sa  plus  vol.  i.  p.  359. 
sensible  joie,  en  prenant  La  Eo-        I9S  '  Des  qu'il  no  s'agit  plus 

chelle  et  les  autres  places  qu'il  d'un  parti  politique,  il  conceda, 

prit,  fut  de  penser  qu'il  chasse-  comme  a  la  Rochello,  la  liberty 

roit  de  son  royaume  les  her6-  do  conscience  et  la  faculte  do 

tiques,  et  qu'il  le  purgeroit  par  preche.'      Capcfigue's  Richelieu, 

cette   voie    des    differentes    re-  vol.  i.  p.  381.     Compare  Smed- 

ligions   qui  gatent  et  infectent  ley's  Hist,  of  the  Reformed  Re~ 

l'eglise  de  Dieu.'    Mem.  de  Mot-  ligion  in  France,  vol.  iii.  p.  201, 

tevUle,  vol.  i.  p.  425,  edit.  Petitot,  with  Memoires  de  Richelieu,  vol. 

1824.  iv.  p.  484. 

198  Bazin,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,        19»  '  The  Edict  of  Nismes,  in 

vol.  ii.  p.  423;  Sismondi,  Hist.  1629,   an    important  document, 

des  Frangais,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  77  ;  will  be  found  in  Quick's  Synodi- 

Capefigue's  Richelieu,  vol.  i.  p.  con,  vol.  i.  pp.  xcvi.-ciii.,  and  in 

357  ;  Mem.  de  Fontenay  Mareuil,  Benoist,  Hist,  de  VEdit  de  Nantes, 

vol.  ii.  p.  122.  vol.  ii.  appendix,  pp.  92-98  ;  and 

10'  'Les    huguenots    murmu-  a  commentary  on  it  in  Basin, 

raient  de  voir  le  r&ablissement  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  iii.  pp. 

de  l'eglise  roraaine  au  eein  do  36-38.     M.  Bazin,  unfortunately 


76       FEENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

again  rose  in  arms,  nor  do  we  find  any  mention  of  them 
until  a  much  later  period,  when  they  were  barbarously 
persecuted  by  Louis  XiV.200  But  from  all  such  into- 
lerance Richelieu  sedulously  abstained;  and  having 
now  cleared  the  land  from  rebellion,  he  embarked  in 
that  vast  scheme  of  foreign  policy,  of  which  I  have 
already  given  some  account,  and  in  which  he  clearly 
showed  that  his  proceedings  against  the  Protestants 
had  not  been  caused  by  hatred  of  their  religious  tenets. 
For,  the  same  party  which  he  attacked  at  home,  he 
supported  abroad.  He  put  down  the  French  Protest- 
ants, because  they  were  a  turbulent  faction  that  troubled 
the  state,  and  wished  to  suppress  the  exercise  of  all 
opinions  unfavourable  to  themselves.  But  so  far  from 
carrying  on  a  crusade  against  their  religion,  he,  as  I 
have  already  observed,  encouraged  it  in  other  countries ; 
and,  though  a  bishop  of  the  Catholic  church,  he  did 
not  hesitate,  by  treaties,  by  money,  and  by  force  of 
arms,  to  support  the  Protestants  against  the  House 
of  Austria,  maintain  the  Lutherans  against  the  Emperor 
of  Germany,  and  uphold  the  Calvinists  against  the 
King  of  Spfiin. 

I  have  thus  endeavoured  to  draw  a  slight,  though,  I 
trust,  a  clear  outline,  of  the  events  which  took  place  in 
Prance  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XHI.,  and  particularly 
during  that  part  of  it  which  included  the  administration 
of  Richelieu.  But  such  occurrences,  important  as  they 
are,  only  formed  a  single  phase  of  that  larger  develop- 
ment which  was  now  displaying  itself  in  nearly  every 
branch  of  the  national  intellect.  They  were  the  mere 
political  expression  of  that  bold  and  sceptical  spirit 
which  cried  havoc  to  the  prejudices  and  superstitions  of 
men.  Por,  the  government  of  Richelieu  was  successful, 
as  well  as  progressive  ;  and  no  government  can  unite 
these  two  qualities,  unless  its  measures  harmonize  with 


for  the  reputation  of  this  other-  Hist,  de  VEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii. 

■wise  valuable  "work,  never  quotes  p.   532.     Compare  Sir  Thomas 

his  authorities.  Hanmer's  account  of  France  in 

200  In  1633,  their  own  histo-  1648,  in  Bunbury's  Correspond. 

rian    says:    'les    Keformez  ne  of  Hanmer,  p.  309,  Lond.  1838. 
faisoient  plus  de  party.'  Benoist, 


SIXTEENTH    TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     77 

the  feelings  and  temper  of  the  age.  Such  an  adminis- 
tration, though  it  facilitates  progress,  is  not  the  cause 
of  it,  but  is  rather  its  measure  and  symptom.  The  cause 
of  the  progress  lies  far  deeper,  and  is  governed  by  the 
general  tendency  of  the  time.  And  as  the  different 
tendencies  observable  in  successive  generations  depend 
on  the  difference*  in  their  knowledge,  it  is  evident,  that 
we  can  only  understand  the  working  of  the  tendencies, 
by  taking  a  wide  view  of  the  amount  and  character  of 
the  knowledge.  To  comprehend,  therefore,  the  real 
nature  of  the  great  advance  made  during  the  reign  of 
Louis  XI1T.,  it  becomes  necessary  that  I  should  lay  be- 
fore the  reader  some  evidence  respecting  those  higher 
and  more  important  facts,  which  historians  are  apt  to 
neglect,  but  without  which  the  study  of  the  past  is  an 
idle  and.  trivial  pursuit,  and  history  itself  a  barren  field, 
which,  bearing  no  fruit,  is  unworthy  of  the  labour  that 
is  wasted  on  the  cultivation  of  so  ungrateful  a  soil. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  very  observable  fact,  that  while  Riche- 
lieu, with  such  extraordinary  boldness,  was  secularizing 
the  whole  system  of  French  politics,  and  by  his  disregard 
of  ancient  interests,  was  setting  at  naught  the  most 
ancient  traditions,  a  course  precisely  similar  was  being 
pursued,  in  a  still  higher  department,  by  a  man  greater 
than  he ;  by  one,  who,  if  I  may  express  my  own  opinion, 
is  the  most  profound  among  the  many  eminent  thinkers 
France  has  produced.  I  speak  of  Rene  Descartes,  of 
whom  the  least  that  can  be  said  is,  that  he  effected  a 
revolution  more  decisive  than  has  ever  been  brought 
about  by  any  other  single  mind.  With  his  mere  phy- 
sical discoveries  we  are  not  now  concerned,  because  in 
this  Introduction  I  do  not  pretend  to  trace  the  progress 
of  science,  except  in  those  epochs  which  indicate  a  new 
turn  in  the  habits  of  national  thought.  But  I  may 
remind  the  reader,  that  he  was  the  first  who  successfully 
applied  algebra  to  geometry  ;201  that  he  pointed  out  the 

2,1  Thomas  {Eloge,  in  (Euvres  this,    in    the    highest  sense,  is 

de  Descartes,  voL  i.  p.  32)  says,  strictly  true  ;  for  although  Vieta 

'  cet  instrument,  c'est  Descartes  and  two  or  three  others  in  the 

qui  l'a  cree;  c'est  1' application  sixteenth  century  had  anticipated 

de  l'algebre  a  la  geometric.'   And  this  step,    wo  owe  entirely  to 


78 


FRENCH   INTELLECT   EE.OM   THE 


important  law  of  the  sines  ;202  that  in  an  age  in  which 
optical  instruments  were  extremely  imperfect,  he  dis- 
covered the  changes  to  which  light  is  subjected  in  the 
eye  by  the  crystalline  lens  ;203  that  he  directed  attention 
to  the  consequences  resulting  from  the  weight  of  the 


Descartes  the  magnificent  dis- 
covery of  the  possibility  of 
applying  algebra  to  the  geometry 
of  curves,  he  being  undoubtedly 
the  first  who  expressed  them  by 
algebraic  equations.  See  Mon- 
tucla,  Hist,  des  Mathemat.  vol.  i. 
pp.  704,  705,  vol.  ii.  p.  120,  vol. 
iii.  p.  64. 

W1  The  statements  of  Huy- 
gens  and  of  Isaac  Vossius  to  the 
effect  that  Descartes  had  seen 
the  papers  of  Snell  before  pub- 
lishing his  discovery,  are  unsup- 
ported by  any  direct  evidence; 
at  least  none  of  the  historians  of 
science,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
have  brought  forward  any.  So 
strong,  however,  is  the  disposi- 
tion of  mankind  at  large  to  de- 
preciate great  men,  and  so  gene- 
ral is  the  desire  to  convict  them 
of  plagiarism,  that  this  charge, 
improbable  in  itself,  and  only 
resting  on  the  testimony  of  two 
envious  rivals,  has  been  not  only 
revived  by  modern  writers,  but 
has  been,  even  in  our  own  time, 
spoken  of  as  a  well-established 
and  notorious  fact !  The  flimsy 
basis  of  this  accusation  is  clearly 
exposed  by  M.  Bordas  Demoulin, 
in  his  valuable  work  Le  Cartesi- 
anisme,  Paris,  1843,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
9-12  ;  while,  on  the  other  side  of 
the  question,  I  refer  with  regret 
to  SirD.  Brewster  on  the  Progress 
of  Optics,  Second  Report  of 
British  Association,^.  309,  310  ; 
and  to  Whewell's  Hist,  of  the  In- 
ductive Sciences,  vol.  ii.  pp.  379, 
602,  503, 


203  See  the  interesting  remarks 
of  Sprengel  (Hist,  de  la  Medecine, 
vol.  iv.  pp.  271,  272),  and  (Euvres 
de  Descartes,  vol.  iv.  pp.  371  seq. 
"What  makes  this  the  more  obser- 
vable is  this :  that  the  study  of 
the  crystalline  lens  was  neg- 
lected long  after  the  death  of 
Descartes,  and  no  attempt  made 
for  more  than  a  hundred  years 
to  complete  his  views  by  ascer- 
taining its  intimate  structure. 
Indeed,  it  is  said  (Thomson's 
Animal  Chemistry,  p.  512)  that 
the  crystalline  lens  and  the  two 
humours  were  first  analyzed  in 
1802.  Compare  Simon's  Animal 
Chemistry,  vol.  ii.  pp.  419-421 
Henle,  Traite  aVAnatomie,  vol.  i. 
p.  357 ;  Lepelletier,  Physiologie 
Medicate,  vol.  iii.  p.  160  ;  Mayo's 
Human  Physiol.,  p.  279 ;  Blain- 
ville,  Physiol,  comparee,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  325-328 ;  none  of  whom 
refer  to  any  analysis  earlier  than 
the  nineteenth  century.  I  notice 
this  partly  as  a  contribution  to 
the  history  •  of  our  knowledge, 
and  partly  as  proving  how  slow 
men  have  been  in  following  Des- 
cartes, and  in  completing  his 
views;  for,  as  M.  Blanville 
justly  observes,  the  chemical 
laws  of  the  lens  must  be  under- 
stood, before  we  can  exhaustively 
generalize  the  optical  laws  of  its 
refraction ;  so  that,  in  fact,  the 
researches  of  Berzelius  on  the  eye 
are  complemental  to  those  off 
Descartes.  The  theory  of  the 
limitation  of  the  crystalline  lens 
according  to  the  descending  scale 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.      79 


atmosphere  ;204  and  that  he,  moreover,  detected  the 
causes  of  the  rainbow,205  that  singular  phenomenon,  with 
which,  in  the  eyes  of  the  vulgar,  some  theological  super- 
stitions are  still  connected.206  At  the  same  time,  and 
as  if  to  combine  the  most  varied  forms  of  excellence, 
he  is  not  only  allowed  to  be  the  first  geometrician  of  the 


of  the  animal  kingdom,  and  the 
connexion  between  its  develop- 
ment and  a  general  increase  of 
sensuous  perception,  seem  to 
have  been  little  studied ;  but  Dr. 
Grant  {Comparative  Anatomy, 
p.  252)  thinks  that  the  lens  exists 
in  some  of  the  rotifera ;  while  in 
regard  to  its  origin,  I  find  a  curi- 
ous statement  in  Mailer's  Phy- 
siology, vol.  i.  p.  450,  that  after 
its  removal  in  mammals,  it  has 
been  reproduced  by  its  matrix, 
the  capsule.  (If  this  can  be  re- 
lied on,  it  will  tell  against  the 
suggestion  of  Schwann,  who  sup- 
poses, in  his  Microscopical  He- 
searches,  1847,  pp.  87,  88,  that 
its  mode  of  life  is  vegetable,  and 
that  it  is  not  '  a  secretion  of  its 
capsule').  As  to  its  probable 
existence  in  the  hydrozoa,  see 
Rymer  Jones's  Animal  Kingdom, 
1855,  p.  96,  '  regarded  either  as 
a  crystalline  lens,  or  an  otolithe ; ' 
and  as  to  its  embryonic  develop- 
ment, see  Burdach,  Traite  de 
Physiologie,  vol.  iii.  pp.  435-438. 
204  Torricelli  first  weighed  the 
air  in  1643.  Brandos  Chemistry, 
vol.  i.  p.  360;  Leslie's  Natural 
Philosophy,  p.  419  :  but  there  is 
a  letter  from  Descartes,  written 
as  early  as  1631,  '  ou  il  explique 
le  phenomene  de  la  suspension 
du  mercnre  dans  un  tuyau  ferme 
par  en  haut,  en  l'attribuant  au 
poids  de  la  colonne  d'air  elevee 
jusqu'au  dela  des  nues.'  Bordas 
Demoulin,  le  Cartisianisme,  vol. 
i.  p.  311.    And  Montucla  {Hist. 


des  Matkemat.  vol.  ii.  p.  205) 
says  of  Descartes,  '  nous  avons 
des  preuves  que  ce  philosophe 
reconnut  avant  Torricelli  la 
pesanteur  de  l'air.'  Descartes 
himself  says,  that  he  suggested 
the  subsequent  experiment  of 
Pascal.  (Euvres  de  Descartes, 
vol.  x.  pp.  344,  351. 

204  Dr.  Whewell,  who  has 
treated  Descartes  with  marked 
injustice,  does  nevertheless  allow 
that  he  is  '  the  genuine  author  of 
the  explanation  of  the  rainbow.' 
Hist,  of  the  Indue.  Sciences,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  380,  384.  See  also  Boyle's 
Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  189;  Thom- 
son's Hist,  of  the  Royal  Society, 
p.  364 :  Hallam's  Lit.  of  Europe, 
vol.  iii.  p.  205;  (Euvres  de 
Descartes,  vol.  i.  pp.  47,  48,  vol. 
v.  pp.  265-284.  On  the  theory 
of  the  rainbow  as  known  in  the 
present  century,  see  Kaemtz, 
Course  of  Meteorology,  pp.  440- 
445  ;  and  Forbes  on  Meteorology, 
pp.  125-130,  in  Report  of  British 
Association  for  1840.  Compare 
Leslie's  Natural  Philosophy,  p. 
531 ;  Pouillet,  Elemens  de  Phy- 
sique, vol.  ii.  p.  788. 

208  The  Hebrew  notion  of  the 
rainbow  is  well  known ;  and  for 
the  ideas  of  other '  nations  on 
this  subject,  see  Prichard's 
Physical  History  of  Mankind, 
vol.  v.  pp.  154,  176;  Kama's 
Sketches  of  the  History  of  Man, 
vol.  iv.  p.  252,  Edinb.  1788;  and 
Burdache's  Physiologic,  voLv.  pp. 
646,  547,  Paris,  1839. 


80 


FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 


age,207  but  by  the  clearness  and  admirable  precision  of 
bis  style,  be  became  one  of  tbe  founders  of  French 
prose.208  And  although  he  was  constantly  engaged  in 
those  lofty  inquiries  into  the  nature  of  the  human  mind, 
■which  can  never  be  studied  without  wonder,  I  had 
almost  said  can  never  be  read  without  awe,  he  combined 
with  them  a  long  course  of  laborious  experiment  upon 
the  animal  frame,  which  raised  him  to  the  highest  rank 
among  the  anatomists  of  his  time.209  The  great  dis- 
covery made  by  Harvey  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood, 
was  neglected  by  most  of  his  contemporaries  ;210  but  it 

207  Thomas  calls  him  '  le  plus 
grand  geometre  de  son  siecle.' 
(Euvres  de  Descartes,  vol.  j.  p.  89. 
Sir  "W.  Hamilton  (Dismissions  on 
Philosophy,  p.  271)  says,  'the 
greatest  mathemetician  of  the 
age ;'  and  Montucla  can  find  no 
one  but  Plato  to  compare  with 
him :  '  On  ne  sauroit  donner  une 
idee  plus  juste  de  ce  qu'a  ete 
l'epoque  de   Descartes   dans  la 

geometrie  ancienne 

De  meme  enfin  que  Platon  pre- 
para  par  sa  decouverte  celles  des 
Archimede,  des  Apollonius,  &c, 
on  peut  dire  que  Descartes  a 
jette  les  fondemens  de  celles 
qui  illustrent  aujourd'hui  les 
Newton,  les  Leibnitz,  &c.' 
Montucla,  Hist,  des  Mathemat. 
vol.  ii.  p.  112. 

20S  'Descartes  joint  encore  a, 
ses  autres  titres,  celui  d'avoir  ete 
un  des  createurs  de  notrelangue.' 
Biog.  Univ.  vol.  si.  p.  154.  Sir 
James  Mackintosh  (Dissert,  on 
Ethical  Philos.  p.  186)  has  also 
noticed  the  influence  of  Descartes 
in  forming  the  style  of  French 
■writers ;  and  I  think  that  M. 
Cousin  has  somewhere  made  a 
similar  remark. 

209  Thomas  says, '  Descartes  eut 
aussi  la  gloire  d'etre  un  des  pre- 
miers anatomistes  de  son  siecle.' 


(Euvres  de  Descartes,  vol.  i.  p. 
55;  see  also  p.  101.  In  1639, 
Descartes  writes  to  Mersenne 
((Euvres,  vol.  viii.  p.  100)  that  he 
had  been  engaged  '  depuis  onze 
ans '  in  studying  comparative 
anatomy  by  dissection.  Compare 
p.  174,  and  vol.  i.  pp.  175-184. 

210  Dr.  Whewell  (Hist,  of  the 
Inductive  Sciences,  vol.  iii.  p.  440) 
says :  '  It  was  for  the  most  part 
readily  accepted  by  his  country- 
men ;  but  that  abroad  it  had  to 
encounter  considerable  opposi- 
tion.' For  this  no  authority  is 
quoted;  and  yet  one  would  be 
glad  to  know  who  told  Dr. 
"Whewell  that  the  discovery  was 
readily  accepted.  So  far  from 
meeting  in  England  with  ready 
acceptance,  it  was  during  many 
years  most  universally  denied. 
Aubrey  was  assured  by  Harvey 
that,  in  consequence  of  his  book 
on  the  Circulation  of  the  Blood, 
he  lost  much  of  his  practice,  was 
believed  to  be  crackbrained,  and 
was  opposed  by  '  all  the  phy- 
sicians.' Aubrey's  Letters  and 
Lives,  vol.  ii.  p.  383.  Dr. 
Willis  (Life  of  Harvey,  p.  xli., 
in  Harvey's  Works,  edit.  Syden- 
ham Society,  1847)  says  'Harvey's 
views  were  at  first  rejected  al- 
most universally.'    Dr.  Elliotson 


SIXTEENTH   TO    THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTUET.     81 


was  at  once  recognized  by  Descartes,  who  made  it  the 
basis  of  the  physiological  part  of  his  work  on  Man.211 
He  likewise  adopted  the  discovery  of  the  lacteals  by 
Aselli,212  which,  like  every  great  truth  yet  laid  before 
the  world,  was,  at  its  first  appearance,  not  only  dis- 
believed, but  covered  with  ridicule.213 

These  things  might  have  been  sufficient  to  rescue 
even  the  physical  labours  of  Descartes  from  the  attacks 
constantly  made  on  them  by  men  who  either  have  not 
studied  his  works,  or  else,  having  studied  them,  are 
unable  to  understand  their  merit.  But  the  glory  of 
Descartes,  and  the  influence  he  exercised  over  his  age, 
do  not  depend  even  on  such  claims  as  these.  Putting 
them  aside,  he  is  the  author  of  what  is  emphatically 
called  Modern  Philosophy.214     He  is  the  originator  of 


{Human  Physiology,  p.  194} 
says,  'His  immediate  reward 
was  general  ridicule  and  abuse, 
and  a  great  diminution  of  his 
practice.'  Broussais  (Examen  des 
Doctrines  Medicates,  vol.  i.  p. 
vii.)  says,  'Harvey  passa  pour 
fou  quand  il  annonqa  la  de- 
couverte  de  la  circulation.' 
Finally,  Sir  "William  Temple, 
who  belongs  to  the  generation 
subsequent  to  Harvey,  and  who, 
indeed,  was  not  born  until  some 
years  after  the  discovery  was 
made,  mentions  it  in  his  works 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  show  that 
even  then  it  was  not  universally 
received  by  educated  men.  See 
two  curious  passages,  which  have 
escaped  the  notice  of  the  his- 
torians of  physiology,  in  Works 
of  Sir  W.  Temple,  vol.  iii.  pp. 
293,  469,  8vo.,  1814. 

211  '  Taken  by  Descartes  as  the 
basis  of  his  physiology,  in  his 
work  on  Man.'  WhewelVs  Hist, 
of  the  Indue.  Sciences,  vol.  iii. 
p.  441.  'Rene  Descartes  se 
deelara  un  des  premiers  en  faveur 
de  la  doctrine  de  la  circulation.' 

VOL.  II.  0 


Eenourd,  Hist,  de  la  Medecine, 
vol.  ii.  p.  163.  See  also  Bordas 
Demoulin,  le  CartSsianisme,  voL 
ii.  p.  324;  and  (Euvres  de  Des- 
cartes, vol.  i.  pp.  68, 179,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  42,  449,  vol.  ix.pp.  159,  332. 
Compare  Willis's  Life  of  Harvey, 
p.  xlv.,  in  Harvey's  Works. 

212  '  Les  veines  blanches,  dites 
lactees,  qu'Asellius  a  decouvertes 
depuis  peu  dans  le  misentere.' 
De  la  Formation  du  F&tus,  sec. 
49,  in  (Euvres  de  Descartes,  vol. 
iv.  p.  483. 

21S  Even  Harvey  denied  it  to 
the  last.  Sprengel,  Hist,  de  la 
Mid.  vol.  iv.  pp.  203,  204.  Com- 
pare Harvey's  Works,  edit. 
Sydenham  Soc.  pp.  605,  614. 

214  M.  Cousin  (Hist,  de  la 
Philos.  II.  serie,  vol.  i.  p.  39) 
says  of  Descartes,  '  Son  premier 
ouvrage  ecrit  en  francais  est  de 
1637.  C'est  done  de  1637  que 
date  la  philosophic  moderne.' 
See  the  same  work,  I.  serie,  vol. 
iii.  p.  77  ;  and  compare  Stewart's 
Philos.  'of  the  Mind,  voL  i  pp. 
14,  529,  with  Eloge  de  Parent,  in 
(Euvres   de    Fontendle,   Paris, 


82       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

that  great  system  and  method  of  metaphysics,  which, 
notwithstanding  its  errors,  has  the  undoubted  merit  of 
having  given  a  wonderful  impulse  to  the  European 
mind,  and  communicated  to  it  an  activity  which  has 
been  made  available  for  other  purposes  of  a  different 
character.  Besides  this,  and  superior  to  it,  there  is 
another  obligation  which  we  are  under  to  the  memory 
of  Descartes.  He  deserves  the  gratitude  of  posterity, 
not  so  much  on  account  of  what  he  built  up,  as  on 
account  of  what  he  pulled  down.  His  life  was  one  great 
and  successful  warfare  against  the  prejudices  and  tra- 
ditions of  men.  He  was  great  as  a  creator,  but  he  was 
far  greater  as  a  destroyer.  In  this  respect  he  was  the 
true  successor  of  Luther,  to  whose  labours  his  own  were 
the  fitting  supplement.  He  completed  what  the  great 
German  reformer  had  left  undone.215  He  bore  to  the  old 
systems  of  philosophy  precisely  the  same  relation  that 
Lather  bore  to  the  old  systems  of  religion.  He  was 
the  great  reformer  and  liberator  of  the  European  intel- 
lect. To  prefer,  therefore,  even  the  most  successful 
discoverers  of  physical  laws  to  this  great  innovator  and 
disturber  of  tradition,  is  just  as  if  we  should  prefer 
knowledge  to  freedom,  and  believe  that  science  is  better 
than  liberty.  We  must,  indeed,  always  be  grateful  to 
those  eminent  thinkers,  to  whose  labours  we  are  in- 
debted for  that  vast  body  of  physical  truths  which  we 
now  possess.  But,  let  us  reserve  the  full  measure  of 
our  homage  for  those  far  greater  men,  who  have  not 
hesitated  to  attack  and  destroy  the  most  inveterate 
prejudices  :  men  who,  by  removing  the  pressure  of  tra- 

1766,  vol.  v.  p.  444,  and  vol.  vi.  religion,  le  genie  frantjais  si  actif 

p.  318:  •  Cartesien,  ou,  si    Ton  et  ei  prompt  l'importait  dans  la 

veut,  philosophe  moderne.'  philosophic,  et  Ton  peut  dire  a  la 

114  'Descartes  avait  etablidans  double  gloire  de  l'Allemagne  et 

le  domaine  de  la  pensee  l'inde-  de  la  France  que  Descartes  est  le 

pendance  absolue  de  la  raison ;  fils  aine  de  Luther.'    Lerminier, 

il  avait  declare  a  la  scholastique  PhUos.  du  Droit,  vol.  ii.  p.  141. 

et  a  la  theologie  que  l'esprit  de  See  also,  on  the  philosophy  of 

Thomme  ne  pouvait  plus  relever  Descartes  as  a  product  of  the 

que  de    l'evidence  qu'il    aurait  Eeformation.      Ward's  Ideal  of 

obtenue  par  lui-meme.     Ce  que  a  Christian  Church,  p.  498. 
Luther  avait  commence  dans  la 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.     83 

dition,  have  purified  the  very  source  and  fountain  of 
our  knowledge,  and  secured  its  future  progress,  by 
casting  off  obstacles  in  the  presence  of  which  progress 
was  impossible.216 

It  will  not  be  expected,  perhaps  it  will  hardly  be 
desired,  that  I  should  enter  into  a  complete  detail  of  the 
philosophy  of  Descartes :  a  philosophy  which,  in  Eng- 
land at  least,  is  rarely  studied,  and  therefore,  is  often 
attacked.  But  it  will  be  necessary  to  give  such  an 
account  of  it  as  will  show  its  analogy  with  the  anti- 
theological  policy  of  Richelieu,  and  will  thus  enable  us  to 
see  the  full  extent  of  that  vast  movement  which  took 
place  in  France  before  the  accession  of  Louis  XIV.  By 
this  means,  we  shall  be  able  to  understand  how  the 
daring  innovations  of  the  great  minister  were  so  success- 
ful, since  they  were  accompanied  and  reinforced  by 
corresponding  innovations  in  the  national  intellect; 
thus  affording  an  additional  instance  of  the  way  in 
which  the  political  history  of  every  country  is  to  be 
explained  by  the  history  of  its  intellectual  progress. 

In  1637,  when  Richelieu  was  at  the  height  of  his 
power,  Descartes  published  that  great  work  which  he 
had  long  been  meditating,  and  which  was  the  first  open 
announcement  of  the  new  tendencies  of  the  French 
mind.  To  this  work  he  gave  the  name  of  a  '  Method ; ' 
and,  assuredly,  the  method  is  the  most  alien  to  what  is 
commonly  called  theology  that  can  possibly  be  conceived. 
Indeed,  so  far  from  being  theological,  it  is  essentially 
and  exclusively  psychological.  The  theological  method 
rests  on  ancient  records,  on  tradition,  on  the  voice  of 
antiquity.  The  method  of  Descartes  rests  solely  on  the 
consciousness  each  man  has  of  the  operations  of  his  own 
mind,  and  lest  anyone  should  mistake  the  meaning  of 
this,  he,  in  subsequent  works,  developed  it  at  great 
length,  and  with  unrivalled  clearness.  For  his  main 
object  was  to  popularize  the  views  which  he  put  forward. 
Therefore,  says  Descartes,  '  I  write  in  French  rather 

218  For,  as  Turgot  finely  says,  1' esprit.de  routine,  tout  ce  qui 

'ce  n'est  pas  l'erreur  qui  s' oppose  porte  a  l'inaction.'    Penaies  in 

aux  progres  de  la  v£rite\  Ce  (Euvres  de  Turgot,  vol.  ii.  p.  343. 
sont  la    mollesse,  l'entetement, 

a  2 


84  FBENCH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE 

than  in  Latin,  because  I  trust  that  they  who  only  employ 
their  simple  and  native  reason  will  estimate  my  opinions 
more  fairly  than  they  who  only  believe  in  ancient 
books.'  217  So  strongly  does  he  insist  upon  this,  that, 
almost  at  the  beginning  of  his  first  work,  he  cautions 
his  readers  against  the  common  error  of  looking  to 
antiquity  for  knowledge;  and  he  reminds  them  that 
'  when  men  are  too  curious  to  know  the  practices  of  past 
ages,  they  generally  remain  very  ignorant  of  their 
own.'2i8 

Indeed,  so  far  from  following  the  old  plan  of  search- 
ing for  truths  in  the  records  of  the  past,  the  great 
essential  of  this  new  philosophy  is  to  wean  ourselves 
from  all  such  associations,  and,  beginning  the  acquisi- 
tion of  knowledge  by  the  work  of  destruction,  first  pull 
down,  in  order  that  afterwards  we  may  build  up.219 
When  I,  says  Descartes,  set  forth  in  the  pursuit  of  truth, 
I  found  that  the  best  way  was  to  reject  every  thing  I  had 
hitherto  received,  and  pluck  out  all  my  old  opinions,  in 
order  that  I  might  lay  the  foundation  of  them  afresh  : 
believing  that,  by  this  means,  I  should  more  easily 
accomplish  the  great  scheme  of  life,  than  by  building  on 
an  old  basis,  and  supporting  myself  by  principles  which 
I  had  learned  in  my  youth,  without  examining  if  they 
were  really  true.220  '  I,  therefore,  will  occupy  myself 
freely  and  earnestly  in  effecting  a  general  destruction  of 
all  my  old  opinions.'  221  For,  if  we  would  know  all  the 
truths  that  can  be  known,  we  must,  in  the  first  place, 


217  '  Et  si  j'ecris  en  fran9ais,  zur    Gewissheit    iiber.'     Tenne- 

qui  est  la  langue  de  mon  pays,  mann,  Gesch.  der  Philos.  vol.  x. 

plutot  qu'en  latin,  qui  est  celle  p.  218.     Compare  Second  Dis- 

fle  mes  pr^eepteurs,  c'est  a,  cause  cours  en  Sorbonne,  in  (Euvres  de 

que  j'espere  que  ceux  qui  ne  se  Turgot,  vol.  ii.  p.  89. 

servent  que  de  leur  raison  natu-  220  Disc,   de    la    Methode,    in 

relle  toute  pure,  jugeront  mieux  (Euvres  de  Descartes,  vol.  i.  p. 

de  mes  opinions  que  ceux  qui  ne  136. 

croient    qu'aux    livres   anciens.'  221  '  Je  m'appliquerai  serieuse- 

Discours  de  la  Methode,  in  (Euvres  ment  et  avec  liberte  a  de"truire 

de  Descartes,  vol.  i.  pp.  210,  211.  gen&ralement    toutes    mes    an- 

2,8  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  127.  ciennes  opinions.'  Meditations  in 

219  '  Er  fing  also  vom  Zweifel  (Euvres  de  Descartes,  vol.  i.  p. 

an,  und  ging  durch  denselben  236. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.     85 

free  ourselves  from  our  prejudices,  and  make  a  point 
of  rejecting  those  things  ■which  we  have  received,  until 
we  have  subjected  them  to  a  new  examination.22*  We, 
therefore,  must  derive  our  opinions,  not  from  tradition, 
but  from  ourselves.  "We  must  not  pass  judgment  upon 
any  subject  which  we  do  not  clearly  and  distinctly 
understand ;  for,  even  if  such  a  judgment  is  correct,  it 
can  only  be  so  by  accident,  not  having  solid  ground  on 
which  to  support  itself.223  But,  so  far  are  we  from  this 
state  of  indifference,  that  our  memory  is  full  of  pre- 
judices :224  we  pay  attention  to  words  rather  than  to 
things  ;225  and  being  thus  slaves  to  form,  there  are  too 
many  of  us  ■  who  believe  themselves  religious,  when,  in 
fact,  they  are  bigoted  and  superstitious  ;  who  think 
themselves  perfect  because  they  go  much  to  church, 
because  they  often  repeat  prayers,  because  they  wear 
short  hair,  because  they  fast,  because  they  give  alms. 
These  are  the  men  who  imagine  themselves  such  friends 
of  God,  that  nothing  they  do  displeases  Him ;  men  who, 
under  pretence  of  zeal,  gratify  their  passions  by  com- 
mitting the  greatest  crimes,  such  as  betraying  towns, 
killing  princes,  exterminating  nations  :  and  all  this  they 
-do  to  those  who  will  not  change  their  opinions.'226 


822  Principes  de  la  Philosophie,  citent  force  prieres,  qu'ils  pur- 
part i.  sec.  75,  in  (Euvres  de  tent  les  cheveux  courts,  qu'ils 
Descartes,  vol.  iii.  pp.  117,  118  ;  jeunent,  qu'ils  donnent  l'aumone, 
and  compare  toI.  ii.  p.  417,  where  pensent  etre  entierement  par- 
he  gives  a  striking  illustration  faits,  et  s'imaginent  qu'ils  sont 
of  this  view.  si  grands  amis  de  Dieu,  qu'ils  ne 

228  Meditations,  in  (Euvres  de  sauroient  rien  faire  qui  lui  de- 

Descartes,  vol.  i.  pp.  303,  304.  plaise,  et  que  tout  ce  que  leur 

224  '  Nous  avons  rempli  notre  dicte  leur  passion  est  un  bon 

memoire  de  beaucoup  de  preju-  zele,    bien    qu'elle    leur    dicte 

ges.'     Principes    de    la  Philos.  quelquefois     les    plus     grands 

part  i.  sec.  47,  in   (Euvres,  vol.  crimes  qui  puissent  etre  commis 

iii.  p.  91.  par  des  hommes,  comme  de  trahir 

224  (Euvres,  vol.  iii.  p.  117.  des  villes,  de  tuer  des  princes, 

224  '  Ce  qu'on  peut  particuliere-  d'exterminer  des  peuples  entiers, 

ment  remarquer  en  ceux    qui,  pour  cela  seul  qu'ils  ne  suivent 

croyant  etre  devots,  sont  seule-  pas  leurs  opinions.'   Lea  Passions 

ment  bigots  et  superstitieux,  c'est  de  FAme,  in  (Euvres  de  Descartes, 

&  dire  qui,   sous   ombre  qu'ils  *o1.  iv.  pp.  194, 195. 
vont  souvent  a  l'eglise,  qu'ils  re- 


86  FEENCH   INTELLECT   FKOM   THE 

These  were  the  words  of  wisdom  which  this  great 
teacher  addressed  to  his  countrymen  only  a  few  years 
after  they  had  brought  to  a  close  the  last  religious  war 
that  has  ever  been  waged  in  France.  The  similarity  of 
those  views  to  those  which,  about  the  same  time,  were 
put  forth  by  Chillingworth,  must  strike  every  reader, 
but  ought  not  to  excite  surprise  ;  for  they  were  but  the 
natural  products  of  a  state  of  society  in  which  the  right 
of  private  judgment,  and  the  independence  of  the 
human  reason,  were  first  solidly  established.  If  we 
examine  this  matter  a  little  closer,  we  shall  find  still 
further  proof  of  the  analogy  between  France  and  Eng- 
land. So  identical  are  the  steps  of  the  progress,  that 
the  relation  which  Montaigne  bears  to  Descartes  is  just 
the  same  as  that  which  Hooker  bears  to  Chillingworth  ; 
the  same  in  reference  to  the  difference  of  time,  and 
also  in  reference  to  the  difference  of  opinions.  The 
mind  of  Hooker  was  essentially  sceptical ;  but  his 
genius  was  so  restrained  by  the  prejudices  of  his  age^ 
that,  unable  to  discern  the  supreme  authority  of  private 
judgment,  he  hampered  it  by  appeals  to  councils  and 
to  the  general  voice  of  ecclesiastical  antiquity  :  impedi- 
ments which  Chillingworth,  thirty  years  later,  effectually 
removed.  In  precisely  the  same  way,  Montaigne,  like 
Hooker,  was  sceptical;  but,  like  him,  he  lived  at  a 
period  when  the  spirit  of  doubt  was  yet  young,  and 
when  the  mind  still  trembled  before  the  authority  of 
the  Church.  It  is,  therefore,  no  wonder  that  even  Mon- 
taigne, who  did  so  much  for  his  age,  should  have  hesi- 
tated respecting  the  capacity  of  men  to  work  out  for 
themselves  great  truths ;  and  that,  pausing  in  the 
course  that  lay  before  him,  his  scepticism  should  often 
have  assumed  the  form  of  a  distrust  of  the  human 
faculties.237  Such  shortcomings,  and  such  imper- 
fections, are  merely  an  evidence  of  the  slow  growth  of 
society,  and  of  the  impossibility  for  even  the  greatest 
thinkers  to   outstrip  their  contemporaries   beyond    a 

227  As  is  particularly  evident  chap.  xii.  Paris,  1843,  pp.  270- 

in    his    long    chapter,    headed  382,  and  see  Tennemann,  Geschi. 

'  Apologie  de  Kaimond  Sebond.'  der  PhUos.  vol.  ix.  p.  455. 
Essais  de    Montaigne,  livre  ii. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     87 

certain  point.  But,  -with  the  advance  of  knowledge, 
this  deficiency  was  at  length  supplied ;  and,  as  the 
generation  after  Hooker  brought  forth  Chillingworth, 
just  so  did  the  generation  after  Montaigne  bring  forth 
Descartes.  Both  Chillingworth  and  Descartes  were 
eminently  sceptical ;  but  their  scepticism  was  directed, 
not  against  the  human  intellect,  but  against  those 
appeals  to  authority  and  tradition  without  which  it  had 
hitherto  been  supposed  that  the  intellect  could  not 
safely  proceed.  That  this  was  the  case  with  Chilling- 
worth, we  have  already  seen.  That  it  was  likewise  the 
case  with  Descartes,  is,  if  possible,  still  more  apparent ; 
for  that  profound  thinker  believed,  not  only  that  the 
mind,  by  its  own  efforts,  could  root  out  its  most  ancient 
opinions,  but  that  it  could,  without  fresh  aid,  build  up 
a  new  and  solid  system  in  place  of  the  one  which  it  had 
thrown  down.228 

It  is  this  extraordinary  confidence  in  the  power  of 
the  human  intellect,  which  r  eminently  characterizes 
Descartes,  and  has  given  to  his  philosophy  that  peculiar 
sublimity  which  distinguishes  it  from  all  other  systems. 
So  far  from  thinking  that  a  knowledge  of  the  external 
world  is  essential  to  the  discovery  of  truth,  he  laid  it 
down  as  a  fundamental  principle,  that  we  must  begin 
by  ignoring  such  knowledge  ;S29  that  the  first  step  is  to 

8,8  He  very  clearly  separates  external  world ;    nor  does  the 

himself   from    men   like  Mon-  passage  quoted  from  him  by  Mr. 

taigne:  '  Non  que  j'imitasse  pour  Jobert  (New  System  of  Philos. 

cela  les  sceptiques,  qui  ne  dou-  vol.  ii.pp.  161,  162,  Lond.  1849) 

tent  que  pour  douter,  et  affectent  at  all  justify  the  interpretation 

d'etre  toujours  irresolus ;  car,  au  of  that  ingenious  ■writer,   who 

contraire,  tout  mon  dessein  ne  confuses  certainty  in  the  ordinary 

tendoit  qu'a  m' assurer,  et  a  reje-  sense  of  the  word  with  certainty 

ter  la  terre  mouvante  et  le  sable  in  the  Cartesian  sense.    A  simi- 

pour  trouver  le  roc  ou  l'argile.'  lar  error  is  made  by  those  who 

DUcours     de     la     Mtthode,    in  suppose  that  his  '  Je  pense,  done 

(Euvres  de  Descartes,  vol.  i.  pp.  je  suis,'  is  an  enthymeme ;  and 

153,  154.  having  taken  this  for  granted, 

K*  According  to  the  view  of  they  turn  on  the  great  philose- 

Descartes,  it  was  to  be  ignored,  pher,  and  accuse  him  of  begging 

not  denied.    There  is  no  instance  the  question !    Such  critics  over- 

to  be  found  in  his  works  of  a  look  the  difference  between  a  lo- 

denial  of  the   existence  of  the  gical  process  and  a  psychological 


88 


FEENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 


separate  ourselves  from  the  delusions  of  nature,  and 
reject  the  evidence  presented  to  our  senses.230  For, 
says  Descartes,  nothing  is  certain  but  thought ;  nor  are 
there  any  truths  except  those  •which  necessarily  follow 
from  the  operation  of  our  own  consciousness.  We 
have  no  knowledge  of  our  soul  except  as  a  thinking 
substance  :231  and  it  were  easier  for  us  to  believe  that 
the  soul  should  cease  to  exist,  than  that  it  should  cease 
to  think.232  And,  as  to  man  himself,  what  is  he  but 
the  incarnation  of  thought  ?  For  that  which  consti- 
tutes the  man,  is  not  his  bones,  nor  his  flesh,  nor  his 
blood.  These  are  the  accidents,  the  incumbrances,  the 
impediments  of  his  nature.  But  the  man  himself  is  the 
thought.  The  invisible  me,  the  ultimate  fact  of  exist- 
ence, the  mystery  of  life,  is  this  :  '  I  am  a  thing  that 
thinks.'  This,  therefore,  is  the  beginning  and  the 
basis  of  our  knowledge.  The  thought  of  each  man  is 
the  last  element  to  which  analysis  can  carry  us  ;   it  is 


one  ;  and  therefore  they  do  not 
see  that  this  famous  sentence  was 
the  description  of  a  mental  fact, 
and  not  the  statement  of  a  muti- 
lated syllogism.  The  student  of 
the  philosophy  of  Descartes  must 
always  distinguish  between  these 
two  processes,  and  remember 
that  each  process  has  an  order 
of  proof  peculiar  to  itself;  or  at 
all  events  he  must  remember 
that  such  was  the  opinion  of 
Descartes.  Compare,  on  the 
Cartesian  enthymeme,  Cousin, 
Hist,  de  la  Philos.  I.  serie,  vol. 
iv.  pp.  512,  513,  with  t,  note  in 
Kritik  der  reinen  Vernunft, 
Kant's  Werke,  vol.  ii.  pp.  323, 324. 

230  Meditations,  in  (Euvres  de 
Descartes,  vol.  i.  pp.  220,  226  ; 
and  again  in  the  Objections  et 
Beponses,  (Euvres,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
245,  246. 

231  '  Au  lieu  que,  lorsque  nous 
tachons  a  connoitre  plus  dis- 
tinctement  notre    nature,   nous 


pouvons  voir  que  notre  ame,  en 
tant  qu'elle  est  une  substance 
distincte  du  corps,  ne  nous  est 
connue  que  par  cela  seul  qu'elle 
pense.'  (Euvres  de  Descartes, 
vol.  iy.  p.  432.  Compare  vol  iii. 
p.  96,  Principes  de  la  Philosophic, 
part  i.  sec.  53. 

232  '  En  sorte  qu'il  me  seroit 
bien  plus  ais6  de  croire  que 
l'ame  cesseroit  d'etre  quand  on 
dit  qu'elle  cesse  de  penser,  que" 
non  pas  de  concevoir  qu'elle  soit 
sans  pens^e.'  (Euvres  de  Des- 
cartes, vol.  viii.  p.  574.  That 
'the  soul  always  thinks,'  is  a 
conclusion  also  arrived  at  by 
Berkeley  by  a  different  process. 
See  his  subtle  argument,  Prin- 
ciples of  Human  Knowledge, 
part  i.  sec.  98,  in  Berkeleys 
Works,  vol  i.  p.  123  ;  and  for  a 
curious  application  of  this  to  the 
theory  of  dreaming,  see  Burdach, 
Physiologie  comme  Science  d!  Ob- 
servation, vol.  v.  pp.  205,  230. 


SIXTEENTH    TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.     89 

the  supreme  judge  of  every  doubt ;   it  is  the  starting- 
point  for  all  wisdom.233 

Taking  our  stand  on  this  ground,  we  rise,  says  Des- 
cartes, to  the  perception  of  the  existence  of  the  Deity. 
For,  our  belief  in  His  existence  is  an  irrefragable  proof 
that  He  exists.  Otherwise,  whence  does  the  belief  arise? 
Since  nothing  can  come  out  of  nothing,  and  since  no  effect 
can  be  without  a  cause,  it  follows  that  the  idea  we  have 
of  God  must  have  an  origin  ;  and  this  origin,  whatever 
name  we  give  it,  is  no  other  than  God.231  Thus,  the 
ultimate  proof  of  His  existence  is  our  idea  of  it.  In- 
stead, therefore,  of  saying  that  we  know  ourselves 
because  we  believe  in  God,  we  should  rather  say  that 
we  believe  in  God  because  we  know  ourselves.235  This 
is  the  order  and  precedence  of  things.  The  thought  of 
each  man  is  sufficient  to  prove  His  existence,  and  it  is 
the  only  proof  we  can  ever  possess.  Such,  therefore, 
is  the  dignity  and  supremacy  of  the  human  intellect, 
that  even  this,  the  highest  of  all  matters,  flows  from  it, 
as  from  its  sole  source.236  Hence,  our  religion  should 
not  be  acquired  by  the  teaching  of  others,  but  should 
be  worked  out  by  ourselves :  it  is  not  to  be  borrowed 
from  antiquity,  but  it  is  to  be  discovered  by  each  man's 
mind ;  it  is  not  traditional,  but  personal.  It  is  because 
this  great  truth  has  been  neglected,  that  impiety  has 
arisen.     If  each  man  were  to  content  himself  with  that 


258  (Euvres  de  Descartes,  vol.i.  que  Dieu  est,  je  ne  puis  recipro- 

pp.  251,  252,  279,  293,  vol.  ii.  quement  affirmer,  de  ce  que  Dieu 

pp.  252,  283.  est,  que  j'existe.'     Regies  pour  la 

iU  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  419;  and  at  Direction  del Esprit,  in  QZuvres, 

p.   420 :    '  Or  de  tout  cela  on  vol.  xi.  p.  274.     See  also  Prin- 

conclut   tres-manifestement  que  cipes  de  la  Philosophie,  part  i. 

Dieu  existe.'    See  also  pp.  159-  sec.  7,  vol.  iii.  p.  66. 

162,  280,  290,   291.     But  the  238  On  this  famous  argument, 

simplest  statement  is  in  a  letter  which  it  is  said  was  also  broached 

to  Mersenne  (vol.  viii.  p.  529) :  by  Anselm,  see  King's  Life  of 

'  J'aitirela  preuve  de  l'existence  Locke,  vol.  ii.  p.  133  ;  the  Bene- 

de  Dieu  de  l'idee  que  je  trouve  dictine  Hist.  Lit.  de  la  France, 

en  moi  d'un  etre  souverainement  vol.  ix.  pp.  417,  418 ;  Moskeim's 

parfait.'  Eccles.  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  239  ;  and 

2SS  '  Ainsi,  quoique,  de  ce  que  CudwortKs  Intellect.  Syst.  vol.  iii. 

je  suis,  je  conclue  avec  certitude  p.  383. 


90 


FEENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 


idea  of  God  which  is  suggested  by  his  own  mind,  he 
would  attain  to  a  true  knowledge  of  the  Divine  Nature. 
But  when,  instead  of  confining  himself  to  this,  he 
mixes  up  with  it  the  notions  of  others,  his  ideas  become 
perplexed ;  they  contradict  themselves  ;  and  the  com- 
position being  thus  confused,  he  often  ends  by  denying 
the  existence,  not,  indeed,  of  God,  but  of  such  a  God 
as  that  in  whom  he  has  been  taught  to  believe.837 

The  mischief  which  these  principles  must  have  done 
to  the  old  theology  is  very  obvious.23*  Not  only  were 
they  fatal,  in  the  minds  of  those  who  received  them,  to 
many  of  the  common  dogmas — such,  for  instance,  as 
that  of  transubstantiation,239 — but  they  were  likewise 
directly  opposed  to  other  opinions,  equally  indefensible, 
and  far  more  dangerous.  For  Descartes,  by  founding 
a  philosophy  which  rejected  all  authority  except  that  of 
the  human  reason,240  was,  of  course,  led  to  abandon  th» 


237  'Et  certes  jamais  les  hom- 
mea  ne  pourroient  s'  Eloigner  de 
la  vraie  connoissance  de  cette 
nature  divine,  s'ils  vouloient 
seulement  porter  leur  attention 
sur  l'idee  qu'ils  ont  de  l'etre 
souverainement  parfait.  Mais 
ceux  qui  melent  quelques  autres 
idees  avec  celle-la  composent  par 
ce  moyen  un  dieu  chimerique,  en 
la  nature  duquel  il  y  ades  choses 
qui  se  contrarient;  et,  apres 
l'avoir  ainsi  compose,,  ce  n'est 
pas  merveille  s'ils  nient  qu'un 
tel  dieu,  qui  leur  est  represents 
par  une  fausse  idee,  existe.' 
(Euvres  de  Descartes,  vol.  i.  pp. 
423,  424. 

238  This  is  delicately  but 
clearly  indicated  in  an  able  letter 
from  Arnaud,  printed  in  (Euvres 
de  Descartes,  vol.  ii  pp.  1-36 : 
see  in  particularpp.  31,  34.  And 
Duclos  bluntly^'says :  '  Si,  depuis 
la  revolution  que  Descartes  a 
commencee,  les  theologiens  se 
eont  eloignes  des  philosophes, 
c'est  que  ceux-ci  ont  paru  ne  pas 


respecter  infiniment  les  theolo- 
giens. Une  philosophic  qui  pre- 
noit  pour  base  le  doute  et  l'ex- 
amen  devoit  les  effaroucher.* 
Duclos,  Memoires,  vol.  i.  p.  109. 

239  On  the  relation  of  the  Car- 
tesian philosophy  to  the  doctrine 
of  transubstantiation,  compare 
Palmer's  Treatise  on  the  Church, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  169,  170,  with  Sal- 
lam's  Lit.  of  Europe,  vol.  ii. 
p.  453  ;  and  the  remark  ascribed 
to  Hobbes,  in  Aubrey's  Letters 
and  Lives,  vol.  ii.  p.  626.  But 
Hobbes,  if  he  really  made  this 
observation,  had  no  right  to 
expect  Descartes  to  become  a 
martyr. 

240  '  Le  caractere  de  la  philo- 
sophic du  moyen  age  est  la  sou- 
mission  a  une  autoritS  autre  que 
la  raison.  La  philosophic  mo- 
derne  ne  reconnait  que  l'autorite 
de  la  raison.  C'est  le  cartesian- 
isme  qui  a  oper6  cette  revolution 
decisive.'  Cousin,  Hist,  de  la 
Philos.  II.  serie,  voL  i.  pp.  258., 
259. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTUEY.     91 


Btudy  of  final  causes,241 — an  old  and  natural  supersti- 
tion, by  which,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  the  German 
philosophers  were  long  impeded,  and  which  still  hangs, 
though  somewhat  loosely,  about  the  minds  of  men.248 
At  the  same  time,  by  superseding  the  geometry  of  the 
ancients,  he  aided  in  weakening  that  inordinate  respect 
with  which  antiquity  was  then  regarded.  In  another 
matter,  still  more  important,  he  displayed  the  same 
spirit,  and  met  with  the  same  success.  "With  such 
energy  did  he  attack  the  influence,  or  rather  the 
tyranny  of  Aristotle,  that  although  the  opinions  of  that 
philosopher  were  intimately  interwoven  with  the  Chris- 
tian theology,243  his  authority  was  entirely  overthrown 


241  «Nous  rejetterons  entiere- 
ment  de  notre  philosophic  la 
recherche  des  causes  finales.' 
Principes  de  la  PhUos.,  part  i. 
sec.  28,  in  CEuvres  de  Descartes, 
vol.  iii.  p.  81.  See  also  part  iii. 
sec.  3,  p.  182  ;  and  his  reply  to 
Gassendi,  in  (Euvres,  vol  ii.  pp. 
280,  281.  Compare  Cousin,  Hist, 
dela  Philosophic,  II.  serie,  vol.  ii. 
p.  71,  with  Sprengel,  Hist,  de  la 
Medecine,  vol.  v.  p.  203. 

242  Dr.  Whewell,  for  instance, 
says,  that  we  must  reject  final 
causes  in  the  inorganic  sciences, 
but  must  recognize  them  in  the 
organic  ones;  which,  in  other 
words,  simply  means,  that  we 
know  less  of  the  organic  world 
than  of  the  inorganic,  and  that 
because  we  know  less,  we  are  to 
believe  more ;  for  here,  as  every- 
where else,  the  smaller  the 
science  the  greater  the  supersti- 
tion. WhewelVs  Philos.  of  the 
Inductive  Sciences,  8vo.  1847, 
vol.  i.  pp.  620,  627,  628;  and 
his  Hist,  of  the  Indue.  Sciences, 
vol.  iii.  pp.  430,  431.  If  the 
question  were  to  be  decided  by 
authority,  it  would  be  enough  to 
appeal  to  Bacon  and  Descartes, 


the  two  greatest  writers  on  the 
philosophy  of  method  in  the 
seventeenth  century ;  and  to  Au- 
guste  Comte,  who  is  admitted  by 
the  few  persons  who  have  mas- 
tered his  Philosophie  Positive,  to 
be  the  greatest  in  our  own  time. 
These  profound  and  comprehen- 
sive thinkers  have  all  rejected 
the  study  of  final  causes,  which, 
as  they  have  clearly  seen,  is  a 
theological  invasion  of  scientific 
rights.  On  the  injury  which  this 
study  has  wrought,  and  on  the 
check  it  has  given  to  the  advance 
of  our  knowledge,  see  Robin  et 
Verdett,  Chimie  Anat.  Paris, 
1853,  vol.  i.  pp.  489,  493,  494, 
vol.  ii.  p.  555 ;  Benouard,  Hist, 
de  la  Medecine,  vol.  i.  pp.  232, 
237 ;  Sprengel,  Hist,  de  la  Mi- 
decine,  vol.  ii,  pp.  220  ;  Geoffroy 
Saint-Hilaire,  Hist,  des  Anoma- 
lies  de  V Organisation,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  485,  436 ;  Herder,  Idem  zur 
Gesch.  der  Menschheit,  vol.  iii. 
p.  270;  Lawrence's  Lectures  on 
Man,  p.  36;  and  Burdach, 
TraitS  de  Physiologic,  vol.  i. 
p.  190. 

a4S  Auf  das  innigste  verbunden 
mit  der  Theologie,  nicht  allein  in 


92       FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

by  Descartes  ;  and  with  it  there  perished  those  scho- 
lastic prejudices,  for  which  Aristotle,  indeed,  was  not 
responsible,  but  which,  under  the  shelter  of  his  mighty 
name,  had,  during  several  centuries,  perplexed  the  un- 
derstandings of  men,  and  retarded  the  progress  of  their 
knowledge.244 

These  were  the  principal  services  rendered  to  civiliza- 
tion by  one  of  the  greatest  men  Europe  has  ever  pro- 
duced. The  analogy  between  him  and  Richelieu  is  very 
striking,  and  is  as  complete  as  their  relative  positions 
would  allow.  The  same  disregard  of  ancient  notions, 
the  same  contempt  for  theological  interests,  the  same 
indifference  to  tradition,  the  same  determination  to 
prefer  the  present  to  the  past :  in  a  word,  the  same 
essentially  modern  spirit,  is  seen  alike  in  the  writings 
•of  Descartes,  and  in  the  actions  of  Richelieu.  What 
the  first  was  to  philosophy,  that  was  the  other  to 
politics.  But,  while  acknowledging  the  merits  of  these 
•eminent  men,  it  behoves  us  to  remember  that  their 
success  was  the  result,  not  only  of  their  own  abilities, 
but  likewise  of  the  general  temper  of  their  time.  The 
nature  of  their  labours  depended  on  themselves ;  the 
way  in  which  their  labours  were  received,  depended  on 
-their  contemporaries.  Had  they  lived  in  a  more  super- 
stitious age,  their  views  would  have  been  disregarded, 


den  katholischen,  sondern  selbst  throwing  the  authority  of  Aris- 

auch    in    den    protestantischen  totle,'  &c.     See  also  Duvernet, 

Landern.'      Tennemann,    Gesch.  Hist,  de    la   Sorbonne,    vol.  ii. 

■der  Philos.  vol.  ix.  p.  516.     Des-  p.  192 ;  Cuvier,  Hist,  des  Sciences, 

cartes,  in  a  letter  to  Mersenne  part  ii.   p.    532;    and    Locke's 

(CEuvres,  vol.  vi.  p.  73),  writes,  Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  48.     This,  I 

in  1629,  'La  theologie,  laqnelle  need   hardly  say,   refers  to  the 

>on  a  tellement  assujettie  a  Aris-  habit  of  appealing  to  Aristotle, 

tote,  qu'il  est  impossible  d'ex-  as  if  he  were  infallible,  and  is 

pliquer    une    autre  philosophie  very  different  from  that  respect 

qu'il  ne  semble  d'abord  qu'elle  which  is  naturally  felt  for  a  man 

•soit  contre  la  foi.'     Compare  vol.  who  was  probably  the  greatest 

vii.  p.   344,   vol.  viii.   pp.  281,  of  all  the  ancient  thinkers.     The 

497.  difference  between  the  Aristote- 

244  Dr.  Brown  (Philosophy  of  lian   and   Cartesian   systems  is 

the    Mind,     Edinburgh,    1838,  touched  on    rather    hastily   in 

p.    172)  calls  Descartes    'that  CudwortKs  Intellect.  Syst.  vol.  i. 

illustrious  rebel,  who,  in  over-  pp.  170,  171. 


SIXTEENTH^  TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTTJEY.     93- 

or,  if  noticed,  would  have  been  execrated  as  impious 
novelties.  In  the  fifteenth,  or  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  genius  of  Descartes  and  of  Richelieu  would 
have  lacked  the  materials  necessary  to  their  work ;  their 
comprehensive  minds  would,  in  that  state  of  society, 
have  found  no  play;  they  would  have  awakened  no- 
sympathies  ;  their  bread  would  have  been  cast  upon 
those  waters  which  return  it  not  again.  And  it  would 
have  been  well  for  them  if,  in  such  a  case,  indifference 
were  the  only  penalty  with  which  they  would  be  visited. 
It  would  have  been  well  if  they  had  not  paid  the  forfeit 
incurred  by  many  of  those  illustrious  thinkers  who 
have  vainly  attempted  to  stem  the  torrent  of  human 
credulity.  It  would  have  been  well  if  the  church  had 
not  risen  in  her  wrath — if  Richelieu  had  not  been 
executed  as  a  traitor,  and  Descartes  burned  as  a  heretic. 

Indeed,  the  mere  fact  that  two  such  men,  occupying  so 
conspicuous  a  place  before  the  public  eye,  and  enforcing 
views  so  obnoxious  to  the  interests  of  superstition,, 
should  have  lived  without  serious  danger,  and  then 
have  died  peaceably  in  their  beds — the  mere  fact  that 
this  should  have  happened,  is  a  decisive  proof  of  the 
progress  which,  during  fifty  years,  had  been  made  by 
the  French  nation.  With  such  rapidity  were  the  pre- 
judices of  that  great  people  dying  away,  that  opinions 
utterly  subversive  of  theological  traditions,  and  fatal  to 
the  whole  scheme  of  ecclesiastical  power,  were  with  im- 
punity advocated  by  Descartes,  and  put  in  practice  by 
Richelieu.  It  was  now  clearly  seen,  that  the  two  fore- 
most men  of  their  time  could,  with  little  or  no  risk, 
openly  propagate  ideas  which,  half  a  century  before, 
it  would  have  been  accounted  dangerous  even  for  the 
most  obscure  man  to  whisper  in  the  privacy  of  his  own 
chamber. 

Nor  are  the  causes  of  this  impunity  difficult  to  under- 
stand. They  are  to  be  found  in  the  diffusion  of  that 
sceptical  spirit,  by  which,  in  France  as  well  as  in  Eng- 
land, toleration  was  preceded.  For,  without  entering 
into  details  which  would  be  too  long  for  the  limits  of 
this  Introduction,  it  is  enough  to  say,  that  French 
literature  generally  was,  at  this  period,  distinguished 


94       FEENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

by  a  freedom  and  a  boldness  of  inquiry,  of  which.,  Eng- 
land alone  excepted,  no  example  bad  tben  been  seen 
in  Europe.  The  generation  which  had  hstened  to  the 
teachings  of  Montaigne  and  of  Charron,  was  now  suc- 
ceeded by  another  generation,  the  disciples,  indeed,  of 
those  eminent  men,  but  disciples  who  far  outstripped 
their  masters.  The  result  was,  that,  during  the  thirty 
or  forty  years  which  preceded  the  power  of  Louis 
XIV.,245  there  was  not  to  be  found  a  single  French- 
man of  note  who  did  not  share  in  the  general  feeling — 
not  one  who  did  not  attack  some  ancient  dogma,  or  sap 
the  foundation  of  some  old  opinion.  This  fearless 
temper  was  the  characteristic  of  the  ablest  writers  of 
that  time ; 246  but  what  is  still  more  observable  is,  that 
the  movement  spread  with  such  rapidity  as  to  include 
in  its  action  even  those  parts  of  society  which  are  in- 
variably the  last  to  be  affected  by  it.  That  spirit  of 
doubt,  which  is  the  necessary  precursor  of  all  inquiry, 
and  therefore  of  all  solid  improvement,  owes  its  origin 
to  the  most  thinking  and  intellectual  parts  of 
society,  and  is  naturally  opposed  by  the  other  parts : 
opposed  by  the  nobles,  because  it  is  dangerous  to  their 
interests ;  opposed  by  the  uneducated,  because  it 
attacks  their  prejudices.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  neither  the  highest  nor  the  lowest  ranks  are 
fit  to  conduct  the  government  of  a  civilized  country ; 
since  both  of  them,  notwithstanding  individual 
exceptions,  are,  in  the  aggregate,  averse  to  those 
reforms  which  the  exigencies  of  an  advancing  nation 
constantly  require.  But,  in  Prance,  before  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  even  these  classes   began 


245  That  is  in  1661,  when  Lamothe-Levayer.'  To  these  may 
Louis  XIV.  first  assumed  the  be  added  Naud£,  Patin,  and  pro- 
government,  bably  G-assendi.     Compare  Hal- 

248  M.  Barante  {Tableau  de  la  lam's  Liter  at.  of  Europe,  vol.  ii. 

Literature  Francaise,  pp.  26, 27)  pp.  364,  365,  with  Mackintosh's 

notices  '  cette  independence  dans  Ethical  Philos.  p.  1 16,  and  Lettres 

les  idees,  ce  jugement  audacieux  de  Patin,   vol.  i.  p.  297,  vol.  ii. 

de  toutes  choses,  qu'on  remarque  pp.  33,  186,  191,  242,  342,  498 

dans   Corneille,    dans   Mez^ray,  §0<" .  vol.  iii.  p.  87. 
dans  Balzac,  dans  Sain  t-Keal, dans 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.     95 


to  participate  in  the  great  progress ;  so  that,  not 
only  among  thoughtful  men,  but  likewise  among  the 
ignorant  and  the  frivolous,  there  was  seen  that  in- 
quisitive and  incredulous  disposition,  which,  what- 
ever may  be  said  against  it,  has  at  least  this  peculiarity, 
that,  in  its  absence,  there  is  no  instance  to  be  found  of 
the  establishment  of  those  principles  of  toleration  and 
of  liberty,  which  have  only  been  recognized  with  in- 
finite difficulty,  and  after  many  a  hard-fought  battle 
against  prejudices  whose  inveterate  tenacity  might 
almost  cause  them  to  be  deemed  a  part  of  the  original 
constitution  of  the  human  mind.247 

It  is  no  wonder  if,  under  these  circumstances,  the 
speculations  of  Descartes  and  the  actions  of  Richelieu 
should  have  met  with  great  success.  The  system  of 
Descartes  exercised  immense  influence,  and  soon  per- 
vaded nearly  every  branch  of  knowledge.248    The  policy 


217  The  increase  of  incredulity 
was  so  remarkable,  as  to  give 
rise  to  a  ridiculous  assertion, 
•qu'il  y  avoit  plus  de  50,000 
athees  dans  Paris  vers  l'an  1623.' 
Baillet,  Jugemens  des  Savans, 
Paris,  1722,  4to.  vol.  i.  p.  185. 
Baillet  has  no  difficulty  in  reject- 
ing this  preposterous  statement 
(which  is  also  noticed  in  Cole- 
ridge's Literary  Bemains,  vol.  i. 
p.  305 ;  where,  however,  there 
is  apparently  a  confusion  between 
two  different  periods) ;  but  the 
spread  of  scepticism  among  the 
upper  ranks  and  courtiers,  during 
the  reign  of  Louis  XIII.  and  the 
minority  of  Louis  XIV.,  is  at- 
tested by  a  great  variety  of  evi- 
dence. See  Mfon.  de  Madame 
de  Motteville,  vol.  iii.  p.  52 ;  Mem. 
de  Rets,  Vol.  i.  p.  266  ;  Conrart, 
MSm.  p.  235  note  ;  Des  Riaux, 
Hittoriettes,  vol.viLp.  143;  Mim. 
deJBrienne,  vol.  ii.  p.  107  note. 

148  Volumes  might  be  written 
on   the  influonoe   of    Deseartes, 


which  was  seen,  not  only  in  sub- 
jects immediately  connected  with 
his  philosophy,  but  even  in  those 
apparently  remote  from  it.  Com- 
pare Broussais,  Examen  des  Doc- 
trines Medicates,  vol.  ii.  pp.  55 
seq. ;  Lettres  de  Patin,  vol.  iii. 
p.  153:  Sprengel,  Hist,  de  la 
Medecine,  vol.  iv.  p.  238 ;  Cuvier, 
Hist,  des  Sciences,  part  ii.pp.  327, 
332,  352,  363;  Staudlin,  Ge- 
schichte  der  theologischen  Wissen- 
schaften,  vol.  i.  p.  263  ;  Tenne- 
tnann,  Gesch.  der  Philos.  vol.  x. 
pp.  285  seq. ;  Huetius  de  Rebus 
ad,  eum  pertinentibtis,  pp.  35, 
295,  296,  385-389;  Mosheim's 
Eccles.  Hist.  vol.  ii.  p.  258 : 
Lacier,  Rapport  Historique, 
p.  334 ;  Leslie's  Nat.  Philos. 
p.  121 :  Eloges,  in  (Euvres  de 
Fontenelle,  Paris,  1766,  vol.  v. 
pp.  94,  106,  137,  197,  234, 
392,  vol.  vi.  pp.  157,  318,  449 ; 
Thomson's  Hist,  of  Chemistry, 
vol.  i.  p.  195;  Qaerard,  France 
Lit.  vol.  iii.  p.  273. 


96  FBENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 

of  Richelieu  was  so  firmly  established,  that  it  was  con. 
timied  without  the  slightest  difficulty  by  his  immediate 
successor :  nor  was  any  attempt  made  to  reverse  it 
until  that  forcible  and  artificial  reaction  which,  under 
Louis  XIV.,  was  fatal,  for  a  time,  to  every  sort  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty.  The  history  of  that  reaction, 
and  the  way  in  which,  by  a  counter-reaction,  the  French 
Revolution  was  prepared,  will  be  related  in  the  sub- 
sequent chapters  of  this  volume;  at  present  we  will 
resume  the  thread  of  those  events  which  took  place  in 
France  before  Louis  ~X.IV.  assumed  the  government. 

A  few  months  after  the  death  of  Richelieu,  Louis 
XIII.  also  died,  and  the  crown  was  inherited  by  Louis 
XIV.,  who  was  then  a  child,  and- who  for  many  years 
had  no  influence  in  public  affairs.  During  his  mino- 
rity, the  government  was  administered,  avowedly  by  his 
mother,  but  in  reality  by  Mazarin  :  a  man  who,  though 
in  every  point  inferior  to  Richelieu,  had  imbibed  some- 
thing of  his  spirit,  and  who,  so  far  as  he  was  able, 
adopted  the  policy  of  that  great  statesman,  to  whom  he 
owed  his  promotion.249  He,  influenced  partly  by  the 
example  of  his  predecessor,  partly  by  his  own  cha- 
racter, and  partly  by  the  spirit  of  his  age,  showed  no 
desire  to  persecute  the  Protestants,  or  to  disturb  them 
in  any  of  the  rights  they  then  exercised.250  His  first 
act  was  to  confirm  the  Edict  of  Nantes ; 251  and,  to- 
wards the  close  of  his  life,  he  even  allowed  the  Protes- 
tants again  to   hold  those   synods  which  their  own 


249  On  the  connexion  bet-ween  Sismondi,   Hist,    des    Frangais, 

Bichelieu  and  Mazarin,  see  Sis-  vol.  xxiv.  p.  531.     That  he  did 

mondi,  Hist,  des  Frangais,  vol.  not  persecute  the  Protestants  is 

xxiii.  pp.  400, 530;  and  a  curious,  grudgingly  confessed  in  Felice's 

though  perhaps  apocryphal  anec-  Hist,  of  the  Protestants  of  France, 

dote   in    Tallemant  des   Beaux,  p.  292.     See  also  Smedley's  Be- 

Historiettes,  vol.  ii.  pp.  231,  232.  formed ReUgionm  France,  vol.iii. 

In  1636  there  was  noticed  Te-  p.  222. 

troite  union '  between  Eichelieu         2M  He  confirmed  it  in  July, 

and  Mazarin.     Le   Vassor,  Hist.  1643.       See    Benoist,   Hist,   de 

de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  viii.  part  ii.  VEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  iii.  appen- 

p.  187.  dix,  p.  3 ;  and  QuicKs  Synodkon 

840  '  Mazarin  n'avoit  ni  fana-  in  Gallia,  vol.  i.  p.  ciii. 
tisme     ni     esprit    persecuteur,' 


SIXTEENTH    TO    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.      97 

violence  had  been  the  means  of  mterrupting.252  Be- 
tween the  death  of  Richelieu  and  the  accession  to 
power  of  Lonis  XIV.,  there  elapsed  a  period  of  nearly 
twenty  years,  during  which  Mazarin,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  intervals,  was  at  the  head  of  the  state ; 
and  in  the  whole  of  that  time,  I  have  found  no  instance 
of  any  Frenchman  being  punished  for  his  religion. 
Indeed,  the  new  government,  so  far  from  protecting  the 
church  by  repressing  heresy,  displayed  that  indif- 
ference to  ecclesiastical  interests  which  was  now  be- 
coming a  settled  maxim  of  French  policy.  Richelieu, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  had  taken  the  bold  step  of 
placing  Protestants  at  the  head  of  the  royal  armies ; 
and  this  he  had  done  upon  the  simple  principle,  that 
one  of  the  first  duties  of  a  statesman  is  to  employ  for 
the  benefit  of  the  country  the  ablest  men  he  can  find, 
without  regard  to  their  theological  opinions,  with  which, 
as  he  well  knew,  no  government  has  any  concern.  But 
Louis  XIII.,  whose  personal  feelings  were  always  op- 
posed to  the  enlightened  measures  of  his  great  minister, 
was  offended  by  this  magnanimous  disregard  of  ancient 
prejudices ;  his  piety  was  shocked  at  the  idea  of  Ca- 
tholic soldiers  being  commanded  by  heretics  ;  and,  as 
we  are  assured  by  a  well-informed  contemporary,  he 
determined  to  put  an  end  to  this  scandal  to  the  church, 
and,  for  the  future,  allow  no  Protestant  to  receive 
the  staff  of  marshal  of  France.253  Whether  the  king,  if 
he  had  lived,  would  have  carried  his  point,  is  doubtful ; 254 
but  what  is  certain  is,  that,  only  four  months  after  his 

M*  In  1659,  there  was  assem-  the  sin  he  had  committed,  that 

hied  the  Synod  of  Loudon,  the  before  his  death  he  intreated  the 

moderator  of  which  said,  '  It  is  Protestant    marshals  to  change 

now  fifteen  years  since  we  had  a  their  creed :  '  II  ne  voulut  pas 

national  synod.'     Quick's  Syno-  mourir  sans  avoir  exhorte  de  sa 

dicon  in  Gallia,  vol.  ii.  p.  517.  propre  bouche  les  mar^chaux  de 

*5S  Brienne  records  the  deter-  la  Force  et  de  Chatillon  a  sefaire 

mination  of  the  king,  '  que  cette  Catholiques.'     Benoist,  Hist  de 

dignity  ne  seroit  plus  accordee  a  VEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  ii.  p.  612. 

des  Protestans.'    Sismondi,  His-  The  same  circumstance  is  men- 

toire   des    Frangais,  vol.  xxiv.  tioned  by  Le  Vassor,   Hist,  de 

p.  65.  Louis  XIU,    vol.    x.    part    ii. 

254  He  was  so  uneasy  about  p.  785. 
XOL.  II.                                       H 


98 


FKENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 


death,  this  appointment  of  marshal  was  bestowed  upon 
Turenne,  the  most  able  of  all  the  Protestant  generals.25* 
And  in  the  very  next  year,  Grassion,  another  Protestant, 
was  raised  to  the  same  dignity;  thus  affording  the 
strange  spectacle  of  the  highest  military  power  in  a 
great  Catholic  country  wielded  by  two  men  against 
whose  religion  the  church  was  never  weary  of  directing 
her  anathemas.256  In  a  similar  spirit,  Mazarin,  on 
mere  grounds  of  political  expediency,  concluded  an 
intimate  alliance  with  Cromwell ;  an  usurper  who,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  theologians,  was  doomed  to  per- 
dition, since  he  was  soiled  by  the  triple  crime  of  rebel- 
lion, of  heresy,  and  of  regicide.257  Finally,  one  of  the 
last  acts  of  this  pupil  of  Richelieu's  258  was  to  sign  the 
celebrated  treaty  of  the  Pyrenees,  by  which  ecclesias- 
tical interests  were  seriously  weakened,  and  great  injury 
inflicted  on  him  who  was  still  considered  to  be  the 
head  of  the  church.259 


»5  Louis  XIII.  died  in  May 
1643,  and  Turenne  was  made 
marshal  in  the  September  follow- 
ing. Lavallee,  Hist,  des  Francois, 
vol.  iii.  pp.  148,  151. 

216  Sismondi  (Hist,  des  Fran- 
oais,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  65)  makes  the 
appointment  of  Gassionin  1644; 
according  to  Montglat  {Memoir es, 
vol.  i.  p.  437)  it  was  at  the  end 
of  1643.  There  are  some  singu- 
lar anecdotes  of  Grassion  in  Les 
Historiettes  de  Tallemant  des 
R'eaux,  vol.  v.  pp.  167-180  ;  and 
an  account  of  his  death  in  Mem. 
de  Motteville,  vol.  ii.p.  290,  from 
which  it  appears  that  he  remained 
a  Protestant  to  the  last. 

257  The  Pope  especially  was 
offended  by  this  alliance  (Ranke, 
die  Pdpste,  vol.  iii.  p.  158,  com- 
pared with  Vaughan's  Cromwell, 
vol.  i.  p.  343,  vol.  ii.  p.  124) ; 
and,  judging  from  the  language 
of  Clarendon,  the  orthodox  party 
in  England  was  irritated  by  it. 


Clarendon's  Hist,  of  the  Rebellion, 
pp.  699,  700.  Contemporary 
notices  of  this  union  between  the 
cardinal  and  the  regicide,  will  be 
found  in  Mem.  de  Retz,  vol.  i. 
p.  349 ;  Mem.  de  Montglat,  vol.  ii. 
p.  478,  vol.  iii.  p.  23  ;  Lettres  de 
Patin,  vol.  ii.  pp.  183,  302,  426; 
Marchand,  Diet.  Historique,xo\.  ii. 
p.  56;  Mem.  of  Sir  Philip  War- 
wick, p.  377 ;  Harris's  Lives  of 
the  Stuarts,  vol.  iii.  p.  393. 

258  De  Retz  (Memoires,  vol.  i. 
p.  59),  who  knew  Richelieu,  calls 
Mazarin  •  son  disciple.'  And  at 
p.  65  he  adds,  'comme  il  marchoit 
sur  les  pas  du  cardinal  de  Riche- 
lieu, qui  avoit  achev6  de  detruire 
toutes  les  anciennes  maximes  de 
l'etat.'  Compare  Mem.  de  Motte- 
ville, vol.  ii.  p.  18 ;  and  Mem. 
de  la  Rochefoucauld,  vol.  i.  p.  444. 

2M  On  the  open  affront  to  the 
Pope  by  this  treaty,  see  Ranke, 
die  Pdpste,  vol.  iii.  p.  159  :  ■  An 
dem  pyrenaischen  Frieden  nahm 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTUET.      9S> 

But,  the  circumstance  for  which  the  adnmiistration 
of  Mazarin  is  most  remarkable,  is  the  breaking  out  of 
that  great  civil  war  called  the  Fronde,  in  which  the 
people  attempted  to  carry  into  politics  the  insubor- 
dinate spirit  which  had  already  displayed  itself  in 
literature  and  in  religion.  Here  we  cannot  fail  to  note 
the  similarity  between  this  struggle  and  that  which,  at 
the  same  time,  was  taking  place  in  England.  It  would, 
indeed,  be  far  from  accurate  to  say  that  the  two  events 
were  the  counterpart  of  each  other ;  but  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  analogy  between  them  is  very  strik- 
ing. In  both  countries,  the  civil  war  was  the  first 
popular  expression  of  what  had  hitherto  been  rather 
a  speculative,  and,  so  to  say,  a  literary  scepticism.  In 
both  countries,  incredulity  was  followed  by  rebellion, 
and  the  abasement  of  the  clergy  preceded  the  humi- 
liation of  the  crown ;  for  Richelieu  was  to  the  French 
church  what  Elizabeth  had  been  to  the  English  church. 
In  both  countries  there  now  first  arose  that  great  pro- 
duct of  civilization,  a  free  press,  which  showed  its 
liberty  by  pouring  forth  those  fearless  and  innumerable 
works  which  mark  the  activity  of  the  age.260     In  both 


er  auch  nicht  einmal  mehr  einen  And  Omer  Talon,  with  the  in- 

scheinbaren  Antheil :  man  ver-  dignation  natural  to  a  magis- 

mied     es     seine    Abgeordneten  trate,  mentions,   that  in    1649, 

zuzulassen:  kaum  wurde  seiner  'toutes  sortes  de  libelles  et  de 

noch  darin  gedacht.'   The  conse-  diffamations  se  publioient  haute- 

quences  and  the  meaning  of  all  ment  par  la  ville  sans  permission 

this    are    well    noticed    by  M.  du  magistrate      Mem.    $Omer 

Eanke.  Talon,  vol.  ii  p.  466.     For  fur- 

260  '  La  presse  jouissait  d'une  ther  evidence  of  the  great  im- 

entiere  liberte  pendant  les  trou-  portance  of  the  press  in  France 

bles  de  la  Fronde,  et  le  public  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 

prenait  un  tel  interet  aux  debats  century,  see  MSm.  de  Lcnet,  vol.  i. 

politiques,  que  les  pamphlets  se  p.    162 ;     Mem.    de  Motteville, 

debitaient  quelquefois  au  nombre  vol.  iii.  pp.  288,  289 ;   Lettrcs  de 

de  huit  et  dix  mille  exemplaires.'  Patin,  vol.  i.  p.  432,  vol.  ii.  p.  517 ; 

Sainte-Aulaire, Hist,  dela Fronde,  Monteil,  Hist,  des  divers  Etats, 

vol.  i.  p.  299.      Tallemant  des  vol.  vii.  p.  175. 
Keaux,  who  wrote  immediately        In  England,  the  Long  Parlia- 

after  the  Fronde,  says  {Histori-  ment  succeeded  to  the  licensing 

ettes,  vol.  iv.  p.  74),  '  Durant  la  authority  of   the  Star-chamber 

Fronde,  qu'on  imprimoit  tout.'  (fflackstone's  Commentaries,  vol. 
h2 


100  FRENCH   INTELLECT   FEOM    THE 

countries,  the  struggle  was  between  retrogression  and 
progress ;  between  those  who  clung  to  tradition,  and 
those  who  longed  for  in  novation ;  while,  in  both,  the 
contest  assumed  the  external  form  of  a  war  between 
king  and  parliament,  the  king  being  the  organ  of  the 
past,  the  parliament  the  representative  of  the  present. 
And,  not  to  mention  inferior  similarities,  there  was  one 
other  point   of  vast  importance   in   which  these   two 
great  events  coincide.     This  is,  that  both  of  them  were 
eminently  secular,  and  arose  from  the  desire,  not  of 
propagating   religious   opinions,  but  of  securing  civil 
liberty.     The  temporal  character  of  the  English  rebel- 
lion I  have  already  noticed,  and,  indeed,   it  must  be 
obvious  to  whoever  has   studied  the   evidence  in   its 
original  sources.     In  France,  not  only  do  we  find  the 
same  result,  but  we  can  even  mark  the  stages  of  the 
progress.     In  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
immediately  after  the  death  of  Henry  III.,  the  French 
civil  wars  were  caused  by  religious  disputes,  and  were 
carried  on  with  the  fervour  of  a  crusade.     Early  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  hostilities  again  broke  out ; 
but  though   tlie   efforts    of  the  government   were  di- 
rected  against  the  Protestants,  this  was  not  because 
they  were  heretics,  but  because  they  were  rebels  :  the 
object  being,  not  to  punish  an  opinion,  but  to  control  a 
faction.     This  was  the  first  great  stage  in  the  history 
of  toleration ;    and  it  was  accomplished,   as   we  have 
already  seen,  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII.     That 
generation  passing  away,  there  arose,  in  the  next  age, 
the  wars  of  the  Fronde ;    and  in  this,  which  may  be 
called  the  second  stage  of  the   French  intellect,  the 


iv.  p.   152)  ;    but  it  is   evident  pp.  iii.  557 ;  Carlyle's  Cromwell, 

from  the  literature  of  that  time,  vol.  i.  p.  4  ;    Souther's  Common- 

that  for  a   considerable  period  place  Book,  third  series,  p.  449. 

the  power    was  .  in  reality  in  See  also  on  this  great  movement 

abeyance.    Both  parties  attacked  of  the  press,  Bates's  Account  of 

each  other  freely   through  the  the    Late    Troubles,    part    i.  p. 

press ;    and  it  is  said  that  be-  78 ;  Bulstrode's  Memoirs,  p.  4 ; 

tween  the  breaking  out  of  the  Howell's  Letters,  p.  354 ;  Hunt's 

civil  war  and  the    restoration,  Hist.of  Newspapers,  vol.  1.  p.  45; 

there  were  published  from  30,000  Clarendon's  Hist,  of  the  Rebellion, 

to. 50,000  pamphlets.     Morgan's  p.  81;  Nichols's  Lit.  Anec.  vol.  iv. 

Phoenix  Britannicusl  1731,   4to.  pp.  86,  102. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.     101 

alteration  was  still  more  remarkable.  For,  in  the  mean 
time,  the  principles  of  the  great  sceptical  thinkers, 
from  Montaigne  to  Descartes,  had  produced  their  na- 
tural fruit,  and,  becoming  diffused  among  the  educated 
classes,  had  influenced,  as  they  always  will  do,  not  only 
those  by  whom  they  were  received,  but  also  those  by 
whom  they  were  rejected.  Indeed,  a  mere  knowledge 
of  the  fact,  that  the  most  eminent  men  have  thrown 
doubt  on  the  popular  opinions  of  an  age,  can  never 
fail,  in  some  degree,  to  disturb  the  convictions  even  of 
those  by  whom  the  doubts  are  ridiculed.261  In  such 
cases,  none  are  entirely  safe  :  the  firmest  belief  is  apt 
to  become  slightly  unsettled ;  those  who  outwardly  pre- 
serve the  appearance  of  orthodoxy,  often  unconsciously 
waver ;  they  cannot  entirely  resist  the  influence  of  su- 
perior minds,  nor  can  they  always  avoid  an  unwelcome 
suspicion,  that  when  ability  is  on  one  side,  and  igno- 
rance on  the  other,  it  is  barely  possible  that  the  ability 
may  be  right,  and  the  ignorance  may  be  wrong. 

Thus  it  fell  out  in  France.  In  that  country,  as  in 
every  other,  when  theological  convictions  diminished, 
theological  animosities  subsided.  Formerly  religion  had 
been  the  cause  of  war,  and  had  also  been  the  pretext 
under  which  it  was  conducted.  Then  there  came  a 
time  when  it  ceased  to  be  the  cause  :  but  so  slow  is  the 
progress  of  society,  that  it  was  still  found  necessary  to 
set  it  up  as  the  pretext.262  Finally,  there  came  the 
great  days  of  the  Fronde,  in  which  it  was  neither  cause 


281  Dugald  Stewart  (Philos.  of  mark  of  Hylas  in  Berkeley's 
the  Mind,  vol.  i.  p.  357)  says,  Works,  edit  1843,  vol.  i.  pp.  151, 
'Nothing  can  be  more  just  than  152,  first  dialogue, 
the  observation  of  Fontenelle,  ie2  Compare  CapefigufsBiche- 
that  "  the  number  of  those  who  lieu,  vol.  i.  p.  293,  with  a  re- 
believe  in  a  system  already  es-  markable  passage  in  Mem.  de 
tablished  in  the  world,  does  not,  Bohan,  vol.  i.  p.  317;  where 
in  the  least,  add  to  its  credibility;  Eohan  contrasts  the  religious 
but  that  the  number  of  those  wars  he  was  engaged  in  during 
who  doubt  of  it,  has  a  tendency  the  administration  of  Kichelieu, 
to  diminish  it."  '  Compare  with  with  those  very  different  wars 
this  Newman  on  Development,  which  had  been  waged  in  France 
Lond.  1845,  p.  31 ;  and  the  re-  a  little  earlier. 


102 


FRENCH  INTELLECT  FEOM  THE 


nor  pretext ; 263  and  in  which  there  was  seen,  for  tho 
first  time  in  France,  an  arduous  struggle  by  human 
beings  avowedly  for  human  purposes :  a  war  waged 
by  men  who  sought,  not  to  enforce  their  opinions,  but 
to  increase  their  liberty.  And,  as  if  to  make  this 
change  still  more  striking,  the  most  eminent  leader  of 
the  insurgents  was  the  Cardinal  de  Retz ;  a  man  of 
vast  ability,  but  whose  contempt  for  his  profession  was 
notorious,264  and  of  whom  a  great  historian  has  said, 
'  he  is  the  first  bishop  in  France  who  carried  on  a  civil 
war  without  making  religion  the  pretence.'  265 

We  have  thus  seen  that,  during  the  seventy  years 
which  succeeded  the  accession  of  Henry  IV.,  the 
French  intellect  developed  itself  in  a  manner  remark- 
ably similar  to  that  which  took  place  in  England.  We 
have  seen  that,  in  both  countries,  the  mind,  according 


263  '  L' esprit  religieux  ne  s'e- 
tait  mel6  en  aucune  maniere  aux 
querelles  de  la  Fronde.'  Cape- 
figue,  vol.  ii.  p.  434.  Lenet,  who 
had  great  influence  with  what  was 
called  the  party  of  the  princes, 
says  that  he  always  avoided  any 
attempt  '  a,  faire  ahoutir  notre 
parti  a  une  guerre  de  religion.' 
Mem.  de  Lenet,  vol.  i.  p.  619. 
Even  the  people  said  that  it  was 
unimportant  whether  or  not  a 
man  died  a  Protestant ;  but  that 
if  he  were  a  partizan  of  Mazarin 
he  was  sure  to  be  damned  :  '  lis 
disoient  qu'etant  mazarin,  il 
falloit  qu'il  fut  damne.'  Lenet, 
vol.  i.  p.  434. 

*6i  Indeed  he  does  not  conceal 
this  even  in  his  memoirs.  He 
6ays  (Mem.  vol.  i.  p.  3),  he  had 
'  Tame  peut-etre  la  moins  eccl6- 
tiastique  qui  fut  dans  l'univers.' 
At  p.  13,  'le  chagrin  que  ma 
profession  ne  laissoit  pas  de 
nourrir  toujours  dans  le  fonds 
de  mon  ame.'  At  p.  21, '  je  hais- 
eois  ma  profession  plus  que  ja- 


mais.' At  p.  48,  '  le  clerg£,  qui 
donne  toujours  l'exemple  do 
la  servitude,  la  prechoit  aux 
autres  sous  le  titre  d'obeissance.' 
See  also  the  remark  of  his  great 
friend  Joly  (Mem.  de  Joly,  p.  209, 
edit.  Petitot,  1825);  and  the 
account  given  by  Tallemant  des 
Reaux,  who  knew  De  Retz  well, 
and  had  travelled  with  him,  His- 
toriettes,  vol.  vii.  pp.  18-30.  The 
same  tendency  is  illustrated, 
though  in  a  much  smaller  degree, 
by  a  conversation  which  Charles 
IL,  when  in  exile,  held  with  De 
Retz,  and  which  is  preserved  in 
Clarendon's  Hist,  of  the  Rebellion, 
p.  806,  and  is  worth  consulting 
merely  as  an  instance  of  the 
purely  secular  view  that  De  Retz 
always  took  of  political  affairs. 

265  '  Cet  homme  singulier  est 
le  premier  eveque  en  France  qui 
ait  fait  une  guerre  civile  sans 
avoir  la  religion  pour  pretexte.' 
Steele  de  Louis  XIV,  in  CEuvres 
de  Voltaire,  vol.  xix.  p.  261. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     103 

to  the  natural  conditions  of  its  growth,  first  doubted 
what  it  had  long  believed,  and  then  tolerated  what  it 
had  long  hated.  That  this  was  by  no  means  an  ac- 
cidental or  capricious  combination,  is  evident,  not  only 
from  general  arguments,  and  from  the  analogy  of  the 
two  countries,  but  also  from  another  circumstance  of 
great  interest.  This  is,  that  the  order  of  events,  and  as 
it  were  their  relative  proportions,  were  the  same,  not 
only  in  reference  to  the  increase  of  toleration,  but  also 
in  reference  to  the  increase  of  literature  and  science, 
in  both  countries,  the  progress  of  knowledge  bore 
the  same  ratio  to  the  decline  of  ecclesiastical  influence, 
although  they  manifested  that  ratio  at  different  periods. 
We  had  begun  to  throw  off  our  superstitions  somewhat 
earlier  than  the  French  were  able  to  do ;  and  thus, 
being  the  first  in  the  field,  we  anticipated  that  great 
people  in  producing  a  secular  literature.  Whoever  will 
take  the  pains  to  compare  the  growth  of  the  French 
and  English  minds,  will  see  that,  in  all  the  most  im- 
portant departments,  we  were  the  first,  I  do  not  say  in 
merit,  but  in  the  order  of  time.  In  prose,  in  poetry, 
and  in  every  branch  of  intellectual  excellence,  it  will 
he  found,  on  comparison,  that  we  were  before  the 
French  nearly  a  whole  generation  ;  and  that,  chrono- 
logically, the  same  proportion  was  preserved,  as  that 
between  Bacon  and  Descartes,  Hooker  and  Pascal,266 
Shakespeare  and  Corneille,  Massinger  and  Racine,  Ben 
Jonson  and  Moliere,  Harvey  and  Pecquet.  These  emi- 
nent men  were  all  justly  celebrated  in  their  respective 
•  countries ;  and  it  would  perhaps  be  invidious  to  in- 
stitute a  comparison  between  them.  But  what  we  have 
here  to  observe  is,  that  among  those  who  cultivated  the 
eame  department,  the  greatest  Englishman,  in  every 
instance,  preceded  the  greatest  Frenchman  by  many 
years.  The  difference,  running  as  it  does,  through  all 
the  leading  topics,  is  far  too  regular  to  be  considered 
accidental.    And  as  few  Englishmen  of  the  present  day 


284  Hooker    and  Pascal  may  duced ;  for  Bossuet  is  as  inferior 

properly  be  classed  together,  as  to  Pascal  as  Jeremy  Taylor  is 

the  two  most  sublime  theological  inferior  to  Hooker, 
•writers  either  country  has  pro- 


104      TRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

■will  be  so  presumptuous  as  to  suppose  that  we  possess 
any  native  and  inherent  superiority  over  the  French, 
it  is  evident  that  there  must  be  some  marked  pecu- 
liarity in  which  the  two  countries  differed,  and  which 
has  produced  this  difference,  not  in  their  knowledge, 
but  in  the  time  at  which  their  knowledge  appeared. 
Nor  does  the  discovery  of  this  peculiarity  require 
much  penetration.  For,  notwithstanding  that  the 
French  were  more  tardy  than  the  English,  still,  when 
the  development  had  fairly  begun,  the  antecedents 
of  its  success  were  among  both  people  precisely  the 
same.  It  is,  therefore,  clear,  according  to  the  com- 
monest principles  of  inductive  reasoning,  that  the  late- 
ness of  the  development  must  be  owing  to  the  late- 
ness of  the  antecedent.  It  is  clear  that  the  French 
knew  less  because  they  believed  more.267  It  is  clear 
that  their  progress  was  checked  by  the  prevalence  of 
those  feelings  which  are  fatal  to  all  knowledge,  because, 
looking  on  antiquity  as  the  sole  receptacle  of  wisdom, 
they  degrade  the  present  in  order  that  they  may  ex- 
aggerate the  past :  feelings  which  destroy  the  prospects 
of  man,  stifle  his  hopes,  damp  his  curiosity,  chill  his 
energies,  impair  his  judgment,  and,  under  pretence  of 
humbling  the  pride  of  his  reason,  seek  to  throw  him 
back  into  that  more  than  midnight  darkness  from  which 
his  reason  alone  has  enabled  him  to  emerge. 

The  analogy  thus  existing  between  France  and  Eng- 
land, is,  indeed,  very  striking,  and,  so  far  as  we  have 
yet  considered  it,  seems  complete  in  all  its  parts.  To 
sum  up  the  similarities  in  a  few  words,  it  may  be 
said,  that  both  countries  followed  the  same  order  of 
development  in  their  scepticism,  in  their  knowledge, 
in  their  literature,  and  in  their  toleration.  In  both 
countries,  there  broke  out  a  civil  war  at  the  same 
time,  for  the  same  object,  and,  in  many  respects,  under 
the  same  circumstances.     In  both,  the  insurgents,  at 

267  One  of  the  most  remarkable  convert,  moins  on  voit  ce  qni  reste 

men  they  have   ever  possessed  adecouvrir.  . .  Quand  les  hommes- 

notices  this  connexion,  which  he  sont  ignorans,  il  est  aise  de  tout 

expresses   conversely,  but  with  savoir.'     Discours  en   Sorbonne,. 

equal  truth :    '  moins    on   sait,  in    CEuvres   de   Turgot,   vol.  ii. 

moins  on  doute ;  moins  on  a  de-  pp.  65,  70. 


SIXTEENTH  TO  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.      105 

first  triumphant,  were  afterwards  defeated ;  and  the 
rebellion  being  put  down,  the  governments  of  the  two 
nations  were  fully  restored  almost  at  the  same  moment : 
in  1660  by  Charles  II. ;  in  1661,  by  Louis  XIV.268  But 
there  the  similarity  stopped.  At  this  point  there  began 
a  marked  divergence  between  the  two  countries ; 269 
which  continued  to  increase  for  more  than  a  century, 
until  it  ended  in  England  by  the  consolidation  of  the 
national  prosperity,  in  France  by  a  revolution  more 
sanguinary,  more  complete,  and  more  destructive,  than 
any  the  world  has  ever  seen.  This  difference  between 
the  fortunes  of  such  great  and  civilized  nations  is  so 
remarkable,  that  a  knowledge  of  its  causes  becomes 
essential  to  a  right  understanding  of  European  history, 
and  will  be  found  to  throw  considerable  light  on  other 
events  not  immediately  connected  with  it.  Besides 
this,  such  an  inquiry,  independently  of  its  scientific 
interest,  will  have  a  high  practical  value.  It  will  show, 
what  men  seem  only  recently  to  have  begun  to  under- 
stand, that,  in  politics,  no  certain  principles  having 
yet  been  discovered,  the  first  conditions  of  success  are 
compromise,  barter,  expediency,  and  concession.  It 
will  show  the  utter  helplessness  even  of  the  ablest 
rulers,  when  they  try  to  meet  new  emergencies  by  old 
maxims.  It  will  show  the  intimate  connexion  between 
knowledge  and  liberty;  between  an  increasing  civili- 
zation and  an  advancing  democracy.  It  will  show 
that,  for  a  progressive  nation,  there  is  required  a  pro- 
gressive polity ;  that  within  certain  limits,  innovation 
is  the  sole  ground  of  security ;  that  no  institution  can 
withstand  the  flux  and  movements  of  society,  unless  it 
not  only  repairs  its   structure,   but  also  widens  its 

188  Mazarin,  until  his  death  in  directly  after  the  death  of  Ma- 

1661,    exercised    complete    au-  zarin,  the  king  assumed  the  go- 

thority  over  Louis.   See  Slide  de  vernment,  is  related  by  Brienne, 

Louis  XIV,m(Euvres  deVoltaire,  -who    was    present.      Mem.    de 

vol.  xix.  pp.  318,  319;  and  La-  Brienne,  vol.  ii.  pp.  154-158. 
vallie,  Hist,  dcs  Francais,  vol.  iii.         2W  By  this  I  mean,  that  tho 

p.  195;  so  that,  as  Montglat  says  divergence  now  first  became  clear 

(Mem.  vol.  iii.  p.  Ill),  '  On  doit  to  every  observer;  but  the  origin 

appeler  ce  temps-la  le  commence-  of  the  divergence  dates  from  a 

ment  du  regne  de  Louis  XIV.'  much  earlier  period,  as  we  shall 

The  pompous  manner  in  which,  see  in  the  next  chapter. 


106      FRENCH  INTELLECT  FROM  THE 

entrance ;  and  that,  even  in  a  material  point  of  view, 
no  country  can  long  remain  either  prosperous  or  safe, 
in  which  the  people  are  not  gradually  extending  their 
power,  enlarging  their  privileges,  and,  so  to  say,  in- 
corporating themselves  with  the  functions  of  the  state. 

The  tranquillity  of  England,  and  her  freedom  from 
civil  war,  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the  recognition  of  these 
great  trnths  ;270  while  the  neglect  of  them  has  entailed 
upon  other  countries  the  most  woful  calamities.  On 
this  account,  therefore,  if  on  no  other,  it  becomes  in- 
teresting to  ascertain  how  it  was  that  the  two  nations 
we  have  been  comparing  should,  in  regard  to  these 
truths,  have  adopted  views  diametrically  opposite,  al- 
though, in  other  matters,  their  opinions,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  were  very  similar.  Or,  to  state  the  ques- 
tion in  other  words,  we  have  to  inquire  how  it  was  that 
the  French,  after  pursuing  precisely  the  same  course 
as  the  English,  in  their  knowledge,  in  their  scepticism, 
and  in  their  toleration,  should  have  stopped  short  in 
their  politics  ;  how  it  was  that  their  minds,  which  had 
effected  such  great  things,  should,  nevertheless,  have 
been  so  unprepared  for  liberty,  that,  in  spite  of  the 
heroic  efforts  of  the  Fronde,  they  not  only  fell  under 
the  despotism  of  Louis  XTV.,  but  never  cared  to  resist 
it;  and,  at  length,  becoming  slaves  in  their  souls  as 
well  as  in  their  bodies,  they  grew  proud  of  a  condition 
which  the  meanest  Enghshman  would  have  spurned  as 
an  intolerable  bondage. 

The  cause  of  this  difference  is  to  be  sought  in  the 
existence  of  that  spirit  of  protection  which  is  so  danger- 
ous and  yet  so  plausible,  that  it  forms  the  most  serious 
obstacle  with,  which  advancing  civilization  has  to  con- 
tend. This,  which  may  truly  be  called  an  evil  spirit, 
has  always  been  far  stronger  in  France  than  in  Eng- 
land. Indeed,  among  the  French,  it  continues,  even 
to  the  present  day,  to  produce  the  most  mischievous 

270  That  is  to  6ay,  their  prac-  innovation  will  be  the  last,  and 

tical  recognition ;    theoretically,  enticing  men  into  reform  under 

they  are  still  denied  by  innumer-  the  pretext  that  by  each  change 

able  politicians,  who,  neverthe-  they  are  returning  to  the  spirit 

less,  assist  in  carrying  them  into  of  the  ancient  British  constitu- 

effect,  fondly  hoping  that  each  tion. 


SIXTEENTH   TO   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.     107 

results.  It  is,  as  I  shall  hereafter  point  out,  inti- 
mately connected  with  that  love  of  centralization  which 
appears  in  the  machinery  of  their  government,  and  in 
the  spirit  of  their  literature.  It  is  this  which  induces 
them  to  retain  restrictions  by  which  their  trade  has 
long  been  troubled,  and  to  preserve  monopolies  which, 
in  our  country,  a  freer  system  has  effectually  destroyed. 
It  is  this  which  causes  them  to  interfere  with  the 
natural  relation  between  producers  and  consumers ;  to 
force  into  existence  manufactures  which  otherwise 
would  never  arise,  and  which,  for  that  very  reason,  are 
not  required ;  to  disturb  the  ordinary  march  of  in- 
dustry, and,  under  pretence  of  protecting  their  native 
labourers,  dimmish  the  produce  of  labour  by  diverting 
it  from  those  profitable  channels  into  which  its  own 
instincts  always  compel  it  to  flow. 

When  the  protective  principle  is  carried  into  trade, 
these  are  its  inevitable  results.  When  it  is  carried  into 
politics,  there  is  formed  what  is  called  a  paternal  go- 
vernment, in  which  supreme  power  is  vested  in  the 
sovereign,  or  in  a  few  privileged  classes.  When  it  is 
carried  into  theology,  it  produces  a  powerful  church, 
and  a  numerous  clergy,  who  are  supposed  to  be  the  ne- 
cessary guardians  of  religion,  and  every  opposition  to 
whom  is  resented  as  an  insult  to  the  public  morals. 
These  are  the  marks  by  which  protection  may  be  recog- 
nized ;  and  from  a  very  early  period  they  have  displayed 
themselves  in  France  much  more  clearly  than  in  England. 
Without  pretending  to  discover  their  precise  origin,  I 
will,  in  the  next  chapter,  endeavour  to  trace  them  back 
to  a  time  sufficiently  remote  to  explain  some  of  the  dis- 
crepancies which,  in  this  respect  existed  between  the 
two  countries. 

Note  to  p.  93.  Descartes  died  in  Sweden  on  a  risit  to  Christina; 
so  that,  strictly  speaking,  there  is  an  error  in  the  text.  But  this 
does  not  affect  the  argument ;  because  the  works  of  Descartes,  being 
eagerly  read  in  France,  and  not  being  prohibited,  we  must  suppose 
that  his  person  would  have  been  safe,  had  he  remained  in  his  own 
country.  To  burn  a  heretic  is  a  more  decisive  step  than  to  suppress 
a  book ;  and  as  the  French  clergy  were  not  strong  enough  to  effect 
the  latter,  it  is  hardly  likely  that  they  could  have  accomplished  the 
former. 


108 


CHAPTER  H. 

HISTORY   OF  THE  PROTECTIVE   SPIRIT,   AND    COMPARISON   OP  IT  DT 
FRANCE   AND    ENGLAND. 

"When,  towards  the  end  of  the  fifth,  century,  the  Roman 
empire  was  broken  np,  there  followed,  as  is  well  known, 
a  long  period  of  ignorance  and  of  crime,  in  which  even 
the  ablest  minds  were  immersed  in  the  grossest  super- 
stitions. During  these,  which  are  rightly  called  the 
Dark  Ages,  the  clergy  were  supreme  :  they  ruled  the 
consciences  of  the  most  despotic  sovereigns,  and  they 
were  respected  as  men  of  vast  learning,  because  they 
alone  were  able  to  read  and  write  ;  because  they  were 
the  sole  depositaries  of  those  idle  conceits  of  which 
European  science  then  consisted;  and  because  they 
preserved  the  legends  of  the  saints  and  the  lives  of  the 
fathers,  from  which,  as  it  was  believed,  the  teachings  of 
divine  wisdom  might  easily  be  gathered. 

Such  was  the  degradation  of  the  European  intellect 
for  about  five  hundred  years,  during  which  the  credulity 
of  men  reached  a  height  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of 
ignorance.  But  at  length  the  human  reason,  that  divine 
spark  which  even  the  most  corrupt  society  is  unable  to 
extinguish,  began  to  display  its  power,  and  disperse  the 
mists  by  which  -it  was  surrounded.  Various  circum- 
stances, which  it  would  be  tedious  here  to  discuss, 
cansed  this  dispersion  to  take  place  at  different  times  in 
different  countries.  However,  speaking  generally,  we 
may  say  that  it  occurred  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  cen- 
turies, and  that  by  the  twelfth  century  there  was  no 
nation  now  called  civilized,  upon  whom  the  light  had 
not  begun  to  dawn. 

It  is  from  this  point  that  the  first  great  divergence 
between  the  European  nations  took  its  rise.    Before  this 


PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     109 

time  their  superstition  was  so  great  and  universal,  that 
it  would  avail  little  to  measure  the  degree  of  their  re- 
lative darkness.  Indeed,  so  low  had  they  fallen,  that, 
during  the  earlier  period,  the  authority  of  the  clergy- 
was  in  many  respects  an  advantage,  as  forming  a  bar- 
rier between  the  people  and  their  rulers,  and  as  supply- 
ing the  sole  instance  of  a  class  that  even  made  an  ap- 
proach to  intellectual  pursuits.  But  when  the  great 
movement  took  place,  when  the  human  reason  began  to 
rebel,  the  position  of  the  clergy  was  suddenly  changed. 
They  had  been  friendly  to  reasoning  as  long  as  the  rea- 
soning was  on  their  side.1  While  they  were  the  only 
guardians  of  knowledge,  they  were  eager  to  promote  its 
interests.  Now,  however,  it  was  falling  from  their 
hands  :  it  was  becoming  possessed  by  laymen  :  it  was 
growing  dangerous :  it  must  be  reduced  to  its  proper 
dimensions.  Then  it  was  that  there  first  became  general 
the  inquisitions,  the  imprisonments,  the  torturings,  the 
burnings,  and  all  the  other  contrivances  by  which  the 
church  vainly  endeavoured  to  stem  the  tide  that  had 
turned  against  her.2    From  that  moment  there  has  been 


1  '  Toute  influence  qu'on  ac-  vile,  la  foi  trop  aveugle,  pour  que 
cordait  a  la  science  ne  pouvait,  les  questions  qui  avoient  si  long- 
dans  les  premiers  temps,  qu'etre  temps  exerce la  subtilite  des  Grecs 
favorable  au  clergeV  Meyer,  In-  fussent  seulement  comprises  par 
stitut.  Judic.  vol.  i.  p.  498.  les  Latins.'     As  knowledge  ad- 

2  Early  in  the  eleventh  cen-  vanced,  the  opposition  between 
tury  the  clergy  first  began  sys-  inquiry  and  belief  became  more 
tematically  to  repress  indepen-  marked:  the  church  redoubled 
dent  inquiries  by  punishing  men  her  efforts,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
who  attempted  to  think  for  them-  twelfth  century  the  popes  first 
selves.  Compare  SisTnondi,  Hist,  formally  called  on  the  secular 
desFrancais,  vol.  iv. pp.145, 146;  power  to  punish  heretics;  and 
Neander's  Hist,  of  the  Church,  the  earliest  constitution  ad- 
vol.  vi.  pp.  365,  366;  Prescotfs  dressed  'inquisitoribus  hsereticae 
Hist,  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  pravitatis '  is  one  by  Alexander 
vol.  i.  p.  261  note.  Before  this,  IV.  Meyer,  Inst.  Jud.  vol.  ii. 
such  a  policy,  as  Sisraondi  justly  pp.  554,  556.  See  also  on  this 
observes,  was  not  required: 'Pen-  movement,  Llorente,  Hist,  de 
dant  plusieurs  siecles,  l'egliso  F  Inquisition,  vol.  i.p.  125,  vol.  iv. 
n'avoit  et&  troubled  par  aucune  p.  284.  In  1222  a  synod  assem- 
heresie ;  l'ignorance  etoit  trop  bled  at  Oxford  caused  an  apostate 
complete  }a  soumission  trop  ser-  to  be  burned ;    and  this,   says 


110    PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

an  unceasing  straggle  between  these  two  great  parties, 
— the  advocates  of  inquiry,  and  the  advocates  of  belief : 
a  struggle  which,  however  it  may  be  disguised,  and 
under  whatever  forms  it  may  appear,  is  at  bottom 
always  the  same,  and  represents  the  opposite  interests 
of  reason  and  faith,  of  sceptism  and  credulity,  of  pro- 
gress and  reaction,  of  those  who  hope  for  the  future, 
and  of  those  who  cling  to  the  past. 

This,  then,  is  the  great  starting  point  of  modern  civi- 
lization. From  the  moment  that  reason  began,  how- 
ever faintly,  to  assert  its  supremacy,  the  improvement 
of  every  people  has  depended  upon  their  obedience  to 
its  dictates,  and  upon  the  success  with  which  they  have 
reduced  to  its  standard  the  whole  of  their  actions.  To 
understand,  therefore,  the  original  divergence  of  France 
and  England,  we  must  seek  it  in  the  circumstances 
that  took  place  when  this,  which  may  be  called  the 
great  rebellion  of  the  intellect,  was  first  clearly  seen. 

If  now,  with  a  view  to  such  inquiry,  we  examine  the 
history  of  Europe,  we  shall  find  that  just  at  this  period 
there  sprung  up  the  feudal  system :  a  vast  scheme  of 
polity,  which,  clumsy  and  imperfect  as  it  was,  supplied 
many  of  the  wants  of  the  rude  people  among  whom  it 
arose.3     The  connexion  between  it  and  the  decline  of 


Lingard (iKsif.  o/England,\ol.  ii.  f'ois,  dans  une  charte  de  Charles 

p.  148),  'is,  I  believe,  the  first  le  Gros  en  884.'    This  is  a  ques- 

instance  of  capital  punishment  tion  more  curious  than  important; 

in  England  on   the  ground    of  since  ■whatever  the  origin  of  the 

religion. '      Compare     Wrighfs  word  may  be,  it  is  certain  that 

Bwg.  Brit.  Lit.  vol.  ii.  p.  444.  the  thing  did  not,  and  could  not, 

3   Sir    F.    Palgrave   {English  exist  before  the  tenth  century  at 

Commonwealth,  vol.  ii.  p.  ccvi.)  the  earliest  :   inasmuch  as  the 

says,  '  it  is  generally  admitted,  extreme  disorganisation  of  society 

by  the  best  authorities,  that  from  rendered  so  coercive  an  institu- 

about  the  eleventh  century  bene-  tion  impossible.     M.  Guizot,  in 

fices  acquired  the  name  of  fiefs  or  another  work  {Essais  sur  FHist. 

feuds ;'  and  Robertson  {State  of  de  France,  p.  239),  rightly  says, 

Europe,note viii.inJFbr&s,p.393)  'Au  X«   siecle    seulement,   lea 

supposes  that  the  word  fcudum  rapports  et  les  pouvoirs  sociaux 

does  not  occur  before  1008.   But  acquirent  quelque  fixite.'      See 

according  to  M.  Guizot  (CivUisa-  also  his  Civilisation  en  Eurofe, 

tion  en  France,  vol.  iii.  p.  238),  p.  90. 
il  apparait,  pour  la  premiere 


PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  PRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     Ill 

the  ecclesiastical  spirit  is  very  obvious.  For  the  feudal 
system  was  the  first  great  secular  plan  that  had  been 
seen  in  Europe  since  the  formation  of  the  civil  law :  it 
was  the  first  comprehensive  attempt  which  had  been 
made,  during  more  than  four  hundred  years,  to  organize 
society  according  to  temporal,  not  according  to  spiritual 
circumstances,  the  basis  of  the  whole  arrangement  being 
merely  the  possession  of  land,  and  the  performance  of 
certain  military  and  pecuniary  services.4 

This  was,  no  doubt,  a  great  step  in  European  civiliza- 
tion, because  it  set  the  first  example  of  a  large  public 
polity  in  which  the  spiritual  classes  as  such  had  no  re- 
cognized place  ;5  and  hence  there  followed  that  struggle 
•between  feudality  and  the  church,  which  has  been  ob- 
served by  several  writers,  but  the  origin  of  which  has 
been  strangely  overlooked.  What,  however,  we  have 
now  to  notice  is,  that  by  the  establishment  of  the  feudal 
system,  the  spirit  of  protection,  far  from  being  destroyed, 
was  probably  not  even  weakened,  but  only  assumed  a 
new  form.     Instead  of  being  spiritual,  it  became  tem- 

4  '  La  terre  est  tout  dans  ce  to  performing  services  no  separa- 
systeme.  .  .  .  Le  systeme  f&odal  tion  of  classes  was  admitted. 
est  comme  une  religion  de  la  ■  After  the  feudal  polity  became 
terre.'  Origines  du  Droit,  in  established,  we  do  not  find  that 
(Euvres  deMichelet,  vol.  ii.  p.  302.  there  was  any  dispensation  for  ec- 
'  Le  caractere  de  la  feodalite,  clesiastical  fiefs.'  Hollands  Sup- 
c'etait  la  predominance  de  la  plemental  Notes,  p.  120  ;  and  for 
realite  sur  la  personnalitS,  de  la  further  proof  of  the  loss  of  the  old 
terre  sur  l'homme.'  Eschbach,  privileges,  compare  Grose's  Milt- 
Etude  du  Droit,  p.  256.  tary  Antiquities,  vol.  i.  pp.  5,  64 : 

6  According  to  the  social  and  Meyer,  Instit.  Judic.  vol.  i.  p.  257; 

political  arrangements  from  the  Turner's  Hist,  of  England,vol.iv. 

fourth  to  the  tenth  century,  the  p.  462;  and  Matty's  Observations, 

clergy  were  so  eminently  a  class  vol.  i.  pp.  434,  435 :    so  that,  as 

apart,  that  they  were  freed  from  this  writer  says,  p.  215,  '  Chaque 

'  burdens  of  the  6tate,'  and  were  seigneur  lai'c  avait  gagne  per- 

not  obliged  to  engage  in  military  sonnellement  a  la  revolution  qui 

services     unless    they    thought  forma  le  gouvernement  feodal; 

proper  to  do  so.     See  Neander's  mais  les  eveques  et  les  abbes,  en 

Hist,  of  the  Church,\ol.  iii.p.  195,  devenant  souverains  dans  leurs 

vol.  v.  pp.  133,  140;  and  Petrie's  terres,    perdirent   au     contraire 

Ecclesiast.  Archit.  p.  382.     But  beaucoup  de  leur  pouvoir  et  de 

under  the  feudal  system  this  im-  leur  digniteV 
munity  was  lost ;  and  in  regard 


112     PROTECTIVE  SPIEIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 


poral.  Instead  of  men  looking  up  to  the  church,  they 
looked  up  to  the  nobles.  For,  as  a  necessary  conse- 
quence of  this  vast  movement,  or  rather  as  a  part  of  it, 
the  great  possessors  of  land  were  now  being  organized 
into  an  hereditary  aristocracy.6  In  the  tenth  century, 
we  find  the  first  surnames  :7  by  the  eleventh  century 
most  of  the  great  offices  had  become  hereditary  in  the 
leading  families  :8  and  in  the  twelfth  century  armorial 
bearings  were  invented,  as  well  as  other  heraldic  devices, 
which  long  nourished  the  conceit  of  the  nobles,  and 
were  valued  by  their  descendants  as  marks  of  that  su- 
periority of  birth  to  which,  during  many  ages,  all  other 
superiority  was  considered  subordinate.9 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  European  aristocracy, 
in  the  sense  in  which  that  word  is  commonly  used. 
With  the  consolidation  of  its  power,  feudality  was  made, 
in  reference  to  the  organization  of  society,  the  successor 
of  the  church  ;10  and  the  nobles,  becoming  hereditary, 


8  The  great  change  of  turning 
life-possessions  of  land  into  here- 
ditary possessions,  began  late  in 
the  ninth  century,  being  initiated 
in  France  by  a  capitulary  of 
Charles  the  Bald,  in  877.  See 
Allen  on  the  Prerogative,  p.  210; 
Spence's  Origin  of  the  Laws  of 
Europe,  pp.  282,  301 ;  Meyer, 
Instit.  Judidaires,  vol.  i.  p.  206. 

7  That  surnames  first  arose  in 
the  tenth  century  is  stated  by 
the  most  competent  authorities. 
See  Sismondi,  Hist,  de  Francais, 
vol.  iii.  pp.  452-455 ;  Hallam's 
Middle  Ages,  vol.  i.  p.  138;  Mon- 
teil,  Hist,  des  divers  Mats,  vol.  iii. 
p.  268;  Petrie's  Ecclesiast.Archit. 
pp.  277,  342.  Koch  (Tableau 
des  Revolutions,  vol.  i.  p.  138) 
erroneously  says,  '  c'est  pareille- 
ment  aux  croisades  que  l'Europe 
doit  l'usage  des  surnoms  de  fa- 
mine ;'  a  double  mistake,  both 
as  to  the  date  and  the  cause, 
since   the  introduction    of  sur- 


names being  part  of  a  large  social 
movement,  can  under  no  circum- 
stances be  ascribed  to  a  single 
event. 

8  On  this  process  from  the  end 
of  the  ninth  to  the  twelfth 
century,  compare  Hallam's  Sup- 
plemental Notes,  pp.  97,  98 ;  Dai- 
ry'mple 'sHist.  of  Feudal  Property, 
p.  21;  Klimrath,  Hist,  du  Droit, 
vol.  i.  p.  74. 

9  As  to  the  origin  of  armorial 
bearings,  which  cannot  be  traced 
higher  than  the  twelfth  century, 
see  Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  vol.  i. 
pp.  138,  139 ;  Ledwich,  Antiqui- 
ties of  Ireland,  pp.  231,  232; 
Origines  du  Droit,  in  (Euvres  de 
Michelet,  vol.  ii.  p.  382. 

10  For,  as  Lerminia  says  (Phi- 
los.  du  Droit,  vol.  i.  p.  17),  'la 
loi  feodale  n'est  autre  chose  que 
la  terre  elevee  a  la  souverainete.' 
On  the  decline  of  the  church  in 
consequence  of  the  increased 
feudal    and    secular    spirit,  see 


PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     113 

gradually  displaced  in  government,  and  in  the  general 
functions  of  authority,  the  clergy,  among  whom  the 
opposite  principle  of  celibacy  was  now  firmly  esta- 
blished.11 It  is,  therefore,  evident,  that  an  inquiry  into 
the  origin  of  the  modern  protective  spirit  does,  in  a 
great  measure,  resolve  itself  into  an  inquiry  into  the 
origin  of  the  aristocratic  power ;  since  that  power  was 
the  exponent,  and,  as  it  were,  the  cover  under  which  the 
spirit  displayed  itself.  This,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see, 
is  likewise  connected  with  the  great  religious  rebellion 
of  the  sixteenth  century ;  the  success  of  which  mainly 
depended  on  the  weakness  of  the  protective  principle 
that  opposed  it.  But,  reserving  this  for  future  con- 
sideration, I  will  now  endeavour  to  trace  a  few  of  the 
circumstances  which  gave  the  aristocracy  more  power 
in  France  than  in  England,  and  thus  accustomed  the 
French  to  a  closer  and  more  constant  obedience,  and 
infused  into  them  a  more  reverential  spirit  than  that 
which  was  usual  in  our  country. 

Soon  after  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century,  and 
therefore  while  the  aristocracy  was  in  the  process  of  form- 
ation, England  was  conquered  by  the  Duke  of  Normandy, 
who  naturally  introduced  the  polity  existing  in  his  own 
country.12    But,  in  his  hands,  it  underwent  a  modifica- 

Sismondi,   Hist,   des    Frangais,  speculative  doctrine,  constantly 

vol.  iii.  p.  440,  vol.  iv.  p.  88.     In  disobeyed.     See  Neander's  Hist. 

our  own  country,  one  fact  may  of  the  Church,  vol.  vi.  pp.  52,  61, 

be  mentioned  illustrative  of  the  62,  72,  93,  94  note,  vol.  vii.  pp. 

earliest  encroachments  of  laymen:  127-131;  MosheirrC  s  Eccles.  Hist. 

namely,  that,  before  the  twelfth  vol.  i.  pp.  248,  249 ;  Eccleston's 

century,  we  find  no  instance  in  English  Antiq.  p.  95. 

England  of  the  great  seal  being  1Z  Where  it  was  particularly 

entrusted  '  to  the  keeping  of  a  flourishing :  '  la  feodalite  fut  or  ■ 

layman.'   Campbell's  Chancellors,  ganisie  en  Normandie  plus  forte- 

vol.  i.  p.  61.  ment  et  plus  systematiquement 

11  Celibacy,  on  account  of  its  que  partout  ailleurs  en  France.* 

supposed  ascetic  tendency,  was  Klimrath,  Travaux  sur  VHist.  du 

advocated  and  in  some  countries  Droit,  vol.  i.  p.  130.     The  •  cou- 

was  enforced,  at  an  early  period ;  tume  de  Normandie '  was,  at  a 

but  the  first  general  and  decisive  much  later  period,    only  to  be 

movement  in  its  favour  was  in  found  in   the  old   'grand  cou- 

the  middle  of  the  eleventh  cen-  tumier.'  Klimrath,  vol.  ii.  p.  160. 

tury,  before  which  time  it  was  a  On  the  peculiar  tenacity  with 

VOL.  II.  I 


114     PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

tion  suitable  to  the  new  circumstances  in  which  he  was 
placed.  He,  being  in  a  foreign  country,  the  general  of 
a  successful  army  composed  partly  of  mercenaries,13  was 
able  to  dispense  with  some  of  those  feudal  usages  which 
were  customary  in  France.  The  great  Norman  lords, 
thrown  as  strangers  into  the  midst  of  a  hostile  popula- 
tion, were  glad  to  accept  estates  from  the  crown  on 
almost  any  terms  that  would  guarantee  their  own  se- 
curity. Of  this,  WilHam naturally  availed  himself.  For, 
by  granting  baronies  on  conditions  favourable  to  the 
crown,  he  prevented  the  barons14  from  possessing  that 
power  which  they  exercised  in  France,  and  which,  but 
for  this,  they  would  have  exercised  in  England,  The 
result  was,  that  the  most  powerful  of  our  nobles  became 
amenable  to  the  law,  or,  at  all  events,  to  the  authority 
of  the  king.18  Indeed,  to  such  an  extent  was  this  car- 
ried, that  WilHam,  shortly  before  his  death,  obliged  all 
the  landowners  to  render  their  fealty  to  him ;  thus  en- 
tirely neglecting  that  peculiarity  of  feudalism,  according 
to  which  each  vassal  was  separately  dependent  on  his 
own  lord.16 

But  in  France,  the  course  of  affairs  was  very  different. 
In  that  country  the  great  nobles  held  their  lands,  not 


which  the  Normans  clung  to  it,  nom  fut  commun  originairement 

see  Lettres  d'Aguesseau,  vol.  ii.  a  tous  les  vassaux  immediats  de 

pp.  225,    226  :    '  accoutumes   a  la  couronne,  lies  au  roi  per  ser- 

respecter   leur  coutume  comme  tritium  militare,  par  le  service  de 

l'evangile.'  chevalier.'    Essais,  p.  265. 

w  Mills's  Hist,  of  Chivalry,  15  Meyer,  Instit.  Judic.  vol.  i. 
vol.  i.  p.  387;  Turner's  Hist,  of  p.  242;  Turner's  Hist,  of  England, 
England,  vol.  ii.  p.  390,  vol.  iv.  vol.  iii.  p.  220.  The  same  policy 
p.  76.  Mercenary  troops  were  of  reducing  the  nobles  was  fol- 
also  employed  by  his  immediate  lowed  up  by  Henry  II.,  who  de- 
successors.  Grose's  Military  stroyed  the  baronial  castles. 
Antiq.  vol.  i.  p.  55.  Turner,  vol.  iv.  p.  223.      Com- 

14  On  the  different  meanings  p-axe  Lingard,  vol.  i.  pp.  315,  371. 
attached  to  the  word   '  baron,'        I6  '  Deinde     ccepit     homagia 

compaxe  Klimrath,  Hist,  du  Droit,  hominum  totius  Anglise,  et  jura- 

vol.  ii.  p.  40,  with  Meyer,  Instit.  mentum  fidelitatis  cujuscumque 

Judwiaires,  vol.  i.  p.  105.    But  essent     feodi     vel     tenementi.' 

M.  Guizot  says,  what  seems  most  Matthcei  Westmonast.  Flores  His- 

likely,  '  il  est  probable  que  Cc  toriarum,  vol.  ii.  p.  9. 


PEOTECTIVE  SPIEIT  IN  FEANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     115 

so  much  by  grant,  as  by  prescription.17  A  character  of 
antiquity  was  thus  thrown  over  their  rights ;  which, 
when  added  to  the  weakness  of  the  crown,  enabled 
them  to  exercise  on  their  own  estates,  all  the  functions 
of  independent  sovereigns.18  Even  when  they  received 
their  first  great  check,  under  Philip  Augustus,19  they, 
in  his  reign,  and  indeed  long  after,  wielded  a  power 
quite  unknown  in  England.  Thus,  to  give  only  two 
instances :  the  right  of  coining  money,  which  has  always 
been  regarded  as  an  attribute  of  sovereignty,  was  never 
allowed  in  England,  even  to  the  greatest  nobles.20  But 
in  France  it  was  exercised  by  many  persons  indepen- 
dently of  the  crown,  and  was  not  abrogated  until  the 
sixteenth  century.21  A  similar  remark  holds  good  of 
what  was  called  the  right  of  private  war ;  by  virtue  of 
which  the  nobles  were  allowed  to  attack  each  other,  and 
disturb  the  peace  of  the  country  with  the  prosecution 
of  their  private  feuds.  In  England  the  aristocracy  were 
never  strong  enough  to  have  this  admitted  as  a  right,22 
though  they  too  often  exercised  it  as  a  practice.  But  in 
France  it  became  a  part  of  the  established  law ;  it  was 


17  See  some  good  remarks  on  Guizot,  Civilisation  en  France, 
this  difference  between  the  French  vol.  iv.  pp.134,  135;  Courson, 
and  English  nobles,  in  Hallam's  Hist,  des  Peuples  Britons,  Paris, 
Middle  Ages,  toI.  ii.  pp.  99,  100.  1846,  vol.  ii.  p.  350. 

Mablj  (Observations, vol. i.  p.  60)  20  'No  subjects  ever  enjoyed 

says :  '  en  effet,  on  negligea,  sur  the  right  of    coining  silver  in 

la  fin  de  la  premiere  race,  de  England  without  the  royal  stamp 

conserver  les  titres  primordiaux  and  superintendence ;  a  remark- 

de  ses  possessions.'     As  to  the  able  proof  of  the   restraint  in 

old  customary  French  law  of  pre-  which  the  feudal  aristocracy  was 

scription,  see  Giraud,  Precis  de  always  held    in    this    country.' 

VAncien  Droit,  pp.  79,  80.  Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  vol.  L  p. 

18  Mably,     Observations     sur  154. 

VHist.  de  France,  vol.  i.  pp.  70,  2I  Brougham's    Polit.    Philos 

162,  178.  1849,  vol.  i.  p.  446.    In  addition 

19  On  the  policy  of  Philip  Au-  to  the  evidence  there  given  on  the 
gustus  in  regard  to  the  nobles,  right  of  coinage,  see  Mably's  Ob- 
see  Mably,  Observations,  vol.  i.  servations,  vol  i.  p.  424,  vol.  ii. 
p.  246 ;  Lerminier,  Philos.  du  pp.  296,  297  ;  and  Turner's  Nor- 
Broit,  vol.  i.  p.  265 ;  Boulain-  mandy,  vol.  ii.  p.  261. 
vUliers,  Hist,  de  VAncien  Gou-  w  Hallam's  Supplemental  Notet, 
vernement,  vol.  iii.  pp.  147-150 ;  pp.  304,  305. 

i  2 


.116     PEOTECTIVE  SPIEIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 


incorporated  into  the  text-books  of  feudalism,  and  it  is 
distinctly  recognized  by  Louis  IX.  and  Philip  the  Fair, 
— two  kings  of  considerable  energy,  who  did  every  thing 
in  their  power  to  curtail  the  enormous  authority  of  the 
nobles.23 

Out  of  this  difference  between  the  aristocratic  power 
of  France  and  England,  there  followed  many  conse- 
quences of  great  importance.  In  our  country  the  nobles, 
being  too  feeble  to  contend  with  the  crown,  were  com- 
pelled, in  self-defence,  to  ally  themselves  with  the  peo- 
ple.24 About  a  hundred  years  after  the  Conquest,  the 
Normans  and  Saxons  amalgamated ;  and  both  parties 
united  against  the  king  in  order  to  uphold  their  common 
rights.28  The  Magna  Charta,  which  John  was  forced  to 


23  'Saint-Louis  consacra  le 
droit  de  guerre.  .  .  .  Philippe  le 
Bel,  qui  voulut  l'abolir,  finit  par 
le  retablir.'  Montlosier,  Mo- 
narchic Frangaise,  vol.  i.  pp.  127, 
202 :  see  also  pp.  434,  435,  and 
vol.  ii.  pp.  435,  436.  Mably  ( Ob- 
servations, voi.  ii.  p.  338)  men- 
tions '  lettres-patentes  de  Phi- 
lippe-de- Valois  du  8  fevrier  1330, 
3>our  permettre  dans  le  duche 
d'Aquitaine  les  guerres  privies,' 
&c. ;  and  he  adds,  '  le  9  avril 
1353  le  roi  Jean  renouvelle  l'or- 
donnance  de  S.  Louis,  nominee 
la  quarantaine  du  roi,  touchant 
les  guerres  privees.' 

24  Sir  Francis  Palgrave  (in  his 
Rise  and  Progress  of  the  English 
Commonwealth,  vol.  i.  pp.  51-55) 
has  attempted  to  estimate  the 
results  produced  by  the  Norman 
Conquest ;  but  he  omits  to  notice 
this,  which  was  the  most  im- 
portant consequence  of  all. 

25  On  this  political  union  be- 
tween Norman  barons  and  Saxon 
citizens,  of  which  the  first  clear 
indication  is  at  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  century,  compare  Camp- 
dell's  Chancellors,  vol.  i.  p.  113, 


with  BrougharrCs  Polit.  Philos. 
vol.  i.  p.  339,  vol.  iii.  p.  222. 

In  regard  to  the  general  ques- 
tion of  the  amalgamation  of  races, 
we  have  three  distinct  kinds  of 
evidence : 

1st.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  century,  a  new  language 
began  to  be  formed  by  blending 
Norman  with  Saxon;  and  English 
literature,  properly  so  called, 
dates  from  the  commencement 
of  the  thirteenth  century.  Com- 
pare Madderis  Preface  to  Laya- 
mon,  1847,  vol.  i.  pp.  xx.  xxi., 
with  Turner's  Hist,  of  England, 
vol.  viii.  pp.  214,  217,  436,  437. 

2nd.  We  have  the  specific 
statement  of  a  writer  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  II.,  that  '  sic  permixtse 
sunt  nationes  ut  vix  discerni 
possit  hodie,  de  liberis  ioquor, 
quis  Anglicus,  quis  Normannus 
sit  genere.'  Note  in  Hallam's 
Middle  Ages,  vol.  ii.  p.  106. 

3rd.  Before  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury had  passed  away,  the  dif- 
ference of  dress,  which  in  that 
state  of  society  would  survive 
many  other  differences,  was  no 
longer  observed,  and  the  distinc- 


PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     117 

yield  contained  concessions  to  the  aristocracy ;  but  its 
most  important  stipulations  were  those  in  favour  of  '  all 
classes  of  freemen.'26  Within  half  a  century,  fresh  con- 
tests broke  out ;  the  barons  were  again  associated  with 
the  people,  and  again  there  followed  the  same  results, 
— the  extension  of  popular  privileges  being  each  time 
the  condition  and  the  consequence  of  this  singular 
alliance.  In  the  same  way,  when  the  Earl  of  Leicester 
raised  a  rebellion  against  Henry  HX,  he  found  his  own 
party  too  weak  to  make  head  against  the  crown.  He, 
therefore,  applied  to  the  people  :27  and  it  is  to  him  that 
our  House  of  Commons  owes  its  origin ;  since  he,  in 
1264,  set  the  first  example  of  issuing  writs  to  cities  and 
boroughs  ;  thus  calling  upon  citizens  and  burgesses  to 
take  their  place  in  what  had  hitherto  been  a  parliament 
composed  entirely  of  priests  and  nobles.28 

tive  peculiarities  of  Norman  and  itself  improbable ;  because  at  an 
Saxon  attire  had  disappeared,  early  period  the  citizens,  though 
See  Strut? s  View  of  the  Dress  and  rapidly  increasing  in  power,  were 
Habits  of  the  People  of  England,  hardly  important  enough  to  war- 
vol.  ii.  p.  67,  edit.  Planche,  1842,  rant  such  a  step  being  taken. 
4to.  The  best  authorities  are  now 
28  '  An  equal  distribution  of  agreed  to  refer  the  origin  of  the 
civil  rights  to  all  classes  of  free-  House  of  Commons  to  the  period 
men  forms  the  peculiar  beauty  of  mentioned  in  the  text.  See  Hal- 
the  charter.'  Hallam's  Middle  lam's  Supplement,  Notes,  pp.  335- 
Ages,  vol.  ii.  p.  108.  This  is  very  339 ;  Spence's  Origin  of  the  Laws 
finely  noticed  in  one  of  Lord  of  Europe,  p.  512;  Campbell's 
Chatham's  great  speeches.  Pari.  Chancellors,  vol.  i.  p.  155  ;  Lin- 
Hist.  vol.  xvi.  p.  662.  gartfs  England,  vol.  ii.   p.  138  ; 

27  Compare,  Meyer,  Instit.  Guizofs  Essais,  p.  319.  The 
Judic.  vol.  ii.  p.  39,  with  Lin-  notion  of  tracing  this  to  the  witte- 
gard's  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  127,  nagemot  is  as  absurd  as  finding 
and  Somers  Tracts,  vol.  vi.  p.  92.  the  origin  of  juries  in  the  system 

28  '  He  is  to  be  honoured  as  the  of  compurgators ;  both  of  which 
founder  of  a  representative  system  were  favourite  errors  in  the  seven - 
of  government  in  this  country.'  teenth,  and  even  in  the  eighteenth 
Campbells  Chief-Justices,  vol.  i.  century.  In  regard  to  the  witte- 
p.  61.  Some  writers  (see,  for  nagemot,  this  idea  still  lingers- 
instance,  Lalrymple's  Hist,  of  among  antiquaries:  but,  in  re- 
Feudal  Property,  p.  332)  suppose  gard  to  compurgators,  even  they 
that  burgesses  were  summoned  have  abandoned  their  old  ground, 
before  the  reign  of  Henry  III. :  and  it  is  now  well  understood 
but  this  assertion  is  not  only  un-  that  trial  by  jury  did  not  exist 
supported  by  evidence,  but  is  in  till    long    after    the   Conquest. 


118    PEOTECTIVE  SPIEIT  IN  FEANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

The  English  aristocracy  being  thus  forced,  by  their 
own  weakness,  to  rely  on  the  people,29  it  naturally  fol- 
lowed, that  the  people  imbibed  that  tone  of  inde- 
pendence, and  that  lofty  bearing,  of  which  our  civil  and 
political  institutions  are  the  consequence,  rather  than 
the  cause.  It  is  to  this,  and  not  to  any  fanciful  pecu- 
liarity of  race,  that  we  owe  the  sturdy  and  enterprising 
spirit  for  which  the  inhabitants  of  this  island  have  long 
been  remarkable.  It  is  this  which  has  enabled  us  to 
baffle  all  the  arts  of  oppression,  and  to  maintain  for 
centuries  liberties  which  no  other  nation  has  ever 
possessed.  And  it  is  this  which  has  fostered  and  up- 
held those  great  municipal  privileges,  which,  whatever 
be  their  faults,  have,  at  least,  the  invaluable  merit  of 
accustoming  free  men  to  the  exercise  of  power,  giving 
to  citizens  the  management  of  their  own  city,  and  per- 
petuating the  idea  of  independence,  by  preserving  it 
in  a  living  type,  and  by  enlisting  in  its  support  the  in- 
terests and  affections  of  individual  men. 

But  the  habits  of  self-government  which,  under  these 
circumstances,  were  cultivated  in  England,  were,  under 
opposite  circumstances,  neglected  in  France.  The  great 
French  lords  being  too  powerful  to  need  the  people, 
were  unwilling  to  seek  their  alliance.30  The  result 
was,  that,  amid  a  great  variety  of  forms  and  names, 
society  was,  in  reality,  only  divided  into  two  classes — 
the  upper  and  the  lower,  the  protectors  and  the  pro- 
tected.    And,  looking  at  the  ferocity  of  the  prevailing 


Compare  Palgrave's  English  Com-  cesse.    Elle  a  subi  l'oppression ; 

monwealth,  part  i.  pp.  243  seq.,  elle  ne  l'a  point  acceptee.     En 

■with  Meyer,  Instit.  Judic.  vol.  ii.  Angleterre,  elle  a  couru  des  la 

pp.  152-173.  There  are  fewthings  premiere  commotion,  se  rettigier 

in  our  history  so  irrational  as  the  dans  les  rangs  des  bourgeois,  et 

admiration  expressed  by  a  certain  sous  leur  protection.     Elle  a  ab- 

class  of  "writers  for  the  institu-  diqu6  ainsi  son  existence.'  Mont- 

tions  of  our  barbarous  Anglo-  losier,  Monarchie  Frangaise,  vol. 

Saxon  ancestors.  iii.  p.  162.    Compare  an  instruc- 

29   Montlosier,   with  the  fine  tive  passage  in  Be  Stael,  Consid. 

spirit  of  a  Erench  noble,  taunts  sur  la  Revolution,  vol.  i.  p.  421. 

the  English  aristocracy  "with  this:  30  See  some  good  remarks  in 

'En  France  la  noblesse,  a ttaqu^e  Mably,   Observations  sur  VHist. 

sans  cesse,  s'est  d&fendue  sans  de  France,  vol.  iii.  pp.  114,  115. 


PEOTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     119 

maimers,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  in  France, 
under  the  feudal  system,  every  man  was  either  a  tyrant 
or  a  slave.  Indeed,  in  most  instances,  the  two  cha- 
racters were  combined  in  the  same  person.  For,  the 
practice  of  subinfeudation,  which  in  our  country  was 
actively  checked,  became  in  France  almost  universal.31 
By  this,  the  great  lords  having  granted  lands  on  con- 
dition of  fealty  and  other  services  to  certain  persons, 
these  last  subgranted  them ;  that  is,  made  them  over 
on  similar  conditions  to  other  persons,  who  had  like- 
wise the  power  of  bestowing  them  on  a  fourth  party, 
and  so  on  in  an  endless  series  ; 32  thus  forming  a  long 
chain  of  dependence,  and,  as  it  were,  organizing  sub- 
mission into  a  system.33  In  England,  on  the  other 
hand,  such  arrangements  were  so  unsuited  to  the 
general  state  of  affairs,  that  it  is  doubtful  if  they  were 
ever  carried  on  to  any  extent ;  and,  at  all  events,  it 
is  certain  that,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  they  were 
finally  stopped  by  the  statute  known  to  lawyers  as 
Quia  eiwptores.3* 

Thus  early  was  there  a  great  social  divergence  be- 
tween France  and  England.  The  consequences  of  this 
were  still  more  obvious  when,  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, the  feudal  system  rapidly  decayed  in  both  coun- 
tries. For  in  England,  the  principle  of  protection 
being  feeble,  men  were  in  some  degree  accustomed  to 
self-government;  and  they  were  able  to  hold  fast  by 
those  great  institutions  which  would  have  been  ill 
adapted  to  the  more  obedient  habits  of  the  French 
people.  Our  municipal  privileges,  the  rights  of  our 
yeomanry,  and  the  security  of  our  copyholders,  were, 
from  the  fourteenth  to  the  seventeenth  centuries,  the 


81  Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  vol.  i.  de  patronage.'  Cassagnac,  R&vo- 
p.  111.  lution  Frangaise,  vol.  i.  p.  459. 

82  '  Originally  there  was  no  34  This  is  18  Edw.  I.  c  1;  re- 
limit  to  subinfeudation.'  Broug-  specting  which,  see  Blackstone's 
harrCs  Polit.  Philos.  vol.  i.  p.  279.  Comment,  vol.  ii.  p.  91,  vol.  iv. 

33  A  living  French  historian  p.  426 ;  Reeve's  Hist,  of  English 

boasts  that,  in  his  own  country,  Law,  vol.  ii.  p.  223  ;  Dalrgmple's 

'toute  la  societe  feodale  formait  Hist,  of  Feudal  Property,  pp.102, 

.ainsi  une  echelle  de  clientelle  et  243,  340. 


120     PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 


three  most  important  guarantees  for  the  liberties  of 
England.35  In  France  such  guarantees  were  impossible. 
The  real  division  being  between  those  who  were  noble, 
and  those  who  were  not  noble,  no  room  was  left  for 
the  establishment  of  intervening  classes ;  but  all  were 
compelled  to  fall  into  one  of  these  two  great  ranks.36 
The  French  have  never  had  any  thing  answering  to  our 
yeomanry ;  nor  were  copyholders  recognized  by  their 
laws.     And,  although  they  attempted  to  introduce  into 


85  The  history  of  the  decay  of 
that  once  most  important  class, 
the  English  yeomanry,  is  an  in- 
teresting subject,  and  one  for 
•which  I  have  collected  consider- 
able materials ;  at  present,  I  will 
only  say,  that  its  decline  was 
first  distinctly  perceptible  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  was  consummated 
by  the  rapidly-increasing  power 
of  the  commercial  and  manufac- 
turing classes  early  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  After  losing 
their  influence,  their  numbers 
naturally  diminished,  and  they 
made  way  for  other  bodies  of 
men,  whose  habits  of  mind  were 
less  prejudiced,  and  therefore 
better  suited  to  that  new  state 
which  society  assumed  in  the 
last  age.  I  mention  this,  be- 
cause some  writers  regret  the 
almost  total  destruction  of  the 
yeoman  freeholders;  overlooking 
the  fact,  that  they  are  disappear- 
ing, not  in  consequence  of  any 
violent  revolution  or  stretch  of 
arbitrary  power,  but  simply  by 
the  general  march  of  affairs ; 
society  doing  away  with  what  it 
no  longer  requires.  Compare 
Kay's  Social  Condition  of  the 
People,  vol.  i.  pp.  43,  602,  with 
a  letter  from  Wordsworth  in 
Bunburi/s  Correspond,  of  Han- 
mer,  p.  440;    a  note  in  Mill's 


Polit.  Econ.  vol.  i.  pp.  311,  312; 
another  in  Nichols's  Lit.  Anec. 
vol.  v.  p.  323;  and  Sinclair's 
Correspond,  vol.  i.  p.  229. 

38  This  is  stated  as  an  ad- 
mitted fact  by  French  writers 
living  in  different  periods  and 
holding  different  opinions;  but 
all  agreed  as  to  there  being  only 
two  divisions :  '  comme  en  France 
on  est  toujours  ou  noble,  ou  ro- 
turier,  et  qu'il  n'y  a  pas  de  milieu.' 
Mem.  de  Rivarol,  p.  7.  'La 
grande  distinction  des  nobles  et 
des  roturiers.'  Giraud,  Precis 
de  VAncien  Droit,  p.  10.  Indeed, 
according  to  the  Coutumes,  the 
nobles  and  roturiers  attained 
their  majority  at  different  ages. 
Klimrath,  Hist,  du  Droit,  vol.ii. 
p.  249  (erroneously  stated  in 
Story's  Conflict  of  Laws,  pp.  56, 
79,  114).  See  further  respecting 
this  capital  distinction,  Mem.  de 
Duplessis  Mornay,  vol.  ii.  p.  230 
('  agreable  a,  la  noblesse  et  au 
peuple');  (Euvres  de  Turgot, 
vol.  viii.  pp.  222,  232,  237; 
Bunbury's  Correspond,  of  Han- 
mer,  p.  256 ;  Mably,  Observa- 
tions, vol.  iii.  p.  263  ;  and  Mercier 
sur  Rousseau,  vol.  i.  p.  38:  'On 
etoit  roturier,  vilain,  homme  de 
neant,  canaille,  des  quon  ne 
s'appelloit  plus  marquis,  baron, 
comte,  chevalier,  etc.' 


PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     121 

their  country  municipal  institutions,  all  such  efforts 
■were  futile  ;  for,  while  they  copied  the  forms  of  liberty, 
they  lacked  that  bold  and  sturdy  spirit  by  which  alone 
liberty  can  be  secured.  They  hadj  indeed,  its  image 
and  superscription ;  but  they  wanted  the  sacred  fire 
that  warms  the  image  into  life.  Every  thing  else  they 
possessed.  The  show  and  appliances  of  freedom  were 
there.  Charters  were  granted  to  their  towns,  and  pri- 
vileges conceded  to  their  magistrates.  All,  however, 
was  useless.  For  it  is  not  by  the  wax  and  parchment 
of  lawyers  that  the  independence  of  men  can  be  pre- 
served. Such  things  are  the  mere  externals  ;  they  set 
off  liberty  to  advantage ;  they  are  as  its  dress  and  para- 
phernalia, its  holiday-suit  in  times  of  peace  and  quiet. 
But,  when  the  evil  days  set  in,  when  the  invasions  of 
despotism  have  begun,  liberty  will  be  retained,  not  by 
those  who  can  show  the  oldest  deeds  and  the  largest 
charters,  but  by  those  who  have  been  most  inured  to 
habits  of  independence,  most  accustomed  to  think  and 
act  for  themselves,  and  most  regardless  of  that  insidious 
protection  which  the  upper  classes  have  always  been  so 
ready  to  bestow,  that,  in  many  countries,  they  have  now 
left  nothing  worth  the  trouble  to  protect. 

And  so  it  was  in  France.  The  towns,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, fell  at  the  first  shock ;  and  the  citizens  lost 
those  municipal  privileges  which,  not  being  grafted 
on  the  national  character,  it  was  found  impossible  to 
preserve.  In  the  same  way,  in  our  country,  power  na- 
turally, and  by  the  mere  force  of  the  democratic  move- 
ment, fell  into  the  hands  of  the  House  of  Commons ; 
whose  authority  has  ever  since,  notwithstanding  oc- 
casional checks,  continued  to  increase  at  the  expense 
of  the  more  aristocratic  parts  of  the  legislature.  The 
only  institution  answering  to  this  in  France  was  the 
States- General ;  which,  however,  had  so  little  in- 
fluence, that,  in  the  opinion  of  native  historians,  it 
was  hardly  to  be  called  an  institution  at  all.37     Indeed, 


*'  Les  dtats  -  generaux  sont  s'il  est  permis  de  donner  ce  nom 
portds  dans  la  liste  de  nos  insti-  a  des  rassemblemens  aussi  irre- 
tutions.     Je  ne  sais  cependant    guliers.'    Montlosier,  MonarchU 


122     PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 


the  French  were,  by  this  time,  so  accustomed  to  the 
idea  of  protection,  and  to  the  subordination  which  that 
idea  involves,  that  they  were  little  inclined  to  uphold 
an  establishment  which,  in  their  constitution,  was  the 
sole  representative  of  the  popular  element.  The  result 
was,  that,  by  the  fourteenth  century,  the  liberties  of 
Englishmen  were  secured  ;38  and,  since  then,  their  only 
concern  has  been  to  increase  what  they  have  already 
obtained.  But  in  that  same  century,  in  France,  the 
protective  spirit  assumed  a  new  form;  the  power  of  the 
aristocracy  was,  in  a  great  measure,  succeeded  by  the 
power  of  the  crown ;  and  there  began  that  tendency  to 
centralization  which,  having  been  pushed  still  further, 
first  under  Louis  XTV.,  and  afterwards  under  Napoleon, 
has  become  the  bane  of  the  French  people.39  For  by  it 
the  feudal  ideas  of  superiority  and  submission  have  long 
survived  that  barbarous  age  to  which  alone  they  were 
suited.     Indeed,  by  their  transmigration,  they  seemed 


Francaise,  voL  i.  p.  266.  'En 
France,  les  etats-generaux,  au 
moment  meme  de  leur  plus  grand 
eclat,  c'est  a  dire  dans  le  cours  du 
xiv*  siecle,  n'ont  guere  ete  que 
des  accidents,  un  pouvoir  na- 
tional et  souvent  invoqu&,  mais 
non  un  etablissement  constitu- 
tionnel.'  Guizot,  Essais,  p.  253. 
See  also  Mably,  Observations, 
vol.  iii.  p.  147;  and  Sismondi, 
Hist,  des  Frangais,  vol.  xiv.  p. 
642. 

38  This  is  frankly  admitted  by 
one  of  the  most  candid  and  en- 
lightened of  all  the  foreign 
writers  on  our  history,  Guizot, 
Essais,  p.  297:  'En  1307,  les 
droits  qui  devaient  enfanter  en 
Angleterre  un  gouvernement 
libre  etaient  definitivement  re- 
connus.' 

89  See  an  account  of  the  policy 
of  Philip  the  Fair,  in  Mably, 
Observations,  vol.  ii.  pp.  25-44 ; 
in  BoulainvUliers,  Ancien  Gou- 


vernement, vol.  i.  pp.  292,  314, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  37,  38  ;  and  in  Guizot, 
Civilisation  en  France,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  170-192.  M.  Guizot  says, 
perhaps  too  strongly,  that  his 
reign  was  '  la  metamorphose  de 
la  royaut6  en  despotisme.'  On 
the  connexion  of  this  with  the 
centralizing  movement,  see 
Tocqtceville's  Democratic,  vol.  i. 
p.  307  :  '  Le  gout  de  la  centrali- 
sation et  la  manie  reglementaire 
remontent,  en  France,  a  l'epoque 
ou  les  legistes  sont  entres  dans 
le  gouvernement;  ce  qui  nous 
reporte  au  temps  de  Philippe  le 
Bel.'  Tennemann  also  notices, 
that  in  his  reign  the  '  Kechts- 
theorie'  began  to  excercise  in- 
fluence ;  but  this  learned  writer 
takes  a  purely  metaphysical  view, 
and  has  therefore  misunderstood 
the  more  general  social  tendency. 
Gesch.  der  PhUos.  vol.  viii.  p. 
823. 


PEOTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     123 


to  have  gained  fresh,  strength.  In  France,  every  thing 
is  referred  to  one  common  centre,  in  which  all  civil 
functions  are  absorbed.  All  improvements  of  any  im- 
portance, all  schemes  for  bettering  even  the  material  con- 
dition of  the  people  must  receive  the  sanction  of  govern- 
ment ;  the  local  authorities  not  being  considered  equal 
to  such  arduous  tasks.  In  order  that  inferior  magistrates 
may  not  abuse  their  power,  no  power  is  conferred  upon 
them.  The  exercise  of  independent  jurisdiction  is 
almost  unknown.  Every  thing  that  is  done  must  be 
done  at  head  quarters.40  The  government  is  believed 
to  see  every  thing,  know  every  thing,  and  provide  for 
every  thing.  To  enforce  this  monstrous  monopoly  there 
has  been  contrived  a  machinery  well  worthy  of  the 
design.  The  entire  country  is  covered  by  an  immense 
array  of  officials  ;41  who,  in  the  regularity  of  their  hier- 


40  As  several  writers  on  law 
notice  this  system  with  a  lenient 
«ye  Origines  du  Droit  Francais, 
in  CEuvres  de  Michelet,  vol.  ii. 
p.  321 :  and  Eschbach,  Etude  du 
Droit,  p.  129  :  'le  systeme  ener- 
gique  d.e  la  centralisation'),  it 
may  be  well  to  state  how  it 
actually  works. 

Mr.  Bulwer,  writing  twenty 
years  ago,  says  :  '  Not  only  can- 
not a  commune  determine  its 
own  expenses  without  the  consent 
of  the  minister  or  one  of  his  de- 
puted functionaries,  it  cannot 
even  erect  a  building,  the  cost 
of  which  shall  have  been  sanc- 
tioned, without  the  plan  being 
adopted  by  a  board  of  public 
works  attached  to  the  central 
authority,  and  having  the  super- 
vision and  direction  of  every 
public  building  throughout  the 
kingdom.'  Bultver's  Monarchy 
of  the  Middle  Classes,  1836,  vol. 
ii.  p.  262. 

M.  Tocqueville,  writing  in  the 
present  year  (1856),  says,  '  Sous 


l'ancien  regime,  comme  de  nos 
jours,  il  n'y  avait  ville,  bourg, 
village,  ni  si  petit  hameau  en 
France,  hopital,  fabrique,  cou- 
vent  ni  college,  qui  put  avoir 
une  volonte  inddpendante  dans 
ses  affaires  particulieres,  ni  ad- 
ministrer  a  sa  volont^  ses  propres 
biens.  Alors,  comme  aujourd!hui, 
l'administration  tenait  done  tous 
les  Francais  en  tutelle,  et  si 
l'insolence  du  mot  ne  s'etait  pas 
encore  produite,  on  avait  du  moms 
deja  la  chose.'  Tocqueville, 
VAncien  RSgime,  1856,  pp.  79, 
80. 

41  The  number  of  civil  func- 
tionaries in  France,  who  are  paid 
by  the  government  to  trouble  the 
people,  passes  all  belief,  being 
estimated,  at  different  periods 
during  the  present  century,  at 
from  138,000  to  upwards  of 
800,000.  Tocqueville,  de  la  Di- 
mocratie,  voL  i.  p.  220  ;  Alison's 
Europe,  vol.  xiv.  pp.  127,  140; 
Kay's  Condition  of  the  People, 
vol.   i.  p.   272;   Lain/s  Notes, 


124     PEOTEOTIVE  SPIEIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

archy,  and  in  the  order  of  their  descending  series,  form 
an  admirable  emblem  of  that  fendal  principle,  -which 
ceasing  to  be  territorial,  has  now  become  personal.  In 
fact,  the  whole  business  of  the  state  is  conducted  on 
the  supposition  that  no  man  either  knows  his  own  in- 
terest, or  is  fit  to  take  care  of  himself.  So  paternal  are 
the  feelings  of  government,  so  eager  for  the  welfare  of 
its  subjects,  that  it  has  drawn  within  its  jurisdiction  the 
most  rare,  as  well  as  the  most  ordinary,  actions  of  life. 
In  order  that  the  French  may  not  make  imprudent 
wills,  it  has  limited  the  right  of  bequest ;  and,  for  fear 
that  they  should  bequeath  their  property  wrongly,  it 
prevents  them  from  bequeathing  the  greater  part  of  it 
at  all.  In  order  that  society  may  be  protected  by  its 
police,  it  has  directed  that  no  one  shall  travel  without 
a  passport.  And  when  men  are  actually  travelling,  they 
are  met  at  every  turn  by  the  same  interfering  spirit, 
which,  under  pretence  of  protecting  their  persons, 
shackles  their  liberty.  Into  another  matter,  far  more 
serious,  the  French  have  carried  the  same  principle. 
Such  is  their  anxiety  to  protect  society  against  criminals, 
that,  when  an  offender  is  placed  at  the  bar  of  one  of 
their  courts,  there  is  exhibited  a  spectacle  which  is  no 
idle  boast  to  say  we,  in  England,  could  not  tolerate  for 
a  single  hour.  There  is  seen  a  great  public  magistrate, 
by  whom  the  prisoner  is  about  to  be  tried,  examining 
him  in  order  to  ascertain  his  supposed  guilt,  re-examin- 
ing him,  cross-examining  him,  performing  the  duties, 
not  of  a  judge,  but  of  a  prosecutor,  and  bringing  to  bear 
against  the  unhappy  man  all  the  authority  of  his  judicial 
position,  all  his  professional  subtlety,  all  his  experience, 
all  the  dexterity  of  his  practised  understanding.  This 
is,  perhaps,  the  most  alarming  of  the  many  instances 
in  which  the  tendencies  of  the  French  intellect  are 
shown ;  because  it  supplies  a  machinery  ready  for  the 
purposes  of  absolute  power ;  because  it  brings  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  into  disrepute,  by  associating  with 


2d  series,  p.  185.  Mr.  Laing,  Philippe,  the  civil  functionaries 
•writing  in  1850,  says:  'In  were  stated  to  amount  to  807,030 
France,  at  the  expulsion  of  Louis    individuals.' 


PEOTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     125 

it  an  idea  of  unfairness ;  and  "because  it  injures  that 
calm  and  equable  temper,  which  it  is  impossible  fully  to 
maintain  under  a  system  that  makes  a  magistrate  an 
advocate,  and  turns  the  judge  into  a  partizan.  But  this, 
mischievous  as  it  is,  only  forms  part  of  a  far  larger 
scheme.  For,  to  the  method  by  which  criminals  are 
discovered,  there  is  added  an  analogous  method,  by 
which  crime  is  prevented.  With  this  view,  the  people, 
even  in  their  ordinary  amusements,  are  watched  and 
carefully  superintended.  Lest  they  should  harm  each 
other  by  some  sudden  indiscretion,  precautions  are 
taken  similar  to  those  with  which  a  father  might  sur- 
round his  children.  In  their  fairs,  at  their  theatres, 
their  concerts,  and  their  other  places  of  public  resort, 
there  are  always  present  soldiers,  who  are  sent  to  see 
that  no  mischief  is  done,  that  there  is  no  unnecessary 
crowding,  that  no  one  uses  harsh  language,  that  no  one 
quarrels  with  his  neighbour.  Nor  does  the  vigilance 
of  the  government  stop  there.  Even  the  education  of 
children  is  brought  under  the  control  of  the  state,  in- 
stead of  being  regulated  by  the  judgment  of  masters 
or  parents.42  And  the  whole  plan  is  executed  with  such 
energy,  that,  as  the  French  while  men  are  never  let 
alone,  just  so  while  children  they  are  never  left  alone.43 
At  the  same  time,  it  being  reasonably  supposed  that  the 
adults  thus  kept  in  pupilage  cannot  be  proper  judges  of 
their  own  food,  the  government  has  provided  for  this 
also.  Its  prying  eye  follows  the  butcher  to  the  shambles, 
and  the  baker  to  the  oven.     By  its  paternal  hand,  meat 


42  '  The  government  in  France  the  whole  education  of  the  em- 
possesses  control  over  all  the  pire  was  brought  effectually 
education  of  the  country,  with  under  the  direction  and  appoint- 
the  exception  of  the  colleges  for  ment  of  government.' 
the  education  of  the  clergy,  which  48  Much  attention  is  paid  to 
are  termed  seminaries,  and  their  the  surveillance  of  pupils;  it. 
subordinate  institutions.'  Report  being  a  fundamental  principle  oft 
on  the  State  of  Superior  Educa-  French  education,  that  children 
tion  in  France  in  1843,  in  Journal  should  never  be  left  alone.  Be~ 
of  Statist.  Soc.  vol.  vi.  p.  304.  port  on  General  Education  in 
On  the  steps  taken  during  the  France  in  1842,  in  Journal  of 
power  of  Napoleon,  see  Alison's  Statist.  Soc.  vol,  v.  p.  20. 
Europe,  vol.  vrii.  p.  203 :  '  Nearly 


126    PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

is  examined  lest  it  should  be  bad,  and  bread  is  weighed 
lest  it  should  be  light.  In  short,  without  multiplying 
instances,  with  which  most  readers  must  be  familiar, 
it  is  enough  to  say  that  in  France,  as  in  every  country 
where  the  protective  principle  is  active,  the  govern- 
ment has  established  a  monopoly  of  the  worst  kind ;  a 
monopoly  which  comes  home  to  the  business  and 
bosoms  of  men,  follows  them  in  their  daily  avocations, 
troubles  them  with  its  petty,  meddling  spirit,  and,  what 
is  worse  than  all,  diminishes  their  responsibility  to 
themselves ;  thus  depriving  them  of  what  is  the  only 
real  education  that  most  minds  receive, — the  constant 
necessity  of  providing  for  future  contingencies,  and  the 
habit  of  grappling  with  the  difficulties  of  life. 

The  consequence  of  all  this  has  been,  that  the  French, 
though  a  great  and  splendid  people, — a  people  full  of 
mettle,  high-spirited,  abounding  in  knowledge,  and 
perhaps  less  oppressed  by  superstition  than  any  other 
in  Europe, — have  always  been  found  unfit  to  exercise 
political  power.  Even  when  they  have  possessed  it, 
they  have  never  been  able  to  combine  permanence  with 
liberty.  One  of  these  two  elements  has  always  been 
wanting.  They  have  had  free  governments,  which  have 
not  been  stable.  They  have  had  stable  governments, 
which  have  not  been  free.  Owing  to  their  fearless 
temper,  they  have  rebelled,  and  no  doubt  will  continue 
to  rebel,  against  so  evil  a  condition.44  But  it  does  not 
need  the  tongue  of  a  prophet  to  tell  that,  for  at  least 
some  generations,  all  such  efforts  must  be  unsuc- 
cessful. For  men  can  never  be  free,  unless  they  are 
educated  to  freedom.  And  this  is  not  the  education 
which  is  to  be  found  in  schools,  or  gained  from  books ; 
but  it  is  that  which  consists  in  self-discipline,  in  self- 
reliance,  and  in  self-government.  These,  in  Eng- 
land, are  matters  of  hereditary  descent —  traditional 
habits,  which  we  imbibe  in  our  youth,  and  which  re- 


**  A     distinguished    French  ce  mal  c'est  la  haine  de  l'auto- 

author  says  :  '  La  France  souffre  riteV      Custine,   Bussie,  vol.  ii. 

du  mal  du  siecle;   elle  en  est  p.  136.     Compare,  Bey,  Science 

plus  malade  qu'aucun  autre  pays ;  Sociale,  vol.  ii.  p.  86  note. 


PEOTECTIVE  SPIEIT  IN  FEANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     127 

gulate  us  in  the  conduct  of  life.  The  old  associations 
of  the  French  all  point  in  another  direction.  At 
the  slightest  difficulty,  they  call  on  the  government  for 
support.  What  with  us  is  competition,  with  them  is 
monopoly.  That  which  we  effect  by  private  com- 
panies, they  effect  by  public  boards.  They  cannot  cut 
a  canal,  or  lay  down  a  railroad,  without  appealing  to 
the  government  for  aid.  With  them,  the  people  look 
to  the  rulers ;  with  us,  the  rulers  look  to  the  people. 
With  them,  the  executive  is  the  centre  from  which 
society  radiates ; 45  with  us,  society  is  the  instigator, 
and  the  executive  the  organ.  The  difference  in  the 
result  has  corresponded  with  the  difference  in  the  pro- 
cess. We  have  been  made  fit  for  political  power,  by 
the  long  exercise  of  civil  rights ;  they,  neglecting  the 
exercise,  think  they  can  at  once  begin  with  the  power. 
We  have  always  shown  a  determination  to  uphold  our 
liberties,  and,  when  the  times  are  fitting,  to  increase 
them ;  and  this  we  have  done  with  a  decency  and  a 
gravity  natural  to  men  to  whom  such  subjects  have 
long  been  familiar.  But  the  French,  always  treated 
as  children,  are,  in  political  matters,  children  still. 
And  as  they  have  handled  the  most  weighty  con- 
cerns in  that  gay  and  volatile  spirit  which  adorns 
their  fighter  literature,  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  have 
failed  in  matters  where  the  first  condition  of  success 
is,  that  men  should  have  been  long  accustomed  to  rely 
upon  their  own  energies,  and  that  before  they  try  their 
skill  in  a  political  struggle,  their  resources  should  have 
been  sharpened  by  that  preliminary  discipline,  which 
a  contest  with  the  difficulties  of  civil  life  can  never  fail 
to  impart. 

44  It  is  to  the  activity  of  this  them  favour  the  establishment  of 

protective  and  centralizing  spirit  academies ;   and  it  is  probably 

that  we  must  ascribe,  what  a  very  to  the  same  principle  that  their 

great    authority  noticed    thirty  jurists  owe  their  love  of  codifi- 

years  ago,  as  '  le  defaut  de  spon-  cation.    All  these  aro  manifesta- 

taneite,  qui  caracterise  les  insti-  tions  of  an  unwillingness  to  rely 

tutions  de  la  France  moderne.'  on  the  general  march  of  affairs, 

Meyer,   Instit.    Judic.    vol.    iv.  and  show  an  undue  contempt  for 

S.  536.    It  is  also  this  which,  in  the  unaided  conclusions  of  pri- 

terature  and  in  science,  makes  vate  man. 


128     PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

These  are  among  the  considerations  by  which  we 
must  be  guided,  in  estimating  the  probable  destinies  of 
the  great  countries  of  Europe.  But  what  we  are  now 
rather  concerned  with  is,  to  notice  how  the  opposite 
tendencies  of  France  and  England  long  continued  to  be 
displayed  in  the  condition  and  treatment  of  their  aris- 
tocracy ;  and  how  from  this  there  naturally  followed 
some  striking  differences  between  the  war  conducted 
by  the  Fronde,  and  that  waged  by  the  Long  Parliament. 

When,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  the  authority  of 
the  French  kings  began  rapidly  to  increase,  the  poli- 
tical influence  of  the  nobility  was,  of  course,  corre- 
spondingly diminished.  What,  however,  proves  the 
extent  to  which  their  power  had  taken  root,  is  the  un- 
doubted fact,  that,  notwithstanding  this  to  them  un- 
favourable circumstance,  the  people  were  never  able  to 
emancipate  themselves  from  their  control.46  The  re- 
lation the  nobles  bore  to  the  throne  became  entirely 
changed ;  that  which  they  bore  to  the  people  remained 
almost  the  same.  La  England,  slavery,  or  villenage, 
as  it  is  mildly  termed,  quickly  diminished,  and  was 
extinct   by  the  end   of  the    sixteenth   century.47      La 


£ 


46  MaMy QObservations,Yol.in.  Hut.  voL  xxxi.   p.  406;   Jeffer- 

p.  154,  155,  352-362)  has  col-  son's  Correspond,  vol.  ii.  p.  45 ; 

ected  some  striking  evidence  of  and  Smith's  Tour  on  the  Conti- 

the  tyranny  of  the  French  nobles  nent,  edit.  1793,  vol.  iii.  pp.  201, 

in  the  sixteenth  century ;  and  as  202. 

to  the  wanton  cruelty  with  which  v  Mr.  Eccleston  {English 
they  exercised  their  power  in  the  Antiq.  p.  138)  says,  that  in  1450 
seventeenth  century,  see  Des  'villenage  had  almost  passed 
Beaux,  Historiettes,  vol.  vii.  away ; '  and  according  to  Mr. 
p.  155,  vol.  viii.  p.  79,  vol.  ix.  Thornton  {Over-Population,  p. 
pp.  40,  61,  62,  vol.  x.  pp.  255-  182),  '  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  who 
257.  In  the  eighteenth  century,  wrote  about  the  year  1550,  de- 
matters  were  somewhat  better ;  clares  that  he  had  never  met  with 
but  still  the  subordination  was  any  personal  or  domestic  slaves ; 
excessive,  and  the  people  were  and  that  the  villains,  or  predial 
poor,  ill-treated,  and  miserable,  slaves,  still  to  be  found,  were  so 
Compare  (Euvres  de  Turgot,  few,  as  to  be  scarcely  worth  men- 
vol.  iv.  p.  139  ;  Letter  from  the  tioning.'  Mr.  Hallam  can  find 
Earl  of  Cork,  dated  Lyons,  1754,  no  '  unequivocal  testimony  to  the 
in  Burton's  Diary,  vol.  iv.  p.  80 ;  existence  of  villenage '  later  than 
the  statement  of  Fox,  in  Pari.  1574.     Middle  Ages,   vol.  ii.  p. 


PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     129 


Trance,  it  lingered  on  two  hundred  years  later,  and 
was  only  destroyed  in  that  great  Revolution  hy  which 
the  possessors  of  ill-gotten  power  were  called  to  so 
sharp  an  account.48  Thus,  too,  until  the  last  seventy 
years,  the  nobles  were  in  France  exempt  from  those 
onerous  taxes  which  oppressed  the  people.  The  taille 
and  corvee  were  heavy  and  grievous  exactions,  but 
they  fell  solely  on  men  of  ignoble  birth;49  for  the 
French  aristocracy,  being  a  high  and  chivalrous  race, 
would  have  deemed  it  an  insult  to  their  illustrious 
descent,  if  they  had  been  taxed  to  the  same  amount  as 
those  whom  they  despised  as  their  inferiors.50     Indeed, 


312 ;  see,  to  the  same  effect,  Bar- 
rington  on  the  Statutes,  pp.  308, 
309.  If,  however,  my  memory 
does  not  deceive  me,  I  have  met 
with  evidence  of  it  in  the  reign 
of  James  I.,  but  I  cannot  recall 
the  passage 

48  M.  Cassagnac  (Causes  de  la 
Revolution,  vol.  iii.  p.  11)  says: 
'Chose  surprenante,  il  y  avait 
encore,  au  4  aout  1789,  un  million 
cinq  cent  mille  serfs  de  corps ; ' 
and  M.  Giraud  (Precis  de  VAncien 
Droit,  Paris,  1852,  p.  3), '  jusqu'a 
la  revolution  une  division  fonda- 
mentale  partageait  les  personnes 
en  personnes  fibres  et  personnes 
sujettes  a  condition  servile.'  A 
few  years  before  the  Eevolution, 
this  shameful  distinction  was 
abolished  by  Louis  XVI.  in  his 
own  domains.  Compare  Esch- 
bach,  Etude  du  Droit,  pp.  271, 
272,  with  Du  Mesnil,  Mem.  sur 
le  Prince  leBrun,  p.  94.  I  notice 
this  particularly,  because  M. 
Monteil,  a  learned  and  generally 
accurate  writer,  supposes  that  the 
abolition  took  place  earlier  than 
it  really  did.  Hist,  des  divers 
Etats,  vol.  vi.  p.  101. 

49  Cassagnac,  de  la  involution, 
vol.  i.    pp.  122,   173;    Qiraud, 

VOL.  n.  1 


Ancien  Droit,  p.  11 ;  Soulavie, 
MSm.  de  Louis  XVI,  voL  vi. 
p.  156  ;  MSm.  auBoi  sur  les  Mu- 
nicipality, in  (Euvres  de  Turgot, 
vol.  vii.  p.  423 ;  Mem.  de  Genlis, 
vol.  i.  p.  200. 

Further  information  respecting 
the  amount  and  nature  of  these 
vexatious  impositions  will  be 
found  in  De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ. 
vol.  adii.  p.  24,  vol.  adv.  p.  118: 
Saint  Aulaire,  Hist,  de  la  Fronde, 
vol.i.  p.  125 ;  TocquevUle,  Ancien 
Regime,  pp.  135,  191,  420,  440 ; 
Sully,  (Economies  Royales,  vol.  ii. 
p.  412,  vol.  iii.  p.  226,  vol.  iv. 
p.  199,  vol.  v.  pp.  339,  410,  vol. 
vi.  p.  94 ;  Relat.  des  Ambassad. 
Vh.it.  vol.  i.  p.  96 ;  Mably,  Ob- 
servations, vol.  iii.  pp.  355,  356  ; 
Boulainvilliers,  Ancien  Gouverna- 
ment,  vol.  iii.  p.  109 ;  Le  Vassor, 
Hist,  de  Louis  XIII,  vol.  ii.  p.  29 ; 
Mem.  dOmer  Talon,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
103,  369;  Mkm.  de  Montglat, 
vol.  i.  p.  82  ;  TocquevUle,  Eigne 
de  Louis  XV,  vol.  i.  pp.  87,  332  ; 
(Euvres  de  Turgot,  vol.  i.  p.  372, 
vol.  iv.  pp.  58,  59,  74,  75,  242, 
278,  vol.  v.  pp.  226,  242,  voL  vi. 
p.  144,  vol.  viii.  pp.  152,  280. 

••  So  deeply  rooted  were  these 
feelings,  that,  even  in  1789,  th« 


130    PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  PRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 


every  thing  tended  to  nurture  this  general  contempt. 
Every  thing  was  contrived  to  humble  one  class,  and 
exalt  the  other.  For  the  nobles  there  were  reserved 
the  best  appointments  in  the  church,  and  also  the  most 
important  military  posts.5 '  The  privilege  of  entering  the 
army  as  officers  was  confined  to  them ; 52  and  they  alone 
possessed  a  prescriptive  right  to  belong  to  the  cavalry.53 
At  the  same  time,  and  to  avoid  the  least  chance  of  con- 
fusion, an  equal  vigilance  was  displayed  in  the  most 
trifling  matters,  and  care  was  taken  to  prevent  any 
similarity,  even  in  the  amusements  of  the  two  classes. 
To  such  a  pitch  was  this  brought,  that,  in  many  parts 
of  France,  the  right  of  having  an  aviary  or  a  dovecote 
depended  entirely  on  a  man's  rank ;  and  no  French- 
man, whatever  his  wealth  might  be,  could  keep  pigeons, 
unless  he  were  a  noble  ;  it  being  considered  that  these 
recreations  were  too  elevated  for  persons  of  plebeian 
origin.54 


very  year  the  Kevolution  broke 
out,  it  was  deemed  a  great  con- 
cession that  the  nobles  '  will  con- 
sent, indeed,  to  equal  taxation.' 
See  a  letter  from  Jefferson  to  Jay, 
dated  Paris,  May  9th,  1789,  in 
Jefferson's  Corresp.  vol.  ii.  pp. 
462,  463.  Compare  Mercier  sur 
Rousseau,  vol.  i.  p.  136. 

51  '  Les  nobles,  qui  avaient  le 
privilege  exclusif  des  grandes 
dignites  et  des  gros  benefices.' 
Mem.  de  Rivarol,  p.  97 :  see  also 
Mem.  de  Bouille,  voL  i.  p.  56; 
Lemontey,  Etablissement  Monar- 
chique,  p.  337;  Daniel,  Hist,  de 
la  MUice  Frangoise,  vol.  ii.  p.  556 ; 
Campan,  Mem.  sur  Marie-Antoi- 
nette, vol.  i.  pp.  238,  239. 

52  'L'ancien  regime  n'avait 
admis  que  des  nobles  pour  offi- 
ciers.'  Mem.  de  Roland,  vol.  i. 
p.  398.  Segur  mentions  that, 
early  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI., 
•les  nobles  seuls  avaient  le  droit 
d'entrer  au  service  comme  sous- 
lieutenans.'   Mem.  de  Segur,  voL  i. 


p.  65.  Compare  pp.  117,  265- 
271,  with  Mem.  de  Genlis,  vol.  iii. 
p.  74,  and  Be  Stael,  Consid.  sur 
la  Rev.  vol.  i.  p.  123. 

53  Thus,  De  Thou  says  of 
Henry  III.,  '  il  remet  sous  l'an- 
cien pied  la  cavalerie  ordinaire, 
qui  n'etoit  composee  que  de  la 
noblesse.'  Hist.  Univ.  vol.  ix. 
pp.  202,  203  ;  and  see  vol.  x.  pp. 
504,  505,  vol.  xiii.  p.  22  ;  and  an 
imperfect  statement  of  the  same 
fact  in  BouUier,  Hist,  des  divers 
Corps  de  la  Maison  MUitaire  des 
Rois  de  France,  Paris,  1818,  p.  58, 
a  superficial  work  on  an  unin- 
teresting subject. 

54  M.  Tocqueville  (BAncien 
Regime,  p.  448)  mentions,  among 
other  regulations  still  in  force 
late  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
that  •  en  Dauphine,  en  Bretagne, 
en  Normandie,  il  est  prohibe  a 
tout  roturier  d'avoir  des  colom- 
biers,  fuies  et  voliere ;  il  n'y  a 
que  les  nobles  qui  puissent  avoir 
des  pigeons.' 


PEOTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     131 

Circumstances  like  these  are  valuable,  as  evidence 
of  the  state  of  society  to  which  they  belong ;  and 
their  importance  will  become  peculiarly  obvious,  when 
we  compare  them  with  the  opposite  condition  of  Eng- 
land. 

For  in  England,  neither  these  nor  any  similar  dis- 
tinctions have  ever  been  known.  The  spirit  of  which 
our  yeomanry,  copyholders,  and  free  burgesses  were 
the  representatives,  proved  far  too  strong  for  those  pro- 
tective and  monopolizing  principles  of  which  the  aris- 
tocracy are  the  guardians  in  politics,  and  the  clergy  in 
religion.  And  it  is  to  the  successful  opposition  made 
by  these  feelings  of  individual  independence  that  we  owe 
our  two  greatest  national  acts — our  Reformation  in  the 
sixteenth,  and  our  Rebellion  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
Before,  however,  tracing  the  steps  taken  in  thesematters, 
there  is  one  other  point  of  view  to  which  I  wish  to  call 
attention,  as  a  further  illustration  of  the  early  and  ra- 
dical difference  between  France  and  England. 

In  the  eleventh  century  there  arose  the  celebrated 
institution  of  chivalry,55  which  was  to  manners  what 
feudalism  was  to  politics.  This  connexion  is  clear,  not 
only  from  the  testimony  of  contemporaries,  but  also 
from  two  general  considerations.  In  the  first  place, 
chivalry  was  so  highly  aristocratic,  that  no  one  could 
even  receive  knighthood  unless  he  were  of  noble  birth  ;56 
and  the  preliminary  education  which  was  held  to  be 
necessary  was  carried  on  either  in  schools  appointed  by 


**  '  Des  la  fin  du  onzieme  si6-  cording  to  some  writers  it  origi- 

cle,  a  l'epoque  meme  ou  common-  nated  in  northern  Europe ;  ac- 

cerent  les  croisades,  on  trouve  la  cording  to    others   in    Arabia ! 

chevalerie  etablie.'    Koch,   Tab.  Mallets    Northern    Antiquities, 

des  ESvolutions,  vol.  i.  p.  143 ;  p.  202 ;  Journal  of  Asiat.   Soc. 

see  also  Sainte-Palaye,  Mem.  sur  vol.  ii.  p.  11. 
la  Chevalerie,  vol.  i.  pp.  42,  68.        M  '  L  ordre  de  chevalerie  n'etoit 

M.   Guizot  (Civilis.   en  France,  accorde  qu'aux  hommes  d'un  sang 

vol.  iii.   pp.    349-354)   has   at-  noble.'  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Fran- 

tempted  to  trace  it  back  to  an  caw,  vol.  iv.  p.  204.     Compare 

earlier  period ;  but  he  appears  to  Daniel,  Hist,  de  la  Milice,  vol.  i. 

have  failed,  though  of  course  its  p.  97,  and  Mills'  Hist,  of  Chi- 

germs  may  be  easily  found.  Ac-  valry,  vol.  i.  p.  20. 
x2 


132    PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 


the  nobles,  or  else  in  their  own  baronial  castles.57  In 
the  second  place,  it  was  essentially  a  protective,  and 
not  at  all  a  reforming  institution.  It  was  contrived 
with  a  view  to  remedy  certain  oppressions  as  they  suc- 
cessively arose ;  opposed  in  this  respect  to  the  reform- 
ing spirit,  which,  being  remedial  rather  than  palliative, 
strikes  at  the  root  of  an  evil  by  humbling  the  class  from 
which  the  evil  proceeds,  passing  over  individual  cases 
in  order  to  direct  its  attention  to  general  causes.  But 
chivalry,  so  far  from  doing  this,  was  in  fact  a  fusion  of 
the  aristocratic  and  the  ecclesiastical  forms  of  the  pro- 
tective spirit.58  For,  by  introducing  among  the  nobles 
the  principle  of  knighthood,  which,  being  personal,  could 
never  be  bequeathed,  it  presented  a  point  at  which  the , 
ecclesiastical  doctrine  of  celibacy  could  coalesce  with  the 
aristocratic  doctrine  of  hereditary  descent.59  Out  of  this 
coalition  sprung  results  of  great  moment.  It  is  to  this 
that  Europe  owes  those  orders,  half  aristocratic  half  reli- 


57  '  In  some  places  there  were 
Bchools  appointed  by  the  nobles 
of  the  country,  but  most  fre- 
quently their  own  castles  served.' 
Mills'  Hist  of  Chivalry,  vol.  i. 
p.  31 ;  and  see  Sainte-Palaye, 
Mem.  sur  VAnc.  Chevalerie,  vol.  i. 
pp.  30,  56,  57,  on  this  educa- 
tion. 

58  This  combination  of  knight- 
hood and  religious  rites  is  often 
ascribed  to  the  crusades ;  but 
there  is  good  evidence  that  it 
took  place  a  little  earlier,  and 
must  be  referred  to  the  latter 
half  of  the  eleventh  century. 
Compare  Mills'  Hist,  of  Chivalry, 
vol.  i.  pp.  10,  11 ;  Daniel,  Hist, 
de  la  MUice,  vol.  i.  pp.  101, 
102,  108  ;  Boulainvilliers,  Ancien 
Gouv.  vol.  i.  p.  326.  Sainte- 
Palaye  (Mem.  sur  la  Chevalerie, 
vol.  i.  pp.  119-123),  who  has 
collected  some  illustrations  of 
the  relation  between  chivalry 
and   the  church,  eays,  p.  119, 


'  enfin  la  chevalerie  6toit  re- 
garded comme  une  ordination,  un 
sacerdoce.'  The  superior  clergy 
possessed  the  right  of  conferring 
knighthood,  and  William  Eufus 
was  actually  knighted  by  Arch- 
bishop Lanfrane :  '  Archiepisco- 
pus  Lanfrancus,  eo  quod  eum 
nutrierat,  et  militem  fecerat.' 
Will.  Malmes.  lib.  iv.,  in  Scrip- 
tores  post  Bedam,  p.  67.  Com- 
pare FosbroJces  British  Mona- 
chism,  1843,  p.  101,  on  knighting 
by  abbots. 

49  The  influence  of  this  on  the 
nobles  is  rather  exaggerated  by 
Mr.  Mills;  who,  on  the  other 
hand,  has  not  noticed  how  the 
unhereditary  element  was  favour- 
able to  the  ecclesiastical  spirit. 
Mills'  Hist,  of  Chivalry,  vol.  i. 
pp.  15,  389,  vol.  ii.  p.  169;  a. 
work  interesting  as  an  assem- 
blage of  facts,  but  almost  useless, 
as  a  philosophic  estimate. 


PROTECTIVE  SPIEIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     133 


gious,60  the  Knights  Templars,  the  Knights  of  St.  James, 
the  Knights  of  St.  John,  the  Knights  of  St.  Michael : 
establishments  which  inflicted  the  greatest  evils  on  so- 
ciety ;  and  whose  members,  combining  analogous  vices, 
enlivened  the  superstition  of  monks  with  the  debauchery 
■of  soldiers.  As  a  natural  consequence,  an  immense 
number  of  noble  knights  were  solemnly  pledged  to 
'defend  the  church;'  an  ominous  expression,  the  mean- 
ing of  which  is  too  well  known  to  the  readers  of  eccle- 
siastical history.61  Thus  it  was  that  chivalry,  uniting 
the  hostile  principles  of  celibacy  and  noble  birth,  became 
the  incarnation  of  the  spirit  of  the  two  classes  to  which 
those  principles  belonged.  Whatever  benefit,  therefore, 
this  institution  may  have  conferred  upon  manners,62 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  actively  contributed  to 


40  '  In  their  origin  all  the 
military  orders,  and  most  of  the 
religious  ones,  were  entirely 
aristocratic'  Mills'  Hist,  of 
Chivalry,  vol.  i.  p.  336. 

sl  Mills'  Hist,  of  Chivalry,  vol. 
i.  pp.  148,  338.  About  the  year 
1127,  St.  Bernard  wrote  a  dis- 
course in  favour  of  the  Knights 
Templars,  in  which  '  he  extols 
this  order  as  a  combination  of 
monasticism  and  knighthood. 
....  He  describes  the  design  of 
it  as  being  to  give  the  military 
order  and  knighthood  a  serious 
Christian  direction,  and  to  con- 
vert war  into  something  that  G-od 
•might  approve.'  Neander's  Hist, 
of  the  Church,  vol.  vii.  p.  358. 
To  this  may  be  added,  that, 
early  in  the  thirteenth  century,  a 
chivalric  association  was  formed, 
and  afterwards  merged  in  the  Do- 
minican order,  called  the  Militia 
of  Christ :  '  un  nouvel  ordre  de 
chevalerie  destine^  a  poursuivre 
les  heretiques,  sur  le  modele  de 
celui  des  Templiers,  et  sous  le 
>oom  de  Milice  de  Christ.'    Uo- 


rente,  Hist,  de  FInquisition,  vol.  i. 
pp.  52,  133,  203. 

62  Several  writers  ascribe  to 
chivalry  the  merit  of  softening 
manners,  and  of  increasing  the 
influence  of  women.  Sainte-Pa- 
laye,  Mem.  sur  la  Chevalerie, 
vol.  i.  pp.  220-223,  282,  284, 
vol.  iii.  pp.  vi.  vii.  159-161 ; 
Helvktius  de  I Esprit,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  50,  51 ;  Schlegel's  Lectures, 
vol.  i.  p.  209.  That  there  was 
6uch  a  tendency  is,  I  think,  in- 
disputable; but  it  has  been 
greatly  exaggerated ;  and  an 
author  of  considerable  reading 
on  these  subjects  says,  '  The  rigid 
treatment  shown  to  prisoners  of 
war  in  ancient  times  strongly 
marks  the  ferocity  and  unculti- 
vated manners  of  our  ancestors, 
and  that  even  to  ladies  of  high 
rank ;  notwithstanding  the  hom- 
age said  to  have  been  paid  to  the 
fair  sex  in  those  days  of  chi- 
valry.' Grose's  Military  Anti- 
quities, vol.  ii.  p.  114.  Compare 
Manning  on  the  Law  of  Nations, 
1839,  pp.  146,  146. 


134    PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

keep  men  in  a  state  of  pupilage,  and  stopped  the  march 
of  society  by  prolonging  the  term  of  its  infancy.63 

On  this  account,  it  is  evident  that,  whether  we  look 
at  the  immediate  or  at  the  remote  tendency  of  chivalry, 
its  strength  and  duration  become  a  measure  of  the  pre- 
dominance of  the  protective  spirit.  If,  with  this  view, 
we  compare  France  and  England,  we  shall  find  fresh 
proof  of  the  early  divergence  of  those  countries.  Tour- 
naments, the  first  open  expression  of  chivalry,  are  of 
Trench  origin.6*  The  greatest  and,  indeed,  the  only 
two  great  describers  of  chivalry  are  Joinville  and  Frois- 
sart,  both  of  whom  were  Frenchmen.  Bayard,  that 
famous  chevalier,  who  is  always  considered  as  the  last 
representative  of  chivalry,  was  a  Frenchman,  and  was 
killed  when  fighting  for  Francis  I.  Nor  was  it  until 
nearly  forty  years  after  his  death  that  tournaments  were 
finally  abolished  in  France,  the  last  one  having  been 
held  in  1560.65 

But  in  England,  the  protective  spirit  being  much  less 
active  than  in  France,  we  should  expect  to  find  that 
chivalry,  as  its  offspring,  had  less  influence.  And  such 
was  really  the  case.  The  honours  that  were  paid  to 
knights,  and  the  social  distinctions  by  which  they  were 
separated  from  the  other  classes,  were  never  so  great  in 

63  Mr.  Hallam  {Middle  Ages,  l'usage  des  tournois  se  repandit 

vol.  ii.  p.  464)   says,  '  A  third  chez  les  autres  nations  de  l'Eu- 

reproach  may  be  made  to  the  rope.'  They  were  first  introduced 

character  of  knighthood,  that  it  into  England  in    the  reign  of 

widened  the  separation  between  Stephen.  IAngaroVs  England,vol. 

the  different  classes  of  society,  ii.  p.  27. 

and  confirmed  that  aristocratical  65  Mr.  Hallam  (Middle  Ages, 

spirit  of  high  birth,  by  which  vol.  ii.  p.  470)  says  they  were 

the  large  mass  of  mankind  were  •  entirely  discontinued  in  France' 

kept  in  unjust  degradation.'  in  consequence  of  the  death  of 

44  Sismondi,   Hist,  des  Fran-  Henry    II. ;    but    according  to 

cais,  vol.  IT.  pp.  370,  371,  377 ;  Mills'  Hist,  of  Chivalry,  vol.  ii. 

Turner's  Hist,  of  England,vol.  iv.  p.    226,    they   lasted   the  next 

p.  478;  Foncemagne,  Bel' Origine  year;  when   another  fatal  acci- 

des  Armoiries,  in  Mem.  de  VAca-  dent  occurred,  and  '  tournaments 

demie  des  Inscriptions,  vol.  xx.  ceased  for  ever.'  Compare  Sainte- 

p.   580.    Koch  also  says   (Ta-  Palaye  sur  la  Chevalerie,  vol.  ii. 

oleau    des    Bevolutions,   vol.    i.  pp.  39,  40. 
p.  139),  'c'est  de  la  France  que 


PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.    135 


our  country  as  in  France.66  As  men  became  more  free, 
the  little  respect  they  had  for  such  matters  still  farther 
diminished.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  and  indeed  in 
the  very  reign  in  which  burgesses  were  first  returned 
to  parliament,  the  leading  symbol  of  chivalry  fell  into 
such  disrepute,  that  a  law  was  passed  obliging  certain 
persons  to  accept  that  rank  of  knighthood  which  in 
other  nations  was  one  of  the  highest  objects  of  ambi- 
tion.67. In  the  fourteenth  century,  this  was  followed  by 
another  blow,  which  deprived  knightnood  of  its  exclu- 
sively military  character ;  the  custom  having  grown  up 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  of  conferring  it  on  the 
judges  in  the  courts  of  law,  thus  turning  a  warlike  title 
into  a  civil  honour.68  Finally,  before  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  the  spirit  of  chivalry,  in  France  still 
at  its  height,  was  in  our  country  extinct,  and  this  mis- 
chievous institution  had  become  a  subject  for  ridicule 
even  among  the  people  themselves.69     To  these  circum- 


68  Mr.  Hallam  (Middle  Ages, 
vol.  ii.  p.  467)  observes,  that  the 
knight,  as  compared  with  other 
classes,  '  was  addressed  by  titles 
of  more  respect.  There  was  not, 
however,  so  much  distinction  in 
England  as  in  France.'  The  great 
honour  paid  to  knights  in  France 
is  noticed  by  Daniel  (Milice  Fran- 
caise,vo\.i.  pp.  128, 129)andHer- 
der  (Ideen  zur  Geschichte,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  226,  267)  says,  that  in  France 
chivalry  flourished  more  than  in 
any  other  country.  The  same  re- 
mark is  made  by  Sismondi  (Hist, 
efts  Frangais,  vol.  iv.  p.  198). 

67  The  Statutum  de  Militibus, 
in  1307,  was  perhaps  the  first 
recognition  of  this.  Compare 
Blackstone's  Comment,  vol.  ii. 
|^  69  ;  Barrington  on  the  Statutes, 
pp.  192,  193.  But  we  have  posi- 
tive evidence  that  compulsory 
knighthood  existed  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  III. ;  or  at  least  that 
those  who  refused  it  were  obliged 


to  pay  a  fine.  See  Hallam's 
Const.  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  421,  and 
Littleton's  Hist,  of  Henry  II. 
vol.  ii.  pp.  238,  239,  2nd  edit. 
4to.  1767.  Lord  Lyttleton,  evi- 
dently puzzled,  says,  '  Indeed  it 
seems  a  deviation  from  the  ori- 
ginal principle  of  this  institu- 
tion. For  one  cannot  but  think  it 
a  very  great  inconsistency,  that  a 
dignity,  which  was  deemed  an  ac- 
cession of  honour  to  kings  them- 
selves, should  be  forced  upon  any.' 

*8  In  Mills'  Hist,  of  Chivalry, 
vol.  ii.  p.  154,  it  is  said,  that '  the 
judges  of  the  courts  of  law*  were 
first  knighted  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  III. 

69  Mr.  Mills  (Hist,  of  Chivalry, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  99,  100)  has  printed 
a  curious  extract  from  a  lamen- 
tation over  the  destruction  of 
chivalry,  written  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  IV. ;  but  he  has  over- 
looked a  still  more  singular  in- 
stance. This  is  a  popular  ballad. 


136    PROTECTIVE   SPIEIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 


stances  we  may  add  two  others,  which,  seem  worthy  of 
observation.  The  first  is,  that  the  French,  notwith- 
standing their  many  admirable  qualities,  have  always 
been  more  remarkable  for  personal  vanity  than  the 
English  ;70  a  peculiarity  partly  referable  to  those  chi- 
valric  traditions  which  even  their  occasional  republics 
have  been  unable  to  destroy,  and  which  makes  them 
attach  undue  importance  to  external  distinctions,  by 
which  I  mean,  not  only  dress  and  manners,  but  also 
medals,  ribbons,  stars,  crosses,  and  the  like,  which  we, 
a  prouder  people,  have  never  held  in  such  high  estima- 
tion. The  other  circumstance  is,  that  duelling  has 
from  the  beginning  been  more  popular  in  France  than  in 
England  ;  and  as  this  is  a  custom  which  we  owe  to  chi- 
valry, the  difference  in  this  respect  between  the  two  coun- 


written  in  the  middle  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  and  called  the 
Turnament  of  Tottenham,  in 
which  the  follies  of  chivalry  are 
admirably  ridiculed.  See  War- 
ton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry, 
edit.  1840,  vol.  iii.  pp.  98-101 ; 
and  Percy's  Beliques  of  Ancient 
Poetry,  edit.  1845,  pp.  92-95. 
According  to  Turner  (Hist,  of 
England,  vol.  vi.  p.  363),  '  the 
ancient  books  of  chivalry  were 
laid  aside '  about  the  reign  of 
Henry  VI. 

70  This  is  not  a  mere  popular 
opinion,  but  rests  upon  a  large 
amount  of  evidence,  supplied  by 
competent  and  impartial  ob- 
servers. Addison,  who  was  a 
lenient  as  well  as  an  able  judge, 
and  who  had  lived  much  among 
the  French,  calls  them  '  the 
vainest  nation  in  the  world.' 
Letter  to  BisJiop  Hough,  in  Aikin's 
Life  of  Addison,  vol.  i.  p.  90. 
Napoleon  says,  '  vanity  is  the 
ruling  principle  of  the  French.' 
Alison's  Hist,  of  Europe,  vol.  vi. 
p.  25.     Dumont   (Souvenirs  sur 


Mirabeau,  p.  Ill)  declares,  that 
'  le  trait  le  plus  dominant  dans  le 
caractere  francais,  c'est  l'amour 
propre;'  and  Segur  (Souvenirs, 
vol.  i.  pp.  73,  74),  '  car  en  France 
l'amour  propre,  ou,  si  on  le  veut, 
la  vanite,  est  de  toutes  les  pas- 
sions la  plus  irritable.'  It  is 
moreover  stated,  that  phrenolo- 
gical observations  prove  that  the 
French  are  vainer  than  the  Eng- 
lish. Combe's  Elements  of  Phreno- 
logy, 0th  edit.  Edinb.  1845,  p.  90  ; 
and  a  partial  recognition  of  the 
same  fact  in  Broussais,  Cours  de 
Phrenologie,  p.  297.  For  other 
instances  of  writers  who  have 
noticed  the  vanity  of  the  French, 
see  Tocqueville,  PAncien  Begime, 
p.  148 ;  Barante,  Lit.  Frang.  au 
XVUI'.  Slide,  p.  80 ;  Mem.  de 
Brissot,  vol.  i.  p.  272 ;  MSz&ray, 
Hist,  de  France  vol.  ii.  p.  933; 
Lemontey,  Etablissement  Monar- 
chique,  p.  418;  Voltaire,  Lettres 
inedites,  voL  ii.  p.  282 ;  Tocque- 
ville, Bigne  de  Louis  XV,  vol. 
ii.p.  358 ;  Be  Stael  sur  la  Bivolu- 
tion,  vol.  i.  p.  260,  vol.  ii.  p.  258. 


PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     137 


tries  supplies  another  link  in  that  long  chain  of  evidence 
by  which  we  must  estimate  their  national  tendencies.71 
The  old  associations,  of  which  these  facts  are  but  the 
external  expression,  now  continued  to  act  with  increas- 
ing vigour.  In  France,  the  protective  spirit,  carried 
into  religion,  was  strong  enough  to  resist  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  preserve  to  the  clergy  the  forms,  at  least,  of 
their  ancient  supremacy.    In  England,  the  pride  of  men, 


71  The  relation  between  chi- 
valry and  duelling  has  been  no- 
ticed by  several  writers ;  and  in 
France,  where  the  chivalric  spirit 
■was  not  completely  destroyed 
until  the  Kevolution,  we  find 
occasional  traces  of  this  con- 
nexion even  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  XVI.  See,  for  instance,  in 
Mem.  de  Lafayette,  vol.  i.  p.  86,  a 
curious  letter  in  regard  to  chi- 
valry and  duelling  in  1778.  In 
England  there  is,  I  believe,  no 
evidence  of  even  a  single  private 
duel  being  fought  earlier  than 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  there 
were  not  many  till  the  latter  half 
of  Elizabeth's  reign;  but  in 
France  the  custom  arose  early  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  and  in  the 
-sixteenth  it  became  usual  for 
the  seconds  to  fight  as  well  as 
the  principals.  Compare  Mont- 
losier,  Monarc.  Franc,  vol.  ii. 
p.  436,  with  Montett,  Hist,  des 
divers  Etats,  vol.  vi.  p.  48.  From 
that  time  the  love  of  the  French 
for  duelling  became  quite  a  pas- 
sion until  the  end  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  when  the  Revolu- 
tion, or  rather  the  circumstances 
which  led  to  the  Revolution, 
caused  its  comparative  cessation. 
Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the 
enormous  extent  of  this  practice 
formerly  in  France,  by  compar- 
ingthe  following  passages,  which 
Z   have  the    more  pleasure  in 


bringing  together,  as  no  one  has 
written  even  a  tolerable  history 
of  duelling,  notwithstanding  the 
great  part  it  once  played  in  Eu- 
ropean society.  De  Thou,  Hist. 
Univ.  vol.  ix.pp.  592, 593,  vol.  xv. 
p.  57 ;  Daniel,  Milice  Francoise, 
vol.  ii.  p.  582;  Sully  (Econo- 
mies, vol.  i.  p.  301,  vol.  iii.  p.  406, 
vol.  vi.  p.  122,  voL  viii.  p.  41, 
vol.  ix.  p.  408  ;  Carew's  State  of 
France  under  Henry  IV.,  in 
Birch's  Historical  Negotiations, 
p.  467 ;  Ben  Jonson's  Works, 
edit.  Gifford,  vol.  vi.  p.  69 ; 
Dulaure,  Hist,  de  Paris  (1825 
3rd  edit.),  vol.  iv.  p.  567,  vol.  v. 
pp.  300,  301 ;  Le  Gere,  Biblio- 
theque  Univ.vdL  xx.  p.  242;  Let- 
tres  de  Patin,  vol.  iii.  p.  536 ; 
Capefigue,  Hist,  de  la  Beforme, 
vol.  viii.  p.  98  ;  Capefigue's  Biche- 
lieu,  vol.  i.  p.  63 ;  Des  Beaux, 
Historiettes,  voL  x.  p.  13 ;  Mem. 
de  Genlis,vol.  ii.  p.  191,  vol.  vii. 
p.  215,  vol.  ix.  p.  351 ;  Mem.  of 
the  Baroness  d1  Oberhirch,  vol.  i. 
p.  71,  edit.  Lond.  1852;  Lettres 
inldites  d?  Aguesseau,\Q\.\.  p.  211; 
Lettres  de  Dudeffand  a  Walpole, 
vol.  iii.  p.  249,  vol.  iv.  pp.  27, 
28,  152,  Boullier,  Maison  Mili- 
taire  des  Bois  de  France,  pp.  87, 
88  ;  Bvog.  Univ.  vol.  v.  pp.  402, 
403,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  411,  voL  xliv. 
pp.  127,  401,  vol  xlviii.  p.  522, 
vol.  xlix.  p.  130. 


138    PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

and  their  habits  of  self-reliance,  enabled  them  to  mature 
into  a  system  what  is  called  the  right  of  private  judg- 
ment, by  which  some  of  the  most  cherished  traditions 
were  eradicated ;  and  this,  as  we  have  already  seen,  be- 
ing quickly  succeeded,  first  by  scepticism,  and  then  by 
toleration,  prepared  the  way  for  that  subordination  of 
the  church  to  the  state,  for  which  we  are  pre-eminent, 
and  without  a  rival,  among  the  nations  of  Europe. 
The  very  same  tendency,  acting  in  politics,  displayed 
analogous  results.  Our  ancestors  found  no  difficulty 
in  humbling  the  nobles,  and  reducing  them  to  compa- 
rative insignificance.  The  wars  of  the  Roses,  by  break- 
ing up  the  leading  families  into  two  hostile  factions, 
aided  this  movement  ;72  and,  after  the  reign  of  Edward 
IV.,  there  is  no  instance  of  any  Englishman,  even  of 
the  highest  rank,  venturing  to  carry  on  those  private 
wars,  by  which,  in  other  countries,  the  great  lords  still 
disturbed  the  peace  of  society.73  When  the  civil  con- 
tests subsided,  the  same  spirit  displayed  itself  in  the 
policy  of  Henry  Vii.  and  Henry  VIH.  For,  those 
princes,  despots  as  they  were,  mainly  oppressed  the 
highest  classes  ;  and  even  Henry  VHL,  notwithstand- 
ing his  barbarous  cruelties,  was  loved  by  the  people,  to 
whom  his  reign  was,  on  the  whole,  decidedly  beneficial. 
Then  there  came  the  Reformation ;  which,  being  an  up- 
rising of  the  human  mind,  was  essentially  a  rebellious 
movement,  and  thus  increasing  the  insubordination  of 
men,  sowed,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  seeds  of  those 
great  political  revolutions  which,  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, broke  out  in  nearly  every  part  of  Europe.  The  con- 
nexion between  these  two  revolutionary  epochs  is  a  sub- 
ject full  of  interest ;  but,  for  the  purpose  of  the  present 
chapter,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  notice  such  events, 

n  On  the  effect  of  the  wars  of  Clair's  Hist,  of  the  Revenue,  vol.  i. 

the  Eoses  upon  the  nobles,  com-  p.  155. 

pare  Hallam's  Const.  Hist.  vol.  i.        7S  '  The  last  instance    of   a 

p.  10 ;  IAngarcPs  Hist,  of  Eng-  pitched  battle  between  two  pow- 

land,  vol.  iii.  p.  340  ;  Eccleston's  erful  noblemen  in  England  oc- 

English  Antiq.  pp.  224,  320:  and  curs  in  the  reign  of  Edward  IVY 

on  their  immense  pecuniary,  or  Allen  on  the  Prerogative,  p.  123. 
rather    territorial,    losses,  8in- 


PROTECTIVE  SPIEIT  IN  FKANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     139 

during  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  as  ex- 
plain the  sympathy  between  the  ecclesiastical  and  aris- 
tocratic classes,  and  prove  how  the  same  circumstances 
that  were  fatal  to  the  one,  also  prepared  the  way  for 
the  downfall  of  the  other. 

When  Elizabeth  ascended  the  throne  of  England,  a 
large  majority  of  the  nobility  were  opposed  to  the  Pro- 
testant religion.  This  we  know  from  the  most  decisive 
evidence  ;  and,  even  if  we  had  no  such  evidence,  a  gene- 
ral acquaintance  with  human  nature  would  induce  us 
to  suspect  that  such  was  the  case.  For,  the  aristo- 
cracy, by  the  very  conditions  of  their  existence,  must,  as 
a  body,  always  be  averse  to  innovation.  And  this,  not 
only  because  by  a  change  they  have  much  to  lose  and 
little  to  gain,  but  because  some  of  their  most  pleasur- 
able emotions  are  connected  with  the  past  rather  than 
with  the  present.  In  the  collision  of  actual  life,  their 
vanity  is  sometimes  offended  by  the  assumptions  of  in- 
ferior men  ;  it  is  frequently  wounded  by  the  successful 
competition  of  able  men.  These  are  mortifications  to 
which,  in  the  progress  of  society,  their  liability  is  con- 
stantly increasing.  But  the  moment  they  turn  to  the 
past,  they  see  in  those  good  old  times  which  are  now 
gone  by,  many  sources  of  consolation.  There  they  find 
a  period  in  which  their  glory  is  without  a  rival.  When 
they  look  at  their  pedigrees,  their  quarterings,  their 
escutcheons  ;  when  they  think  of  the  purity  of  their 
blood,  and  the  antiquity  of  their  ancestors — they  expe- 
rience a  comfort  which  ought  amply  to  atone  for  any 
present  inconvenience.  The  tendency  of  this  is  very 
obvious,  and  has  shown  itself  in  the  history  of  every 
aristocracy  the  world  has  yet  seen.  Men  who  have 
worked  themselves  to  so  extravagant  a  pitch  as  to  be- 
lieve that  it  is  an  honour  to  have  had  one  ancestor  who 
came  over  with  the  Normans,  and  another  ancestor  who 
was  present  at  the  first  invasion  of  Ireland — men  who 
have  reached  this  ecstacy  of  the  fancy  are  not  disposed 
to  stop  there,  but,  by  a  process  with  which  most  minds 
are  familiar,  they  generalize  their  view ;  and,  even  on 
matters  not  immediately  connected  with  their  fame, 
they  acquire  a  habit  of  associating  grandeur  with  anti- 


140    PEOTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

quity,  and  of  measuring  value  by  age ;  thus  transferring 
to  the  past  an  admiration  which  otherwise  they  might 
reserve  for  the  present. 

The  connexion  between  these  feelings  and  those  which 
animate  the  clergy  is  very  evident.  What  the  nobles 
are  to  politics,  that  are  the  priests  to  religion.  Both 
classes,  constantly  appealing  to  the  voice  of  antiquity, 
rely  much  on  tradition,  and  make  great  account  of"  up- 
holding established  customs.  Both  take  for  granted 
that  what  is  old  is  better  than  what  is  new ;  and  that 
in  former  times  there  were  means  of  discovering  truths 
respecting  government  and  theology  which  we,  in  these 
degenerate  ages,  no  longer  possess.  And  it  may  be 
added,  that  the  similarity  of  their  functions  follows  from 
the  similarity  of  their  principles.  Both  are  eminently 
protective,  stationary,  or,  as  they  are  sometimes  called, 
conservative.  It  is  believed  that  the  aristocracy  guard 
the  state  against  revolution,  and  that  the  clergy  keep 
the  church  from  error.  The  first  are  the  enemies  of 
reformers  ;  the  others  are  the  scourge  of  heretics. 

It  does  not  enter  into  the  province  of  this  Introduc- 
tion to  examine  how  far  these  principles  are  reasonable, 
or  to  inquire  into  the  propriety  of  notions  which  suppose 
that,  on  certain  subjects  of  immense  importance,  men 
are  to  remain  stationary,  while  on  all  other  subjects  they 
are  constantly  advancing.  But  what  I  now  rather  wish 
to  point  out,  is  the  manner  in  which,  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  the  two  great  conservative  and  protective 
classes  were  weakened  by  that  vast  movement,  the  Re- 
formation, which,  though  completed  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  had  been  prepared  by  a  long  chain  of  intellec- 
tual antecedents. 

Whatever  the  prejudices  of  some  may  suggest,  it  will 
be  admitted,  by  all  unbiassed  judges,  that  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  an 
open  rebellion.  Indeed,  the  mere  mention  of  private 
judgment,  on  which  it  was  avowedly  based,  is  enough 
to  substantiate  this  fact.  To  establish  the  right  of  pri- 
vate judgment,  was  to  appeal  from  the  church  to  indi- 
viduals ;  it  was  to  increase  the  play  of  each  man's  in- 
tellect ;  it  was  to  test  the  opinions  of  the  priesthood  by 


PEOTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FBANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     141 

the  opinions  of  laymen ;  it  was,  in  fact,  a  rising  of  the 
scholars  against  their  teachers,  of  the  ruled  against 
their  rulers.  And  although  the  reformed  clergy,  as 
soon  as  they  had  organised  themselves  into  a  hierarchy, 
did  undoubtedly  abandon  the  great  principle  with  which 
they  started,  and  attempt  to  impose  articles  and  canons 
of  their  own  contrivance,  still,  this  ought  not  to  blind 
us  to  the  merits  of  the  Reformation  itself.  The  tyranny 
of  the  Church  of  England,  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
and  still  more  during  the  reigns  of  her  two  successors, 
was  but  the  natural  consequence  of  that  corruption 
which  power  always  begets  in  those  who  wield  it,  and 
does  not  lessen  the  importance  of  the  movement  by 
which  the  power  was  originally  obtained.  For  men 
could  not  forget  that,  tried  by  the  old  theological  theory, 
the  church  of  England  was  a  schismatic  establishment, 
and  could  only  defend  itself  from  the  charge  of  heresy 
by  appealing  to  that  private  judgment,  to  the  exercise 
of  which  it  owed  its  existence,  but  of  the  rights  of  which 
its  own  proceedings  were  a  constant  infraction.  It  was 
evident  that  if,  in  religious  matters,  private  judgment 
were  supreme,  it  became  a  high  spiritual  crime  to  issue 
any  articles,  or  to  take  any  measure,  by  which  that 
judgment  could  be  tied  up  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
if  the  right  of  private  judgment  were  not  supreme,  the 
church  of  England  was  guilty  of  apostacy,  inasmuch  as 
its  founders  did,  by  virtue  of  the  interpretation  which 
their  own  private  judgment  made  of  the  Bible,  abandon 
tenets  which  they  had  hitherto  held,  stigmatize  those 
tenets  as  idolatrous,  and  openly  renounce  their  allegi- 
ance to  what  had  for  centuries  been  venerated  as  the 
catholic  and  apostolic  church. 

This  was  a  simple  alternative  ;  which  might,  indeed, 
be  kept  out  of  sight,  but  could  not  be  refined  away,  and 
most  assuredly  has  never  been  forgotten.  The  memory 
of  the  great  truth  it  conveys  was  preserved  by  the 
writings  and  teachings  of  the  Puritans,  and  by  those 
habits  of  thought  natural  to  an  inquisitive  age.  And 
when  the  fulness  of  time  had  come,  it  did  not  fail  to 
bear  its  fruit.  It  continued  slowly  to  fructify ;  and 
before  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  its  seed 


142     PEOTEOTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

had  quickened  into  a  life,  the  energy  of  which  nothing 
could  withstand.  That  same  right  of  private  judgment 
which  the  early  Reformers  had  loudly  proclaimed,  was 
now  pushed  to  an  extent  fatal  to  those  who  opposed  it. 
This  it  was  which,  carried  into  politics,  overturned  the 
government,  and,  carried  into  religion,  upset  the 
church.74  For,  rebellion  and  heresy  are  but  different 
forms  of  the  same  disregard  of  tradition,  the  same  bold 
and  independent  spirit.  Both  are  of  the  nature  of  a 
protest  made  by  modern  ideas  against  old  associations. 
They  are  as  a  struggle  between  the  feelings  of  the  pre- 
sent and  the  memory  of  the  past.  Without  the  exer- 
cise of  private  judgment,  such  a  contest  could  never 
take  place  ;  the  mere  conception  of  it  could  not  enter 
the  minds  of  men,  nor  would  they  even  dream  of  con- 
trolling, by  their  individual  energy,  those  abuses  to 
which  all  great  societies  are  liable.  It  is,  therefore,  in 
the  highest  degree  natural  that  the  exercise  of  this 
judgment  should  be  opposed  by  those  two  powerful 
classes  who,  from  their  position,  their  interests,  and  the 
habits  of  their  mind,  are  more  prone  than  any  other  to 
cherish  antiquity,  cleave  to  superannuated  customs,  and 
uphold  institutions  which,  to  use  their  favourite  lan- 
guage, have  been  consecrated  by  the  wisdom  of  their 
fathers. 

From  this  point  of  view  we  are  able  to  see  with  great 
clearness  the  intimate  connexion  which,  at  the  acces- 
sion of  Elizabeth,  existed  between  the  English  nobles 
and  the  Catholic  clergy.  Notwithstanding  many  ex- 
ceptions, an  immense  majority  of  both  classes  opposed 
the  Reformation,  because  it  was  based  on  that  right  of 

74  Clarendon  (Hist,  of  the  Be-  Spanish    government,    perhaps 

hellion,  p.  80),  in  a  very  angry  more  than  any  other  in  Europei 

spirit,   but  with  perfect  truth,  has  understood    this    relation; 

notices   (under  the  year   1640)  and  even   so  late  as   1789,  an 

the  connexion  between  '  a  proud  edict  of  Charles   IV.   declared, 

and  venomous  dislike  against  the  '  qu'il  y  a  crime  d'heresie  dans 

discipline  of  the  church  of  Eng-  tout  ce  qui  tend,  ou  contribue,  a 

land,  and  so  by  degrees  (as  the  propager  les  idees    revolution" 

progress    is    very    natural)    an  naires.'    Llorente,  Hist,  de  Vln- 

equal  irreverence  to  the  govern-  giusition,  vol.  ii.  p.  130. 
ment  of  the  state    too.'      The 


PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  PRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     143 

private  judgment  of  which  they,  as  the  protectors  of  old 
opinions,  were  the  natural  antagonists.  All  this  can 
excite  no  surprise ;  it  was  in  the  order  of  things,  and 
strictly  accordant  with  the  spirit  of  those  two  great 
sections  of  society.  Fortunately,  however,  for  our 
country,  the  throne  was  now  occupied  by  a  sovereign 
who  was  equal  to  the  emergency,  and  who,  instead  of 
yielding  to  the  two  classes,  availed  herself  of  the  temper 
of  the  age  to  humble  them.  The  manner  in  which  this 
was  effected  by  Elizabeth,  in  respect,  first  to  the  Catho- 
lic clergy,  and  afterwards  to  the  Protestant  clergy,75 
forms  one  of  the  most  interesting  parts  of  our  history  ; 
and  in  an  account  of  the  reign  of  the  great  queen,  I 
hope  to  examine  it  at  considerable  length.  At  present, 
it  will  be  sufficient  to  glance  at  her  policy  towards  the 
nobles — that  other  class  with  which  the  priesthood,  by 
their  interests,  opinions,  and  associations,  have  always 
much  in  common. 

Elizabeth,  at  her  accession  to  the  throne,  finding  that 
the  ancient  families  adhered  to  the  ancient  religion,  na- 
turally called  to  her  councils  advisers  who  were  more 
likely  to  uphold  the  novelties  on  which  the  age  was 
bent.  She  selected  men  who,  being  little  burdened  by 
past  associations,  were  more  inclined  to  favour  present 
interests.  The  two  Bacons,  the  two  Cecils,  Knollys, 
Sadler,  Smith,  Throgmorton,  Walsingham,  were  the 
most  eminent  statesmen  and  diplomatists  in  her  reign  ; 
but  all  of  them  were  commoners ;  only  one  did  she  raise 
to  the  peerage ;  and  they  were  certainly  nowise  re- 
markable, either  for  the  rank  of  their  immediate  con- 
nexions, or  for  the  celebrity  of  their  remote  ancestors. 
They,  however,  were  recommended  to  Elizabeth  by 
their  great  abilities,  and  by  their  determination  to  up- 
hold a  religion  which  the  ancient  aristocracy  naturally 
opposed.  And  it  is  observable  that,  among  the  accu- 
sations which  the  Catholics  brought  against  the  queen, 

75  The  general  character  of  her  naturally  displeased    with  her 

policy  towards  the    Protestant  disregard  for  the  heads  of  the 

English  hishops  is  summed  up  church.     Collier's  Eccles.  Hist  of 

very  fairly  hy  Collier  }•  thoxigh  Great  Britain,  vol.  vii.  pp.  257, 

he,  as  a  professional  writer,  is  258,  edit.  Barham,  1840. 


144     PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND* 


they  taunted  her,  not  only  with  forsaking  the  old  reli- 
gion, but  also  with  neglecting  the  old  nobility.76 

Nor  does  it  require  much  acquaintance  with  the  his- 
tory of  the  time  to  see  the  justice  of  this  charge.  What- 
ever explanation  we  may  choose  to  give  of  the  fact,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that,  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
there  was  an  open  and  constant  opposition  between  the 
nobles  and  the  executive  government.  The  rebellion 
of  1569  was  essentially  an  aristocratic  movement; 
it  was  a  rising  of  the  great  families  of  the  north 
against  what  they  considered  the  upstart  and  plebeian 
administration  of  the  queen.77     The  bitterest  enemy  of 


76  One  of  the  charges  which, 
in  1588,  Sixtus  V.  publicly 
brought  against  Elizabeth,  was, 
that  '  she  hath  rejected  and  ex- 
cluded the  ancient  nobility,  and 
promoted  to  honour  obscure  peo- 
ple.' Butler's  Mem.  of  the  Catho- 
lics, vol.  ii.  p.  4.  Persons  also 
reproaches  her  with  her  low-born 
ministers,  and  says  that  she  was 
influenced  '  by  five  persons  in 
particular — all  of  them  sprung 
from  the  earth — Bacon,  Cecil, 
Dudley,  Hatton,  and  Walsing- 
ham.'  Butler,  vol.  ii.  p.  31.  Car- 
dinal Allen  taunted  her  with 
1  disgracing  the  ancient  nobility, 
erecting  base  and  unworthy 
persons  to  all  the  civil  and  ec- 
clesiastical dignities.'  Bodd's 
Church  History,  edit.  Tierney, 
1840,  vol.  iii.  appendix  no.  xii. 
p.  xlvi.  The  same  influential 
writer,  in  his  Admonition,  said 
that  she  had  injured  England, 
•  by  great  contempt  and  abasing 
of  the  ancient  nobility,  repelling 
them  from  due  government, 
offices,  and  places  of  honour.' 
Allen's  Admonition  to  the  Nobi- 
lity and  People  of  England  and 
Ireland,  1588  (reprinted  London, 
1 842),  p   xv.     Compare  the  ac- 


count of  the  Bull  of  1588,  in  Be 
Thou,  Hist.  Univ.  vol.  x.  p.  175  r 
'  On  accusoit  Elisabeth  d' avoir 
au  prejudice  de  la  noblesse  an- 
gloise  elev6  aux  dignites,  tant 
civiles  qu'ecclesiastiques,  des 
hommes  nouveaux,  sans  nais- 
sance,  et  indignes  de  les  pos- 
seder.' 

77  To  the  philosophic  historian 
this  rebellion,  though  not  suffi- 
ciently appreciated  by  ordinary 
writers,  is  a  very  important  study, 
because  it  is  the  last  attempt 
ever  made  by  the  great  English- 
families  to  establish  their  autho- 
rity by  force  of  arms.  Mr. 
Wright  says,  that  probably  all 
those  who  took  a  leading  part  in 
it  •  were  allied  by  blood  or  inter- 
marriage with  the  two  families 
of  the  Percies  and  Neviles.' 
Wright's  Elizabeth,  1838,  vol.  i. 
p.  xxxiv. ;  a  valuable  work.  See 
also,  in  Pari.  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  730, 
a  list  of  some  of  those  who,  in 
1571,  were  attainted  on  account 
of  this  rebellion,  and  who  are 
said  to  be  '  all  of  the  best  fami- 
lies in  the  north  of  England.' 

But  the  most  complete  evidence. 
we  have  respecting  this  struggle, 
consists  of  the  collection  of  ori- 


PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     145 

Elizabeth  was  certainly  Mary  of  Scotland ;  and  the  in- 
terests of  Mary  were  publicly  defended  by  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  the  Earl  of  West- 
moreland, and  the  Earl  of  Arundel;  while  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  her  cause  was  secretly  favoured 
by  the  Marquis  of  Northampton,  the  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
the  Earl  of  Derby,  the  Earl  of  Cumberland,  the  Earl  of 
Shrewsbury,  and  the  Earl  of  Sussex.78 

The  existence  of  this  antagonism  of  interests  could 
not  escape  the  sagacity  of  the  English  government. 
Cecil,  who  was  the  most  powerful  of  the  ministers  of 
Elizabeth,  and  who  was  at  the  head  of  affairs  for  forty 
years,  made  it  part  of  his  business  to  study  the  genea- 
logies and  material  resources  of  the  great  families ;  and 
this  he  did,  not  out  of  idle  curiosity,  but  in  order  to  in- 
crease his  control  over  them,  or,  as  a  great  historian 
says,  to  let  them  know  *  that  his  eye  was  upon  them.'79 
The  queen  herself,  though  too  fond  of  power,  was  by  no 
means  of  a  cruel  disposition ;  but  she  seemed  to  delight 
in  humbling  the  nobles.  On  them  her  hand  fell  heavily ; 
and  there  is  hardly  to  be  found  a  single  instance  of  her 
pardoning  their  offences,  while  she  punished  several  of 
them  for  acts  which  would  now  be   considered   no 


ginal    documents  published    in  Sussex  to  Cecil,  dated  5th  Jan- 

1840  by  Sir  C.  Sharpe,  under  the  uary  1569  (Memorials,  p.  137), 

title  of  Memorials  of  the  Bebettion  one  paragraph  of  which  begins, 

of  1569.  They  show  very  clearly  '  Of  late  years  few  young  noble- 

the  real  nature  of  the  outbreak,  men    have    been  employed    in 

On   17th    November   1569,   Sir  service.' 

George  Bowes  writes,  that  the        n  Hallam,i.-p.  130;  Lingard, 

complaint  of  the  insurgents  was  v.  pp.  97,  102;  Turner,  xii.  pp. 

that  'there  was  certaine  coun-  245,  247. 

sellors  cropen'   (i.e.  crept)   '  in        ™  Hallam's  Const.  Hist.  vol.  i. 

aboute  the  prince,  which  had  ex-  p.  241 ;  an  interesting  passage, 

eluded  the    nobility    from   the  Tvumer  (Hist  of  England,  vol.  xii. 

prince,'  &c,  Memorials,  p.  42 ;  p.  237)  says,  that  Cecil  '  knew 

and  the  editor's  note  says  that  the  tendency  of  the  great  lords 

this  is  one  of  the  charges  made  to  combine  against  the  crown, 

in  all  the  proclamations  by  the  that  they  might   reinstate  the 

earls.  Perhaps  the  most  curious  peerage  in  the  power  from  which 

proof  of  how  notorious  the  policy  the  house  of  Tudor  had  depressed 

of  Elizabeth  had  become,  is  con-  it.' 
tained  in  a  friendly  letter  from 
VOL.  n.                                 £ 


146    PEOTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FEANCE  AND   ENGLAND.-' 

offences  at  all.  She  was  always  unwilling  to  admit 
them  to  authority  ;  and  it  is  unquestionably  true  that, 
taking  them  as  a  class,  they  were,  during  her  long  and 
prosperous  reign,  treated  with  unusual  disrespect. 
Indeed,  so  clearly  marked  was  her  policy,  that  when 
the  ducal  order  became  extinct,  she  refused  to  renew 
it ;  and  a  whole  generation  passed  away  to  whom  the 
name  of  duke  was  a  mere  matter  of  history,  a  point 
to  be  mooted  by  antiquaries,  but  with  which  the  busi- 
ness of  practical  life  had  no  concern.80  Whatever 
may  be  her  other  faults,  she  was  on  this  subject  always 
consistent.  .  Although  she  evinced  the  greatest  anxiety 
to  surround  the  throne  with  men  of  ability,  she  care*d 
little  for  those  conventional  distinctions  by  which  the 
minds  of  ordinary  sovereigns  are  greatly  moved.  She 
made  no  account  of  dignity  of  rank  ;  she  did  not  even 
care  for  purity  of  blood.  She  valued  men  neither  for  the 
splendour  of  their  ancestry,  nor  for  the  length  of  their 
pedigrees,  nor  for  the  grandeur  of  their  titles.  Such 
questions  she  left  for  her  degenerate  successors,  to  the 
size  of  whose  understandings  they  were  admirably  fitted. 
Our  great  queen  regulated  her  conduct  by  another  stan- 
dard. Her  large  and  powerful  intellect,  cultivated  to 
its  highest  point  by  reflection  and  study,  taught  her  the 
true  measure  of  affairs,  and  enabled  her  to  see,  that  to 
make  a  government  flourish,  its  councillors  must  be  men 
of  ability  and  of  virtue ;  but  that  if  these  two  conditions 
are  fulfilled,  the  nobles  may  be  left  to  repose  in  the  en- 
joyment of  their  leisure,  unoppressed  by  those  cares  of 
the  state  for  which,  with  a  few  brilliant  exceptions,  they 
are  naturally  disqualified  by  the  number  of  their  preju- 
dices and  by  the  frivolity  of  their  pursuits. 

After  the  death  of  Elizabeth,  an  attempt  was  made, 


80  In  1572  the  order  of  dukes  son,  in  one  of  his  comedies  in 

became    extinct;   and  "was    not  1616,   mentions    'the    received 

revived  till  fifty  years  afterwards,  heresy  that  England  bears  no 

when  James  I.  made  the  miser-  dukes.'     Jonson's    Works,    edit.. 

able  Villiers,  duke  of  Bucking-  Gifford,    1816,    vol.  v.    p.  47, 

ham.      Blackstonds   Commenta-  where  Gifford,  not  being  aware 

ries,  vol.  i.  p.  397.  This  evidently  of  the  extinction  in  1572,   has 

attracted  attention;  for  Ben  Jon-  made  an  unsatisfactory  note. 


PEOTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FEANCE  AND  ENGLAND.     147 

first  by  James,  and  then  by  Charles,  to  revive  the  power 
of  the  two  great  protective  classes,  the  nobles  and  the 
clergy.  Bnt  so  admirably  had  the  policy  of  Elizabeth 
been  supported  by  the  general  temper  of  the  age,  that 
it  was  found  impossible  for  the  Stuarts  to  execute  their 
mischievous  plans.  The  exercise  of  private  judgment, 
both  in  religion  and  in  poHtics,  had  become  so  habitual, 
that  these  princes  were  unable  to  subjugate  it  to  their 
will.  And  as  Charles  I.,  with  inconceivable  blindness, 
and  with  an  obstinacy  even  greater  than  that  of  his 
father,  persisted  in  adopting  in  their  worst  forms  the 
superannuated  theories  of  protection,  and  attempted 
to  enforce  a  scheme  of  government  which  men  from 
their  increasing  independence  were  determined  to  re- 
ject, there  inevitably  arose  that  memorable  collision 
which  is  well  termed  The  Great  Rebellion  of  England.81 
The  analogy  between  this  and  the  Protestant  Refor- 
mation, I  have  already  noticed ;  but  what  we  have  now 
to  consider,  and  what,  in  the  next  chapter,  I  will  en- 
deavour to  trace,  is  the  nature  of  the  difference  between 
our  Rebellion,  and  those  contemporary  wars  of  the 
Fronde,  to  which  it  was  in  some  respects  very  similar. 


81  Clarendon  (Hist,  of  the  Be-  ever    brought  forth.'     See  also 
bellion,  p.  216)  truly  calls  it  'the  some  striking  remarks  in  War- 
most  prodigious  and  the  boldest  wick's  Memoirs,  p.  207. 
rebellion,  that  any  age  or  country 


t-2 


148       COMPABISON  OP  THE  FEONDE 


CHAPTER  in. 

TOE  ENERGY  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT  IN  FRANCE  EXPLAINS  THE 
FAILURE  OF  THE  FRONDE.  COMPARISON  BETWEEN  THE  FRONDE 
AND   THE   CONTEMPORARY  ENGLISH   REBELLION. 

The  object  of  the  last  chapter  was  to  enquire  into  the 
origin  of  the  protective  spirit.  From  the  evidence  there 
collected,  it  appears  that  this  spirit  was  first  organized 
into  a  distinct  secular  form  at  the  close  of  the  dark  ages ; 
hut  that,  owing  to  circumstances  which  then  arose,  it 
was,  from  the  beginning,  much  less  powerful  in  England 
than  in  France.  It  has  likewise  appeared  that,  in  our 
country,  it  continued  to  lose  ground  ;  while  in  France, 
it  early  in  the  fourteenth  century  assumed  a  new  shape, 
and  gave  rise  to  a  centralizing  movement,  manifested 
not  only  in  the  civil  and  political  institutions,  but  also 
in  the  social  and  literary  habits  of  the  French  nation. 
Thus  far  we  seem  to  have  cleared  the  way  for  a  proper 
understanding  of  the  history  of  the  two  countries  ;  and 
I  now  purpose  to  follow  this  up  a  little  further,  and 
point  out  how  this  difference  explains  the  discrepancy 
between  the  civil  wars  of  England,  and  those  which  at 
the  same  time  broke  out  in  France. 

.Among  the  obvious  circumstances  connected  with 
the  Great  English  Rebellion,  the  most  remarkable  is, 
that  it  was  a  war  of  classes  as  well  as  of  factions. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  contest,  the  yeomanry  and 
traders  adhered  to  the  parliament ; 1  the  nobles  and  the 


1  '  From  the  beginning  it  may  even    in    those    counties  which 

be  said  that  the  yeomanry  and  were  in  his  military  occupation ; 

trading  classes  of  towns  were  ge-  except  in  a  few,  such  as  Cornwall, 

nerally  hostile  to  the  king's  side,  Worcester,  Salop,  and  most  of 


AND  THE  ENGLISH  EEBELLION. 


149 


clergy  rallied  round  the  throne.2  And  the  name  given 
to  the  two  parties,  of  Roundheads3  and  Cavaliers,4 
proves  that  the  true  nature  of  this  opposition  was 
generally  known.  It  proves  that  men  were  aware  that 
a  question  was  at  issue,  upon  which  England  was 
divided,  not  so  much  by  the  particular  interests  of  indi- 
viduals, as  by  the  general  interests  of  the  classes  to 
which  those  individuals  belonged. 

But  in  the  history  of  the  French  rebellion,  there  is 
no  trace  of  so  large  a  division.  The  objects  of  the  war 
were  in  both  countries  precisely  the  same :  the  ma- 
chinery by  which  those  objects  were  attained  was  very 
different.  The  Fronde  was  like  our  Rebellion,  insomuch 
that  it  was  a  struggle  of  the  parliament  against  the 
crown ;  an  attempt  to  secure  liberty,  and  raise  up  a 
barrier  against  the  despotism  of  government.5     So  far, 


Wales,  where  the  prevailing  sen- 
timent was  chiefly  royalist.' 
Hallam's  Const.  Hist.  vol.  i.  p. 
578.  See  also  LingardJs  Hist,  of 
England,  vol.  vi.  p.  304;  and 
Alison's  Hist,  of  Europe,  vol.  i. 
p.  49. 

2  On  this  division  of  classes, 
which,  notwithstanding  a  few 
exceptions,  is  undoubtedly  true 
as  a  general  fact,  compare  Me- 
moirs of  Sir  P.  Warwick,  p.  217; 
Carlyle's  Cromwell,  vol.  iii.  p. 
347 ;  Clarendon's  Hist,  of  the 
Eebellion,  pp.  294,  297,  345,  346, 
401,  476:  May's  Hist,  of  the 
Long  Parliament,  book  i.  pp.  22, 
64,  book  ii.  p.  63,  book  iii.  p.  78 ; 
Hutchison's  Memoirs,  p.  100  ; 
Ludlow's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  104, 
vol.  iii.  p.  258 ;  Bulstrode's  Me- 
moirs, p.  86. 

3  Lord  Clarendon  says,  in  his 
grand  style,  'the  rabble  con- 
temned and  despised  under  the 
name  of  roundheads.'  Hist,  of 
the  Rebellion,  p.  136.  This  was 
in  1641,  when  the  title  appears 
to  have  been  first  bestowed.   See 


Fairfax  Corresp.  vol.  ii.  pp.  185, 
320. 

*  Just  before  the  battle  of 
Edgehill,  in  1642,  Charles  said 
to  his  troops,  '  You  are  called  ca- 
valiers in  a  reproachful  significa- 
tion.' See  the  king's  speech,  in 
Somers  Tracts,  vol.  iv.  p.  478. 
Directly  after  the  battle,  he  ac- 
cused his  opponents  of '  rendering 
all  persons  of  honour  odious  to 
the  common  people,  under  tho 
style  of  cavaliers.'  May's  Hist, 
of  the  Long  Parliament,  book  iii. 
p.  25. 

*  M.  Saint-Aulaire  (Hist,  de 
la  Fronde,  vol.  i.  p.  v.)  says,  that 
the  object  of  the  Frondeurs  was, 
'  limiter  l'autorit6  royale,  consa- 
crer  les  principes  de  la  libertd 
civile  et  en  confier  la  garde  aux 
compagnies  souveraines ;'  and  at 
p.  vi.  he  calls  the  declaration  of 
1648,  '  une  veritable  chart©  con- 
stitutionnelle.'  See  also,  at  voL 
i.  p.  128,  the  concluding  para- 
graph of  the  speech  of  Omer 
Talon.  Joly,  who  was  much 
displeased  at  this  tendency,  com- 


150       COMPARISON  OP  THE  FRONDE 

and  so  long,  as  we  merely  take  a  view  of  political  objects, 
the  parallel  is  complete.  But  the  social  and  intellectual 
antecedents  of  the  French  being  very  different  from 
those  of  the  English,  it  necessarily  followed  that  the 
shape  which  the  rebellion  took  should  likewise  be  diffe- 
rent, even  though  the  motives  were  the  same.  If  we 
examine  this  divergence  a  little  nearer,  we  shall  find 
that  it  is  connected  with  the  circumstance  I  have 
already  noticed — namely,  that  in  England  a  war  for 
liberty  was  accompanied  by  a  war  of  classes,  while  in 
Erance  there  was  no  war  of  classes  at  all.  From  this 
it  resulted,  that  in  France  the  rebellion,  being  merely 
political,  and  not,  as  with  us,  also  social,  took  less  hold 
of  the  public  mind  :  it  was  unaccompanied  by  those 
feelings  of  insubordination,  in  the  absence  of  which 
freedom  has  always  been  impossible  ;  and,  striking  no 
root  into  the  national  character,  it  could  not  save  the 
country  from  that  servile  state  into  which,  a  few  years 
later,  it,  under  the  government  of  Louis  XIV.  rapidly 
fell. 

That  our  Great  Rebellion  was,  in  its  external  form,  a 
war  of  classes,  is  one  of  those  palpable  facts  which  lie 
on  the  surface  of  history.  At  first,  the  parliament 6  did 
indeed  attempt  to  draw  over  to  their  side  some  of  the 
nobles  ;  and  in  this  they  for  a  time  succeeded.  But  as 
the  struggle  advanced,  the  fiitility  of  this  policy  beeame 
evident.  In  the  natural  order  of  the  great  movement, 
the  nobles  grew  more  loyal ; 7  the  parliament  grew  more 


plains  that  in  1648,  'le  peuple  proces  s'il  se  trouvoit   criminel 

■tomboit  imperceptiblement'  dans  ou   l'elargir   s'il  etoit  innocent.' 

le  sentiment  dangereux,  qu'il  est  Mem.  de  Montglat,  vol.  ii.  p.  135 ; 

naturel  et  permis  de  se  d^fendre  MSm.   de  Motteviile,   vol.   ii.  p. 

et  de  farmer  contre  la  violence  398 ;    Mem.  de  Eetz,  vol.  i.  p. 

des  superieurs.'   Mem.  de  Joly,  p.  265  ;   Mem.  d'  Omer  Talon,  vol. 

15.       Of  the  immediate  objects  ii.  pp.  224,  225,  240,  328. 

proposed  by  the  Fronde,  one  was  6  I  use  the  word  '  parliament ' 

to  diminish  the  taille,  and  ano-  in  the  sense  given  to  it  by  'writers 

ther  was  to  obtain  a  law  that  no  of  that  time,  and  not  in  the  legal 

one    should   be   kept   in  prison  sense. 

more    than    twenty-four    hours,  7  In  May  1642,  there  remained 

?  sans  etre  remis  entre  les  mains  at  Westminster  forty-two  peers, 

du  parlement  pour  lui  faire  son  Hallam's  Const.  Hist.  vol.  i.  p. 


AND    THE    ENGLISH    REBELLION. 


151 


democratic.8  And  when  it  was  clearly  seen  that  both 
parties  were  determined  either  to  conquer  or  to  die,  this 
antagonism  of  classes  was  too  clearly  marked  to  be  mis- 
understood ;  the  perception  which  each  had  of  its  own 
interests  being  sharpened  by  the  magnitude  of  the  stake 
for  which  they  contended. 

For,  without  burdening  this  Introduction  with  what 
may  be  read  in  our  common  histories,  it  will  be  sufficient 
to  remind  the  reader  of  a  few  of  the  conspicuous  events 
of  that  time.  Just  before  the  war  began,  the  Earl  of 
Essex  was  appointed  general  of  the  parliamentary  forces, 
with  the  Earl  of  Bedford  as  his  lieutenant.  A  commis- 
sion to  raise  troops  was  likewise  given  to  the  Earl  of 
Manchester,9  the  only  man  of  high  rank  against  whom 
Charles  had  displayed  open  enmity. l  °  Notwithstanding 
these  marks  of  confidence,  the  nobles,  in  whom  parlia- 
ment was  at  first  disposed  to  trust,  could  not  avoid 


559;  but  they  gradually  aban- 
doned the  popular  cause  ;  and, 
according  to  Pari.  Hist.  vol.  iii. 
p.  1282,  so  dwindled,  that  even- 
tually '  seldom  more  than  five  or 
six '  were  present. 

8  These  increasing  democratic 
tendencies  are  most  clearly  indi- 
cated in  Walker's  curious  work, 
The  History  of  Independency. 
See  among  other  passages,  book 
i.  p.  59.  And  Clarendon,  under 
the  year  1644,  says  (Hist,  of  the 
Eebellion,  p.  514) :  '  That  violent 
party,  which  had  at  first  cozened 
the  rest  into  the  war,  and  after- 
wards obstructed  all  the  ap- 
proaches towards  peace,  found 
now  that  they  had  finished  as 
much  of  their  work  as  the  tools 
which  they  had  wrought  with 
could  be  applied  to,  and  what  re- 
mained to  be  done  must  be 
despatched  by  new  workmen.' 
What  these  new  workmen  were, 
he  afterwards  explains,  p.  641, 


to  be  'the  most  inferior  people 
preferred  to  all  places  of  trust 
and  profit.'  Book  xi.  under  the 
year  1648.  Compare  some  good 
remarks  by  Mr.  Bell,  in  Fairfax 
Correspond,  vol.  iii.  pp.  116, 116. 

8  This  was  after  the  appoint- 
ments of  Essex  and  Bedford,  and 
was  in  1643.  Ludlow's  Mem. 
vol.  i.  p.  58 ;  Carlyle's  Cromwell, 
vol.  i.  p.  189. 

io  <  wben  the  king  attempted 
to  arrest  the  five  members,  Man- 
chester, at  that  time  Lord  Kym- 
bolton,  was  the  only  peer  whom 
he  impeached.  This  circumstance 
endeared  Kymbolton  to  the  party; 
his  own  safety  bound  him  more 
closely  to  its  interests.'  Lingards 
England,  vol.  vi.  p.  337.  Com- 
pare Clarendon,  p.  375  ;  Ludlow, 
vol.  i.  p.  20.  It  is  also  said  that 
Lord  Essex  joined  the  popular 
party  from  personal  pique  against 
the  king.  Fairfax  Corresp.  voL 
iii.  p.  37- 


152 


COMPARISON"   OF  THE   FRONDE 


showing  the  old  leaven  of  their  order.11  The  Earl  of 
Essex  so  conducted  himself,  as  to  inspire  the  popular 
party  with  the  greatest  apprehensions  of  his  treachery  ;12 
and  when  the  defence  of  London  was  intrusted  to  Waller, 
he  so  obstinately  refused  to  enter  the  name  of  that  able 
officer  in  the  commission,  that  the  Commons  were 
obliged  to  insert  it  by  virtue  of  their  own  authority,  and 
in  spite  of  their  own  general.13  The  Earl  of  Bedford, 
though  he  had  received  a  military  command,  did  not 
hesitate  to  abandon  those  who  conferred  it.  This  apos- 
tate noble  fled  from  "Westminster  to  Oxford :  but  finding 
that  the  king,  who  never  forgave  his  enemies,  did  not 
receive  him  with  the  favour  he  expected,  he  returned 
to  London ;  where,  though  he  was  allowed  to  remain 
in  safety,  it  could  not  be  supposed  that  he  should  again 
experience  the  confidence  of  parliament.14 


11  Mr.  Carlyle  has  made  some 
yery  characteristic,  but  very  just, 
observations  on  the  'high  Essexes 
and  Manchesters  of  limited  no- 
tions and  large  estates.'   Carlyle 's 

Cromwell,  vol.  i.  p.  215. 

12  Ludlow's  Memoirs,  vol.  iii. 
p.  110;  Hutchinson's  Memoirs, 
pp.  230,  231 ;  Harris's  Lives  of 
the  Stuarts,  vol.  iii.  p.  106  ;  Bui- 
strode 's  Memoirs,  pp.  112,  113, 
119;  Clarendon's  Rebellion,  pp. 
486,  514 ;  or,  as  Lord  North  puts 
it,  ^  '  for  General  Essex  began 
now  to  appear  to  the  private  cabal- 
ists  somewhat  wresty.'  North's 
Narrative  of  Passages  relating  to 
the  Long  Parliament,  published 
in  1670,  in  Somers  Tracts,  vol. 
vi.  p.  578.  At  p.  584,  the  same 
elegant  writer  says  of  Essex, 
'  being  the  first  person  and  last 
of  the  nobility  employed  by  the 
parliament  in  military  affairs, 
which  soon  brought  him  to  the 
period  of  his  life.  And  may  he 
be  an  example  to  all  future  ages, 
to  deter  all  persons  of  like  dig- 


nity from  being  instrumental  in 
setting  up  a  democratical  power, 
whose  interest  it  is  to  keep  down 
all  persons  of  his  condition.' 
The  '  Letter  of  Admonition '  ad- 
dressed to  him  by  parliament  in 
1644,  is  printed  in  Pari.  Hist. 
voL  iii.  p.  274. 

13  LingarcUs  Hist,  of  England, 
vol.  vi.  p.  318.  See  also,  on  the 
hostility  between  Essex  and 
Waller,  Walker's  Hist,  of  Inde- 
pendency, part.  i.  pp.  28,  29 ;  and 
Pari.  Hist.  vol.  iii.  p.  177.  Sir 
Philip  Warwick  (Memoirs,  p. 
254)  contemptuously  calls  Waller 
'  favourite-general  of  the  city  of 
London.' 

14  Compare  Hallam's  Const. 
Hist.  vol.  i.  pp.  569,  570,  with 
Bulstrode's  Memoirs,  p.  96,  and 
Lord  Bedford's  letter,  in  Pari. 
Hist.  vol.  iii.  pp.  189,  190.  This 
shuffling  letter  confirms  the  un- 
favourable account  of  the  writer, 
which  is  given  in  Clarendon's 
Rebellion,  p.  422. 


AND  THE  ENGLISH  REBELLION. 


153 


Such  examples  as  these  were  not  likely  to  lessen  the 
distrust  which  both  parties  felt  for  each  other.  It  soon 
became  evident  that  a  war  of  classes  was  unavoidable, 
and  that  the  rebellion  of  the  parliament  against  the 
king  must  be  reinforced  by  a  rebellion  of  the  people 
against  the  nobles.15  To  this  the  popular  party,  what- 
ever may  have  been  their  first  intention,  now  willingly 
agreed.  In  1645  they  enacted  a  law,  by  which  not 
only  the  Earl  of  Essex  and  the  Earl  of  Manchester  lost 
their  command,  but  all  members  of  either  house  were 
made  incapable  of  military  service.16  And,  only  a  week 
after  the  execution  of  the  king,  they  formally  took  away 
the  legislative  power  of  the  peers  ;  putting  at  the  same 
time  on  record  their  memorable  opinion,  that  the  House 
of  Lords  is  'useless,  dangerous,  and  ought  to  be 
abolished.'  17 

But  we  may  find  proofs  still  more  convincing  of  the 
true  character  of  the  English  rebellion,  if  we  consider 
who  those  were  by  whom  it  was  accomplished.     This 


15  Dr.  Bates,  who  had  been 
physician  to  Cromwell,  intimates 
that  this  was  foreseen  from  the 
beginning.  He  says,  that  the 
popular  party  offered  command 
to  some  of  the  nobles,  '  not  that 
they  had  any  respect  for  the 
lords,  whom  shortly  they  intended 
to  turn  out  and  to  level  with  the 
commoners,  but  that  they  might 
poison  them  with  their  own 
venom,  and  rise  to  greater  autho- 
rity by  drawing  more  over  to 
their  side.'  Bates's  Account  of 
the  late  Troubles  in  England, 
part  i.  p.  76.  Lord  North  too 
supposes,  that  almost  immedi- 
ately after  the  war  began,  it  was 
determined  to  dissolve,  the  House 
of  Lords.  See  Somers  Tracts, 
vol.  vi.  p.  582.  Beyond  this,  I 
am  not  aware  of  any  direct  early 
evidence;  except  that,  in  1644, 
Cromwell  is  alleged  to  have 
stated  that  'there  would  never 


be  a  good  time  in  England  till 
we  had  done  with  lords.'  Car- 
lyle's  Cromwell,  vol.  1.  p.  217; 
and,  what  is  evidently  the  same 
circumstance,  in  Holies' s  Memoirs, 
p.  18. 

18  This  was  the  '  Self-denying 
Ordinance,'  which  was  introduced 
in  December,  1644;  but,  owing 
to  the  resistance  of  the  peers, 
was  not  carried  until  the  subse- 
quent April.  Pari.  Hist.  vol.  iii. 
pp.  326-337,  340-343,  354,  355. 
See  also  Mem.  of  Lord  Holies,  p. 
30  ;  Mem.  of  Sir  P.  Warwick,  p. 
283. 

17  On  this  great  Epoch  in  the 
history  of  England,  see  Pari. 
Hist.  vol.  iii.  p.  1284;  Hallam's 
Const.  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  643;  Camp- 
belVs  Chief -Justices,  vol.  i.  p. 
424;  Ludlow's  Mem.  vol.  i.  p. 
246;  Warwick's  Mem.  pp.  182, 
336,  352. 


154       COMPAKISON  OP  THE  FKONDE 

will  show  us  the  democratic  nature  of  a  movement  which 
lawyers  and  antiquaries  have  vainly  attempted  to  shelter 
under  the  form  of  constitutional  precedent.  Our  great 
rebellion  was  the  work,  not  of  men  who  looked  behind, 
but  of  men  who  looked  before.  To  attempt  to  trace  it 
to  personal  and  temporary  causes ;  to  ascribe  this  un- 
paralleled outbreak  to  a  dispute  respecting  ship-money, 
or  to  a  quarrel  about  the  privileges  of  parliament,  can 
only  suit  the  habits  of  those  historians  who  see  no 
further  than  the  preamble  of  a  statute,  or  the  decision 
of  a  judge.  Such  writers  forget  that  the  trial  of  Hamp- 
den, and  the  impeachment  of  the  five  members,  could 
have  produced  no  effect  on  the  country,  unless  the 
people  had  already  been  prepared,  and  unless  the  spirit 
of  inquiry  and  insubordination  had  so  increased  the 
discontents  of  men,  as  to  put  them  in  a  state,  where, 
the  train  being  laid,  the  slighest  spark  sufficed  to  kindle 
a  conflagration. 

The  truth  is,  that  the  rebellion  was  an  outbreak  of 
the  democratic  spirit.  It  was  the  political  form  of  a 
movement,  of  which  the  Reformation  was  the  religious 
form.  As  the  Reformation  was  aided,  not  by  men  in 
high  ecclesiastical  offices,  not  by  great  cardinals  or 
wealthy  bishops,  but  by  men  filling  the  lowest  and  most 
subordinate  posts,  just  so  was  the  English  rebellion  a 
movement  from  below,  an  uprising  from  the  founda- 
tions, or  as  some  will  have  it,  the  dregs  of  society.  The 
few  persons  of  high  rank  who  adhered  to  the  popular 
cause  were  quickly  discarded,  and  the  ease  and  rapidity 
with  which  they  fell  off  was  a  clear  indication  of  the 
turn  that  things  were  taking.  Directly  the  army  was 
freed  from  its  noble  leaders,  and  supplied  with  officers 
drawn  from  the  lower  classes,  the  fortune  of  war 
changed,  the  royalists  were  every  where  defeated,  and 
the  king  made  prisoner  by  his  own  subjects.  Between 
his  capture  and  execution,  the  two  most  important  poli- 
tical events  were  his  abduction  by  Joyce,  and  the  forcible 
expulsion  from  the  House  of  Commons  of  those  members 
who  were  thought  likely  to  interfere  in  his  favour. 
Both  these  decisive  steps  were  taken,  and  indeed  only 
could  have  been  taken,   by  men   of  great   personal 


AND  THE  ENGLISH  REBELLION.      155 

influence,  and  of  a  bold  and  resolute  spirit.  Joyce,  who 
carried  off  the  king,  and  who  was  highly  respected  in 
the  army,  had,  however,  been  recently  a  common 
working  tailor ; 18  while  Colonel  Pride,  whose  name  is 
preserved  in  history  as  having  purged  the  House  of 
Commons  of  the  malignants,  was  about  on  a  level  with 
Joyce,  since  his  original  occupation  was  that  of  a  dray- 
•  man.19  The  tailor  and  the  drayman  were,  in  that  age, 
strong  enough  to  direct  the  course  of  public  affairs,  and 
to  win  for  themselves  a  conspicuous  position  in  the 
state.  After  the  execution  of  Charles,  the  same  ten- 
dency was  displayed,  the  old  monarchy  being  destroyed, 
that  small  but  active  party  known  as  the  fifth- monarchy 
men  increased  in  importance,  and  for  a  time  exercised 
considerable  influence.  Their  three  principal  and  most 
distinguished  members  were  Venner,  Tuffnel,  and  Okey. 
Venner,  who  was  the  leader,  was  a  wine- cooper;  ao 
Tuffnel,  who  was  second  in  command,  was  a  carpenter  ;21 
and  Okey,  though  he  became  a  colonel,  had  filled  the 
menial  office  of  stoker  in  an  Islington  brewery.22 

Nor  are  these  to  be  regarded  as  exceptional  cases.  In 
that  period,  promotion  depended  solely  on  merit ;  and 
if  a  man  had  ability  he  was  sure  to  rise,  no  matter  what 


18  '  Cornet  Joyce,  who  was  one  Life  of  Owen,  p.  164;  Harris's 
of  the  agitators  in  the  army,  a  Lives  of  the  Stuarts,  vol.  iii.  p. 
tailor,  a  fellow  who  had  two  or  478. 

three  years  before  served  in  a  *°  *  The  fifth-monarchy,  headed 
very  inferior  employment  in  Mr.  mainly  by  one  Vennar,  a  wine- 
Hollis's  house.'  Clarendon's  Be-  cooper.'  Carole's  Cromwell,  vol. 
bellion,  p.  612.  '  A  shrewd  tailor-  iii.  p.  282.  '  Venner,  a  wine- 
man.'  If  Israelis  Commentaries  cooper.'  Lister's  Life  and  Cor- 
on  the  Reign  of  Charles  L,  1851,  resp.  of  Clarendon,  vol.  ii.  p.  62. 
vol.  ii.  p.  466.  2I  '  The  second  to  Venner  was 

19  Ludlow  (Memoirs,  vol.  ii.  p.  one  Tuffnel  a  carpenter  living 
139);  Noble  (Memoirs  of  the  in  Gray's  Inn  Lane.'  Winstan- 
House   of   Cromwell,    vol.  ii.  p.  ley's  Martyrology,  p.  163. 

470) ;  and  Winstanley  (Loyal  **  '  He  was  stoaker  in  a  brew- 
Martyrology,  edit.  1665,  p.  108),  house  at  Islington,  and  next  a 
mention  that  Pride  had  been  a  most  poor  chandler  near  Lion- 
drayman.  It  is  said  that  Crom-  Key,  in  Thames  Street.'  Pari. 
well,  in  ridicule  of  the  old  dis-  Hist.  vol.  iii.  p.  1605.  See 
tinctions,  conferred  knighthood  also  Winstanley's  Martyrolqgy, 
on  him  'with  a  faggot.'     Ormc's  p.  122. 


156 


COMPAKISON   OP  THE   FBONDE 


his  birth,  or  former  avocations  might  have  been.  Crom- 
well himself  was  a  brewer ; 23  and  Colonel  Jones,  hia 
brother-in-law,  had  been  servant  to  a  private  gentle- 
man.24 Deane  was  the  servant  of  a  tradesman  ;  but  he 
became  an  admiral,  and  was  made  one  of  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  navy.25  Colonel  Goffe  had  been  appren- 
tice to  a  dry  Salter ; 26  Major-general  Whalley  had  been 
apprentice  to  a  draper.27  Skippon,  a  common  soldier 
who  had  received  no  education,28  was  appointed  com- 
mander of  the  London  militia ;  he  was  raised  to  the 
office  of  sergeant-major-general  of  the  army;  he  was 
declared  commander-in-chief  in  Ireland ;  and  he  be- 
came one  of  the  fourteen  members  of  Cromwell's  coun- 
cil.29 Two  of  the  lieutenants  of  the  Tower  were  Berkstead 


23  Some  of  the  clumsy  eulo- 
gists of  Cromwell  wish  to  sup- 
press the  fact  of  his  being  a 
brewer ;  but  that  he  really  prac- 
tised that  useful  trade  is  attested 
by  a  variety  of  evidence,  and  is 
distinctly  stated  by  his  own 
physician,  Dr.  Bates.  Bates's 
Troubles  in  England,  vol.  ii.  p. 
238.  See  also  Walker's  History 
of  Independency,  part  i.  p.  32, 
part  ii.  p.  25,  part  iii.  p.  37 ; 
Noble's  House  of  Cromwell,  vol.  i. 
pp.  328-331.  Other  passages, 
which  I  cannot  now  call  to  mind, 
will  occur  to  those  who  have 
studied  the  literature  of  the 
time. 

24  ■  John  Jones,  at  first  a 
serving-man,  then  a  colonel  of 
the  Long  Parliament,  .... 
married  the  Protector's  sister.' 
Pari.  Hist.  vol.  iii.  p.  1600.  'A 
serving-man  ;  ....  in  process 
of  time  married  one  of  Cromwell's 
sisters.'  Wmstanley's  Martyr- 
ology,  p.  125. 

25  'Richard  Deane,  Esq.,  is 
said  to  have  been  a  servant  to 
one  Button,  a  toyman  in  Ipswich, 
and  to  have  himself  been  the  son 
of  a  person  in  the  same  employ- 


ment ;  .  .  .  .  was  appointed  one 
of  the  commissioners  of  the  navy 
with  Popham  and  Blake,  and 
in  April  (1649)  he  became  an 
admiral  and  general  at  sea.' 
Noble's  Lives  of  the  Begicides, 
vol.  i.  pp.  172, 173.  Winstanley 
{Martyr ol.  p.  121)  also  says  that 
Deane  was  '  servant  in  Ipswich.' 
28  •  Apprentice  to  one  Vaughan 
a  dry-salter.'  Noble's  House  of 
Cromwell,  vol.  ii.  p.  507 :  and 
see  his  Begicides,  vol.  i.  p.  255. 

27  '  Bound  apprentice  to  a 
woollen-draper.'  Wmstanley's 
Martyr,  p.  108.  He  afterwards 
set  up  in  the  same  trade  for  him- 
self; but  with  little  success,  for 
Dr.  Bates  {Troubles  in  England, 
vol.  ii.  p.  222)  calls  him  '  a  bro- 
ken clothier.' 

28  '  Altogether  illiterate.'  Cla- 
rendon's Bebellion,  p.  152.  Two 
extraordinary  speeches  by  him 
are  preserved  in  Burton's  Diary, 
vol.  i.  pp.  24,  25,  48-50. 

29  Holies' s  Mem.  p.  82 ;  Lud- 
low's Mem.  vol.  ii.  p.  39  ;  and  a 
letter  from  Fairfax  in  Cary's 
Memorials  of  the  Civil  War, 
1842,  vol.  i.  p.  413. 


AND  THE  ENGLISH  REBELLION.      157 

and  Tichborne.  Berkstead  was  a  pedlar,  or  at  all  events 
a  hawker  of  small  wares  ; 30  and  Tichborne,  who  was  a 
linendraper,  not  only  received  the  lieutenancy  of  the 
Tower,  but  became  a  colonel,  and  a  member  of  the 
committee  of  state  in  1655,  and  of  the  council  of  state 
in  1659.31  Other  trades  were  equally  successful ;  the 
highest  prizes  being  open  to  all  men,  provided  they 
displayed  the  requisite  capacity.  Colonel  Harvey  was 
a  silk-mercer ;32  so  was  Colonel  Howe;33  so  also  was 
Colonel  Venn.34  Salway  had  been  apprentice  to  a 
grocer,  but,  being  an  able  man,  he  rose  to  the  rank  of 
major  in  the  army;  he  received  the  king's  remem- 
brancer's office ;  and  in  1659  he  was  appointed  by 
parliament  a  member  of  the  council  of  state.35  Around 
that  council-board  were  also  gathered  Bond  the  draper,36 
and  Cawley  the  brewer  ; 37  while  by  their  side  we  find 
John  Berners,  who  is  said  to  have  been  a  private  ser- 
vant,38 and  Cornelius  Holland,  who  is  known  to  have 


30  '  Berkstead,  who  heretofore  **  '  A  silkman  in  London  ; 
sold  needles,  bodkins,  and  thim-  ....  went  into  the  army,  and 
bles,  and  would  have  run  on  an  rose  to  the  rank  of  colonel.' 
errand  any  where  for  a  little  Noble's  Regicides,  vol.  ii.  p.  283. 
money ;  but  who  now  by  Crom-  '  A  broken  silk-man  in  Cheap- 
well  was  preferred  to  the  honour-  side.'  Winstanley's  Martyrol. 
able  charge  of  lieutenant  of  the  p.  130. 

Tower  of  London.'     Bates's  Ac-  S5  Walker's  Independency,  part 

count  of  the   Troubles,  part   ii.  i.   p.  143;  Pari.  Hist.  vol.   iii. 

p.  222.  p.  1608;  Ludlow's  Mem.  vol.  ii. 

31  Noble's  Regicides,  vol.  ii.  pp.  pp.  241,  259  ;  Noble's  Regicides, 
272,273.  Lord  Holies  (Memoirs,  vol.  ii.  pp.  158,  162. 

p.   174)  also  mentions   that  he  **  He  was  'a  woollen-draper 

was  '  a  linen-draper.'  at  Dorchester,'  and  was  '  one  of 

32  '  Edward  Harvy,  late  a  the  council  of  state  in  1649  and 
poor  silk-man,  now  colonel,  and  1651.'  Noble's  Regicides,  vol.  i. 
hath  got  the  Bishop  of  London's  p.  99 :  see  also  Pari.  Hist.  vol.  iii. 
house  and  manor  of  Fulham.'  p.  1594. 

Walker's  Independency,  part  i.  S7  'A  brewer  in  Chichester; 

p.  170.  '  One  Harvey,  a  decayed  ....  in   1650-1    he    was  ap- 

silk-man.'  Clarendon' s  Rebellion,  pointed  one  of   the  council  of 

p.  418.  state.'    Noble's  Regicides,  voL  i. 

38  Owen  Bowe,  '  put  to  the  p.    136.    '  William    Cawley,    a 

trade  of  a  silk-mercer, brewer  of  Chichester.'    Winstan- 

went  into  the  parliament  army,  ley's  Martyrol.  p.  138. 

and  became  a  colonel.'     Nobles  **  John  Berners, '  supposed  to 

Regicides,  vol.  ii.  p.  150.  have  been  originally  a  serving- 


158 


COMPARISON   OF  THE    FRONDE 


been  a  servant,  and  who  was,  indeed,  formerly  a  link- 
boy.39  Among  others  who  were  now  favoured  and 
promoted  to  offices  of  trust,  were  Packe  the  woollen- 
draper,40  Pury  the  weaver,41  and  Pemble  the  tailor.42 
The  parliament  which  was  summoned  in  1653  is  still 
remembered  as  Barebone's  parliament,  being  so  called 
after  one  of  its  most  active  members,  whose  name  was 
Barebone,  and  who  was  a  leather-seller  in  Fleet  Street.43 
Thus  too,  Downing,  though  a  poor  charity-boy,44  be- 
came teller  of  the  exchequer,  and  representative  of 
England  at  the  Hague.45  To  these  we  may  add,  that 
Colonel  Horton  had  been  a  gentleman's  servant;46 
Colonel   Berry   had  been  a  woodmonger ; 47    Colonel 


man,'  was  '  one  of  the  council  of 
state  in  1659.'  Noble's  Regicides, 
vol.  i.  p.  90. 

39  « Holland  the  linke-boy.' 
Walker's  Independency,  part  iii. 
p.  37.  '  He  was  originally  no- 
thing more  than  a  servant  to  Sir 
Henry  Vane ;  .  .  .  .  upon  the 
establishment  of  the  Common- 
wealth, he  was  made  one  of  the 
council  of  state  in  1649,  and 
again  in  1650.'  Noble's  Regicides, 
vol.  i.  pp.  357,  358. 

40  Noble's  Mem.  of  Cromwell, 
vol.  ii.  p.  502. 

41  Walker's  Hist,  of  Indepen- 
dency, part.  i.  p.  1 67. 

42  Ellis's  Original  Letters  illus- 
trative of  English  History,  third 
eeries,  vol.  iv.  p.  219,  Lond. 
1846. 

43  Pari.  Hist.  vol.  iii.  p.  1407 ; 
Rose's  Biog.  Diet.  vol.  iii.  p.  172 ; 
Clarendon's  Rebellion,  p.  794. 

44  '  A  poor  child  bred  upon 
charity.'  Harris's  Stuarts,  vol.  v. 
p.  281.  'A  man  of  an  obscure 
birth,  and  more  obscure  educa- 
tion.' Clarendon's  Life  of  Him- 
self,?. 1116. 

45  See    Vaughan's    Cromwell, 


vol.  i.  pp.  227,  228,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  299,  302,  433 ;  Lister's  Life 
and  Corresp.  of  Clarendon,  vol.  ii. 
p.  231,  vol.  iii.  p.  134.  The 
common  opinion  is,  that  he  was 
the  son  of  a  clergyman  at  Hack- 
ney ;  but  if  so,  he  was  probably 
illegitimate,  considering  the  way 
he  was  brought  up.  However, 
his  Hackney  origin  is  very  doubt- 
ful, and  no  one  appears  to  know 
who  his  father  was.  See  Notes 
and  Queries,  vol.  iii.  pp.  69, 
213. 

48  Noble's  Regicides,  vol.  i. 
p.  362.  Cromwell  had.  a  great 
regard  for  this  remarkable  man, 
who  not  only  distinguished  him- 
self as  a  soldier,  but,  judging 
from  a  letter  of  his  recently  pub- 
lished, appears  to  have  repaired 
the  deficiencies  of  his  early  educa- 
tion. See  Fairfax  Correspond. 
vol.  iv.  pp.  22-25,  108.  There 
never  has  been  a  period  in  the 
history  of  England  in  which  so 
many  men  of  natural  ability  were 
employed  in  the  public  service  as 
during  the  Commonwealth. 

47  Noble's  House  of  Cromwell, 
vol.  ii.  p.  507. 


AND    THE    ENGLISH    REBELLION. 


159 


Cooper  a  haberdasher  ;48  Major  Rolfe  a  shoemaker  ;49 
Colonel  Fox  a  tinker; 50  and  Colonel  Hewson  a  cobbler.81 
Snch  were  the  leaders  of  the  English  rebellion,  or  to 
speak  more  properly,  snch  were  the  instruments  by 
which  the  rebellion  was  consummated.52  If  we  now 
turn  to  France,  we  shall  clearly  see  the  difference 
between  the  feelings  and  temper  of  the  two  nations.  In 
that  country,  the  old  protective  spirit  still  retained  its 
activity  ;  and.  the  people,  being  kept  in  a  state  of  pupil- 
age, had  not  acquired  those  habits  of  self-command  and 
self-reliance,  by  which  alone  great  things  can  be  effected. 
They  had  been  so  long  accustomed  to  look  with  timid 
reverence  to  the  upper  classes,  that,  even  when  they 
rose  in  arms,  they  could  not  throw  off  the  ideas  of  sub- 
mission which  were  quickly  discarded  by  our  ancestors. 
The  influence  of  the  higher  ranks  was,  in  England, 


48  Noble's  Cromwell,  vol.  ii. 
p.  518;  Bates's  Troubles,  vol.  ii. 
p.  222. 

49  Bates's  Late  Troubles,  vol.  i. 
p.  87 ;  Ludlow's  Mem.  vol.  i. 
p.  220. 

50  Walker's  Hist,  of  Indepen- 
dency, part  ii.  p.  87. 

81  Ludlow  who  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  Colonel  Hewson, 
says  that  he  '  had  been  a  shoe- 
maker.' Ludlow's  Memoirs,  vol.ii. 
p.  139.  But  this  is  the  amiable 
partiality  of  a  friend  ;  and  there 
is  no  doubt  that  the  gallant 
colonel  was  neither  more  nor  less 
than  a  cobbler.  See  Walker's 
Independency, part  ii.  p.  39 ;  Win- 
Stanley's  Martyr  ol.  p.  123;  Bates's 
Late  Troubles,  vol.  ii.  p.  222; 
Noble's  Cromwell,  vol.  ii.  pp.  251, 
345,  470. 

52  "Walker,  who  relates  what  he 
himself  witnessed,  says,  that, 
about  1649,  the  army  was  com- 
manded by  '  colonels  and  supe- 
rior officers,  who  lord  it  in  their 
gilt  coaches,  rich  apparel,  costly 
feastings  ;  though  some  of  them 


led  dray-horses,  wore  leather- 
pelts,  and  were  never  able  to 
name  their  own  fathers  or  mo- 
thers.' Hist,  of  Independ.  part  ii. 
p.  244.  The  Mercurius  Busticus, 
1647,  says,  '  Chelmsford  was 
governed  by  a  tinker,  two  cob- 
blers, two  tailors,  two  pedlars.' 
Southey's  Commonplace  Book, 
third  series,  1850,  p.  430.  And, 
at  p.  434,  another  work,  in  1647, 
makes  a  similar  statement  in  re- 
gard to  Cambridge  ;  while  Lord 
Holies  assures  us,  that '  most  of 
the  colonels  and  officers  (were) 
mean  tradesmen,  brewers,  tay- 
lors,  goldsmiths,  shoe-makers, 
and  the  like.'  Holies' s  Memoirs, 
p.  149.  When  Whitelocke  was 
in  Sweden  in  1653,  the  praetor  of 
one  of  the  towns  abused  the  par- 
liament, saying,  '  that  they  killed 
their  king,  and  were  a  company 
of  taylors  and  cobblers.'  White- 
lockc's  Swedish  Embassy,  vol.  i. 
p.  205.  See  also  note  in  Car- 
withen's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of 
England,  voL  ii.  p.  156. 


160       COMPARISON  OP  THE  FEONDE 

constantly  diminishing ;  in  France,  it  was  scarcely 
impaired.  Hence  it  happened  that,  although  the 
English  and  French  rebellions  were  contemporary,  and, 
in  their  origin,  aimed  at  precisely  the  same  objects, 
they  were  distinguished  by  one  most  important  diffe- 
rence. This  was,  that  the  English  rebels  were  headed 
by  popular  leaders  ;  the  French  rebels  by  noble  leaders. 
The  bold  and  sturdy  habits  which  had  long  been  culti- 
vated in  England,  enabled  the  middle  and  lower  classes 
to  supply  their  own  chiefs  out  of  their  own  ranks.  In 
France  such  chiefs  were  not  to  be  found ;  simply  be- 
cause, owing  to  the  protective  spirit,  such  habits  had 
not  been  cultivated.  While,  therefore,  in  our  island, 
the  functions  of  civil  government,  and  of  war,  were 
conducted  with  conspicuous  ability,  and  complete  suc- 
cess, by  butchers,  by  bakers,  by  brewers,  by  cobblers, 
and  by  tinkers,  the  struggle  which,  at  the  same  moment, 
was  going  on  in  France,  presented  an  appearance 
totally  different.  In  that  country,  the  rebellion  was 
headed  by  men  of  a  far  higher  standing  ;  men,  indeed, 
of  the  longest  and  most  illustrious  lineage.  There,  to 
be  sure,  was  a  display  of  unexampled  splendour;  a 
galaxy  of  rank,  a  noble  assemblage  of  aristocratic  insur- 
gents and  titled  demagogues.  There  was  the  Prince 
de  Conde,  the  Prince  de  Conti,  the  Prince  de  Marsillac, 
the  Duke  de  Bouillon,  the  Duke  de  Beaufort,  the  Duke 
de  Longueville,  the  Duke  de  Chevreuse,  the  Duke  de 
Nemours,  the  Duke  de  Luynes,  the  Duke  de  Brissac, 
the  Duke  d'Elbceuf,  the  Duke  de  Candale,  the  Duke  de 
la  Tremouille,  the  Marquis  de  la  Boulaye,  the  Marquis 
de  Laigues,  the  Marquis  de  ISToirmoutier,  the  Marquis 
de  Vitry,  the  Marquis  de  Fosseuse,  the  Marquis  de 
Sillery,  the  Marquis  d'Estissac,  the  Marquis  d'Hocquin- 
court,  the  Count  de  Rantzau,  the  Count  de  Montresor. 
These  were  the  leaders  of  the  Fronde;53  and  the 
mere  announcement  of  their  names  indicate  the  differ- 


53  Even  De  Ketz,  who  vainly  ing  his  democratic  tendencies,  he, 

attempted  to  organise  a  popular  in    1648,   thought  it  advisable 

party,  found  that  it  was  impos-  '  tacher  <T  engager  dans  les  int6- 

sible  to  take  any  step  without  rets    publics  les  personnes    da 

the  nobles ;  and,  notwithstand-  qualiteV    Mim.  de  Joly,  p.  31. 


AND   THE   ENGLISH   REBELLION.  161 

ence  between  the  French  and  English  rebellions.  And, 
in  consequence  of  this  difference,  there  followed  some 
results,  which  are  well  worth  the  attention  of  those 
writers' who,  in  their  ignorance  of  the  progress  of  human 
affairs,  seek  to  uphold  that  aristocratic  power,  which, 
fortunately  for  the  interests  of  mankind,  has  long  been 
waning ;  and  which,  during  the  last  seventy  years  has, 
in  the  most  civilized  countries,  received  such  severe  and 
repeated  shocks,  that  its  ultimate  fate  is  hardly  a  matter 
respecting  which  much  doubt  can  now  be  entertained. 
The  English  rebellion  was  headed  by  men,  whose 
tastes,  habits,  and  associations,  being  altogether  popular, 
formed  a  bond  of  sympathy  between  them  and  the 
people,  and  preserved  the  union  of  the  whole  party.  In 
France  the  sympathy  was  very  weak,  and  therefore,  the 
union  was  very  precarious.  What  sort  of  sympathy 
could  there  be  between  the  mechanic  and  the  peasant, 
toiling  for  their  daily  bread,  and  the  rich  and  dissolute 
noble,  whose  life  was  passed  in  those  idle  and  frivolous 
pursuits  which  debased  his  mind,  and  made  his  order  a 
byword  and  a  reproach  among  the  nations  ?  To  talk 
of  sympathy  existing  between  the  two  classes  is  a  mani- 
fest absurdity,  and  most  assuredly  would  have  been 
deemed  an  insult  by  those  high-born  men,  who  treated 
their  inferiors  with  habitual  and  insolent  contempt.  It 
is  true,  that,  from  causes  which  have  been  already 
stated,  the  people  did,  unhappily  for  themselves,  look 
up  to  those  above  them  with  the  greatest  veneration ; M 
but  every  page  of  French  history  proves  how  unworthily 
this  feehng  was  reciprocated,  and  in  how  complete  a 


54   Mably  ( Observations    sur  points  were  entirely  opposed  to 

VHist.  de  France,  vol.  i.  p.  357)  those  of  Mably,   says,  that,  in 

frankly  says,  ■  L'exemple  d'un  France,   '  la  noblesse    est    anx 

grand  a  toujours  £te"  plus  conta-  yeux  du  peuple  une  espece  de 

gieux  chez  les  Fran^ais  que  par-  religion,  dont  les  gentilshommes 

tout  ailleurs.'     See  also  vol.  ii.  sont  les  pretres.'    Mem.  de  Eiva- 

p.  267 :  '  Jamais  l'exemple  des  rol,  p.  94.     Happily,  the  French 

grands  n'a  6te  aussi  contagieux  Eevolution,  or  rather  the  circum- 

ailleurs  qu'en  France ;  on  dirait  stances  which  caused  the  French 

qu'ils  ont  le  malheureux  privi-  Eevolution,    have    utterly    de- 

lege  de  tout  justifier.'  Eivarol,  stroyed  this  ignominious  homage. 
though    his    opinions  on   other 

VOL.  n.  II 


162      •  COMPARISON  OP  THE  FRONDE 

'thraldom  the  lower  classes  were  kept.     While,  there- 

■fore,  the  French,  from  their  long-established  habits  of 

'  dependence,  were  become  incapable  of  conducting  their 

own  rebellion,   and,   on  that  account,  were  obliged  to 

<  place  themselves  under  the  command  of  their  nobles, 

:  this  very  necessity  confirmed  the  servility  which  caused 

it ;  and  thus  stunting  the  growth  of  freedom,  prevented 

the  nation  from  effecting,  by  their   civil  wars,  those 

"  great  things  which  we,  in  England,  were  able  to  bring 

-  about  by  ours. 

Indeed,  it  is  only  necessary  to  read  the  French  litera- 
•  ture  of  the  seventeenth  century,  to  see  the  incompati- 
bility of  the  two  classes,  and  the  utter  hopelessness  of 
1  fusing  into  one  party  the  popular  and  aristocratic  spirit. 
'  While  the  object  of  the  people  was  to  free  themselves 
from  the  yoke,  the  object  .of  the  nobles  was  merely  to 
find  new  sources  of  excitement,65  and  minister  to  that 
'  personal  vanity  for  which,  as  a  body,  they  have  always 
been  notorious.     As  this  is  a  department  of  history  that 
has  been  little  studied,  it  will  be  interesting  to  collect  a 
few  instances,  which  will  illustrate  the  temper  of  the 
French  aristocracy,  and  will  show  what  sort  of  honours, 
and  what  manner  of  distinctions,  those  were  which  this 
powerful  class  was  most  anxious  to  obtain. 

That  the  objects  chiefly  coveted  were  of  a  very  trifling 
description,  will  be  anticipated  by  whoever  has  studied 
the  effect  which,  in  an  immense  majority  of  minds, 
hereditary  distinctions  produce  upon  personal  character. 
How  pernicious  such  distinctions  are,  may  be  clearly 
seen  in  the  history  of  all  the  European  aristocracies ; 
and  in  the  notorious  fact,  that  none  of  them  have  pre- 
served even  a  mediocrity  of  talent,  except  in  countries 

**  The  Duke  de  la  Rochefou-  faisait  la  guerre  par  gout,  par 

cauld  candidly  admits  that,  in  besoin,  par  vanity,  par  ennui.' 

1649,  the  nobles  raised  a  civil  Compare,  in  Mem.cCOmer  Talon, 

■war,    •  avec    d'autant   plus    de  vol.  ii.  pp.  467,  468,  a  summary 

haleur  que  c'6tait  une  nouveau-  of  the  reasons   which,  in  1649, 

teV     Mem.    de    Rochefoucauld,  induced  the  nobles  to  go  to  war ; 

vol.  i.  p.  406.     Thus  too  Lemon-  and  on  the  way  in  which  their 

tey  (Etablissement  de  Louis  XIV,  frivolity  debased  the  Fronde,  see 

p.  368):    'La  vieille  noblesse,  Lavallee,  Hist,  des  Francais,xol. 

qui   ne    savait    que    combattre,  iii.  pp.  169,  170. 


AND   THE   ENGLISH  EEBELLION.  163 

where  they  are  frequently  invigorated  by  the  infusion 
of  plebeian  blood,  and  their  order  strengthened  by  the 
Accession  of  those  masculine  energies  which  are  natural 
to  men  who  make  their  own  position,  but  cannot  be 
looked  for  in  men  whose  position  is  made  for  them. 
For,  when  the  notion  is  once  firmly  implanted  in  the 
mind,  that  tbe  source  of  honour  is  from  without,  rather 
than  from  within,  it  must  invariably  happen  that  the 
possession  of  external  distinction  will  be  preferred  to 
the  sense  of  internal  power.  In  such  cases,  the  majesty 
of  the  human  intellect,  and  the  dignity  of  human  know- 
ledge, are  considered  subordinate  to  those  mock  and 
spurious  gradations  by  which  weak  men  measure  the 
degrees  of  their  own  littleness.  Hence  it  is,  that  the 
real  precedence  of  things  becomes  altogether  reversed  ; 
that  which  is  trifling  is  valued  more  than  that  which  is 
great ;  and  the  mind  is  enervated  by  conforming  to  a 
false  standard  of  merit,  which  its  own  prejudices  have 
raised.  On  this  account,  they  are  evidently  in  the  wrong 
who  reproach  the  nobles  with  their  pride,  as  if  it  were 
a  characteristic  of  their  order.  The  truth  is,  that  if 
pride  were  once  established  among  them,  their  extinc- 
tion would  rapidly  follow.  To  talk  of  the  pride  of 
hereditary  rank,  is  a  contradiction  in  terms.  Pride 
depends  on  the  consciousness  of  self-applause ;  vanity 
is  fed  by  the  applause  of  others.  Pride  is  a  reserved 
and  lofty  passion,  which  disdains  those  external  dis- 
tinctions that  vanity  eagerly  grasps.  The  proud  man 
sees  in  his  own  mind,  the  source  of  his  own  dignity  ; 
which,  as  he  well  knows,  can  be  neither  increased  or 
diminished  by  any  acts  except  those  which  proceed 
solely  from  himself.  The  vain  man,  restless,  insatiable, 
and  always  craving  after  the  admiration  of  his  contem- 
poraries, must  naturally  make  great  account  of  those 
external  marks,  those  visible  tokens,  which,  whether 
they  be  decorations  or  titles,  strike  directly  on  the 
senses,  and  thus  captivate  the  vulgar,  to  whose  under- 
standings they  are  immediately  obvious.  This,  there- 
fore, being  the  great  distinction,  that  pride  looks  within, 
while  vanity  looks  without,  it  is  clear  that  when  a  man 
values  himself  for  a  rank  which  he  inherited  by  chance, 

M   2 


164       COMPARISON  OF  THE  FRONDE 

without  exertion,  and  without  merit,  it  is  a  proof,  not 
of  pride,  but  of  vanity,  and  of  vanity  of  the  most  des- 
picable kind.  It  is  a  proof  that  such  a  man  has  no 
sense  of  real  dignity,  no  idea  of  what  that  is  in  which 
alone  all  greatness  consists.  What  marvel  if,  to  minds 
of  this  sort,  the  most  insignificant  trifles  should  swell  into 
matters  of  the  highest  importance  ?  What  marvel  if  such 
empty  understandings  should  be  busied  with  ribbons, 
and  stars,  and  crosses ;  if  this  noble  should  yearn  after 
the  Garter,  and  that  noble  pine  for  the  Golden  Fleece  \ 
if  one  man  should  long  to  carry  a  wand  in  the  precincts 
of  the  court,  and  another  man  to  fill  an  office  in  the 
royal  household;  while  the  ambition  of  a  third  is  to 
make  his  daughter  a  maid-of-honour,  or  to  raise  his 
wife  to  be  mistress  of  the  robes  ? 

We,  seeing  these  things,  ought  not  to  be  surprised 
that  the  French  nobles,  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
displayed,  in  their  intrigues  and  disputes,  a  frivolity, 
which,  though  redeemed  by  occasional  exceptions,  is  the 
natural  characteristic  of  every  hereditary  aristocracy. 
A  few  examples  of  this  will  suffice  to  give  the  reader 
some  idea  of  the  tastes  and  temper  of  that  powerful 
class  which,  during  several  centuries,  retarded  the  pro- 
gress of  French  civilization. 

Of  all  the  questions  on  which  the  French  nobles  were 
divided,  the  most  important  was  that  touching  the  right 
of  sitting  in  the  royal  presence.  This  was  considered  to 
be  a  matter  of  such  gravity,  that,  in  comparison  with  it, 
a  mere  struggle  for  liberty  faded  into  insignificance. 
And  what  made  it  still  more  exciting  to  the  minds  of  the 
nobles  was,  the  extreme  difficulty  with  which  this  great 
social  problem  was  beset.  According  to  the  ancient 
etiquette  of  the  French  court,  if  a  man  were  a  duke,  his 
wife  might  sit  in  the  presence  of  the  queen ;  but  if  his 
rank  were  inferior,  even  if  he  were  a  marquis,  no  such 
liberty  could  be  allowed.56  So  far,  the  rule  was  very 


66  Hence  the  duchesses  were  p.    111.      The  Count  de   Segur 

called  '  femmes   assises  ;'  those  tells  us  that '  les  duchesses  jouis- 

of    lower    rank    '  non    assises.'  saient  de  la  prerogative  d'etre 

Mem.  de Fontunay  Mareuil, vol.i.  assises  sur  un  tabouret  chez  la 


AND  THE  ENGLISH  REBELLION.      165 

simple,  and,  to  the  duchesses  themselves,  highly  agree- 
able. But  the  marquises,  the  counts,  and  the  other 
illustrious  nobles,  were  uneasy  at  this  invidious  dis- 
tinction, and  exerted  all  their  energies  to  procure  for 
their  own  wives  the  same  honour.  This  the  dukes 
strenuously  resisted ;  but,  owing  to  circumstances  which 
unfortunately  are  not  fully  understood,  an  innovation 
was  made  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII.,  and  the  privilege 
of  sitting  in  the  same  room  with  the  queen  was  conceded 
to  the  female  members  of  the  Bouillon  family.57  In  con- 
sequence of  this  evil  precedent,  the  question  became 
seriously  complicated,  since  other  members  of  the  aris- 
iocracy  considered  that  the  purity  of  their  descent  gave 
them  claims  nowise  inferior  to  those  of  the  house  of 
Bouillon,  whose  antiquity,  they  said,  had  been  grossly 
exaggerated.  The  contest  which  ensued,  had  the  effect 
of  breaking  up  the  nobles  into  two  hostile  parties,  one  of 
which  sought  to  preserve  that  exclusive  privilege  in 
which  the  other  wished  to  participate.  To  reconcile 
these  rival  pretensions,  various  expedients  were  sug- 
gested ;  but  all  were  in  vain,  and  the  court,  during  the 


reine.'     Mem.  de  Segur,  vol.  i.  of  Siguier,  in  Duclos,  Memoircs 

p.  79.     The  importance  attached  Secrets,  vol.  i.  pp.  360,  361.  Tho 

to  this  is  amusingly  illustrated  consequences  of  the  innovation 

in  Mem.  de  Saint-Simon,  vol.  iii.  were  very   serious ;   and  Talle- 

pp.  215-218,  Paris,  1842;  which  mant  des  Reaux    (Historicttes, 

sho\Ud    be    compared  with    De  vol.  iii.  pp.  223,  224)  mentions  a 

Tocqueville,  Eigne  de  Louis  XV,  distinguished  lady,  of  whom  ho 

vol.    ii.  p.    116,    and  Mem.  de  says,  '  Pour  satisfaire  son  ambi- 

Genlis,  vol.  x.  p.  383.  tion,  il  lui  falloit  un  tabouret : 

47  '  Survint    incontinent    une  elle  cabale  pour  epouser  le  vieux 

autre  difficult^  a  la  cour  sur  le  Bouillon  La  Marck  veuf  pour  la 

sujet  des  tabourets,  que  doivent  seconde  fois.'  In  this  she  failed ; 

avoir  les  dames  dans  la  chambre  but,  determined  not  to  be  baffled, 

de  la  reine ;  car  encore  que  cela  •  elle  ne  se  rebute  point,  et  vou- 

ne  s'accorde  regulierementqu'aux  lant  a  toute  force  avoir  un  ta- 

duchesses,  neanmoins  le  feu  roi  bouret,  elle  epouse  le  fils  aine  du 

Louis  XIII  l'avoit  accorde  aux  due  de  Villars :  e'est  un  ridicule 

lilies  de  la  maison  de  Bouillon,'  de  corps  et  d' esprit,  car  il  est 

&c.  Mtm.  d'Omcr  Talon,  vol.  iii.  bossu  et  quasi  imbecile,  et  gueux 

p.  6.    See  also,  on  this  encroach-  par-dessus  cela.'     This   melan- 

■  ment  on  the  rights  of  the  duch-  choly  event  happened  in  1649. 
•  esses  under  Louis  XIII.,  the  case 


166  COMPARISON   OF   THE    FEOtfDE 

administration  of  Mazarin,  being  pressed  by  the  fear  of 
a  rebellion,  showed  symptoms  of  giving  way,  and  of 
yielding  to  the  inferior  nobles  the  point  they  so  ardently 
desired.  In  1648  and  1649,  the  qneen-regent,  acting 
under  the  advice  of  her  council,  formally  conceded  the 
right  of  sitting  in  the  royal  presence  to  the  three  most 
distinguished  members  of  the  lower  aristocracy,  namely  y 
the  Countess  de  Fleix,  Madame  de  Pons,  and  the  Prin- 
cess de  Marsillac.58  Scarcely  had  this  decision  been: 
promulgated,  when  the  princes  of  the  blood  and  the 
peers  of  the  realm  were  thrown  into  the  greatest  agita- 
tion.69 They  immediately  summoned  to  the  capital  those 
members  of  their  own  order  who  were  interested  in  re- 
pelling this  daring  aggression,  and,  forming  themselves 
into  an  assembly,  they  at  once  adopted  measures  to 
vindicate  their  ancient  rights.00  On  the  other  hand,  the 
inferior  nobles,  flushed  by  their  recent  success,  insisted 
that  the  concession  just  made  should  be  raised  into  a 
precedent ;  and  that,  as  the  honour  of  being  seated  in 
the  presence  of  majesty  had  been  conceded  to  the  house 
of  Foix,  in  the  person  of  the  Countess  de  Fleix,  it  should 
likewise  be  granted  to  all  those  who  could  prove  that 
their  ancestry  was  equally  illustrious.61    The  greatest. 

88  As  to  the  Countess  de  Fleix    net,  vol.  i.  p.  1 84. 

and  Madame  de  Pons,  see  Mem.  61  'Tous  ceux  done  qui  par: 
deMotteville,  vol.iii.pp.  116,  369.  leurs  ai'eux  avoient  dans  leurs 
According  to  the  same  high  maisons  de  la  grandeur,  par  des. 
authority  (vol.  iii.  p.  367),  the  alliances  des  femmes  descendues 
inferiority  of  the  Princess  de  de  ceux  qui  etoient  autrefois. 
Marsillac  consisted  in  the  painful  maitres  et  souverains  des  pro- 
fact,  that  her  husband  was  merely,  vinces  de  Prance,  demanderent 
the  son  of  a  duke,  and  the  duke  la  memo  prerogative  que  celle. 
himself  was  still  alive  '  il  n'etoit  qui  venoit  d'etre  accordee  au  sang, 
que  gentilhomme,  et  son  pere  le  de  Foix.'  Mem.  de  Motteville, 
ducdela  Eochefoucauld  n'etoit  vol.  iii.  p.  117.  Another  con-, 
pas  mort.'  temporary  says:  'Cette  preton- 

89  The  long  account  of  these  tion  emut  toutes  les  maisons  de 
proceedings  in  Mem.  de  Mottc-,  la  cour  «ur  cette  difference  et 
ville,  vol.  iii.  pp.  367-393,  snows  inegalite.'  Mem.  cTOmer  Talon, 
the  importance  attached  to  Inem  vol.  iii.  p.  6.  ;  and  vol.  ii.  p. 
by  contemporary  opinion.  437 :  '  le  marquis  de   Noirmou- 

60  In  October  1649,  'la  no-  tier  et  celui  de  Vitry  deman- 
blesse  s'assembla  a  Paris  sur  le  doient  lo  tabouret  pour  leurs, 
fait  des  tabourets,'  Mem.  de  Le-    femmes.' 


AND  THE  ENGLISH  REBELLION.      167 

confusion  now  arose  ;  and  both  sides  urgently  insisting 
on  their  own  claims,  there  was,  for  many  months,  immi- 
nent danger  lest  the  question  should  be  decided  by  an 
appeal  to  the  sword.62  Bnt  as  the  higher  nobles,  though 
less  numerous  than  their  opponents,  were  more  powerful, 
the  dispute  was  finally  settled  in  their  favour.  The 
queen  sent  to  their  assembly  a  formal  message,  which 
was  conveyed  by  four  of  the  marshals  of  France,  and  in 
which  she  promised  to  revoke  those  privileges,  the  con- 
cession of  which  had  given  such  offence  to  the  most 
illustrious  members  of  the  French  aristocracy.  At  the 
same  time,  the  marshals  not  only  pledged  themselves  as 
responsible  for  the  promise  of  the  queen,  but  undertook 
to  sign  an  agreement  that  they  would  personally  super- 
intend its  execution.63  The  nobles,  however,  who  felt 
that  they  had  been  aggrieved  in  their  most  tender  point, 
were  not  yet  satisfied,  and,  to  appease  them,  it  was 
necessary  that  the  atonement  should  be  as  public  as  the 
injury.  It  was  found  necessary,  before  they  would 
peaceably  disperse,  that  government  should  issue  a  docu- 
ment, signed  by  the  queen-regent,  and  by  the  four 
secretaries  of  state,64  in  which  the  favours  granted  to 
the  unprivileged  nobility  were  withdrawn,  and  the 
mnch-cherished  honour  of  sitting  in  the  royal  presence 
was  taken  away  from  the  Princess  de  Marsillac,  from 
]\fadame  de  Pons,  and  from  the  Countess  de  Fleix.65 

These  were  the  subjects  which  occupied  the  minds 
and  wasted  the  energies,  of  the  French  nobles,  while 
their  country  was  distracted  by  civil  war,  and  while 
questions  were  at  issue  of  the  greatest  importance — 

n  Indoed,  at  one  moment,  it  p.  389. 
was  determined  that  a  counter-        M  '  Signe  d'elle  et  des  quatre 

demonstration  should  be  made  secretaires  d'etat.'    Ibid.  vol.  iii. 

on  the  part  of  the  inferior  nobles ;  p.  39 1 . 

a  proceeding  which,  if  adopted,        •'  The  best  accounts  of  this 

must  have    caused   civil    war :  great  struggle  'will  be  found  in 

'  Nous    resolumes   une    contre-  the    Memoirs    of   Madame    de 

assembled  de  noblesse  pour  sou-  Motteville,  and  in  those  of  Omer 

tenir  le  tabouret  de  la  maison  de  Talon  ;    two    writers    of   very' 

Rohan.'  De  Rett,  Mtmoires,  voL  i.  different  minds,  but  both  of  them ' 

p.  284.  deeply  impressed  with  the  mag- 

'  •'  Mem.  de  Motteville,  vol.  iii.  nitude  of  the  contest. 


168 


COMPAEISON   OF  THE    FBONDE 


questions  concerning  the  liberty  of  the  nation,  and  the 
reconstruction  of  the  government.66  It  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  point  out  how  unfit  such  men  must  have  been 
to  head  the  people  in  their  arduous  struggle,  and  how 
immense  was  the  difference  between  them  and  the 
leaders  of  the  great  English  Rebellion.  The  causes  of 
the  failure  of  the  Fronde  are,  indeed,  obvious,  when  we 
consider  that  its  chiefs  were  drawn  from  that  very 
class  respecting  whose  tastes  and  feelings  some  evidence 
has  just  been  given.67  How  that  evidence  might  be 
almost  indefinitely  extended,  is  well  known  to  readers 
of  the  French  memoirs  of  the  seventeenth  century — a 
class  of  works  which,  being  mostly  written  either 
by  the  nobles  or  their  adherents,  supplies  the  best 
materials  from  which  an  opinion  may  be  formed.  In 
looking  into  these  authorities,  where  such  matters  are 
related  with  a  becoming  sense  of  their  importance,  we 
find  the  greatest  difficulties  and  disputes  arising  as  to 
who  was  to  have  an  arm-chair  at  court ; 68  who  was  to 


•8  Saint  Aulaire  (Hist,  de  la 
Fronde,  vol.  i.  p.  317)  says,  that 
in  this  same  year  (1649),  'l'es- 
prit  de  discussion  fermentait 
dans  toutes  les  tetes,  et  chacun 
a  cette  epoque  soumettait  les 
actes  de  l'autorite  a  un  examen 
raisonne.'  Thus,  too,  in  Mem. 
de  Montglat,  under  1649,  'on  ne 
parlait  publiquement  dans  Paris 
que  de  republique  et  de  liberte,' 
vol.  ii.  p.  186.  In  1648, '  effiisa 
est  contemptio  super  principes.' 
Mem.  d'Omer  Talon,  vol.  ii. 
p.  271. 

87  That  the  failure  of  the 
Fronde  is  not  to  be  ascribed  to 
the  inconstancy  of  the  people,  is 
admitted  by  De  Itetz,  by  far  the 
ablest  observer  of  his  time : 
'  Vous  vous  etonnerez  peut-etre 
de  ce  que  je  dis  plus  sur,  a  cause 
de  l'instabilite  du  peuple :  mais 
il  faut  avouer  que  celui  de  Paris 
6e  fixe  plus  aisement  qu'aucun 


autre ;  et  M.  de  Villeroi,  qui  a 
ete  le  plus  habile  homme  de  son 
siecle,  et  qui  en  a  parfaitement 
connu  le  naturel  dans  tout  le 
cours  de  la  ligue,  ou  il  le  gouver- 
na  sous  M.  du  Maine,  a  ete  de  ce 
sentiment.  Ce  que  j'en  eprou- 
vois  moi-meme  me  le  persuadoit.' 
Mem.  de  Betz,  vol.  1.  p.  348  ;  a 
remarkable  passage,  and  forming 
a  striking  contrast  to  the  decla- 
mation of  those  ignorant  •writers 
who  are  always  reproaching  the 
people  with  their  fickleness. 

68  This  knotty  point  -was  de- 
cided in  favour  of  the  Duke  of 
York,  to  whom,  in  1649, '  lareine 
fit  de  grands  honneurs,  et  lui 
donna  une  chaise  a  bras.'  Mem. 
de  Motteville,  vol.  iii.  p.  275.  In 
the  chamber  of  the  king,  the 
matter  seems  to  have  been  differ- 
ently arranged ;  for  Omer  Talon 
(Mem.  vol.  ii.  p.  332)  tells  us 
that  'le  due  d'Orleans  n'avoit 


AND  THE  ENGLISH  REBELLION. 


169 


be  invited  to  the  royal  dinners,  and  who  was  to  he 
excluded  from  them ; 69  who  was  to  be  kissed  by  the 
queen,  and  who  was  not  to  be  kissed  by  her ; 70  who 
should  have  the  first  seat  in  church ; 71  what  the  proper 
proportion  was  between  the  rank  of  different  persons, 
and  the  length  of  the  cloth  on  which  they  were  allowed 
to  stand ; 72  what  was  the  dignity  a  noble  must  have 
attained,  in  order  to  justify  his  entering  the  Louvre  in 
a  coach ; 73  who  was  to  have  precedence  at  corona- 
tions ; 74  whether  all  dukes  were  equal,  or  whether,  as 
some  thought,  the  Duke  de  Bouillon,  having  once  pos- 
sessed the  sovereignty  of  Sedan,  was  superior  to  the 
Duke  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  who  had  never  possessed 
any  sovereignty  at  all ; 75  whether  the  Duke  de  Beau- 


point  de  fauteuil,  mais  un  simple 
siege  pliant,  a  cause  que  nous 
etions  dans  la  chambre  du  roi.' 
In  the  subsequent  year,  the  scene 
not  being  in  the  king's  room,  the 
same  miter  describes  '  M.  le  due 
d'Orleans  assis  dans  un  fauteuil.' 
Ibid.  vol.  iii.  p.  95.  Compare 
Le  Vassor,  Hist,  de  Louis  XIII, 
vol.  viii.  p.  310.  Voltaire  (Diet. 
Philos.  art.  Cerlmonies)  6ays: 
*  Le  fauteuil  a  bras,  la  chaise  a 
dos,  le  tabouret,  la  main  droite 
et  la  main  gauche,  ont  ete  pen- 
dant plusieurs  siecles  d'impor- 
tants  objets  de  politique,  et 
d'illustres  sujets  de  querelles.' 
(Euvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  xxxvii. 
p.  486.  The  etiquette  of  the 
'fauteuil'  and  'chaise'  is  explained 
in  Mem.  de  Genlis,  vol.  x.  p.  287. 

**  See  Mem.  de  Motteville,  vol. 
iii.  pp.  309,  310. 

70  See  a  list  of  those  it  was 
proper  for  the  queen  to  kiss,  in 
Mem.  de  Motteville,  vol.  iii. 
p.  318. 

'•'•  M!:m  de  Omer  Talon,  vol.  i. 
pp.  217-213.  The  Prince  de 
Conde  hotly  asserted,  that  at  a 
Te  Deum  'il  ne  pouvait  etre  assis 


en  autre  place  que  dans  la  pre- 
miere chaire.'  This  was  in 
1642. 

"  For  a  quarrel  respecting  the 
1  drap  de  pied,'  see  Mem.  de 
Motteville  vol.  ii.  p.  249. 

7*  A  very  serious  dispute  was 
caused  by  the  claim  of  the  Prince 
do  Marsillac,  for  'permission 
d'entrer  dans  le  Louvre  en  car- 
rosse.'  Mem.  de  Motteville,  vol. 
iii.  pp.  367-389. 

74  Mem.  de  Pontchartrain,  vol. 
i.  pp.  422,  423,  at  the  coronation 
of  Louis  XIII.  Other  instances 
of  difficulties  caused  by  questions 
of  precedence,  will  be  found  in 
Mem.  d'Omer  Talon,  vol.  iii.  pp. 
23,  24,  437  ;  and  even  in  the 
grave  work  of  Sully,  (Economies 
itoyales,  vol.  vii.  p.  126,  vol.  viii. 
p.  395  ;  which  should  be  com- 
pared with  De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ. 
vol.  ix.  pp.  86,  87. 

T*  Mem.  de  Lenet,  vol.  i.  pp. 
378,  379.  Lauet,  who  was  a 
great  admirer  of  the  nobles,  re- 
lates all  this  without  the  faintest 
perception  of  its  absurdity.  I 
ought  not  to  omit  a  terrible  dis- 
pute, in  1652,  respecting  the  re- 


170 


COMPARISON   OP  THE   FBONDE 


fort  ought  or  ought  not  to  enter  the  council-chamber 
before  the  Duke  de  Nemours,  and  whether,  being  there, 
he  ought  to  sit  above  him.76  These  were  the  great 
questions  of  the  day :  while,  as  if  to  exhaust  every  form 
of  absurdity,  the  most  serious  misunderstandings  arose 
as  to  who  should  have  the  honour  of  giving  the  king 
his  napkin  as  he  ate  his  meals  77  and  who  was  to  enjoy 
the  inestimable  privilege  of  helping  on  the  queen  with 
her  shift.78 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  thought  that  I  owe  some  apology 
to  the  reader  for  obtruding  upon  his  notice  these  miser- 
able disputes  respecting  matters  which,  however  despi- 
cable they  now  appear,  were  once  valued  by  men  not 
wholly  devoid  of  understanding.     But,  it  should  be; 


cognition  of  the  claims  of  the 
Duke  de  Rohan  {Mem.  de  Con- 
rart,  pp.  151,  152) ;  nor  another 
dispute,  in  the  reign  of  Henry. 
IV.,  as  to  whether  a  duke  ought 
to  sign  his  name  before  a  mar- 
shal, or  whether  a  marshal  should 
sign  first.  Be  Thou,  Hist.  Univ. 
vol.  xi.  p.  11. 

"  This  difficulty,  in  1652, 
caused  a  violent  quarrel  between 
the  two  dukes,  and  ended  in  a 
duel  in  which  the  Duke  de  Ne- 
mours was  killed,  as  is  men- 
tioned by  most  of  the  contempo-, 
rary  writers.  See  Mem.  de  Mont- 
glat,  vol  ii.  p.  357  ;  Mem.  de  la 
Rochefoucauld,  vol.  ii.  p.  172  ; 
Mem.  de  Conrart,  pp.  172-175  ; 
Mem.  de  Bets,  voL  ii.  p.  203  ; 
Mem.  d'Omer  Talon,  vol.  iii.  p. 
437. 

71  Pontchartrain,  one  of  the 
ministers  of  state,  writes,  under 
the  year  1620 :  '  En  ce  meme 
temps  s'etoit  mu  un  tres-grand 
differend  entre  M.  le  prince  de 
Conde  et  M.  le  comte  de  Soissons, 
sur  le  sujet  de  la  serviette  que 
chacun  d'eux  pretendoit  devoir 
presenter  au  roi  quand  ils  se  ren- 


contreroient  tous  deux  pres  sa 
majeste.'  Mem.  de  Pontchartrain, 
vol.  ii.  p.  295.  Le  Vassor,  who- 
gives  a  fuller  account  (Begne  de 
Louis  XIII,  vol.  iii.  pp.  536, 
537),  says,  '  Chacun  des  deux 
princes  du  sang,  fort  echauffez  a 
qui  feroit  une  fonction  de  maitre 
dliotel,  tiroit  la  serviette  de  son 
c6te,  et  la  contestation  augmen- 
toit  d'une  maniere  dont  les  suites 
pouvoient  devenir  facheuses.' 
But  the  king  interposing,  'ils 
furent  done  obligez  de  ceder: 
mais  ce  ne  fut  pas  sans  se  dire 
Tun  a  l'autre  des  paroles  hautes 
et  menac^ntes.' 

78  According  to  some  authori- 
ties, a  man  ought  to  be  a  duke 
before  his  wife  could  be  allowed 
to  meddle  with  the  queen's  shift ; 
according  to  other  authorities,, 
the  lady-in-waiting,  whoever  she 
might  be,  had  the  right,  unless 
a  princess  happened  to  be  pre- 
sent. On  these  alternatives,  and- 
on  the  difficulties  caused  by  them, 
compare  Mem.  de  Saint-Simon, 
1842,  vol.  vii.  p.  125,  with  Mhn.y 
de  Motteville,  vol.  ii.  pp.  28,  276, 
277. 


AND   THE    ENGLISH   EEBELLION.  171 

remembered  that  their  occurrence,  and  above  all,  the 
importance  formerly  attached  to  them,  is  part  of  the 
history  of  the  French  mind  ;  and  they  are  therefore  to 
be  estimated,  not  according  to  their  intrinsic  dignity, 
but  according  to  the  information  they  supply  respecting 
a  state  of  things  which  has  now  passed  away.  Events 
of  this  sort,  though  neglected  by  ordinary  historians, 
are  among  the  staff  and  staple  of  history.  Not  only  do 
they  assist  in  bringing  before  our  minds  the  age  to 
which  they  refer,  but  in  a  philosophic  point  of  view  they 
are  highly  important.  They  are  part  of  the  materials 
from  which  we  may  generalize  the  laws  of  that  great 
protective  spirit,  which  in  different  periods  assumes 
different  shapes  ;  but  which,  whatever  its  form  may  be, 
always  owes  its  power  to  the  feeling  of  veneration  as 
opposed  to  the  feeling  of  independence.  How  natural 
this  power  is,  in  certain  stages  of  society,  becomes 
evident  if  we  examine  the  basis  on  which  veneration  is 
itself  supported.  The  origin  of  veneration  is  wonder 
and  fear.  These  two  passions,  either  alone  or  com- 
bined, are  the  ordinary  source  of  veneration ;  and  the 
way  in  which  they  arise  is  obvious.  We  wonder  be- 
cause we  are  ignorant,  and  we  fear  because  we  are 
weak.  It  is  therefore  natural,  that  in  former  times, 
when  men  were  more  ignorant  and  more  weak  than 
they  now  are,  they  should  likewise  have  been  more 
given  to  veneration,  more  inclined  to  those  habits  of 
reverence,  which  if  carried  into  religion,  cause  super- 
stition, and  if  carried  into  politics,  cause  despotism. 
In  the  ordinary  march  of  society,  those  evils  are  reme- 
died by  that  progress  of  knowledge,  which  at  once 
lessens  our  ignorance  and  increases  our  resources  :  in 
other  words,  which  diminishes  our  proneness  to  wonder 
and  to  fear,  and  thus  weakening  our  feelings  of  venera- 
tion, strengthens,  in  the  same  proportion,  our  feelings 
of  independence.  But  in  France,  this  natural  tendency 
was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  counteracted  by  an  oppo- 
site tendency;  so  that  while,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
protective  spirit  was  enfeebled  by  the  advance  of  know- 
ledge, it  was,  on  the  other  hand,  invigorated  by  those 
social  and  political  circumstances  which  I  have   at- 


172       COMPARISON  OF  THE  FRONDE 

tempted  to  trace ;  and  by  virtue  of  which,  each  class 
exercising  great  power  over  the  one  below  it,  the 
subordination  and  subserviency  of  the  whole  were 
completely  maintained.  Hence  the  mind  became  ac- 
customed to  look  upwards,  and  to  rely,  not  on  its  own 
resources,  but  on  the  resources  of  others.  Hence  that 
pliant  and  submissive  disposition,  for  which  the  French, 
until  the  eighteenth  century,  were  always  remarkable. 
Hence,  too,  that  inordinate  respect  for  the  opinions  of 
others,  on  which  vanity,  as  one  of  their  national  charac- 
teristics, is  founded.79  For,  the  feelings  of  vanity  and  of 
veneration  have  evidently  this  in  common,  that  they 
induce  each  man  to  measure  his  actions  by  a  standard 
external  to  himself;  while  the  opposite  feelings  of 
pride  and  of  independence  would  make  him  prefer  that 
internal  standard  which  his  own  mind  alone  can  supply. 
The  result  of  all  this  was,  that  when,  in  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  the  intellectual  movement 
stimulated  the  French  to  rebellion,  its  effect  was  neu- 
tralized by  that  social  tendency  which,  even  in  the 
midst  of  the  struggle,  kept  alive  the  habits  of  their  old 
subservience.  Thus  it  was  that,  while  the  war  went  on, 
there  still  remained  a  constant  inclination  on  the  part 
of  the  people  to  look  up  to  the  nobles,  on  the  part  of 
the  nobles  to  look  up  to  the  crown.  Both  classes 
relied  upon  what  they  saw  immediately  above  them. 
The  people  believed  that  without  the  nobles  there  was 
no  safety ;  the  nobles  believed  that  without  the  crown 
there  was  no  honour.  In  the  case  of  the  nobles,  this 
opinion  can  hardly  be  blamed  ;  for  as  their  distinctions 
proceed  from  the  crown,  they  have  a  direct  interest  in 
upholding  the  ancient  notion  that  the  sovereign  is  the 
fountain  of  honour.  They  have  a  direct  interest  in 
that  preposterous  doctrine,  according  to  which,  the  true 
source  of  honour  being  overlooked,  our  attention  is 
directed  to  an  imaginary  source,  by  whose  operation  it 
is  believed,  that  in  a  moment,  and  at  the  mere  will  of  a 
prince,  the  highest  honours  may  be  conferred  upon  the 
meanest  men.     This,  indeed,  .is   but  part  of  the  old 

*•  Also  connected  with  the  institution  of  chivalry,  both  being 
cognate  symptoms  of  the  same  spirit. 


AND   THE   ENGLISH   REBELLION.  17S 

scheme  to  create  distinctions  for  which  nature  has 
given  no  warrant ;  to  substitute  a  superiority  which  is 
conventional  for  that  which  is  real ;  and  thus  try  to 
raise  little  minds  above  the  level  of  great  ones.  Tho 
utter  failure,  and,  as  society  advances,  the  eventual 
cessation  of  all  such  attempts,  is  certain ;  but  it  is 
evident,  that  as  long  as  the  attempts  are  made,  they 
who  profit  by  them  must  be  inclined  to  value  those 
from  whom  they  proceed.  Unless  counteracting  cir- 
cumstances interpose,  there  must  be  between  the  two 
parties  that  sympathy  which  is  caused  by  the  memory 
of  past  favours,  and  the  hope  of  future  ones.  In  France, 
this  natural  feeling  being  strengthened  by  that  pro- 
tective spirit  which  induced  men  to  cling  to  those 
above  them,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  nobles,  even*  in 
the  midst  of  their  turbulence,  should  seek  the  slightest 
favours  of  the  crown  with  an  eagerness  of  which  some 
examples  have  just  been  given.  They  had  been  so 
long  accustomed  to  look  up  to  the  sovereign  as  the 
source  of  their  own  dignity,  that  they  believed  there 
was  some  hidden  dignity  even  in  his  commonest 
actions  ;  so  that,  to  their  minds,  it  was  a  matter  of  the 
greatest  importance  which  of  them  should  hand  him 
his  napkin,  which  of  them  should  hold  his  basin,  and 
which  of  them  should  put  on  his  shirt.80  It  is  not7 
however,  for  the  sake  of  casting  ridicule  upon  these 
idle  and  frivolous  men,  that  I  have  collected  evidence 
respecting  the  disputes  with  which  they  were  engrossed, 
So  far  from  this,  they  are  rather  to  be  pitied  than 
blamed :  they  acted  according  to  their  instincts ;  they 
even  exerted  such  slender  abilities  as  nature  had  given 
to  them.  But  we  may  well  feel  for  that  great  country 
whose  interests  depended  on  their  care.  And  it  is 
solely  in  reference  to  the  fate  of  the  French  people 
that  the  historian  need  trouble  himself  with  the  history 


m  Even  just  before  the  French  compared  with  an  extract  from 

Revolution,  these    feelings  still  Prudhommds  Mirror   de  Pari*, 

existed.     See,  for  instance  tho  in  Southerfs  Commonplace  Book, 

extraordinary  details  in  Campan,  third  series,  1850,  p.    251,  no, 

Mem.  stir  Marie-Antoinette,  vol.  i.  1 65. 
pp.    98,    99  ;  which    should  be 


174       COMPARISON  OF  THE  FRONDE 

of  the  French  nobles.  At  the  same  time,  evidence  of 
this  sort,  by  disclosing  the  tendencies  of  the  old  nobility, 
displays  in  one  of  its  most  active  forms  that  protective 
and  aristocratic  spirit,  of  which  they  know  little  who 
only  know  it  in  its  present  reduced  and  waning  con- 
dition. Such  facts  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  symptoms 
of  a  cruel  disease,  by  which  Europe  is  indeed  still 
afflicted,  but  which  we  now  see  only  in  a  very  mitigated 
form,  and  of  whose  native  virulence  no  one  can  have  an 
idea,  unless  he  has  studied  it  in  those  early  stages, 
when,  raging  uncontrolled,  it  obtained  such  a  mastery 
as  to  check  the  growth  of  liberty,  stop  the  progress 
of  nations,  and  dwarf  the  energies  of  the  human 
mind. 

Jt  is  hardly  necessary  to  trace  at  greater  length  the 
way  in  which  France  and  England  diverged  from  each 
other,  or  to  point  out  what  I  hope  will  henceforth  be 
considered  the  obvious  difference  between  the  civil 
wars  in  the  two  countries.  It  is  evident  that  the  low- 
born and  plebeian  leaders  of  our  rebellion  could  have  no 
sympathy  with  those  matters  which  perplexed  the 
understanding  of  the  great  French  nobles.  Men  like 
Cromwell  and  his  co-adjutors  were  not  much  versed  in 
the  mysteries  of  genealogy,  or  in  the  subtleties  of  heraldic 
lore.  They  had  paid  small  attention  to  the  etiquette  of 
courts ;  they  had  not  even  studied  the  rules  of  preced- 
ence. All  this  was  foreign  to  their  design.  On  the 
other  hand,  what  they  did  was  done  thoroughly.  They 
knew  that  they  had  a  great  work  to  perform  ;  and  they 
performed  it  well.81     They  had  risen  in  arms  against  a 

81  Ludlow  thus  expresses  the  from  their  own  consent  ?  being 
sentiments  which  induced  him  to  fully  persuaded,  that  an  accom- 
niake  war  upon  the  crown :  *  The  modation  with  the  king  was  un- 
question  in  dispute  between  the  safe  to  the  people  of  England, 
king's  party  and  us  being,  as  I  and  unjust  and  wicked  in  the 
apprehend,  whether  the  ki  ng  nature  of  it.'  Ludlow's  Memoirs, 
should  govern  as  a  god  by  his  vol.  i.  p.  230.  Compare  White- 
will,  and  the  nation  be  governed  locke's  spirited  speech  to  Chrls- 
by  force  like  beasts  ?  or  whether  tina,  in  Journal  of  the  Swedish 
the  people  should  be  governed  by  Embassy,  vol.  i.  p.  238 ;  and  see 
laws  made  by  themselves,  and  pp.  390,  391. 
live  under  a  government  derived 


AND   THE   ENGLISH  BEBELLION.  175 

corrupt  and  despotic  government,  and  they  would  not 
stay  their  hands  until  they  had  pulled  down  those  who 
were  in  high  places ;  until  they  had  not  only  removed 
the  evil,  but  had  likewise  chastised  those  bad  men  by 
whom  the  evil  was  committed.  And  although  in  this, 
their  glorious  undertaking,  they  did  undoubtedly  dis- 
play some  of  the  infirmities  to  which  even  the  highest 
minds  are  subject ;  we,  at  least,  ought  never  to  speak 
of  them  but  with  that  unfeigned  respect  which  is  due 
to  those  who  taught  the  first  great  lesson  to  tho  kings 
of  Europe,  and  who,  in  language  not  to  be  mistaken, 
proclaimed  to  them  that  the  impunity  which  they  had 
long  enjoyed  was  now  come  to  an  end,  and  that  against 
their  transgressions  the  people  possessed  a  remedy, 
•  sharper,  and  more  decisive,  than  any  they  had  hitherto 
ventured  to  use.  * 


176 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THB  FBOTECTTVE  SPIBIT  CABBIED  BT  LOUIS  XTV.  INTO  LITEBATUBE. 
EXAMINATION  OP  THB  CONSEQUENCES  OF  THIS  ALLIANCE  BETWEEN 
THB  INTELLECTUAL   CLASSES  AND   THE   GOVEBNING   CLASSES. 


The  reader  will  now  be  able  to  understand  bow  it  was 
tbat  the  protective  system,  and  tbe  notions  of  subordi- 
nation connected  with  it,  gained  in  France  a  strength 
unknown  in  England,  and  caused  an  essential  diverg- 
ence between  the  two  countries.  To  complete  the  com- 
parison, it  seems  necessary  to  examine  how  this  same 
spirit  influenced  the  purely  intellectual  history  of 
France  as  well  as  its  social  and  political  history.  For  tho 
ideas  of  dependence  upon  which  the  protective  scheme  is 
based,  encouraged  a  belief  that  the  subordination  which 
existed  in  poHtics  and  in  society  ought  also  to  exist  in 
bterature  ;  and  that  the  paternal,  inquisitive,  and  cen- 
traHzing  system  which  regulated  the  material  interests 
of  the  country,  should  likewise  regulate  the  inte- 
rests of  its  knowledge.  When,  therefore,  the  Frondo 
was  finally  overthrown,  everything  was  prepared  for 
that  singular  intellectual  polity  which,  during  fifty 
years  cbaracterised  the  reign  of  Louis  XrV.,  and  which 
was  to  French  literature  wbat  feudalism,  was  to 
French  politics.  In  both  cases,  homage  was  paid  by  one 
party,  and  protection  and  favour  accorded  by  the 
otber.  Every  man  of  letters  became  a  vassal  of  the 
French  crown.  Every  book  was  written  with  a  view 
to  the  royal  favour  ;  and  to  obtain  the  patronage  of  the 
king  was  considered  the  most  decisive  proof  of  intel- 
lectual eminence.     The  effects  produced  by  this  system 


PROJECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      177 

■will  be  examined  in  the  present  chapter.  The  apparent 
canse  of  the  system  was  the  personal  character  of  Louis 
XTV". ;  but  the  real  and  overruling  causes  were  those 
circumstances  which  I  have  already  pointed  out,  and 
which  established  in  the  French  mind  associations  that 
remained  undisturbed  until  the  eighteenth  century.  To 
invigorate  those  associations,  and  to  carry  them  into 
every  department  of  life,  was  the  great  aim  of  Louis 
XIV. ;  and  in  that  he  was  completely  successful.  It  is 
on  this  account  that  the  history  of  his  reign  becomes 
highly  instructive,  because  we  see  in  it  the  most  re- 
markable instance  of  despotism  which  has  ever  occurred; 
a  despotism  of  the  largest  and  most  comprehensive 
kind ;  a  despotism  of  fifty  years  over  one  of  the  most 
civilized  people  in  Europe,  who  not  only  bore  the  yoke 
without  repining,  but  submitted  with  cheerfulness,  and 
even  with  gratitude,  to  him  by  whom  it  was  imposed.1 
What  makes  this  the  more  strange  is,  that  the  reign 
of  Louis  XIV.  must  be  utterly  condemned  if  it  is 
tried  even  by  the  lowest  standard  of  morals,  of  honour, 
or  of  interest.  A  coarse  and  unbridled  profligacy, 
followed  by  the  meanest  and  most  grovelling  super- 


1  On  the  disgraceful  subser-  stood;  for  whatever  flashes  may 

viency  of  the  most  eminent  men  now  and  then   appear,  I  never 

of  letters,  see  Capefigue's  Louis  yet  knew  one  single  Frenchman 

XIV,  vol.  i.  pp.  41,  42,    116  ;  a  free  man.'     Forster's  Original 

and  on  the  feeling  of  the  people,  Letters  of  Locke,    Sidney,  and 

Le  Vassor,  who  wrote  late  in  the  Shaftesbury,   1830,  p.  205.     In 

reign   of    Louis  XIV.,   bitterly  the  same  year,  De  Foe  makes  a 

says,  '  mais  les  Francais,  accou-  similar  remark  in  regard  to  the 

tumes  a  l'egclavage,  ne  sentent  French  nobles,  Wilson's  Life  of 

plus     la    pesanteur     de     leurs  De  Foe,  vol.  ii.  p.  209  ;  and,  in 

chaines.'     Le    Vassor,  Hist,  de  1699,  Addison  writes  from  Blois 

Louis  XIII,  vol.  vi.  p.  670.   Fo-  a  letter  which  strikingly  illus- 

reigners  were  equally  amazed  at  trates   the   degradation   of    the 

the  general,  and  still  more,  at  French.  Aikin's  Life  of  Addison, 

the    willing     servility.      Lord  vol.  i.  p.  80.     Compare  Burnett 

Shaftesbury,   in    a  letter  dated  Own  Time,  vol.  iv.  p.   365,   ou 

February  1704-5,  passes  a  glow-  '  the  gross  excess  of  flattery  to 

ing  eulogy  upon  liberty  ;  but  he  which  the  French  have  run,  be- 

adds,  that  in  France  *  you  will  ycid  the   examples  of   forme* 

hardly  find  this  argument  under-  ages,  in  honour  of  their  king.* 
VOL.   II.                                       N 


178      PROTECTIVE   SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

stition,  characterized  his  private  life,  while  in  his 
public  career  he  displayed  an  arrogance  and  a  sys- 
tematic perfidy  which  eventually  roused  the  anger  of 
all  Europe,  and  brought  upon  France  sharp  and  signal 
retribution.  As  to  his  domestic  policy,  he  formed  a 
strict  alliance  with  the  church ;  and  although  he  re- 
sisted the  authority  of  the  Pope,  he  willingly  left  his 
subjects  to  be  oppressed  by  the  tyranny  of  the  clergy2 
To  them  he  abandoned  everything  except  the  exercise 
of  his  own  prerogative.3  Led  on  by  them,  he,  from 
the  moment  he  assumed  the  Government,  began  to 
encroach  upon  those  religious  liberties  of  which  Henry 
rV.  had  laid  the  foundation,  and  which  down  to  this 
period  had  been  preserved  intact.4  It  was  at  the  insti- 
gation of  the  clergy  that  he  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
by  which  the  principle  of  toleration  had  for  nearly  a 
century  been  incorporated  with  the  law  of  the  land.5 
It  was  at  their  instigation  that,  just  before  this  out- 


2  The  terms  of  this  compact 
between  the  crown  and  the 
church  are  fairly  stated  by  M. 
Ranke:  'Wir  sehen,  die  beiden 
Gewalten  unterstiitzten  einan- 
der.  Der  Konig  ward  von  den  Ein- 
wirkungen  der  weltlichen,  der 
Clems  von  der  unbedingten  Au- 
toritat  der  geistliehen  Gewalt  des 
Papstthums  freigesprochen.'  Die 
Papste,  vol.  iii.  p.  168. 

3  This  part  of  his  character  is 
skilfully  drawn  by  Sismondi, 
Hist,  des  Frangais,  vol.  xxv. 
p.  43. 

4  Flasson  supposes  that  the 
first  persecuting  laws  were  in 
1679  :  '  Des  l'annee  1679  les 
concessions  faites  aux  protestans 
avaient  ete  graduellement  res- 
treintes.'  Diplomatie  Frangaise, 
vol.  iv.  p.  92.  But  the  fact  is, 
that  these  laws  began  in  1662, 
the  year  after  the  death  of  Ma- 
zarin.  See  Sismondi,  Hist,  des 
Frangais,  vol.  xxv.  p.  167  ;  Be- 


noist,  Edit  de  Nantes,  vol.  iii.  pp. 
460-462,  481.  In  1667,  a  letter 
from  Thynne  to  Lord  Clarendon 
{Lister's  Life  of  Clarendon,  vol. 
iii.  p.  446)  mentions  '  the  horrid 
persecutions  the  reformed  re- 
ligion undergoes  in  France ;' 
and  Locke,  who  travelled  in 
France  in  1675  and  1676,  states 
in  his  Journal  {King's  Life  of 
Locke,  vol.  i.  p.  110)  that  the 
Protestants  were  losing  '  every 
day  some  privilege  or  other.' 

4  An  account  of  the  revocation 
will  be  found  in  all  the  French 
historians ;  but  I  do  not  remem- 
ber that  any  of  them  have  noticed 
that  there  was  a  rumour  of  it  in 
Paris  twenty  years  before  it 
occurred.  In  March  1665  Patin 
writes,  '  On  dit  que,  pour  miner 
les  huguenots,  le  roi  veut  sup- 
primer  les  chambres  de  l'edit,  et 
abolir  l'edit  de  Nantes.'  Lettres 
de  Patin,  vol.  iii.  p.  516. 


PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      179 


rage  upon  the  most  sacred  rights  of  his  subjects,  he,  in 
order  to  terrify  the  Protestants  into  conversion,  sud- 
denly let  loose  upon  them  whole  troops  of  dissolute 
soldiers,  who  were  allowed  to  practise  the  most  revolt- 
ing cruelties.  The  frightful  barbarities  which  followed 
are  related  by  authentic  writers  ;6  and  of  the  effect  pro- 


6  Compare  Burnet's  Own 
Time,  vol.  iii.  pp.  73-76,  with 
Steele  de  Louis  XIV,  in  GEuvres 
de  Voltaire,  vol.  xx.  pp.  377, 
378.  Voltaire  says  that  the 
Protestants  who  persisted  in 
their  religion  '  etaient  livres  aux 
soldats,  qui  eurent  toute  licence, 
excepte  celle  de  tuer.  II  y  eut 
pourtant  plusieurs  personnes  si 
cruellement  maltraitees  qu'elles 
en  monrurent.'  And  Burnet, 
who  was  in  France  in  1685,  says, 
'all  men  set  their  thoughts  on 
work  to  invent  new  methods  of 
cruelty.'  What  some  of  those 
methods  were,  I  shall  now  re- 
late ;  because  the  evidence,  how- 
ever painful  it  may  be,  is  neces- 
sary to  enable  us  to  understand 
the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  It  is 
necessary  that  the  veil  should 
be  rent;  and  that  the  squeamish 
delicacy  which  would  hide  such 
facts,  should  give  way  before  the 
obligation  which  the  historian  is 
under  of  holding  up  to  public 
opprobrium,  and  branding  with 
public  infamy,  the  church  by 
which  the  measures  were  insti- 
gated, the  sovereign  by  whom 
they  were  enforced,  and  the  age 
in  which  they  were  permitted. 

The  two  original  sources  for 
our  knowledge  of  these  events 
are,  Quick's  Synodicon  in  Gallia, 
1692,  folio ;  and  Benoist,  Histoire 
de  I' Edit  de  Nantes,  1695,  4to. 
From  these  works  I  extract  the 
following  accounts  of  what  hap- 
pened in  France  in  1685.  '  After- 


wards they  fall  upon  the  persons 
of  the  Protestants ;  and  there 
was  no  wickedness,  though  never 
so  horrid,  which  they  did  not 
put  in  practice,  that  they  might 
enforce  them  to  change  their  re- 
ligion. .  .  .  They  bound  them 
as  criminals  are  when  they  be 
put  to  the  rack ;  and  in  that  pos- 
ture, putting  a  funnel  into  their 
mouths,  they  poured  wine  down 
their  throats  till  its  fumes  had 
deprived  them  of  their  reason, 
and  they  had  in  that  condition 
made  them  consent  to  become 
Catholics.  Some  they  stripped 
stark  naked,  and  after  they  had 
offered  them  a  thousand  indigni- 
ties, they  stuck  them  with  pins 
from  head  to  foot ;  they  cut  them 
with  pen-knives,  tear  them  by 
the  noses  with  red-hot  pincers, 
and  dragged  them  about  the 
rooms  till  they  promised  to  be- 
come Boman  Catholics,  or  that 
the  doleful  outcries  of  these  poor 
tormented  creatures,  calling  up- 
on God  for  mercy,  constrained 

them  to  let  them  go In 

some  places  they  tied  fathers  and 
husbands  to  the  bed-posts,  and 
ravished  their  wives  and  daugh- 
ters before  their  eyes.  .  .  From 
others  they  pluck  off  the  nails  of 
their  hands  and  toes,  which  must 
needs  cause  an  intolerable  pain. 
They  burnt  the  feet  of  others 
They  blew  up  men  and  women 
with  bellows,  till  they  were 
ready  to  burst  in  pieces.  If 
these  horrid    usages  could  not 


w  2 


180      PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS    XIV. 


duced  on  the  material  interests  of  the  nation,  some  idea 
may  be  formed  from  the  fact,  that  these  religious  per- 


prevail  upon  them  to  violate 
their  consciences,  and  abandon 
their  religion,  they  did  then  im- 
prison them  in  close  and  noisome 
dungeons,  in  which  they  exer- 
cised all  kinds  of  inhumanities 
upon  them.'  Quick's  Synodicon, 
vol.  i.  pp.  cxxx.  cxxxi.  '  Cepen- 
dant  les  troupes  exerijoient  par- 
tout  de  cruautez  inouies.  Tout 
leur  etoit  permis,  pourveu  qu'ils 
ne  fissent  pas  mourir.  Us  fai- 
soient  danser  quelquefois  lews 
hotes,  jusqu'a  ce  qu'ils  tombas- 
eent  en  defaillance.  Us  bernoient 
les  autres  jusqu'a  ce  qu'ils  n'en 

pouvoient  plus II  y  en 

eut  quelques-uns  a,  qui  on  versa 
de     l'eau    bouillante    dans     la 

bouche II  y  en  eut  plu- 

sieurs  a  qui  on  donna  des  coups 
de  baton  sous  les  pieds,  pour 
eprouver  si  ce  supplice  est  aussi 
cruel  que  les  relations  le  pub- 
lient.  On  arrachoit  a,  d'autres 
le  poil  de  la  barbe.  .  .  D'autres 
bruloient  a,  la  chandelle  le  poil 
des  bras  et  des  jambes  de  leurs 
botes.  D'autres  faisoient  bruler 
de  la  poudre,  si  pres  du  visage 
de  ceux  qui  leur  resistoient, 
qu'elle  leur  grilloit  toute  la  peau. 
Els  mettoient  a  d'autres  des 
charbons  allumez  dans  les  mains, 
et  les  contraignoient  de  les  tenir 
fermees,  jusqu'a  ce  que  les  char- 
bons fussent  eteints On 

brula  les  pieds  a  plusieurs,  te- 
nant les  uns  long-tems  devaht 
un  grand  feu;  appliquant  aux 
autres  une  pelle  ardente  sous  les 
pieds  ;  liant  les  pieds  des  autres 
dans  des  bottines  pleines  de 
graisse,  qu'on  faisoit  fondre  et 
chauffer  peu  a,  peu  devant  un 


brasier  ardent.'  Benoist,  Hist, 
de  VEdit  de  Nantes,  vol.  v.  pp. 
887-889.  One  of  the  Protes- 
tants, named  Eyau,  they  •  li- 
erent  fort  dtroitement;  lui  sev- 
rerent  les  doigts  des  mains  ;  lui 
ficherent  des  epingles  sous  les 
ongles ;  lui  firent  bruler  de  la 
poudre  dans  les  oreilles;  lui 
percerent  les  cuisses  en  plusieurs 
lieux,  et  verserent  du  vinaigre  et 
du  sel  dans  ses  blessures.  Par  ce 
tourment  Us  epuisbrent  sa  pa- 
tience en  deux  jours;  et  le  for- 
ewent a  changer  de  religion^  p. 
890.  '  Ses  dragons  etoient  les 
memos  en  tous  lieux.  lis  bat- 
toient,  ils  etourdissoient,  ils  bru- 
loient en  Bourgogne  comme  en 
Poitou,  en  Champagne  comme 
en  G-uyenne,  en  Normandie 
comme  en  Languedoc.  Mais  ils 
n'avoient  pour  les  femmes  ni 
plus  de  respect,  ni  plus  de  pitie 
que  pour  les  hommes.  Au  con- 
traire,  ils  abusoient  de  la  tendre 
pudeur  qui  est  une  des  proprietez 
de  leur  sexe ;  et  ils  s'en  preva- 
loient  pour  leur  faire  de  plus 
sensibles  outrages.  On  leur  le- 
voit  quelquefois  leurs  juppes  par 
dessus  la  tete,  et  on  leur  jetoit 
des  seaux  d'eau  sur  le  corps.  II 
y  en  eut  plusieurs  que  les  soldats 
mirent  en  chemise,  et  qu'ils 
forcerent  de  danser  avec  eux  dans 

cet  6tat Deux  filles  de 

Calais,  nommdes  le  Noble,  furent 
mises  toutes  nues  sur  le  pave,  et 
furent  ainsi  exposees  a,  la  moc- 
querie  et  aux  outrages  des  pas- 

sans Des  dragons  ayant 

lie  la  dame  do  Vezenc^i  a,  la  que- 
nouille  de  son  lit,  lui  crachoient 
dans  la  bouche  quand  elle  l'ou- 


PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER  LOUIS   XIV.      181 

secutions  cost  France  half  a  million  of  her  most  indus- 
trious inhabitants,  who  fled  to  different  parts,  taking 
with  them  those  habits  of  labour,  and  that  knowledge 
and  experience  in  their  respective  trades,  which  had 
hitherto  been  employed  in  enriching  their  own  country.7 
These  things  are  notorious,  they  are  incontestable,  and 
they  lie  on  the  surface  of  history.  Yet,  in  the  face  of 
them  there  are  still  found  men  who  hold  up  for  admira- 
tion the  age  of  Louis  XTV".  Although  it  is  well  known 
that  in  his  reign  every  vestige  of  liberty  was  destroyed ; 
that  the  people  were  weighed  down  by  an  insufferable 
taxation  ;  that  their  children  were  torn  from  them  by 
tens  of  thousands  to  swell  the  royal  armies ;  that  the 
resources  of  the  country  were  squandered  to  an  unpre- 
cedented extent ;  that  a  despotism  of  the  worst  kind 
was  firmly  established  ; — although  all  this  is  universally 
admitted,  yet  there  are  writers,  even  in  our  own  day, 
who  are  so  infatuated  with  the  glories  of  literature,  as 
to  balance  them  against  the  most  enormous  crimes,  and 
who  will  forgive  every  injury  inflicted  by  a  prince 
during  whose  life  there  were  produced  the  Letters  of 
Pascal,  the  orations  of  Bossuet,  the  Comedies  of 
Moliere,  and  the  Tragedies  of  Eacine. 

This  method  of  estimating  the  merits  of  a  sovereign 
is,  indeed,  so  rapidly  dying  away,  that  I  shall  not  spend 


vroit  pour  parler  ou  pour  soupi-  '  cinq  cent  mille  de  ses  enfants 

rer.'  pp.  891,  892.     At  p.  917  les  plus  industrieux,"  who  carried 

are  other  details,  far  more  hor-  into  other  countries  '  les  habi- 

rible,  respecting  the  treatment  tudes  d'ordre  et  de  travail  dont 

of  women,  and  which  indignation  ils  itaient    imbus.'      See    also 

rather  than  shame  prevents  me  Siecle  de  Louis  XI V,  chap,  xxxvi., 

from  transcribing.     Indeed,  the  in  (Euvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  xx. 

shame    can   only  light  on    the  pp.  380,  381.    Several  of  them 

church  and  the  government  under  emigrated    to    North    America, 

whose  united  authority  such  scan-  Compare  Godwin  on  Population, 

dalous  outrages  could  be  openly  pp.  388,  389,  with  Benoist,  CEdit 

perpetrated,  merely  for  the  sake  de  Nantes,  vol.  v.  pp.  973,  974, 

of  compelling    men  to    change  and  Lyelts  Second  Visit  to  the 

their  religious  opinions.  United  States,  edit.  1849,  vol.  ii. 

7  M.  Blanqui  {Hist,  de  VEco-  p.  159.     See  also,  on  the  effects 

nomie  Politique,  vol.  ii,   p.   10)  of  the  Eevocation,  Lettres  ini- 

eays,  that  the  revocation  of  the  ditcs  de  Voltaire,  vol.  ii.  p.  473. 
Edict  of   Nantes    cost   France 


182      PROTECTIVE    SPIEIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

any  words  in  refuting  it.     But  it  is  connected  with  a 
more  widely  diffused  error  respecting  the  influence  of 
royal  patronage  upon  national  literature.     This  is  a  de- 
lusion which  men  of  letters  have  themselves  been  the 
first  to  propagate.     From  the  language  too  many  of 
them  are  in  the  habit  of  employing,  we  might  be  led  to 
believe  that  there  is  some  magical  power  in  the  smiles 
of  a  king  which  stimulates  the  intellect  of  the  fortunate 
individual  whose  heart  they  are  permitted  to  gladden. 
Nor  must  this  be  despised  as  one  of  those  harmless  pre- 
judices that  still  linger  round  the  person  of  the  sove- 
reign.    It  is  not  only  founded  on  a  misconception  of  the 
nature  of  things,  but  it  is  in  its  practical  consequences 
very  injurious.     It  is  injurious  to  the  independent  spirit 
which  literature  should  always  possess ;  and  it  is  inju- 
rious to  princes  themselves,  because  it  strengthens  that 
vanity  of  which  they  generally  have  too  large  a  share. 
Indeed,  if  we  consider  the  position  they  now  occupy  in 
the  most  civilized  countries,  we  shall  at  once  see  the 
absurdity  of  an  opinion  which,  in  the  present  state  of 
knowledge,  is  unfit  to  be  held  by  educated  men. 

From  the  moment  that  there  was  finally  abandoned 
the  theological  fiction  of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  it 
necessarily  followed  that  the  respect  felt  for  them 
should  suffer  a  corresponding  diminution.8  The  super- 
stitious reverence  with  which  they  were  formerly  re- 
garded is  extinct,  and  at  the  present  day  we  are  no 
longer  awed  by  that  divinity  with  which  their  persons 
were  once  supposed  to  be  hedged.9  The  standard, 
therefore,  by  which  we  should  measure  them  is  obvious. 

•  On  the  diminished  respect  9  'Qu'est  devenu,  en  effet,  le 

for  kings,  caused  by  the  aban-  droit  divin,  cette  pensee,  autre- 

donment    of   divine    right,  see  fois  acceptee  par  les  masses,  que 

Spencer's  Social  Statics,  pp.  423,  les  rois  etaient  les  representants 

424 ;  and  on  the  influence  of  the  de  Dieu  sur  la  terre,  que  la  racine 

clergy  in  propagating    the    old  de   leur    pouvoir  etait  dans  le 

doctrine,     see    Allen's    learned  ciel  ?   Elle  s'est  evanouie  devant 

work  on  the  Boyal  Prerogative,  cette    autre     pensee,    qu'aucun 

edit.  1849,  p.  156.       See   also  nuage,  aucun  mysticisme  n'ob- 

some  striking  remarks  by  Locke,  scurcit ;   devant  cette  pensee  si 

in  King's  Life  of  Locke,  vol.  ii.  naturelle  et  brillant  d'une  clarte 

p.  90.  si  nette  et  si  vive,  que  la  souve- 


PEOTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDEE  LOUIS   XIV.      183 

We  should  applaud  their  conduct  in  proportion  as  they 
contribute  towards  the  happiness  of  the  nation  over 
which  they  are  intrusted  with  power ;  but  we  ought  to 
remember  that,  from  the  manner  in  which  they  are 
educated,  and  from  the  childish  homage  always  paid  to 
them,  their  information  must  be  very  inaccurate,  and 
their  prejudices  very  numerous.10  On  this  account,  so 
far  from  expecting  that  they  should  be  judicious  patrons 
of  literature,  or  should  in  any  way  head  their  age,  we 
ought  to  be  satisfied  if  they  do  not  obstinately  oppose 
the  spirit  of  their  time,  and  if  they  do  not  attempt  to 
stop  the  march  of  society.  For,  unless  the  sovereign, 
in  spite  of  the  intellectual  disadvantages  of  his  position, 
is  a  man  of  very  enlarged  mind,  it  must  usually  happen 
that  he  will  reward,  not  those  who  are  most  able,  but 
those  who  are  most  compliant;  and  that  while  he 
refuses  his  patronage  to  a  profound  and  independent 
thinker,  he  will  grant  it  to  an  author  who  cherishes 
ancient  prejudices  and  defends  ancient  abuses.  In  this 
way,  the  practice  of  conferring  on  men  of  letters  either 
honorary  or  pecuniary  rewards,  is  agreeable,  no  doubt, 
to  those  who  receive  them ;  but  has  a  manifest  ten- 
dency to  weaken  the  boldness  and  energy  of  their  senti- 
ments, and  therefore  to  impair  the  value  of  their  works. 
This  might  be  made  evident  by  publishing  a  list  of 
those  Literary  pensions  which  have  been  granted  by 
European  princes.     If  this  were  done,  the  mischief  pro- 

raine  puissance,  sur  la  terre,  ap-  derived  from  a  divine  original — 

partient  au  peuple  entier,  et  non  all  refer  to  them  as  represent- 

a  une  fraction,  et  moins  encore  ing  the  Deity  on  earth.    They 

a  un seul  homme.'     Bey,  Science  are  called  "Grace,"  "Majesty." 

Sociale,  vol.  iii.  p.  308.  Compare  They  are  termed  "  The  Lord's 

Manning  on  the  Law  of  Nations,  anointed,"  "  The   Vicegerent    of 

p.  101  ;  Laing's  Sweden,  p.  408;  God  upon  earth;"  with   many 

Lama's      Denmark,      p.    196 ;  other  names   which  are   either 

Burke's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  391.  nonsensical  or  blasphemous,  but 

10  In  this,  as  in  all  instances,  which  are  outdone  in  absurdity 

the  language  of  respect  long  sur-  by  the  kings  of  the  East.'     True 

vives  the  feeling  to  which  the  enough:  but  if  Lord  Brougham 

language  owed  its  origin.     Lord  had  written  thus  three  centuries 

Brougham  {Political  Philosophy,  ago,  he  would  have  had  his  ears 

voL  i.  p.  42,  Lond.   1849)    ob-  cut  off  for  his  pains, 
serves,  that  '  all  their  titles  are 


184      PEOTECTIYE   SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

duced  by  these  and  similar  rewards  would  be  clearly 
seen.  After  a  careful  study  of  the  history  of  literature, 
I  think  myself  authorised  to  say,  that  for  one  instance 
in  which  a  sovereign  has  recompensed  a  man  who  is 
before  his  age,  there  are  at  least  twenty  instances  of 
his  recompensing  one  who  is  behind  his  age.  The 
result  is,  that  in  every  country  where  royal  patronage 
has  been  long  and  generally  bestowed,  the  spirit  of 
literature,  instead  of  being  progressive,  has  become 
reactionary.  An  alliance  has  been  struck  up  between 
those  who  give  and  those  who  receive.  By  a  system  of 
bounties,  there  has  been  artificially  engendered  a 
greedy  and  necessitous  class  ;  who,  eager  for  pensions, 
and  offices,  and  titles,  have  made  the  pursuit  of  truth 
subordinate  to  the  desire  of  gain,  and  have  infused 
into  their  writings  the  prejudices  of  the  court  to  which 
they  cling.  Hence  it  is,  that  the  marks  of  favour  have 
become  the  badge  of  servitude.  Hence  it  is,  that  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge,  by  far  the  noblest  of  all  occu- 
pations, an  occupation  which  of  all  others  raises  the 
dignity  of  man,  has  been  debased  to  the  level  of  a  com- 
mon profession,  where  the  chances  of  success  are 
measured  by  the  number  of  rewards,  and  where  the 
highest  honours  are  in  the  gift  of  whoever  happens  to 
be  the  minister  or  sovereign  of  the  day. 

This  tendency  forms  of  itself  a  decisive  objection  to 
the  views  of  those  who  wish  to  entrust  the  executive 
government  with  the  means  of  rewarding  literary  men. 
But  there  is  also  another  objection,  in  some  respects 
still  more  serious.  Every  nation  which  is  allowed  to 
pursue  its  course  uncontrolled,  will  easily  satisfy  the 
wants  of  its  own  intellect,  and  will  produce  such  a 
literature  as  is  best  suited  to  its  actual  condition.  And 
it  is  evidently  for  the  interest  of  all  classes  that  the 
production  shall  not  be  greater  than  the  want ;  that  the 
supply  shall  not  exceed  the  demand.  It  is,  moreover, 
necessary  to  the  well-being  of  society  that  a  healthy 
proportion  should  be  kept  up  between  the  intellectual 
classes  and  the  practical  classes.  It  is  necessary  that 
there  should  be  a  certain  ratio  between  those  who  are 
most  inclined  to  think,  and  those  who  are  most  inclined 


PROTECTIVE   SPIEIT   UNDER  LOUIS   XIV.      185 

to  act.  If  we  were  all  authors,  our  material  interests 
would  suffer ;  if  we  were  all  men  of  business,  our  men- 
tal pleasures  would  be  abridged.  In  tbe  first  case, 
we  should  be  famished  philosophers  ;  in  the  other  case, 
we  should  be  wealthy  fools.  Now,  it  is  obvious  that, 
according  to  the  commonest  principles  of  human  action 
the  relative  numbers  of  these  two  classes  will  be 
adjusted,  without  effort,  by  the  natural,  or,  as  we  call 
it,  the  spontaneous  movement  of  society.  But  if  a 
government  takes  upon  itself  to  pension  literary  men, 
it  disturbs  this  movement ;  it  troubles  the  harmony  of 
things.  This  is  the  unavoidable  result  of  that  spirit  of 
interference,  or,  as  it  ia  termed,  protection,  by  which 
every  country  has  been  greatly  injured.  If,  for  in- 
stance, a  fond  were  set  apart  by  the  state  for  rewarding 
butchers  and  tailors,  it  is  certain  that  the  number  of 
those  useful  men  would  be  needlessly  augmented.  If 
another  fund  is  appropriated  for  the  literary  classes,  it  is 
as  certain  that  men  of  letters  will  increase  more  rapidly 
than  the  exigencies  of  the  country  require.  In  both 
cases,  an  artificial  stimulus  will  produce  an  unhealthy 
action.  Surely,  food  and  clothes  are  as  necessary  for 
the  body  as  literature  is  for  the  mind.  Why,  then, 
should  we  call  upon  government  to  encourage  those  who 
write  our  books,  any  more  than  to  encourage  those 
who  kill  our  mutton  and  mend  our  garments  ?  The 
truth  is,  that  the  intellectual  march  of  society  is,  in 
this  respect,  exactly  analogous  to  its  physical  march. 
In  some  instances  a  forced  supply  may,  indeed,  create 
an  unnatural  want.  But  this  is  an  artificial  state  of 
things,  which  indicates  a  diseased  action.  In  a  healthy 
condition,  it  is  not  the  supply  which  causes  the  want, 
but  it  is  the  want  which  gives  rise  to  the  supply.  To 
suppose,  therefore,  that  an  increase  of  authors  would 
necessarily  be  followed  by  a  diffusion  of  knowledge,  is  as 
if  we  were  to  suppose  that  an  increase  of  butchers  must 
be  followed  by  a  diffusion  of  food.  This  is  not  the  way 
in  which  things  are  ordered.  Men  must  have  appetite 
before  they  will  eat ;  they  must  have  money  before 
they  can  buy;  they  must  be  inquisitive  before  they 
will  read.     The  two  great  principles  which  move  the 


186      PEOTECTIVE   SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

world  are,  the  love  of  wealth  and  the  love  of  knowledge. 
These  two  principles  respectively  represent  and  govern 
the  two  most  important  classes  into  which  every  civi- 
lized country  is'  divided.  What  a  government  gives  to 
one  of  these  classes,  it  must  take  from  the  other.  What 
it  gives  to  literature,  it  must  take  from  wealth.  This 
can  never  be  done  to  any  great  extent,  without  en- 
tailing the  most  ruinous  consequences.  For,  the  natural 
proportions  of  society  being  destroyed,  society  itself  will 
be  thrown  into  confusion;  While  men  of  letters  are 
protected,  men  of  industry  will  be  depressed.  The 
lower  classes  can  count  for  little  in  the  eyes  of  those  to 
whom  literature  is  the  first  consideration.  The  idea  of 
the  liberty  of  the  people  will  be  discouraged;  their 
persons  will  be  oppressed  ;  their  labour  will  be  taxed. 
The  arts  necessary  to  life  will  be  despised,  in  order  that 
those  which  embellish  life  may  be  favoured.  The  many 
will  be  ruined,  that  the  few  may  be  pleased.  While 
every  thing  is  splendid  above,  all  will  be  rotten  below. 
Fine  pictures,  noble  palaces,  touching  dramas — these 
may  for  a  time  be  produced  in  profusion,  but  it  will  be 
at  the  cost  of  the  heart  and  strength  of  the  nation. 
Even  the  class  for  whom  the  sacrifice  has  been  made, 
will  soon  decay.  Poets  may  continue  to  sing  the 
praises  of  the  prince  who  has  bought  them  with  his 
gold.  It  is,  however,  certain  that  men  who  begin  by 
losing  their  independence,  will  end  by  losing  their 
energy.  Their  intellect  must  be  robust  indeed,  if  it 
does  not  wither  in  the  sickly  atmosphere  of  a  court. 
Their  attention  being  concentrated  on  their  master, 
they  insensibly  contract  those  habits  of  servility  which 
are  suited  to  their  position ;  and,  as  the  range  of  their 
sympathies  is  diminished,  the  use  and  action  of  their 
genius  become  impaired.  To  them  submission  is  a 
custom,  and  servitude  a  pleasure.  In  their  hands, 
literature  soon  loses  its  boldness,  tradition  is  appealed 
to  as  the  ground  of  truth,  and  the  spirit  of  inquiry  is 
extinguished.  Then  it  is,  that  there  comes  one  of 
those  sad  moments  in  which,  no  outlet  being  left  for 
public  opinion,  the  minds  of  men  are  unable  to  find  a 
vent ;  their  discontents,  having  no  voice,  slowly  rankle 


PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      187 

into  a  deadly  hatred ;  their  passions  accumulate  in 
silence,  until  at  length,  losing  all  patience,  they  are 
goaded  into  one  of  those  terrible  revolutions,  by  which 
they  humble  the  pride  of  their  rulers,  and  carry  retri- 
bution even  into  the  heart  of  the  palace. 

The  truth  of  this  picture  is  well  known  to  those  who 
have  studied  the  history  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  the  con- 
nection between  it  and  the  French  Revolution.  That 
prince  adopted,  during  his  long  reign,  the  mischievous 
practice  of  rewarding  literary  men  with  large  sums  of 
money,  and  of  conferring  on  them  numerous  marks  of 
personal  favour.  As  this  was  done  for  more  than  half 
a  century ;  and  as  the  wealth  which  he  thus  unscrupu- 
lously employed  was  of  course  taken  from  his  other 
subjects,  we  can  find  no  better  illustration  of  the  results 
which  such  patronage  is  likely  to  produce.  He, 
indeed,  has  the  merit  of  organizing  into  a  system  that 
protection  of  literature  which  some  are  so  anxious  to 
restore.  What  the  effect  of  this  was  upon  the  general 
interests  of  knowledge,  we  shall  presently  see.  But  its 
effect  upon  authors  themselves  should  be  particularly 
attended  to  by  those  men  of  letters  who,  with  little 
regard  to  their  own  dignity,  are  constantly  reproaching 
the  English  government  for  neglecting  the  profession 
of  which  they  themselves  are  members.  In  no  age 
have  literary  men  been  awarded  with  such  profuseness 
as  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. ;  and  in  no  age  have  they 
been  so  mean-spirited,  so  servile,  so  utterly  unfit  to 
fulfil  their  great  vocation  as  the  apostles  of  knowlege 
and  the  missionaries  of  truth.  The  history  of  the  most 
celebrated  authors  of  that  time  proves  that,  notwith- 
standing their  acquirements,  and  the  power  of  their 
minds,  they  were  unable  to  resist  the  surrounding  cor- 
ruption. To  gain  the  favour  of  the  king,  they  sacrificed 
that  independent  spirit  which  should  have  been  dearer  to 
them  than  life.  They  gave  away  the  inheritance  of 
genius ;  they  sold  their  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage. 
What  happened  then,  would  under  the  same  circum- 
stances happen  now.  A  few  eminent  thinkers  may  be 
able  for  a  certain  time  to  resist  the  pressure  of  their 
age.     But,  looking  at  mankind  generally,  society  can 


188      PEOTEOTIVE   SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

have  no  hold  on  any  class  except  through  the  medium 
of  their  interests.  It  behoves,  therefore,  every  people 
to  take  heed,  that  the  interests  of  literary  men  are  on 
their  side  rather  than  on  the  side  of  their  rulers. 
For,  literature  is  the  representative  of  intellect,  which 
is  progressive;  government  is  the  representative  of 
order,  which  is  stationary.  As  long  as  these  two  great 
powers  are  separate,  they  will  correct  and  react  upon 
each  other,  and  the  people  may  hold  the  balance.  If, 
however,  these  powers  coalesce,  if  the  government  can 
corrupt  the  intellect,  and  if  the  intellect  will  yield 
to  the  government,  the  inevitable  result  must  be, 
despotism  in  politics,  and  servility  in  literature.  This 
was  the  history  of  France  under  Louis  XIV. :  and  this, 
we  may  rest  assured,  will  be  the  history  of  every 
country  that  shall  be  tempted  to  follow  so  attractive 
but  so  fatal  an  example. 

The  reputation  of  Louis  XTV.  originated  in  the 
gratitude  of  men  of  letters  ;  but  it  is  now  supported  by 
a  popular  notion  that  the  celebrated  literature  of  his 
age  is  mainly  to  be  ascribed  to  his  fostering  care.  If, 
however,  we  examine  this  opinion,  we  shall  find  that, 
like  many  of  the  traditions  of  which  history  is  full,  it  is 
entirely  devoid  of  truth.  We  shall  find  two  leading 
circumstances,  which  will  prove  that  the  literary 
splendour  of  his  reign  was  not  the  result  of  his  efforts, 
but  was  the  work  of  that  great  generation  which  preceded 
him ;  and  that  the  intellect  of  France,  so  far  from 
being  benefited  by  his  munificence,  was  hampered  by 
his  protection. 

I.  The  first  circumstance  is,  that  the  immense  im- 
pulse which,  during  the  administrations  of  Richelieu 
and  of  Mazarin,  had  been  given  to  the  highest  branches 
of  knowledge,  was  suddenly  stopped.  In  1661  Louis 
XIV.  assumed  the  government ;  M  and  from  that 
moment  until  his  death,  in  1715,  the  history  of  France, 
so  far  as  great  discoveries  are  concerned,  is  a  blank  in 
the  annals   of  Europe.      If,  putting  aside  all  precon- 


11  '  La  premiere  periode  du  gouvernement  de  Louis  XIV  com- 
mence done  en  1661/    Capefigue's  Louis  XIV.,  vol.  i.  p.  4. 


PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      180 

ceived  notions  respecting  the  supposed  glory  of  that 
age,  we  examine  the  matter  fairl y,  it  will  be  seen  that 
in  every  department  there  was  a  manifest  dearth  of 
original  thinkers.  There  was  much  that  was  elegant, 
much  that  was  attractive.  The  senses  of  men  were 
soothed  and  flattered  by  the  creations  of  art,  by  paint- 
ings, by  palaces,  by  poems ;  but  scarcely  any  thing  of 
moment  was  added  to  the  sum  of  human  knowledge. 
If  we  take  the  mathematics,  and  those  mixed  sciences 
to  which  they  are  applicable,  it  will  be  universally 
admitted  that  their  most  successful  cultivators  in 
France  during  the  seventeenth  century  were  Descartes, 
Pascal,  Fermat,  Gassendi,  and  Mersenne.  But,  so  far 
from  Louis  XP7.  having  any  share  in  the  honour  due 
to  them,  these  eminent  men  were  engaged  in  their  inves- 
tigations while  the  king  was  still  in  his  cradle,  and 
completed  them  before  he  assumed  the  government, 
and  therefore  before  his  system  of  protection  came  into 
play.  Descartes  died  in  1650,12  when  the  king  was 
twelve  years  old.  Pascal,  whose  name,  like  that  of 
Descartes,  is  commonly  associated  with  the  age  of 
Louis  XD7.,  had  gained  an  European  reputation  while 
Louis,  occupied  in  the  nursery  with  his  toys,  was  not 
aware  that  any  such  man  existed.  His  treatise  on 
conic  sections  was  written  in  1639  ;13  his  decisive  ex- 
periments on  the  weight  of  air  were  made  in  1648  ; M 
and  his  researches  on  the  cycloid,  the  last  great 
inquiry  he   ever    undertook,    were  in    1658,15  when 


12  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xi.  p.  157.  been  done  in  science,  to  confirm 

13  In  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxxiii.  in  the  minds  of  men  that  dispo- 
p.  50,  he  is  said  to  have  composed  sition  to  experimental  verifica- 
lt '  a  l'age  de  seize  ans  ; '  and  at  tion  which  had  scarcely  yet  taken 
p.  46,  to  have  been  horn  in  1623.  full  and  secure  root.'     In  this 

14  Leslie's  Natural  Philosophy,  point  of  view,  the  addition  it  ac- 
p.  201  ;  Bordas  Demoulin,  Le  tually  made  to  knowledge  is  the 
Cartesianisme,  vol.  i.  p.  310.  Sir  smallest  part  of  its  merit. 
John  Herschel  (Disc,  on  Nat.  "  Montucla  (Hist,  des  Maihe- 
Philo8.  pp.  229,  230)  calls  this  matiques,  vol.  ii.  p-  61)  says, 
'  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  very  !  vers  1653 ; '  and  at  p.  65,  '  il  se 
first,'  crucial  instance  recorded  in  mit,  vers  le  commencement  de 
physics;  and  he  thinks  that  it  1658,  a  considerer  plus  profon- 
•  tended,  more  powerfully  than  d6ment  les  propridtes  de  cetto 
any  thing  which  had  previously  courbe.' 


190      PROTECTIVE   SPIRIT   UNDER  LOUIS   XIV. 


Louis,  still  under  the  tutelage  of  Mazariu,  had  no  sort 
of  authority.  Fermat  was  one  of  the  most  profound 
thinkers  of  the  seventeenth  century,  particularly  as  a 
geometrician,  in  which  respect  he  was  second  only  to 
Descartes.16  The  most  important  steps  he  took  are 
those  concerning  the  geometry  of  infinites,  applied  to 
the  ordinates  and  tangents  of  curves  ;  which,  however, 
he  completed  in  or  before  1636.17  As  to  Gassendi  and 
Mersenne,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  Gassendi  died  in 
1655,18  six  years  before  Louis  was  at  the  head  of 
affairs ;  while  Mersenne  died  in  1648,19  when  the  great 
king  was  ten  years  old. 

These  were  the  men  who  flourished  in  France  just 
before  the  system  of  Louis  XP7.  came  into  operation. 
Shortly  after  their  death  the  patronage  of  the  king 
began  to  tell  upon  the  national  intellect ;  and  during 
the  next  fifty  years  no  addition  of  importance  was 
made  to  either  branch  of  the  mathematics,  or,  with  the 
single  exception  of  acoustics,20  to  any  of  the  sciences  to 


18  Montucla  {Hist,  des  Mathe- 
mat.  vol.  ii.  p.  136)  enthusiasti- 
cally declares  that  •  si  Descartes 
eut  manqu^  a  l'esprit  humain, 
Fermat  1' eut  remplac^en  geome- 
tric' Simson,  the  celebrated 
restorer  of  Greek  geometry,  said 
that  Fermat  was  the  only  modern 
who  understood  porisms.  See 
Trail's  Account  of  Simson,  1812, 
4to.  pp.  18,  41.  On  the  con- 
nexion between  his  views  and  the 
subsequent  discovery  of  the  diffe- 
rential calculus,  see  Brewster's 
Life  of  Newton,  vol.  ii.  pp.  7,  8  ; 
and  compare  Comte,  Philosophic 
Positive,  vol.  i.  pp.  228,  229, 726, 
727. 

17  See  extracts  from  two  letters 
written  by  Fermat  to  Boberval, 
in  1636,  in  Montucfa,  Hist,  des 
Mathematiques,  vol.  ii.  pp.  136, 
137 ;  respecting  which  there  is 
no  notice  in  the  meagre  article 
on  Fermat,  in  Hutton's  Mathe 


matical  Dictionary,  vol.  i.  p.  510, 
4to.  1815.  It  is  a  disgrace  to 
English  mathematicians  that  this 
unsatisfactory  work  of  Hutton's 
should  still  remain  the  best  they 
have  produced  on  the  history  of 
their  own  science.  The  same 
disregard  of  dates  is  shown  in 
the  hasty  remarks  on  Fermat  by 
Playfair.  See  Playf air's  Disser- 
tation on  the  Progress  of  Mathe- 
matical Science,  Encyclop.  Brit. 
vol.  i.  p.  440,  7th  edition. 

18  Hutton's  Mathemat.  Diet. 
vol.  i.  p.  572. 

19  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  46. 

20  Of  which  Sauveur  may  be 
considered  the  creator.  Compare 
Eloge  de  Sauveur,  in  (Euvres  de 
Fontenelle,  Paris,  1766,  vol.  v. 
p.  435,  with  Whewell's  Hist,  of 
the  Indue.  Sciences,  vol.  ii.  p. 
334  ;  Comte,  Phtios,  Pos.  vol.  ii. 
pp.  627,  628 


PROTECTIVE   SPIBIT   UNDEE,  LOUIS   XIV.      191 

which  the  mathematics  are  applied.21  The  farther  the 
seventeenth  century  advanced,  the  more  evident  did 
the  decline  become,  and  the  more  clearly  can  we  trace 
the  connexion  between  the  waning  powers  of  the 
French,  and  that  protective  spirit  which  enfeebled  the 
energies  it  wished  to  strengthen.  Louis  had  heard 
that  astronomy  is  a  noble  stndy;  he  was  therefore 
anxious,  by  encouraging  its  cultivation  in  France, 
to  add  to  the  glories  of  his  own  name.22  With 
this  view,  he  rewarded  its  professors  with  unexampled 
profusion ;  he  built  the  splendid  Observatory  of  Paris'; 
he  invited  to  his  court  the  most  eminent  foreign  astro- 
nomers, Cassini  from  Italy,  Romer  from  Denmark, 
Huygens  from  Holland.  But,  as  to  native  ability, 
France  did  not  produce  a  single  man  who  made  even 
one  of  those  various  discoveries  which  mark  the  epochs 
of  astronomical  science.  In  other  countries  vast  pro- 
gress was  made ;  and  Newton  in  particular,  by  his 
immense  generalizations,  reformed  nearly  every  branch 
of  physics,  and  remodelled  astronomy  by  carrying  the 
laws  of  gravitation  to  the  extremity  of  the  solar  system. 
On  the  other  hand,  France  had  fallen  into  such  a  tor- 
por, that  these  wonderful  discoveries,  which  changed 
the  face  of  knowledge,  were  entirely  neglected,  there 
being  no  instance  of  any  French  astronomer  adopting 
them  until  1732,  that  is,  forty- five  years  after  they 
had  been  published  by  their  immortal  author.23    Even 


81  In  the  report  presented  to  de  produire  des  genies  createurs 
Napoleon  by  the  French  Insti-  dans  les  sciences.' 
tnte,  it  is  said  of  the  reign  of  •  A  writer  late  in  the  seven- 
Louis  XIV., '  les  sciences  exactes  teenth  century  says,  'with  some 
et  les  sciences  physiques  peu  cul-  simplicity,  '  the  present  king  of 
tivees  en  France  dans  un  siecle  France  is  reputed  an  encourager 
qui  paroissoit  ne  trouver  de  of  choice  and  able  men,  in  all 
charmes  que  dans  la  litterature.'  faculties,  who  can  attribute  to 
Dacier,  Rapport  Historique,  p.  his  greatness.'  Aubrey's  Letters, 
24.  Or,  as  Lacretelle  expresses  vol  ii.  p.  624. 
it  {Dix-huitifone  Slide,  vol.  ii.  2*  The  Principia  of  Newton 
p.  10),  'La  France,  apres  avoir  appeared  in  1687  ;  and  Mauper- 
fburni  Descartes  et  Pascal,  eut  tuis,  in  1732,  'was  the  first  as- 
pendant  quelque  temps  A  envier  tronomer  of  France  who  under- 
aux  nations  etrangeres  la  gloire  took  a  critical  defence  of  the 


192      PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 


in  matters  of  detail,  the  most  valuable  improvement 
made  by  French,  astronomers  during  the  power  of 
Louis  XIV.  was  not  original.  They  laid  claim  to  the 
invention  of  the  micrometer ;  an  admirable  resource, 
which,  as  they  supposed,  was  first  contrived  by  Picard 
andAuzout.24  The  truth,  however,  is,  that  here  again 
they  were  anticipated  by  the  activity  of  a  freer  and 
less  protected  people ;  since  the  micrometer  was  in- 
vented by  Grascoigne  in  or  just  before  1639,  when  the 
English  monarch,  so  far  from  having  leisure  to  patronize 
science,  was  about  to  embark  in  that  struggle  which, 
ten  years  later,  cost  him  his  crown  and  his  life.25 

The  absence  in  France,  during  this  period,  not  only 
of  great  discoveries,  but  also  of  mere  practical  inge- 
nuity, is  certainly  very  striking.  In  investigations 
requiring  minute  accuracy,  the  necessary  tools,  if  at  all 


theory  of  gravitation.'  Grants 
Hist,  of  Physical  Astronomy,  pp. 
31,  43.  In  1738,  Voltaire  writes, 
'La  France  est  jusqu'a  present 
le  seul  pays  ou  les  theories  de 
Newton  en  physique,  et  de  Boor- 
haave  en  medecine,  soient  com- 
battues.  Nous  n'avons  pas  en- 
core de  bons  elements  de  phy- 
siqiie;  nous  avons  pour  toute 
astronomie  le  livre  de  Bion,  qui 
n'est  qu'un  ramas  informe  de 
quelques  memoires  de  l'acade- 
mie.'  Correspond,  in  (Euvres  de 
Voltaire,  vol.  xlvii.  p.  340.  On 
the  tardy  reception  of  Newton's 
discoveries  in  France,  compare 
Eloge  de  Lacaille,  in  (Euvres  de 
Bailly,  Paris,  1790,  vol.  i.  pp. 
175,  176.  All  this  is  the  more 
remarkable,  because  several  of 
the  conclusions  at  which  Newton 
had  arrived  were  divulged  before 
they  were  embodied  in  the  Prin- 
cipia ;  and  it  appears  from 
Brewster's  Life  of  Newton  (vol.  i. 
pp.  25,  26,  290),  that  his  specu- 
lations concerning  gravity  began 


in    1656,   or    perhaps    in    the 
autumn  of  1665. 

24  'L'abbe  Picard  fut  en  so- 
ci£te  avec  Auzout,  l'inventeur  du 
micrometre.'  Biog.  Univ.  vol. 
xxxiv.  p.  253.  See  also  Preface 
de  FHist.  de  V Acad,  des  Sciences, 
in  (Euvres  de  Fontenette,  Paris, 
1766,  vol.  x.  p.  20. 

25  The  best  account  I  have 
seen  of  the  invention  of  the  mi- 
crometer, is  in  Mr.  Grant's  re- 
cent work,  History  of  Physical 
Astronomy,  pp.  428,  450-453, 
where  it  is  proved  that  Gascoigne 
invented  it  in  1639,  or  possibly 
a  year  or  two  earlier.  Compare 
Humboldt's  Cosmos,  vol.  iii.  p. 
52  ;  who  also  ascribes  it  to  Gas- 
coigne, but  erroneously  dates  it 
in  1640.  Montucla  (Hist,  des 
Mathemat.  vol.  ii.  pp.  570,  571) 
admits  the  priority  of  Gascoigne ; 
but  underrates  his  merit,  being 
apparently  unacquainted  with 
the  evidence  which  Mr.  Grant 
subsequently  adduced. 


PROTECTIVE   SPIRIT   UNDER  LOUIS   XIV.      193 


complicated,  were  made  by  foreigners,  the  native  work- 
men being  too  unskilled  to  construct  them ;  and  Dr. 
Lister,  who  was  a  very  competent  judge,20  and.  who  was 
in  Paris  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  supplies 
evidence  that  the  best  mathematical  instruments  sold 
in  that  city  were  made,  not  by  a  Frenchman,  but  by 
Butterfield,  an  Englishman  residing  there.27  Nor  did 
they  succeed  better  in  matters  of  immediate  and  obvious 
utility.  The  improvements  effected  in  manufactures 
were  few  and  insignificant,  and  were  calculated,  not 
for  the  comfort  of  the  people,  but  for  the  luxury  of  the 
idle  classes.28  What  was  really  valuable  was  neglected ; 
no  great  invention  was  made ;  and  by  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  Louis  XI V.  scarcely  anything  had  been  done 
in  machinery,  or  in  those  other  contrivances  which, 


28  For  a  short  account  of  this 
able  man,  see  Lankester's  Mem. 
of  Ray,  p.  17. 

27  Notwithstanding  the  strong 
prejudice  then  existing  against 
Englishmen,  Butterfield  was  em- 
ployed by  '  the  king  and  all  the 
princes.'  Listens  Account  of 
Paris  at  the  close  of  tlie  Seven- 
teenth Century,  edited  by  Br. 
Henning,  p.  85.  Fontenelle  men- 
tions '  M.  Hubin,'  as  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  makers,  in  Paris 
in  1687  {Eloge  oVAmoltons,  in 
(Euvres  de  Fontenelle,  Paris, 
1766,  vol.  v.  p.  113);  but  has 
forgotten  to  state  that  he  too  was 
an  Englishman.  'Lutetise  se- 
dem  posuerat  ante  aliquod  tem- 
pus  Anglus  quidam  nomine  Hu- 
binus,  vir  ingeniosus,  atque  hu- 
jusmodi  machinationum  peritus 
opifex  et  industrius.  llominem 
adii,'  &c.  Huetii  Commentarius 
de  Rebus  ad  eum  pertinentibus, 
p.  346.  Thus,  again,  in  regard 
to  time-keepers,  the  vast  supe- 
riority of  the  English  makers, 
late  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV., 

vol.  n. 


was  equally  incontestable.  Com- 
pare Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxiv.  pp. 
242,  243,  with  Brewster's  Life  of 
Newton,  voL  ii.  p.  262  ;  and  as 
to  the  middle  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV.,  see  Eloge  de  Sebas- 
tien,  in  (Euvres  de  Fontenelle, 
vol.  vi.  pp.  332,  333. 

28  '  Les  manufactures  etaient 
plutot  dirigees  vers  le  brillant 
que  vers  l'utile.  On  s'effonja, 
par  un  arr£t  du  mois  de  mars 
1700,  d'extirper,  ou  du  moins  de 
reduire  beaueoup  les  fabriques 
de  bas  au  metier.  Malgre  cette 
fausse  direction,  les  objets  d'un 
luxe  tres-recherche  faisaient  des 
progres  bien  lents.  En  1687, 
aprls  la  mort  de  Colbert,  la  cour 
soldait  encore  l'industrie  des 
barbares,  et  faisait  fabriquer  et 
broder  ses  plus  beaux  habits  a 
Constantinople.'  Lemontey,  Eta- 
blissement  de  Louis  XIV,  p.  364. 
Lacretelle  (LHx-huitibme  Sttcle, 
vol.  ii.  p.  5)  says,  that  during 
the  last  thirty  years  of  the  reign 
of  Louis  XIV.  '  les  manufactures 
tombaient' 


194      PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

by   economising    national    labour,    increase  national 
wealth.29 

While  such  was  the  state,  not  only  of  mathematical 
and  astronomical  science,  but  also  of  mechanical  and 
inventive  arts,  corresponding  symptoms  of  declining 
power  were  seen  in  other  departments.  In  physiology, 
in  anatomy  and  in  medicine,  we  look  in  vain  for  any 
men  equal  to  those  by  whom  France  had  once  been 
honoured.  The  greatest  discovery  of  this  kind  ever 
made  by  a  Frenchman,  was  that  of  the  receptacle  of 
the  chyle  ;  a  discovery  which,  in  the  opinion  of  a  high 
authority,  is  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  circulation  of 
the  blood  by  Harvey.30  This  important  step  in  our 
knowledge  is  constantly  assigned  to  the  age  of  Louis 
XIV.,  as  if  it  were  one  of  the  results  of  his  gracious 
bounty ;  but  it  would  be  difficult  to  tell  what  Louis 
had  to  do  with  it,  since  the  discovery  was  made  by 
Pecquet  in  1647,31  when  the  great  king  was  nine  years 
old.  After  Pecquet,  the  most  eminent  of  the  French 
anatomists  in  the  seventeenth  century  was  Riolan  ;  and 
his  name  we  also  find  among  the  illustrious  men  who 
adorned  the  reign  of  Louis  XTV.  But  the  principal 
works  of  Riolan  were  written  before  Louis  XTV.  was 
born ;  his  last  work  was  published  in  1652 ;  and  he 
himself  died  in  1657.32  Then  there  came  a  pause,  and, 
during  three  generations,  the  French  did  nothing  for 
these  great  subjects :  they  wrote  no  work  upon  them 
which  is  now  read,  they  made  no  discoveries,  and  they 

29  Cuvier  (Biog.  Univ.  vol.  dans  l'histoire  de  notre  art  que 
xxx  vii.  p.  199)  thus  describes  the  la  verite  demontree  pour  la  pre- 
condition of  France  only  seven  miere  fois  par  Harvey.'  Sprengel, 
years  after  the.,  death  of  Louis  Hist,  de  la  Medecine,  vol.  iv. 
XIV. :  '  Nos  forges  etaient  alors  p.  208. 

presque  dans  l'enfance ;  et  nous         S1  Henle  (Anatomie  Generate, 

ne  faisions   point   d'acier:  tout  vol.  ii.  p.  106)  says,  that  the  dis- 

celui  qu'exigeaient  les  differents  covery  was  made  in  1649 ;  but 

metiers  nous  venait  de  l'etranger.  the  historians  of  medicine  assign 

.....  Nous  ne  faisions  point  it  to  1647.    Sprengel,  Hist,  de  la 

non  plus  alors  de  fer-blanc,  et  il  Midecine,  vol.  iv.  pp.  207,  405 ; 

ne  nous  venait  que  de  l'Alle-  Benouard,  Hist,  de  la  Medecine, 

magne.'  vol.  ii.  p.  173. 

'Certainementladecouverte        32  Biog.     Univ.    vol.   xxxviii. 


de  Pecquet  ne  brille  pas  moins    pp.  123,  124. 


PEOTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      195 

seemed  to  have  lost  all  heart,  until  that  revival  of 
knowledge,  which,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  took  place 
in  France  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
In  the  practical  parts  of  medicine,  in  its  speculative 
parts,  and  in  the  arts  connected  with  surgery,  the  same 
law  prevails.  The  French,  in  these,  as  in  other  matters, 
had  formerly  produced  men  of  great  eminence,  who 
had  won  for  themselves  an  European  reputation,  and 
whose  works  are  still  remembered.  Thus,  only  to 
mention  two  or  three  instances,  they  had  a  long  line  of 
illustrious  physicians,  among  whom  Fernel  and  Joubert 
were  the  earliest ; 33  they  had,  in  surgery,  Ambroise 
Pare,  who  not  only  introduced  important  practical  im- 
provements,34 but  who  has  the  still  rarer  merit  of  being 
one  of  the  founders  of  comparative  osteology ; 35  and 
they  had  Baillou,  who  late  in  the  sixteenth  and  early  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  advanced  pathology,  by  con- 
necting it  with  the  study  of  morbid  anatomy.36  Under 
Louis  XIV.  all  this  was  changed.  Under  him,  surgery 
was  neglected,  though  in  other  countries  its  progress 

33  Some  of  the    great    steps  of  a  ligature  to  a  bleeding  ar- 

taken  by  Joubert  are  concisely  tery.' 

stated  in  Broussais,  Examen  des         u  '  C'etait  la  une  vue  tres-inge- 

Doctrines  Medicates,  vol.  i.  pp.  nieuse  et  tres-juste  qu' Ambroise 

293,  294,  vol.  iii.  p.  361.     Com-  Pare  donnait  pour  la   premiere 

pare  Sprengel,  Hist,  de  la  Mide-  fois.     C'etait  un  commencement 

cine,  vol.   iii.   p.    210.     Fernel,  d'osteologie  comparee.'     Currier, 

though   enthusiastically  praised  Hist,  des  Sciences,  part.  ii.  p  42. 

by  Patin,  was  probably  hardly  To  this  I  may  add,  that  he  is  the 

equal  to    Joubert.      Lettres  de  first  French  writer  on  medical 

Patin,  vol.  iii.  pp.  59,  199,  648.  jurisprudence.      See  Paris  and 

At  p.  106,  Patin  calls  Fernel  '  le  Fonblanque's  Medical  Jurispru- 

premier  medecin  de  son  temps,  dence,  1823,  vol.  i.  p.  xviii. 
et  peut-etre  le  plus  grand  qui        M  '  L'un  des  premiers  auteurs 

sera  jamais.'  a  qui  Ton  doit  des  observations 

**  See  a  summary  of  them  in  cadaveriques   sur   les   maladies, 

Sprengel,  Hist,  de  la  Mkdecine,  est  lefameux  Baillou.'  Broussais, 

vol.  iii.  pp.  405,    406,  vol.  vii.  Examen  des  Doctrines  Medicates, 

pp.  14,  15.  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  vol.  ii.  p.  218.     See  also  vol.  iii. 

{Lectures  on  Surgery,  p.  21)  says,  p.  362;  and  Renouard,  Hist.de 

'  Few  greater  benefits  have  been  la  Midecine,  vol.  ii.  p.  89.     The 

conferred  on  mankind  than  that  value  of  his  services  is  recognized 

for  which  we   are  indebted  to  in  a  recent  able  work,  Phillips  mi 

Ambrose  Parey — the  application  Scrofula,  1846,  p.  16. 
o2 


196      PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 


was  rapid.37  The  English,  by  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  had  taken  considerable  steps  in  medi- 
cine :  its  therapeutical  branch  being  reformed  chiefly 
by  Sydenham,  its  physiological  branch  by  Glisson.38 
But  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.  cannot  boast  of  a  single 
medical  writer  who  can  be  compared  to  these  ;  not  even 
one  whose  name  is  now  known  as  having  made  any 
specific  addition  to  our  knowledge.  In  Paris,  the 
practice  of  medicine  was  notoriously  inferior  to  that  in 
the  capitals  of  Germany,  Italy,  and  England ;  while  in 
the  French  provinces,  the  ignorance,  even  of  the  best 
physicians,  was  scandalous.39  Indeed,  it  is  no  exag- 
geration to  say  that,  during  the  whole  of  this  long 
period,  the  French  in  these  matters  effected  compara- 
tively nothing ;  they  made  no  contributions  to  clinical 
literature,40  and  scarcely  any  to  therapeutics,  to  patho- 
logy, to  physiology,  or  to  anatomy.41 


37  '  The  most  celebrated  sur- 
geon of  the  sixteenth  century 
was  Ambroise  Pare.  .  .  .  From 
the  time  of  Pare  until  the  com- 
mencement of  the  eighteenth 
century,  surgery  was  but  little 
cultivated  in  France.  Mauriceau, 
Saviard,  and  Belloste,  were  the 
only  French  surgeons  of  note 
who  could  be  contrasted  with  so 
many  eminent  men  of  other 
nations.  During  the  eighteenth 
century,  France  produced  two 
Burgeons  of  extraordinary  genius ; 
these  are  Petit  and  Desault.' 
Bowman's  Surgery,  in  Encyclop. 
of  Medical  Sciences,  1847,  4to. 
pp.  829,  830. 

38  It  is  unnecessary  to  adduce 
evidence  respecting  the  services 
rendered  by  Sydenham,  as  they 
are  universally  admitted ;  but 
what,  perhaps,  is  less  generally 
known,  is,  that  Glisson  antici- 
pated those  important  views  con- 
cerning irritability,  which  were 
afterwards  developed  by  Haller 


and  Gorter.  Compare  Benouard, 
Hist,  de  le  Medecine,  vol.  ii. 
p.  192 ;  Elliotson's  Human  Phy- 
siol, p.  471 ;  Bordas  Demoulin, 
Cartesianisme,  vol.  i.  p.  170  ;  In 
Wagner's  Physiol.  1841,  p.  655, 
the  theory  is  too  exclusively  as- 
cribed to  Haller. 

39  Of  this  we  have  numerous 
complaints  from  foreigners  who 
visited  France.  I  will  quote  the 
testimony  of  one  celebrated  man. 
In  1699,  Addison  writes  from 
Blois :  '  I  made  use  of  one 
of  the  physicians  of  this  place, 
who  are  as  cheap  as  our  English 
farriers,  and  generally  as  igno- 
rant.' Aikin's  Life  of  Addison, 
vol.  i.  p.  74. 

40  Indeed,  France  was  the  last 
great  country  in  Europe  in  which 
a  chair  of  clinical  medicine  was 
established.  See  Benouard,  Hist, 
de  la  Medecine,  vol.  ii.  p.  312 ; 
and  Bouillaud,  Philos.  Medicale, 
p.  114. 

41  M.  Bouillaud,  in  his  account 


PROTECTIVE   SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      197 

In  what  are  called  the  natural  sciences,  we  also  find 
the  French  now  brought  to  a  stand.  In  zoology,  they 
had  formerly  possessed  remarkable  men,  among  whom 
Belon  and  Rondelet  were  the  most  conspicuous  :  42  but, 
under  Louis  XIV.,  they  did  not  produce  one  original 
observer  in  this  great  field  of  inquiry.43  In  chemistry, 
again,  Rey  had,  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XTIL,  struck  out 
views  of  such  vast  importance,  that  he  anticipated  some 
of  those  generalizations  which  formed  the  glory  of  tho 
French  intellect  in  the  eighteenth  century.44  During  i 
the  corrupt  and  frivolous  age  of  Louis  XIV.,  all  this 
was  forgotten ;  the  labours  of  Rey  were  neglected ;  and  so 
complete  was  the  indifference,  that  even  the  celebrated 
experiments  of  Boyle  remained  unknown  in  France  for 
more  than  forty  years  after  they  were  published.45 

Connected  with  zoology,  and,  to  a  philosophic  mind, 
inseparable   from   it,  is   botany:   which,   occupying   a 

of  the  state  of  medicine  in  the  who,  bo  early  as   1630,   antici- 

seventeenth   century,   does    not  pated  some  of  the  generalizations 

mention     a    single    Frenchman  #made  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 

during  this  period.     See  Bouil-  later  by  Lavoisier,   see  Liebig's 

laud,PhilosophieMedicale,  pp.  13  Letters  on  Chemistry,  pp.  46,  47 ; 

seq.    During  many  years  of  the  Thomson's  Hist    of   Chemistry, 

power  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  French  vol.  ii.  pp.   95,  96;  Humboldt  a 

Academy  only  possessed  one  ana-  Cosmos,  vol.  ii.  p.  729;  Cuvier, 

tomist ;  and  of  him,  few  students  Progrhs    des    Sciences,     voL   i. 

of  physiology  have  ever  heard :  p.  30. 

1  M.  du  Verney  fut  assez  long-  4S  Cuvier  (Progres  des  Sciences, 

temps    le    seul    anatomiste    de  vol.  i.  p.  30)  says  of  Eey,  '  son 

l'academie,  et  ce  ne  fut  qu'en  ecrit  etait  tombe  dans  l'oubli  le 

1684  qu'on  lui  joignit  M.  Mery.'  plus  profond;'  and,  in  another 

Eloge  de  Du  Verney,  in  (Euvres  work,  the  same  great  authority 

de  Fontenelle,  vol.  vi.  p.  392.  writes  (Hist,  des  Sciences,  part  ii. 

42  Cuvier,  Hist,  des  Sciences,  p.  333) :  '  II  y  avait  plus  de 
part  ii.  pp.  64-73,  76-80.  quarante  ans  que  Becker  avait 

43  After  Belon,  nothing  was  presente  sa  nouvelle  theorie, 
done  in  France  for  the  natural  developp£e  par  Stahl ;  il  y  avait 
history  of  animals  until  1734,  encore  plus  long-temps  que  les 
when  there  appeared  the  first  experiences  de  Boyle  sur  la 
volume  of  Reaumur's  great  work,  chimie  pneumatique  avaient  ete 
See  Swainson  on  the  Study  of  Nat.  publiees,  et  copendant,  rien  de 
Hist.  pp.  24,  43.  tout  cela  n'entrait  encore  dans 

44  On  this  remarkable   man,  l'enseignement    general    de    la 
who  was  the  first    philosophic  chimie,  du  moins  en  France.' 
chemist  Europe  produced,   and 


198      PEOTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

middle  place  between  the  animal  and  mineral  world, 
indicates  their  relation  to  each  other,  and  at  different 
points  touches  the  confines  of  both.  It  also  throws 
great  light  on  the  functions  of  nutrition,46  and  on  the 
laws  of  development ;  while,  from  the  marked  analogy 
between  animals  and  vegetables,  we  have  every  reason 
to  hope  that  its  further  progress,  assisted  by  that  of 
electricity,  will  prepare  the  way  for  a  comprehensive 
theory  of  life,  to  which  the  resources  of  our  knowledge 
are  still  unequal,  but  towards  which  the  movements  of 
modern  science  are  manifestly  tending.  On  these 
grounds,  far  more  than  for  the  sake  of  practical  advan- 
tages, botany  will  always  attract  the  attention  of 
thinking  men;  who,  neglecting  views  of  immediate 
utility,  look  to  large  and  ultimate  results,  and  only 
value  particular  facts  in  so  far  as  they  facilitate  the 
discovery  of  general  truths.  The  first  step  in  this 
noble  study  was  taken  towards  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  when  authors,  instead  of  copying  what 
previous  writers  had  said,  began  to  observe  nature  for 
themselves.47  The  next  step  was,  to  add  experiment  to 
observation :  but  it  required  another  hundred  years 
before  this  could  be  done  with  accuracy  ;  because  the 
microscope,  which  is  essential  to  such  inquiries,  was 

46  The  highest  present  gene-  d'engrais,  ou  en  d'autres  termes 

ralizations  of  the  laws  of  nutri-  alterees,  c'est-a-dire  ramenees  a 

tion  are  those  by  M.  Chevreul ;  l'eteit  de  principes  plus  simples, 

■which  are  thus   summed  up  by  plus  solubles.     Au  contraire,  les 

MM.  Robin  et  Verdeil,  in  their  animaux  plus eleves  dans  l'echelle 

admirable  work,  Chimie  Anato-  organique  ontbesoinde  matieres 

mique,  vol.  i.  p.  203,  Paris,  1853:  bien  plus  complexes  quant  aux 

'  En  passant  des    plantes    aux  principes  immediats  qui  les  com- 

animaux,  nous  voyons  que  plus  posent,  et  plus  variees  dans  leurs 

['organisation  de  ces  demiers  est  proprietes.' 
compliqu^e,  plus    les    aliments         47  Brunfels  in  1530,  and  Fuchs 

dont  ils  se  nourrissent  sont  com-  in  1542,  were  the  two  first  writers 

plexes    et  analogues  par   leurs  who  observed  the  vegetable  king- 

principes    immediats  aux  prin-  dom  for  themselves,  instead  of 

cipes  des  organes  qu'ils  doivent  copying  what  the  ancients  had 

entretenir.  said.     Compare   Whewell's  Hist. 

'  En  definitive,  on  voit  que  les  of  the  Sciences,  vol.  iii.  pp.  305, 

vegetaux  se  nourrissent  d'eau,  306,  with   Pulteney's    Hist,    of 

d'acide  carbonique,  d'autres  gaz  Botany,  vol.  i.  p.  38. 
et  de  matieres  organiques  a  l'etat 


PROTECTIVE    SPIEIT   UNDER  LOUIS   XIV.      199 

only  invented  about  1620,  and  the  labour  of  a  "whole 
generation  was  needed  to  make  it  available  for  minute 
investigations.48  So  soon,  however,  as  this  resource 
was  sufficiently  matured  to  be  applied  to  plants,  the 
march  of  botany  became  rapid,  at  least  as  far  as  details 
are  concerned ;  for  it  was  not  until  the  eighteenth 
century  that  the  facts  were  actually  generalized.  But, 
in  the  preliminary  work  of  accumulating  the  facts, 
great  energy  was  shown ;  and,  for  reasons  stated  in  an 
earlier  part  of  the  Introduction,  this,  like  other  studies 
relating  to  the  external  world,  advanced  with  peculiar 
speed  during  the  reign  of  Charles  LT.  The  tracheae  of 
plants  were  discovered  by  Henshaw  in  1661  ;49  and 
their  cellular  tissue  by  Hooke  in  1667.50  These  were 
considerable  approaches  towards  establishing  the 
analogy  between  plants  and  animals  ;  and,  within  a  few 
years,  Grew  effected  still  more  of  the  same  kind.  He 
made  such  minute  and  extensive  dissections,  as  to  raise 
the  anatomy  of  vegetables  to  a  separate  study,  and 
prove  that  their  organization  is  scarcely  less  compli- 
cated than  that  possessed  by  animals.51    His  first  work 

48  The  microscope  was  exhi-  ster's  Life  of  Newton,  vol.  i.  pp. 

bited  in    London,   by  Drebbel,  29,  242,  243. 
about  1620;  and  this  appears  to         •  See  Balfour's  Botany,  p.  15. 

be    the  earliest  unquestionable  In  Pulteney's  Progress  of  Botany 

notice  of  its  use,  though   soma  in  England,   this  beautiful  dis- 

writers   assert  that  it  was  in-  covery  is,  if  I  rightly  remember, 

vented  at  the  beginning  of  the  not  even    alluded    to ;    but    it 

seventeenth  century,  or  even  in  appears,  from  a  letter  written  in 

1590.      Compare    the    different  1672,  that  it  was  then  becoming 

statements,  in  Pouillet,  Elemens  generally  known,  and  had  been 

de    Physique,    vol.   ii.   p.    357;  confirmed  by  Grew  and  Malpighi. 

Humboldt's  Cosmos,  vol.  ii.  pp.  Bay's   Correspond,    edit.    1848, 

699,  700;  Sprengel,  Hist,  de  la  p.   98.     Compare  Bichard,  Eli- 

Medecine,  vol  iv.  p.  337 ;  Winch-  mentsde  Botanique,  p.  46 ;  where, 

ler,  Gesch.  der  Botanik,  p.  136;  however,  M.  Richard  erroneously 

Quekett's  Treatise  on  the  Micro-  supposes    that    Grew    did   not 

scope,  1848,  p.  2;  CUvier,  Hist,  know  of  the  tracheae  till  1682. 
des  Sciences,  part  ii.  p.  470 ;  Hal-        *°  Compare   Cuvicr,  Hist,  des 

lam's  Lit.   of  Europe,  vol.  iii.  Sciences,  part  ii.  p.   471,  with 

p.  202;  Leslie's  Nat.  Philos.  p.  52.  Thomson's  Vegetable   Chemistry, 

On  the  subsequent  improvement  p.  950. 

of  the    microscope    during  the        M  Dr.  Thomson  ( Vegetable  Che- 

eeventeenth  century,   see  Brew-  mistry,  p.  950)  says :   '  But  the 


"200      PEOTECTIVE    SPIRIT    UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

was  written  in  1670  ;52  and,  in  1676,  another  English- 
man, Millington,  ascertained  the  existence  of  a  dis- 
tinction of  sexes  ;53  thns  supplying  farther  evidence  of 
the  harmony  between  the' animal  and  vegetable  king- 
doms, and  of  the  unity  of  idea  which  regulates  their 
composition. 

This  is  what  was  effected  in  England  during  the 
reign  of  Charles  H.  ;  and  we  now  ask  what  was  done 
in  France,  during  the  same  period,  under  the  munificent 
patronage  of  Louis  XTV.  The  answer  is,  nothing ;  no 
discovery,  no  idea,  which  forms  an  epoch  in  this  im- 
portant department  of  natural  science.  The  son  of  the 
celebrated  Sir  Thomas  Brown  visited  Paris  in  the  hope 
of  making  some  additions  to  his  knowledge  of  botany, 
which  he  thought  he  could  not  fail  to  do  in  a  country 
where  science  was  held  in  such  honour,  its  professors  so 
caressed  by  the  court,  and  its  researches  so  bountifully 
encouraged.  To  his  surprise,  he,  in  1665,  found  in  that 
great  city  no  one  capable  of  teaching  his  favourite  pur- 
suit, and   even  the    public  lectures  on  it  miserably 


person  to  whom  we  are  indebted  Thomson's  Hist,  of  the  Royal 
for  the  first  attempt  to  ascertain  Society,  p.  44. 
the  structure  of  plants  by  dissec-  53  '  The  presence  of  sexual 
tion  and  microscopical  observa-  organs  in  plants  was  first  shown 
tions,  was  Dr.  Nathaniel  Grew.'  in  1676,  by  Sir  Thomas  Milling- 
The  character  of  Grew's  inquiries,  ton;  and  it  was  afterwards  con- 
as  '  viewing  the  internal,  as  well  firmed  by  Grew,  Malpighi,  and 
as  external  parts  of  plants,'  is  Ray.'  Balfour's  Botany,  p.  236. 
also  noticed  in  Bay's  Correspond.  See  also  Pulteney's  Progress  of 
p.  188;  andM.  Winckler  ( Gesch.  Botany,  vol.  i.  pp.  336,  337;  and 
der  Botanik,  p.  382)  ascribes  to  Lindletfs  Botany,  vol.  ii.  p.  217 : 
him  and  Malpighi  the  •  neuen  and,  as  to  Ray,  who  was  rather 
Aufschwung '  taken  by  vegetable  slow  in  admitting  the  discovery, 
physiology  late  in  the  seventeenth  see  Lankester's  Mem.  of  Bay, 
century.  See  also,  on  Grew,  p.  100.  Before  this,  the  sexual 
Lindley's  Botany,  vol.  i.  p.  93 ;  system  of  vegetables  had  been 
and  Third  Report  of  Brit.  Assoc,  empirically  known  to  several  of 
p.  27.  the  ancients,  but  never  raised 
52  The  first  book  of  his  Ana-  to  a  scientific  truth.  Compare 
tomy  of  Plants  was  laid  before  Richard,  Elements  de  Botanique, 
the  Eoyal  Society  in  1670,  and  pp.  353,  427,  428,  with  Matter, 
printed  in  1671.  Hallam's  Lit.  of  Hist.  deVEcole  d Alexandria,  voh 
Europe,  vol.  iii.   p.   580 ;    and  ii.  p.  9. 


PROTECTIVE   SPIRIT   UNDER  LOUIS   XIV.      201 


meagre  and  unsatisfactory.54  Neither  then,  nor  at  a 
much  later  period,  did  the  French  possess  a  good  popu- 
lar treatise  on  botany :  still  less  did  they  make  any 
improvement  in  it.  Indeed,  so  completely  was  the  phi- 
losophy of  the  subject  misunderstood,  that  Tournefort, 
the  only  French  botanist  of  repute  in  the  reign  of  Louis, 
actually  rejected  that  discovery  of  the  sexes  of  plants, 
which  had  been  made  before  he  began  to  write,  and 
which  afterwards  became  the  corner-stone  of  the  Lin- 
nean  system.55  This  showed  his  incapacity  for  those 
large  views  respecting  the  unity  of  the  organic  world, 
which  alone  give  to  botany  a  scientific  value  ;  and  we 
find,  accordingly,  that  he  did  nothing  for  the  physiology 
of  plants,  and  that  his  only  merit  was  as  a  collector  and 
classifier  of  them.56  And  even  in  his  classification  he 
was  guided,  not  by  a  comprehensive  comparison  of  their 
various  parts,  but  by  considerations  drawn  from  the 
mere  appearance  of  the  flower  ;57  thus  depriving  botany 
of  its  real  grandeur,  degrading  it  into  an  arrangement 


**  In  July  1665  he  writes  from 
Paris  to  his  father,  '  The  lecture 
of  plants  here  is  only  the  naming 
of  them,  their  degrees  in  heat 
and  cold,  and  sometimes  their 
use  in  physick;  scarce  a  word 
more  than  may  be  seen  in  every 
herbalL'  Browne's  Works,  vol.  i. 
p.  108. 

55  Cuvier  mentioning  the  in- 
feriority of  Tournefort' s  views  to 
those  of  his  predecessors,  gives  as 
an  instance,  '  puisqu'il  a  rejete 
les  sexes  des  plantes.'  Hist,  des 
Sciences,  part  ii.  p.  496.  Hence 
he  held  that  the  farina  was  ex- 
crementitious.  Pulteneg's  Pro- 
gress of  Botany,  vol.  i.  p.  340. 

*•  This  is  admitted  even  by 
his  eulogist  Duvau.  Biog.  Univ. 
vol.  xlvi.  p.  363. 

87  On  the  method  of  Tourne- 
fort, which  was  that  of  a  corrollist, 
compare  Richard,  Elements  de 
Botanique,    p.     547;     Jtcssieu's 


Botany,  edit.  Wilson,  1849,  p. 
516  ;  Bag's  Correspond,  pp.  381, 
382 ;  LanJcester's  Mem.  of  Bag, 
p.  49 ;  Winckler,  Gesch  der  Bo- 
tanik,  p.  142.  Cuvier  (Hist,  des 
Sciences,  part  ii.  p.  496),  with 
quiet  irony,  says  of  it,  '  vous 
vovez,  messieurs,  que  cette  me- 
thode  a  le  merite  d'une  grande 
clarte ;  qu'elle  est  fondee  sur  la 
forme  de  la  fleur,  et  par  conse- 
quent sur  des  considerations 
agreables  a  saisir  ....  Ce  qui 
en  fit  le  succes,  c'est  qu«  Tourne- 
fort joignit  a  son  ouvrage  une 
figure  de  fleur  et  de  fruit  appar- 
tenant  a  chacun  de  ses  genres.' 
Even  in  this,  he  appears  to  have 
been  careless,  and  is  said  to  have 
described  '  a  great  many  plants 
he  never  examined  nor  saw.' 
Letter  from  Br.  Sherard,  in. 
Nichols's  Illustrations  of  the 
Eighteenth  Centurg,vo\.  i.  p. 356. 


202      PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

of  beautiful  objects,  and  supplying  another  instance  of 
the  way  in  which  the  Frenchmen  of  that  generation 
impoverished  what  they  sought  to  enrich,  and  dwarfed 
every  topic,  until  they  suited  the  intellect  and  pleased 
the  eye  of  that  ignorant  and  luxurious  court,  to  whose 
favour  they  looked  for  reward,  and  whose  applause  it 
was  the  business  of  their  life  to  gain. 

The  truth  is,  that  in  these,  as  in  all  matters  of  real 
importance,  in  questions  requiring  independent  thought, 
and  in  questions  of  practical  utility,  the  age  of 
Louis  XIV.  was  an  age  of  decay :  it  was  an  age  of 
misery,  of  intolerance,  and  oppression ;  it  was  an  age  of 
bondage,  of  ignominy,  of  incompetence.  This  would 
long  since  have  been  universally  admitted,  if  those  who 
have  written  the  history  of  that  period  had  taken  the 
trouble  to  study  subjects  without  which  no  history  can 
be  understood  ;  or,  I  should  rather  say,  without  which 
no  history  can  exist.  If  this  had  been  done,  the  repu- 
tation of  Louis  XIV.  would  at  once  have  shrunk  to  its 
natural  size.  Even  at  the  risk  of  exposing  myself  to 
the  charge  of  unduly  estimating  my  own  labours,  I 
cannot  avoid  saying,  that  the  facts  which  I  have  just 
pointed  out  have  never  before  been  collected,  but  have 
remained  isolated  in  the  text-books  and  repertories  of 
the  sciences  to  which  they  belong.  Yet  without  them 
it  is  impossible  to  study  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.  It  is 
impossible  to  estimate  the  character  of  any  period 
except  by  tracing  its  development ;  in  other  words,  by 
measuring  the  extent  of  its  knowledge.  Therefore  it 
is,  that  to  write  the  history  of  a  country  without  re- 
gard to  its  intellectual  progress,  is  as  if  an  astronomer 
should  compose  a  planetary  system  without  regard  to 
the  sun,  by  whose  light  alone  the  planets  can  be  seen, 
and  by  whose  attraction  they  are  held  in  their  course, 
and  compelled  to  run  in  the  path  of  their  appointed 
orbits.  For  the  great  luminary,  even  as  it  shines  in  the 
heaven,  is  not  a  more  noble  or  a  more  powerful  object 
than  is  the  intellect  of  man  in  this  nether  world.  It  is. 
to  the  human  intellect,  and  to  that  alone,  that  every 
country  owes  its  knowledge.  And  what  is  it  but  the 
progress  and  diffusion  of  knowledge  which  has  given  us 


PROTECTIVE   SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      203 

our  arts,  our  sciences,  our  manufactures,  our  laws,  our 
opinions,  our  manners,  our  comforts,  our  luxuries,  our 
civilization ;  in  snort,  everything  that  raises  us  above 
the  savages,  who  by  their  ignorance  are  degraded  to 
the  level  of  the  brutes  with  which  they  herd  ?  Surely, 
then,  the  time  has  now  arrived  when  they  who  under- 
take to  write  the  history  of  a  great  nation  should 
occupy  themselves  with  those  matters  by  which  alone 
the  destiny  of  men  is  regulated,  and  should  abandon 
the  petty  and  insignificant  details  by  which  we  have 
too  long  been  wearied ;  details  respecting  the  lives  of 
kings,  the  intrigues  of  ministers,  the  vices  and  the 
gossip  of  courts. 

It  is  precisely  these  higher  considerations  which  fur- 
nish the  key  to  the  history  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 
In  that  time,  as  in  all  others,  the  misery  of  the  people 
ajid  the  degradation  of  the  country  followed  the  decline 
of  the  national  intellect ;  while  this  last  was,  in  its 
turn,  the  result  of  the  protective  spirit  —  that  mis- 
chievous spirit  which  weakens  whatever  it  touches.  If1 
in  the  long  course  and  compass  of  history  there  is  one 
thing  more  clear  than  another,  it  is,  that  whenever  a 
government  undertakes  to  protect  intellectual  pursuits, 
it  will  almost  always  protect  them  in  the  wrong  place, 
and  reward  the  wrong  men.  Nor  is  it  surprising  that 
this  should  be  the  case.  What  can  kings  and  ministers 
know  about  those  immense  branches  of  knowledge,  to 
cultivate  which  with  success  is  often  the  business  of  an 
entire  life  ?  How  can  they,  constantly  occupied  with 
their  lofty  pursuits,  have  leisure  for  such  inferior 
matters  ?  Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  such  acquirements 
will  be  found  among  statesmen,  who  are  always  engaged 
in  the  most  weighty  concerns  ;  sometimes  writing  de- 
spatches, sometimes  making  speeches,  sometimes  organ- 
ising a  party  in  the  parliament,  sometimes  baffling  an 
intrigue  in  the  privy-chamber  ?  Or  if  the  sovereign 
should  graciously  bestow  his  patronage  according  to 
his  own  judgment,  are  we  to  expect  that  mere  phi- 
losophy and  science  should  be  familiar  to  high  and 
mighty  princes,  who  have  their  own  peculiar  and 
arduous  studies,  and  who  have  to  learn  the  mysteries 


204      PEOTECTIVE   SPIRIT  UNDER  LOUIS  XIV. 

of  heraldry,  the  nature  and  dignities  of  rank,  the  com- 
parative value  of  the  different  orders,  decorations,  and 
titles,  the  laws  of  precedence,  the  prerogatives  of  noble 
birth,  the  names  and  powers  of  ribbons,  stars,  and 
garters,  the  various  modes  of  conferring  an  honour  or 
installing  into  an  office,  the  adjustment  of  ceremonies, 
the  subtleties  of  etiquette,  and  all  those  other  courtly 
accomplishments  necessary  to  the  exalted  functions 
which  they  perform  ? 

The  mere  statement  of  such  questions  proves  the 
absurdity  of  the  principle  which  they  involve.  For, 
unless  we  believe  that  kings  are  omniscient  as  well  as 
immaculate,  it  is  evident  that  in  the  bestowal  of  rewards 
they  must  be  guided  either  by  personal  caprice  or  by 
She  testimony  of  competent  judges.  And  since  no  one 
is  a  competent  judge  of  scientific  excellence  unless  he 
is  himself  scientific,  we  are  driven  to  this  monstrous 
alternative,  that  the  rewards  of  intellectual  labour 
must  be  conferred  injudiciously,  or  else  that  they  must 
be  given  according  to  the  verdict  of  that  very  class  by 
whom  they  are  received.  In  the  first  case,  the  reward 
will  be  ridiculous ;  in  the  latter  case,  it  will  be  dis- 
graceful. In  the  former  case,  weak  men  will  be  bene- 
fited by  wealth  which  is  taken  from  industry  to  be 
lavished  on  idleness.  But  in  the  latter  case,  those  men 
of  real  genius,  those  great  and  illustrious  thinkers,  who 
are  the  masters  and  teachers  of  the  human  race,  are  to 
be  tricked  out  with  trumpery  titles  ;  and  after  scram- 
bling in  miserable  rivalry  for  the  sordid  favours  of  a 
court,  they  are  then  to  be  turned  into  beggars  of  the 
state,  who  not  only  clamour  for  their  share  of  the  spoil, 
but  even  regulate  the  proportions  into  which  the  shares 
are  to  be  divided. 

Under  such  a  system,  the  natural  results  are,  first, 
the  impoverishment  and  servility  of  genius  :  then  the 
decay  of  knowledge  ;  then  the  decline  of  the  country. 
Three  times  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  this  expe- 
riment been  tried.  In  the  ages  of  Augustus,  of  Leo  X., 
and  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  same  method  was  adopted,  and 
the  same  result  ensued.  In  each  of  these  ages,  there  was 
much  apparent  splendour,  immediately  succeeded  by 


PEOTECTIVE   SPIEIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      205 

sudden  ruin.  In  each  instance,  the  brilliancy  survived 
the  independence  ;  and  in  each  instance,  the  national 
spirit  sank  under  that  pernicious  alliance  between 
government  and  literature,  by  virtue  of  which  the  po- 
litical classes  become  very  powerful,  and  the  intellectual 
classes  very  weak,  simply  because  they  who  dispense 
the  patronage  will,  of  course,  receive  the  homage  ;  and 
if,  on  the  one  hand,  government  is  always  ready  to 
reward  literature,  so  on  the  other  hand,  will  literature 
be  always  ready  to  succumb  to  government. 

Of  these  three  ages,  that  of  Louis  XIV.  was  in- 
comparably the  worst ;  and  nothing  but  the  amazing 
energy  of  the  French  people  could  have  enabled  them 
to  rally,  as  they  afterwards  did,  from  the  effects  of  so 
enfeebling  a  system.  But  though  they  rallied,  the 
effort  cost  them  dear.  The  struggle,  as  we  shall  pre- 
sently see,  lasted  two  generations,  and  was  only  ended 
by  that  frightful  Revolution  which  formed  its  natural 
climax.  What  the  real  history  of  that  struggle  was,  I 
shall  endeavour  to  ascertain  towards  the  conclusion  of 
this  volume.  Without,  however,  anticipating  the  course 
of  affairs,  we  will  now  proceed  to  what  I  have  already 
mentioned  as  the  second  great  characteristic  of  the 
reign  of  Louis  XTV. 

II.  The  second  intellectual  characteristic  of  the  reign 
of  Louis  XIV.  is,  in  importance,  hardly  inferior  to  the 
first.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  national  intellect, 
stunted  by  the  protection  of  the  court,  was  so  diverted 
from  the  noblest  branches  of  knowledge,  that  in  none  of 
them  did  it  produce  anything  worthy  of  being  recorded. 
As  a  natural  consequence,  the  minds  of  men,  driven 
from  the  higher  departments,  took  refuge  in  the  lower, 
and  concentrated  themselves  upon  those  inferior  sub- 
jects, where  the  discovery  of  truth  is  not  the  main 
object,  but  where  beauty  of  form  and  expression  are  the 
things  chiefly  pursued.  Thus,  the  first  consequence  of 
the  patronage  of  Louis  XTV.  was,  to  diminish  the  field  for 
genius,  and  to  sacrifice  science  to  art.  The  second  con- 
sequence was,  that,  even  in  art  itself,  there  was  soon 
seen  a  marked  decay.  For  a  short  time,  the  stimulus 
produced  its  effect ;  but  was  followed  by  that  collapse 


206      PEOTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

■which,  is  its  natural  result.  So  essentially  vicious  is  the 
■whole  system  of  patronage  and  reward,  that  after  the 
death  of  those  writers  and  artists,  whose  works  form 
the  only  redeeming  point  in  the  reign  of  Louis,  there 
was  found  no  one  capable  of  even  imitating  their  excel- 
lences. The  poets,  dramatists,  painters,  musicians, 
sculptors,  architects,  were,  with  hardly  an  exception, 
not  only  born,  but  educated  under  that  freer  policy, 
which  existed  before  his  time.  When  they  began  their 
labours,  they  benefited  by  a  munificence  which  encou- 
raged the  activity  of  their  genius.  But  in  a  few  years, 
that  generation  having  died  off,  the  hollowness  of  the 
whole  system  was  clearly  exposed.  More  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  before  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  most 
of  these  eminent  men  had  ceased  to  live  ;  and  then  it 
was  seen  to  how  miserable  a  plight  the  country  was  re- 
duced under  the  boasted  patronage  of  the  great  king. 
At  the  moment  when  Louis  XIV.  died,  there  was 
scarcely  a  writer  or  an  artist  in  France  who  enjoyed  an 
European  reputation.  This  is  a  circumstance  well  worth 
our  notice.  If  we  compare  the  different  classes  of  lite- 
rature, we  shall  find  that  sacred  oratory,  being  the  least 
influenced  by  the  king,  was  able  the  longest  to  bear  up 
against  his  system.  Massillon  belongs  partly  to  the 
subsequent  reign  ;  but  even  of  the  other  great  divines, 
Bossuet  and  Bourdaloue  both  lived  to  1704,58  Mascaron 
to  1703,59  and  Flechier  to  1710.60  As,  however,  the 
king,  particularly  in  his  latter  years,  was  very  fearful 
of  meddling  with  the  church,  it  is  in  profane  matters 
that  we  can  best  trace  the  workings  of  his  policy,  be- 
cause it  is  there  that  his  interference  was  most  active. 
With  a  view  to  this,  the  simplest  plan  -will  be,  to  look, 
in  the  first  place,  into  the  history  of  the  fine  arts ;  and 
after  ascertaining  who  the  greatest  artists  were,  observe 
the  year  in  which  they  died,  remembering  that  the  go- 
vernment of  Louis  XIV.  began  in  1661,  and  ended  in 
1715. 

If,  now,  we  examine  this  period  of  fifty-four  years,  we 


68  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  v.  pp.  236,        S9  Ibid,  xxvii.  p.  351. 
358.  60  Ibid.  xv.  p.  35. 


PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      207 


shall  be  struck  by  the  remarkable  fact,  that  everything 
•which  is  celebrated  was  effected  in  the  first  half  of  it ; 
while  more  than  twenty  years  before  its  close,  the  most 
eminent  masters  all  died  without  leaving  any  successors. 
The  six  greatest  painters  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XTV. 
were  Poussin,  Lesueur,  Claude  Lorraine,  Le  Brun,  and 
the  two  Mignards.  Of  these,  Le  Brun  died  in  1690 ; 61 
the  elder  Mignard  in  1668  ;  62  the  younger  in  1695  ;  63 
Claude  Lorraine  in  1682 ; 64  Lesueur  in  1655  ;  65  and 
Poussin,  perhaps  the  most  distinguished  of  all  the 
French  school,  died  in  1665. 66  The  two  greatest  archi- 
tects were,  Claude  Perrault  and  Francis  Mansart ;  but 
Perrault  died  in  1688  ;67  Mansart  in  1666  ;68  and  Blondel, 
the  next  in  fame,  died  in  1686.69  The  greatest  of  all 
the  sculptors  was  Puget,  who  died  in  1694.70  Lulli,  the 
founder  of  French  music,  died  in  1687.71  Quinault,  the 
greatest  poet  of  French  music,  died  in  1688.72     Under 


61  Ibid,  xxiii.  p,  496. 

62  Ibid.  xxix.  p.  17. 

63  Ibid.  xxix.  p.  19. 

64  '  His  best  pictures  were 
painted  from  about  1640  to  1 660 ; 
he  died  in  1682.'  Wornum's 
Epochs  of  Painting,  Lond.  1847. 
p.  399.  Voltaire  (Stick  de  Louis 
XIV,  in  (Euvres,  vol.  xix.  p.  205) 
says  that  he  died  in  1678. 

85  Biog.  Univ.  vol.xxiv.  p.  327 ; 
Works  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  454,  455. 

86  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxxv.  p. 
579.  Poussin  was  Barry's  '  fa- 
vourite' painter.  Letter  from 
Barry,  in  Burke's  Correspond. 
vol.  i.  p.  88.  Compare  Otter's 
Life  of  Clarke,  vol.  ii.  p.  55. 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  (Works, 
vol.  i.  pp.  97,  351,  376)  appears 
to  have  preferred  him  to  any  of 
the  French  school;  and  in  the 
report  presented  to  Napoleon  by 
the  Institute,  he  is  the  only 
French  painter  mentioned  by  the 
aide  of  the  Greek  and  Italian 


artists.     Dacier,  Rapport  His- 
toriaue,  p.  23. 

67  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxxiii.  p. 
411 ;  Sihle  de  Louis  XIV,  in 
(Euvres  de  Voltaire,  voL  xix.  p. 
158. 

68  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxvi.  p.  503. 

69  Ibid.  vol.  iv.  p.  593. 

70  Ibid.  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  300. 
Respecting  him,  see  Lady  Mor- 
gan's France,  vol.  ii.  pp.  30,  31. 

71  M.  Capefigue  (Louis  XIV, 
vol.  ii.  p.  79)  says,  '  Lulli  mourut 
en  1689;'  but  1687  is  the  date 
assigned  in  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxv. 
p.  425  ;  in  Chalmers's  Biog.  Diet. 
vol.  xx.  p.  483  ;  in  Rose's  Biog. 
Diet.  vol.  ix.  p.  350 ;  and  in 
Monteil,  Divers  Etats,  vol.  vii. 
p.  63.  In  (Euvres  de  Voltaire, 
vol  xix.  p.  200,  he  is  called  '  le 
pere  de  la  vraie  musique  en 
France.'  He  was  admired  by 
Louis  XTV.  Lettres  de  Sivigni, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  162,  163. 

n  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxxvi.  p. 
42      Voltaire  (  (Euvres,  vol.  xix. 


208     PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

these  eminent  men,  the  fine  arts,  in  the  reign  of  Louis 
XIV.,  reached  their  zenith ;  and  during  the  last  thirty 
years  of  his  life,  their  decline  was  portentously  rapid. 
This  was  the  case,  not  only  in  architecture  and  music, 
but  even  in  painting,  which,  being  more  subservient 
than  they  are  to  personal  vanity,  is  more  likely  to 
flourish  under  a  rich  and  despotic  government.  The 
genius,  however,  of  painters  fell  so  low,  that  long  before 
the  death  of  Louis  XTV.,  France  ceased  to  possess  one 
of  any  merit ;  and  when  his  successor  came  to  the 
throne,  this  beautiful  art  was,  in  that  great  country, 
almost  extinct.73 

These  are  startling  facts ;  not  matters  of  opinion, 
which  may  be  disputed,  but  stubborn  dates,  supported 
by  irrefragable  testimony.  And  if  we  examine  in  the 
same  manner  the  literature  of  the  age  of  Louis  XTV., 
we  shall  arrive  at  similar  conclusions.  If  we  ascertain 
the  dates  of  those  masterpieces  which  adorn  his  reign, 
we  shall  find  that  during  the  last  five-and- twenty  years 
of  his  life,  when  his  patronage  had  been  the  longest  in 
operation,  it  was  entirely  barren  of  results ;  in  other 
words,  that  when  the  French  had  been  most  habituated 
to  his  protection,  they  were  least  able  to  effect  great 
things.  Louis  XIV.  died  in  1715.  Racine  produced 
Phedre  in  1677 ;  Andromaque  in  1667 ;  Atlielie  in  1691.74 
Moliere  published  the  Misanthrope   in  1666 ;    Tartuffe 


p.    162)    says,    '  personne    n'a  du  siecle  de  Louis  XIV 

jamais  egaleQuinault;'  and  Mr.  II  est  certain  que  les  vingt-cinq 

Hallam  (Lit.  of  Europe,  vol.  iii.  dernieres    annees  du  regne  de 

p.  507),  '  the  unrivalled  poet  of  Louis    XIV   n'offrirent  que  des 

French  music'     See  also  Lettres  productions  tres-inferieures, '  &c. 

de  Dudeffand  a  Walpole,  vol.  ii.  Thus  too  Barrington  ( Observa- 

p.  432.  tions  on  the  Statutes,  p.  377),  '  It 

7S  "When  Louis  XV.  ascended  is    very    remarkable    that   the 

the  throne,  painting  in  France  French  school  hath  not  produced 

was  in  the  lowest  state  of  degra-  any  very  capital  painters  since 

dation.'    tLady  Morgari 's  France,  the  expensive  establishment  by 

vol.  ii.  p.  31.    Lacretelle  (Dix-  Louis  XIV.  of  the  academies  at 

huitieme  Siecle,  voL  ii.    p.   11)  Home  and  Paris.' 
says   '  Les  beaux   arts   degene-        u  Biog.   Univ.  vol.  xxxvi.  pp. 

rerent  plus  sensiblement  que  les  499,  502  ;  Hallam's  Lit.  vol.  iii. 

lettres  pendant  la  seconde  partie  p.  493. 


PROTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      209 

in  1667 ;  the  Avare  in  1668.75  The  Lutrin  of  Boileau 
was  written  in  1674;  his  best  Satires  in  1666.7G  The 
last  Fables  of  La  Fontaine  appeared  in  1678,  and  his 
last  Tales  in  1671.77  The  Inquiry  respecting  Truth,  by 
Malebranche,  was  published  in  1674 ; 78  the  Caracteres 
of  La  Bray  ere  in  1687 ; 79  the  Maximes  of  Rochefou- 
cauld in  1665. 80  The  Provincial  Letters  of  Pascal  were 
written  1656,  and  he  himself  died  in  1662. 81  As  to 
Corneille,  his  great  Tragedies  were  composed,  some 
while  Louis  was  still  a  boy,  and  the  others  before  the 
king  was  born.82  Such  were  the  dates  of  the  master- 
pieces of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.  The  authors  of  these 
immortal  works  all  ceased  to  write,  and  nearly  all  ceased 
to  live,  before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  and 
we  may  fairly  ask  the  admirers  of  Louis  XTV.  who 
those  men  were  that  succeeded  them.  Where  have 
their  names  been  registered  ?  Where  are  their  works  to 
be  found  ?  Who  is  there  that  now  reads  the  books  of 
those  obscure  hirelings,  who  for  so  many  years  thronged 
the  court  of  the  great  king  ?  Who  has  heard  any- 
thing of  Campistron,  La  Chapelle,  Grenest,  Ducerceau, 
Dancourt,  Danchet,  Vergier,  Catrou,  Chaulieu,  Le- 
gendre,  Valincour,  Lamotte,  and  the  other  ignoble  com- 
pilers, who  long  remained  the  brightest  ornaments  of 
France  ?  Was  this,  then,  the  consequence  of  the  royal 
bounty  ?  Was  this  the  fruit  of  the  royal  patronage  ? 
If  the  system  of  reward  and  protection  is  really  advan- 
tageous to  literature  and  to  art,  how  is  it  that  it  should 
have  produced  the  meanest  results  when  it  had  been  the 


*  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxix.  pp.  note  in  Lettres  de  Patin,  vol.  i. 

306,  308.  p.  421. 

78  Rose's  Biog.  Diet.  vol.  iv.  8I  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxxiii.  pp. 
p.  376 ;  and  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  v.  64,  71 ;  Palissot,  Mem.  pour 
pp.  7,  8,  where  it  is  said  that  VHist.  de  Lit.  vol.  ii.  pp.  239, 
'  ses   meilleures   satires  '   were  241. 

those  published  in  1666.  82  Polyeucte,   which  is  proba- 

77  Ibid.  vol.  xxiii.  p.  127.  bly  his  greatest  work,  appeared 

76     Tennemann,     Gesch.     der  in  1640 ;   Mkdie  in  1635 ;    The 

Philos.  vol.  x.  p.  322.  Cid  in  1636  ;  Horace  and  Cinna 

79  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  vi.  p.  175.  both  in  1639.     Biog.  Univ,  voL 

80  Brunei,  Manuel  du  Libraire,  ix.  pp.  609-613. 
vol.  iv.  p.  105,  Paris  1843  ;  and 

VOL.  11.  P 


210      PEOTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV. 

longest  in  operation  ?  If  the  favour  of  kings  is,  as  their 
flatterers  tell  ns,  of  such  importance,  how  comes  it  that 
the  more  the  favour  was  displayed,  the  more  the  effects- 
were  contemptible  ? 

Nor  was  this  almost  inconceivable  penury  compen- 
sated by  superiority  in  any  other  department.  The  simple 
fact  is  that  Louis  XIV.  survived  the  entire  intellect  of 
the  French  nation,  except  that  small  part  of  it  which 
grew  up  in  opposition  to  his  principles,  and  afterwards 
shook  the  throne  of  his  successor.83  Several  years  be- 
fore his  death,  and  when  his  protective  system  had  been 
in  full  force  for  nearly  half  a  century,  there  was  not  to 
be  found  in  the  whole  of  France  a  statesman  who  could 
develop  the  resources  of  the  country,  or  a  general  who 
could  defend  it  against  its  enemies.  Both  in  the  civil 
service  and  in  the  military  service,  every  thing  had  fallen 
into  disorder.  At  home  there  was  nothing  but  con- 
fusion; abroad  there  was  nothing  but  disaster.  The 
spirit  of  France  succumbed,  and  was  laid  prostrate. 
The  men  of  letters,  pensioned  and  decorated  by  the 
court,  had  degenerated  into  a  fawning  and  hypocritical 
race,  who,  to  meet  the  wishes  of  their  masters,  opposed 
all  improvement,  and  exerted  themselves  in  support  of 
every  old  abuse.  The  end  of  all  this  was,  a  corruption, 
a  servility,  and  a  loss  of  power  more  complete  than  has- 
ever  been  witnessed  in  any  of  the  great  countries  of 
Europe.  There  was  no  popular  liberty ;  there  were  no 
great  men ;  there  was  no  science ;  there  was  no  literature ; 
there  were  no  arts.  Within,  there  was  a  discontented 
people,  a  rapacious  government,  and  a  beggared  exche- 
quer. Without,  there  were  foreign  armies,  which 
pressed  upon  all  the  frontiers,  and  which  nothing  but 
their  mutual  jealousies,  and  a  change  in  the  English 
cabinet,  prevented  from  dismembering  the  monarchy  of 
France.84  

83    Voltaire   (Sticle  de  Louis  it  'remarquable.'    See  also  Ba- 

XIV,  in  (Euvres,  vol.  xx.   pp.  rante,  Litterature  Frangaise,  p. 

319-322)  reluctantly    confesses  28 ;  Sismondi,  Hist,  dts  Frangais, 

the  decline  of  the  French  intel-  vol.  xxvi.  p.  217. 
lect  in  the  latter  part  of  the  reign        84  Oppressed  by  defeats  abroad, 

of  Louis ;  and  Flassan  (Diplo-  and  by  famine  and  misery  at 

mat.  Frang.  vol.  iv.  p.  400)  calls  home,    Louis  was  laid   at  the- 


PEOTECTIVE    SPIRIT   UNDER   LOUIS   XIV.      211 


Such,  was  the  forlorn  position  of  that  noble  country 
towards  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.85     The 


mercy  of  his  enemies ;  and  was 
only  saved  by  a  party  revolution 
in  the  English  ministry.'  Ar- 
nolds Lectures  on  Modem  His- 
tory,  p.  137.  Compare  Fragments 
sur  I'Histoire,  article  xxiii.  in 
(Eicvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  xxvii. 
p.  345,  -with  Be  Tocqueville, 
Bigne  de  Louis  XV,  vol.  i.  p.  86. 
85  For  evidence  of  the  depres- 
sion and,  indeed,  utter  exhaustion 
of  France  during  the  latter  years 
of  Louis  XIV.,  compare  JDuclos, 
Memoires,  vol.  i.  pp.  11-18,  with 
Marmontel,  Hist,  de  la  Begence, 
Paris,  1826,  pp.  79-97.  The 
Lettres  inedites  de  Madame  de 
Maintenon  (vol.  i.  pp.  263,  284, 
358,  389,  393,  408,  414,  422, 
426,  447,  457,  463,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
19,  23,  33,  46,  56,  and  numerous 
other  passages)  fully  confirm  this, 
and,  moreover,  prove  that  in 
Paris,  early  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  the  resources,  even  of 
the  wealthy  classes,  were  begin- 
ning to  fail ;  while  both  public 
and  private  credit  were  so  shaken, 
that  it  was  hardly  possible  to 
obtain  money  on  any  terms.  In 
1 7 10,  she,  the  wife  of  Louis  XIV., 
complains  of  her  inability  to 
borrow  500  livres  :  '  Tout  mon 
credit  echoue  souvent  aupres  de 
M.  Desmaretz  pour  une  somme 
de  cinq  cents  livres.'  Rid.  vol. 
ii.  p.  33.  In  1709,  she  writes  (vol. 
i.  p.  447):  'Le  jeu  devient  in- 
sipide,  parce  qu'il  n'y  a  presque 
plus  d'argent.'  See  also  vol.  ii. 
p.  112;  and  in  February  1711 
(p.  151):  '  Ce  n'est  pas  l'abon- 
dance  mais  l'avarice  qui  fait 
jouer  nos  courtisans ;  on  met  le 
tout  pour  le  tout  pour  avoir 
quelque  argent,  et  les  tables  do 


pJ2 


lansquenet  ont  plus  l'air  d'un 
triste  commerce  que  d'un  diver- 
tissement.' 

In  regard  to  the  people  gene- 
rally, the  French  writers  supply 
us  with  little  information,  because 
in  that  age  they  were  too  much 
occupied  with  their  great  king 
and  their  showy  literature,  to 
pay  attention  to  mere  popular 
interests.  But  I  have  collected 
from  other  sources  some  infor- 
mation which  I  will  now  put 
together,  and  which  I  recommend 
to  the  notice  of  the  next  French 
author  who  undertakes  to  com 
pose  a  history  of  Louis  XIV. 

Lock,  who  was  travelling  in 
France  in  1676  and  1677,  writes 
in  his  journal,  '  The  rent  of  land 
in  France  fallen  one-half  in 
these  few  years,  by  reason  of  the 
poverty  of  the  people.'  King's 
Life  of  Locke,  vol.  i.  p.  139. 
About  the  same  time,  Sir  William 
Temple  says  (Works,  vol  ii.  p. 
268),  '  The  French  peasantry  are 
wholly  dispirited  by  labour  and 
want.'  In  1691,  another  ob- 
server, proceeding  from  Calais, 
writes,  '  From  hence,  travelling 
to  Paris,  there  was  opportunity 
enough  to  observe  what  a  pro- 
digious state  of  poverty  the  am- 
bition and  absoluteness  of  a 
tyrant  can  reduce  an  opulent  and 
fertile  country  to.  There  were 
visible  all  the  marks  and  signs 
of  a  growing  misfortune ;  all  the 
dismal  indications  of  an  over- 
whelming calamity.  The  fields 
were  uncultivated,  the  villages 
unpeopled,  the  houses  dropping 
to  decay.'  Burton's  Diary,  note 
by  Eutt,  vol.  iv.  p.  79.  In  a 
tract    published    in    1689,    the 


212      PEOTECTIVE    SPIRIT    UNDER   LOUIS    XIV. 


misfortunes  which  embittered  the  declining  years  of  the 
king  were,  indeed,  so  serious,  that  they  could  not  fail 
to  excite  our  sympathy,  if  we  did  not  know  that  they 
were  the  result  of  his  own  turbulent  ambition,  of  his 
insufferable  arrogance,  but,  above  all,  of  a  grasping  and 
restless  vanity,  which,  making  him  eager  to  concentrate 
on  his  single  person  all  the  glory  of  France,  gave  rise 
to  that  insidious  policy,  which,  with  gifts,  with  honours, 
and  with  honied  words,  began  by  gaining  the  admiration 
of  the  intellectual  classes,  then  made  them  courtly  and 
time-serving,  and  ended  by  destroying  all  their  boldness, 
stifling  every  effort  of  original  thought,  and  thus  post- 
poning for  an  indefinite  period  the  progress  of  national 
civilization. 


author  says  (Somers  Tracts,  vol. 
x.  p.  264),  'I  have  known  in 
France  poor  people  sell  their  beds, 
and  lie  upon  straw ;  sell  their 
pots,  kettles,  and  all  their  neces- 
sary household  goods,  to  content 
the  unmerciful  collectors  of  the 
king's  taxes.'  Dr.  Lister,  who 
visited  Paris  in  1698,  says,  'Such 
is  the  vast  multitude  of  poor 
wretches  in  all  parts  of  this  city, 
that  whether  a  person  is  in  a  ca- 
rriage or  on  foot,  in  the  street,  or 
even  in  a  shop,he  is  alike  unable  to 
transact  business,  on  account  of 
the  importunities  of  mendicants.' 
Lister's  Account  of  Paris,  p.  46. 
Compare  a  Letter  from  Prior,  in 
Ellis's  Letters  of  Literary  Men, 
p.  213.  In  1708,  Addison,  who, 
from  personal  observation,  was 
well  acquainted  with  France, 
writes:  'We  think  here  as  you 
do  in  the  country,  that  France  is 


on  her  last  legs.'  Aikiris  Life  of 
Addison,  vol.  i.  p.  233.  Finally, 
in  1718 — that  is,  three  years 
after  the  death  of  Louis — Lady 
Mary  Montagu  gives  the  follow- 
ing account  of  the  result  of  his 
reign,  in  a  letter  to  Lady  Rich, 
dated  Paris,  10th  October,  1718: 
'  I  think  nothing  so  terrible  as 
objects  of  misery,  except  one  had 
the  god-like  attribute  of  being 
able  to  redress  them ;  and  all  the 
country  villages  of  France  show 
nothing  else.  While  the  post- 
horses  are  changed,  the  whole 
town  comes  out  to  beg,  with  such 
miserable  starved  faces,  and  thin, 
tattered  clothes,  they  need  no 
other  eloquence  to  persuade  one 
of  the  wretchedness  of  their  con- 
dition.' Works  of  Lady  Mary 
Worthy  Montague,  vol.  iii.  p.  74, 
edit.  1803. 


213 


CHAPTER  V. 

DEATH   OF   LOUIS   XIV.      REACTION   AGAINST   THE   PBOTECTIVE    SPIRIT, 
AND   PREPARATIONS   FOR    THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

At  length.  Louis  XTV.  died.  When  it  was  positively 
known  that  the  old  king  had  ceased  to  hreathe,  the 
people  went  almost  mad  with  joy.1  The  tyranny  which 
had  weighed  them  down  was  removed;  and  there  at 
once  followed  a  reaction  which,  for  sudden  violence, 
has  no  parallel  in  modern  history.2  The  great  majority 
indemnified  themselves  for  their  forced  hypocrisy  by 
indulging  in  the  grossest  licentiousness.  But  among 
the  generation  then  forming,  there  were  some  high- 
spirited  youths,  who  had  far  higher  views,  and  whose 
notions  of  liberty  were  not  confined  to  the  license  of  the 
gaming-house  and  the  brothel.  Devoted  to  the  great 
idea  of  restoring  to  France  that  freedom  of  utterance 
which  it  had  lost,  they  naturally  turned  their  eyes 
towards  the  only  country  where  the  freedom  was 
practised.  Their  determination  to  search  for  liberty 
in  the  place  where  alone  it  could  be  found,  gave  rise  to 
that  junction  of  the   French  and  English  intellects, 


'  '  L'annonce  de  la  mort  du  net,  Vie  de  Voltaire,  p.  29 :  sea 

grand  roi  no  produisit  chez  le  also  Condorcet,  Vie  de   Voltaire, 

peuple  fran9ais  qu'une  explosion  p.  118  ;  De  Tocqueville,  Eigne  de 

dejoie.'     Sismondi,     Hist,     dcs  Louis  XV,  vol.  i.  p.  18  ;  Duclos, 

Francais,    vol.    xxvii.    p.    220.  Memoires,  vol  i.  p.  221 ;  Lemon 

'  Le  jour  des  obseques  do  Louis  tey,  Etablissement  de  Louis  XIV, 

XIV,  on  etablit  des  guinguettes  pp.  311,  388. 
sur  le  chemin  de  Saint-Denis.        2  '  Kaum  hatte  er  aber  die 

Voltaire,  que  la  curiosite  avoit  Augen     geschlossen,    als    alles 

mene  aux  funeraillos  du  souvo-  umscblug.     Derreprimirte  Geist 

rain,  vit  dans  cos  guinguettos  lo  warf  sich  in  eine  zugelloso  Bewe- 

Eeuple  ivre  de  vin  et  de  joie  do  gung.'    Rankc,  die  Fapste,  vol. 

i  mort  de  Louis  XIV.'     Duvcr-  iii.  p.  192. 


214 


EAELT  CAUSES    OF 


which,  looking  at  the  immense  chain  of  its  effects,  is 
by  far  the  most  important  fact  in  the  history  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

During  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  French,  puffed 
up  by  national  vanity,  despised  the  barbarism  of  a 
people  who  were  so  uncivilized  as  to  be  always  turning 
on  their  rulers,  and  who,  within  the  space  of  forty 
years,  had  executed  one  king,  and  deposed  another.3 
They  could  not  believe  that  such  a  restless  horde  pos- 
sessed anything  worthy  the  attention  of  enlightened 
men.  Our  laws,  our  literature,  and  our  manners,  were 
perfectly  unknown  to  them ;  and  I  doubt  if  at  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century  there  were,  either  in  litera- 
ture or  in  science,  five  persons  in  France  acquainted 
with  the  English  language.4     But  a  long  experience  of 


8  The  shock  which  these  events 
gave  to  the  delicacy  of  the 
French  mind  was  very  serious. 
The  learned  Saumaise  declared 
that  the  English  are  '  more  sa- 
vage than  their  own  mastiffs.' 
CarlyUs  Cromwell,  vol.  i.  p.  444. 
Another  writer  said  that  we  were 
4barbares  revoltes;'  and  'les 
barbares  sujets  du  roi.'  Mem. 
de  MottevUle,  vol.  ii.  pp.  105, 
362.  Patin  likened  us  to  the 
Turks;  and  said,  that  having 
executed  one  king,  we  should 
probably  hang  the  next.  Letlres 
de  Patin,  vol.  i.  p.  261,  vol.  ii.  p. 
518,  vol.  iii.  p.  148.  Compare 
Mem.  de  Campion,  p.  213.  After 
we  had  sent  away  James  II.,  the 
indignation  of  the  French  rose 
still  higher,  and  even  the  amia- 
ble Madame  Sevigne,  having  oc- 
casion to  mention  Mary  the  wife 
of  William  III.,  could  find  no 
better  name  "for  her  than  Tullia : 
'  la  joie  est  universelle  de  la  de- 
route  de  ce  prince,  dont  la  femme 
est  une  Tullie.'  Lettres  de  Se- 
vigne, vol.  v.  p.  179.  Another 
influential  French  lady  mentions 


'la  ferocite  des  anglais.'  Let- 
tres inedites  de  Maintenon,  vol.  i. 
p.  303;  and  elsewhere  (p.  109), 
'je  hais  les  anglais  comme  le 
peuple.  .  .  .  Veritablement  je  ne 
les  puis  souffrir.' 

I  will  only  give  two  more  il- 
lustrations of  the  wide  diffusion 
of  such  feelings.  In  1679,  an 
attempt  was  made  to  bring  bark 
into  discredit  as  a  '  remede  an- 
glais' (Sprengel,  Hist,  de  la  Me- 
decine,  vol.  v.  p.  430) :  and  at 
the  end  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, one  of  the  arguments  in 
Paris  against  coffee  was  that  the 
English  liked  it.  Monteil,  Di- 
vers Etats,  vol.  vii.  p.  216. 

*  '  Au  temps  de  Boileau,  per- 
sonne  en  France  n'apprenait 
l'anglais.'  (Euvres  de  Voltaire, 
vol.  xxxviii.  p.  337,  and  see  vol. 
xix.  p.  159.  *  Parmi  nos  grands 
ecrivains  du  xviie  siecle,  il  n'en 
est  aucun,  je  crois,  ou  Ton  puisse 
reconnaitre  un  souvenir,  une 
impression  de  l'esprit  anglais.' 
Villemain,  Lit.  au  XVIII'  Sikle, 
vol. iii.  p.  324.  Compare  Barante, 
XVIII'      Siecle,     p.     47,    and 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  215 

the  reign  of  Louis  XTV".  induced  the  French,  to  reconsider 
many  of  their  opinions.  It  induced  them  to  suspect 
that  despotism  may  have  its  disadvantages,  and  that  a 
government  composed  of  princes  and  bishops  is  not 
necessarily  the  best  for  a  civilized  country.  They  began 
to  look,  first  with  complacency,  and  then  with  respect, 
upon  that  strange  and  outlandish  people,  who,  though 
only  separated  from  themselves  by  a  narrow  sea,  ap- 
peared to  be  of  an  altogether  different  kind ;  and  who, 
having  punished  their  oppressors,  had  carried  their 
liberties  and  their  prosperity  to  a  height  of  which  the 
world  had  seen  no  example.  These  feelings,  which 
before  the  Revolution  broke  out,  were  entertained  by 
the  whole  of  the  educated  classes  in  France,  were  in 
the  beginning,  confined  to  those  men  whose  intellects 
placed  them  at  the  head  of  their  age.  During  the  two 
generations  which  elapsed  between  the  death  of  Louis 
XP7.  and  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  there  was 
hardly  a  Frenchman  of  eminence  who  did  not  either 
visit  England  or  learn  English ;  while  many  of  them 
•did  both.     Buffon,  Brissot,  Broussonnet,   Condamine, 

Grimm,  Correspond,   vol.   v.  p.  the  Frenchman  learnt  for  the 

135,  vol.  xvii.  p.  2.  first  time  that  we  had  any  good 

The  French,  during  the  reign  poets :  '  first  conceived  an  opinion 

of  Louis  XTV.,  principally  knew  of  the  English  genius  for  poetry.' 

us  from  the  accounts  given  by  Tickell's   statement,   in  Aikin's 

two  of  their  countrymen,   Mon-  Life  of  Addison,  vol.  i.  p.   65. 

conys    and    Sorbiere ;    both    of  Finally,  it  is  said  that  Milton's 

whom  published  their  travels  in  Paradise    Lost    was    not    even 

England,  but  neither  of  whom  by  report  in  Franco  until  after 

were  acquainted  with  the  English  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  though 

language.     For    proof   of  this,  the  poem  was  published  in  1667, 

•see  Monconys,  Voyages,  vol.  iii.  and    the    king  died   in    1715; 

pp.  34,  69,  70,96;  and Sorbiire,  'Nous  n'avions  jamais  entendu 

Voyage,  pp.  45,  70.  parler  de  ce  poeme  en  France, 

When  Prior  arrived  at    the  avant  que  l'auteur  de  la  Henriade 

court  of  Louis  XIV.  as  plenipo-  nous  en  efttdonne  uno  idee  dans 

tentiary,  no  one   in  Paris  was  le    neuvieme    chapitre    de    son 

aware  that  he  had  written  poetry  Essai    sur    la    poesie    epique. 

(Lettres    sur    les    Anglais,    in  Diet.  Philos.  article  Epopee,  in 

(Euvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  CEuvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  zxxix. 

*30);  and  when  Addison,  being  p.   175;    see  also  vol.   lxvi.  p. 

in  Paris,  presented  Boileau  with  249. 
a  copy  of  the  Musa  Anglicana, 


216  EAELT   CAUSES   OP 

Delisle,  Elie  de  Beaumont,  Gournay,  Helvetius,  Jussieu, 
Lalande,  Lafayette,  Larcher,  L'Heritier,  Montesquieu,. 
Maupertuis,  Morellet,  Mirabeau,  Nollet,  Raynal,  the 
celebrated  Roland,  and  his  still  more  celebrated  wife, 
Rousseau,  Segur,  Suard,  Voltaire — all  these  remarkable 
persons  nocked  to  London,  as  also  did  others  of  inferior 
ability,  but  of  considerable  influence,  such  as  Brequiny, 
Bordes,  Calonne,  Coyer,  Cormatin,  Dufay,  Dumarest, 
Dezallier,  Favier,  Girod,  Grosley,  Godin,  D'Hancarville, 
Hunauld,  Jars,  Le  Blanc,  Ledru,  Lescalher,  Linguet, 
Lesuire,  Lemonnier,  Levesque  de  Pouilly,  Montgol- 
fier,  Morand,  Patu,  Poissonier,  Reveillon,  Septchenes, 
Silhouette,  Siret,  Soulavie,  Soules,  and  Valmont  de 
Brienne. 

Nearly  all  of  these  carefully  studied  our  language, 
and  most  of  them  seized  the  spirit  of  our  literature. 
Voltaire,  in  particular,  devoted  himself  with  his  usual 
ardour  to  the  new  pursuit,  and  acquired  in  England  a 
knowledge  of  those  doctrines,  the  promulgation  of 
which,  afterwards  won  for  him  so  great  a  reputation.5 
He  was  the  first  who  popularized  in  France  the  philoso- 
phy of  Newton,  where  it  rapidly  superseded  that  of 
Descartes.6  He  recommended  to  his  countrymen  the 
writings  of  Locke  ;7  which  soon  gained  immense  popu- 

5  '  Le  vrai  roi  du  xviii*  siecle,  Hist,  of  the  Boyal  Society,  vol.  i. 
c'est  Voltaire;  mais  Voltaire  a  p.  441.  After  this,  the  Cartesian 
son  tour  est  un  ecolier  de  l'An-  physics  lost  ground  every  day ; 
gleterre.  Avant  que  Voltaire  and  in  Grimm's  Correspondence, 
eut  connu  l'Angleterre,  soit  par  vol.  ii.  p.  148,  there  is  a  letter, 
ses  voyages,  soit  part  ses  amities,  dated  Paris,  1757,  which  says, 
il  n'etait  pas  Voltaire,  et  le  'II  n'y  a  guere  plus  ici  de  parti- 
xviii9  siecle  se  cherchait  encore.'  sans  de  Descartes  que  M.  de 
Cousin,  Hist,  de  la  Pkilos.  Ire  Mairan.'  Compare  Observations 
serie.vol.iii.  pp.38, 39.  Compare  et  Pensees,  in  CEuvres  de  Turgoi, 
Damiron,  Hist,  de  la  Philos.  en  vol.  iii.  p.  298. 

France,  Paris,  1828,  vol.  i.  p.  34.         7  "Which  he  was  never  weary  of 

6  'J'avais  ete  le  premier  qui  praising;  so  that,  as  M.  Cousin 
eut  ose  developper  a,  ma  nation  says  {Hist,  del a  Phil os.  II.  serie,. 
les  decouvertes  de  Newton,  en  vol.  ii.  pp.  311,  312),  'Locke  est 
langage  intelligible.'  (Euvresde  le  vrai  maitre  de  Voltaire.* 
Voltaire,  vol.  i.  p.  315  ;  see  also  Locke  was  one  of  the  authors  he 
vol.  xix.  p.  87,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  71 ;  put  into  the  hands  of  Madame 
WheweUs  Hist,  of  Indue.  Sci-  du  Chatelet.  Condorcet,  Vie  de 
ences,    vol.   ii.    p.   206 ;  Weld's  Voltaire,  p.  296. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


217 


larity,  and  which  supplied  materials  to  Condillac  for 
his  system  of  metaphysics,8  and  to  Rousseau  for  his 
theory  of  education.9  Besides  this,  Voltaire  was  the 
first  Frenchman  who  studied  Shakespeare;  to  whose 
works  he  was  greatly  indebted,  though  he  afterwards 
wished  to  lessen  what  he  considered  the  exorbitant 
respect  paid  to  them  in  France.10  Indeed,  so  intimate 
was  his  knowledge  of  the  English  language,11  that  we 
can  trace  his  obligations  to  Butler,12  one  of  the  most 
difficult  of  our  poets,  and  to  Tillotson,13  one  of  the 
dullest  of  our  theologians.  He  was  acquainted  with 
the  speculations  of  Berkeley,14  the  most  subtle  meta- 
physician who  has  ever  written  in  English ;  and  he  had 
read  the  works,  not  only  of  Shaftesbury,18  but  even  of 


8  Moreirs  Hist,  of  Philos. 
1846,  vol.  i.  p.  134;  Hamilton's 
Discuss,  p.  3. 

9  '  Kousseau  tira  des  cmvrages 
de  Locke  une  grande  partie  de 
ses  idees  sur  la  politique  et 
1' education ;  Condillac  toute  sa 
philosophic.'  VUlemain,  Lit.  au 
XVIII'  Siecle,  vol.  i.  p.  83.  See 
also,  on  the  obligations  of  Kous- 
seau to  Locke,  Grimm,  Corres- 
pond, vol.  v.  p.  97 ;  Musset 
Pathay,  Vie  de  Rousseau,  vol.  i. 
p.  38,  vol.  ii.  p.  394 ;  Mem.  de 
Morellet,  vol.  i.  p.  1 13  ;  Romilly's 
Memoirs,  vol.  i.  pp.  211,  212. 

10  In  1768,  Voltaire  {(Euvres, 
vol.  lxvi.  p.  249)  writes  to  Ho- 
race Walpole,  '  Je  suis  le  pre- 
mier qui  ait  fait  connaitre  Shake- 
speare aux  fran9ais.'  See  also 
his  Lettres  inedites,  vol.  ii.  p. 
500 ;  Villemain,  Lit.  au  XVIII- 
Siecle,  vol.  iii.  p.  325;  and 
Grimm,  Correspond,  vol.  xii.  pp. 
124, 125,  133. 

11  There  are  extant  many  En- 
glish letters  written  by  Voltaire, 
which,  though  of  course  contain- 
ing several  errors,  also  contain 


abundant  evidence  of  the  spirit 
with  which  he  seized  our  idioma- 
tic expressions.  In  addition  to 
his  Lettres  inedites,  published  at 
Paris  in  the  presentyear  (1856), 
see  Chatham  Correspond,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  131-133;  and  Phillimore's 
Mem.  of  Lyttelton,  vol.  i.  pp.  323- 
325,  vol.  ii.  pp.  555,  556,  558. 

12  Grimm,  Correspond,,  vol.  i. 
p.  332 ;  Voltaire,  Lettres  inedites, 
vol.  ii.  p.  258  ;  and  the  account 
of  Hudibras,  with  translations 
from  it,  in  GEuvres,  vol.  xxvi.  pp. 
132-137  ;  also  a  conversation  be- 
tween Voltaire  and  Townley,  in 
Nichols's  Illustrations  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  iii.  p. 
722. 

13  Compare  Mackintosh's  Me- 
moirs, vol.  i.  341,  with  (Euwes 
de  Voltaire,  vol.  xxxix.  p.  259, 
vol.  xlvii.  p.  85. 

14  GEuvre3  de  Voltaire,  vol. 
xxxviii.pp.  216-218,  vol.  xlvi.  p. 
282,  vol.  xlvii.  p.  439,  vol.  lvii. 
p.  178. 

11  Hid.  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  353,  vol. 
lvii.  p.  66 ;  Correspond,  inidite 
de  Ludejfand,  vol.  ii.  p.  230. 


218 


EARLY   CAUSES   OP 


Chubb,16  Garth,17  Mandeville,18  and  Woolston.19  Mon- 
tesquieu imbibed  in  our  country  many  of  his  principles; 
he  studied  our  language ;  and  he  always  expressed  ad- 
miration for  England,  not  only  in  his  writings,  but  also 
in  his  private  conversation.20  Buffon  learnt  English, 
and  his  first  appearance  as  an  author  was  as  the  trans- 
lator of  Newton  and  of  Hales.21  Diderot,  following  in 
the  same  course,  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of"  the 
novels  of  Richardson  j22  he  took  the  idea  of  several  of 
his  plays  from  the  English  dramatists,  particularly  from 
Lillo;  he  borrowed  many  of  his  arguments  from  Shaftes- 
bury and  Collins,  and  his  earliest  publication  was  a 
translation  of  Stanyan's  History  of  Greece.23  Helvetius, 
who  visited  London,  was  never  weary  of  praising  the 
people ;  many  of  the  views  in  his  great  work  on  the 
Mind  are  drawn  from  Mandeville ;  and  he  constantly 
refers  to  the  authority  of  Locke,  whose  principles  hardly 
any  Frenchman  would  at  an  earlier  period  have  dared 
to  recommend.24     The  works  of  Bacon,  previously  little 


16  (Euvres,  vol.  rxxiv.  p.  294, 
vol.  lvii.  p.  121.  % 

17  Ibid.  vol.  xxxvii.  pp.  407, 
441. 

18  Ibid.  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  46. 

19  Ibid.  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  288,  vol. 
xli.  pp.  212-217 ;  Biog.  Univ. 
vol.  li.  pp.  199,  200. 

20  Lerminier,  Philos.  die  Droit, 
vol.  i.  p.  221;  Klimrceth,  Hist, 
du  Droit,  vol.  ii.  p.  502  ;  Harris's 
Life  of  Hardwicke,  vol.  ii.  p.  398, 
vol.  iii.  pp.  432-434;  Mem.  de 
Diderot,  vol.  ii.  pp.  193,  194; 
Laeretelle,  XVIIIe  Steele,  vol.  ii. 
p.  24. 

21  Villemain,  Lit.  au  XVIW 
Siecle,  vol.  ii.  p.  182;  Biog. 
Univ.  vol.  vi.  p.  235  ;  Le  Blanc, 
Lettres,  vol.  1.  p.  93,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
159,  160. 

22  'Admirateur  passionne  du 
romancier  anglais.'  Biog.  Univ. 
vol.  xxxvii.  p.  581.  Compare 
Diderot,  Corresp.  vol.  1 .  p.  352 ; 


vol.  ii.  pp.  44,  52,  53 ;  Mercicr 
sur  Rousseau,  vol.  i.  p.  44. 

2'  Villemain,  Lit.  vol.  ii.  p. 
115  ;  Schlosser's  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury, vol,  i.  pp.  34,  42 ;  Tenne- 
miann,  Gesch.  der  Philos.  vol.  xi. 
p.  314 ;  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xi.  p. 
314 ;  Grimm,  Correspond,  vol. 
xv.  p.  81.  Stanyan's  History  of 
Greece  was  once  famous,  and  even 
so  late  as  1804, 1  find  Dr.  Parr 
recommending  it.  Parr's  Works, 
vol.  viii.  p.  422.  Diderot  told 
Sir  Samuel  Romilly  that  he  had 
collected  materials  for  a  history 
of  the  trial  of  Charles  I.  Life  of 
Romilly,  vol.  i.  p.  46. 

24  Diderot,  Mem.  vol.  ii.  p. 
286 ;  Cousin,  Hist,  de  la  Philos. 
IP  serie,  vol.  ii.  p.  331 ;  Helve- 
tius deV  Esprit,  vol.  i.  pp.  31,  38, 
46,  65,  114,  169,  193,  266,  268, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  144,  163,  165,  195, 
212;  Letters  addressed  to  Hume, 
Edinb.  1849,  pp.  9,  10. 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  219 

known,  were  now  translated  into  French ;  and  his  classi- 
fication of  the  human  faculties  was  made  the  basis  of 
that  celebrated  Encyclopaedia,  which  is  justly  regarded 
as  one  of  the  greatest  productions  of  the  eighteenth 
century.26  The  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments,  by  Adam 
Smith,  was  during  thirty-four  years  translated  three 
different  times,  by  three  different  French  authors.26 
And  such  was  the  general  eagerness,  that  directly  the 
Wealth  of  Nations,  by  the  same  great  writer,  appeared, 
Morellet,  who  was  then  high  in  reputation,  began  to 
turn  it  into  French;  and  was  only  prevented  from 
printing  his  translation  by  the  circumstance,  that  before 
it  could  be  completed,  another  version  of  it  was  pub- 
lished in  a  French  periodical.27  Coyer,  who  is  still 
remembered  for  his  Life  of  SobiesM,  visited  England ; 
and  after  returning  to  his  own  country,  showed  the 
direction  of  his  studies  by  rendering  into  French  the 
Commentaries  of  Blackstone.28  Le  Blanc  travelled  in 
England,  wrote  a  work  expressly  upon  the  English,  and 
translated  into  French  the  Political  Discourses  of 
Hume.29  Holbach  was  certainly  one  of  the  most 
active  leaders  of  the  liberal  party  in  Paris ;  but  a  large 
part  of  his  very  numerous  writings  consists  solely  in 
translations  of  English  authors.30  Indeed,  it  may  be 
broadly  stated,  that  while,  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  find,  even 
among  the  most  educated  Frenchmen,  a  single  person 
acquainted  with  English,  it  would,  in  the  eighteenth 

24  This  is  the  arrangement  of  161,    190,   212;  Biog.  Univ.  x. 

our  knowledge  under  the  heads  158,  159. 

of  Memory,  Eeason,  and  Imagi-        2S  Burton's  Life  of  Hume,  vol. 

nation,   which  IVAlembert  took  i.  pp.  365,  366,  406. 
from  Bacon.    Compare  Whewetts        30  See  the  list,  in  Biog.  Univ. 

Philos.  of  the  Sciences,  vol.  ii.  p.  vol.  xx.  pp.  463-466 ;  and  com- 

306  ;  Cuvier,  Hist,  des  Sciences,  pare  Mem.  de  Diderot,  vol.  iii.  p. 

part  ii.  p.  276 ;   Georgel,  Mem.  49,   from   which  it  seems  that 

vol.  ii.  p.  241 ;  Bordas  JDemoulin,  Holbach  was  indebted  to  Toland, 

Cartesianisme,  vol.  i.  p.  18.  though  Diderot    speaks    rather 

28  Querard,   France  Lit.    ix.  doubtingly.     In  Almon's  Mem. 

193.  of  Wttkcs  1805,  vol.  iv.  pp.  176, 

27  Mem  de  Morellet,  i.  236,  177,  thoro  is  an  English  letter, 
237.  tolerably    well     written,     from 

28  QSuvres    de    Voltaire,    lxv.  Holbach  to  Wilkes. 


220 


EARLY    CAUSES   OP 


century,  have  been  nearly  as  difficult  to  find  in  the 
same  class  one  who  was  ignorant  of  it.  Men  of  all 
tastes,  and  of  the  most  opposite  pursuits,  were  on  this 
point  united  as  by  a  common  bond.  Poets,  geometri- 
cians, historians,  naturalists,  all  seemed  to  agree  as  to 
the  necessity  of  studying  a  literature  on  which  no  one 
before  had  wasted  a  thought.  In  the  course  of  general 
reading,  I  have  met  with  proofs  that  the  English  lan- 
guage was  known,  not  only  to  those  eminent  Frenchmen 
whom  I  have  already  mentioned,  but  also  to  mathema- 
ticians, as  D'Alembert,31  Darquier,32  Du  Val  le  Roy,33 
Jurain,34Lachapelle,35  Lalande,36Le  Cozic,37  Montucla,38 
Pezenas,39  Prony,40  Romme,41  and  Roger  Martin  ;42  to 
anatomists,  physiologists,  and  writers  on  medicine, 
as  Barthez,43  Bichat,44  Borden,45  Barbeu  Dubourg,46 
Bosquillon,47  Bourru,48  Begue  de  Presle,49  Cabanis,50 
Demours,51  Duplanil,52  Fouquet,53  Goulin,64  Lavirotte,55 
Lassus,56  Petit  Radel,57  Pinel,58  Roux,59  Sauvages,60  and 
Sue  ;61  to  naturalists,  as  Alyon,62  Bremond,63  Brisson,64 
Broussonnet,65  Dalibard,66  Haiiy,67  Latapie,68  Richard,69 


31  Musset  Pathay,  Vie  de 
Rousseau,  ii.  10,  175;  (Euvres 
de  Voltaire,  liv.  207. 

32  Biog.  Univ.  x.  556. 

33  Ibid.  xii.  418. 

31  Querard,  France  Lit.  iv.  34, 
272. 

35  Ibid.  iv.  361. 

38  Biog.  Univ.  xxiii.  226. 

87  Montucla,  Hist,  des  Math'em. 
ii.  170. 

38  Montucla,  ii.  120,  iv.  662, 
665,  670. 

39  Biog  Univ.  iii.  253,  xxxiii. 
664. 

40  Quirard,France  Lit.\n.353. 

41  Biog.  Univ.  xxxviii.  530. 

42  Ibid,  xxxviii.  411. 

43  Ibid.  iii.  450. 

44  Bichat  sur  la  Vie,  244. 

45  Querard,  i.  416. 

48  Biog.  Univ.  iii.  345. 

47  Querard,  i.  260,  425,  ii.354. 

49  Ibid.  i.  476. 

•  Biog.  Univ.  iv.  55,  56. 


50  Notice  sur  Cabanis,  p.  viii. 
in  his  Physique  et  Moral. 

51  Biog.  Univ.  xi.  65,  66. 
42  Ibid.  xii.  276. 

53  Ibid.  xv.  359. 

64  Ibid,  xviii.  18"7 

55  Querard,  iv.  641,  vi.  9,  398. 
88  Cuvier,  Eloges,  i.  354. 
57  Querard,  vii.  95. 
88  Cuvier,  Eloges,  iii.  3S2. 

59  Biog.  Univ.  xxxix.  174. 

60  Le  Blanc,  Lettres,  i.  93. 

61  Querard,  ix.  286. 

62  Bobinet  Verdeil,  Chim.Anat. 
ii.  416. 

63  Biog.  Univ.  v.  530,  531. 
84  Cuvier,  Eloges,  i.  196. 

65  Biog.  Univ.  vi.  47. 
68  Querard,  ii.  372. 

67  Haiiy,  Mineralogie,  ii.  247, 
267,  295,  327,  529,  609,  iii.  75, 
293,  307,  447,  575,  iv.  45,  280, 
292,  362. 

68  Querard,  iv.  598. 
«»  Ibid.  viii.  22. 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


221 


Rigaud,70  and  Rome  de  Lisle  ;71  to  historians,  philolo- 
gists, and  antiquaries,  as  Barthelemy,72  Butel  Dumont,73 
De  Brosses,74  Foucher,75  Freret,76  Larcher,77  Le  Coc  de 
Villeray,78  MiUot,79  Targe,80  Velly,81  Volney,82  and 
Wailly  ;83  to  poets  and  dramatists,  as  Cheron,84  Colar- 
deau,85  Delille,86  Desforges,87  Ducis,88  Florian,89  La- 
borde,90  Lefevre  de  Beauvray,91  Mercier,92  Patu,93  Pom- 
pignan,94  Quetant,95  Roncher,96  and  Saint  Ange  j97  to 
miscellaneons  writers,  as  Bassinet,98  Baudean,"  Beau- 
laton,100  Benoist,101  Bergier,102  Blavet,103  Bouchand,104 
Bougainville,105  Brute,106  Castera,107  Chantreau,10* 
Charpentier,109  Chastellux,110  Contant  d'Orville,111  De 
Bissy,112    Demeunier,113    Desfontaines,114    Devienne,115 


70  Swainson,  Disc,  on  Nat. 
Hist.  52 ;  Cuvier,  Begne  Animal, 
iii.  415. 

71  Be  Lisle,  Cristallographie, 
1772,  xviii.  xx.  xxiii.  xxv.  xxvii. 
?8,  206,  254. 

72  Albemarle's  Rockingham,  ii. 
156;  CampbelVs  Chancellors,  v. 
365. 

73  Biog.  Univ.  vi.  386. 

74  Letters  to  Hume,  Edin.  1 849, 
•276,  278. 

75  Biog.  Univ.  xv.  332. 

78  Brewster's  Life  of  Newton,  ii. 
302. 

77  Palissot,  Mem.  ii.  56. 

78  Biog.  Univ.  ix.  549. 

79  Ibid.  xxix.  51,  53. 

80  Ibid.  xliv.  534. 

81  Ibid,  xlviii.  93. 

82  Volney,  St/rie  et  Egypte,  ii. 
100,  157;  Querard,  x.  271, 
273. 

83  Biog.  Univ.  1.  42. 

84  Ibid.  viii.  340,  341. 

85  Mem.  de  Genlis,  i.  276. 

88  Palissot,  Mem.  i.  243. 

87  Biog.  Univ.  xi.281,xi.  172, 
173. 
»  Querard,  ii.  626,  627. 

89  Ibid.  iii.  141. 


90  Querard,  iv.  342. 

91  Ibid.  v.  83. 

92  Ibid.  vi.  62. 

93  Garrick    Correspond.     4to, 
1832,  ii.  385,  395,  416. 

94  Biog.  Univ.  xxxv.  314. 

95  Querard,  vii.  399. 

98  Biog.  Univ.  xxxix.  93. 
97  Ibid,  xxxix.  530. 

93  Querard,  i.  209. 

99  Biog.  Univ.  iii.  533. 

100  Ibid.  iii.  631. 

101  Cuvier,  Bhgne  Animal,  iii. 
334. 

102  Querard,  i.  284,  vii.  287. 

103  Mem.  de  Morellet,  i.  237. 

104  Biog.  Univ.  v.  264. 

105  Dutens,  Mem.  iii.  32. 

108  Biog.  Univ.  vi.  165. 

107  Murray's  Life    of  Bruce, 
121,  Biog.  Univ.  vi.  79. 
,08  Ibid.  viii.  46. 

109  Ibid.  viii.  246. 

110  Rid.  viii.  266. 
»"  Ibid.  ix.  497. 

112  Ibid.  xlv.  394. 

113  Lettres    de    Dudeffand    a 
Walpole,  iii.  184. 

114  (Euvres    de    Voltaire,    lvi. 
527. 

1,4  Biog.  Univ.  xi.  264. 


222 


EARLY   CAUSES   OF 


Dubocage,116  Dupre,.117  Duresnel,118  Eidous,119  Es- 
tienBe,120  Favier,121  Flavigny,122  Fontanelle,123  Fonte- 
nay,124  Framery,125  Fresnais,126  Freville,127  Frossard,128 
Galtier,129  Garsault,130  Goddard,131  Goudar,132  Guenee,133 
Guillemard,134  Guyard,135  Jault,136  Imbert,137  Jon- 
court,138  Keralio,139  Laboreau,140  Lacombe,141  La- 
fargue,142  La  Montague,143  Lanjuinais,144  Lasalle,145 
Lasteyrie,146  Le  Breton,147  Lecuy,148  Leonard  des 
Malpeines,149  Letournenr,150  Linguet,151  Lottin,152  Lu- 


118  Querard,  ii.  598. 

117  Biog.  Univ.  xii.  313,  314. 
us  Nichols's  Jjit.  Anec.  ii.  154; 
Palissot,  Mem.  ii.  311. 

119  Biog.    Univ.  iv.   547,  xii. 
595. 

120  Ibid.  xiii.  399. 

121  Querard,  iii.  79. 

122  Biog.  Univ.  xv.  29. 

123  Ibid.  xv.  203. 
121  Ibid.  218. 

125  Querard,  i.  525. 

126  Biog.  Univ.  xvi.  48. 

127  Ibid.  Ii.  508. 

128  Smith's  Tour  on  the  Conti- 
nent in  1786,  i.  143. 

129  Biog.  Univ.  xvi.  388. 

130  Ibid.  xvi.  502. 

181  Sinclair's    Correspond,  i. 
157. 

132  Querard,  iii.  418. 

133  Biog.  Univ.  xix.  13. 

134  Querard,  i.  10,  iii.  536. 

135  Rid.  iii.  469. 

136  Biog.  Univ.  xxi.  419. 
.     m  Ibid.  xxi.  200. 

138  (Euvres    de    Voltaire, 
xxxviii.  244. 

139  Palissot,  Mem.  i.  425. 

140  Biog.  Univ.  xxiii.  34. 

141  Ibid,  xxiii.  56. 

142  Ibid,  xxiii.  111. 

143  Querard,  iv.  503. 


144  Biog.  Univ.  xxiii.  373. 

145  Querard,  iv.  579. 

146  Sinclair's  Correspond,  ii. 
139. 

147  Mem.  and  Correspond,  of 
Sir.  J.  E.  Smith,  i.  163. 

148  Biog.  des  Hommes  Vivants, 
iv.  164. 

149  Querard,  v.  177. 

150  Nichols's  Lit.  Anec.  iv.  583; 
Longchamp  et  Wagniere,  Mem.  i. 
395 

151  Querard,  v.  316. 

152  Biog.  Univ.  xxv.  87. 

153  Ibid.  xxv.  432. 

154  Ibid.  xxvi.  244. 

155  Ibid.  xxvi.  468. 
I5*  Bid.  xxvii.  269. 
157  Ibid.  xxix.  208. 

148  Lettres  de  Dudeffand  a 
Walpole,  i.  222. 

159  Querard,  vi.  330. 

180  Biog.  Univ.  xxx.  539. 

161  Ibid,  xxxiii.  553. 

182  Lettres  de  Dudeffand  a 
Walpole,  i.  22,  iii.  307,  iv.  207. 

163  Biog.  Univ.  xxxvi.  305, 
306. 

164  Ibid,  xxxviii.  174. 

185  Peignot,  Diet,  des  Livres,  ii. 
233. 
188  Querard,  viii.  111. 


THE    FEENCH   EEVOLTJTION.  223 

Koubaud,167  Salaville,168  Sauseuil,169  Secondat,170  Sept- 
chenes,171  Simon,172  Soules,173  Suard,174  Tannevot,176 
Thurot,176  Toussaint,177  Tressan,178  Trochereau,179  Tur- 
pin,l80IJssieux,181  Vaugeois,182  Verlac,183  andVirloys.184 
Indeed,  Le  Blanc,  who  wrote  shortly  before  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  says :  'We  have  placed  Eng- 
lish in  the  rank  of  the  learned  languages  ;  our  women 
stndy  it,  and  have  abandoned  Italian  in  order  to  study 
the  language  of  this  philosophic  people ;  nor  is  there 
to  be  found  among  us  any  one  who  does  not  desire  to 
learn  it.'185 

Such  was  the  eagerness  with  which  the  French  im- 
bibed the  literature  of  a  people  whom  but  a  few  years 
before  they  had  heartily  despised.  The  truth  is,  that 
in  this  new  state  of  things  they  had  no  alternative. 
For  where  but  in  England  was  a  literature  to  be  found 
that  could  satisfy  those  bold  and  inquisitive  thinkers 
who  arose  in  France  after  the  death  of  Louis  Xl\ .  ? 
In  their  own  country  there  had  no  doubt  been  great 
displays  of  eloquence,  of  fine  dramas,  and  of  poetry, 
which,  though  never  reaching  the  highest  point  of  ex- 
cellence, is  of  finished  and  admirable  beauty.  But  it  is 
an  unquestionable  fact,  and  one  melancholy  to  contem- 
plate, that  during  the  sixty  years  which  succeeded  the 
death  of  Descartes,  France  had  not  possessed  a  single 


Univ.  xxxix.  84.  182  Mem.  de  Brissot,  i.  78. 

Biog.  des  Homines  Vivants,  129  Biog.    Univ.    xlviii.    217. 

v.  294.  218. 

169  Querard,  viii.  474.  1M  Ibid.  xlix.  223. 

170  Biog.  Univ.  xli.  426.  m  '  Nous   avons  mis    depuis 

171  Ibid.  xlii.  45,  46.  peu  leur  langue  an  rang  des  lan- 
1,2  Ibid.  xlii.  389.  gues  savantes ;  les  femmes  meme 

173  Ibid,  xliii.  181.  l'apprennent,     et    ont    renonce 

174  Garrick    Correspond,    ii.  a  l'ltalien  pour  6tudier  celle  de 
604 ;  Mem.  de  Genlis,  vi.  205.  ce  peuple  philosophe.     II  n'est 

175  Biog.  Univ.  xli  v.  512.  point  dans  fa  province  d' Armando 

176  Life  of  Roscoe,  by  his  Son,  et  de  Belise  qui  ne  veuille  sa- 
i.  200.  voir  l'anglois.'  Le  Blanc,  Lettres, 

'"  Biog.  Univ.  xlvi.  398,  399.  vol.  ii.p.  465.     Compare  Grimm, 

1,8  Ibid.  xlvi.  497.  Corrrsp.  vol.  xiv.  p.  484;  and 

"•  Qidrard,  iv.  45,  ix.  558.  Nichols's  Lit.  Ante.  vol.  iii.  pp. 

1,0  Biog.  Univ.  xlvii.  98.  460,  461. 
*•  Ibid,  xlvii.  232. 


224  EAELT   CAUSES   OP 

man  who  dared  to  think  for  himself.  Metaphysicians, 
moralists,  historians,  all  had  become  tainted  by  the 
servility  of  tbat  bad  age.  During  two  generations,  no 
Frenchman  had  been  allowed  to  discuss  with  freedom 
any  question,  either  of  politics  or  of  religion.  The  con- 
sequence was,  that  the  largest  intellects,  excluded  from 
their  legitimate  field,  lost  their  energy ;  the  national 
spirit  died  away ;  the  very  materials  and  nutriment  of 
thought  seemed  to  be  wanting.  ~No  wonder  then,  if  the 
great  Frenchmen  of  the  eighteenth  century  sought  that 
aliment  abroad  which  they  were  unable  to  find  at  home. 
No  wonder  if  they  turned  from  their  own  land,  and 
gazed  with  admiration  at  the  only  people  who,  pushing 
their  inquiries  into  the  highest  departments,  had  shown 
the  same  fearlessness  in  politics  as  in  religion  ;  a  people 
who,  having  punished  their  kings  and  controlled  their 
clergy,  were  storing  the  treasures  of  their  experience  in 
that  noble  literature  which  never  can  perish,  and  of 
which  it  may  be  said  in  sober  truth,  that  it  has  stimu- 
lated the  intellect  of  the  most  distant  races,  and  that, 
planted  in  America  and  in  India,  it  has  already  ferti- 
lized the  two  extremities  of  the  world. 

There  are,  in  fact,  few  things  in  history  so  instructive 
as  the  extent  to  which  France  was  influenced  by  this 
new  pursuit.  Even  those  who  took  part  in  actually 
consummating  the  Revolution,  were  moved  by  the  pre- 
vailing spirit.  The  English  language  was  familiar  to 
Carra,186  Dumouriez,187  Lafayette,188  and  Lanthenas.189 
Camille  Desmoulins  had  cultivated  his  mind  from  the 
same  source.190     Marat  travelled  in  Scotland  as  well  as 


186  Williams's  Letters  from  shortly  before  his  execution,  were 
France,  vol.  iii.  p.  68,  2nd  edit.  Young  and  Hervey.  Lamartine, 
1796;  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  vii.p.  192.  Hist.des  Girondins,  vol.  viii.  p. 

187  Adolphus's  Biog.  Mem.  45.  In  1769  Madame  Eiccoboni 
1799,  vol.  i.  p.  352.  writes  from  Paris,  that  Young's 

188  Lady  Morgan's  France,  vol.  Night  Thoughts  had  become  very 
ii.  p.  304 ;  MSm.  de  Lafayette,  popular  there;  and  she  justly 
vol.  i.  pp.  41,  49,  70,  vol.  ii.  pp.  adds,  'c'est  une  preuve  sans  re- 
26,  74,  83,  89.  plique  du  changement  de  1' esprit 

189  Querard,  France  Littkraire,  francais.'  GarricJc  Correspon- 
ded, iv.  p.  540.  dence,  vol.  ii.  p.  566,  4to.  1832. 

180  The  last  authors  he  read, 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  225 

in  England,  and  was  so  profoundly  versed  in  our 
language  that  lie  wrote  two  works  in  it ;  one  of  which, 
called  The  Chains  of  Slavery,  was  afterwards  trans- 
lated into  French.191  Mirabeau  is  declared  by  a  high 
authority  to  have  owed  part  of  his  power  to  a  careful 
study  of  the  English  constitution  ;192  he  translated  not 
only  Watson's  History  of  Philip  II,  but  also  some  parts 
of  Milton  ;193  and  it  is  said  that  when  he  was  in  the 
National  Assembly,  he  delivered,  as  his  own,  passages 
from  the  speeches  of  Burke.194  Mounier  was  well 
acquainted  with  our  language,  and  with  our  political 
institutions  both  in  theory  and  in  practice  ;195  and  in 
a  work,  which  exercised  considerable  influence,  he  pro- 
posed for  his  own  country  the  establishment  of  two 
chambers,  to  form  that  balance  of  power  of  which  Eng- 
land supplied  the  example.196  The  same  idea,  derived 
from  the  same  source,  was  advocated  by  Le  Brun,  who 
was  a  friend  of  Mounier's,  and  who,  like  him,  had  paid 
attention  to  the  literature  and  government  of  the  Eng- 
lish people.197  Brissot  knew  English  ;  he  had  studied 
in  London  the  working  of  the  English  institutions,  and 
he  himself  mentions  that,  in  his  treatise  on  criminal 
law,  he  was  mainly  guided  by  the  course  of  English 


191  Lamartine,  Hist.des  Giron-  i.  p.  452.  He  also  intended  to 
dins,  vol.  iv.  p.  119 ;  Mem.  de  translate  Sinclair's  History  of 
Brissot,  vol.  i.  pp.  336,  337,  vol.  the  Revenue.  Correspond,  of 
ii.  p.  3.  Sir  J.  Sinclair,  vol.  ii.  p.  119. 

192  '  Une  des  superiorites  se-  m  Prior's  Life  of  Burke,  p. 
condaires,  une    des   superiorites  546,  3rd  edit.  1839. 

d' etude  qui  appartenaient  a  Mira-  I9S  '  II  etudiait  leur  langue,  la 

beau,  c'etait  la  profonde  connais-  theorie  et  plus  encore  la  pratique 

sance,  la  vive  intelligence  de  la  de  leurs  institutions.'  Bwg.  Univ. 

constitution  anglaise,  de  ses  res-  vol.  xxx.  p.  310. 

sorts  publics  et  de  ses  ressorts  l96  Continuation  de  Sismondi, 

caches.'  Villemaln,  Lit.au  XV III'  Hist,  des  Francois,  rol.  xxx.  p. 

Siecle,  vol.  iv.  p.  153.  434.        Montlosier     {Monarchic 

193  Particularly  the  democratic  Frangaise,  vol.  ii.  p.  340)  says 
passages, 'un  corps  de  doctrine  that  this  idea  was  borrowed  from 
do  tous  ses  ecrits  republicains.'  England  ;  but  he  does  not  men- 
Dumont,  Souvenirs  sur  Mirabeau,  tion  who  suggested  it. 

p.  119.    As  to  his  translation  of  19T  Du  MesnU,  Mem.  sur  Le 

Watson,  see  Alison's  Europe,  vol.  Brun,  pp.  10,  14, 29,  82,  180, 182. 

VOL.  II.  Q 


226  EABLY  CAUSES   OP 

legislation.198  Condorcet  also  proposed  as  a  model  our 
system  of  criminal  jurisprudence,1"  which,  bad  as  it 
was,  certainly  surpassed  that  possessed  by  France. 
Madame  Roland,  whose  position,  as  well  as  ability, 
made  her  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  democratic  party, 
was  an  ardent  student  of  the  language  and  literature  of 
the  English  people.200  She  too,  moved  by  the  universal 
curiosity,  came  to  our  country ;  and,  as  if  to  show  that 
persons  of  every  shade  and  of  every  rank  were  actuated 
by  the  same  spirit,  the  Duke  of  Orleans  likewise  visited 
England ;  nor  did  his  visit  fail  to  produce  its  natural 
results.  '  It  was,'  says  a  celebrated  writer,  '  in  the 
society  of  London  that  he  acquired  a  taste  for  liberty ; 
and  it  was  on  his  return  from  there  that  he  brought  into 
France  a  love  of  popular  agitation,  a  contempt  for  his 
own  rank,  and  a  familiarity  with  those  beneath,  him.'201 
This  language,  strong  as  it  is,  will  not  appear  exagge- 
rated to  any  one  who  has  carefully  studied  the  history 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  is  no  doubt  certain,  that 
the  French  Revolution  was  essentially  a  reaction  against 
that  protective  and  interfering  spirit  which  reached  its 
zenith  under  Louis  XIV.,  but  which,  centuries  before 
his  reign,  had  exercised  a  most  injurious  influence  over 
the  national  prosperity.  While,  however,  this  must  be 
fully  conceded,  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  impetus  to 
which  the  reaction  owed  its  strength,  proceeded  from 
England ;  and  that  it  was  English  literature  which 
taught  the  lessons  of  political  liberty,  first  to  France, 
and  through  France  to  the  rest  of  Europe.202     On  this 


198  Mem.  de  Brissot,  vol.  i.  la  vie  de  Londres.  II  en  rap- 
pp.  63,  64,  vol.  ii.  pp.  25,40,  188,  porta  en  France  les  habitudes 
206,  260,  313.  d'insolence  contre  la  cour,  l'ap- 

199  Dupont  de  Nemours  (Mem.  petit  des  agitations  populaires, 
stir  Turgot,  p.  1 17)  says  of  crimi-  le  mepris  pour  son  propre  rang, 
nal  jurisprudence,  '  M.  de  Con-  la  familiarite  avec  la  foule,'  &c. 
dorcet  proposait  en  modele  celle  Lamartine,  Hist,  des  Girondins, 
des  Anglais.'  vol.  ii.  p.  102. 

200  Mem.  de  Eoland,  vol.  i.  pp.  202  M.  Lerminier  (Philos.  du 
27,  55,  89,  136,  vol.  ii.  pp.  99,  Droit,  vol.  i.  p.  19)  says  of  Eng- 
135,  253.  land,  'cette  ile  celebre  donne  a, 

201  'Le  due  d'Orleans  puisa  l'Europe  1'enseignement  de  la 
ainsi  le  gout  de  la  libertd  dans  liberte    politique ;    elle    en  fat 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  227 

account,  and  not  at  all  from  mere  literary  curiosity,  I 
have  traced  with  some  minuteness  that  union  between 
the  French  and  English  minds,  which,  though  often 
noticed,  has  never  been  examined  with  the  care  its  im- 
portance deserves.  The  circumstances  which  reinforced 
this  vast  movement  will  be  related  towards  the  end  of 
the  volume  ;  at  present  I  will  confine  myself  to  its  first 
great  consequence,  namely,  the  establishment  of  a  com- 
plete schism  between  the  literary  men  of  France,  and 
the  classes  who  exclusively  governed  the  country. 

Those  eminent  Frenchmen  who  now  turned  their 
attention  to  England,  found  in  its  literature,  in  the 
structure  of  its  society,  and  in  its  government,  many 
peculiarities  of  which  their  own  country  furnished  no 
example.  They  heard  political  and  religious  questions 
of  the  greatest  moment  debated  with  a  boldness  un- 
known in  any  other  part  of  Europe.  They  heard 
dissenters  and  churchmen,  whigs  and  tories,  handling 
the  most  dangerous  topics,  and  treating  them  with 
unlimited  freedom.  They  heard  public  disputes 
respecting  matters  which  no  one  in  France  dared  to 
discuss ;  mysteries  of  state  and  mysteries  of  creed 
unfolded  and  rudely  exposed  to  the  popular  gaze.  And, 
what  to  Frenchmen  of  that  age  must  have  been  equally 
amazing,  they  not  only  found  a  public  press  possessing 
some  degree  of  freedom,  but  they  found  that  within  the 
very  walls  of  parliament  the  administration  of  the  crown 
was  assailed  with  complete  impunity,  the  character  of  its 
chosen  servants  constantly  aspersed,  and,  strange  to  say, 
even  the  management  of  its  revenues  effectually  con- 
trolled.203 ^^ 

The  successors  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV. ,  seeing  these 

l'ecole    au    dix-huitieme    siecle  who  visited  England,  says  (Philo- 

pour  tout  ce  que  l'Europe  eut  de  sophical  Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  8), 

penseurs.'      See    also    Scndavie,  '  nothing  is  more  apt  to  surprise 

Eigne  de  Louis  XVI,  vol.  iii.  p.  a  foreigner  than    the    extreme 

161 ;  Mem.  de  Marmontel,  vol.  iv.  liberty  which  we  enjoy  in  this 

pp.  38,  39  ;  Stdudlin,  Gesch.  der  country,  of  communicating  what- 

theolog.    Wissenschaften,  vol.  ii.  over  we  please  to  the  public,  and 

p.  291.'  of  openly  censuring  every  mea- 

508  Hume,  who  was  acquainted  sure  entered  into  by  the  king  or 

with  several  eminent  Frenchmen  his  ministers.' 
Q2 


228 


EAELT   CAUSES   OP 


things,  and  seeing,  moreover,  that  the  civilization  of  the 
country  increased  as  the  authority  of  the  upper  classes 
and  of  the  crown  diminished,  were  unable  to  restrain 
their  wonder  at  so  novel  and  exciting  a  spectacle.  *  The 
English  nation,'  says  Voltaire,  'is  the  only  one  on 
the  earth,  which,  by  resisting  its  kings,  has  succeeded 
in  lessening  their  power.204  How  I  love  the  boldness 
of  the  English !  how  I  love  men  who  say  what  they 
think  !'205  The  English,  says  Le  Blanc,  are  willing  to 
have  a  king,  provided  they  are  not  obliged  to  obey 
him.206  The  immediate  object  of  their  government, 
says  Montesquieu,  is  political  liberty  ;207  they  possess 
more  freedom  than  any  republic  ;208  and  their  system  is 
in  fact  a  republic  disguised  as  a  monarchy.209  Grosley, 
struck  with  amazement,  exclaims,  '  Property  is  in  Eng- 
land a  thing  sacred,  which  the  laws  protect  from  all 
encroachment,  not  only  from  engineers,  inspectors,  and 
other  people  of  that  stamp,  but  even  from  the  king 
himself.210      Mably,  in  the  most  celebrated  of  all  his 


2*'  '  La  nation  anglaise  est  la 
seule  de  la  terre  qui  soit  parve- 
nue  a  regler  la  pouvoir  des  rois 
en  leur  resistant.'  Lettre  VIII 
sur  les  Anglais,  in  (Euvres  de 
Voltaire,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  37. 

205  'Que  j'aime  la  hardiesse 
anglaise  !  que  j'aime  les  gens  qui 
disent  ce  qu'ils  pensent! '  Letter 
from  Voltaire,  in  Correspond,  de 
Dudeffand,  vol.  ii.  p.  263.  For 
other  instances  of  his  admiration 
of  England,  see  (Euvres  de  Vol- 
taire, vol.  xl.  pp.  105-109 ;  vol. 
Ii.  pp.  137,  390 ;  vol.  liv.  pp.  298, 
392  ;  vol.  lvi.  pp.  162,  163,  195, 
196,  270;  vol.  lvii.  p.  500  ;  vol. 
lviii.  pp.  128,  267  ;  vol.  lix.  pp. 
265,  361 ;  vol.  lx.  p.  501 ;  vol.  lxi. 
pp.  43,  73,  129,  140,  474,  475 ; 
vol.  lxii.  pp.  343,  379,  392 ;  vol. 
lxiii.  pp.  12S,  146, 190, 196,  226, 
237,  415;  vol.  lxiv.  pp.  36,  96, 
269;  vol.lxvi.  pp.  93,  159;  vol. 
lxvii.  pp.  353,  484. 

206  « Hg  vculetit   un  roi,   aux 


conditions,  pour  ainsi  dire,  de  ne 
lui  point  obeir.'  Le  Blanc,  Lettres 
dun  Francois,  vol.  i.  p.  210. 

207  'II  y  a  aussi  une  nation 
dans  le  monde  qui  a  pour  objet 
direct  de  sa  constitution  la 
liberte  politique.'  Esprit  des 
Lois,  livre  xi.  chap.  v.  in  (Euvres 
de  Montesquieu,  p.  264.  Con- 
versely De  Stael  {Consid.  sur  la 
Bev.  vol.  iii.  p.  261),  'la  liberte 
politique  est  le  moyen  supreme.' 

208  '  L'Angleterre  est  a  present 
le  plus  libre  pays  qui  soit  au 
monde,  je  n'en  excepte  aucune  re- 
publique.'  Notes  sur  VAngleterre, 
in  (Euvres  de  Montesquieu,  p.  632. 

209  i  -[jne  nation  ou  la  repub- 
lique  se  cache  sous  la  forme  de  la 
monarchic.'  Esprit  des  Lois,  livre 
v.  chap.  xix.  in  (Euvres  de  Mon- 
tesquieu, page  225;  also  quoted 
in  Bancroft's  American  Bevolution, 
vol.ji.  p.  36. 

2,0  G-roslci/'s  Tour  to  London, 
vol  i.  pp.  16, 17. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  229 

works,  says,  •  The  Hanoverians  are  only  able  to  reign  in 
England  because  the  people  are  free,  and  believe  they 
have  a  right  to  dispose  of  the  crown.  But  if  the  kings 
were  to  claim  the  same  powers  as  the  Stuarts,  if  they 
were  to  believe  that  the  crown  belonged  to  them  by 
divine  right,  they  would  be  condemning  themselves  and 
confessing  that  they  were  occupying  a  place  which  is 
not  their  own.'211  In  England,  says  Helvetius,  the 
people  are  respected ;  every  citizen  can  take  some  part 
in  the  management  of  affairs  ;  and  authors  are  allowed 
to  enlighten  the  public  respecting  its  own  interests.212 
And  Brissot,  who  had  made  these  matters  his  especial 
study,  cries  out,  '  Admirable  constitution  !  which  can 
only  be  disparaged  either  by  men  who  know  it  not,  or 
else  by  those  whose  tongues  are  bridled  by  slavery.'213 

Such  were  the  opinions  of  some  of  the  most  celebrated 
Frenchmen  of  that  time  ;  and  it  would  be  easy  to  fill  a 
volume  with  similar  extracts.  But,  what  I  now  rather 
wish  to  do,  is,  to  point  out  the  first  great  consequence 
of  this  new  and  sudden  admiration  for  a  country  which, 
in  the  preceding  age,  had  been  held  in  profound  con- 
tempt. The  events  which  followed  are,  indeed,  of 
an  importance  impossible  to  exaggerate  ;  since  they 
brought  about  that  rupture  between  the  intellectual  and 
governing  classes,  of  which  the  revolution  itself  was 
but  a  temporary  episode. 

The  great  Frenchmen  of  the  eighteenth  century 
being  stimulated  by  the  example  of  England  into  a  love 
of  progress,  naturally  came  into  collision  with  the 
governing  classes,  among  whom  the  old  stationary  spirit 
still  prevailed.  This  opposition  was  a  wholesome  re- 
action against  that  disgraceful  servility  for  which,  in 
the  reign  of  Louis  XrV.,  literary  men  had  been  remark- 
able ;  and  if  the  contest  which  ensued  had  been  con* 


sn  Mably,   Observ.  sur  FHist.  ment  des  affaires  generalcs,  »« 

de  France,  vol.  ii.  p.  185.  tout  homme  d' esprit  peut  eclairs 

112  Helve"  tins  de  V Esprit,  vol.  i.  lo  public  sur  ses  veritablos  in- 

pp.  102,  199:    'un   pays  ou  le  terlts.' 

peuple  est  respecte    comme   en  21*  M£m.  de  Brissot,  vol.    ii. 

Angleterre ;   .   .    .   un  pays   ou  p.  25. 
chaque  citoyen  a  part  au  manie- 


230  EAELT  CAUSES   OP 

ducted  with  anything  approaching  to  moderation,  the 
ultimate  result  would  have  been  highly  beneficial ;  since 
it  would  have  secured  that  divergence  between  the 
speculative  and  practical  classes  which,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  is  essential  to  maintain  the  balance  of 
civilization,  and  to  prevent  either  side  from '  acquiring 
a  dangerous  predominance.  But,  unfortunately,  the 
nobles  and  clergy  had  been  so  long  accustomed  to 
power,  that  they  could  not  brook  the  slightest  contra- 
diction from  those  great  writers,  whom  they  ignorantly 
despised  as  their  inferiors.  Hence  it  was,  that  when 
the  most  illustrious  Frenchmen  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury attempted  to  infuse  into  the  literature  of  their 
country  a  spirit  of  inquiry  similar  to  that  which  existed 
in  England,  the  ruling  classes  became  roused  into  a 
hatred  and  jealousy  which  broke  all  bounds,  and  gave 
rise  to  that  crusade  against  knowledge  which  forms  the 
second  principal  precursor  of  the  French  Revolution. 

The  extent  of  that  cruel  persecution  to  which  litera- 
ture was  now  exposed,  can  only  be  fully  appreciated  by 
those  who  have  minutely  studied  the  history  of  France 
in  the  eighteenth  century.  For  it  was  not  a  stray  case 
of  oppression,  which  occurred  here  and  there ;  but  it 
was  a  prolonged  and  systematic  attempt  to  stifle  all  in- 
quiry, and  punish  all  inquirers.  If  a  list  were  drawn 
up  of  all  the  literary  men  who  wrote  during  the  seventy 
years  succeeding  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  it  would  be 
found,  that  at  least  nine  out  of  every  ten  had  suffered 
from  the  government  some  grievous  injury ;  and  that  a 
majority  of  them  had  been  actually  thrown  into  prison. 
Indeed,  in  saying  thus  much,  I  am  understating  the 
real  facts  of  the  case  ;  for  I  question  if  one  literary  man 
out  of  fifty  escaped  with  entire  impunity.  Certainly, 
my  own  knowledge  of  those  times,  though  carefully 
collected,  is  not  so  complete  as  I  could  have  wished ; 
but,  among  those  authors  who  were  punished,  I  find  the 
name  of  nearly  every  Frenchman  whose  writings  have 
survived  the  age  in  which  they  were  produced.  Among 
those  who  suffered  either  confiscation,  or  imprisonment, 
or  exile,  or  fines,  or  the  suppression  of  their  works,  or 
the  ignominy  of  being  forced  to  recant  what  they  had 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  231 

written,  I  find,  besides  a  host  of  inferior  writers,  the 
names  of  Beaumarchais,  Berruyer,  Bougeant,  Buffon, 
D'Alembert,  Diderot,  Duclos,  Freret,  Helvetius,  La 
Harpe,  Linguet,  Mably,  Marmontel,  Montesquien, 
Mercier,  Morellet,  Raynal,  Rousseau,  Suard,  Thomas, 
and  Voltaire. 

The  mere  recital  of  this  list  is  pregnant  with  instruc- 
tion. To  suppose  that  all  these  eminent  men  deserved 
the  treatment  they  received,  would,  even  in  the  absence 
of  direct  evidence,  be  a  manifest  absurdity;  since  it 
would  involve  the  supposition,  that  a  schism  having 
taken  place  between  two  classes,  the  weaker  class  was 
altogether  wrong,  and  the  stronger  altogether  right. 
Fortunately,  however,  there  is  no  necessity  for  resorting 
to  any  merely  speculative  argument  respecting  the  pro- 
bable merits  of  the  two  parties.  The  accusations  brought 
against  these  great  men  are  before  the  world ;  the  penal- 
ties inflicted  are  equally  well  known;  and,  by  putting  these 
together,  we  may  form  some  idea  of  the  state  of  society, 
in  which  such  things  could  be  openly  practised. 

Voltaire,  almost  immediately  after  the  death  of 
Louis  XTV,  was  falsely  charged  with  having  composed 
a  libel  on  that  prince  ;  and,  for  this  imaginary  offence, 
he,  without  the  pretence  of  a  trial,  and  without  even 
the  shadow  of  a  proof,  was  thrown  into  the  Bastille, 
where  he  was  confined  more  than  twelve  months.214 
Shortly  after  he  was  released,  there  was  put  upon  him 
a  still  more  grievous  insult ;  the  occurrence,  and,  above 
all,  the  impunity  of  which,  supply  striking  evidence  as 
to  the  state  of  society  in  which  such  things  were  per- 
mitted. Voltaire,  at  the  table  of  the  Duke  de  Sully, 
was  deliberately  insulted  by  the  Chevalier  de  Rohan 
Chabot,  one  of  those  impudent  and  dissolute  nobles  who 
then  abounded  in  Paris.  The  duke,  though  the  outrage 
was  committed  in  his  own  house,  in  his  own  presence, 
and  upon  his  own  guest,  would  not  interfere ;  but  seemed 
to  consider  that  a  poor  poet  was  honoured  by  being  in 
any  way  noticed  by  a  man  of  rank.     But,  as  Voltaire,  in 

114  Condorcet,  Vie  de  Voltaire,    et  Wagniere,  Mem.  sur  Voltaire, 
pp.  118,  119  ;  Duvernet,   Vie  de    vol.  i.  p.  22. 
Voltaire,  pp.  30,  32  ;  Longchamp 


232  EARLY    CAUSES    OF 

the  heat  of  the  moment,  let  fall  one  of  those  stinging- 
retorts  which  were  the  terror  of  his  enemies,  the  che- 
valier determined  to  visit  him  with  farther  punishment. 
The  course  he  adopted  was  characteristic  of  the  man, 
and  of  the  class  to  which  he  belonged.  He  caused 
Voltaire  to  be  seized  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  and  in  his 
presence  ignominiously  beaten,  he  himself  regulating  the 
number  of  blows  of  which  the  chastisement  was  to  con- 
sist. Voltaire,  smarting  under  the  insult,  demanded  that 
satisfaction  which  it  was  customary  to  give.  This, 
however,  did  not  enter  into  the  plan  of  his  noble  assailer, 
who  not  only  refused  to  meet  him  in  the  field,  but 
actually  obtained  an  order,  by  which  he  was  confined  in 
the  Bastille  for  six  months,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time 
was  directed  to  quit  the  country.215 

Thus  it  was  that  Voltaire,  having  first  been  impri- 
soned for  a  libel  which  he  never  wrote,  and  having  then 
been  publicly  beaten  because  he  retorted  an  insult 
wantonly  put  upon  him,  was  now  sentenced  to  another 
imprisonment,  through  the  influence  of  the  very  man 
by  whom  he  had  been  attacked.  The  exile  which  followed 
the  imprisonment  seems  to  have  been  soon  remitted; 
as,  shortly  after  these  events,  we  find  Voltaire  again  in 
France,  preparing  for  publication  his  first  historical 
work,  a  life  of  Charles  XII.  In  this,  there  are  none  of 
those  attacks  on  Christianity  which  gave  offence  in  li  is 
subsequent  writings  ;  nor  does  it  contain  the  least  re- 
flection upon  the  arbitrary  government  under  which  he 
had  suffered.  The  French  authorities  at  first  granted 
that  permission,  without  which  no  book  could  then  be 
published;  but  as  soon  as  it  was  actually  printed, 
the  license  was  withdrawn,  and  the  history  forbidden  to 

215  Duvernet,   Vie  de  Voltaire,  feeling  of  a  French  duke  in  the 

pp.    46—48;  Condorcet,    Vie    de  eighteenth  century.      He   says, 

Voltaire,  pp.  125,  126.  Compare  that,   directly  after  Eohan  had 

vol.  lvi.  p.  162;  Lepan,  Vie  de  inflicted    this    public    chastise- 

Voltaire,   1837,  pp.  70,  71 ;  and  ment,     'Voltaire     rentre    dans 

Biog.    Univ.   vol.    xlix.   p.   468.  l'hotel,  demande  au  due  de  Sully 

Duvernet,    who,     writing    from  de  regarder  cet  outrage  fait  a  l'un 

materials  supplied  by  Voltaire,  de  ses  convives,  comme  fait  a  lui- 

had  the  best  means  of  informa-  meme:  ille  sollicite  de  se  joindre 

tion,  gives  a  specimen  of  the  fine  a  lui  pour  en  poursuivre  la  ven 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  28$ 

be  circulated.216  The  next  attempt  of  Voltaire  was  one 
of  much  greater  value :  it  was  therefore  repulsed  still 
more  sharply.  During  his  residence  in  England, 
his  inquisitive  mind  had  been  deeply  interested 
by  a  state  of  things  so  different  from  any  he  had 
hitherto  seen ;  and  he  now  published  an  account  of 
that  remarkable  people,  from  whose  literature  he  had 
learned  many  important  truths.  His  work,  which  he 
called  Philosophic  Letters,  was  received  with  general  ap- 
plause ;  but,  unfortunately  for  himself,  he  adopted  in  it 
the  arguments  of  Locke  against  innate  ideas.  The 
rulers  of  France,  though  not  likely  to  know  much  about 
innate  ideas,  had  a  suspicion  that  the  doctrine  of  Locke 
was  in  some  way  dangerous ;  and,  as  they  were  told 
that  it  was  a  novelty,  they  felt  themselves  bound  to  pre- 
vent its  promulgation.  Their  remedy  was  very  simple. 
They  ordered  that  Voltaire  should  be  again  arrested 
and  that  his  work  should  be  burned  by  the  common 
hangman.217 

These  repeated  injuries  might  well  have  moved  a  more 
patient  spirit  than  that  of  Voltaire.218  Certainly,  those 
who  reproach  this  illustrious  man,  as  if  he  were  the  in- 
stigator of  unprovoked  attacks  upon  the  existing  state 
of  things,  must  know  very  little  of  the  age  in  which  ic. 
was  his  misfortune  to  live.  Even  on  what  has  been 
always  considered  the  neutral  ground  of  physical  science, 
there  was  displayed  the  same  despotic  and  persecuting 
spirit.  Voltaire,  among  other  schemes  for  benefiting 
France,  wished  to  make  known  to  his  countrymen  the 


geance,  et  de  venir  chez  un  com-         218  The  indignation  of  Voltaire 

missaire  en  certifier  la  deposition,  appears  in  many  of  his  letters; 

Lc  due  de  Sully  se  refuse  a  tout.'  and  he  often  announced  to  his 

216  1  L'Histoire  de  Charles  XII,  friends  his  intention  of  quitting 

dont  on  avaitarrete  une premiere  for  ever  a  country  where  he  was 

edition  apres  l'avoir  autorisee.'  liable  to  such  treatment.      See- 

Biog.    Univ.  vol.   xlix.  p.   470.  (Euvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  liv.  pp. 

Comp.  Nichols's  Lit.  Artec.  voL  i.  58,  335,  336,  vol.  lv.  p.  229,  vol. 

p.  388.  lvi.  pp.  162,  163,  358,  447,  464, 

•»  Duvemet,   Vie  de  Voltaire,  465,  vol.  lvii.  pp.  144,  145,  155, 

pp.    63-65;    Condorcet,    Vie  de  156,    vol  lviii.  pp.  36,  222,  223,. 

Voltaire,??.  138-140 ;Lepan, Vie  516,  517,519,  520,525,  526,  563, 

de  Voltaire,  pp.  93,  381.  vol.  lix.  pp.  107,  116,  188,  208. 


234  EARLY   CAUSES    OP 

wonderful  discoveries  of  Newton,  of  which,  they  were 
completely"  ignorant.  With  this  view,  he  drew  up  an 
account  of  the  labours  of  that  extraordinary  thinker ; 
but  here  again  the  authorities  interposed,  and  forbade 
the  work  to  be  printed.219  Indeed,  the  rulers  of  France, 
as  if  sensible  that  their  only  security  was  the  ignorance 
of  the  people,  obstinately  set  their  face  against  every 
description  of  knowledge.  Several  eminent  authors  had 
undertaken  to  execute,  on  a  magnificent  scale,  an  Ency- 
clopaedia, which  should  contain  a  summary  of  all  the 
branches  of  science  and  of  art.  This,  undoubtedly  the 
most  splendid  enterprise  ever  started  by  a  body  of  lite- 
rary men,  was  at  first  discouraged  by  the  government, 
and  afterwards  entirely  prohibited.220  On  other  occa- 
sions, the  same  tendency  was  shown  in  matters  so  tri- 
fling that  nothing  but  the  gravity  of  their  ultimate 
results  prevents  them  from  being  ridiculous.  In  1770, 
Imbert  translated  Clarke's  Letters  on  Spain :  one  of  the 
best  works  then  existing  on  that  country.  This  book, 
however,  was  suppressed  as  soon  as  it  appeared; 
and  the  only  reason  assigned  for  such  a  stretch  of*  power 
is,  that  it  contained  some  remarks  respecting  the  passion 
of  Charles  III.  for  hunting,  which  were  considered  dis- 
respectful to  the  French  crown,  because  Louis  XV.  was 
himself  a  great  hunter.221  Several  years  before  this, 
La  Bletterie,  who  was  favourably  known  in  France  by 
his  works,  was  elected  a  member  of  the  French  Acade- 
my.    But  he,  it  seems,  was  a  Jansenist,  and  had,  more- 

219  CEuvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  i.  pendant  quelque  temps  par  des 
pp.  147,  315,  vol.  lvii.  pp.  211,  ordres  superieurs  du  gouverne- 

215,  219,  247,  295;   VUlemain,    ment II  y  a   tout 

Lit.  au  XVIII'  Steele,  vol.  i.  p.  lieu  de    croire   que  les    minis- 

14;  Brougham! s  Men  of  Letters,  tres  de  Prance  crurent,  ou  fei- 

vol.  i.  pp.  53,  60.  gnirent  de  croire,  que  le  passage 

220  Grimm,  Correspond,  vol.  i.  en  question  pouvoit  donner  lieu 
pp.  90-95,  vol.  ii.  p.  399  ;  Biog.  a.  des  applications  sur  le  gout 
Univ.  vol.  3d.  p.  316  ;  Brougham's  efiirene  de  Louis  XV  pour  la 
Men  of  Letters,  vol.  ii.  p.  439.  chasse,  et  inspirerent  aisement 

221  Boucher  de  la  Richarderie,  cette  prevention  a,  un  prince 
Bibliotheque  des  Voyages,  vol.  iii.  tres-sensible,  comme  on  sait,  aux 
pp.  390-393,  Paris,  1808:  'La  censures  les  plus  indirectes  de sa 
distribution  en  Prance  de  la  tra-  passion  pour  ce  genre  d'amuse- 
duction  de  ce  voyage  fat  arretee  ment.'     See  also  the  account  of 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION". 


235 


over,  ventured  to  assert  that  the  Emperor  Julian,  not- 
withstanding his  apostacy,  was  not  entirely  devoid  of 
good  qualities.  Such  offences  could  not  be  overlooked 
in  so  pure  an  age ;  and  the  king  obliged  the  Academy  to 
exclude  La  Bletterie  from  their  society.222  That  the 
punishment  extended  no  further,  was  an  instance  of 
remarkable  leniency ;  for  Freret,  an  eminent  critic  and 
scholar,223  was  confined  in  the  Bastille,  because  he  stated 
in  one  of  his  memoirs,  that  the  earliest  Frankish  chiefs 
had  received  their  titles  from  the  Romans.224  The  same 
penalty  was  inflicted  four  different  times  upon  Lenglet 
du  Fresnoy.228  In  the  case  of  this  amiable  and  accom- 
plished man,  there  seems  to  have  been  hardly  the  shadow 
of  a  pretext  for  the  cruelty  with  which  he  was  treated ; 
though,  on  one  occasion,  the  alleged  offence  was,  that 
he  had  published  a  supplement  to  the  History  of  De 
Thou.226 

Indeed,  we  have  only  to  open  the  biographies  and  cor- 


Imbert,  the  translator,  in  Biog. 
Univ.  vol.  xxi.  p.  200. 

222  Grimm,  Correspond,  vol.  vi. 
pp.  161,  162;  the  crime  being, 
'qu'un  janseniste  avait  ose  im- 
primer  que  Julien,  apostat  exe- 
crable aux  yeux  d'un  bon 
Chretien,  n'etait  pourtant  pas  un 
homme  sans  quelques  bonnes 
qualites  a  en  juger  mondaine- 
ment.' 

223  M.  Bunsen  {Egypt,  vol.  i. 
p.  14)  refers  to  Freret's  'acute 
treatise  on  the  Babylonian  year  ;' 
and  Turgot,  in  his  Etymologic, 
says  {(Euvres  de  Turgot,  vol.  iii. 
p.  83),  '  l'illustre  Freret,  un  des 
savans  qui  ont  su  le  mioux  appli- 
quer  la  philosophie  a  l'erudition.' 

224  This  was  at  the  very  outset 
of  his  career :  'En  1715,  l'homme 
qui  devait  illustrer  l'erudition 
francaise  au  xviii"  siecle,  Freret, 
etait  mis  a  la  Bastille  pour  avoir 

■■avance,  dans  un  memoire  sur 
l'origine  des  Francais,  que  les 
Francs    ne  formaient   pas  une 


nation  a  part,  et  que  leurs  pre- 
miers chefs  avaient  rec,u  de 
l'empire  romain  le  titre  de 
patrices.'  VUlemain,  Lit.  au 
XVIII'  Steele,  vol.  ii.  p.  30 :  see 
also  Nichols's  Lit.  Anec.  vol.  ii. 
p.  510. 

224  He  was  imprisoned  in  the 
Bastille,  for  the  first  time,  in 
1725;  then  in  1743,  in  1750, 
and  finally  in  1751.  Biographic 
Universelle,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  85. 

226  In  1743,  Voltaire  writes: 
'  On  vient  de  mettre  a  la  Bastille 
l'abbe  Lenglet,  pour  avoir  publi6 
des  memoires  deja  tres-connus, 
qui  servent  de  supplement  a 
l'histoire  de  notre  celebre  De 
Thou.  L'infatigable  et  malheu- 
reux  Lenglet  rendait  un  signale 
service  aux  bons  citoyens,  et  aux 
amateurs  des  recherches  his- 
toriques.  II  m^ritait  des  recom- 
penses ;  on  l'omprisonne  cruel  le- 
nient a  l'flge  do  soixante-huit  ans.' 
(Euvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  i.  pp. 
400,  401,  vol.  lviii.  pp.  207, 208. 


236  EAELT   CAUSES   OP 

respondence  of  that  time,  to  find  instances  crowding: 
npon  ns  from  all  quarters.  Rousseau  was  threatened 
with  imprisonment,  was  driven  from  France,  and  his 
works  were  publicly  burned.227  The  celebrated  trea- 
tise of  Helvetius  on  the  mind  was  suppressed  by  an 
order  from  the  royal  council :  it  was  burned  by  the 
common  hangman,  and  the  author  was  compelled  to 
write  two  letters,  retracting  his  opinions.228  Some  of 
the  geological  views  of  Buffon  having  offended  the  clergy,, 
that  illustrious  naturalist  was  obliged  to  publish  a  for- 
mal recantation  of  doctrines  which  are  now  known  to- 
be  perfectly  accurate.229  The  learned  Observations  on 
the  History  of  France,  by  Mably,  were  suppressed  as 
soon  as  they  appeared  ;230  for  what  reason  it  would  be 
hard  to  say,  since  M.  Gruizot,  certainly  no  friend  either 
to  anarchy  or  to  irreligion,  has  thought  it  worth  while 
to  republish  them,  and  thus  stamp  them  with  the  author- 
ity of  his  own  great  name.  The  History  of  the  Indies,. 
by  Raynal,  was  condemned  to  the  flames,  and  the  author 
ordered  to  be  arrested.231  Lanjuinais,  in  his  well-known 
work  on  Joseph  II.,  advocated  not  only  religious  tolera- 
tion, but  even  the  abolitionof  slavery ;  his  book,  therefore, 
was  declared  to  be  '  seditious  ; '  it  was  pronounced  '  de- 
structive of  all  subordination,'  and  was  sentenced  to  be 
burned.232  The  Analysis  of  Bayle,  by  Marsy,  was 
suppressed,  and  the  author  was  imprisoned.233  The 
History  of  the  Jesuits,  by  Linguet,  was  delivered  to  the 

227  Musset  Pathay,  Vie  de  253 ;  Mem.  de  Lafayette,  vol.  ii. 
Eousseau,  vol.  i.  pp.  68,  99,  296,  p.  34  note;  Lettresde  Dudejfand 
377,  vol.  ii.  pp.  Ill,  385,  390;  a  Walpolc,  vol.  ii.  p.  365.  On. 
Mercier  sur  Rousseau,  vol.  i.  p.  Raynal's  flight,  compare  a  letter 
14,  vol.  ii.  pp.  179,  314.  from  Marseilles,  written  in  1786, 

228  Grimm,  Corresp.  vol.  ii.  p.  and  printed  in  Mem.  and  Cor- 
349;  Walpole's  Letters,  1840,  respond,  of  Sir  J.  E.  Smith,  vol. 
vol.  iii.  p.  418.  i.  p.  194. 

^LyeWs  Principles  of  Geology,         232  See  the  proceedings  of  tha 

pp.  39,  40  ;  Mem.  of  Mallet  du  avocat-general,  in  Peignot,  Livres 

Pan,  vol.  i.  p.  125.  condamnes,  vol.  i.  pp.  230,  231 ; 

230  Soidavie,   Eegne  de  Louis  and  in  Soulavie,  Eigne  de  Louis- 

XVI,  vol.  ii.  p.  214 ;    Williams's  XVI,  vol.  iii.  pp.  93-97. 
Letters  from  France,  vol.  ii.  p.        233  Querard,  France  Lit.  voL  v. 

86,  3rd  edit.  1796.  p.  565. 

8,1  Mem.  de  Segur,  vol.  i.  p. 


THE  FRENCH  BE  VOLUTION.        237 

flames ;  eight  years  later  his  Journal  was  suppressed ; 
and,  three  years  after  that,  as  he  still  persisted  in  wri- 
ting, his  Political  Annals  were  suppressed,  and  he  him- 
self was  thrown  into  the  Bastille.234  Delisle  de  Sales 
was  sentenced  to  perpetual  exile,  and  confiscation  of  all 
his  property,  on  account  of  his  work  on  the  Philosophy 
of  Nature.235  The  treatise  by  Mey,  on  French  Law, 
was  suppressed  ;236  that  by  Boncerf,  on  Feudal  Law,  was 
burned.237  The  Memoirs  of  Beaumarchais  were  like- 
wise burned  ;238  the  Eloge  on  Fenelon  by  La  Harpe  was 
merely  suppressed.-39  Duvernet  having  written  a  His- 
tory of  the  Sorbonne,  which  was  still  unpublished,  was 
seized  and  thrown  into  the  Bastille,  while  the  manuscript 
was  yet  in  his  own  possession.240  The  celebrated  work 
of  De  Lolme  on  the  English  constitution  was  suppressed 
by  edict  directly  it  appeared.241  The  fate  of  being  sup- 
pressed, or  prohibited,  also  awaited  the  Letters  of  Ger- 
vaise,  in  1724  ;242  the  Dissertations  of  Courayer,  in 
1727  ;243  the  Letters  of  Montgon,  in  1732  ;244  the  His- 
tory of  Tamerlane,  by  Margat,  also  in  1732  ;'j45  the  Essay 
on  Taste,  by  Cartaud,  in  1736  ;246  the  Life  of  Domat, 
by  Prevost  de  la  Jannes,  in  1742  ;247  the  History  of 


234  Peignot,  Litres  condamnes,  par  la  main  du  bourreau.'    Pei- 
vol.  i.  pp.  241,  242.  gnot,  vol.  i.  p.  24. 

235  Biog.   Univ.  vol.  xxiv.  p.  2S9  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxiii.   p. 
561 ;  CEuvres  de   Voltaire,   vol.  187. 

lxix.  pp.  374,  375 ;    Lettres  in-  24°  Duvernet,  Hist,  de  la  Sor- 

edites  de  Voltaire,  vol.  ii.  p.  528  ;  bonne,  vol.  i.  p.  vi. 

Duvernet,   Vie  de    Voltaire,  pp.  241  '  Supprimeo  par  arret  du 

202,  203.  According  to  some  of  conseil'in  1771,  'which  was  the 

these  authorities,  parliament  at-  year  of  its   publication.     Com- 

terwards  revoked  this  sentence ;  pare  Cassagnac's  Revolution,  vol. 

but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  i.  p.  33 ;  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxiv. 

sentence   was  passed,     and  De  p.  634. 

Sales   imprisoned,    if  not  ban-  242  Querard,  France  Lit.  vol. 

ished.  iii.  p.  337. 

230  Peignot,  Livres  condamnes,  243  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  x.  p.  97. 

vol.  i.  pp.  314,  315.  244  Peignot,  vol.  i.  p.  328. 

237  (Euvres  de    Voltaire,   vol.  24S  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  289. 

lxix.  p.  204  ;  Lettres  de  Dudef-  248  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  vii.  p.  227. 

/and  a  Walpole,  vol.  iii.  p.  260.  24T  Lettres  oVAguesseau,  vol.  ii. 

238  '  Quatre  memoires pp.  320,  321. 

condamnes  a  etre  laceres  et  brules 


238  EAELT   CAUSES   OP 

Louis  XI.,  by  Duclos,  in  1745  ;248  the  Letters  of  Barge- 
ton,  in  1750  ;249  the  Memoirs  on  Troyes,  by  Grosley,  in 
the  same  year  ;250  the  History  of  Clement  XI.,  by  Re- 
boulet,  in  1752  :251  the  School  of  Man,  by  Genard,  also 
in  1752  ;252  the  Therapeutics  of  Garlon,  in  1756  ;253  the 
celebrated  thesis  of  Louis,  on  Generation,  in  1754;254  the 
Treatise  on  Presidial  Jurisdiction,  by  Jousse,  in  1755  ;  255 
the  Ericie  of  Fontanelle,  in  1768 ; 256  the  Thoughts  of 
Jamin,  in  1769  ;267  the  History  of  Siam,  by  Turpin,  and 
the  Eloge  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  by  Thomas,  both  in 
1 770  ;258  the  works  on  Finance  by  Darigrand  in  1 764 ;  and 
by  Le  Trosne,  in  1779 ; 259  the  Essay  on  Military  Tactics, 
by  Guibert,  in  1772  ;  the  Letters  of  Boucquet,  in  the  same 
year  ;260  and  the  Memoirs  of  Terrai,  by  Coquereau,  in 
1776.261  Such  wanton  destruction  of  property  was, 
however,  mercy  itself,  compared  to  the  treatment  ex- 
perienced by  other  literary  men  in  Prance.  Desforges, 
for  example,  having  written  against  the  arrest  of  the 
Pretender  to  the  English  throne,  was,  solely  on  that  ac- 
count, buried  in  a  dungeon  eight  feet  square,  and  con- 
fined there  for  three  years.262  This  happened  in  1 749  ;  and 
in  1770,  Audra,  professor  at  the  college  of  Toulouse,  and 
a  man  of  some  reputation,  published  the  first  volume 
of  his  Abridgment  of  General  History.  Beyond  this, 
the  work  never  proceeded ;  it  was  at  once  condemned 
by  the  archbishop  of  the  diocese,  and  the  author  was 
deprived  of  his  office.     Audra,  held  up  to  public  oppro- 


248  Cassagnac,  Causes  delaBev.  258  Ibid.  vol.  xlv.  p.  462,  vol. 
vol.  i.  p.  32.  xlvii.  p.  98. 

249  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  iii.p.  375.  M»  Peignot,  vol.  i.  pp.  90,  91, 

250  Querard,  vol.  iii.  p.  489.  vol.  ii.  p.  164. 

241  Ibid.  vol.  vii.  pp.  483,  484.  26°  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  170,  vol.  ii. 

242  Ibid.  vol.  iii.  p.  302.  p.  57. 

253  Ibid.  vol.  iii.  p.  261.  2"  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  214. 

244  On  the  importance  of  this  -a2  '  II  resta  trois  ans  dans  la 

remarkable   thesis,   and   on   its  cage;  c'est un  caveau  creuse  dans 

prohibition,    see     Saint-Hilaire,  le  roc,  de  huit  pieds  en  carre,  ou 

Anomalies,  de  V  Organisation,  vol.  le  prisonnier  ne  recoit  le  jour  que 

i.  p.  355.  par  les   crevasses  des    marches 

254  Querard,  vol.  iv.  p.  255.  de  l'eglise.'    Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xi. 
248  Biog.  Univ.  vol.xv.p.  203.  p.  171. 

247  Ibid.  vol.  xxi.  p.  391. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  289 

brium,  the  whole  of  Ms  labours  rendered  useless,  and 
the  prospects  of  his  life  suddenly  blighted,  was  unable 
to  survive  the  shock.  He  was  struck  with  apoplexy, 
and  within  twenty-four  hours  was  lying  a  corpse  in  his 
own  house.263 

It  will  probably  be  allowed  that  I  have  collected  suf- 
ficient evidence  to  substantiate  my  assertion  respecting 
the  persecutions  directed  against  every  description  of 
literature  ;  but  the  carelessness  with  which  the  antece- 
dents of  the  French  Revolution  have  been  studied,  has 
given  rise  to  such  erroneous  opinions  on  this  subject, 
that  I  am  anxious  to  add  a  few  more  instances,  so  as  to 
put  beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt  the  nature  of  the 
provocatioDS  habitually  received  by  the  most  eminent 
Frenchmen  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Among  the  many  celebrated  authors  who,  though,  in- 
ferior to  Voltaire,  Montesquieu,  Buff  on,  and  Rousseau, 
were  second  only  to  them,  three  of  the  most  remarkable 
were  Diderot,  Marmontel,  and  Morellet.  The  first  two 
are  known  to  every  reader ;  while  Morellet,  though  com- 
paratively forgotten,  had  in  his  own  time  considerable 
influence,  and  had,  moreover,  the  distinguished  merit  of 
being  the  first  who  popularized  in  France  those  great 
truths  which  had  been  recently  discovered  in  political 
economy  by  Adam  Smith,  and  in  jurisprudence  by 
Beccaria. 

A  certain  M.  Cury  wrote  a  satire  upon  the  Duke 
d'Aumont,  which  he  showed  to  his  friend  Marmontel, 
who,  struck  by  its  power,  repeated  it  to  a  small  circle  of 
his  acquaintance.  The  duke,  hearing  of  this,  was  full  of 
indignation,  and  insisted  upon  the  name  of  the  author 
being  given  up.  This,  of  course,  was  impossible  with- 
out a  gross  breach  of  confidence  ;  but  Marmontel,  to  do 
everything  in  his  power,  wrote  to  the  duke,  stating, 
what  was  really  the  fact,  that  the  lines  in  question  had 
not  been  printed,  that  there  was  no  intention  of  making 
them  public,  and  that  they  had  only  been  communicated 
to  a  few  of  his  own  particular  friends.  It  might  have 
been  supposed  that  this  would  have  satisfied  even  a 


Peignot,  Livrcs  condamnes,  vol.  i.  pp.  14,  15. 


240  EARLY   CAUSES   OP 

French,  noble  ;  but  Marmontel,  still  doubting  the  result, 
sought  an  audience  of  the  minister,  in  the  hope  of  pro- 
curing the  protection  of  the  crown.  All,  however,  was  in 
vain.  It  will  hardly  be  believed,  that  Marmontel,  who 
was  then  at  the  height  of  his  reputation,  was  seized  in 
the  middle  of  Paris,  and  because  he  refused  to  betray  his 
friend,  was  thrown  into  the  Bastille.  Nay,  so  implacable 
were  his  persecutors,  that  after  his  liberation  from  prison 
they,  in  the  hope  of  reducing  him  to  beggary,  deprived 
him  of  the  right  of  publishing  the  Mercure,  upon  which 
nearly  the  whole  of  his  income  depended.264 

To  the  Abbe  Morellet  a  somewhat  similar  circum- 
stance occurred.  A  miserable  scribbler,  named  Palissot, 
had  written  a  comedy  ridiculing  some  of  the  ablest 
Frenchmen  then  living.  To  this  Morellet  replied  by  a 
pleasant  little  satire,  in  which  he  made  a  very  harmless 
allusion  to  the  Princess  de  Robeck,  one  of  Palissot's 
patrons.  She,  amazed  at  such  presumption,  complained 
to  the  minister,  who  immediately  ordered  the  abbe  to  be 
confined  in  the  Bastille,  where  he  remained  for  some 
months,  although  he  had  not  only  been  guilty  of  no 
scandal,  but  had  not  even  mentioned  the  name  of  the 
princess.265 

The  treatment  of  Diderot  was  still  more  severe.  This 
remarkable  man  owed  his  influence  chiefly  to  his  im- 
mense correspondence,  and  to  the  brilliancy  of  a  conver- 
sation for  which,  even  in  Paris,  he  was  unrivalled,  and 
which  he  used  to  display  with  considerable  effect  at 
those  celebrated  dinners  where,  during  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  Holbach  assembled  the  most  illustrious  thinkers 
in  France.266     Besides  this,  he  is  the  author  of  several 

264  Memoires    de    Marmontel,  pp.  86-89;  Melanges  par  Morellet, 

vol.  ii.  pp.  143-176 ;  and  see  vol.  vol.  ii.  pp.  3-12  ;   (Euvres  de  Vol- 

iii.  pp.  30-46,  95,  for  the  treat-  taire,  vol.  liv.  pp.  106,  111,  114, 

ment  he  afterwards  received  from  122,  183. 

the  Sorbonne,  because  he  advo-        266  Marmontel  {Mem.  vol.  ii. 

cated  religious   toleration.     See  p.    313)    says,    'qui   n'a  connu 

also  (Euvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  liv.  Diderot  que  dans  ses  ecrits  ne 

p.  258 ;  and  Letters  of  Eminent  l'a  point  connu : '  meaning  that 

Persons  addressed  to  Hume,  pp.  his  works  were  inferior  to  his 

207,212,213.  talk.    His  conversational  powers 

263  Mem.  de  Morellet,  vol.  i.  are  noticed  by  Segur,  who  dis- 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


241 


works  of  interest,  most  of  which  are  well  known  to  the 
students  of  French  literature.267  His  independent  spirit, 
and  the  reputation  he  obtained,  earned  for  hrm  a  share 
in  the  general  persecution.  The  first  work  he  wrote 
was  ordered  to  he  publicly  burned  by  the  common 
hangman.268  This,  indeed,  was  the  fate  of  nearly  all 
the  best  literary  productions  of  that  time  ;  and  Diderot 
might  esteem  himself  fortunate  in  merely  losing  his 
property,  provided  he  saved  himself  from  imprisonment. 
But,  a  few  years  later,  he  wrote  another  work,  in  which 
he  said  that  people  who  are  born  blind  have  some 
ideas  different  from  those  who  are  possessed  of  their 
eyesight.    This  assertion  is  by  no  means  improbable,269 


liked  him,  and  by  Georgel,  •who 
hated  him.  Segur,  Souvenirs, 
voLiii.  p.  34  ;  Georgel,  Mem.  vol. 
ii.  p.  246.  Compare  Forster's 
Life  of  Goldsmith,  vol.  i.  p.  69  ; 
Musset  Pathay,  Vie  de  Rousseau, 
vol.  i.  p.  95,  vol.  ii.  p.  227 ; 
Memoires  d'Epinay,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
73,  74,  88  ;  Grimm,  Corresp.  vol. 
xv.  pp.  79-90 ;  Morellet,  Mem. 
vol.  i.  p.  28 ;  Villemain,  Lit.  au 
XVIII"  Steele,  vol.  i.  p.  82. 

As  to  Holbach's  dinners,  on 
which  Madame  de  Genlis  wrote 
a  well-known  libel,  see  Scklosser's 
Eighteenth  Century,  vol.i.  p.  166; 
Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xx.  p.  462  ; 
Jesse's  Selwyn,  vol.  ii.  p.  9 ;  Wal- 
pole's  Letters  to  Mann,  vol.  iv. 
p.  283 ;  Gibbon's  Miscellaneous 
Works,  p.  73. 

267  It  is  also  stated  by  the 
editor  of  his  correspondence,  that 
ho  -wrote  a  great  deal  for  authors, 
■which  they  published  under  their 
name.  Mem.  et  Corresp.  de 
Diderot,  vol.  iii.  p.  102. 

288  This  -was  the  Pensees  Philo- 
sophiques,  in  1746,  his  first 
original  work ;  the  previous  ones 
being  translations  from  English. 
Biog.  Univ.  xi.  314.  Duvernet 
vor,.  II. 


{Vie  de  Voltaire,  p.  240)  says, 
that  he  was  imprisoned  for  writ- 
ing it,  but  this  I  believe  is  a 
mistake  ;  at  least  I  do  not  re- 
member to  have  met  -with  the 
statement  elsewhere,  and  Duver- 
net  is  frequently  careless. 

269  Dugald  Stewart,  who  has 
collected  some  important  evidence 
on  this  subject,  has  confirmed 
several  of  the  views  put  forward 
by  Diderot.  Philos.  of  the  Mind, 
vol.  iii.  pp.  401  seq. ;  comp.  pp. 
57,  407,  435.  Since  then  still 
greater  attention  has  been  paid 
to  the  education  of  the  blind,  and 
it  has  been  remarked  that  '  it  is 
an  exceedingly  difficult  task  to 
teach  them  to  think  accurately.' 
M.  Alister's  Essay  on  the  Blind, 
in  Jour,  of  Stat.  Soc.  vol.  i.  p. 
378:  see  also  Dr.  Fowler,  in 
Report  of  Brit.  Assoc,  for  1847; 
Transac.  of  Sec.  pp.  92,  93,  and 
for  1848,  p.  88.  Theso  passages 
unconsciously  testify  to  the  sa- 
gacity of  Diderot ;  and  they  also 
testify  to  the  stupid  ignorance  of 
a  government,  which  sought  to 
put  an  end  to  such  inquiries  by 
punishing  their  author. 


Ji 


242  EARLY   CAUSES   OP 

and  it  contains  nothing  by  which  any  one  need  be 
startled.  The  men,  however,  who  then  governed  France 
discovered  in  it  some  hidden  danger.  Whether  they 
suspected  that  the  mention  of  blindness  was  an  allusion 
to  themselves,  or  whether  they  were  merely  instigated 
by  the  perversity  of  their  temper,  is  uncertain ;  at  all 
events,  the  unfortunate  Diderot,  for  having  hazarded 
this  opinion,  was  arrested,  and  without  even  the  form 
of  a  trial,  was  confined  in  the  dungeon  of  Vincennes.270 
The  natural  results  followed.  The  works  of  Diderot  rose 
in  popularity  ;271  and  he,  burning  with  hatred  against 
his  persecutors,  redoubled  his  efforts  to  overthrow  those 
institutions,  under  shelter  of  which  such  monstrous 
tyranny  could  be  safely  practised. 

It  seems  hardly  necessary  to  say  more  respecting  the 
incredible  folly  with  which  the  rulers  of  France,  by  turn- 
ing every  able  man  into  a  personal  enemy,272  at  length 
arrayed  against  the  government  all  the  intellect  of  the 
country,  and  made  the  Revolution  a  matter  not  of  choice 
but  of  necessity.  I  will,  however,  as  a  fitting  sequel  to 
the  preceding  facts,  give  one  instance  of  the  way  in 
which,  to  gratify  the  caprice  of  the  higher  classes,  even 

270  Mem.  et  Corresp.  de  Diderot,  quelque  merite  qui  n'ait  eprouve 
vol.  i.  pp.  26-29  ;  Musset  Pathay,  plus  ou  moins  les  fureurs  de  la 
Vie  de  Eosseau,  vol.  i.  p.  47,  calomnie  et  de  la  persecution  T 
vol.ii.p.  276;  Letter  tod Argental  etc.  Grimm.  Corresp.  vol.  v.  p. 
in  (Euvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  lviii.  451.  This  was  written  in  1767, 
p.  454 ;  Lacretelle,  Dix-huitieme  and  during  more  than  forty  years 
Steele,  vol.  ii.  p.  54.  previously  we  find  similar  expres- 

271  A  happy  arrangement,  by  sions ;  the  earliest  I  have  met 
which  curiosity  baffles  despotism,  with  being  in  a  letter  to  Thiriot, 
In  1767,  an  acute  observer  wrote,  in  1723,  in  which  Voltaire  says 
'  II  n'y  a  plus*  de  livres  qu'on  ( (Euvres,  vol.  lvi.  p.  94),  '  la  se- 
imprime  plusieurs  fois,  que  les  verite  devient  plus  grande  de  jour 
livres  condamnes.  II  faut  au-  en  jour  dans  l'inquisition  de  la 
jourd'hui  qu'un  libraire  prie  les  librairie.'  For  other  instances, 
magistrate  de  bruler  son  livre  see  his  letter  to  De  Formont,  pp. 
pour  le  faire  vendre.'  Grimm,  423-425,  also  vol.  lvii.  pp.  144, 
Corresp.  vol.  v.  p.  498.  To  the  351,  vol.  lviii.  p.  222;  his  Lettres 
same  effect,  Mem.  de  Segur,  vol.  inedites,  vol.  i.  p.  547  ;  Mem.  de 
i.  pp.  15,  16  ;  Mem.de  Georgel,  Diderot,  vol.  ii.  p.  215;  Letters 
vol.  ii.  p.  256.  of  Eminent  Persons  to  Hume, 

272  Quel  est  aujourd'hui  parmi  pp.  14,  15. 
sous    l'homme    de   lettres    de 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  243 

the  most  private  affections  of  domestic  life,  could  be 
publicly  outraged.  In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  there  was  an  actress  on  the  French  stage  of 
the  name  of  Chantilly.  She,  though  beloved  by  Maurice 
de  Saxe,  preferred  a  more  honourable  attachment,  and 
married  Favart,  the  well-known  writer  of  songs  and 
of  comic  operas.  Maurice,  amazed  at  her  boldness,  ap- 
plied for  aid  to  the  French  crown.  That  he  should 
have  made  such  an  application  is  sufficiently  strange ; 
but  the  result  of  it  is  hardly  to  be  paralleled  except  in 
some  Eastern  despotism.  The  government  of  France, 
on  hearing  the  circumstance,  had  the  inconceivable 
baseness  to  issue  an  order  directing  Favart  to  abandon 
his  wife,  and  intrust  her  to  the  charge  of  Maurice,  to 
whose  embraces  she  was  compelled  to  submit.273 

These  are  among  the  insufferable  provocations,  by 
which  the  blood  of  men  is  made  to  boil  in  their  veins. 
Who  can  wonder  that  the  greatest  and  noblest  minds  in 
France  were  filled  with  loathing  at  the  government  by 
whom  such  things  were  done  ?  If  we,  notwithstanding 
the  distance  of  time  and  country,  are  moved  to  indigna- 
tion by  the  mere  mention  of  them,  what  must  have 
been  felt  by  those  before  whose  eyes  they  actually 
occurred  ?  And  when,  to  the  horror  they  naturally 
inspired,  there  was  added  that  apprehension  of  being 
the  next  victim  which  every  one  might  personally  feel ; 
when,  moreover,  we  remember  that  the  authors  of  these 
persecutions  had  none  of  the  abilities  by  which  even 
vice  itself  is  sometimes  ennobled ; — when  we  thus  con- 
trast the  poverty  of  their  understandings  with  the  great- 
ness of  their  crimes,  we,  instead  of  being  astonished 
that  there  was  a  revolution,  by  which  all  the  machinery 

275  Part  of  this  is  related,  rather  un  mari  sa  femme,  et  pour  la 

inaccurately,  in  Schlosser's  Eigh-  contraindre  d'etre  sa  concubine ; 

teenth  Century,  vol.  iii.  p.  483.  et,  chose  remarquable,  cette  lettro 

The  fullest  account  is  in  Grimm,  de  cachet  fut  accordee  et  execu- 

Corresp.  Lit  vol.  viii.  pp.  231-  tee.     Les  deux  epoux  plierent 

233  :   '  Le  grand  Maurice,  irrito  sous  le  joug  de  la  necessite,  et  la 

d'une    resistance    qu'il    n'avait  petite    Chantilly  fut  a  la  fois 

jamais  eprouvee  nulle  part,  eut  femme  de  Favart  et  maitresso  do 

la  faiblesse  de    demander  une  Maurice  de  Saxe.' 
lettre  de  cachet   pour  enleve    a 

b2 


244  EARLY   CAUSES   OP 

of  the  state  was  swept  away,  should  rather  be  amazed 
at  that  unexampled  patience  by  which  alone  the  revolu- 
tion was  so  long  deferred. 

To  me,  indeed,  it  has  always  appeared,  that  the  delay  of 
the  Revolution  is  one  of  the  most  striking  proofs  history 
affords  of  the  force  of  established  habits,  and  of  the 
tenacity  with  which  the  human  mind  clings  to  old  asso- 
ciations. For,  if  ever  there  existed  a  government  inhe- 
rently and  radically  bad,  it  was  the  government  of  France 
in  the  eighteenth  century.  If  ever  there  existed  a  state 
of  society  likely,  by  its  crying  and  accumulated  evils,  to 
madden  men  to  desperation,  France  was  in  that  state. 
The  people,  despised  and  enslaved,  were  sunk  in  abject 
poverty,  and  were  curbed  by  laws  of  stringent  cruelty, 
enforced  with  merciless  barbarism.  A  supreme  and 
irresponsible  control  was  exercised  over  the  whole 
country  by  the  clergy,  the  nobles,  and  the  crown.  The 
intellect  of  France  was  placed  under  the  ban  of  a  ruth- 
less proscription,  its  literature  prohibited  and  burned, 
its  authors  plundered  and  imprisoned.  Nor  was  there 
the  least  symptom  that  these  evils  were  Likely  to  be 
remedied.  The  upper  classes,  whose  arrogance  was 
increased  by  the  long  tenure  of  their  power,  only 
thought  of  present  enjoyment :  they  took  no  heed  of  the 
future :  they  saw  not  that  day  of  reckoning,  the  bitter- 
ness of  which  they  were  soon  to  experience.  The 
people  remained  in  slavery  until  the  Revolution  actually 
occurred  ;  while  as  to  the  literature,  nearly  every  year 
witnessed  some  new  effort  to  deprive  it  of  that  share  of 
liberty  which  it  still  retained.  Having,  in  1764,  issued 
a  decree  forbidding  any  work  to  be  published  in  which 
questions  of  government  were  discussed  ;274  having,  in 

274  •  L'Averdy  was  no  .sooner  affairs,  or  government  regulations 
named  controller  of  finance  than  in  general,  under  the  penalty  of 
he  published  a  decree,  in  1764  a  breach  of  the  police  laws ;  by 
{arret  du  conseil), — which,  ac-  which  the  man  was  liable  to  be 
cording  to  the  state  of  the  then  punished  without  defence,  and 
existing  constitution,  had  the  not  as  was  the  case  before  the 
force  of  a  law, — by  which  every  law  courts,  where  he  might  de- 
man  was  forbidden  to  print,  or  fend  himself  and  could  only  be 
cause  to  be  printed,  anything  judged  according  to  law.'  Schlos- 
whatever    upon    administrative  ser's  Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  ii. 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  245 

1767,  made  it  a  capital  offence  to  write  a  book  likely  to 
excite  the  public  mind  ;274  and  having,  moreover,  de- 
nounced the  same  penalty  of  death  against  any  one  who 
attacked  religion,276  as  also  against  any  one  who  spoke 
of  matters  of  finance  ;277 — having  taken  these  steps,  the 
rulers  of  France,  very  shortly  before  their  final  fall, 
contemplated  another  measure  still  more  compre- 
hensive. It  is,  indeed,  a  singular  fact,  that  only  nine 
years  before  the  Revolution,  and  when  no  power  on 
earth  could  have  saved  the  institutions  of  the  country, 
the  government  was  so  ignorant  of  the  real  state  of 
affairs,  and  so  confident  that  it  could  quell  the  spirit 
which  its  own  despotism  had  raised,  that  a  proposal 
was  made  by  an  officer  of  the  crown  to  do  away  with 
all  the  publishers,  and  not  allow  any  books  to  be 
printed  except  those  which  were  issued  from  a  press 
paid,  appointed,  and  controlled  by  the  executive  magis- 
trate.278 This  monstrous  proposition,  if  carried  into 
effect,  would  of  course  have  invested  the  king  with  all 
the  influence  which  literature  can  command  ;  it  would 
have  been  as  fatal  to  the  national  intellect  as  the  other 
measures  were  to  national  liberty ;  and  it  would  have 
consummated  the  ruin  of  France,  either  by  reducing 
its    greatest  men    to    complete    silence,    or   else    by 


p.  166 :  see  also  Mkm.  de  Morel-  34.     This,  I  suppose,  is  the  same 

let,  vol.  i.  p.  141,  vol  ii.  p.  75,  edict  as  that  mentioned  by  M. 

'  un  arret  du  conseil,  qui  defan-  Amedee  Renee,  in  his  continua- 

dait  d'imprimer  sur  les  matieres  tion   of  Sismondi,   Histoire  des 

d'administration.'  Francois,  vol.  xxx.  p.  247. 

273    '  L'ordonnance    de    1767,  2"  '  II  avait  ete  defendu,  sous 

rendue  sous  le  ministere  du  chan-  peine  de  mort,  aux  ecrivains  de 

celier  Maupeou,  portait  la  peine  parler    de    finances.'    Lavalike, 

de  mort  contre  tout  auteurd'6crits  Hist,  des  Francois,  vol.   iii.  p. 

tendant  a  emouvoix  les  esprits.'  490. 

Cassagnac,  Causes  de  la  Eevolu-  2'8  This  -was  the  suggestion  of 

tion,  vol.  i.  p.  313.  the  avocat-gen6ral  in  1780.    See 

2,4  In  April  1757,  D'Alembert  the  proposal,  in  his  own  words, 

writes  from  Paris,  '  on  vient  de  in   Grimm,  Correspond,  vol.  xi. 

publier  une  declaration  qui  in-  pp.  143,  144.     On  the  important 

flige  la  peine  de  mort  a  tous  ceux  functions  of   the  avocats-gene- 

qui  auront  publie  des  ecrits  ten-  raux  in  the  eighteenth  century, 

dants  a  attaquer   la    religion.'  see  a  note  in  Lettres  dAguesseau, 

(Euvrcs  de  Voltaire,  vol.  liv.  p.  vol.  i.  p.  264. 


246  .         EABLY   CAUSES    OF 

degrading  them  into  mere  advocates  of  those  opinions 
which  the  government  might  wish  to  propagate. 

For  these  are  by  no  means  to  be  considered  as  tri- 
fling matters,  merely  interesting  to  men  of  letters.  In 
France,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  literature  was  the 
last  resource  of  liberty.  In  England,  if  our  great  au- 
thors should  prostitute  their  abilities  by  inculcating 
servile  opinions,  the  danger  would  no  doubt  be  con- 
siderable, because  other  parts  of  society  might  find 
it  difficult  to  escape  the  contagion.  Still,  before  the 
corruption  had  spread,  there  would  be  time  to  stop 
its  course,  so  long  as  we  possessed  those  free  political 
institutions,  by  the  mere  mention  of  which  the  gene- 
rous imagination  of  a  bold  people  is  easily  fired.  And 
although  such  institutions  are  the  consequence,  not 
the  cause,  of  liberty,  they  do  unquestionably  react 
upon  it,  and  from  the  force  of  habit  they  could  for 
a  while  survive  that  from  which  they  originally  sprung. 
So  long  as  a  country  retains  its  political  freedom, 
there  will  always  remain  associations  by  which,  even 
in  the  midst  of  mental  degradation,  and  out  of  the 
depths  of  the  lowest  superstition,  the,  minds  of  men 
may  be  recalled  to  better  things.  But  in  France  such 
associations  had  no  existence.  In  France  everything 
was  for  the  governors  and  nothing  for  the  governed. 
There  was  neither  free  press,  nor  free  parliament, 
nor  free  debates.  There  were  no  public  meetings ; 
there  was  no  popular  suffrage  ;  there  was  no  discus- 
sion on  the  hustings ;  there  was  no  habeas-corpus 
act ;  there  was  no  trial  by  jury.  The  voice  of  liberty, 
thus  silenced  in  every  department  of  the  state,  could 
only  be  heard  in  the  appeals  of  those  great  men, 
who,  by  their  writings,  inspirited  the  people  to  re- 
sistance. This  is  the  point  of  view  from  which  wo 
ought  to  estimate  the  character  of  those  who  are  often 
accused  of  having  wantonly  disturbed  the  ancient 
fabric.279     They,  as  well  as  the  people  at  large,  were 

279  And  we  should   also    re-  reproches   d'avoir   tout  detruit, 

member  what  the  circumstances  adresses  aux  philosophes  du  dix- 

were  under  which  the  accusation  huitieme  siecle,  ont  commence  le 

was  first  heard  in  France      Les  jour  ou  il  s'est  trouve  en  Franca 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  247 

cruelly  oppressed  by  the  crown,  the  nobles,  and  the 
church. ;  and  they  used  their  abilities  to  retaliate  the 
injury.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  was  the  best 
course  open  to  them.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  rebel- 
lion is  the  last  remedy  against  tyranny,  and  that  a  de- 
spotic system  should  be  encountered  by  a  revolutionary 
literature.  The  upper  classes  were  to  blame,  because  they 
struck  the  first  blow;  but  we  must  by  no  means  censure 
those  great  men,  who,  having  defended  themselves  from 
aggression,  eventually  succeeded  in  smiting  the  govern- 
ment by  whom  the  aggression  was  originally  made. 

Without,  however,  stopping  to  vindicate  their  con- 
duct, we  have  now  to  consider  what  is  much  more  im- 
portant, namely,  the  origin  of  that  crusade  against 
Christianity,  in  which,  unhappily  for  France,  they  were 
compelled  to  embark,  and  the  occurrence  of  which  forms 
the  third  great  antecedent  of  the  French  Eevolution. 
A  knowledge  of  the  causes  of  this  hostility  against 
Christianity  is  essential  to  a  right  understanding  of  the 
philosophy  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  it  will  throw 
some  light  on  the  general  theory  of  ecclesiastical  power. 

It  is  a  circumstance  well  worthy  of  remark,  that  the 
revolutionary  literature  which  eventually  overturned  all 
the  institutions  of  France,  was  at  first  directed  against 
those  which  were  religious,  rather  than  against  those 
which  were  political.  The  great  writers  who  rose  into 
notice  soon  after  the  death  of  Louis  XTV.,  exerted 
themselves  against  spiritual  despotism ;  while  the  over- 
throw of  secular  despotism  was  left  to  their  immediate 
successors.280     This  is  not  the  course  which  would  be 


un  gouvernement  qui  a  voulu  re-  the  church,  and  not  against  the 

tablir  les  abus  dont  les  ecrivains  Btate,  is  noticed  by  many  writers; 

de  cette  epoque  avaient  accelere  some   of   whom  have  also  ob- 

la  destruction.'     Comte,    Traitl  served,  that  soon  after  the  middle 

de  Legislation,  vol.  i.  p.  72.  of    the    reign   of    Louis    XV. 

280  The  nature  of  this  change,  the  ground  began  to  be  shifted, 

and    the     circumstances    under  and  a  disposition  was  first  shown 

which  it  happened,  will  be  exa-  to  attack  political  abuses.     On 

mined  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  this  remarkable  fact,   indicated 

present  volume  ;    but  that  the  by  several  authors,  but  explained 

revolutionary  movement,    while  by    none,    compare     Lacretelle, 

headed  by  Voltaire  and  his  coad-  XVIII'  Steele,  vol.  ii.   p.  306 ; 

jutors,    was     directed     against  Barruel,  Mem.  pour  I  Hist,  du 


248  EAELT  CAUSES   OF 

pursued  in  a  healthy  state  of  society ;  and  there  is  no 
doubt,  that  to  this  peculiarity  the  crimes  and  the  lawless 
violence  of  the  French  Revolution  are  in  no  small  degree 
to  be  ascribed.  It  is  evident,  that  in  the  legitimate 
progress  of  a  nation,  political  innovations  should  keep 
pace  with  religious  innovations,  so  that  the  people  may 
increase  their  liberty  while  they  diminish  their  supersti- 
tion. In  France,  on  the  contrary,  during  nearly  forty 
years,  the  church  was  attacked,  and  the  government 
was  spared.  The  consequence  was,  that  the  order  and 
balance  of  the  country  were  destroyed ;  the  minds  of 
men  became  habituated  to  the  most  daring  speculations, 
while  their  acts  were  controlled  by  the  most  oppressive 
despotism  ;  and  they  felt  themselves  possessed  of  capa- 
cities which  their  rulers  would  not  allow  them  to  em- 
ploy. When,  therefore,  the  French  Revolution  broke 
out,  it  was  not  a  mere  rising  of  ignorant  slaves  against 
educated  masters,  but  it  was  a  rising  of  men  in  whom 
the  despair  caused  by  slavery  was  quickened  by  the 
resources  of  advancing  knowledge ;  men  who  were  in 
that  frightful  condition  when  the  progress  of  intellect 
outstrips  the  progress  of  liberty,  and  when  a  desire  is 
felt,  not  only  to  remove  a  tyranny,  but  also  to  avenge 
an  insult. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  to  this  we  must  ascribe 
some  of  the  most  hideous  peculiarities  of  the  French 
Revolution.  It,  therefore,  becomes  a  matter  of  great 
interest  to  inquire  how  it  was,  that  while  in  England 
political  freedom  and  religious  sceptism  have  accom- 
panied and  aided  each  other,  there  should,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  taken  place  in  France  a  vast  movement,  in 
which,  during  nearly  forty  years,  the  ablest  men  ne- 
glectedthe  freedom,  while  they  encouragedthe scepticism, 
and  diminished  the  power  of  the  church,  without  in- 
creasing the  liberties  of  the  people. 

The  first  reason  of  this  appears  to  be,  the  nature  of 

Jacobinisme,  vol.  i.  p.  xviii.,  vol.  vie,  Eegne  de  Louis  XVI,  vol.  iv. 

ii.  p.  113;  Tocqueville,  L'Ancien  p.    397;    Lamartine,   Hist,   des 

Regime,  p.  241 ;  Alison's  Europe,  Girondins,     vol.     i.     p.     183; 

vol.  i.  p.  165,  vol.  xiv.  p.  28C  ;  (Euvres  de   Vcltaire,  vol.  lx.  p. 

Mem.  de  Eivarol,  p.  35  ;  Soula~  307,  vol.  bcvi.  p.  34. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  249 

those  ideas  out  of  which,  the  French  had  long  constructed 
the  traditions  of  their  glory.  A  train  of  circumstances 
•which,  when  treating  of  the  protective  spirit,  I  at- 
tempted to  indicate,  had  secured  to  the  French  kings  an 
authority  which,  by  making  all  classes  subordinate  to 
the  crown,  flattered  the  popular  vanity.281  Hence  it 
was,  that  in  France  the  feelings  of  loyalty  worked  into 
the  national  mind  deeper  than  in  any  other  country  of 
Europe,  Spain  alone  excepted.282  The  difference  be- 
tween this  spirit  and  that  observable  in  England  has 
been  already  noticed,  and  may  be  still  further  illustrated 
by  the  different  ways  in  which  the  two  nations  have 
dealt  with  the  posthumous  reputation  of  their  sove- 
reigns. With  the  exception  of  Alfred,  who  is  sometimes 
called  the  Great,283  we  in  England  have  not  sufficiently 
loved  any  of  our  princes  to  bestow  upon  them  titles 
expressive  of  personal  admiration.  But  the  French 
have  decorated  their  kings  with  every  variety  of  pane- 
gyric. Thus,  to  take  only  a  single  name,  one  king  is 
Louis  the  Mild,  another  is  Louis  the  Saint,  another  is 
Louis  the  Just,  another  is  Louis  the  Great,  and  the 
most  hopelessly  vicious  of  all  was  called  Louis  the 
Beloved. 

These   are  facts  which,  insignificant  as  they  seem, 
form  most  important  materials  for  real  history,  since 

281  See  some  striking  remarks  tions  in  Ticknor's  Hist,  of  Span- 
in  M.  Tocqueville's  great  work,  ish  Literature,  vol.  i.  pp.  95,  96, 
Be  la  Bkmocratie,  vol.  i.  p.  5  ;  133,  vol.  iii.  pp.  191-193. 
"which  should  be  compared  with  28S  Our  admiration  of  Alfred 
the  observation  of  Horace  Wal-  is  greatly  increased  by  the  fact, 
pole,  who  was  well  acquainted  that  we  know  very  little  about 
with  French  society,  and  who  him.  The  principal  authority 
says,  happily  enough,  that  the  referred  to  for  his  reign  is  Asser, 
French  '  love  themselves  in  their  whose  work,  there  is  reason  to 
kings.'  Walpole's  Mem.  of  believe,  is  not  genuine.  See  the 
George  III,  vol.  ii.  p.  240.  arguments     in     Wright's    Biog. 

-K  Not  only  the  political  his-  Brit.   Lit.  vol.  i.  pp.  408-412. 

tory  of  Spain,  but  also  its  litera-  It  moreover  appears,  that  some 

ture,   contains   melancholy   evi-  of  the  institutions  popxdarly  as- 

dence  of  the  extraordinary  loyalty  cribed  to  him,  existed  before  his 

of  the  Spaniards,  and  of  the  in-  time.     Kemble's  Saxons  in  Eng- 

jurious  results  produced  by  it.  land,  vol.  i.  pp.  247,  248. 
See,  on  this,  some  useful  reflec- 


250 


EAELT   CAUSES   OF 


they  are  unequivocal  symptoms  of  the  state  of  the 
country  in  which  they  exist.234  Their  relation  to  the 
subject  before  us  is  obvious.  For,  by  them,  and  by  the 
circumstances  from  which  they  sprung,  an  intimate  and 
hereditary  association  was  engendered  in  the  minds  of 
Frenchmen,  between  the  glory  of  their  nation  and  the 
personal  reputation  of  their  sovereign.  The  consequence 
was,  that  the  political  conduct  of  the  rulers  of  France 
was  protected  against  censure  by  a  fence  far  more  im- 
passable than  any  that  could  be  erected  by  the  most 
stringent  laws.  It  was  protected  by  those  prejudices 
which  each  generation  bequeathed  to  its  successor.  It 
was  protected  by  that  halo  which  time  had  thrown 
round  the  oldest  monarchy  in  Europe.285     And  above 


284  The  French  writers,  under 
the  old  regime,  constantly  boast 
that  loyalty  was  the  characteris- 
tic of  their  nation,  and  taunt  the 
English  with  their  opposite  and 
insubordinate  spirit.  '  II  n'est 
pas  ici  question  des  Fran<jois, 
qui  se  sont  toujours  distingues 
des  autres  nations  par  leur  amour 
pour  leurs  rois.'  Le  Blanc,  Let- 
tres  dun  Francois,  vol.  iii.  p. 
523.  '  The  English  do  not  love 
their  sovereigns  as  much  as  could 
be  desired.'  Sorbiere's  Voyage 
to  England,  p.  58.  '  Le  respect 
de  la  majeste  royale,  caractere 
distinctif  des  Francais.'  Mem.  de 
Montbarey,  vol.  ii.p.  54.  'L'a- 
mour  et  la  fidelite  que  les  Fran- 
9ais  ont  naturellement  pour  leurs 
princes,'  Mem.  de  Motteville, 
vol.  ii.  p.  3.  '  Les  Francais, 
qui  aiment  leurs  princes.'  Be 
Thou,  Hist.  Univ.  vol.  iii.  p. 
381 ;  and  see  vol.  xi.  p.  729. 
For  further  evidence,  see  Sully, 
(Economies,  vol.  iv.  p.  346  ;  Mon- 
teil,  Bivers  Etats,  vol.  vii.  p. 
105  ;  Segur,  Memoires,  vol.  i.  p. 
32 ;  Lamartine,  Hist,  des  Giron- 
dins,  vol.  iv.  p.  58. 


Now,  contrast  with  all  this  the 
sentiments  contained  in  one  of 
the  most  celebrated  histories  in 
the  English  language :  '  There  is 
not  any  one  thing  more  certain 
and  more  evident,  than  that 
princes  are  made  for  the  people, 
and  not  the  people  for  them; 
and  perhaps  there  is  no  nation 
under  heaven  that  is  more  en- 
tirely possessed  with  this  notion 
of  princes  than  the  English  na- 
tion is  in  this  age ;  so  that  they 
will  soon  be  uneasy  to  a  prince 
who  does  not  govern  himself  by 
this  maxim,  and  in  time  grow 
very  unkind  to  him.'  Burnet 's 
History  of  his  Own  Time,  vol.  vi. 
p.  223.  This  manly  and  whole- 
some passage  was  written  while 
the  French  were  licking  the  dust 
from  the  feet  of  Louis  XIV. 

285  '  La  race  des  rois  la  plus 
ancienne.'  Mem.  de  Genlis,  vol. 
ix.  p.  281.  '  Nos  rois,  issus  de 
la  plus  grande  race  du  monde,  et 
devant  qui  les  C6sars,  et  la  plus 
grande  partie  des  princes  qui 
jadis  ont  commande  tant  de  na- 
tions, ne  sont  que- des  roturiers.' 
Mem.  de  Motteville,  vol.  ii.  p. 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  251 

all,  it  was  protected  by  that  miserable  national  vanity, 
which  made  men  submit  to  taxation  and  to  slavery,  in 
order  that  foreign  princes  might  be  dazzled  by  the 
splendour  of  their  sovereign,  and  foreign  countries  inti- 
midated by  the  greatness  of  his  victories. 

The  upshot  of  all  this  was,  that  when,  early  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  intellect  of  France  began  to  be 
roused  into  action,  the  idea  of  attacking  the  abuses  of  the 
monarchy  never  occurred  even  to  the  boldest  thinker. 
But,  under  the  protection  of  the  crown,  there  had  grown 
up  another  institution,  about  which  less  delicacy  was 
felt.  The  clergy,  who  for  so  long  a  period  had  been 
allowed  to  oppress  the  consciences  of  men,  were  not 
sheltered  by  those  national  associations  which  sur- 
rounded the  person  of  the  sovereign ;  nor  had  any  of 
them,  with  the  single  exception  of  Bossuet,  done  much 
to  increase  the  general  reputation  of  France.  Indeed, 
the  French  church,  though  during  the  reign  of  Louis 
XIV.  it  possessed  immense  authority,  had  always  ex- 
ercised it  in  subordination  to  the  crown,  at  whose 
bidding  it  had  not  feared  to  oppose  even  the  pope  him- 
self.286 It  was,  therefore,  natural,  that  in  France  the 
ecclesiastical  power  should  be  attacked  before  the  tem- 
poral power  ;  because,  while  it  was  as  despotic,  it  was 
less  influential,  and  because  it  was  unprotected  by  those 
popular  traditions  which  form  the  principal  support  of 
every  ancient  institution. 

These  considerations  are  sufficient  to  explain  why  it 
was  that,  in  this  respect,  the  French  and  English  intel- 
lects adopted  courses  so  entirely  different.  In  England, 
the  minds  of  men,  being  less  hampered  with  the  pre- 
judices of  an  indiscriminate  loyalty,  have  been  able  at 

417.    And  a  Venetian  ambassa-  des  Revolutions,   vol.   ii.  p.  16. 

dor,   in  the   sixteenth  century,  M.  Kanke  (Die  Pdpste,  vol.  ii.  p. 

says,  that  France  is  'il  regnopiu  257)  ascribes  this  to  the  circum- 

antico    d'  ogn'    altro  che   sia  in  stances  attending  the  apostasy  of 

essere  al    presente.'     Relat.   des  Henry  IV. ;  but  the  cause  lies 

Ambassad.  vol.  i.  p.  470.    Com-  much  deeper,    being    connected 

pare  Boidlier,  Maison  MUitaire  with  that  triumph  of  the  secular 

des  Rois  de  France,  p.  360.  interests   over  the   spiritual,   of 

294  Capefigue's  Louis  XIV,  vol.  which  the  policy  of  Henry  IV. 

l.  pp.  204,  301 ;  Koch,   Tableau  was  itself  a  consequence. 


252  EARLY   CAUSES   OP 

each  successive  step  in  the  great  progress  to  direct  their 
doubts  and  inquiries  on  politics  as  well  as  on  religion  ; 
and  thus  estabhshing  their  freedom  as  they  diminished 
their  superstition,  they  have  maintained  the  balance  of 
the  national  intellect,  without  allowing  to  either  of  its 
divisions  an  excessive  preponderance.  But  in  France 
the  admiration  for  royalty  had  become  so  great,  that 
this  balance  was  disturbed ;  the  inquiries  of  men  not 
daring  to  settle  on  politics,  were  fixed  on  religion,  and 
gave  rise  to  the  singular  phenomenon  of  a  rich  and 
powerful  literature,  in  which  unanimous  hostility  to  the 
church  was  unaccompanied  by  a  single  voice  against  the 
enormous  abuses  of  the  state. 

There  was  likewise  another  circumstance  which  in- 
creased this  peculiar  tendency.  During  the  reign  of 
Louis  XTV".  the  personal  character  of  the  hierarchy  had 
done  much  to  secure  their  dominion.  All  the  leaders 
of  the  church  were  men  of  virtue,  and  many  were  men 
of  ability.  Their  conduct,  tyrannical  as  it  was,  seems 
to  have  been  conscientious  ;  and  the  evils  which  it  pro- 
duced are  merely  to  be  ascribed  to  the  gross  impolicy  of 
entrusting  ecclesiastics  with  power.  But  after  the 
death  of  Louis  XIV.  a  great  change  took  place.  The 
Clergy,  from  causes  which  it  would  be  tedious  to  in- 
vestigate, became  extremely  dissolute,  and  often  very 
ignorant.  This  made  their  tyranny  more  oppressive, 
because  to  submit  to  it  was  more  disgraceful.  The 
great  abilities  and  unblemished  morals  of  men  like 
Bossuet,  Fenelon,  Bourdaloue,  Flechier,  and  Mascaron, 
diminished  in  some  degree  the  ignominy  which  is 
always  connected  with  blind  obedience.  But  when  they 
were  succeeded  by  such  bishops  and  cardinals  as  Dubois, 
Lafiteau,  Tencin,  and  others  who  flourished  under  the 
regency,  it  became  difficult  to  respect  the  heads  of  the 
church,  tainted  as  they  were  with  open  and  notorious 
depravity.287     At  the  same   time  that  there   occurred 

iS7Lavallee,  Hist,  des  Frangais,  Mbnoires,vo\.  ii.  pp.  42,  43,  154, 

vol.  iii.  p.  408;  Flassan,  Hist,  de  155,   223,   224.    What  was,   if 

la    DiploTnatie,    vol.    v.    p.    3 ;  possible,  still  more   scandalous, 

TocquevWe,  Begne  de  Louis  XV,  was,  that  in  1723  the  assembly 

vol.    i.    pp.    35,   347;     Duclos,  of  the  clergy  elected  as   their 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  253 

this  unfavourable  change  among  the  ecclesiastical  rulers, 
there  also  occurred  that  immense  reaction  of  which  I 
have  endeavoured  to  trace  the  early  workings.  It  was 
therefore,  at  the  very  moment  when  the  spirit  of  inquiry 
became  stronger  that  the  character  of  the  Clergy  became 
more  contemptible.288  The  great  writers  who  were  now 
rising  in  France,  were  moved  to  indignation  when  they 
saw  that  those  who  usurped  unlimited  power  over 
consciences  had  themselves  no  consciences  at  all.  It  is 
evident,  that  every  argument  which  they  borrowed  from 
England  against  ecclesiastical  power,  would  gain  addi- 
tional force  when  directed  against  men  whose  personal 
unfitness  was  universally  acknowledged.289 

Such  was  the  position  of  the  rival  parties,  when, 
almost  immediately  after  the  death  of  Louis  XTV.,  there 
began  that  great  struggle  between  authority  and  reason, 
which  is  still  unfinished,  although  in  the  present  state 
of  knowledge  its  result  is  no  longer  doubtful.  On  tho 
one  side  there  was  a  compact  and  numerous  priesthood, 
supported  by  the  prescription  of  centuries  and  by  the 
authority  of  the  crown.  On  the  other  side  there  was  a 
small  body  of  men,  without  rank,  without  wealth,  and 
as  yet  without  reputation,  but  animated  by  a  love  of 
liberty,  and  by  a  just  confidence  in  their  own  abilities. 


president,  unanimously  ('  d'une  he  being  the  last  French  bishop 
voix  unanime'),  the  infamous  who  was  remarkable  for  virtue 
Dubois,  the  most  notoriously  im-  as  well  as  for  ability, 
moral  man  of  his  time.  Duclos,  a9  Voltaire  says  of  the  Eng- 
Mem.  vol.  ii.  p.  262.  lish, '  quand  ils  apprennent  qu'en 
288  On  this  decline  of  the  France  de  jeunes  gens  connus 
French  clergy,  see  VUlemain,  par  leurs  debauches,  et  eleves  4 
XVIII'  Siecle,  vol.  iii.  pp.  178,  la  prelature  par  des  intrigues  de 
179  :  Cousin,  Hist,  de  la  Philos.  femmes,  font  publiquement 
II'  serie,  vol.  i.  p.  301.  Tocque-  1'amour,  s'egaient  a  composer  des 
viile  (Regne  de  Louis  XV,  vol.  chansons  tendres,  donnent  tous 
i.  pp.  35-38,  365)  says,  '  le  les  jours  des  soupers  delicats  et 
«lerg6  prechait  une  morale  qu'il  longs,  et  de  la  vont  implorer  les 
compromettait  par  sa  conduite  ; '  lumieres  du  Saint-Esprit,  et  se 
a  noticeable  remark,  when  made  nomment  hardiment  les  sue- 
by  an  opponent  of  the  sceptical  cesseures  des  apotres  ils  remer* 
philosophy,  like  the  elder  M.  cient  Dieu  d'etre  protestante. 
Tocqueville.  Among  this  profli-  Lettres  sur  les  Anglais,  in  (Euvres, 
gate  crew,  Massillon  stood  alone ;  vol.  xxvi.  p.  29. 


254  EARLY   CAUSES   OP 

Unfortunately,  they  at  the  very  outset  committed  a 
serious  error.  In  attacking  the  clergy,  they  lost  their 
respect  for  religion.  In  their  determination  to  weaken 
ecclesiastical  power,  they  attempted  to  undermine  the 
foundations  of  Christianity.  This  is  deeply  to  be  re- 
gretted for  their  own  sake,  as  well  as  for  its  ultimate 
effects  in  France  ;  but  it  must  not  be  imputed  to  them 
as  a  crime,  since  it  was  forced  on  them  by  the  exigencies 
of  their  position.  They  saw  the  frightful  evils  which 
their  country  was  suffering  from  the  institution  of 
priesthood  as  it  then  existed ;  and  yet  they  were  told 
that  the  preservation  of  that  institution  in  its  actual 
form  was  essential  to  the  very  being  of  Christianity. 
They  had  always  been  taught  that  the  interests  of  the 
clergy  were  identical  with  the  interests  of  religion ;  how 
then  could  they  avoid  including  both  clergy  and  religion 
in  the  same  hostility  ?  The  alternative  was  cruel ;  but 
it  was  one  from  which,  in  common  honesty,  they  had  no 
escape.  We,  judging  these  things  by  another  standard, 
possess  a  measure  which  they  could  not  possibly  have. 
We  should  not  now  commit  such  an  error,  because  we 
know  that  there  is  no  connexion  between  any  one  par- 
ticular form  of  priesthood  and  the  interests  of  Christi- 
anity. We  know  that  the  clergy  are  made  for  the 
people,  and  not  the  people  for  the  clergy.  We  know 
that  all  questions  of  church  government  are  matters, 
not  of  religion,  but  of  policy,  and  should  be  settled,  not 
according  to  traditional  dogmas,  but  according  to  large 
views  of  general  expediency.  It  is  because  these  pro- 
positions are  now  admitted  by  all  enlightened  men, 
that  in  our  country  the  truths  of  religion  are  rarely 
attacked  except  by  superficial  thinkers.  If,  for  instance, 
we  were  to  find  that  the  existence  of  our  bishops,  with 
their  privileges  and  their  wealth,  is  unfavourable  to  the 
progress  of  society,  we  should  not  on  that  account  feel 
enmity  against  Christianity ;  because  we  should  re- 
member that  episcopacy  is  its  accident,  and  not  its 
essential,  and  that  we  could  do  away  with  the  institution 
and  yet  retain  the  religion.  In  the  same  way,  if  we 
should  ever  find,  what  was  formerly  found  in  France, 
that  the  clergy  were  tyrannical,  this  would  excite  in  us 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION".  255 

an  opposition,  not  to  Christianity,  but  merely  to  the  ex- 
ternal form  which  Christianity  assumed.  So  long  as 
our  clergy  confine  themselves  to  the  beneficent  duties  of 
their  calling,  to  the  alleviation  of  pain  and  distress, 
either  bodily  or  mental,  so  long  -will  we  respect  them 
as  the  ministers  of  peace  and  of  charity.  But  if  they 
should  ever  again  entrench  on  the  rights  of  the  laity, — 
if  they  should  ever  again  interfere  with  an  authoritative 
voice  in  the  government  of  the  state, — it  will  then  be 
for  the  people  to  inquire,  whether  the  time  has  not  come 
to  effect  a  revision  of  the  ecclesiastical  constitution  of 
the  country.  This,  therefore,  is  the  manner  in  which 
we  now  view  these  things.  What  we  think  of  the 
clergy  will  depend  upon  themselves  ;  but  will  have  no 
connection  with  what  we  think  of  Christianity.  We 
look  on  the  clergy  as  a  body  of  men  who,  notwith- 
standing their  disposition  to  intolerance,  and  notwith- 
standing a  certain  narrowness  incidental  to  their 
profession,  do  undoubtedly  form  part  of  a  vast  and 
noble  institution,  by  which  the  manners  of  men  have 
been  softened,  their  sufferings  assuaged,  their  distresses 
relieved.  As  long  as  this  institution  performs  its  func- 
tions, we  are  well  content  to  let  it  stand.  If,  however, 
it  should  be  out  of  repair,  or  if  it  should  be  found  in- 
adequate to  the  shifting  circumstances  of  an  advancing 
society,  we  retain  both  the  power  and  the  right  of 
remedying  its  faults ;  we  may,  if  need  be,  remove  some 
of  its  parts ;  but  we  would  not,  we  dare  not,  tamper 
with  those  great  religious  truths  which  are  altogether 
independent  of  it ;  truths  which  comfort  the  mind  of 
man,  raise  him  above  the  instincts  of  the  hour,  and  in- 
fuse into  him  those  lofty  aspirations  which,  revealing  to 
him  his  own  immortality,  are  the  measure  and  the 
symptom  of  a  future  life. 

Unfortunately,  this  was  not  the  way  in  which  these 
matters  were  considered  in  France.  The  government 
of  that  country,  by  investing  the  clergy  with  great 
immunities,  by  treating  them  as  if  there  were  something 
sacred  about  their  persons,  and  by  punishing  as  heresy 
the  attacks  which  were  made  on  them,  had  established 
in  the  national  mind  an  indissoluble  connexion  between 


256  EAELT  CAUSES   OF 

their  interests  and  the  interests  of  Christianity.  The 
consequence  was,  that  when  the  struggle  began,  the 
ministers  of  religion,  and  religion  itself,  were  both 
assailed  with  equal  zeal.  The  ridicule,  and  even  the 
abuse,  heaped  on  the  clergy,  will  surprise  no  one  who  is 
acquainted  with  the  provocation  that  had  been  received. 
And  although,  in  the  indiscriminate  onslaught  which 
soon  followed,  Christianity  was,  for  a  time,  subjected  to 
a  fate  which  ought  to  have  been  reserved  for  those  who 
called  themselves  her  ministers  ;  this,  while  it  moves  us 
to  regret,  ought  by  no  means  to  excite  our  astonishment. 
The  destruction  of  Christianity  in  France  was  the  neces- 
sary result  of  those  opinions  which  bound  up  the  destiny 
of  the  national  priesthood  with  the  destiny  of  the 
national  religion.  If  both  were  connected  by  the  same 
origin,  both  should  fall  in  the  same  ruin.  If  that  which 
is  the  tree  of  life,  were,  in  reality,  so  corrupt  that  it 
could  only  bear  poisonous  fruits,  then  it  availed  little  to 
lop  off  the  boughs  and  cut  down  the  branches  ;  but  it 
were  better,  by  one  mighty  effort,  to  root  it  up  from 
the  ground,  and  secure  the  health  of  society  by  stopping 
the  very  source  of  the  contagion. 

These  are  reflections  which  must  make  us  pause  be- 
fore we  censure  the  deistical  writers  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  So  perverted,  however,  are  the  reasonings 
to  which  some  minds  are  accustomed,  that  those  who 
judge  them  most  uncharitably  are  precisely  those  whose 
conduct  forms  their  best  excuse.  Such  are  the  men 
who,  by  putting  forth  the  most  extravagant  claims 
in  favour  of  the  clergy,  are  seeking  to  establish  the 
principle,  by  the  operation  of  which  the  clergy  were 
destroyed.  Their  scheme  for  restoring  the  old  system 
of  ecclesiastical  authority  depends  on  the  supposition 
of  its  divine  origin :  a  supposition  which,  if  insepar- 
able from  Christianity,  will  at  once  justify  the  in- 
fidelity which  they  hotly  attack.  The  increase  of  the 
power  of  the  clergy  is  incompatible  with  the  interests 
of  civilization.  If,  therefore,  any  religion  adopts  as  its 
creed  the  necessity  of  such  an  increase,  it  becomes  the 
bounden  duty  of  every  friend  to  humanity  to  do  his 
utmost,  either  to  destroy  the  creed,  or  failing  in  that, 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION,  257 

to  overturn  the  religion.  If  pretensions  of  this  sort  are 
an  essential  part  of  Christianity,  it  behoves  us  at  once 
to  make  our  choice ;  since  the  only  option  can  be, 
between  abjuring  our  faith  or  sacrificing  our  liberty. 
Fortunately,  we  are  not  driven  to  so  hard  a  strait ;  and 
we  know  that  these  claims  are  as  false  in  theory,  as 
they  would  be  pernicious  in  practice.  Tt  is,  indeed, 
certain,  that  if  they  were  put  into  execution,  the  clergy, 
though  they  might  enjoy  a  momentary  triumph,  would 
have  consummated  their  own  ruin,  by  preparing  the 
way  among  us  for  scenes  as  disastrous  as  those  which 
occurred  in  France. 

The  truth  is,  that  what  is  most  blamed  in  the  great 
French  writers,  was  the  natural  consequence  of  the 
development  of  their  age.  Never  was  there  a  more 
striking  illustration  of  the  social  law  already  noticed, 
that,  if  government  will  allow  religious  scepticism  to 
run  its  course,  it  will  issue  in  great  things,  and  will 
hasten  the  march  of  civilization  ;  but  that,  if  an  attempt 
is  made  to  put  it  down  with  a  strong  hand,  it  may,  no 
doubt,  be  repressed  for  a  time,  but  eventualry  will  rise 
with  such  force  as  to  endanger  the  foundation  of 
society.  In  England,  we  adopted  the  first  of  these 
courses;  in  France,  they  adopted  the  second.  .  In 
England,  men  were  allowed  to  exercise  their  own 
judgment  on  the  most  sacred  subjects ;  and,  as  soon  a* 
the  diminution  of  their  credulity  had  made  them  set 
bounds  to  the  power  of  the  clergy,  toleration  imme- 
diately followed,  and  the  national  prosperity  has  never 
been  disturbed.  In  France,  the  authority  of  the  clergy 
was  increased  by  a  superstitious  king;  faith  usurped 
the  place  of  reason,  not  a  whisper  of  doubt  was  allowed 
to  be  heard,  and  the  spirit  of  inquiry  was  stifled,  until 
the  country  fell  to  the  brink  of  ruin.  If  Louis  XTV. 
had  not  interfered  with  the  natural  progress,  France, 
like  England,  would  have  continued  to  advance.  After 
his  death,  it  was,  indeed,  too  late  to  save  the  clergy, 
against,  whom  all  the  intellect  of  the  nation  was 
soon  arrayed.  But  the  force  of  the  storm  might  still 
have  been  broken,  if  the  government  of  Louis  XV. 
had  conciliated  what  it  was  impossible  to  resist;  and, 

VOL.  II.  s 


258  EARLY   CAUSES   OP 

instead  of  madly  attempting  to  restrain  opinions  bylaws, 
had  altered  the  laws  to  suit  the  opinions.  If  the  rulers 
of  France,  instead  of  exerting  themselves  to  silence  the 
national  literature,  had  yielded  to  its  suggestions,  and 
had  receded  before  the  pressure  of  advancing  know- 
ledge, the  fatal  collision  would  have  been  avoided ; 
because  the  passions  which  caused  the  collision  would 
have  been  appeased.  In  such  case,  the  church  would 
have  fallen  somewhat  earlier ;  but  the  state  itself  would 
have  been  saved.  In  such  case,  France  would,  in  all 
probability,  have  secured  her  liberties,  without  in- 
creasing her  crimes ;  and  that  great  country,  which, 
from  her  position  and  resources,  ought  to  be  the  pattern 
of  European  civilization,  might  have  escaped  the  ordeal 
of  those  terrible  atrocities,  through  which  she  was  com- 
pelled to  pass,  and  from  the  effects  of  which  she  has 
not  yet  recovered. 

It  must,  I  think,  be  admitted  that,  during,  at  all 
events,  the  first  half  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.,  it  was 
possible,  by  timely  concessions,  still  to  preserve  the 
political  institutions  of  France.  Reforms  there  must 
have  been ;  and  reforms  too  of  a  large  and  uncompro- 
mising character.  So  far,  however,  as  I  am  able  to 
understand  the  real  history  of  that  period,  I  make  no 
doubt  that,  if  these  had  been  granted  in  a  frank  and 
ungrudging  spirit,  everything  could  have  been  retained 
necessary  for  the  only  two  objects  at  which  government 
ought  to  aim,  namely,  the  preservation  of  order,  and 
the  prevention  of  crime.  But,  by  the  middle  of  the 
reign  of  Louis  XV.,  or,  at  all  events,  immediately  after- 
wards, the  state  of  affairs  began  to  alter  ;  and,  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years,  the  spirit  of  France  became  so 
democratic,  that  it  was  impossible  even  to  delay  a 
revolution,  which,  in  the  preceding  generation,  might 
have  been  altogether  averted.  This  remarkable  change 
is  connected  with  that  other  change  already  noticed,  by 
virtue  of  which,  the  French  intellect  began,  about  the 
same  period,  to  direct  its  hostility  against  the  state, 
rather  than,  as  heretofore,  against  the  church.  As  soon 
as  this,  which  may  be  called  the  second  epoch  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  had  been  fairly  entered,  the  move- 


THE    FEENCH   REVOLUTION.  259 

ment  became  irresistible.  Event  after  event  followed 
each  other  in  rapid  succession ;  each  one  linked  to  its 
antecedent,  and  the  whole  forming  a  tendency  im- 
possible to  withstand.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  govern- 
ment, yielding  some  points  of  real  importance,  adopted 
measures  by  which  the  church  was  controlled,  the 
power  of  the  clergy  diminished,  and  even  the  order  of 
the  Jesuits  suppressed.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  crown 
now  called  to  its  councils,  for  the  first  time,  men  im- 
bued with  the  spirit  of  reform ;  men,  like  Turgot  and 
Necker,  whose  wise  and  liberal  proposals  would,  in 
calmer  days,  have  stilled  the  agitation  of  the  popular 
mind.  It  was  in  vain  that  promises  were  made  to 
equalize  the  taxes,  to  redress  some  of  the  most  crying 
grievances,  to  repeal  some  of  the  most  obnoxious  laws. 
It  was  even  in  vain  that  the  states-general  were  sum- 
moned ;  and  that  thus,  after  the  lapse  of  a  hundred 
and  seventy  years,  the  people  were  again  admitted  to 
take  part  in  the  management  of  their  own  affairs.  All 
these  things  were  in  vain ;  because  the  time  for  treaty 
had  gone  by,  and  the  time  for  battle  had  come.  The 
most  liberal  concessions  that  could  possibly  have  been 
devised  would  have  failed  to  avert  that  deadly  struggle, 
which  the  course  of  preceding  events  made  inevitable. 
For  the  measure  of  that  age  was  now  full.  The  upper 
classes,  intoxicated  by  the  long  possession  of  power,  had 
provoked  the  crisis ;  and  it  was  needful  that  they  should 
abide  the  issue.  There  was  no  time  for  mercy  ;  there 
was  no  pause,  no  compassion,  no  sympathy.  The  only 
question  that  remained  was,  to  see  whether  they  who 
had  raised  the  storm  could  ride  the  whirlwind;  or, 
whether  it  was  not  rather  likely  that  they  should  be  the 
first  victims  of  that  frightful  hurricane,  in  which,  for  a 
moment,  laws,  religion,  morals,  all  perished,  the  lowest 
vestiges  of  humanity  were  effaced,  and  the  civilization 
of  France  not  only  submerged,  but,  as  it  then  appeared, 
irretrievably  ruined. 

To  ascertain  the  successive  changes  of  this,  the  se- 
cond epoch  of  the  eighteenth  century,  is  an  undertaking 
full  of  difficulty ;  not  only  on  account  of  the  rapidity 
with  which  the  events  occurred,  but  also  on  account  of 

82 


260  EARLY  CAUSES  OF  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

their  extreme  complication,  and  of  the  way  in  which 
they  acted  and  reacted  upon  each  other.  The  materials, 
however,  for  such  an  inquiry  are  very  numerous  ;  and, 
as  they  consist  of  evidence  supplied  by  all  classes  and 
all  interests,  it  has  appeared  to  me  possible  to  recon- 
struct the  history  of  that  time,  according  to  the  only 
manner  in  which  history  deserves  to  be  studied  ;  that 
is  to  say,  according  to  the  order  of  its  social  and  in- 
tellectual development.  In  the  seventh  chapter  of 
the  present  volume,  I  shall,  therefore,  attempt  to  trace 
the  antecedents  of  the  French  Revolution  during  that 
remarkable  period,  in  which  the  hostility  of  men, 
slackening  in  regard  to  the  abuses  of  the  church,  was, 
for  the  first  time,  turned  against  the  abuses  of  the 
state.  But,  before  entering  into  this,  which  may  be 
distinguished  as  the  political  epoch  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  it  will  be  necessary,  according  to  the  plan 
which  I  have  sketched,  to  examine  the  changes  that  oc- 
curred in  the  method  of  writing  history,  and  to  indicate 
the  way  in  which  those  changes  were  affected  by  the 
tendencies  of  the  earlier,  or,  as  it  may  be  termed,  the 
ecclesiastical  epoch.  In  this  manner,  we  shall  the  more 
easily  understand  the  activity  of  that  prodigious  move- 
ment which  led  to  the  French  Revolution;  because  we 
shall  see  that  it  not  only  affected  the  opinions  of  men  in  re- 
gard to  what  was  passing  under  their  eyes,  but  that  it  also 
biased  their  speculative  views  in  regard  to  the  events 
of  preceding  ages  ;  and  thus  gave  rise  to  that  new 
school  of  historical  literature,  the  formation  of  which 
is  by  no  means  the  least  of  the  many  benefits  which  we 
owe  to  the  great  thinkers  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


261 


CHAPTER  VI. 

STATE   OF  HISTORICAL    LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE  FROM   THB  END   OF 
THE    SIXTEENTH   TO    THE   END    OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY. 

It  may  be  easily  supposed,  that  those  vast  movements 
in  the  intellect  of  France,  whioh  I  have  just  traced, 
could  not  fail  to  produce  a  great  change  in  the  method 
of  writing  history.     That  bold  spirit  with  which  men 
were  beginning  to  estimate  the  transactions  of  their 
own  time,  was  sure  to  influence  their  opinions  respecting 
those  of  a  former  age.     In  this,  as  in  every  branch  of 
knowledge,  the  first  innovation  consisted  in  recognizing 
the  necessity  of  doubting  what  had  hitherto  been  be- 
lieved ;    and  this  feeling,  when  once  established,  went 
on  increasing,  destroying  at  each  step  some  of  those 
monstrous  absurdities  by  which,  as  we  have  seen,  even 
the  best  histories  were  disfigured.     The  germs  of  the 
reform  may  be  discerned    in  the  fourteenth  century, 
though  the  reform  itself  did  not  begin  until  late  in  the 
sixteenth  century.     During  the  seventeenth  century,  it 
advanced  somewhat  slowly ;  but  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury it  received  a  sudden  accession  of  strength,  and, 
in  France  in  particular,  it  was  hastened  by  that  fearless 
and  inquisitive  spirit  which  characterized  the  age,  and 
which,  purging  history  of  innumerable  follies,  raised  its 
standard,   and  conferred  on  it  a  dignity  hitherto  un- 
known.   The  rise  of  historical  scepticism,  and  the  extent 
to  which  it  spread,  do  indeed  form  such  curious  features 
in  the  annals  of  the  European  intellect,  as  to  make  it 
surprising  that  no  one  should  have  attempted  to  examine 
a  movement  to  which  a  great  department  of  modern 
literature  owes  its  most  valuable  peculiarities.     In  the 
present  chapter,  I  hope  to  supply  this  deficiency  so  far 


262       HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE. 

as  France  is  concerned ;  and  I  shall  endeavour  to  mark 
the  different  steps  by  which  the  progress  was  effected, 
in  order  that,  by  knowing  the  circumstances  most 
favourable  to  the  study  of  history,  we  may  with  the 
greater  ease  inquire  into  the  probability  of  its  future 
improvement. 

There  is,  in  reference  to  this  subject,  a  preliminary 
consideration  well  worthy  of  notice.  This  is,  that  men 
seem  always  to  have  begun  to  doubt  in  matters  of  re- 
ligion, before  they  ventured  to  do  so  in  matters  of  his- 
tory. It  might  have  been  expected  that  the  reproaches, 
and,  in  a  superstitious  age,  the  dangers,  to  which  heresy 
is  exposed,  would  have  intimidated  inquirers,  and  would 
have  induced  them  to  prefer  the  safer  path  of  directing 
their  scepticism  upon  questions  of  literary  speculation. 
Such,  however,  is  by  no  means  the  course  which  the 
human  mind  has  adopted.  In  an  early  stage  of  society, 
when  the  clergy  had  universal  influence,  a  belief  in  the 
unpardonable  criminality  of  religious  error  is  so  deeply 
rooted,  that  it  engrosses  the  attention  of  all ;  it  forces 
every  one  who  thinks,  to  concentrate  upon  theology  his 
reflections  and  his  doubts,  and  it  leaves  no  leisure  for 
topics  which  are  conceived  to  be  of  inferior  importance.1 
Hence,  during  many  centuries,  the  subtlest  intellects 
of  Europe  exhausted  their  strength  on  the  rights  and 
dogmas  of  Christianity ;  and  while  upon  these  matters 
they  often  showed  the  greatest  ability,  they,  upon  other 
subjects,  and  especially  upon  history,  displayed,  that  in- 
fantine credulity,  of  which  I  have  already  given  several 
examples. 

1  See  some  very  just  remarks  Eut    no    one    has   treated  this 

in  WhewelVs  Philos.  of  the  Indue,  subject   so  ably  as  M.  Auguste 

Sciences,    vol.    ii.    p.    143.    In  Comte,  in  his  great  work,  Phi- 

Neander's  Hist,   of  the  Church,  losophie  Positive.      The  service 

vol.  iv.  pp.  41,  128,  there  are  two  which  the   metaphysicians   ren- 

curious  illustrations  of  the  uni-  dered  to  the  church  by  their  de- 

versal  interest  which  theological  velopment  of  the  doctrine  of  tran- 

discussions     once     inspired     in  substantiation   {Blanco    White's 

Europe ;  and  on  the  former  sub-  Evidence  against  Catholicism,  pp. 

servience  of  philosophy  to  theo-  256-258)  is  a  striking  instance 

logy,   compare   Hamilton's   Pis-  of   this    subordination     of    the 

cussions  on  Philosophy,  p.  197.  intellect  to  ecclesiastical  dogmas, 


HISTOEICAL    LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE.        263 

But  when,  in  the  progress  of  society,  its  theological 
element  begins  to  decay,  the  ardour  with  which  reli- 
gious disputes  were  once  conducted  becomes  sensibly 
weakened.  The  most  advanced  intellects  are  the  first 
to  feel  the  growing  indifference,  and,  therefore,  they  are 
also  the  first  to  scrutinize  real  events  with  that  inquisi- 
tive eye  which  their  predecessors  had  reserved  for  reli- 
gious speculations.  This  is  a  great  turning-point  in  the 
history  of  every  civilized  nation.  From  this  moment 
theological  heresies  become  less  frequent,2  and  literary 
heresies  become  more  common.  From  this  moment  the 
spirit  of  inquiry  and  of  doubt  fastens  itself  upon  every 
department  of  knowledge,  and  begins  that  great  career 
of  conquest,  in  which  by  every  succeeding  discovery  the 
power  and  dignity  of  man  are  increased,  while  at  the 
same  time  most  of  his  opinions  are  disturbed,  and  many 
of  them  are  destroyed :  until,  in  the  march  of  this  vast 
but  noiseless  revolution,  the  stream  of  tradition  is,  as  it 
were,  interrupted,  the  influence  of  ancient  authority  is 
subverted,  and  the  human  mind,  waxing,  in  strength, 
learns  to  rely  upon  its  own  resources,  and  to  throw  off 
incumbrances  by  which  the  freedom  of  its  movements 
had  long  been  impaired. 

The  application  of  these  remarks  to  the  history  of 
France,  will  enable  us  to  explain  some  interesting  phe- 
nomena in  the  literature  of  that  country.  During  the 
whole  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  I  may  say  till  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  France,  though  fertile  in  annalists 
and  chroniclers,  had.  not  produced  a  single  historian, 
because  she  had.  not  produced  a  single  man  who  pre- 
sumed to  doubt  what  was  generally  believed.     Indeed, 

2  M.  Tocqueville  says,  what  I  content  to  confine  their  innovs- 

am  inclined  to  think  is  true,  that  tions  to  other  fields  of  thought, 

an  increasing  spirit  of  equality  If  St.  Augustin  had  lived  in  the 

lessens  the  disposition  to  form  seventeenth   century,   he  would 

new  religious  creeds.  Democratic  have  reformed  or  created  the  phy- 

cn  Amerique,  vol.  iv.  pp.  16,  17.  sical  sciences.  If  Sir  Isaac  Newton 

At  all  events,  it  is  certain  that  had  lived  in  tho  fourth  century, 

increasing  knowledge    has  this  he  would  have  organized  a  new 

effect ;  for  those  great  men  whose  sect,    and    have    troubled    the 

turn  of   mind  would  formerly  church  with  his  originality, 
have  made  them  heretics,  are  now 


264        HISTORICAL    LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE. 

until  the  publication  of  Du  Hainan's  history  of  the  kings 
of  France,  no  one  had  even  attempted  a  critical  digest 
of  the  materials  which  were  known  to  be  extant.  This 
work  appeared  in  1576  ;3  and  the  author,  at  the  conclu- 
sion of  his  labours,  could  not  disguise  the  pride  which  he 
felt  at  having  accomplished  so  great  an  undertaking.  In 
his  dedication  to  the  king  he  says,  '  I  am,  sire,  the  first  of 
all  the  French  who  have  written  the  history  of  France, 
and,  in  a  polite  language,  shown  the  grandeur  and  dig- 
nity of  our  kings  ;  for  before  there  was  nothing  but  the 
old  rubbish  of  chronicles  which  spoke  of  them.'  He 
adds  in  the  preface :  '  Only  I  will  say,  without  pre- 
sumption and  boasting,  that  I  have  done  a  thing  which 
had  not  been  done  before,  or  seen  by  any  of  our  nation, 
and  have  given  to  the  history  of  France  a  dress  it  never 
appeared  in  before.'4  Nor  were  these  the  idle  boasts  of 
an  obscure  man.  His  work  went  through  numerous 
editions  ;  was  translated  into  Latin,  and  was  reprinted 
in  foreign  countries.  He  himself  was  looked  upon  as 
one  of  the  glories  of  the  French  nation,  and  was  re- 
warded by  the  favour  of  the  king,  who  conferred  on 
him  the  office  of  secretary  of  finance.5  From  his  work, 
we  may,  therefore,  gain  some  notion  of  what  was  then 
the  received  standard  of  historical  literature  ;  and  with 
this  view,  it  is  natural  to  inquire  what  the  materials 
were  which  he  chiefly  employed.  About  sixty  years 
earlier,  an  Italian  named  Paulus  Emilius  had  published 
a  gossiping  compilation  on  the  'Actions  of  the  French.'6 


aBiog.  Univ.  vol.  xix.  pp.  315,  Biog.    Univ.  vol.   xiii.   p.    119. 

316;  -where  it  is  said,  'l'ouvrago  Compare,  respecting  the  author, 

de  Du  Haillan  est  remarquable  Mezeray,  Hist,  de  France,  vol.  ii. 

en  ce  que  c'est  le  premier  corps  p.  363,  with  Audigier,  V  Origin e 

d'histoire  de  France  qui  ait  paru  d<s  Francois,  vol.  ii.  p.  118,  who 

dans    notre    langue.'     See   also  complains  of  his  opinion  about 

Bacier,  Rapport  sur  les  Progres  Clovis, 'quoyqu'ilfasse  profession 

de  VHistoire,  p.    170;    and  Bes  de  relevcr  la  gloire  des  Francois.' 

Beaux,  Historiettes,  vol.  x.  p.  185.  Even    the    superficial    Boulain- 

*Bayle,  article  Haillan,  note  L.  villiers  (Hist,  de  I'Ancien  Gou- 

5  Mercure  Francois,  in  Bayle,  vernement,  vol.  ii.  p.  166)  con- 
article  Haillan,  note  D.  temptuously  notices    'les    reto- 

*  Be  Bel/us  gestis  Francorum,  riciens  posterieurs,  tels  que  Paul 

which     appeared     about     1516.  Emile.' 


HISTORICAL    LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE.         265 

This  book,  which  is  fall  of  extravagant  fables,  was  taken 
by  Du  Haillan  as  the  basis  of  his  famous  history  of  the 
kings  of  France  ;  and  from  it  he  unhesitatingly  copies 
those  idle  stories  which  Emilius  loved  to  relate.  This 
will  give  us  some  idea  of  the  credulity  of  a  writer,  who 
was  reckoned  by  his  contemporaries  to  be,  beyond  all 
comparison,  the  greatest  historian  France  had  produced. 
But  this«is  not  all.  Du  Haillan,  not  content  with  bor- 
rowing from  his  predecessor  everything  that  was  most 
incredible,  gratifies  his  passion  for  the  'marvellous  by 
some  circumstances  of  his  own  invention.  He  begins 
his  history  with  a  long  account  of  a  council  which,  he 
says,  was  held  by  the  celebrated  Pharamond,  in  order 
to  determine  whether  the  French  should  be  governed 
by  a  monarchy  or  by  an  aristocracy.  It  is,  indeed, 
doubtful  if  any  such  person  as  Pharamond  ever  existed  ; 
and  it  is  certain  that,  if  he  did  exist,  all  the  materials 
had  long  perished  from  which  an  opinion  could  be  formed 
respecting  him.7  But  Du  Haillan,  regardless  of  these 
little  difficulties,  gives  us  the  fullest  information  touch- 
ing the  great  chieftain ;  and,  as  if  determined  to  tax 
to  the  utmost  the  credulity  of  his  readers,  mentions,  as 
members  of  the  council  of  Pharamond,  two  persons, 
Charamond  and  Quadrek,  whose  very  names  are  invented 
by  the  historian.8 


7  Compare  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  '  Pharamond,  qui  selon  nos  his- 

Francais,  vol.  i.  pp.    176,    177,  torkns  a    porte    le    premier  la 

■with       Montlosier,      Monarchic  couronne  des  Francois.'  J)e  Thou, 

Frangaise,    vol.   i.   pp.   43,    44.  Hist.  Univ.  vol.  x.  p.  530.    See  a 

Philippe   de     Comines,    though  singular  passage  on  Pharamond 

superior  to  Sismondi  and  Mont-  in   Mem.  de  Ikijplessis  Mornay, 

losier  in  point  of  ability,   lived  vol.  ii.  p.  405. 

in  tho  middle  ages,  and  therefore  8  Sorel  {La  Bihliothkque  Fran- 

had   no   idea   of  doubting,   but  coise,  Paris,  1667,  p.  373)  says 

simply    says,    '  Pharamond  fut  of   Du   Haillan,  '  On    lui    peut 

esleu  roy,  l'an  420,  et  regna  dix  reprocher     d' avoir     donne     un 

ans,  Mem.  de  Comines,  livre  viii.  commencement   fabuleux  a   son 

chap,  xxvii.  vol.  iii.  p.  232.    But  histoire,  qui   est  ontierement  de 

De    Thou,    coming    a    hundred  son   invention,  ayant  fait  tenir 

years  after    Comines,  evidently  xmconsoil  entre  Pharamond  etses 

suspected  that    it  was    not  all  plus    fidelles    conseillers,    pour 

quite  right,  and  therefore   puts  scauoir  si  ayant  la  puissance  en 

it  on   the  authority  of  others,  main  il  deuoit  reduire  les  Irau- 


266        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE. 

Such  was  the  state  of  historical  literature  in  France 
early  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  A  great  change  was, 
however,  at  hand.  The  remarkable  intellectual  progress 
made  by  the  French  towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  was,  as  I  have  shown,  preceded  by  that  scep- 
ticism which  appears  to  be  its  necessary  precursor. 
The  spirit  of  doubt,  which  had  begun  with  religion,  was 
communicated  to  literature.  The  impulse  was  imme- 
diately felt  in  every  department  of  knowledge,  and  now 
it  was  that  history  first  emerged  from  a  debasement 
in  which  it  had  for  centuries  been  sunk.  On  this 
subject  a  mere  statement  of  dates  may  be  of  service  to 
those  persons  who,  from  a  dislike  to  general  reasoning, 
would  otherwise  deny  the  connexion  which  I  wish  to 
establish.  In  1588  was  published  the  first  sceptical 
book  ever  written  in  the  French  language.9  In  1598, 
the  French  government,  for  the  first  time,  ventured  upon 
a  great  public  act  of  religious  toleration.  In  1604, 
De  Thou  published  that  celebrated  work,  which  is 
allowed  by  all  critics  to  be  the  first  great  history  com- 
posed by  a  Frenchman.10  And  at  the  very  moment 
when  these  things  were  passing,  another  eminent 
Frenchman,  the  illustrious  Sully,11  was  collecting  the 
materials  for  his  historical  work,  which,  though  hardly 
equal  to  that  of  De  Thou,  comes  immediately  after  it 
in  ability,  in  importance,  and  in  reputation.     Nor  can 

501s  au  gouvernement  aristocra-  tischen    Geistes    finden  wir  in 

tique  ou  monarchique,  et  faisant  den  Versuchen  des  Michael  von 

faire    une  harangue    a    chacun  Montaigne.'    Tenncmann,  Gesch. 

d'eux  pour  soustenir  son  opinion,  der  Phiios.  vol.  ix.  p.  443. 

Ony  voitlesnomsdeCharamond  ,fl  The  first  volume  appeared 

et  de  Quadrek,  personnages  ima-  in  1604.    See  Le  Long,  BiUio- 

ginaires.'       Sorel,    who    had   a  theque  Historique  de  la  France, 

glimmering  notion  that  this  was  vol.  ii.  p.    375  ;  and  preface  to 

not  exactly  the    way  to  write  De  Thou,  Hist.  Univ.  vol.  i.  p.  iv. 

history,  adds,   'C'est  une   chose  "  Sismondi  has  scarcely  done 

fort  surprenante.  On  est  fort  peu  justice  to  Sully  ;  but  the  reader 

asseure  si  Pharamond  fut  jamais  will  find  a  fuller  account  of  him 

au  monde,  et  quoy  qu'on  scache  in  Capefigue,  Hist,  de  la  Reforme, 

qu'il  y  ait  este,  c'est  une  terri-  vol.  viii.  p.  101-117  ;  and  a  still 

ble  hardiesse  d'en  raconter  des  better  one  in  Blanqui,   Histoire 

choses  qui  n'ont  aucun  appuy.'  de  VEconomie  Politique,   vol.  i. 

•  '  Die  erste  Regung  des  skep-  pp.  347-361. 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE.        267 

we  fail  to  remark,  that  both  these  great  historians,  who 
left  all  their  predecessors  immeasurably  behind  them, 
were  the  confidential  ministers  and  intimate  friends  of 
Henry  IY.,  the  first  king  of  France  whose  memory  is 
stained  by  the  imputation  of  heresy,  and  the  first  who 
dared  to  change  his  religion,  not  in  consequence  of  any 
theological  arguments,  but  on  the  broad  and  notorious 
ground  of  political  expediency.13 

But  it  was  not  merely  over  such  eminent  historians 
as  these  that  the  sceptical  spirit  displayed  its  influence. 
The  movement  was  now  becoming  sufficiently  active  to 
leave  its  marks  in  the  writings  of  far  inferior  men. 
There  were  two  particulars  in  which  the  credulity  of 
the  earlier  historians  was  very  striking.  These  consisted 
in  the  uncritical  manner  in  which,  by  blindly  copying 
their  predecessors,  they  confused  the  dates  of  different 
events  ;  and  in  the  readiness  with  which  they  bebeved 
the  most  improbable  statements,  upon  imperfect  evi- 
dence, and  often  upon  no  evidence  at  all.  It  is  surely 
a  singular  proof  of  that  intellectual  progress  which  I  am 
endeavouring  to  trace,  that,  within  a  very  few  years, 
both  these  sources  of  error  were  removed.  In  1597, 
Serres  was  appointed  historiographer  of  France  ;  and,  in 
the  same  year,  he  published  his  history  of  that  country.13 
In  this  work,  he  insists  upon  the  necessity  of  carefully 
recording  the  date  of  each  event ;  and  the  example, 
which  he  first  set,  has,  since  his  time,  been  generally 
followed.14     The  importance   of  this   change  will   be 

12  According    to    D'Aubigne,  du  Tout-Puissant,  et  aux  prieres 

the  king,  on  his  conversion,  said,  de  ses  fideles  sujets.'     Be  Thou, 

'  Je  ferai  voir  a  tout  le  monde  Hist.  Univ.  vol.  xii.  pp.  105,  106. 

que  je  n'ai   este   persuade  par  Compare,  at  pp.  468,   469,  the 

autre  theologie  que  la  necessite  message  he  sent  to  the  pope, 

de  l'estat.'     Smedley's  Reformed  "  Marchand,DictionnaireHis- 

Religion  in  France,  vol.  ii.  p.  362.  torique,  vol.  ii.  pp.  205,  209,  La 

That  Henry  felt  this  is  certain  ;  Haye,  1758,  folio.     This  curious 

and  that  he  expressed  it  to  his  and  learned  work,  which  is  much 

friends  is  probable;  but  he  had  less  read  than  it  deserves,  con- 

a  difficult  game  to  play  with  the  tains  the  only  good  account  of 

Catholic  church ;  and  in  one  of  Serres  I  have  been  able  to  meet 

his  edicts  we  find  'une  grande  with;  vol.  ii.  pp.  197-213. 

ioye  de  son  retour  a  l'eglise,  dont  M  '  On  ne  prenoit  presque  au- 

il  attribuoit  la  cause  a  la  grace  cun   soin  de  marquer  lea  dates 


268        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE. 


willingly  acknowledged  by  those  who  are  aware  of  the 
confusion  into  which  history  has  been  thrown  by  the 
earlier  writers  having  neglected,  what  now  seems,  so 
obvious  a  precaution.  Scarcely  had  this  innovation 
been  established,  when  it  was  followed,  in  the  same 
country,  by  another  of  still  greater  moment.  This  was 
the  appearance,  in  1621,  of  a  history  of  France,  by 
Scipio  Dupleix ;  in  which,  for  the  first  time,  the  evidence 
for  historical  facts  was  published  with  the  facts  them- 
selves.15 It  is  needless  to  insist  upon  the  utility  of  a 
step  which,  more  than  any  other,  has  taught  historians 
to  be  industrious  in  collecting  their  authorities,  and 
careful  in  scrutinizing  them.16  To  this  may  be  added, 
that  Dupleix  was  also  the  first  Frenchman  who  ventured 


des  evenemens  dans  les  ouvrages 

historiques De  Serres  re- 

connut  ce  defaut ;  et  pour  y  re- 
medier,  il  rechercha  avec  beau- 
coup  de  soin  les  dates  des  evene- 
mens qu'il  avoit  a,  employer,  et 
les  marqua  dans  son  histoire  le 
plus  exactement  qu'il  lui  fut 
possible.  Cet  exemple  a  ete 
imite  depuis  par  la  plupart  de 
ceux  qui  l'ont  suivi ;  et  c'est  a, 
lui  qu'on  est  redevable  de  l'avan- 
tage  qu'on  tire  d'une  pratique  si 
necessaire  et  si  utile.'  Marchand, 
Diet.  Histcrique,  vol.  ii.  p.  206. 

15  '  II  est  le  premier  historien 
qui  ait  cite  en  marge  ses  auto- 
rites  ;  precaution  absolument 
necessaire  quand  on  n'ecrit  pas 
l'histoire  de  son  temps,  a  moms 
qu'on  ne  s'en  tienne  aux  faits 
connus.'  (Euvres  de  Voltaire, 
vol.  xix.  p.  95.  And  the  Biog. 
Univ.  vol.  xii.  p.  277,  says,  '  On 
doit  lui  faire  honneur  d'avoir 
cite  en  marge  les  auteurs  dont  il 
s'est  servi ;  precaution  indispen- 
sable, que  Ton  connaissait  peu 
avant  lui,  et  que  les  historiens 
modernes  negligent  trop  au- 
jourd'hui.'      Bassompierre,    who 


had  a  quarrel  with  Dupleix,  has 
given  some  curious  details  re- 
specting him  and  his  History ; 
but  they  are,  of  course,  not  to  be 
relied  on.  Mem.  de  Bassompierre, 
vol.  iii.  pp.  356,  357.  Patin 
speaks  favourably  of  his  history 
of  Henry  IV.  Lettrcs  de  Patin, 
vol.  i.  p.  17:  but  compare  Sully, 
(Economies  Boyales,  vol.  ix.  pp. 
121,  249. 

18  The  ancients,  as  is  well 
known,  rarely  took  this  trouble. 
Mure's  Hist,  of  Greek  Literature, 
vol.  iv.  pp.  197,  306,  307.  But 
what  is  much  more  curious  is, 
that,  even  in  scientific  works, 
there  was  an  equal  looseness ; 
and  Cuvier  says,  that,  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  '  on  se  bornait  a 
dire,  d'une  maniere  generale, 
Aristote  a  dit  telle  chose,  sans 
indiquer  ni  le  passage  ni  le  livre 
dans  lequel  la  citation  se  trou- 
vait.'  Cuvier,  Hist,  des  Sciences, 
part  ii.  p.  63  ;  and  at  p.  88,  'sui- 
vant  l'usage  de  son  temps,  Gess- 
ner  n'indique  pas  avec  precision 
les  endroits  d'ou  il  a  tire  ses 
citations:'  see  also  p.  214. 


HISTORICAL    LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE.        269 

to  publish,  a  system  of  philosophy  in  his  own  language.17 
It  is  true,  that  the  system  itself  is  intrinsically  of  little 
value  ;18  but,  at  the  time  it  appeared,  it  was  an  unpre- 
cedented, and,  on  that  account,  a  profane  attempt,  to 
unfold  the  mysteries  of  philosophy  in  the  vulgar  speech; 
and,  in  this  point  of  view,  supplies  evidence  of  the  in- 
creasing diffusion  of  a  spirit  bolder  and  more  inquisitive 
than  any  formerly  known.  It  is  not,  therefore,  surpris- 
ing, that,  almost  at  the  same  moment,  there  should  be 
made,  in  the  same  country,  the  first  systematic  attempt 
at  historical  scepticism.  The  system  of  philosophy  by 
Dupleix  appeared  in  1602  ;  and  in  1599,  La  Popeliniere 
published  at  Paris  what  he  calls  the  History  of  Histories, 
in  which  he  criticizes  historians  themselves,  and  exa- 
mines their  works  with  that  sceptical  spirit,  to  which  his 
own  age  was  deeply  indebted.19  This  able  man  was 
also  the  author  of  a  Sketch  of  the  New  History  of  the 
French  ;  containing  a  formal  refutation  of  that  fable,  so 
dear  to  the  early  historians,  according  to  which  the 
monarchy  of  France  was  founded  by  Francus,  who 
arrived  in  Gaul  after  the  conclusion  of  the  siege  of 
Troy.20 

It  would  be   useless  to    collect  all  the  instances  in 
which  this  advancing  spirit  of  scepticism  now  began  to 


17  'Le  premier  ouvrage  de  historiens  de  toutes  les  nations, 
philosophic  publie  dans  cette  et  de  plusienrs  langues,  et  par- 
langue.'  Bvog.  Univ.  vol.  xii.  p.  ticulierement  des  historiens  fran- 
277.  9ois,  dont  il  parle  avec  beaucoup 

18  So  it  seemed  to  me,  when  I  d'asseurance.' 

turned  over  its  leaves  a  few  years  20  '  II  refute  1' opinion,   alors 

ago.     However,  Patin  says,  '  sa  fort  accreditee,  do  l'arrivee  dans 

philosophic  francoise    n'est  pas  les   Gaules   de  Francus   et   des 

mauvaise.'    Lettres  de  Patin,  vol.  Troyens.'  Bvog.  Univ.  voL  xxxv. 

iii.   p.    357.      On   the   dialectic  p.  402.     Compare  Le  Long,  Bib- 

powers  of  Dupleix,  see  a  favour-  liotheque  Historique  de  la  France, 

able  judgment  in  Hamilton's  Bis-  vol.  ii.  p.  39.     Patin  says  that 

ctiss.  on  PMos.  p.  119.  De  Thou  was  much  indebted  to 

19  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxxv.  p.  him  :  '  M.  de  Thou  a  pris  hardi- 
402.  Sorel  (Bibliotheque  Fran-  ment  de  la  Popeliniere.'  Lettres 
coise,  p.  165),  who  is  evidently  de  Patin,  vol.  i.  p.  222.  There 
displeased  at  the  unprecedented  is  a  notice  of  Popeliniere,  in 
boldness  of  La  Popeliniere,  says,  connexion  with  Richer,  in  Mem. 
'  il  dit  ses  sentimens  en  bref  des  de  llichdicu,  vol.  v.  p.  349.. 


270        HISTORICAL    LITERATURE   IN   FRANCE. 

purge  history  of  its  falsehoods.  I  will  only  mention 
two  or  three  more  of  those  which  have  occurred  in  my 
reading.  In  1614,  De  Bubis  published  at  Lyons  a  work 
on  the  European  monarchies  ;  in  which  he  not  only 
attacks  the  long-established  belief  respecting  the  descent 
from  Francus,  but  boldly  asserts,  that  the  Franks  owe 
their  name  to  their  ancient  liberties.21  In  1620,  Gom- 
berville,  in  a  dissertation  on  history,  refutes  many  of 
those  idle  stories  respecting  the  antiquity  of  the  French, 
which  had  been  universally  received  until  his  time.22 
And,  in  1630,  Berthault  published  at  Paris  the  '  French 
Floras,'  in  which  he  completely  upsets  the  old  method ; 
since  he  lays  it  down  as  a  fundamental  principle,  that 
the  origin  of  the  French  must  only  be  sought  for 
in  those  countries  where  they  were  found  by  the 
Romans.23 

All  these,  and  similar  productions,  were,  however, 
entirely  eclipsed  by  Mezeray's  History  of  France  ;  the 
first  volume  of  which  was  published  in  1643,  and  the 
last  in  1651. 24  It  is,  perhaps,  hardly  fair  to  his  pre- 
decessors, to  call  him  the  first  general  historian  of 
France  ;25  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  work  is 

21  •  II  refute  les  fables  qu'on  their  heroes  back  to  Noah, 
avancoit  sur  l'origine  des  Fran-  (Euvres  de  Rabelais,  vol.  i.  pp. 
cois,  appuyees  sur  le  temoignage  1-3,  and  vol.  ii.  pp.  10-17  :  see 
du  faux  Berose.  II  dit  que  leur  also,  at  vol.  v.  pp.  171,  172,  his 
nom  vient  de  leur  ancienne  fran-  defence  of  the  antiquity  of  Chi- 
chise.'      Le    Long,    Bibliotheque  non. 

Sistorique,  vol.  ii.  p.  750.  23  '  L'auteur  croit  qu'il  ne  faut 

22  Compare  Sorel,  Bibliotheque  pas  la  chercher  ailleurs  que  dans 
Tranqoise,  p.  298,  with  JDu  Fres-  le  pays  ou  ils  ont  ete  connus  des 
ntvoy,  Methode  pour  etudier  VHk-  Eomains,  c'est-a-dire  entre  l'Elbe 
toire  vol.  x.  p.  4,  Paris,  1772.  et  le  Ellin.'  Le  Long,  Biblio- 
There  is  an  account  of  Gomber-  theque  Historique,  vol.  ii.  p.  56. 
a  ille  in  Les  Historiettes  de  Talle-  This  work  of  Berthault's  was, 
rnant  des  Beaux,  vol.  viii.  pp.  for  many  years,  a  text-book  in 
15-19;  a  singularly  curious  book,  the  French  colleges.  Biog.  Univ. 
whicb    is,   for    the   seventeenth  vol.  iv.  p.  347. 

century,  what  Brantome  is  for  24  The  first  volume  in  1643 ; 

the  sixteenth.    I  ought  to  have  the  second  in  1646;  and  the  last 

mentioned  earlier  the  inimitable  in  1651.    Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxviii. 

ridicule    with    which    Eabelais  p.  510. 

treats  the  habit  historians  had  25  '  The  French  have  now  their 

of  tracing    the    genealogies    of  first  general  historian,  Mezeray.' 


HISTOEICAL    LITERATUEE    IN   FEANCE.        271 

greatly  superior  to  any  that  had  yet  been  seen.  The 
style  of  Mezeray  is  admirably  clear  and  vigorous,  rising, 
at  times,  to  considerable  eloquence.  Besides  this,  he  has 
two  other  merits  much  more  important.  These  are, 
an  indisposition  to  believe  strange  things,  merely  because 
they  have  hitherto  been  believed ;  and  an  inclination  to 
take  the  side  of  the  people,  rather  than  that  of  their 
rulers.26  Of  these  principles,  the  first  was  too  common 
among  the  ablest  Frenchmen  of  that  time  to  excite 
much  attention.27  But  the  other  principle  enabled 
Mezeray  to  advance  an  important  step  before  all  his 
contemporaries.  He  was  the  first  Frenchman  who,  in 
a  great  historical  work,  threw  off  that  superstitious 
reverence  for  royalty  which  had  long  troubled  the  minds 
of  his  countrymen,  and  which,  indeed,  continued  to 
haunt  them  for  another  century.  As  a  necessary  con- 
sequence, he  was  also  the  first  who  saw  that  a  history, 
to  be  of  real  value,  must  be  a  history,  not  only  of  kings, 
but  of  nations.  A  steady  perception  of  this  principle 
led  him  to  incorporate  into  his  book  matters  which, 
before  his  time,  no  one  cared  to  study.  He  communi- 
cates all  the  information  he  could  collect  respecting  the 
taxes  which  the  people  had  paid ;  the  sufferings  they  had 
undergone  from  the  griping  hands  of  their  governors; 
their  manners,  their  comforts,  even  the  state  of  the  towns 
which  they  inhabited  ;  in  a  word,  what  affected  the  in- 
terests of  the  French  people,  as  well  as  what  affected 
the  interests  of  the  French  monarchy.28     These  were 


HallanCs  Literature  of  Europe,  rations,  due  to  supernatural  in- 

vol.  iii.  p.  228  ;  and  see  Stephens  terference,    and,   as   such,  were 

Lectures  on  the  History  of  France,  the  prognosticators   of  political 

1851,  vol.  i.  p.  10.  change.  Mezkray,  Hist.de France, 

29  Bayle  says,   that   Mezeray  vol.  i.  pp.  202,  228,  238,  241, 

is,  'de  tous  les  historiens  celui  317,  792,  vol.   ii.  pp.  485,  573, 

qui  favorise  le  plus  les  pe\iples  1120,  vol.  iii.  pp.  31,  167,  894; 

contre  la  cour.'    Le  Long  Bihlio-  instructive  passages,  as  proving 

thique   Historique,    vol.    iii.    p.  that,   even   in   powerful  minds, 

Ixxxvi.  the  scientific  and  secular  method 

27  Though  it  did  not  prevent  was  still  feeble, 
him  from  believing  that  sudden  M  What  he  did  on  these  sub- 
tempests,   and  unusual  appear-  jects  is   most  remarkable,  con- 
ances  in  the  heavens,  were  aber-  sidering  that  some  of  the  best 


272        HISTORICAL    LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE. 

tlie  subjects  which  Mezeray  preferred  to  insignificant 
details  respecting  the  pomp  of  courts  and  the  lives 
of  kings.  These  were  the  large  and  comprehensive 
matters  on  which  he  loved  to  dwell,  and  on  which  he 
expatiated ;  not,  indeed,  with  so  much  fulness  as  we 
could  desire,  but  still  with  a  spirit  and  an  accuracy 
which  entitles  him  to  the  honour  of  being  the  great- 
est historian  France  produced  before  the  eighteenth 
century. 

This  was,  in  many  respects,  the  most  important 
change  which  had  yet  been  effected  in  the  manner  of 
writing  history.  If  the  plan  begun  by  Mezeray  had 
been  completed  by  his  successors,  we  should  possess 
materials,  the  absence  of  which  no  modern  researches 
can  possibly  compensate.  Some  things,  indeed,  we 
should,  in  that  case,  have  lost.  "We  should  know  less 
than  we  now  know  of  courts  and  of  camps.  We  should 
have  heard  less  of  the  peerless  beauty  of  French  queens, 
and  of  the  dignified  presence  of  French  kings.  "We 
might  even  have  missed  some  of  the  links  of  that  evi- 
dence by  which  the  genealogies  of  princes  and  nobles 
are  ascertained,  and  the  ftudy  of  which  delights  the 
curiosity  of  antiquaries  and  heralds.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  should  have  been  able  to  examine  the  state  of 
the  French  people  during  the  latter  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century ;  while,  as  things  now  stand,  our  know- 
ledge of  them,  in  that  most  important  period,  is  inferior 
in  accuracy  and  in  extent  to  the  knowledge  we  possess 
of  some  of  the  most  barbarous  tribes  of  the  earth.29     If 


materials  were  unknown,  and  in  teenth  century,  know  how  little 

manuscript,    and   that   even  De  can  be  found  in  them  respecting 

Thou  gives  scarcely  any  informa-  the    condition    of    the    people  ; 

tion  respecting  them ;    so  that  while  the  fullest  private  corre- 

Mezeray  had   no   model.      See,  spondence,  such  as  the  letters  of 

among  other  passages  which  have  Sevigne     and     De     Maintenon, 

struck  me  in   the  first  volume,  are  equally  unsatisfactory.     The 

pp.  145-147,  204,  353,  356,  362-  greater  part  of  the  evidence  now 

365,    530,    531,  581,    812,   946,  extant  has  been  collected  by  M. 

1039.      Compare  his   indignant  Monteil,  in  his  valuable  work, 

expressions  at  vol.  ii.  p.  721.  Histoire  des  divers   Etats  :    but 

■j»  Those  who  have  studied  the  whoever  will  puffall  this  together 

French  memoirs   of  the   seven-  must  admit,  that  we  are  better 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE.        273 

the  example  of  Mezeray  had  been  followed,  with  such 
additional  resources  as  the  progress  of  affairs  would 
have  supplied,  we  should  not  only  have  the  means  of 
minutely  tracing  the  growth  of  a  great  and  civilised 
nation,  but  we  should  have  materials  that  would  sug- 
gest or  verify  those  original  principles,  the  discovery  of 
which  constitutes  the  real  use  of  history. 

But  this  was  not  to  be.  Unhappily  for  the  interests 
of  knowledge,  the  march  of  French  civilization  was,  at 
this  period,  suddenly  checked.  Soon  after  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  that  lamentable  change  took 
place  in  France,  which  gave  a  new  turn  to  the  destinies 
of  the  nation.  The  reaction  which  the  spirit  of  inquiry 
underwent,  and  the  social  and  intellectual  circum- 
stances which,  by  bringing  the  Fronde  to  a  premature 
close,  prepared  the  way  for  Louis  XiV.,  have  been  de- 
scribed in  a  former  part  of  this  volume,  where  I  have 
attempted  to  indicate  the  general  effects  of  the  disas- 
trous movement.  It  now  remains  for  me  to  point  out 
how  this  retrogressive  tendency  opposed  obstacles  to 
the  improvement  of  historical  literature,  and  prevented 
authors,  not  only  from  relating  with  honesty  what  was 
passing  around  them,  but  also  from  understanding 
events  which  had  occurred  before  their  time. 

The  most  superficial  students  of  French  literature 
must  be  struck  by  the  dearth  of  historians  during  that 
long  period  in  which  Louis  XIV.  held  the  reins  of 
government.30  To  this,  the  personal  peculiarities  ©f  the 
king  greatly  contributed.  His  education  had  been 
shamefully  neglected ;  and  as  he  never  had  the  energy 
to  repair  its  deficiencies,  he  all  his  life  remained 
ignorant  of  many  things  with  which  even  princes  are 
usually  familiar.31  Of  the  course  of  past  events  he  knew 

informed  as  to  the  condition  of  pp.  29,  30.      Compare  IfArgm- 

many  savage  tribes  than  we  are  son,  Beflexions  sur  les  Historiens 

concerning  the  lower  classes  of  Frangois,  in  Mhnoires  de  VAca- 

France  during  the  reign  of  Louis  demie  des  Inscriptions,  vol.  xxviii. 

XIV.  p.  627,  with  Boulainvilliers,  An- 

30  This  is  noticed  in  Sismondi,  cien  Gouvernement  de  la  France, 

Hist,  des  Frangais,  vol.  xxvii.  vol.  i.  p.  174. 
pp.  181,  182;  also  in  VUlemain,        81  ■  Le  jeune  Louis  XIV  n'a- 

Litterature   Frangaise,    vol.    ii.  vait  re9u  aucune  education  intel- 

VOL.  n.  T 


274       HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE. 

literally  nothing,  and  lie  took  no  interest  in  any  history 
except  the  history  of  his  own  exploits.  Among  a  free 
people,  this  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  sovereign 
could  never  have  produced  injurious  results ;  indeed,  a» 
we  have  already  seen,  the  absence  of  royal  patronage  is, 
in  a  highly  civilized  country,  the  most  favourable  con- 
dition of  literature.  But  at  the  accession  of  Louis  XIV. 
the  liberties  of  the  French  were  still  too  young,  and  the 
habits  of  independent  thought  too  recent,  to  enable 
them  to  bear  up  against  that  combination  of  the  crown 
and  the  church,  which  was  directed  against  them.  The 
French,  becoming  every  day  more  servile,  at  length 
sunk  so  low,  that,  by  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
they  seemed  to  have  lost  even  the  wish  of  resistance. 
The  king,  meeting  no  opposition,  endeavoured  to  exer- 
cise over  the  intellect  of  the  country  an  authority  equal 
to  that  with  which  he  conducted  its  government.32  In 
all  the  great  questions  of  religion  and  of  politics,  the 
spirit  of  inquiry  was  stifled,  and  no  man  was  allowed  to 
express  an  opinion  unfavourable  to  the  existing  state  of 
things.  As  the  king  was  willing  to  endow  literature, 
he  naturally  thought  that  he  had  a  right  to  its  services. 
Authors,  who  were  fed  by  his  hand,  were  not  to  raise 
their  voices  against  his  policy.  They  received  his  wages, 
and  they  were  bound  to  do  the  bidding  of  him  who  paid 
them.  When  Louis  assumed  the  government,  Mezeray 
was  still  living ;  though  I  need  hardly  say  that  his  great 
work  was  published  before  this  system  of  protection  and 
patronage  came  into  play.     The  treatment  to  which  he, 

t  

lectuelle.'     Capefiguis  Richelieu,  408.  The  eloquent  remarks  made 

Mazarin   et  la  Fronde,  vol.  ii.  by  M.  Ranke  upon  an  Italian  des- 

p.   245.      On   the  education  of  potism,  are  admirably  applicable 

Louis  XIV.,  which  was  as  shame-  to  his  whole  system:   'Sonder- 

fully  neglected  as   that  of  our  bareGestaltmenschlichenDinge! 

George  III.,  see  Lettres  inedites  Die  Krafte  des  Landes  bringen 

de  Maintenon,  vol.  ii.   p.  369  ;  den  Hof  hervor,  der  Mittelpunkt 

Duclos,  Mem.  Secrets,  vol.  i.  pp.  des   Hofes  ist  der  Fiirst,    das 

167,  168  ;  Mem.  de  Brienne,  vol.  letzte   Product   des   gesammten 

i.  pp.  391-393.  Lebens  ist  zuletzt  das  Selbstge- 

'2  On  his   political    maxims,  fiihl  des  Fursten.'     Die  Papste, 

see  Lemontey,   Etablisscment  de  vol.  ii.  p.  266. 
Louis  XIV,  pp.   325-327,  407, 


HISTOEICAL    LITEEATUEE    IN   FEANCE.        275 


the  great  historian  of  France,  was  now  subjected,  was 
a  specimen  of  the  new  arrangement.  He  received  from 
the  crown  a  pension  of  four  thousand  francs  ;  but  when 
he,  in  1668,  published  an  abridgment  of  his  History,33 
it  was  intimated  to  him  that  some  remarks  upon  the 
tendency  of  taxation  were  likely  to  cause  offence  in 
high  quarters.  As,  however,  it  was  soon  found  that 
Mezeray  was  too  honest  and  too  fearless  to  retract  what 
he  had  written,  it  was  determined  to  have  recourse  to 
intimidation,  and  half  of  his  pension  was  taken  from 
him.34  But  as  this  did  not  produce  a  proper  effect, 
another  order  was  issued,  which  deprived  him  of  the 
remaining  half;  and  thus  early,  in  this  bad  reign,  there 
was  set  an  example  of  punishing  a  man  for  writing  with 
honesty  upon  a  subject  in  which,  of  all  others,  honesty 
is  the  first  essential.35 

Such  conduct  as  this  showed  what  historians  were  to 


83  His  Abregi  Chronologique 
was  published  in  1668,  in  three 
volumes  quarto.  Biog.  Univ. 
vol.  xxviii.  p.  510.  Le  Long 
(BiblioMque  Historique,  vol.  iii. 
p.  lxxxv.)  says,  that  it  was  only 
allowed  to  be  published  in  con- 
sequence of  a  '  privilege '  which 
Mezeray  had  formerly  obtained. 
But  there  seems  to  have  been 
some  difficulty,  of  which  these 
writers  are  not  aware :  for  Patin, 
in  a  letter  dated  Paris,  23  De- 
cember 1664,  speaks  of  it  as 
being  then  in  the  press:  'onim- 
prime  ici  en  grand-in-quarto  un 
Abrege  de  l'Histoire  de  France, 
par  M.  Mezeray.'  Lettres  de 
Patin,  vol.  iii.  p.  503  :  compare 
p.  665.  It  long  remained  an  es- 
tablished school-book :  see  D'Ar- 
genson's  Essay,  in  MSm.  de 
FAcademie,  vol.  xxviii.  p.  635  ; 
and  Works  of  Sir  William  Tem- 
ple, vol.  iii.  p.  70. 

*4  Barriere,  Essai  sur  les 
Mceurs  du  Dix-septibne  Steele, 
prefixed  to  Mem.  de  Brienne.,  vol. 


i.  pp.  129,  130,  where  reference 
is  made  to  his  original  corre- 
spondence with  Colbert.  This 
treatment  of  Mezeray  is  noticed, 
but  imperfectly,  in  BoulainvU- 
liers,  Hist,  de  YAncien  Gouverne- 
ment,  vol.  i.  p.  196  ;  in  Lemontey, 
Etablissement  de  Louis,  p.  331 ; 
and  in  Palissot,  Mem.  pour 
YHist.  de  Lit.  vol.  ii.  p.  161. 

83  In  1685  was  published  at 
Paris  what  was  called  an  im- 
proved edition  of  Mezeray's  His- 
tory ;  that  is,  an  edition  from 
which  the  honest  remarks  were 
expunged.  See  Le  Long,  Biblio- 
theque  Historique,  vol.  ii.  p.  53, 
vol.  iv.  p.  381 ;  and  Brunet, 
Manuel  du  Libraire,  vol.  iii. 
p.  383,  Paris,  1843.  Hampden, 
who  knew  Mezeray,  has  recorded 
an  interesting  interview  he  had 
with  him  in  Paris,  when  the 
great  historian  lamented  the  loss 
of  the  liberties  of  France. 
Calamy's  Life  of  Himself,  v 
pp.  392,  393. 


t2 


276        HISTOEICAL  LITEEATURE  IN  FRANCE. 

expect  from  the  government  of  Louis  XIV.  Several 
years  later,  the  king  took  another  opportunity  of  dis- 
playing the  same  spirit.  Fenelon  had  been  appointed 
preceptor  to  the  grandson  of  Louis,  whose  early  vices 
his  firmness  and  judgment  did  much  to  repress.36  But 
a  single  circumstance  was  thought  sufficient  to  outweigh 
the  immense  service  which  Fenelon  thus  rendered  to  the 
royal  family,  and,  if  his  pupil  had  come  to  the  throne, 
would  have  rendered  prospectively  to  the  whole  of 
France.  His  celebrated  romance,  Telemachus,  was  pub- 
lished in  1699,  as  it  appears,  without  his  consent.37  The 
king  suspected  that,  under  the  guise  of  a  fiction,  Fenelon 
intended  to  reflect  on  the  conduct  of  government.  It 
was  in  vain  that  the  author  denied  so  dangerous  an 
imputation.  The  indignation  of  the  king  was  not  to  be 
appeased.  He  banished  Fenelon  from  the  court ;  and 
would  never  again  admit  to  his  presence  a  man  whom 
he  suspected  of  even  insinuating  a  criticism  upon 
the  measures  adopted  by  .the  administration  of  the 
country.38 

If  the  king  could,  on  mere  suspicion,  thus  treat  a 
great  writer,  who  had.  the  rank  of  an  archbishop  and 
the  reputation  of  a  saint,  it  was  not  likely  that  he  would 
deal  more  tenderly  with  inferior  men.  In  1681,  the 
Abbe  Primi,  an  Italian,  then  residing  at  Paris,  was  in- 
duced to  write  a  history  of  Louis  XIV.  The  king, 
delighted  with  the  idea  of  perpetuating  his  own  fame, 
conferred  several  rewards  upon  the  author :  and  arrange- 
ments were  made  that  the  work  should  be  composed  in 
Italian,  and  immediately  translated  into  French.  But 
when  the  history  appeared,  there  were  found  in  it  some 


"  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Fran-  vigne,  vol.  vi.  pp.  434,  435  note. 

cais,  vol.  xxvi.  pp.  240,  241.  M  'Louis  XIV  prit  le  Tele- 

87  '  Par    l'infidelite   d'un   do-  maque  pour  une  personnalite  .  .  . 

mestique  charge  de  transcrire  le  Comme  il  (Fenelon)  avait  deplu 

manuscrit.'  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xiv.  an  roi,    il  mourut  dans  l'exil.' 

p.  289  ;  and  see  Peignot,  Diet,  des  Lerminier,  Philos.  du  Droit,  vol. 

Livres  condamnis,  vol.  i.  pp.  134,  ii.  pp.  219,  220;  and  see  Siecle 

135.  It  was  suppressed  in  France,  de  Louis  XIV,  chap,  xxxii.,  in 

and  appeared  in  Holland  in  the  (Euvres  de   Voltaire,  vol.  xx,  p. 

same  year,  1 699.     Lettres  de  Se-  307. 


HISTOBICAL  LITEEATUEE   IN   FEANCE.        277 

circumstances  which  it  was  thought  ought  not  to  have 
been  disclosed.  On  this  account,  Louis  caused  the  book 
to  be  suppressed,  the  papers  of  the  author  to  be  seized, 
and  the  author  himself  to  be  thrown  into  the  Bastille.39 
Those,  indeed,  were  dangerous  times  for  independent 
men ;  times  when  no  writer  on  politics  or  religion  was 
safe,  unless  he  followed  the  fashion  of  the  day,  and  de- 
fended the  opinions  of  the  court  and  the  church.  The 
king,  who  had  an  insatiable  thirst  for  what  he  called 
glory,40  laboured  to  degrade  contemporary  historians 
into  mere  chroniclers  of  his  own  achievements.  He 
ordered  Racine  and  Boileau  to  write  an  account  of  his 
reign ;  he  settled  a  pension  upon  them,  and  he  promised 
to  supply  them  with  the  necessary  materials.41  But 
even  Racine  and  Boileau,  poets  though  they  were,  knew 
that  they  would  fail  in  satisfying  his  morbid  vanity ; 
they,  therefore,  received  the  pension,  but  omitted  to 
compose  the  work  for  which  the  pension  was  conferred. 
So  notorious  was  the  unwillingness  of  able  men  to 
meddle  with  history,  that  it  wasthought  advisable  to  beat 
up  literary  recruits  from  foreign  countries.  The  case 
of  the  Abbe  Primi  has  just  been  mentioned ;  he  was  an 
Italian,  and  only  one  year  later  a  similar  offer  was  made 
to  an  Englishman.  In  1683,  Burnet  visited  France,  and 
was  given  to  understand  that  he  might  receive  a  pension, 
and  that  he  might  even  enjoy  the  honour  of  conversing 
with  Louis  himself,  provided  he  would  write  a  history 


•  These     circumstances    are  Diplomatic    Francaise,  voL   iv. 

related  in  a    letter  from  Lord  p.  399. 

Preston,   dated  Paris,   22   July  4i  In  1677,  Madame  de  Se- 

1 682,  and  printed  in  Dalrymple' s  vigne  writes  from  Paris  respect- 

Memoirs,   pp.  141,  142,  appen-  ing  the  king:  'Vous  savez  bien 

dix  to  vol.  i.    The  account  given  qu'il  a  donne  deux  mille  ecus  de 

by  M.  Peignot  (Livres  condamnls,  pension  a  Eacine  et  a  Despreaux, 

vol.  ii.  pp.  52,  53)  is  incomplete,  en  leur  commandant  de  travailler 

he  being  evidently  ignorant  of  a  son  histoire,  dont  il  aura  soin 

the  existence  of  Lord  Preston's  de  donner  des  Memoires.'  Lettres 

letter.  de  Sevigni,  vol.  iii.  p.  362.  Com- 

40  An  able  writer    has  well  pare    Eloge  de    Valincourt,   in 

called     him     'glorieux     plutot  (Euvres  de  FonteneUe,  vol.  vi. 

qu'appreciateur     de      la     vraie  p.  383 ;   and  Hughes's  Letters, 

gloire.'     Flassan,  Histoire  de  la  edit.  1773,  voL  ii.  pp.  74,  75. 


278        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE. 

of  the  royal  affairs  ;  such  history,  it  was  carefully  added, 
being  on  the  '  side  '  of  the  French  king.42 

Under  such  circumstances  as  these,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  history,  so  far  as  its  great  essentials  are  concerned, 
should  have  rapidly  declined  during  the  power  of 
Louis  XP7.  It  became,  as  some  think,  more  elegant ; 
but  it  certainly  became  more  feeble.  The  language  in 
which  it  was  composed  was  worked  with  great  care,  the 
periods  neatly  arranged,  the  epithets  soft  and  harmo- 
nious. For  that  was  a  polite  and  obsequious  age,  full 
of  reverence,  of  duty,  and  of  admiration.  In  history, 
as  it  was  then  written,  every  king  was  a  hero,  and  every 
bishop  was  a  saint.  All  unpleasant  truths  were  sup- 
pressed ;  nothing  harsh  or  unkind  was  to  be  told. 
These  docile  and  submissive  sentiments  being  expressed 
in"  an  easy  and  flowing  style,  gave  to  history  that  air 
of  refinement,  that  gentle,  unobtrusive  gait,  which  made 
it  popular  with  the  classes  that  it  flattered.  But  even 
so,  while  its  form  was  polished,  its  life  was  extinct. 
All  its  independence  was  gone,  all  its  honesty,  all  its 
boldness.  The  noblest  and  the  most  difficult  depart- 
ment of  knowledge,  the  study  of  the  movements  of  the 
human  race,  was  abandoned  to  every  timid  and  creep- 
ing intellect  that  cared  to  cultivate  it.  There  was 
BoulainvilHers,  and  Daniel,  and  Maimburg,  and  Varillas, 
and  Yertot,  and  numerous  others,  who  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  Xl\ .  were  believed  to  be  historians  ;  but  whose 
histories  have  scarcely  any  merit,  except  that  of  ena- 
bling us  to  appreciate  the  period  in  which  such  produc- 
tions were  admired,  and  the  system  of  which  they  were 
the  representatives. 

To  give  a  complete  view  of  the  decline  of  historical 
literature   in  France,  from  the  time  of  Mezeray  until 


42  Burnet   relates    this    with  wards  it ;     for    though     I    was 

delightful    simplicity  :    '  Others  offered  an  audience  of  the  king, 

more  probably  thought  that  the  I  excused  it,  since  I  could  not 

king,  hearing  I  was  a  writer  of  have  the  honour  to  be  presented 

history,  had  a  mind  to  engage  to  that  king  by  the  minister  of 

me  to  write  on  his  side.     I  was  England.'    Burnetts  Own  Tirn^ 

told  a  pension  would  be  offered  vol.  ii.  p.  385. 
me.    But  I  made  no  steps  to- 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE   IN   FRANCE.        279 

early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  would  require  a  sum- 
mary of  every  history  which  was  written ;  for  all  of 
them  were  pervaded  by  the  same  spirit.  But,  as  this 
would  occupy  much  too  large  a  space,  it  will  probably 
be  thought  sufficient  if  I  confine  myself  to  such  illustra- 
tions as  will  bring  the  tendency  of  the  age  most  clearly 
before  the  reader ;  and  for  this  purpose,  I  will  notice  the 
works  of  two  historians  I  have  not  yet  mentioned ;  one 
of  whom  was  celebrated  as  an  antiquary,  the  other  as 
a  theologian.  Both  possessed  considerable  learning, 
and  one  was  a  man  of  undoubted  genius ;  their  works 
are,  therefore,  worth  attention,  as  symptoms  of  the  state 
of  the  French  intellect  late  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  name  of  the  antiquary  was  Audigier ;  the  name  of 
the  theologian  was  Bossuet :  and  from  them  we  may  learn 
something  respecting  the  way  in  which,  during  the  reign 
of  Louis  XIV.,  it  was  usual  to  contemplate  the  transac- 
tions of  past  ages. 

The  celebrated  work  of  Audigier,  on  the  Origin  of  the 
French,  was  published  at  Paris  in  1676.43  It  would  be 
unjust  to  deny  that  the  author  was  a  man  of  great  and 
careful  reading.  But  his  credulity,  his  prejudices,  his 
reverence  for  antiquity,  and  his  dutiful  admiration  for 
everything  established  by  the  church  and  the  court, 
warped  his  judgment  to  an  extent  which,  in  our  time, 
seems  incredible  ;  and,  as  there  are  probably  few  per- 
sons in  England  who  have  read  his  once  famous  book, 
I  will  give  an  outline  of  its  leading  views. 

In  this  great  history  we  are  told,  that  3464  years  after 
the  creation  of  the  world,  and  590  years  before  the  birth 
of  Christ,  was  the  exact  period  at  which  Sigovese,  nephew 
to  the  king  of  the  Celts,  was  first  sent  into  Germany.44 
Those  who  accompanied  him  were  necessarily  travellers; 


u  During  many  years  it  en-  Leber,    vol.    ii.    p.    110,   Paris, 

joyed    great     reputation ;    and  1839. 

there  is  no  history  written  in  4*   Audigier,     L'Origine     dea 

that  period  respecting  which  Lo  Francois,  Paris,  1676,  vol.  i.  p.  5. 

Long  gives  so  many  details.    See  See  also  p.  45,  where  he  congra- 

his    Bibliotheque    Historique  de  tulates  himself  on  being  the  first 

la   France,  vol.  ii.  pp.  13,  14.  to  clear  up  the  history  of  Sigo- 

Compare     La    WbHothhaue    de  vese. 


280        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE. 

and  as,  in  the  German  language,  wandeln  means  to  go,  w© 
have  here  the  origin  of  the  Vandals.45  But  the  anti- 
quity of  the  Vandals  is  far  surpassed  by  that  of  the 
French.  Jupiter,  Pluto,  and  Neptune,  who  are  some- 
times supposed  to  be  gods,  were  in  reality  kings  of 
Gaul.46  And,  if  we  look  back  a  little  further,  it  becomes 
certain  that  Gallus,  the  founder  of  Gaul,  was  no  other 
than  Noah  himself;  for  in  those  days  the  same  man  fre- 
quently had  two  names.47  As  to  the  subsequent  history 
of  the  French,  it  was  fully  equal  to  the  dignity  of  their 
origin.  Alexander  the  Great,  even  in  all  the  pride  of 
his  victories,  never  dared  to  attack  the  Scythians,  who 
were  a  colony  sent  from  France.48  It  is  from  these  great 
occupiers  of  France  that  there  have  proceeded  all  the 
gods  of  Europe,  all  the  fine  arts,  and  all  the  sciences.49 
The  English  themselves  are  merely  a  colony  of  the 
French,  as  must  be  evident  to  whoever  considers  the 
similarity  of  the  words  Angles  and  Anjou;80  and  to 
this  fortunate  descent  the  natives  of  the  British  islands 
are  indebted  for  such  bravery  and  politeness  as  they  still 
possess.51  Several  other  points  are  cleared  up  by  this 
great  critic  with  equal  facility.   The  Salian  Franks  were 


45  Audigier,  vol.  i.  p.  7.  Other  4r  See  his   argument,  vol.   i. 

antiquaries    have    adopted    the  pp.  216,  217,  beginning,  '  lenom 

same    preposterous     etymology,  de  Noe,  que  porterent  les  Ga- 

See  a  note  in  Kemble's  Saxons  in  lates,  est  Gallus ; '  and  compare 

England,  vol.  i.  p.  41.  vol.  ii.  p.  109,  where  he  expresses 

48  '  Or  le  plus  ancien  Jupiter,  surprise    that   so    little   should 

le  plus   ancien  Neptune,  et   le  have    been    done     by    previous 

plus  ancien  Pluton,  sont  ceux  de  writers  towards  establishing  this 

Gaule ;  ils  la  diviserent  les  pre-  obvious  origin  of  the  French, 

miers  en  Celtique,  Aquitaine  et  48  Audigier,  vol.   i.   pp.   196,. 

Belgique,   et    obtinrent    chacun  197,  255,  256. 

une  de  ces   parties  en  partage.  49  '  Voila,  done  les  anciennes 

Jupiter,  qu'on  fait  regner  au  ciel,  divinitez  d'Europe,  originaires  de 

eut  la  Celtique.  .  .  .  Neptune,  Gaule,  aussi  bien  que  les  beaux 

qu'on  fait  regner  sur  les  eaux,  et  arts  et  les  hautes  sciences.'     Au- 

sur  les  mers,  eut  1' Aquitaine,  qui  digier,  vol.  i.  p.  234. 

n'est  appelee  de  la   sorte  qu'a,  50  Ibid.  voL  i.  pp^  73,  74.    He 

cause  de  l'abondance  de  ses  eaux,  sums  up,  '  e'en  est  assez  pour 

et  de   la  situation  sur  l'ocean.'  relever  1' Anjou,  a  qui  cette  gloira 

Audigier,  L'  Origine  des  Francois,  appartient  legitimement.' 

vol.  i.  pp.  223,  224.  «  Vol.  i.  pp.  265,  266. 


HISTOEICAL   LITEEATUEE   IN   FEACTCE.        281 

bo  called  from  the  rapidity  of  their  flight;52  the  Bretons 
were  evidently  Saxons  ;53  and  even  the  Scotch,  ahout 
whose  independence  so  mnch  has  been  said,  were  vassals 
to  the  kings  of  France.84  Indeed,  it  is  impossible  to  exag- 
gerate the  dignity  of  the  crown  of  France ;  it  is  difficult 
even  to  conceive  its  splendour.  Some  have  supposed  that 
the  emperors  are  superior  to  the  kings  of  France,  but  this 
is  the  mistake  of  ignorant  men ;  for  an  emperor  means  a 
mere  military  ruler,  while  the  title  of  king  includes  'all 
the  functions  of  supreme  power.55  To  put  the  question, 
therefore,  on  its  real  footing,  the  great  king  Louis  XIV. 
is  an  emperor,  as  have  been  all  his  predecessors,  the 
illustrious  rulers  of  France,  for  fifteen  centuries.56  And 
it  is  an  undoubted  fact,  that  Antichrist,  about  whom  so 
much  anxiety  is  felt,  will  never  be  allowed  to  appear  in 
the  world  until  the  French  empire  has  been  destroyed. 
This,  says  Audigier,  it  would  be  idle  to  deny  ;  for  it  is 
asserted  by  many  of  the  saints,  and  it  is  distinctly  fore- 
shadowed by  St.  Paul,  in  his  second  epistle  to  the 
Thessalonians.57 

Strange  as  all  this  appears,  there  was  nothing  in  it  to 
revolt  the  enlightened  age  of  Louis  XFv\  Indeed,  the 
French,  dazzled  by  the  brilliancy  of  their  prince,  must 
have  felt  great  interest  in  learning  how  superior  he  was 
to  all  other  potentates,  and  how  he  had  not  only  been 
preceded  by  a  long  line  of  emperors,  but  was  in  fact  an 
emperor  himself.  They  must  have  been  struck  with  awe 
at  the  information  communicated  by  Audigier  respecting 
the  arrival  of  Antichrist,  and  the  connexion  between  that 
important  event  and  the  fate  of  the  French  monarchy. 
They  must  have  listened  with  pious  wonder  to  the  illus- 
tration of  these  matters  from  the  writings  of  the  fathers, 
and  from  the  epistle  to  the  Thessalonians.  All  this  they 


42  Vol.  i.  p.  149.  docteurs  de  l'eglise,  qui  tiennent 

M  Vol.  ii.  pp.  179,  180.  que    l'Ante-christ     ne    viendra 

M  Vol.  ii.  p.  269.  point  au  monde  qu'apres  la  dis- 

•  Vol.  ii.  p.  124.  section,  c'est-a-dire  apres  la  dis- 

44  Vol.  ii.  pp.  451-454.  sipation  de  nostre  empire.    Leur 

47  '  A    quoy    nous    pourrions  fondement  est  dans  la  seconde 

joindre  un  autre  monument  fort  epistre  de  saint  Paul  aux  Thes- 

authentiquo,  c'est  le  resultat  de  saloniciens.'     Audigier,   vol.   ii. 

certains  pa-es,  et    de    certains  p.  462. 


282        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE. 

would  easily  receive ;  because  to  worship  the  king,  and 
venerate  the  church,  were  the  two  cardinal  maxims  of 
that  age.  To  obey,  and  to  believe,  were  the  funda- 
mental ideas  of  a  period,  in  which  the  fine  arts  did  for 
a  time  flourish, — in  which  the  perception  of  beauty, 
though  too  fastidious,  was  undoubtedly  keen, — in  which 
taste  and  the  imagination,  in  its  lower  departments, 
were  zealously  cultivated, — but  in  which,  on  the  other 
hand,  originality  and  independence  of  thought  were  ex- 
tinguished, the  greatest  and  the  largest  topics  were  for- 
bidden to  be  discussed,  the  sciences  were  almost  deserted, 
reforms  and  innovations  were  hated,  new  opinions  were 
despised,  and  their  authors  punished,  until  at  length, 
the  exuberance  of  genius  being  tamed  into  sterility,  the 
national  intellect  was  reduced  to  that  dull  and  mono- 
tonous level  which  characterizes  the  last  twenty  years 
of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 

In  no  instance  can  we  find  a  better  example  of  this 
reactionary  movement,  than  in  the  case  of  Bossuet, 
bishop  of  Meaux.  The  success,  and  indeed  the  mere 
existence,  of  his  work  on  Universal  History,  becomes, 
from  this  point  of  view,  highly  instructive.  Considered 
by  itself,  the  book  is  a  painful  exhibition  of  a  great 
genius  cramped  by  a  superstitious  age.  But  considered 
in  reference  to  the  time  in  which  it  appeared,  it  is  in- 
valuable as  a  symptom  of  the  French  intellect ;  since  it 
proves,  that  towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
one  of  the  most  eminent  men,  in  one  of  the  first  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  could  willingly  submit  to  a  prostration 
of  judgment,  and  could  display  a  blind  credulity,  of 
which,  in  our  day,  even  the  feeblest  minds  would  be 
ashamed ;  and  that  this,  so  far  from  causing  scandal,  or 
bringing  a  rebuke  on  the  head  of  the  author,  was  re- 
ceived with  universal  and  unqualified  applause.  Bossuet 
was  a  great  orator,  a  consummate  dialectician,  and  an 
accomplished  master  of  those  vague  sublimities  by 
which  most  men  are  easily  affected.  All  these  qualities 
he,  a  few  years  later,  employed  in  the  production  of 
what  is  probably  the  most  formidable  work  ever  directed 
against  Protestantism.58     But  when  he,  leaving  these 

58  This  is  the  opinion  of  Mr.  History  of  the  Variations  of  Pro- 
Hallara      respecting     Bossuet's     testant  Churches.     Const.  Hist. 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE.        283 


matters,  entered  the  vast  field  of  history,  he  could 
think  of  no  better  "way  of  treating  his  new  subject,  than 
by  following  the  arbitrary  rules  peculiar  to  his  own 
profession.59  His  work  is  an  audacious  attempt  to 
degrade  history  to  a  mere  handmaid  of  theology.60  As 
if,  on  such  matters,  doubt  were  synonymous  with  crime, 
he,  without  the  slightest  hesitation,  takes  everything  for 
granted  which  the  church  had  been  accustomed  to 
believe.  This  enables  him  to  speak  with  perfect  con- 
fidence respecting  events  which  are  lost  in  the  remotest 
antiquity.  He  knows  the  exact  number  of  years  which 
have  elapsed  since  the  moment  when  Cain  murdered 
his  brother  ;  when  the  deluge  overwhelmed  the  world ; 
and  when  Abraham  was  summoned  to  his  mission.61 
The  dates  of  these,  and  similar  occurrences,  he  fixes 
with  a  precision,  which  might  almost  make  us  believe 


vol.  i.  p.  486 :  compare  Lermi- 
nier,  Philos.  du  Droit,  vol.  ii. 
p.  86.  Attempts  have  been  made 
by  Protestant  theologians  to  re- 
tort against  the  Catholics  the 
arguments  of  Bossuet,  on  the 
ground  that  religious  variations 
are  a  necessary  consequence  of 
the  honest  pursuit  of  religious 
truth.  See  Blanco  White's  Evi- 
dence against  Catholicism,  pp. 
109-112;  and  his  Letters  from 
Spain,  by  Boblado,  p.  127.  With 
this  I  fully  agree ;  but  it  would 
be  easy  to  show  that  the  argu- 
ment is  fatal  to  all  ecclesiastical 
systems  with  strictly  denned 
creeds,  and,  therefore,  strikes  as 
heavily  against  the  Protestant 
churches  as  against  the  Catholic. 
Beausobre,  in  his  acute  and 
learned  work  on  Manichaeism, 
seems  to  have  felt  this  ;  and  he 
makes  the  dangerous  admission, 
'  que  si  l'argument  de  M.  de 
Meaux  vaut  quelque  chose  contre 
la  Reformation,  il  a  la  meme 
force  contre  le  Christianisme.' 
.Hist,  de  Manichie,  vol.  i.  p.  526. 


On  Bossuet  as  a  controversialist, 
see  Staudlin,  Geschichte  der  theo- 
logischen  Wissenschaften,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  43-45 ;  and  for  a  contem- 
porary opinion  of  his  great  work, 
see  a  characteristic  passage  in 
Lettresde  Sevigne,  vol  v.  p.  409. 

*9  His  method  is  fairly  stated 
by  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Francais, 
vol.  xxv.  p.  427. 

80  See,  on  this  attempt  of 
Bossuet' s,  some  good  remarks  in 
Staudlin,  Geschichte  der  theolo- 
gischen  Wissenschaften,  vol.  ii. 
p.  198:  'Kirche  und  Christen- 
thum  sind  fur  diesen  Bischoff 
der  Mittelpunct  der  ganzen 
Geschichte.  Aus  diesem  Ge- 
sichtspuncte  betrachtet  er  nicht 
nur  die  Patriarchen  und  Pro- 
pheten,  das  Judenthum  und  die 
alten  Weissagungen,  sondern 
auch  die  Reiche  der  Welt.' 

61  Bossuet,  Discours  sur  PHis- 
toire  Universelle,  pp.  10,  11,  16, 
17  ;  see  also,  at  p.  90,  a  curious 
specimen  of  his  chronological 
calculations. 


284        HISTORICAL  LITERATURE   IN"   FRANCE. 

that  they  had  taken  place  in  his  own  time,  if  not  under 
his  own  eyes.62  It  is  true,  that  the  Hebrew  books  on 
which  he  willingly  relied,  supply  no  evidence  of  the 
slightest  value  concerning  the  chronology  even  of  their 
own  people;  while  the  information  they  contain  re- 
specting other  countries  is  notoriously  meagre  and 
unsatisfactory.63  But  so  narrow  were  the  views  of 
Bossuet  upon  history,  that  with  all  this  he,  in  his  own 
opinion,  had  no  concern.  The  text  of  the  Vulgate  de- 
clared, that  these  things  had  happened  at  a  particular 
time ;  and  a  number  of  holy  men,  calling  themselves 
the  council  of  the  church,  had,  in  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  pronounced  the  Vulgate  to  be  authentic, 
and  had  taken  upon  themselves  to  place  it  above  all 
other  versions.64  This  theological  opinion  was  accepted 
by  Bossuet  as  an  historical  law ;  and  thus  the  decision 
of  a  handful  of  cardinals  and  bishops,  in  a  superstitious 
and  uncritical  age,  is  the  sole  authority  for  that  early 
chronology,  the  precision  of  which  is,  to  an  uninformed 
reader,  a  matter  of  great  admiration.65 


62  He  says,  that  if  the  ordi-  sur  un  examen  raisonne,  mais 
narily  received,  dates  of  the  Pen-  settlement  sur  la  question  de 
tateuch  and  the  Prophets  are  Sot  savoir  si  tel  ou  tel  ecrit  etait 
true,  then  the  miracles  must  fall,  d'accord  avec  les  dogmes  quelle 
and  the  writings  themselves  are  enseignait.'  Maury,  Legended 
not  inspired.  Hist.  Univ.  p.  360.  Pieuses,  p.  224. 

It  would  be  hard  to  find,  even  in  6S  Theologians  have  always 
the  works  of  Bossuet  a  more  been  remarkable  for  the  exact- 
rash  assertion  than  this.  ness  of  their  knowledge  on  sub- 

63  Indeed  the  Jews  have  no  jects  respecting  which  nothing  is 
consecutive  chronology  before  known ;  but  none  of  them  have 
Solomon.  See  Bunseris  Egypt,  surpassed  the  learned  Dr.  Stuke- 
vol.  i.  pp.  viii.xxv.  170,  178,  185,  ley.  In  1730,  this  eminent  di- 
vol.  ii.  p.  399.  vine  writes  :  '  But  according  to 

64  Doing  this,  as  they  did  the  calculations  I  have  made  of 
everything  else,  on  account,  not  this  matter,  I  find  God  Almighty 
of  reason,  but  of  dogma ;  for,  ordered  Noah  to  get  the  crea- 
as  a  learned  writer  says, '  l'Eglise  tures  into  the  ark  on  Sunday  the 
a  bien  distingue  certains  livres  12th  of  October,  the  very  day  of 
en  apocryphes  et  en  orthodoxes  ;  the  autumnal  equinox  that  year ; 
elle  s'est  prononcee  d'une  ma-  and  on  this  present  day,  on  the 
niere  formelle  sur  le  choix  des  Sunday  se'nnight  following  (the 
ouvrages  canoniques ;  neanmoins  19th  of  October),  that  terrible 
M  critique  n'a  jamais  ete  fondee  catastrophe     began,    the    moon 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE.        285 

In  the  same  way,  because  Bossuet  had  been  taught 
that  the  Jews  are  the  chosen  people  of  God,  he,  under 
the  title  of  Universal  History,  almost  confines  his  atten- 
tion to  them,  and  treats  this  obstinate  and  ignorant  race 
as  if  they  formed  the  pivot  upon  which  the  affairs  of  the 
universe  had  been  made  to  turn.66  His  idea  of  an  uni- 
versal history  excludes  those  nations  who  were  the  first 
to  reach  civilization,  and  to  some  of  whom  the  Hebrews 
owed  the  scanty  knowledge  which  they  subsequently 
acquired.67  He  says  little  of  the  Persians,  and  less  of 
the  Egyptians  ;  nor  does  he  even  mention  that  far 
greater  people  between  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges,  whose 
philosophy  formed  one  of  the  elements  of  the  school  of 
Alexandria,  whose  subtle  speculations  anticipated  all 
the  efforts  of  European  metaphysics,  and  whose  sublime 
inquiries,  conducted  in  their  own  exquisite  language, 
date  from  a  period  when  the  Jews,  stained  with  every 
variety  of  crime,  were  a  plundering  and  vagabond  tribe, 
wandering  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  raising  their  hand 
against  every  man  and  every  man  raising  his  hand 
against  them. 

When  he  enters  the  more  modern  period,  he  allows 
himself  to  be  governed  by  the  same  theological  preju- 
dices. So  contracted  is  his  view,  that  he  considers  the 
whole  history  of  the  church  as  the  history  of  providen- 
tial interference ;  and  he  takes  no  notice  of  the  manner 
in  which,  contrary  to  the  original  scheme,  it  has  been 
affected  by  foreign  events.68    Thus,  for  example,  the 

being  past  her  third  quarter.'  soutenir  sa  liberty  contre  les  rois 

Nichols's    Illustrations     of    the  de  Syrie,  que  ne  songeaient  qu'a 

Eighteenth   Century,   vol.   ii.  p.  le      detruire.'     Bossuet,      Hist. 

792.  Univ.  p.   382.    Well  may    M. 

66  '  Premierement,  ces  empires  Lermiuier  say  (Philos.  du  Droit, 

ont  pour  la  plupart  une  liaison  vol.  ii.  p.   87),  that  Bossuet '  a 

necessaire  avec  l'histoire  du  peu-  sacrifie    toutes  les    nations    au 

pie  de  Dieu.     Dieu   s'est  servi  peuple  juif.' 

des  Assyriens  et  des  Babyloniens  47  On  the  extraordinary  and 

pour  chatier  ce  peuple  ;  des  Per-  prolonged  ignorance  of  the  Jews, 

ses  pour  le  retablir ;  d' Alexandre  even  to  the  time  of  the  Apostles, 

et  de  ses  premiers  successeurs  see  Mackar/s  Progress  of  the  In- 

Four   le  proteger;   d'Antiochus  tellcct,  vol.  i.  pp.  13seq. ;  a  work 

Illustre   et  de  ses  successeurs  of  profound  learning, 

pour  l'exercer;  des  Romains  pour  "  The     original     scheme    of 


286        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE. 


most  important  fact  relating  to  the  early  changes  in 
Christianity,  is  the  extent  to  which  its  doctrines  have 
been  influenced  by  the  African  form  of  the  Platonic 
philosophy.69  But  this,  Bossuet  never  mentions ;  nor 
does  he  even  hint  that  any  such  thing  had  occurred. 
It  suited  his  views  to  look  upon  the  church  as  a  per- 
petual miracle,  and  he  therefore  omits  the  most  impor- 
tant event  in  its  early  history.70  To  descend  a  little 
later :  every  one  acquainted  with  the  progress  of  civili- 
zation will  allow,  that  no  small  share  of  it  is  due  to 
those  gleams  of  light,  which,  in  the  midst  of  surround- 
ing darkness,  shot  from  the  great  centres  of  Cordova 
and  Bagdad.  These,  however,  were  the  work  of  Moham- 
medanism ;  and  as  Bossuet  had  been  taught  that 
Mohammedanism  is  a  pestilential  heresy,  he  could  not 
bring  himself  to  believe  that  Christian  nations  had  de- 
rived anything  from  so  corrupt  a  source.  The  conse- 
quence is,  that  he  says  nothing  of  that  great  religion, 
the  noise  of  which  has  filled  the  world  ;71  and  having 


Christianity,  as  stated  by  its 
Great  Author  {Matthew  x.  6,  and 
xr.  24),  was  merely  to  convert 
the  Jews ;  and  if  the  doctrines 
of  Christ  had  never  extended 
beyond  that  ignorant  people,  they 
could  not  have  received  those 
modifications  which  philosophy 
imposed  upon  them.  The  wholo 
of  this  subject  is  admirably  dis- 
cussed in  Mackai/s  Progress  of 
the  Intellect  in  Religious  Develop- 
ment, vol.  ii.  pp.  382  seq. ;  and 
on  the  'universalism,'  first  clearly 
announced  'by  the  Hellenist 
Stephen,'  see  p.  484.  Neander 
makes  a  noticeable  attempt  to 
evade  the  difficulty  caused  by 
the  changes  in  Christianity  from 
'various  outward  causes:'  see 
his  History  of  the  Church,  vol. 
iii.  p.  125. 

69  Neander  {Hist. of  the  Church, 
vol.  ii.  p.  42)  even  thinks  that 
Cerinthus,  whose  views  are  re- 


markable as  being  the  point 
where  Gnosticism  and  Judaism 
touch  each  other,  borrowed  his 
system  from  Alexandria.  But 
this,  though  not  unlikely,  seems 
only  to  rest  on  the  authority  of 
Theodoret.  On  the  influence  of 
the  Platonism  of  Alexandria  in 
developing  the  idea  of  the  Logos, 
seeNeander,  vol.  ii.  pp.  304, 306- 
314.  Compare  Sharpe's  Hist, 
of  Egypt,  vol.  ii.  pp.  152  seq. 

70  And  having  to  mention  Cle- 
mens Alexandrinus,  who  was 
more  deeply  versed  in  the  philo- 
sophy of  Alexandria  than  were 
any  of  the  other  fathers,  Bossuet 
merely  E ays,  p.  98,  '  a  peu  pres 
dans  le  meme  temps,  le  saint 
pretre  Clement  Alexandrin  de- 
terra  les  antiquites  du  pagan- 
isme  pour  le  confondre.' 

"  About  the  time  that  Bossuet 
wrote,  a  very  learned  writer  cal- 
culated that  the  area  of  the  coun- 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE.        287 


occasion  to  mention  its  founder,  lie  treats  him  with 
scorn,  as  an  impudent  impostor,  whose  pretensions  it  is 
hardly  fitting  to  notice.72  The  great  apostle,  who  dif- 
fused among  millions  of  idolaters  the  sublime  verity  of 
one  God, is  spoken  of  by  Bossuet  with  supreme  contempt; 
because  Bossuet,  with  the  true  spirit  of  his  profession, 
could  see  nothing  to  admire  in  those  whose  opinions  dif- 
feredfrom  his  own.73  Butwhen  he  has  occasion  to  mention 
some  obscure  member  of  that  class  to  which  he  himself  be- 
longed, thenit  isthathescattershispraises  with  boundless 
profusion.  Inhis  scheme  of  universal  history,  Mohammed 
is  not  worthy  to  play  a  part.  He  is  passed  by ;  but  the  truly 
great  man,  the  man  to  whom  the  human  race  is  really 
indebted,  is — Martin,  bishop  of  Tours.  He  it  is,  says 
Bossuet,  whose  unrivalled  actions  filled  the  universe  with 


tries  which  professed  Mohamme- 
danism, exceeded,  by  one  fifth, 
those  where  Christianity  was  be- 
lieved. See  BrerewoocCs  Inqui- 
ries touching  the  Diversity  of 
Languages  and  Religions,  Lond. 
1674,  pp.  144,  145.  The  esti- 
mate of  Southey  ( Vindicus  Ec- 
clesice  Anglicana,  London,  1826, 
p.  48),  is  very  vague ;  but  it  is 
much  easier  to  judge  of  the  ex- 
tent of  Mohammedan  countries 
than  of  the  extent  of  their  popu- 
lation. On  this  latter  point  we 
have  the  most  conflicting  state- 
ments. In  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, there  are,  according  to  Sha- 
ron Turner  (Hist,  of  England, 
vol.  iii.  p.  485,  edit.  1839),  eighty 
million  Mohammedans;  accord- 
ing to  Dr.  Elliotson  (Human 
Physiology,  p.  1055,  edit,  1840), 
more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  million ;  while,  according  to 
Mr.  Wilkin  (note  in  Sir  Thomas 
Browne's  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  37, 
edit.  1835),  there  are  a  hundred 
and  eighty-eight  million. 

72  '  Le  faux  prophete  donna 
see  victoires  pour  toute  marque 


de  sa  mission.'  Bossuet,  p.  125. 
,s  The  greatest  Mohammedan 
writers  have  always  expressed 
ideas  regarding  the  Deity  more 
lofty  than  those  possessed  by  the 
majority  of  Christians.  The 
Koran  contains  noble  passages 
on  the  oneness  of  God ;  and  for 
the  views  of  their  ordinary  theo- 
logians, I  may  refer  to  an  inter- 
esting Mohammedan  sermon,  in 
Transactions  of  the  Bombay  So- 
ciety, vol.  i.  pp.  146-158.  See 
also,  in  vol.  iii.  pp.  398-448,  an 
Essay  by  Vans  Kennedy ;  and 
compare  a  remarkable  passage, 
considering  the  quarter  from 
which  it  comes,  in  Autobiography 
of  the  Emperor  Jehangueir,  p. 
44.  Those  who  are  so  thought- 
less as  to  believe  that  Mohammed 
was  a  hypocrite,  had  better  study 
the  admirable  remarks  of  M. 
Comte  (Philos.  Pos.  vol.  v.  pp. 
76,  77),  who  truly  says,  'qu'un 
homme  vraiment  supdrieur  n'a 
jamais  pu  exercer  aucune  grande 
action  sur  ses  somblables  sans 
6tre  d'abord  lui-mcmo  intime- 
ment  convaincu.' 


288        HISTOBICAL   LITEBATUKE   IN   FBANCE. 

his  fame,  both  during  his  lifetime  and  after  his  death.74  It 
is  true,  that  not  one  educated  man  in  fifty  has  ever  heard 
the  name  of  Martin,  bishop  of  Tours.  But  Martin  per- 
formed miracles,  and  the  church  had  made  him  a  saint; 
his  claims,  therefore,  to  the  attention  of  historians  must 
be  far  superior  to  the  claims  of  one  who,  like  Moham- 
med, was  without  these  advantages.  Thus  it  is  that,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  only  eminent  writer  on  history  during 
the  power  of  Louis  XiV.,  the  greatest  man  Asia  has 
ever  produced,  and  one  of  the  greatest  the  world  has 
ever  seen,  is  considered  in  every  way  inferior  to  a  mean 
and  ignorant  monk,  whose  most  important  achievement 
was  the  erection  of  a  monastery,  and  who  spent  the 
best  part  of  his  life  in  useless  solitude,  trembling  before 
the  superstitious  fancies  of  his  weak  and  ignoble 
nature.76 

Such  was  the  narrow  spirit  with  which  the  great 
facts  of  history  were  contemplated  by  a  writer,  who, 
when  he  was  confined  to  his  own  department,  displayed 
the  most  towering  genius.  This  contracted  view  was 
the  inevitable  consequence  of  his  attempt  to  explain  the 
complicated  movements  of  the  human  race  by  principles 
which  he  had  generalized  from  his  own  inferior  studies.76 

74  '  Saint  Martin  fut  fait  are  related  by  Fleury,  who  evi- 
eveque  de  Tours,  et  remplit  tout  dently  believes  that  they  were 
l'univers  du  bruit  de  sa  saintete  really  performed.  Fleury,  Hist. 
et  de  ses  miracles,  durant  sa  vie,  Ecclesiastique,  livre  xvi.  no.  31, 
et  apres  sa  mort.'  Bossuet,  Hist,  vol.  iv.  pp.  215-217,  Paris,  1758, 
Univ.  ip.  111.  12mo.     Neander,  having  the  ad- 

75  The  Benedictines  have  writ-  vantage  of  living  a  hundred 
ten  the  life  of  Martin  in  their  years  later  than  Fleury,  is  con- 
Hist.  Lit.  de  la  France,  vol.  i.  tent  to  say,  '  the  veneration  of 
part  ii.  pp.  413-417,  Paris,  1733,  his  period  denominated  him  a 
4to.  They  say  that  he  erected  worker  of  miracles.'  Hist,  of 
the  first  monastery  in  Gaul:  the  Church,  vol.  iv.  p.  494. 
'  Martin,  toujours  passionne  pour  There  is  a  characteristic  anecdote 
la  solitude,  erigea  un  monas-  of  him,  from  Sulpitius  Severus, 
tere  qui  fut  lo  premier  que  in  Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist.  vol.  i. 
Ton    eut    encore  vu   dans    les  p.  123. 

Gaules,' p.  414.    At  p.  415,  they  76  At  pp.  479,  480,  Bossuet 

make  the  unnecessary  admission,  gives  a  sort  of  summary  of  his 

thatthe  saint '  n'avoit point  etudie  historical  principles  ;  and  if  they 

les    sciences   profanes.'     I  may  are  true,  history  is  evidently  im- 

add,  that  the  miracles  of  Martin  possible  to  be  written.     On  this 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE.        289 

Nor  need  any  one  be  offended,  that,  from  a  scientific 
point  of  view,  I  assign  to  the  pursuits  of  Bossuet  a 
rank  lower  than  that  in  which  they  are  sometimes 
placed.  It  is  certain  that  religious  dogmas  do,  in  many 
cases,  influence  the  affairs  of  men.  But  it  is  equally 
certain,  that  as  civilization  advances,  such  influence  de- 
creases, and  that  even  when  the  power  of  those  dogmas 
was  at  its  height,  there  were  many  other  motives  by 
which  the  actions  of  mankind  were  also  governed. 
And  since  the  study  of  history  is  the  study  of  the 
aggregate  of  these  motives,  it  is  evident  that  history 
must  be  superior  to  theology ;  just  as  the  whole  is 
superior  to  a  part.  A  neglect  of  this  simple  considera- 
tion has,  with  a  few  eminent  exceptions,  led  all  ecclesi- 
astical authors  into  serious  errors.  It  has  induced  in 
them  a  disposition  to  disregard  the  immense  variety  of 
external  events,  and  to  suppose  that  the  course  of  affairs 
is  regulated  by  some  principles  which  theology  alone 
can  detect.  This,  indeed,  is  only  the  result  of  a  general 
law  of  the  mind,  by  which  those  who  have  any  favourite 
profession,  are  apt  to  exaggerate  its  capacity;  to  explain 
events  by  its  maxims,  and  as  it  were,  to  refract  through 
its  medium  the  occurrences  of  life.77  Among  theolo- 
gians, however,  such  prejudices  are  more  dangerous 
than  in  any  other  profession,  because  among  them  alone 
are  they  fortified  by  that  bold  assumption  of  super- 
natural authority  on  which  many  of  the  clergy  willingly 
rely. 

These  professional  prejudices,  when  supported  by 
theological  dogmas,  in  a  reign  like  that  of  Louis  XIV.,78 
are  sufficient  to  account  for  the  peculiarities  which 
mark  the  historical  work  of  Bossuet.     Besides  this,  m 

account,  though  fully  recognizing  Traite  de  Legislation,  vol.  i.  p.  1 1 6. 

the  genius  of  Bossuet,  I  cannot  '8  The  connection  between  the 

agree  with  the  remarks   made  opinions    of   Bossuet    and    the 

upon  him  by  M.   Comte,  Philos.  despotism    of    Louis    XIV.    is 

Pos.  vol.  iv.  p.  280,  vol.  vi.  pp.  touched  on  by  Montlosier,  who, 

316,  317.  however,  has  probably  laid  too 

"  And  then,   as  M.  Charles  much   stress   on    the    influence 

Comte  well  says,  they  call  this  which  the  civil   law    exercised 

prejudice  their  moral  sense,  or  over  both.    Montlosier,  Monar- 

sheir    moral     instinct.     Comte,  chic  Frangaise,  voL  ii.  p.  90. 

VOL.  II.  U 


290        HISTOEICAL   LITEEATUEE    IN   FEANCE. 

his  case,  the  general  tendency  was  aggravated  by  per- 
sonal characteristics.  His  mind  was  remarkable  for  a 
haughtiness,  which  we  find  constantly  breaking  out 
into  a  general  contempt  for  mankind.79  At  the  same 
time  his  amazing  eloquence,  and  the  effects  which  it 
neyer  failed  to  produce,  seemed  to  justify  the  over- 
weening confidence  that  he  felt  in  his  own  powers. 
There  is,  indeed,  in  some  of  his  greatest  efforts,  so  much 
of  the  fire  and  majesty  of  genius,  that  we  are  reminded 
of  those  lofty  and  burning  words  with  which  the  pro- 
phets of  antiquity  thrilled  their  hearers.  Bossuet,  thus 
standing,  as  he  supposed,  on  an  eminence  which  raised 
bim  above  the  ordinary  weaknesses  of  men,  loved  to 
taunt  them  with  their  follies,  and  to  deride  every  aspi- 
ration of  their  genius.  Every  thing  like  intellectual 
boldness  seemed  to  gall  his  own  superiority.80  It  was 
this  boundless  arrogance  with  which  he  was  filled, 
which  gives  to  his  works  some  of  their  most  marked 
peculiarities.  It  was  this,  that  made  him  strain  every 
nerve  to  abase  and  vilify  those  prodigious  resources  of 
the  human  understanding,  which  are  often  despised  by 
men  who  are  ignorant  of  them  ;  but  which  in  reality 
are  so  great,  that  no  one  has  yet  arisen  able  to  scan 
them  in  the  whole  of  their  gigantic  dimensions.  It  was 
this  same  contempt  for  the  human  intellect,  that  made 
him  deny  its  capacity  to  work  out  for  itself  the  epochs 
through  which  it  has  passed  ;  and,  consequently,  made 
him  recur  to  the  dogma  of  supernatural  interference. 
It  was  this,  again,  that,  in  those  magnificent  orations 
which  are  among  the  greatest  wonders  of  modern  art, 


*•  He  belonged  to  a  class  of  the  reader  may  consult  Sismondi, 

historians,  described  by  a  cele-  Hist,   des  Frang.   vol.  xxvi.   p. 

brated  -writer  in  a  single  sen-  247;  and  on   his  treatment  of 

tence :  '  dans  leurs   ecrits  l'au-  Fenelon,  -which  -was   the    most 

tenr  parait  souvent  grand,  mais  shameful  transaction  of  his  life, 

l'humanite  est  toujours  petite.'  compare  Burners  Own  Time,  vol. 

TocquevUle,  Democratie,  vol.  iv.  iv.  p.  384,  -with  Capefiguds  Louis 

p.  139.  XIV,  vol.  ii.  p.  58;  where  there 

80  Hardly  any  one  acquainted  is  printed  one  of  the  many  epi- 

with  the  -writings  and  the  history  grams  to  -which  the  conduct  of 

of  Bossuet  will  require  evidence  Bossuet  gave  rise, 
of  his  singular  arrogance.    But 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE   IN   FRANCE.        291 

caused  him  to  exhaust  the  language  of  eulogy,  not  upon 
intellectual  eminence,  but  upon  mere  military  achieve- 
ments, upon  great  conquerors,  those  pests  and  destroyers 
of  men,  who  pass  their  lives  in  discovering  new  ways  of 
slaying  their  enemies,  and  in  devising  new  means  of 
aggravating  the  miseries  of  the  world.  And,  to  descend 
still  lower,  it  was  this  same  contempt  for  the  dearest 
interests  of  mankind,  which  made  him  look  with  reve- 
rence upon  a  king,  who  considered  all  those  interests  as 
nothing  ;  but  who  had  the  merit  of  enslaving  the  mind 
of  France,  and  of  increasing  the  power  of  that  body  of 
men,  among  whom  Bossuet  himself  was  the  most  dis- 
tinguished. 

In  the  absence  of  sufficient  evidence  respecting  the 
general  state  of  the  French  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  to  what  extent  such 
notions  as  these  had  penetrated  the  popular  mind.  But, 
looking  at  the  manner  in  which  government  had  broken 
the  spirit  of  the  country,  I  should  be  inclined  to  sup- 
pose that  the  opinions  of  Bossuet  were  very  acceptable 
to  his  own  generation.  This,  however,  is  a  question 
rather  of  curiosity  than  of  importance  ;  for  only  a  few 
years  later  there  appeared  the  first  symptoms  of  that 
unprecedented  movement,  which  not  merely  destroyed 
the  political  institutions  of  France,  but  effected  a  greater 
and  more  permanent  revolution  in  every  department  of 
the  national  intellect.  At  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  in 
literature,  as  well  as  in  politics,  in  religion,  and  in 
morals,  everything  was  ripe  for  reaction.  The  materials 
still  existing  are  so  ample,  that  it  would  be  possible  to 
trace  with  considerable  minuteness  the  steps  of  this 
great  process ;  but  it  will,  I  think,  be  more  agreeable 
to  the  general  scheme  of  this  Introduction,  if  I  pass 
over  some  of  the  intermediate  links,  and  confine  myself 
to  those  salient  instances  in  which  the  spirit  of  the  age 
is  most  strikingly  portrayed. 

There  is,  indeed,  something  extraordinary  in  the 
change  which,  in  France,  one  generation  was  able  to 
effect  in  the  method  of  writing  history.  The  best  way, 
perhaps,  to  form  an  idea  of  this,  will  be  to  compare  the 
works  of  Voltaire  with  those  of  Bossuet ;  because  these 

U2 


292        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE. 

great  authors  were  probably  the  most  able,  and  were 
certainly  the  most  influential,  Frenchmen  during  the 
period  they  respectively  represented.  The  first  great 
improvement  which  we  find  in  Voltaire,  as  compared 
with  Bossuet,  is  an  increased  perception  of  the  dignity 
of  the  human  intellect.  In  addition  to  the  circum- 
stances already  noticed,  we  must  remember  that  the 
reading  of  Bossuet  lay  in  a  direction  which  prevented 
him  from  feeling  this.  He  had  not  studied  those 
branches  of  knowledge  where  great  things  have  been 
achieved ;  but  he  was  very  conversant  with  the  writings 
of  the  saints  and  fathers,  whose  speculations  are  by  no 
means  calculated  to  give  us  a  high  opinion  of  the  re- 
sources of  their  own  understanding.  Thus  accustomed 
to  contemplate  the  workings  of  the  mind  in  what  is,  on 
the  whole,  the  most  puerile  literature  Europe  has  ever 
produced,  the  contempt  which  Bossuet  felt  for  mankind 
went  on  increasing ;  until  it  reached  that  inordinate 
degree  which,  in  his  later  works,  is  painfully  con- 
spicuous. But  Voltaire,  who  paid  no  attention  to  such 
things  as  these,  passed  his  long  life  in  the  constant 
accumulation  of  real  and  available  knowledge.  His 
mind  was  essentially  modern.  Despising  unsupported 
authority,  and  heedless  of  tradition,  he  devoted  himself 
to  subjects  in  which  the  triumph  of  the  human  reason 
is  too  apparent  to  be  mistaken.  The  more  his  know- 
ledge advanced,  the  more  he  admired  those  vast  powers 
by  which  the  knowledge  had  been  created.  Hence  his 
admiration  for  the  intellect  of  man,  so  far  from  dimin- 
ishing, grew  with  his  growth ;  and,  just  in  the  same 
proportion,  there  was  strengthened  his  love  of  humanity, 
and  his  dislike  to  the  prejudices  which  had  long  obscured 
its  history.  That  this,  in  the  march  of  his  mind,  was 
the  course  it  actually  followed,  will  be  evident  to  any 
one  who  considers  the  different  spirit  of  his  works,  in 
reference  to  the  different  periods  of  life  in  which  they 
were  produced. 

The  first  historical  work  of  Voltaire  was  a  life  of 
Charles  XEL,  in  1728.81     At  this  time  his  knowledge 

61  He  says  that  he  'wrote  it  in    xxii.  p.. 5,  but,  according  to  M. 
1728.     (Euvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.    Lepan  (Vie  de  Voltaire,  p.  382), 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE   IN   FRANCE. 


293 


was  still  scanty,  and  he  was  still  influenced  by  the 
servile  traditions  of  the  preceding  generation.  It  is  not, 
therefore,  wonderful,  that  he  should  express  the  greatest 
respect  for  Charles,  who,  among  the  admirers  of  mili- 
tary fame,  will  always  preserve  a  certain  reputation; 
though  his  only  merits  are,  that  he  ravaged  many  coun- 
tries and  killed  many  men.  But  we  find  little  sympathy 
with  his  unfortunate  subjects,  the  accumulations  of 
whose  industry  supported  the  royal  armies  ;82  nor  is 
there  much  pity  for  those  nations  who  were  oppressed 
by  this  great  robber  in  the  immense  line  of  his  con- 
quests from  Sweden  to  Turkey.  Indeed,  the  admira- 
tion of  Voltaire  for  Charles  is  unbounded.  He  calls  him 
the  most  extraordinary  man  the  world  had  ever  seen;83 
he  declares  him  to  be  a  prince  full  of  honour  ;84  and 
while  he  scarcely  blames  his  infamous  murder  of  Pat- 
kul,85  he  relates  with  evident  emotion  how  the  royal 


'il  parut  en  1731.'  Both  state- 
ments may  be  accurate,  as  Vol- 
taire frequently  kept  his  works 
for  some  time  in  manuscript, 

82  Sir  A.  Alison,  who  certainly 
cannot  be  accused  of  want  of  re- 
spect for  military  conquerors, 
says  of  Sweden,  'the  attempt 
which  Charles  XII.  made  to 
engage  her  in  long  and  arduous 
wars,  so  completely  drained  the 
resources  of  the  country,  that 
they  did  not  recover  the  loss  for 
half  a  century.'  Hist,  of  Europe, 
vol.  x.  p.  504.  See  also,  on  the 
effects  produced  by  the  conscrip- 
tions of  Charles  XII.,  Laing's 
Sweden,  p.  59 ;  Koch,  Tableau  des 
lievolutions,  vol.  ii.  p.  63;  and 
above  all,  a  curious  passage  in 
Duclos,  Mem.  Secrets,  vol.  i.  p. 
448.  Several  of  the  soldiers  of 
Charles  XII.  who  were  taken 
prisoners,  were  sent  into  Siberia, 
where  Bell  fell  in  with  them 
early  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
BelFs  Travels  in  Asia,  edit.  Edinb. 
1788,  vol.  I  pp.  223-224. 


88  Charles  XII,  l'homme  le 
plus  extraordinaire  peut-Stre  qui 
ait  jamais  ete  sur  la  terre,  qui  a 
reuni  en  lui  toutes  les  grandes 
qualit^s  de  ses  ai'eux,  et  qui  n'a 
eu  d'autre  d^faut  ni  d' autre  mai- 
nour que  de  les  avoir  toutes 
outr6es.'  Hist,  de  Charles  XH, 
livre  i.,  in  QSuvres  de  Voltaire, 
vol.  xxii.  p.  30. 

84  'Plein  d'honneur.'  Ibid,  in 
(Euvres,  vol.  xxii.  p.  63. 

84  Which  Burke,  not  without 
justice,  compares  to  the  murder 
of  Monaldeschi  by  Christina. 
Burke's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  412. 
See  some  remarks  on  the  murder 
of  Patkul,  in  Vattel,  Droit  des 
Gens,  voL  i.  p.  230 ;  and  an  ac- 
count of  it,  from  Swedish  au- 
thorities, in  Somers  Tracts,  vol. 
xiii.  pp.  879-881.  For  Voltaire's 
version  see  his  (Euvres,  vol.  xxii. 
pp.  136,  137;  which  may  be  con- 
trasted with  Crichton  and  Whea- 
ton's  History  of  Scandinavia, 
Edinb.  1838,  vol.  ii.  p.  127. 


294        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IE   FRANCE. 

lunatic,  at  the  head  of  forty  servants,  resisted  an  entire 
army.86  In  the  same  "way,  he  says,  that  after  the  battle 
of  Narva,  all  the  attempts  of  Charles  were  unable  to 
prevent  medals  from  being  struck  at  Stockholm  in  cele- 
bration of  that  event;87  although  Voltaire  well  knew 
that  a  man  of  such  extravagant  vanity  must  have  been 
pleased  by  so  durable  a  homage,  and  although  it  is  quite 
certain  that  if  he  had  not  been  pleased,  the  medals 
would  never  have  been  struck  :  for  who  would  venture, 
without  an  object,  to  offend,  in  his  own  capital,  one  of 
the  most  arbitrary  and  revengeful  of  princes  ? 

So  far,  it  might  appear  that  little  had  been  gained  in 
the  method  of  writing  history.88  But,  even  thus  early, 
we  find  one  vast  improvement.  In  Voltaire's  Life  of 
Charles  XII.,  faulty  as  it  is,  there  are  none  of  those 
assumptions  of  supernatural  interference  in  which 
Bossuet  delighted,  and  which  were  natural  to  the  reign 
of  Louis  XIV.  The  absence  of  this  marks  the  first  great 
stage  in  the  Trench  school  of  history  in  the  eighteenth 
century;  and  we  find  the  same  peculiarity  in  all  the 
subsequent  historians,  none  of  whom  recurred  to  a 
method,  which,  though  suitable  for  the  purposes  of  theo- 

86  (Envresde  Voltaire,xol.xxii.  when  writers,  who  only  know  a 
pp.  250-260.  It  may  interest  some  country  from  maps,  attempt  to 
persons  to  hear,  that  the  litter  in  enter  into  details  respecting  mili- 
which  this  madman  '  was  borne  tary  geography.  In  regard  to 
from  the  battle  of  Pultava'  is  style,  it  cannot  be  too  highly 
still  preserved  at  Moscow.  KoMs  praised ;  and  a  well-known  critic, 
Bussia,  p.  220.  It  was  also  seen  Lacratelle,  calls  it  '  le  modele  le 
by  M.  Custine.  Custine's  Bussia,  plus  accompli  de  narration  qui 
vol.  iii.  p.  263.  existe  dans  notre  langue.'     La- 

87  •  Sa  modestie  ne  put  emp£-  cretelle,  Dix-huitieme  Steele,  vol.  ii. 
cher  qu'on  ne  frappat  a  Stock-  p.  42.  In  1843  it  was  still  used 
holm  plusieurs  medailles  pour  as  a  text  book  in  the  French 
perpetuer  la  memoire  de  ces  royal  colleges.  See  Beport  on 
evenements.'  Charles  XII,  livre  Education  in  France,  in  Journal 
ii.,  in  QZuwes,  vol.  xxii.  p.  70.  of  Stat.  Soc.  vol.  vi.  p.  308.  Fur- 

88  Even  some  of  its  geographi-  ther  information  respecting  this 
cal  details  are  said  to  be  inaccu-  work  may  bo  found  in  Longchamp 
rate.  Compare  Villemain,  Litte-  ct  Wagniere,  Mem.  sur  Voltaire, 
rature  au  XVIII"  Siecle,  vol.  ii.  vol.  ii.  p.  494 ;  and  in  Mem.  de 

633,  vrithKohrs  Bussia,  p.  505.  Genlis,  vol.  viii.  p.  224,  vol.  x. 

owever,  as  M.  Villemain  says,  p.  304. 
this  must  always  be  the  case, 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE.        295 

logians,  is  fatal  to  all  independent  inquiries,  since  it  not 
only  prescribes  the  course  the  inquirer  is  bound  to 
take,  but  actually  sets  up  a  limit  beyond  -which  he  is 
forbidden  to  proceed. 

That  Voltaire  should  have  infringed  upon  this  ancient 
method  only  thirteen  years  after  the  death  of  Louis  XIV., 
and  that  he  should  have  done  this  in  a  popular  work, 
abounding  with  such  dangerous  adventures  as  are 
always  found  to  tempt  the  mind  to  an  opposite  course, 
is  a  step  of  no  common  merit,  and  becomes  still  more 
worthy  of  remark,  if  taken  in  connexion  with  another 
fact  of  considerable  interest.  This  is,  that  the  life  of 
Charles  XII.  represents  the  first  epoch,  not  only  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  but  also  in  the  intellect  of  Voltaire 
himself.89  After  it  was  published,  this  great  man  turned 
awhile  from  history,  and  directed  his  attention  to  some 
of  the  noblest  subjects :  to  mathematics,  to  physics, 
to  jurisprudence,  to  the  discoveries  of  Newton,  and  to 
the  speculations  of  Locke.  In  these  things  ho  per- 
ceived those  capabilities  of  the  human  mind,  which 
his  own  country  had  formerly  witnessed,  but  of  which 
during  the  authority  of  Louis  XIV.  the  memory  had 
been  almost  lost.  Then  it  was  that,  with  extended 
knowledge  and  sharpened  intellect,  he  returned  to  the 
great  field  of  history.90     The  manner  in  which  he  now 

"  It  is  evident,  from  Voltaire's  lx.  p.  411.    In  1759,  he  writes, 

correspondence,   that    he   after-  that  he  was  then  engaged  on  the 

wards  became  somewhat  ashamed  history  of  Peter  the  Great :  '  mais 

of  the  praises  he  had  bestowed  je  doute  que  cela  soit  aussi  amu- 

on  Charles  XII.      In  1735,  he  sant  quo  la  vie  de  Charles  XII; 

writes  to  De  Formont, '  si  Charles  car  ce  Pierre  n'etait  qu'un  sage 

XII    n'avait  pas  dt6  excessive-  extraordinaire,  et  Charles  un  fou 

ment  grand,  malheureux,  et  fou,  extraordinaire,    q\u    se    battait, 

je  me  serais  bien  donne  de  garde  comme  Don  Quichotto,  contredes 

do  parler  de   lui.'      (Euvres  de  moulins  a  vent.'  -Vol.  lxi.  p.  23 : 

Voltaire,  vol.   lvi.  p.    462.     In  see  also  p.  350.    These  passages 

1758,  advancing  still  further,  he  prove  the  constant  progress  Vol- 

6ays  of  Charles, '  voila,  monsieur,  taire  was  making  in  his  concep- 

ce  que  les  hommes  de  tous  les  tion  of  what  history  ought  to  be, 

temps  et  de  tous  les  pays  ap-  and  what  its  uses  were, 

pollent  un  heros ;  mais  c'est  le  90  In   1741,  he  mentions  his 

vulgaire  de  tous  les  temps  et  de  increasing  love  of  history.     Cor- 

tous  les  pays  qui  donne  ce  nom  resp.  in  (Euvres  de  Voltaire,  voL 

u  la  soif  du  carnage.'     Ibid.  vol.  li.  p.  96. 


296        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE   IN-   FRANCE. 

treated  his  old  subject,  showed  the  change  that  had 
come  over  him.  In  1752,  appeared  his  celebrated  work 
on  Louis  XIV.,91  the  very  title  of  which  is  suggestive 
of  the  process  through  which  his  mind  had  passed.  His 
former  history  was  an  account  of  a  king ;  this  is  an 
account  of  an  age.  To  the  production  of  his  youth  he 
gave  the  title  of  a  History  of  Charles  XII. ;  this  he  called 
the  Age  of  Louis  XIV.  Before,  he  had  detailed  the  pecu- 
liarities of  a  prince  ;  now,  he  considered  the  movements 
of  a  people.  Indeed,  in  the  introduction  to  the  work, 
he  announces  his  intention  to  describe,  '  not  the  actions 
of  a  single  man,  but  the  character  of  men.'92  Nor,  in 
this  point  of  view,  is  the  execution  inferior  to  the  design. 
While  he  is  contented  with  giving  a  summary  of  mili- 
tary achievements,  on  which  Bossuet  hung  with  delight, 
he  enters  at  great  length  into  those  really  important 
matters  which,  before  his  time,  found  no  place  in  the 
history  of  France.  He  has  one  chapter  on  commerce  and 
internal  government  ;93  another  chapter  on  finances  ;94 
another  on  the  history  of  science  ;95  and  three  chap- 
ters on  the  progress  of  the  fine  arts.96  And  though 
Voltaire  did  not  attach  much  value  to  theological  dis- 
putes, still  he  knew  that  they  have  often  played  a  great 
part  in  the  affairs  of  men ;  he  therefore  gives  several  dis- 


91  Lord  Brougham,  in  his  life  500,  voL  lvii.  pp.  337,  342-344, 
of  Voltaire,  says  that  it  appeared  vol.  lix.  p.  103. 

in  1751.  Lives  of  Men  of  Letters,        m  Chap,  xxix.,  in  (Euvres  de 

vol.  i.  p.  106.     But  1752  is  the  Voltaire,  vol.  xx.  pp.  234-267. 
date  given  in  Biog.   Univ.  xlix.        M  Chap,  xxx.,  in  (Euvres,  vol. 

478;    in    Querard,   France  Lit.  xx.  pp.  267-291.  This  chapter  is 

vol.  x.  p.  355  ;  andinZepaw,  Vie  praised  in  Sinclair's  History  of 

de  Voltaire,  p.  382.  the  Public  Revenue,  vol.  iii.  ap- 

92  '  On  veut  essayer  de  peindre  pendix,  p.  77;  an  indifferent 
a,  la  posterite,  non  les  actions  work,  hut  the  hest  we  have  on 
d'un  seul  homme,  mais  l'esprit  the  important  subject  to  which  it 
dcs  homines  dans  le  siecle  le  plus  refers. 

eclaire  qui  fut  jamais.'     Siecle  de        9i  Chap,  xxxi.,  in  (Euvres,  vol. 

Louis  XIV,  in.   (Euvres  de   Vol-  xx.  pp.  291-299;  necessarily  a 

taire,  vol.  xix.  p.  213.     And  in  very   short   chapter,  because    of 

his     correspondence    respecting  the  paucity  of  materials, 
his  work  on  Louis  XIV.,  he  care-         96  Chapters  xxxii.  to  xxxiv.,  in 

fully  makes  the  same  distinction.  (Euvres,  vol.  xx.  pp.  299-338. 
See  vol.  lvi.  pp.  453,  488,  489, 


HISTOBICAL   LITERATURE   IN   FRANCE.        297 

tinct  chapters  to  a  relation  of  ecclesiastical  matters  during 
the  reign  of  Louis.97  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  observe 
the  immense  superiority  ■which  a  scheme  like  this  pos- 
sessed, not  only  over  the  narrow  views  of  Bossuet,  but 
even  over  his  own  earlier  history.  Still  it  cannot  be 
denied,  that  we  find  in  it  prejudices  from  which  it  was 
difficult  for  a  Frenchman,  educated  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  XTV.,  to  be  entirely  free.  Not  only  does  Voltaire 
dwell  at  needless  length  upon  those  amusements  and 
debaucheries  of  Louis,  with  which  history  can  have 
little  concern,  but  he  displays  an  evident  disposition  to 
favour  the  king  himself,  and  to  protect  his  name  from 
the  infamy  with  which  it  ought  to  be  covered.98 

But  the  next  work  of  Voltaire  showed  that  this  was 
a  mere  personal  feeling,  and  did  not  affect  his  general 
views  as  to  the  part  which  the  acts  of  princes  ought  to 
occupy  in  history.  Tour  years  after  the  appearance  of 
the  Age  of  Louis  XIV.,  he  published  his  important 
treatise  on  the  Morals,  Manners,  and  Character  of  Na- 
tions." This  is  not  only  one  of  the  greatest  books 
which  appeared  during  the  eighteenth  century,  but  it 
still  remains  the  best  on  the  subject  to  which  it  refers. 

87  (Euvres,  vol.  xx.  pp.  338-  Lord  Harvey,  printed  in  (Euvres 

464.  de  Voltaire,  vol.  Iviii.  pp.  57-63. 

98  This  disposition  to  favour  •  Mr.  Burton,  in  his  interest- 
Louis  XIV.  is  noticed  by  Con-  ing  work,  Life  and  Correspond- 
dorcet,  who  says  it  was  the  only  ence  of  Hume,  vol.  ii.  p.  129,  says 
early  prejudice  which  Voltaire  it  was  'first  published  in  1756  ;' 
was  unable  to  shake  off:  '  c'est  and  the  same  date  is  given  by 
le  seul  prejuge  de  sa  jeunesse  Querard  (France  Litteraire,  vol. 
qu'il  ait  conserve.'  Condorcet,  x.  p.  359),  who  is  a  very  accurate 
Vie  de  Voltaire,  in  (Euvres  de  bibliographer ;  so  that  Condorcet 
Voltaire,  vol.  i.  p.  286.  See  also,  ( Vie  de  Voltaire,  p.  199)  and 
on  this  defect,  Grimm  et  Diderot,  Lord  Brougham  {Men  of  Letters, 
Corresp.  Lit.  vol.  ii.  p.  182 ;  vol.  i.  p.  98)  are  probably  in 
Lemontey,  Etablissement  Monar-  error  in  assigning  it  to  1757.  In 
ckique,  pp.  451,  452  ;  Mem.  de  regard  to  its  title,  I  translate 
Brissot,  vol.  ii.  pp.  88,  89.  It  is  'Moeurs'  as 'morals  and  man- 
interesting  to  observe,  that  Vol-  ners  ; '  for  M.  Tocquevillo  uses 
taire's  earlier  opinions  were  still  'moeurs'  as  equivalent  to  the 
more  favourable  to  Louis  XIV.  Latin  word  '  mores.'  Tocqueville, 
than  those  which  he  afterwards  Democratic  en  Amirique,  vol.  iii. 
expressed  in  his  history.  See  a  pp.  50,  84. 
letter  which  ho  wrote  in  1740  to 


298        HISTORICAL    LITEEATUEE    IN   FEANCE. 

The  mere  reading  it  displays  is  immense  ;100  what,  how- 
ever, is  far  more  admirable,  is  the  skill  with  which  the 
author  connects  the  various  facts,  and  makes  them  illus- 
trate each  other,  sometimes  by  a  single  remark,  some- 
times only  by  the  order  and  position  in  which  they  are 
placed.  Indeed,  considered  solely  as  a  work  of  art,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  praise  it  too  highly ;  while,  as  a 
symptom  of  the  times,  it  is  important  to  observe,  that 
it  contains  no  traces  of  that  adulation  of  royalty 
which  characterized  Voltaire  in  the  period  of  his  youth, 
and  which  is  found  in  all  the  best  writers  during  the 
power  of  Louis  XIV.  In  the  whole  of  this  long  and 
important  work,  the  great  historian  takes  little  notice 
of  the  intrigues  of  courts,  or  of  the  changes  of  minis- 
ters, or  of  the  fate  of  kings  ;  but  he  endeavours  to  dis- 
cover and  develop  the  different  epochs  through  which 
Man  has  successively  passed.  '  I  wish,'  he  says, '  to  write 
a  history,  not  of  wars,  but  of  society ;  and  to  ascertain 
how  men  lived  in  the  interior  of  their  families,  and  what 
were  the  arts  which  they  commonly  cultivated.'101  For, 
he  adds,  '  my  object  is  the  history  of  the  human  mind, 
and  not  a  mere  detail  of  petty  facts ;  nor  am  I  concerned 
with  the  history  of  great  lords,  who  made  war  upon 
French  kings  ;  but  I  want  to  know  what  were  the  steps 
by  which  men  passed  from  barbarism  to  civilization.'102 


100  Superficial  writers  are  so  says,  that  Yoltaire  is  ■  tlie  best 

much  in  the  habit  of  calling  Vol-  historian '  the  French  have  pro- 

taire  superficial,  that  it  maybe  duced.Works  of SirWUliam  Jones, 

•well  to  observe,  that  his  accuracy  vol.  v.  p.  542 ;   and  compare  the 

has  been  praised,  not  only  by  his  preface  to  his  Persian  Grammar, 

own  countrymen,  but  by  several  in  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  123. 

English    authors     of    admitted  ""  'Je     voudrais      decouvrir 

learning.     For  three  remarkable  quelle  etait  alors  la  societe  des 

instances  of  this,  from  men  whom  homines,  comment  on  vivait  dans 

no  one  will  accuse  of  leaning  to-  l'interieur    des    families,    quels 

wards   his    other  opinions,   see  arts  etaient  cultives,  plutot  que 

notes  to  Charles  V.,  in  Robertson's  de  repeter  tant  de  malheurs  et 

Works,  pp.  431,  432 ;  Barring-  tant  de  combats,  funestes  objets 

ton's  Observations  on  the  Statutes,  de  l'histoire,  et  lieux  communs  de 

p.  293  ;  and  Warton's  History  of  la  mechancete  humaine.'      Essai 

English   Poetry,  vol.  i.   p.   xvi.  sur  les  Mceurs,   chap.  Ixxxi.,  in 

Even  Sir  W.  Jones,  in  his  pre-  (Euvres,  vol.  xvi.  p.  381. 

face  to  the  Life  of  Nader  Shah,  ,02  « L'objet  etait  l'histoire  de 


HISTOKICAL-  LITEEATUEE    IN   FEANCE.        299 

It  was  in  this  way  that  Voltaire  tatight  historians 
to  concentrate  their  attention  on  matters  of  real  im- 
portance, and  to  neglect  those  idle  details  with  which 
history  had  formerly  been  filled.  Bnt  what  proves  this 
to  be  a  movement  arising  as  mnch  from  the  spirit  of  the 
age  as  from  the  individual  author,  is,  that  we  find  pre- 
cisely the  same  tendency  in  the  works  of  Montesquieu 
and  Turgot,  who  were  certainly  the  two  most  eminent 
of  the  contemporaries  of  Voltaire  ;  and  both  of  whom 
followed  a  method  similar  to  his,  in  so  far  as,  omitting 
descriptions  of  kings,  courts,  and  battles,  they  confined 
themselves  to  points  which  illustrate  the  character  of 
mankind,  and  the  general  march  of  civilization.  And 
such  was  the  popularity  of  this  change  in  the  old  routine, 
that  its  influence  was  felt  by  other  historians  of  inferior, 
but  still  of  considerable,  ability.  In  1755,  Mallet103 
published  his  interesting,  and,  at  the  time  it  was  written, 
most  valuable  work,  on  the  history  of  Denmark  ;104  in 
which  he  professes  himself  a  pupil  of  the  new  school. 
'  For"  why,'  he  says,  '  should  history  be  only  a  recital  of 
battles,  sieges,  intrigues,  and  negotiations  ?     And  why 

Fesprit  humain,   et  non  pas  le  les  Progress  de  THistoire,  p.  173. 

detail  des  faits  presque  toujours  lo4  Gothe,  in  his  Autobiogra- 

defigures ;  il  ne  s'agissait  pas  de  phy,  mentions  his  obligations  to 

rechercher,  par  exemple,de  quelle  this  'work,    which,     I    suspect, 

famille  etait  le  seigneur  dePuiset,  exercised  considerable  influence 

ou  le  seigneur  de  Montlheri,  qui  over  the  early  associations  of  his 

firent  la  guerre   a  des  rois   de  mind :  '  Ich  hatte  die  Fabeln  der 

France ;  mais  de  voir  par  quels  Edda  schon  langst  aus  der  Vor- 

degres  on  est  parvenu  de  la  rus-  rede  zu  Mallet's  Danischer  Ge- 

ticite  barbare  de  ces  temps  a,  la  schichtekennengelernt.undmich 

politesse  du  notre.'     Supplement  derselben   sogleich   bemachtigt ; 

to Essai sur les Maurs,'\n  (Euvres,  sie    gehorten    unter    diejenigen 

vol.  xviii.  p.  435.  Compare  Frag-  Mahrchen,    die  ich,   von   einer 

merits  sur  FHistoire,  vol.  xxvii.  Gesellschaft     aufgefordert,     am 

p.  214,  with  two  letters  in  vol.  lx.  liebsten  erzahlte.'      Wahrheit  u. 

pp.  153,  154,  vol.  Ixv.  p.  370.  Dichtung,    in     Goethe's    Werke, 

,os  Mallet,    though    born    in  vol.  ii.  part  ii.  p.  169.    Percy,  a 

Geneva,  was  a  Frenchman  in  the  very  fair  judge,  thought  highly 

habits  of  his  mind :  he  wrote  in  of  Mallet's  history,  part  of  which, 

French,   and  is    classed  among  indeed,    he    translated.      See  a 

French  historians,  in  the  report  letter  from  him,  in  Nichols's  Blus- 

presented  to   Napoleon  by  the  trations  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Institut.     Lacier,  Rapport    sur  vol.  vii.  p.  719. 


300        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE. 

should  it  contain  merely  a  heap  of  petty  facts  and  dates, 
rather  than  a  great  picture  of  the  opinions,  customs, 
and  even  inclinations  of  a  people?'105  Thus  too,  in 
1765,  Mably  published  the  first  part  of  his  celebrated 
work  on  the  history  of  France  ;106  in  the  preface  to 
which,  he  complains  that  historians  '  have  neglected  the 
origin  of  laws  and  customs,  in  favour  of  sieges  and 
battles.'107  In  the  same  spirit,  Velly  and  Villaret,  in 
their  voluminous  history  of  France,  express  regret  that 
historians  should  usually  relate  what  happens  to  the 
sovereign,  in  preference  to  what  happens  to  the  people, 
and  should  omit  the  manners  and  characteristics  of  a 
nation,  in  order  to  study  the  acts  of  a  single  man.108 
Duclos,  again,  announces  that  his  history  is  not  of  war, 
nor  of  politics,  but  of  men  and  manners  :109  while, 
strange  to  say,  even  the  courtly  Henault  declares  that 
his  object  was  to  describe  laws  and  manners,  which  he 
calls  the  soul  of  history,  or  rather  history  itself.110 

Thus  it  was,  that  historians  began  to  shift,  as  it  were, 
the  scene  of  their  labours,  and  to  study  subjects  con- 
nected with  those  popular  interests,  on  which  the  great 
writers  under  Louis  XIV.  disdained  to  waste  a  thought. 

105  Mallets  Northern  Antiqui-  Histoire  de    France   par   Velly, 

ties,  edit.  Blackell,  1847,  p.  78.  Paris,   1770,   4to,  vol.  i.  p.  6  ; 

108  The  first  two  volumes  were  and  see,  to  the  same  effect,  the 

published  in  1765;  the  other  two  Continuation  by  Villaret,  vol.  v. 

in  1790.    Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxvi.  p.  vi. 
pp.  9,  12.  109  'Si    l'histoire    que    j'ecris 

107  Mably,  Observ.  sur  THist.  n'est  ni  militaire,  ni  politique,  ni 
de  France,  vol.  i.  p.  ii. ;  and  com-  economique,  du  moins  dans  le 
pare  vol.  iii.  p.  289 :  but  this  sens  que  je  con<;ois  pour  ces 
latter  passage  was  written  several  differentes  parties,  on  me  de- 
years  later.  mandera   quelle  est  done  celle 

108  '  Born6s  a,  nous  apprendre  que  je  me  propose  d'dcrire.  C'est 
les  victoires  ou  les  defaites  du  l'histoire  des  hommes  et  des 
souverain,  ils  ne  nous  disent  rien  mceurs.'  Duclos,  Louis  XIV  et 
ou  presque  rien  des  peuples  qu'il  Louis  XV,  vol.  i.  p.  xxv. 

a  rendus  heureux  ou  malheureux.  m  'Je  voulois  connoitre  nos 

On  ne  trouve  dans  leurs  ecrits  loix,  nos  mceurs,  et  tout  ce  qui 

que  longues  descriptions  de  sieges  est  l'ame  de  l'histoire,  ou  plutot 

et  de  batailles ;  nulls  mention  l'histoire  meme.'    Henault,  Nou- 

des  mceurs  et  de  l'esprit  de  la  vel  Abregi  chronologique  de  VIIis~ 

nation.    Elle  y  est  presque  tou-  toire  de  France,  edit.  Paris,  1775, 

jours  sacrifice  a,  un  seul  homme.'  vol.  i.  p.  i. 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE.    '     301 

I  need  hardly  observe,  how  agreeable  such  views  were 
to  the  general  spirit  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  how 
well  they  harmonized  with  the  temper  of  men  who  were 
striving  to  lay  aside  their  former  prejudices,  and  despise 
what  had  once  been  universally  admired.  All  this  was 
but  part  of  that  vast  movement,  wbich  prepared  the 
way  for  the  Revolution,  by  unsettling  ancient  opinions, 
by  encouraging  a  certain  mobility  and  restlessness  of 
mind,  and,  above  all,  by  the  disrespect  it  showed  for 
those  powerful  individuals,  hitherto  regarded  as  gods 
rather  than  as  men,  but  who  now,  for  the  first  time, 
were  neglected  by  the  greatest  and  most  popular  his- 
torians, who  passed  over  even  their  prominent  actions, 
in  order  to  dwell  upon  the  welfare  of  nations,  and  the 
interests  of  the  people  at  large. 

To  return,  however,  to  what  was  actually  effected  by 
Voltaire,  there  is  no  doubt  that,  in  his  case,  this  ten- 
dency of  the  time  was  strengthened  by  a  natural  com- 
prehensiveness of  mind,  which  predisposed  him  to  large 
views,  and  made  him  dissatisfied  with  that  narrow  range 
to  which  history  had  been  hitherto  confined.111  What- 
ever may  be  thought  of  the  other  qualities  of  Voltaire, 
it  must  be  allowed  that,  in  his  intellect,  everything  was 
on  a  great  scale.112  Always  prepared  for  thought,  and 
always  ready  to  generalize,  he  was  averse  to  the  study 
of  individual  actions,  unless  they  could  be  made 
available  for  the  establishment  of  some  broad  and 
permanent  principle.  Hence  his  habit  of  looking  at 
history  with  a  view  to  the  stages  through  which  the 
country  had  passed,  rather  than  with  a  view  to  the 
character  of  the  men  by  whom  the  country  had  been 
governed.     The  same  tendency  appears  in  his  lighter 

111  In  1763,  he  writes  to  D'Ar-  tails  des  combats  et  des  sieges; 

gental :    '  il  y  a  environ  douze  rien  n'est  plus  ennuyeux  que  la 

batailles  dont  je  n'ai  point  parle,  droite  et  la  gauche,  les  bastions 

Dieu  merci,  parceque  j'dcris  This-  et  la  contrescarpe.' 
toire  de  l'esprit  humain,  et  non         m  M.  Lamartine  characterizes 

une  gazette.'     (Euvres  de    Vol-  him  as  '  ce  genie  non  pas  le  plus 

taire,  vol.  briii.  p.  61.     See  also  haut,  mais  Je  plus  vaste  de  la 

his  letter  to  Tabareau  (Lettres  France.'     Hist,    des    Girondins, 

tnidites  de  Voltaire,  vol.   ii.  p.  vol.  i.  p.  180. 
585) :  '  Personne  ne  lit  les  de- 


302        HISTOEICAL   LITEEATTJKE    IN   EEANCE. 


works;  and  it  lias  been  well  observed,113  that,  even  in 
bis  dramas,  be  endeavours  to  portray,  not  so  mucb  tbe 
passions  of  individuals,  as  tbe  spirit  of  epocbs.  In 
Mahomet,  bis  subject  is  a  great  religion ;  in  Alzire,  tbe 
conquest  of  America  \  in  Brutus,  tbe  formation  of  tbe 
Roman  power ;  in  tbe  Death  of  Ccesar,  tbe  rise  of  tbe 
empire  upon  tbe  ruins  of  tbat  power.114 

By  this  determination  to  look  upon  tbe  course  of 
events  as  a  great  and  connected  whole,  Voltaire  was 
led  to  several  results,  wbicb  bave  been  complacently 
adopted  by  many  autbors,  wbo,  even  wbile  using  tbem, 
revile  bim  from  wbom  tbey  were  taken.  He  was  tbe 
first  historian  wbo,  rejecting  tbe  ordinary  metbod  of 
investigation,  endeavoured,  by  large  general  views,  to 
explain  tbe  origin  of  feudality ;  and,  by  indicating 
some  of  tbe  causes  of  its  decline  in  tbe  fourteentb 
century,115  be  laid  tbe  foundation  for  a  philosophic 
estimate  of  tbat  important  institution.116  He  was  tbe 
autbor  of  a  profound  remark,  afterwards  adopted  by 


113  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xlix.  p. 
493.  His  Orphelin  de  la  Chine 
is  taken  from  Chinese  sources  : 
see  Davis's  China,  vol.  ii.  p.  258. 

114  The  surprising  versatility 
of  Voltaire's  mind  is  shown  by 
the  fact,  unparalleled  in  litera- 
ture, that  he  was  equally  great 
as  a  dramatic  writer  and  as  an 
historian.  Mr.  Forster,  in  his 
admirable  Life  of  Goldsmith, 
1854,  says  (vol.  i.  p.  119), 
*  Gray's  high  opinion  of  Vol- 
taire's tragedies  is  shared  by  one 
of  our  greatest  authorities  on 
such  a  matter  now  living,  Sir 
Edward  Bulwer  Lytton,  whom  I 
have  often  heard  maintain  the 
marked  superiority  of  Voltaire 
over  all  his  countrymen  in  the 
knowledge  of  dramatic  art,  and 
the  power  of  producing  theatri- 
cal effects.'  Compare  Corre- 
spondence of  Gray  and  Mason, 
edit  Mitford,  1855,  p.  44. 


115  Essai  stir  les  Moeurs,  chap, 
lxxxv.,  in  GZuvres,  vol.  xvi.  p. 
412,  and  elsewhere. 

116  During  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, and,  I  may  say,  until  the 
publication  in  1818  of  Hallam's 
Middle  Ages,  there  was  in  the 
English  language  no  comprehen- 
sive account  of  the  feudal  sys- 
tem ;  unless,  perhaps,  we  except 
that  given  by  Kobertson,  who  in 
this,  as  in  many  other  matters  of 
history,  was  a  pupil  of  Voltaire. 
Not  only  Dalrymple,  and  writers 
of  his  kind,  but  even  Blackstone, 
took  so  narrow  a  view  of  this 
great  institution,  that  they  were 
unable  to  connect  it  with  the 
general  state  of  society  to  which 
it  belonged.  Some  of  our  his- 
torians gravely  traced  it  back  to- 
Moses,  in  whose  laws  they  found 
the  origin  of  allodial  lands.  See 
a  charming  passage  in  Barry's 
History  of  the   Orkney  Islands, 


HISTOEICAL    LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE. 


303 


Constant,  to  the  effect,  that  licentious  religious  cere- 
monies have  no  connexion  with  licentious  national 
morals.117  Another  observation  of  his,  which  has  been 
only  partly  used  by  writers  on  ecclesiastical  history,  is 
pregnant  with  instruction.  He  says,  that  one  of  the 
reasons  why  the  bishops  of  Rome  acquired  an  authority 
so  superior  to  that  of  the  eastern  patriarchs,  was  the 
greater  subtlety  of  the  Greek  mind.  Nearly  all  the 
heresies  proceeded  from  the  east ;  and,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Honorius  I.,  not  a  single  pope  adopted  a  system 
condemned  by  the  church.  This  gave  to  the  papal 
power  an  unity  and  consolidation,  which  the  patriarchal 
power  was  unable  to  reach ;  and  thus  the  Holy  See  owes 
part  of  its  authority  to  the  early  dulness  of  the 
European  fancy.118 


p.  219.  On  the  spirit  of  feudality, 
there  are  some  remarks  well 
■worth  reading  in  Comte's  Philos. 
Posit,  vol.  v.  pp.  393-413. 

1,7  Constant,  in  his  work  on 
Roman  polytheism,  says,  'des 
rites  indecens  peuvent  etre  pra- 
tiques par  un  peuple  religieux 
avec  une  grande  purete  de  cceur. 
Mais  quand  l'incredulite  atteint 
ces  peuples,  ces  rites  sont  pour 
lui  la  cause  et  le  pretexte  de  la 
plus  revoltante  corruption.'  This 
passage  is  quoted  by  Mr.  Mil- 
man,  who  calls  it  'extremely 
profound  and  just.'  MUmatis 
History  of  Christianity,  1840, 
vol  i.  p.  28.  And  so  it  is — ex- 
tremely profound  and  just.  But 
it  happens  that  precisely  the 
same  remark  was  made  by  Vol- 
taire, just  about  the  time  that 
Constant  was  born.  Speaking  of 
the  worship  of  Priapus,  he  says 
(Essai  sur  les  Maurs,  chap,  cxliii. 
in  CEuvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  xvii. 
p.  341),  '  nos  idees  de  bienseance 
nous  portent  a  croire  qu'un  cer6- 
monie  qui  nous  parait  si  infame 
n'a  ete  inventee  que  par  la  de- 
bauche ;  mais  il  n'est  guere  croy- 


able  que  la  depravation  des  mceurs 
ait  jamais  chez  aucun  peuple 
etabli  des  ceremonies  religieuses. 
II  est  probable,  au  contraire,  que 
cetto  coutume  fut  d'abord  intro- 
duite  dans  les  temps  de  simpli- 
city, et  qu'on  ne  pensa  d'abord 
qu'a  honorer  la  Divinite  dans  le 
symbole  de  la  vie  qu'elle  nous  a 
donnee.  Une  telle  cer^monie  a 
du.  inspirer  la  licence  a  la  jeu- 
nesse,  et  paraitre  ridicule  aux  es- 
prits  sages,  dans  les  temps  plus 
raffines,  plus  corrompus,  et  plus 
eclaires.'  Compare  the  remarks 
on  the  indecency  of  the  Spartan 
customs,  in  ThirlwalVs  Hist,  of 
Greece,  vol.  i.  pp.  326,  327. 

1,8  Essai  sur  les  Mceurs,  chaps, 
xiv.  and  xxxi.,  in  QZuvres,  vol. 
xv.  pp.  391,  514.  Neander  ob- 
serves, that  in  the  Greek  church 
there  were  more  heresies  than  in 
the  Latin  church,  because  the 
Greeks  thought  more  ;  but  he 
has  failed  to  perceive  how  this 
favoured  the  authority  of  the 
popes.  Neander' s  History  of  the 
Church.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  198, 199,  voL 
iii.  pp.  191,  492,  vol.  iv.  p.  90, 
vol.  vi.  p.  293,  vol.  viii.  p.  257. 


304        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE. 


It  would  be  impossible  to  relate  all  tbe  original  remarks 
of  Voltaire,  which,  when  he  made  them,  were  attacked 
as  dangerous  paradoxes,  and  are  now  valued  as  sober 
truths.  He  was  the  first  historian  who  recommended 
universal  freedom  of  trade ;  and,  although  he  expresses 
himself  with  great  caution,119  still  the  mere  announce- 
ment of  the  idea  in  a  popular  history  forms  an  epoch  in 
the  progress  of  the  French  mind.  He  is  the  originator 
of  that  important  distinction  between  the  increase  of 
population  and  the  increase  of  food,  to  which  political 
economy  has  been  greatly  indebted;120  a  principle 
adopted  several  years  later  by  Townsend,  and  then  used 
by  Malthus  as  the  basis  of  his  celebrated  work.121      He 


119  In  his  account  of  the  trade 
of  Archangel,  he  says,  •  les  An- 
glais ohtinrent  le  privilege  d'y 
commercer  sans  payer  aucun 
droit;  et  c'est  ainsi  que  toutes 
les  nations  devraient  peut-etre 
negocier  ensemble.'  Hist,  de 
Russie,  part  i.  chap,  i.,  in  (Euvres, 
vol.  xxiii.  p.  35.  Remarkable 
words  to  have  been  -written  by 
a  Frenchman,  born  at  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century ;  and 
yet  they  have,  s  o  far  as  I  am 
aware,  escaped  the  attention  of 
all  the  historians  of  political 
economy.  Indeed,  on  this,  as  on 
most  matters,  sufficient  justice 
has  not  been  done  to  Voltaire, 
whose  opinions  were  more  accu- 
rate than  those  of  Quesnay  and 
his  followers.  However,  Mr. 
M'Culloch,  in  noticing  one  of  the 
economical  errors  of  Voltaire, 
honestly  admits  that  his '  opinions 
on  such  subjects  are,  for  the  most 
part,  very  correct.'  M'Culloch's 
Principles  of  Political  Economy, 
p.  530.  For  proof  of  his  sympa- 
thy with  Turgot's  efforts  to  esta- 
blish free  trade,  compare  Lettres 
midites  de  Voltaire,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
367,  403,  423,  with  Longchamp, 


Mem.sur  Voltaire,  vol.  i.  pp.  376, 
378. 

120  *  The  idea  of  the  different 
ratios  by  which  population  and 
food  increase,  was  originally 
thrown  out  by  Voltaire ;  and  was 
picked  up  and  expanded  into 
many  a  goodly  volume  by  our 
English  political  economists  in 
the  present  century.'  Laing's 
Notes,  second  series,  p.  42. 

121  It  is  often  said  that  Mal- 
thus was  indebted  to  Townsend's 
writings  for  his  views  on  popula- 
tion ;  but  this  obligation  has  been 
too  strongly  stated,  as,  indeed,  is 
always  the  case  when  charges  of 
plagiarism  are  brought  against 
great  works.  Still,  Townsend  is 
to  be  considered  as  the  precursor 
of  Malthus ;  and  if  the  reader  is 
interested  in  tracing  the  pater- 
nity of  ideas,  he  will  find  some 
interesting  economical  remarks 
in  Townsend's  Journey  through 
Spain,  vol.  i.  pp.  379,  383,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  85,  337,  387-393;  which 
must  be  compared  with  M'Cul- 
loch's Literature  of  Political  Eco- 
nomy, pp.  259,  281-3.  Voltaire 
having  preceded  these  authors, 
has,  of  course,  fallen  into  errors 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE   IN   FRANCE.        305 

has,  moreover,  the  merit  of  "being  the  first  who  dispelled 
the  childish  admiration  with  which  the  Middle  Ages 
had  "been  hitherto  regarded,  and  which  they  owed  to 
those  dull  and  learned  writers,  who,  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries,  were  the  principal  investi- 
gators of  the  early  history  of  Europe.  These  industrious 
compilers  had  collected  extensive  materials,  which 
Voltaire  turned  to  good  account,  and  by  their  aid  over- 
threw the  conclusions  at  which  the  authors  had  them- 
selves arrived.  In  his  works,  the  Middle  Ages  are,  for 
the  first  time,  represented  as  what  they  really  were, — a 
period  of  ignorance,  ferocity,  and  licentiousness ;  a 
period  when  injuries  were  unredressed,  crime  un- 
punished, and  superstition  unrebuked.  It  may  be  said, 
with  some  show  of  justice,  that  Voltaire,  in  the  picture 
he  drew,  fell  into  the  opposite  extreme,  and  did  not 
sufficiently  recognize  the  merit  of  those  truly  great 
men,  who,  at  long  intervals,  stood  here  and  there,  like 
solitary  beacons,  whose  light  only  made  the  surrounding 
darkness  more  visible.  Still,  after  every  allowance  for 
that  exaggeration  which  a  reaction  of  opinions  always 
causes,  it  is  certain  that  his  view  of  the  Middle  Ages  is 
not  only  far  more  accurate  than  that  of  any  preceding 
writer,  but  conveys  a  much  juster  idea  of  the  time  than 
can  be  found  in  those  subsequent  compilations  which  we 
owe  to  the  industry  of  modern  antiquaries ;  a  simple 
and  plodding  race,  who  admire  the  past  because  they 
are  ignorant  of  the  present,  and  who,  spending  their 
lives  amid  the  dust  of  forgotten  manuscripts,  think 
themselves  able,  with  the  resources  of  their  little 
learning,  to  speculate  on  the  affairs  of  men,  to  trace  the 
history  of  different  periods,  and  even  to  assign  to  each 
the  praise  it  ought  to  receive. 

which  they  avoided  ;  but  nothing  reux  quil  est  possible,'   is  the 

can  be  better  than  the  way  in  summing-up  of  his  able  remarks, 

which  he  opposes  the  ignorant  in  Dict.Philos.,  article  Population, 

belief  of  his  own  time,  that  every  sect.  2,  in  (Euvrcs,  vol.  xli.  p.  466. 

thing  should  be  done  to  increase  Godwin,  in  his  notice  of  the  his- 

population.     '  Le  point  principal  tory  of  these  opinions,   is  evi- 

n'est  pas  d'avoir  du  superflu  en  dently  ignorant  of  what  was  done 

hommes,  mais  de  rendre  ce  que  by  Voltaire.   Sinclair's  Corresp. 

nous  en  avons  le  moins  malheu-  vol.  i.  p.  396. 

VOL.  II.  X 


306        HISTOEICAL   LITEEATUEE   IN   FEANCE. 

With  such,  writers  as  these,  Voltaire  was  always  at 
war ;  and  no  one  has  done  so  much  to  lessen  the  in- 
fluence they  once  exercised  over  even  the  highest 
branches  of  knowledge.  There  was  also  another  class  of 
dictators,  whose  authority  this  great  man  was  equally 
successful  in  reducing,  namely,  the  old  class  of  classical 
scholars  and  commentators,  who,  from  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  till  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  were  the 
chief  dispensers  of  fame,  and  were  respected  as  being 
by  far  the  most  distinguished  men  Europe  had  ever 
produced.  The  first  great  assaults  made  upon  them 
were  late  in  the  seventeenth  century,  when  two  contro- 
versies sprung  up,  of  which  I  shall  hereafter  give  an 
account, — one  in  France,  and  one  in  England,— -by  both 
of  which  their  power  was  considerably  damaged.  But 
their  two  most  formidable  opponents  were,  undoubtedly, 
Locke  and  Voltaire.  The  immense  services  rendered 
by  Locke  in  lessening  the  reputation  of  the  old  classical 
school,  will  be  examined  in  another  part  of  this  work  ; 
at  present  we  are  only  concerned  with  the  steps  taken 
by  Voltaire. 

The  authority  wielded  by  the  great  classical  scholars 
rested  not  only  on  their  abilities,  which  are  undeniable, 
but  also  on  the  supposed  dignity  of  their  pursuits.  It 
was  generally  believed  that  ancient  history  possessed 
some  inherent  superiority  over  modern  history;  and  this 
being  taken  for  granted,  the  inference  naturally  followed, 
that  the  cultivators  of  the  one  were  more  praiseworthy 
than  the  cultivators  of  the  other ;  and  that  a  French- 
man, for  instance,  who  should  write  the  history  of  some 
Greek  republic,  displayed  a  nobler  turn  of  mind  than  if 
he  had  written  the  history  of  his  own  country.  This 
singular  prejudice  had  for  centuries  been  a  traditional 
notion ;  which  men  accepted,  because  they  had  received 
it  from  their  fathers,  and  which  it  would  have  been 
almost  an  impiety  to  dispute.  The  result  was,  that  the 
few  really  able  writers  on  history  devoted  themselves 
chiefly  to  that  of  the  ancients  ;  or,  if  they  published  an 
aocount  of  modern  times,  they  handled  their  theme,  not 
according  to  modern  ideas,  but  according  to  ideas  ga- 
thered from  their  more  favourite  pursuit.   This  confusion 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE   IN   FRANCE.        307 

of  the  standard  of  one  age  with  the  standard  of  another, 
caused  a  double  evil.  Historians,  by  adopting  this  plan, 
injured  the  originality  of  their  own  minds  ;  and,  what 
was  far  worse,  they  set  a  bad  example  to  the  literature 
of  their  country.  For  every  great  nation  has  a  mode  of 
expression,  and  of  thought,  peculiar  to  itself,  and  with 
which  its  sympathies  are  intimately  connected.  To  in- 
troduce any  foreign  model,  however  admirable  it  may 
be,  is  to  violate  this  connexion,  and  to  impair  the  value 
of  literature  by  limiting  the  scope  of  its  action.  By 
such  a  course,  the  taste  may  possibly  be  refined,  but  the 
vigour  will  certainly  be  weakened.  Indeed,  the  refine- 
ment of  the  taste  may  well  be  doubted,  when  we  see 
what  has  taken  place  in  our  country,  where  our  great 
scholars  have  corrupted  the  English  language  by  a 
jargon  so  uncouth,  that  a  plain  man  can  hardly  discern 
the  real  lack  of  ideas  which  their  barbarous  and  mottled 
dialect  strives  to  hide.122  At  all  events,  it  is  certain, 
that  every  people  worthy  of  being  called  a  nation,  possess 
in  their  own  language  ample  resources  for  expressing 
the  highest  ideas  they  are  able  to  form ;  and  although, 
in  matters  of  science,  it  may  be  convenient  to  coin  such 
words  as  are  more  easily  understood  in  foreign  coun- 
tries, it  is  a  grave  offence  to  depart  on  other  subjects 
from  the  vernacular  speech ;  and  it  is  a  still  graver  one, 


m  With  the  single  exception  selves,  should  never  be  introduced 

of  Porson,  not  one  of  the  great  into  a  state  of  society  unfitted 

English  scholars  has  shown  an  for  them.    To  this  may  be  added, 

appreciation  of  the  beauties  of  that  Cobbett,  the  most  racy  and 

his  native  language ;  and  many  of  idiomatic  of  all  our  writers,  and 

them,  such  as  Parr  (in  all  his  Erskine,  by  far  the  greatest  of 

■works)  and  Bentley  (in  his  mad  our  forensic  orators,  knew  little 

edition   of  Milton),   have  done  or  nothing  of  any  ancient  lan- 

every  thing  in  their  power  to  guage;  and  the  same  observation 

corrupt   it.     And   there   can  be  applies  to  Shakespeare.     On  the 

little  doubt,  that  the  principal  supposed  connexion  between  the 

reason  why  well-educated  women  improvement   of   taste  and   the 

write  and  converse  in  a  purer  study  of  classical  models,  there 

style  than  well-educated  men,  is  are  somo  remarks  worth  attend- 

because  they  have  not  formed  ing  to  in  Bey's   Theorie  et  Pra- 

their  taste  according  to  those  an-  tique  de  la  Science  Sociale,  vol.  L 

cient  classical  standards,  which,  pp.  98-101. 
admirable  as  they  are  in  them- 

x2 


308        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE. 

to  introduce  notions  and  standards  for  action,  suited 
perhaps  to  former  times,  but  which  the  march  of  so- 
ciety has  left  far  behind,  and  with  which  we  have  no  real 
sympathy,  though  they  may  excite  that  sickly  and  arti- 
ficial interest  which  the  classical  prejudices  of  early 
education  still  contrive  to  create. 

It  was  against  these  evils  that  Voltaire  entered  the 
field.  The  wit  and  the  ridicule  with  which  he  attacked 
the  dreaming  scholars  of  his  own  time,  can  only  be  ap- 
preciated by  those  who  have  studied  his  works.  Not,  as 
some  have  supposed,  that  he  used  these  weapons  as  a 
substitute  for  argument,  still  less  that  he  fell  into  the 
error  of  making  ridicule  a  test  for  truth.  ~No  one  could 
reason  more  closely  than  Voltaire,  when  reasoning- 
suited  his  purpose.  But  he  had  to  deal  with  men  im- 
pervious to  argument ;  men  whose  inordinate  reverence 
for  antiquity  had  only  left  them  two  ideas,  namely,  that 
every  thing  old  is  right,  and  that  every  thing  new  is 
wrong.  To  argue  against  these  opinions  would  be  idle 
indeed  ;  the  only  other  resource  was,  to  make  them  ridi- 
culous, and  weaken  their  influence,  by  holding  up  their 
authors  to  contempt.  This  was  one  of  the  tasks  Voltaire 
set  himself  to  perform ;  and  he  did  it  well.123  He,  there- 
fore, used  ridicule,  not  as  the  test  of  truth,  but  as  the 
scourge  of  folly.  And  with  such  effect  was  the  punish- 
ment administered,  that  not  only  did  the  pedants  and 
theologians  of  his  own  time  wince  under  the  lash,  but 
even  their  successors  feel  their  ears  tingle  when  they 
read  his  biting  words  ;  and  they  revenge  themselves  by 
reviling  the  memory  of  that  great  writer,  whose  works 
are  as  a  thorn  in  their  side,  and  whose  very  name  they 
hold  in  undisguised  abhorrence. 

These  two  classes  have,  indeed,  reasons  enough  for  the 

123  t  -^re  caa  \,est  judge,  from  exhibited    learning.'     Schlosser'a 

the  Jesuitical  rage  with  which  he  Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  i.  p.  120. 

was  persecuted,  how  admirably  At  p.   270,   M.   Schlosser   says, 

he  had  delineated  the  weaknesses  '  And  it  was  only  a  man  of  Vol- 

and  presumption  of  the  interpre-  taire's  wit  and  talents,  who  could 

ters  of  the  ancients,  who  shone  throw  the  light  of  an  entirely 

in  the  schools  and  academies,  and  new  criticism  upon  the  darkness 

had  acquired  great  reputation  of  those  grubbing  and  collecting 
by  their  various  and  copiously 


HISTOBICAL   LITEEATUEE   IN    FEANCE.       309 

hatred  with,  which  they  still  regard  the  greatest  French- 
man of  the  eighteenth  century.  For,  Voltaire  did  more 
than  any  other  man  to  sap  the  foundation  of  ecclesias- 
tical power,  and  to  destroy  the  supremacy  of  classical 
studies.  This  is  not  the  place  for  discussing  the  theolo- 
gical opinions  which  he  attacked ;  but  of  the  state  of  clas- 
sical opinions  an  idea  may  be  formed,  by  considering  some 
of  those  circumstances  which  were  recorded  by  the 
ancients  respecting  their  history,  and  which,  until  the 
appearance  of  Voltaire,  were  implicitly  believed  by 
modern  scholars,  and  through  them  by  the  people  at 
large. 

It  was  believed  that,  in  ancient  times,  Mars  ravished 
a  virgin,  and  that  the  offspring  of  the  intrigue  were  no 
other  than  Romulus  and  Remus,  both  of  whom  it  was 
intended  to  put  to  death ;  but  they  were  fortunately 
saved  by  the  attentions  of  a  she-wolf  and  a  woodpecker ; 
the  wolf  giving  them  suck,  and  the  woodpecker  pro- 
tecting them  from  insects.  It  was,  moreover,  believed 
that  Romulus  and  Remus,  when  grown  up  to  man's 
estate,  determined  to  build  a  city,  and  that,  being  joined 
by  the  descendants  of  the  Trojan  warriors,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  erecting  Rome.  It  was  believed  that  both 
brothers  came  to  an  untimely  end ;  Remus  being  mur- 
dered, and  Romulus  being  taken  up  to  heaven  by  his 
father,  who  descended  for  that  purpose  in  the  midst  of 
a  tempest.  The  great  scholars  then  proceeded  to  relate 
the  succession  of  several  other  kings  ;  the  most  remark- 
able of  whom  was  Numa,  whose  only  communications 
with  his  wife  were  carried  on  in  a  sacred  grove.  Another 
of  the  sovereigns  of  Rome  was  Tullus  Hostilius,  who, 
having  offended  the  clergy,  perished  from  the  effects  of 
their  anger  ;  his  death  being  caused  by  lightning,  and 
preceded  by  pestilence.  Then  again,  there  was  one 
Servius  TuQius,  who  was  also  a  king,  and  whose  great- 
ness was  prognosticated  by  the  appearance  of  flames 
round  his  head  as  he  was  sleeping  in  his  cradle.  After 
this,  it  was  but  a  slight  matter  that  the  ordinary  laws 
of  mortality  should  be  suspended ;  we  were,  therefore,  as- 
sured that  those  ignorant  barbarians,  the  early  Romans, 
passed  two  hundred  and  forty-five  years  under  the 


310        HISTORICAL    LITERATURE    IN    PRANCE. 

government  of  only  seven  kings,  all  of  whom  were 
elected  in  the  prime  of  life,  one  of  whom  was  expelled 
the  city,  and  three  of  whom  were  put  to  death. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  idle  stories  in  which  the  great 
scholars  took  intense  delight,  and  which,  during  many 
centuries,  were  supposed  to  form  a  necessary  part  of  the 
annals  of  the  Latin  empire.  Indeed,  so  universal  was 
the  credulity,  that,  until  they  were  destroyed  by  Voltaire, 
there  were  only  four  writers  who  had  ventured  openly 
to  attack  them.  Cluverius,  Perizonius,  Pouilly,  and 
Beaufort  were  the  names  of  these  bold  innovators  ;  but 
by  none  of  them  was  any  impression  made  on  the 
public  mind.  The  works  of  Cluverius  and  Perizonius, 
being  composed  in  Latin,  were  addressed  entirely  to  a 
class  of  readers  who,  infatuated  with  a  love  of  antiquity, 
would  listen  to  nothing  that  diminished  the  reputation 
of  its  history.  Pouilly  and  Beaufort  wrote  in  French  ; 
both  of  them,  and  especially  Beaufort,  were  men  of 
considerable  ability ;  but  their  powers  were  not  versatile 
enough  to  enable  them  to  extirpate  prejudices  which 
were  so  strongly  protected,  and  which  had  been  fostered 
by  the  education  of  many  successive  generations. 

The  service,  therefore,  rendered  by  Voltaire  in  purg- 
ing history  of  these  foolish  conceits,  is,  not  that  he 
was  the  first  by  whom  they  were  attacked,  but  that  he 
was  the  first  to  attack  them  with  success  ;  and  this  be- 
cause he  was  also  the  first  who  mingled  ridicule  with 
argument,  thus  not  only  assailing  the  system,  but  also 
weakening  the  authority  of  those  by  whom  the  system 
was  supported.  Bis  irony,  his  wit,  his  pungent  and 
telling  sarcasms,  produced  more  effect  than  the  gravest 
arguments  could  have  done ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  he  was  fully  justified  in  using  those  great  resources 
with  which  nature  had  endowed  him,  since  by  their  aid 
he  advanced  the  interests  of  truth,  and  relieved  men 
from  some  of  their  most  inveterate  prejudices. 

It  is  not,  however,  to  be  supposed  that  ridicule  was 
the  only  means  employed  by  Voltaire  in  effecting  this 
important  object.  So  far  from  that,  I  can  say  with 
confidence,  after  a  careful  comparison  of  both  writers, 
that  the  most  decisive  arguments  advanced  by  Niebuhr 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE.        311 

against  the  early  history  of  Rome,  had  all  heen  antici- 
pated by  Voltaire  ;  in  whose  works  they  may  be  found, 
by  whoever  will  take  the  trouble  of  reading  what  this 
great  man  has  written,  instead  of  ignorantly  railing 
against  him.  Without  entering  into  needless  detail,  it 
is  enough  to  mention  that,  amidst  a  great  variety  of 
very  ingenious  and  very  learned  discussion,  Niebuhr  has 
put  forward  several  views  with  which  later  critics  have 
been  dissatisfied;  but  that  there  are  three,  and  only 
three,  principles  which  are  fundamental  to  his  history, 
and  which  it  is  impossible  to  refute.  These  are : — 
I.  That,  on  account  of  the  inevitable  intermixture  of 
fable  essential  to  a  rude  people,  no  nation  can  possess 
trustworthy  details  respecting  its  own  origin.  II.  That 
even  such  early  documents  as  the  Romans  might  have 
possessed,  had  been  destroyed  before  they  were  incor- 
porated into  a  regular  history.  III.  That  ceremonies 
established  in  honour  of  certain  events  alleged  to  have 
taken  place  in  former  times,  were  a  proof,  not  that  the 
events  had  happened,  but  that  they  were  believed  to 
have  happened.  The  whole  fabric  of  the  early  history 
of  Rome  at  once  fell  to  pieces,  as  soon  as  these  three 
principles  were  applied  to  it.  What,  however,  is  most 
remarkable,  is,  that  not  only  are  all  three  laid  down  by 
Voltaire,  but  their  bearing  upon  Roman  history  is  dis- 
tinctly shown.  He  says  that  no  nation  is  acquainted 
with  its  own  origin;  so  that  all  primitive  history  is 
necessarily  an  invention.124  He  remarks,  that  since 
even  such  historical  works  as  the  Romans  once  pos- 
sessed, were  all  destroyed  when  their  city  was  burned, 
no  confidence  can  be  placed  in  the  accounts  which,  at 
a  much  later  period,  are  given  by  Livy   and  other 


124  '  Cest  l'imagination  seule  application  of  this  to  the  history 

qui  a  ecrit  les  premieres  histoires.  of  Rome,  where  he  says,  '  Tite 

Non  seulement  chaque  peuple  in-  Live  n'a  garde  de  dire  en  quelle 

venta  son  origine,  mais  il  inven-  annee  Romulus    commenca  so& 

ta  aussi  l'origine  du  monde  en-  pretendu    regne.'     And   at  vol. 

tier.'  Dict.PhUos.  article  Histoire,  xxxvi.  p.  86,  '  tous  les  peuples  se 

sec.  2,  in  (Euvres,  vol.  xl.  p.  195.  sont  attribues  des  originos  ima- 

See  also  his  article  on  Chrono-  ginaires ;  et  aucun  n'a  touchd  a 

logy,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  77,  for  the  la  veritable.' 


312        HISTOEICAL   LITEEATUEE    IN   FEANCE. 


compilers. 1 23  And,  as  innumerable  scholars  busied  them- 
selves in  collecting  evidence  respecting  ceremonies  insti- 
tuted in  celebration  of  certain  events,  and  then  appealed 
to  the  evidence  in  order  to  prove  the  events,  Voltaire 
makes  a  reflection  which  now  seems  very  obvious,  but 
which  these  learned  men  had  entirely  overlooked.  He 
notices,  that  their  labour  is  bootless,  because  the  date  of 
the  evidence  is,  with  extremely  few  exceptions,  much 
later  than  the  date  of  the  event  to  which  it  refers. 
In  such  cases,  the  existence  of  a  festival,  or  of  a  monu- 
ment, proves,  indeed,  the  belief  which  men  entertain, 
but  by  no  means  proves  the  reality  of  the  occurrence 
concerning  which  the  belief  is  held. 1 2G  This  simple,  but 
important  maxim,  is,  even  in  our  own  days,  constantly 
lost  sight  of,  while  before  the  eighteenth  century  it  was 
universally  neglected.  Hence  it  was  that  historians 
were  able  to  accumulate  fables  which  were  believed 
without  examination;127  it  being  altogether  forgotten, 


125  '  Qu'on  fasse  attention  que 
la  republique  romaine  a  ete  cinq 
cents  ans  sans  historiens ;  que 
Tite  Live  lui-meme  deplore  la 
parte  des  autres  monuments  qui 
perirent  presque  tous  dans  l'in- 
cendiedeEome,'&c.  Dict.Philos. 
in  (Euvres,  vol.  xl.  p.  202.  At  p. 
188,  ■  ce  peuple,  si  recent  en  com- 
paraison  des  nations  asiatiques, 
a  ete  cinq  cents  annees  sans  his- 
toriens. Ainsi,  il  n'est  pas  sur- 
prenant  que  Eomulus  ait  ete  le 
fils  de  Mars,  qu'une  louve  ait  ete 
sa  nourrice,  qu'il  ait  marche  avec 
mille  hommes  de  son  village  de 
Home  confcre  vingt-cinq  mille 
combattants  du  village  des  Sa- 
tins.' 

126  '  Par  quel  exces  de  demence, 
par  quel  opiniatrete  absurde,  tant 
de  compilateurs  ont-ils  voulu 
prouver  dans  tant  de  volumes 
enormes,  qu'une  fete  publique 
etablie  en  memoire  d'un  evene- 
ment  6tait  une  demonstration  de 
la    verity    de  cet   evenement?' 


Essai  sur  les  Moeurs,  in  (Euvres>. 
vol.  xv.  p.  109.  See  also  the 
same  remark  applied  to  monu- 
ments, in  chap,  cxcvii.,  (Euvre3, 
vol.  xviii.  pp.  412-414 ;  and 
again,  in  vol.  xl.  pp.  203,  204. 

127  'La  plupart  des  histoires 
ont  ete  crues  sans  examen,  et 
cette  creance  est  un  prejuge.  Fa- 
bius  Pictorraconte  que,  plusieurs 
siecles  avant  lui,  une  vestale  de 
la  ville  d'Albe,  allant  puiser  de 
l'eau  dans  sa  cruche,  tut  violee, 
qu'elle  accoucha  de  Eomulus  et 
de  Eemus,  qu'ils  furent  nourris 
par  une  louve,  etc.  Le  peuple 
romain  crut  cette  fable ;  il  n'ex- 
amina  point  si  dans  ce  temps-la 
il  y  avait  des  vestales  dans  le 
Latium,  s'il  etait  vraisemblabla 
que  la  fille  d'un  roi  sortit  de  son 
couvent  avec  sa  cruche,  s'il  etait 
probable  qu'une  louve  allaitat 
deux  enfants  au  lieu  de  les  man- 
ger ;  le  prejuge  s'etablit.'  Diet. 
Philos.  article  Prejuges,  in  (Eu- 
vres, vol.  xli.  pp.  488,  489. 


HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE. 


313 


that  fables,  as  Voltaire  says,  begin  to  be  current  in  one 
generation,  are  established  in  the  second,  become  re- 
spectable in  the  third,  while  in  the  fourth  generation 
temples  are  raised  in  honour  of  them.128 

I  have  been  the  more  particular  in  stating  the  immense 
obhgations  history  is  under  to  Voltaire,  because  in 
England  there  exists  against  him  a  prejudice,  which 
nothing  but  ignorance,  or  something  worse  than  igno- 
rance, can  excuse  ;129  and  because,  taking  him  on  the 


128  '  Les  amateurs  du  merveil- 
leux  disaient:  II  faut  bien  que 
ces  faits  soient  vrais,  puisque 
tant  de  monuments  en  sont  la 
preuve.  Et  nous  disions :  II  faut 
bien  qu'ils  6oient  faux,  puisque 
le  vulgaire  les  a  crus.  Une  fable 
a  quelquo  cours  dans  une  gene- 
ration ;  elle  s'etablit  dans  la 
seconde ;  elle  devient  respectable 
dans  la  troisieme ;  la  quatrieme 
lui  eleve  des  temples.'  Frag- 
ments sur  VHistoire,  article  i.  in 
(Euvres,  vol.  xxvii.  pp.  158, 159. 

120  In  this  case,  as  in  many- 
others,  ignorance  has  been  forti- 
fied by  bigotry ;  for,  as  Lord 
Campbell  truly  says  of  Voltaire, 
'  since  the  French  Revolution, 
an  indiscriminate  abuse  of  this 
author  has  been  in  England  the 
test  of  orthodoxy  and  loyalty.' 
Campbell 's  Chief  Justices,  vol.  ii. 
p.  335.  Indeed,  so  extonsively 
has  the  public  mind  been  preju- 
diced against  this  great  man, 
that,  until  a  very  few  years  ago, 
■when  Lord  Brougham  published 
a  life  of  him,  there  was  no  book 
in  the  English  language  contain- 
ing even  a  tolerable  account  of 
one  of  the  most  influential  writers 
Erance  has  produced.  This  work 
of  Lord  Brougham's,  though  a 
middling  performance,  is  at  least 
an  honest  one,  and,  as  it  har- 
monizes with  the  general  spirit 
of  our  time,  it  has  probably  had 
considerable  weight.     In  it  he 


says  of  Voltaire,  'nor  can  any 
one  since  the  days  of  Luther  be 
named,  to  whom  the  spirit  of  free 
inquiry,  nay,  the  emancipation 
of  the  human  mind  from  spiritual 
tyranny,  owes  a  more  lasting 
debt  of  gratitude.'  Brougham's 
Life  of  Voltaire,  p.  132.  It  is 
certain,  that  the  better  the  his- 
tory of  the  eighteenth  century  is 
understood,  the  more  the  repu- 
tation of  Voltaire  will  increase ; 
as  was  clearly  foreseen  by  a  cele- 
brated writer  nearly  a  generation 
ago.  In  1831,  Lerminier  wrote 
these  remarkable,  and,  as  the 
result  has  proved,  prophetic 
words :  '  II  est  temps  de  revenir 
a  des  sentimens  plus  respectueux 
pour  la  memoire  de  Voltaire.  .  . 
Voltaire  a  fait  pour  la  Erance  co 
quo  Leibnitz  a  fait  pour  l'Alle- 
magno ;  pendant  trois-quarts  de 
siecle  il  a  repr^sente  son  pays, 
puissant  a  la  maniere  de  Luther 
et  de  Napoleon ;  il  est  destine^  a 
survivre  a  bien  des  gloires,  et  je 
plains  ceux  qui  se  sont  oublies 
jusqu'a  laisser  tomber  des  paroles 
dedaigneuses  sur  le  genie  de  cet 
homme.'  Lerminier,  Philosophit 
du  Droit,  vol.  i.  p.  199.  Com- 
pare the  glowing  eulogy  in 
Longchamp  et  Wagnibre,  Mi- 
moires  sur  Voltaire,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
388,  389,  with  the  remarks  of 
Saint-Lambort,  in  Mem.  oVEpi- 
nay,  vol.  i.  p.  263. 


314        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE. 

whole,  lie  is  probably  the  greatest  historian  Europe  has 
yet  produced.  In  reference,  however,  to  the  mental 
habits  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  is  important  to  show, 
that  in  the  same  period  similar  comprehensiveness  was 
being  displayed  by  other  French  historians  ;  so  that  in 
this  case,  as  in  all  others,  we  shall  find  that  a  large 
share  of  what  is  effected,  even  by  the  most  eminent 
men,  is  due  to  the  character  of  the  age  in  which  they 
live. 

The  vast  labours  of  Yoltaire  towards  reforming  the 
old  method  of  writing  history,  were  greatly  aided  by 
those  important  works  which  Montesquieu  put  forward 
during  the  same  period.  In  1734,130  this  remarkable 
man  published  what  may  be  truly  called  the  first  book 
in  which  there  can  be  found  any  information  concerning 
the  real  history  of  Rome  ;  because  it  is  also  the  first  in 
which  the  affairs  of  the  ancient  world  are  treated  in  a 
large  and  comprehensive  spirit.131  Fourteen  years  later, 
there  appeared,  by  the  same  author,  the  Spirit  of  Laws ; 
a  more  famous  production,  but,  as  it  seems  to  me,  not  a 
greater  one.  The  immense  merit  of  the  Spirit  of  Laws 
is,  indeed,  incontestable,  and  cannot  be  affected  by  the 
captious  attempts  made  to  diminish  it  by  those  minute 
critics,  who  seem  to  think  that  when  they  detect  the 
occasional  errors  of  a  great  man,  they  in  some  degree  re- 
duce him  to  their  own  level.  It  is  not  such  petty 
cavilling  which  can  destroy  an  European  reputation; 
and  the  noble  work  of  Montesquieu  will  long  survive  all 
attacks  of  this  kind,  because  its  large  and  suggestive 
generalizations  would  retain  their  value  even  if  the  par- 
ticular facts  of  which  the  illustrations  consist  were  all 


130  Vie  de  Montesquieu,  p.  much  occupied  with  the  practical 
xiv.,  prefixed  to  his  works.  utility    of    his    subject.     Vice, 

131  Before  Montesquieu,  the  whose  genius  was  perhaps  even 
only  two  great  thinkers  who  had  more  vast  than  that  of  Montes- 
really  studied  Roman  history  quieu,  can  hardly  be  considered 
were  Macchiavelli  and  Vico  :  his  rival ;  for,  though  his  Scknza 
but  Macchiavelli  did  not  attempt  Nova  contains  the  most  profound 
any  thing  approaching  the  gene-  views  on  ancient  history,  they 
ralizations  of  Montesquieu,  and  are  rather  glimpses  of  truth, 
he  suffered,  moreover,  from  the  than  a  systematic  investigation 
■serious  deficiency  of  being  too  of  any  one  period. 


HISTOEICAL   LITEEATUEE    IN   FEANCE.        315 

unfounded.132  Still,  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  that  in 
point  of  original  thought  it  is  barely  equal  to  his  earlier 
■work,  though  it  is  unquestionably  the  fruit  of  much 
greater  reading.  Without,  however,  instituting  a  com- 
parison between  them,  our  present  object  is  merely  to 
consider  the  contributions  they  jointly  contain  towards 
a  right  understanding  of  history,  and  the  way  in  which 
those  contributions  are  connected  with  the  general  spirit 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

In  this  point  of  view,  there  are,  in  the  works  of  Mon- 
tesquieu, two  leading  peculiarities.  The  first  is,  the 
complete  rejection  of  those  personal  anecdotes,  and 
those  trivial  details  respecting  individuals,  which  belong 
to  biography,  but  with  which,  as  Montesquieu  clearly 
saw,  history  has  no  concern.  The  other  peculiarity  is, 
the  very  remarkable  attempt  which  he  first  made  to 
effect  an  union  between  the  history  of  man  and  those 
sciences  which  deal  with  the  external  world.  As  these 
are  the  two  great  characteristics  of  the  method  adopted 
by  Montesquieu,  it  will  be  necessary  to  give  some 
account  of  them,  before  we  can  understand  the  place  he 
really  occupies,  as  one  of  the  founders  of  the  philosophy 
of  history. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Voltaire  had  strongly  in- 
sisted on  the  necessity  of  reforming  history,  by  paying 
more  attention  to  the  history  of  the  people,  and  less  at- 
tention to  that  of  their  political  and  military  rulers. 
We  have  also  seen,  that  this  great  improvement  was  so 
agreeable  to  the  spirit  of  the  time,  that  it  was  generally 
and  quickly  adopted,  and  thus  became  an  indication  of 
tho3e  democratic  tendencies,  of  which  it  was  in  reality 
a  result.  It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  that  Montes- 
quieu should  have  taken  the  same  course,  even  before 
the  movement  had  been  clearly  declared ;  since  he,  like 

132  Which  M.  Guizot  (Civili-  182;  and  in  Comte,  Philosophic 

sation  en  France,  vol.  iv.  p.  36),  Positive,  vol.  iv.    pp.   243-252, 

in  his  remarks  on  the  Esprit  des  261.     Compare    Charles    Comte, 

Lois,  does  not  take  sufficiently  Traiti  de  Ligislation,  vol.  i.  p. 

into  consideration.     Ajusterap-  125,  with  Meyer,  Esprit  des  In- 

preeiation  of  Montesquieu   will  stitutions  Judiciaires,  vol.  i.  p. 

be  found  in  Cousin,  Hist,  de  la  lxi.,  respecting  the  vast  innova- 

Philosophk,  part  ii.  vol.  i.  p.  tions  he  introduced. 


316       HISTORICAL   LITERATURE   IN   FRANCE. 

most  great  thinkers,  was  a  representative  of  the  intel- 
lectual condition,  and  a  satisfier  of  the  intellectual 
wants,  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived. 

But,  what  constitutes  the  peculiarity  of  Montesquieu 
in  this  matter,  is,  that  with  him  a  contempt  for  those 
details  respecting  courts,  ministers,  and  princes,  in  which 
ordinary  compilers  take  great  delight,  was  accompanied 
by  an  equal  contempt  for  other  details  which  are  really 
interesting,  because  they  concern  the  mental  habits  of 
the  few  truly  eminent  men  who,  from  time  to  time,  have 
appeared  on  the  stage  of  public  life.  This  was  because 
Montesquieu  perceived  that,  though  these  things  are 
very  interesting,  they  are  also  very  unimportant.  He 
knew,  what  no  historian  before  him  had  even  suspected, 
that  in  the  great  march  of  human  affairs,  individual 
peculiarities  count  for  nothing  ;  and  that,  therefore,  the 
historian  has  no  business  with  them,  but  should  leave 
them  to  the  biographer,  to  whose  province  they  properly 
belong.  The  consequence  is,  that  not  only  does  he 
treat  the  most  powerful  princes  with  such  disregard  as 
to  relate  the  reigns  of  six  emperors  in  two  lines,133  but 
he  constantly  enforces  the  necessity,  even  in  the  case  of 
eminent  men,  of  subordinating  their  special  influence  to 
the  more  general  influence  of  the  surrounding  society. 
Thus,  many  writers  had  ascribed  the  ruin  of  the  Roman 
Republic  to  the  ambition  of  Caesar  and  Pompey,  and 
particularly  to  the  deep  schemes  of  Caesar.  This,  Mon- 
tesquieu totally  denies.  According  to  his  view  of  history, 
no  great  alteration  can  be  effected,  except  by  virtue  of 
a  long  train  of  antecedents,  where  alone  we  are  to 
seek  the  cause  of  what  to  a  superficial  eye  is  the  work 
of  individuals.  The  republic,  therefore,  was  overthrown, 
not  by  Caesar  and  Pompey,  but  by  that  state  of  things 
which  made  the  success  of  Caesar  and  Pompey 
possible.134     It  is  thus  that  the  events  which  ordinary 

138  He   says   of  the   emperor  (Euvres  de  Montesquieu,  p.  167. 

Maximin,  '  il   fut  tu6  aree  son  134  Ibid.  chap,  xi.,  in  (Euvres 

fils  par  ses  soldats.    Les  deux  de    Montesquieu,    pp.   149-153. 

premiers   Gordiens    perirent  en  Compare  a  similar  remark,  re- 

Afrique.     Maxime,  Balbin,  et  le  specting  Charles  XII,,  in  Esprit 

troisieme  Gordien  furent  massa-  des    Lois,    livre    x.    chap.   xiii. 

cres.'     Grandeur   et   Decadence  (Euvres,  p.  260. 
des    Romains,     cbap.    xvi.,     in 


HISTORICAL    LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE.        317 

historians  relate  are  utterly  valueless.  Such  events,  in- 
stead of  being  causes,  are  merely  the  occasions  on  -which 
the  real  causes  act.135  They  may  be  called  the  accidents 
of  history ;  and  they  must  be  treated  as  subservient  to 
those  vast  and  comprehensive  conditions,  by  which  alone 
the  rise  and  fall  of  nations  are  ultimately  governed.136 

This,  then,  was  the  first  great  merit  of  Montesquieu, 
that  he  effected  a  complete  separation  between  biography 
and  history,  and  teught  historians  to  study,  not  the  pe- 
cularities  of  individual  character,  but  the  general 
aspect  of  the  society  in  which  the  peculiarities  appeared. 
If  this  remarkable  man  had  accomplished  nothing  far- 
ther, he  would  have  rendered  an  incalculable  service  to 
history,  by  pointing  out  how  one  of  its  most  fertile 
sources  of  error  might  be  safely  removed.  And  although, 
unhappily,  we  have  not  yet  reaped  the  full  benefit  of  his 
example,  this  is  because  his  successors  have  really  had 
the  capacity  of  rising  to  so  high  a  generalization :  it  is, 
however,  certain,  that  since  his  time,  an  approximation 
towards  such  elevated  views  may  be  noticed,  even 
among  those  inferior  writers  who,  for  want  of  sufficient 
grasp,  are  unable  to  adopt  them  to  their  full  extent. 

In  addition  to  this,  Montesquieu  made  another  great 
advance  in  the  method  of  treating  history.  He  was  the 
first  who,  in  an  inquiry  into  the  relations  between  the 
social  conditions  of  a  country  and  its  jurisprudence, 
called  in  the  aid  of  physical  knowledge,  in  order  to 
ascertain  how  the  character  of  any  given  civilization  is 
modified  by  the  action  of  the  external  world.  In  his 
work  on  the  Spirit  of  Laws,  he  studies  the  way  in  which 
both  the  civil  and  political  legislation  of  a  people  are 
naturally  connected  with  their  climate,  soil,  and  food.137 

,,s  On  the  difference  between  mine  un  6tat,   il   y  avoit  une 

cause  and  occasion,  see  Grandeur  cause  generate  qui  faisoit  quo  cet 

et  JDecad.  chap.  i.  p.  126.  etat  devoit  perir  par  une  seule 

138  <  jiy  ades  causes  generates,  bataille.    En   un  mot,   l'alluro 

eoit  morales,  soit  physiques,  qui  principale    entraino     avec   elle 

agissent  dans  chaque  monarchic,  tous  les  accidents  particuliers.' 

l'elevent,  la  maintiennent,  ou  la  Grand,  et  Dkcad.  des  Romains, 

precipitent;   tous  les  accidents  chap,  xviii.  p.  172. 

sont  soumis  a  ces  causes ;  et  si  IS7  De  V Esprit  des  Lois,  books 

le  hasard  d'une  bataille,  c'est-a-  xiv.  to  xviii.  inclusive ;  in  (Eu- 

dixe  une  cause    particuliere,  a  vres,  pp.  300-336. 


318        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE   IN    PRANCE. 

It  is  true,  that  in  this  vast  enterprise  he  almost  entirely 
failed;  but  this  was  because  meteorology,  chemistry, 
and  physiology,  were  still  too  backward  to  admit  of  such 
an  undertaking.  This,  however,  affects  the  value  only 
of  his  conclusions,  not  of  his  method ;  and  here,  as  else- 
where, we  see  the  great  thinker  tracing  the  outline  of  a 
plan,  which,  in  the  then  state  of  knowledge,  it  was  im- 
possible to  fill  up,  and  the  completion  of  which  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  to  the  riper  experience  and  more 
powerful  resources  of  a  later  age.  Thus  to  anticipate 
the  march  of  the  human  intellect,  and,  as  it  were,  forestal 
its  subsequent  acquisitions,  is  the  peculiar  prerogative 
of  minds  of  the  highest  order;  and  it  is  this  which 
gives  to  the  writings  of  Montesquieu  a  certain  fragmen- 
tary and  provisional  appearance,  which  was  the  necessary 
consequence  of  a  profoundly  speculative  genius  dealing 
with  materials  that  were  intractable,  simply  because 
science  had  not  yet  reduced  them  to  order  by  general- 
izing the  laws  of  their  phenomena.  Hence  it  is,  that 
many  of  the  inferences  drawn  by  Montesquieu  are  un- 
tenable ;  such,  for  instance,  as  those  regarding  the  effect 
of  diet  in  stimulating  population  by  increasing  the 
fecundity  of  women,138  and  the  effect  of  climate  in 
altering  the  proportion  between  the  births  of  the 
sexes.139  In  other  cases,  an  increased  acquaintance  with 
barbarous  nations  has  sufficed  to  correct  his  conclusions, 
particularly  those  concerning  the  effect  which  he  sup- 
posed climate  to  produce  on  individual  character ;  for 
we  have  now  the  most  decisive  evidence,  that  he  was 
wrong  in  asserting  140  that  hot  climates  make  people 
unchaste  and  cowardly,  while  cold  climates  make  them 
virtuous  and  brave. 

These,  indeed,  are  comparatively  trifling  objections, 
because,  in  all  the  highest  branches  of  knowledge,  the 
main  difficulty  is,  not  to  discover  facts,  but  to  discover 
the  true  method  according  to  which  the  laws  of  the 

138  Ibid,  livre  xxiii.  chap.  xiii.  and  livre  xxiii.  chap.    xii.   pp. 

p.      395.    Compare      Burdach,  317,  395. 

Traite  de  Physiologk,  vol.  ii.  p.        l4°  Rid.  livre  xiv.   chap,  ii , 

116.  livre   xvii.  chap,  ii.,   and   else- 

138  Ibid,  livre  xvi.  chap,  iv.,  where. 


HISTOEICAL   LITEEATUEE    IN   FEANCE.        319 

facts  may  be  ascertained.141  In  this,  Montesqnieu  per- 
formed a  double  service,  since  be  not  only  enriched 
history,  but  also  strengthened  its  foundation.  He  en- 
riched history  by  incorporating  "with  it  physical  inquiries; 
and  he  strengthened  history  by  separating  it  from  bio- 
graphy, and  thus  freeing  it  from  details  which  are 
always  unimportant,  and  often  unauthentic.  And 
although  he  committed  the  error  of  studying  the  influ- 
ence of  nature  over  men  considered  as  individuals,142 
rather  than  over  men  considered  as  an  aggregate  society, 
this  arose  principally  from  the  fact  that,  in  his  time,  the 
resources  necessary  for  the  more  complicated  study  had 
not  yet  been  created.  Those  resources,  as  I  have  shown,, 
are  political  economy  and  statistics ;  political  economy 
supplying  the  means  of  connecting  the  laws  of  physical 
agents  with  the  laws  of  the  inequality  of  wealth,  and, 
therefore,  with  a  great  variety  of  social  disturbances ; 
while  statistics  enable  us  to  verify  those  laws  in  their 
widest  extent,  and  to  prove  how  completely  the  volition 
of  individual  men  is  controlled  by  their  antecedents, 
and  by  the  circumstances  in  which  they  are  placed.  It 
was,  therefore,  not  only  natural,  but  inevitable,  that 
Montesquieu  should  fail  in  his  magnificent  attempt  to 
unite  the  laws  of  the  human  mind  with  the  laws  of 
external  nature.  He  failed,  partly  because  the  sciences 
of  external  nature  were  too  backward,  and  partly  be- 
cause those  other  branches  of  knowledge  which  connect 
nature  with  men  were  still  unformed.  For,  as  to  politi- 
cal economy,  it  had  no  existence  as  a  science  until  the 
publication  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations  in  1776,  twenty- 
one  years  after  the  death  of  Montesquieu.  As  to 
statistics  ,their  philosophy  is  a  still  more  recent  creation, 

141  On  the  supreme  impor-  mate,  food,  and  soil,  in  modify- 
tance  of  method,  see  my  defence  ing  individual  character ;  though 
of  Bichat  in  the  next  chapter.  it  has,  I  trust,  appeared  in  the* 

142  How  completely  futile  this  second  chapter  of  this  Introduc- 
was,  as  regards  results,  is  evi-  tion,  that  something  can  be  as- 
dent  from  the  fact,  that  a  hun-  certained  respecting  their  indi- 
dred  years  after  he  wrote,  we,  rect  action,  that  is,  their  action 
•with  all  our  increased  knowledge,  on  individual  minds  through  the 
can  affirm  nothing  positively  re-  medium  of  social  and  economical 
epecting  the  direct  action  of  cli-  organization. 


320        HISTORICAL    LITERATURE    IN    FRANCE. 

since  it  is  only  during  the  last  thirty  years  that  they 
have  been  systematically  applied  to  social  phenomena ; 
the  earlier  statisticians  being  merely  a  body  of  indus- 
trious collectors,  groping  in  the  dark,  bringing  together 
facts  of  every  kind  without  selection  or  method,  and 
•whose  labours  were  consequently  unavailable  for  those 
important  purposes  to  which  they  have  been  successfully 
applied  during  the  present  generation. 

Only  two  years  after  the  publication  of  the  Spirit  of 
Laws,  Turgot  delivered  those  celebrated  lectures,  of 
which  it  has  been  said,  that  in  them  he  created  the 
philosophy  of  history.143  This  praise  is  somewhat  ex- 
aggerated ;  for  in  the  most  important  matters  relating 
to  the  philosophy  of  his  subject,  he  takes  the  same  view 
as  Montesquieu;  and  Montesquieu,  besides  preceding 
him  in  point  of  time,  was  his  superior  certainly  in 
learning,  perhaps  in  genius.  Still,  the  merit  of  Turgot 
is  immense ;  and  he  belongs  to  that  extremely  small 
class  of  men  who  have  looked  at  history  comprehensively, 
and  have  recognized  the  almost  boundless  knowledge 
needed  for  its  investigation.  In  this  respect,  his  method 
is  identical  with  that  of  Montesquieu,  since  both  of  these 
great  men  excluded  from  their  scheme  the  personal 
details  which  ordinary  historians  accumulate,  and  con- 
centrated their  attention  upon  those  large  general  causes, 
by  the  operation  of  which  the  destinies  of  nations  are 
permanently  affected.  Turgot  clearly  perceived,  that, 
notwithstanding  the  variety  of  events  produced  by  the 
play  of  human  passions,  there  is  amid  this  apparent 
confusion  a  principle  of  order,  and  a  regularity  of  march, 
not  to  be  mistaken  by  those  whose  grasp  is  firm  enough 
to  seize  the  history  of  man  as  a  complete  and  single 
whole.144     It  is  true  that  Turgot,  subsequently  engaged 

143  '  II  a  cre6  en  1750  1a  phi-  his  summary  of  this  vast  con- 
losophie  de  l'histoire  dans  ses  ception  :  '  Tous  les  ages  sont  en- 
deux  discours  prononces  en  Sor-  chaines  par  une  suite  de  causes 
bonne.'  Cousin,  Hist,  de  la  Phi-  et  d'effets  qui  lient  l'etat  du 
losophie,  I.  serie,  vol.  i.  p.  147.  nionde  a,  tous  ceux  qui  l'ont  pre- 
There  is  a  short  notice  of  these  cede.'  Second  Discours  en  Sor- 
striking  productions  in  Condor-  bonne,  in  (Euvres  de  Turgot,  vol. 
cet,  Vie  de  Turgot,  pp.  11-16.  ii.  p.  52.     Every  thing  Turgot 

144  Nothing  can  be  better  than  wrote  on  history  is  a  develop- 


HISTORICAL    LITERATURE    IN   FRANCE.        321 

in  political  life,  never  possessed  sufficient  leisure  to  fill 
up  the  splendid  outline  of  what  he  so  successfully- 
sketched  :  but  though  in  the  execution  of  his  plan  he 
fell  short  of  Montesquieu,  still  the  analogy  between  the 
two  men  is  obvious,  as  also  is  their  relation  to  the  age 
in  which  they  lived.  They,  as  well  as  Voltaire,  were 
the  unconscious  advocates  of  the  democratic  movement, 
inasmuch  as  they  discountenanced  the  homage  which 
historians  had  formerly  paid  to  individuals,  and  rescued 
history  from  being  a  mere  recital  of  the  deeds  of  politi- 
cal and  ecclesiastical  rulers.  At  the  same  time,  Turgot, 
by  the  captivating  prospects  which  he  held  out  of  future 
progress,145  and  by  the  picture  which  he  drew  of  the 
capacity  of  society  to  improve  itself,  increased  the  im- 
patience which  his  countrymen  were  beginning  to  feel 
against  that  despotic  government,  in  whose  presence 
amelioration  seemed  to  be  hopeless.  These,  and  similar 
speculations,  which  now  for  the  first  time  appeared  in 
French  literature,  stimulated  the  activity  of  the  intel- 
lectual classes,  cheered  them  under  the  persecutions  to 
which  they  were  exposed,  and  emboldened  them  to  the 
arduous  enterprise  of  leading  on  the  people  to  attack 
the  institutions  of  their  native  land.  Thus  it  was,  that 
in  France  every  thing  tended  to  the  same  result.  Every 
thing  indicated  the  approach  of  some  sharp  and  terrible 
struggle,  in  which  the  spirit  of  the  present  should  war 
with  the  spirit  of  the  past ;  and  in  which  it  should  be 


merit  of  this  pregnant  sentence,  p.  66,   with  Mem.  sur   Turgot, 

That  he  understood  the  necessity  vol.  i.  p.  139. 

of  an  historian  being  acquainted  Ui  A  confidence  which  is  ap- 

with  physical  science,  and  with  parentinhiseconomicalaswellas 

the  laws  of  the  configuration  of  in  his  historical  works.    In  1811, 

the  earth,  climate,  soil,  and  the  Sir    James  Mackintosh   writes, 

like,  is  evident  in  his  fragment,  that  Turgot  '  had  more  compre- 

La     Giographie     Politique,    in  hensive  views  of  the  progress  of 

(Euvres,  vol.  ii.  pp.  166-208.     It  society    than    any    man     since 

is  no  slight  proof  of  his  political  Bacon :'   Mem.  of  Mackintosh, 

sagacity,  that  in   1750  he  dis-  vol.  ii.  p.  133 ;  and  see  a  similar 
tinctly  foretold  the  freedom  of    remark  by  Dugald  Stewart,  in 

the  American    colonies.     Com-  his  Philos.  of  the  Mi7id,  vol.  i.  p. 

pare  (Euvres  $e  Turgot,  vol.  ii.  246. 
VOL.  II                                       T 


322        HISTORICAL   LITERATURE    IN"   FRANCE. 

finally  settled,  whether  the  people  of  France  conld  free 
themselves  from  the  chains  in  which  they  had  long  been 
held,  or  whether,  missing  their  aim,  they  were  doomed 
to  sink  still  lower  in  that  ignominious  vassalage,  which 
makes  even  the  most  splendid  periods  of  their  political 
history  a  warning  and  a  lesson  to  the  civilized  world. 


328 


CHAPTER  VH. 

PROXIMATE  CAUSES  OP  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  AFTER  THE 
MIDDLE  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

In  the  last  chapter  but  one,  I  have  attempted  to  ascer- 
tain what  those  circumstances  were  which,  almost 
immediately  after  the  death  of  Louis  XTV.,  prepared 
the  way  for  the  French  Eevolution.  The  result  of  the 
inquiry  has  been,  that  the  French  intellect  was  stimu- 
lated into  activity  by  the  examples  and  teachings  of 
England ;  and  that  this  stimulus  caused,  or  at  all  events 
encouraged,  a  great  breach  between  the  government  of 
France  and  its  literature  ; — a  breach  the  more  remark- 
able, because  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  the 
literature,  notwithstanding  its  temporary  brilliancy,  had 
been  invariably  submissive,  and  had  intimately  allied 
itself  with  the  government,  which  was  always  ready  to 
reward  its  services.  We  have  also  seen  that,  this  rup- 
ture having  arisen  between  the  governing  classes  and 
the  intellectual  classes,  it  followed,  that  the  former,  true 
to  their  ancient  instincts,  began  to  chastise  that  spirit 
of  inquiry  to  which  they  were  unaccustomed :  hence 
those  persecutions  which,  with  hardly  a  single  exception, 
were  directed  against  every  man  of  letters,  and  henca 
too  those  systematic  attempts  to  reduce  literature  to  a 
subserviency  similar  to  that  in  which  it  had  been  held 
under  Louis  XIV.  It  has,  moreover,  appeared,  that  the 
great  Frenchmen  of  the  eighteenth  century,  though 
smarting  from  the  injuries  constantly  inflicted  on  them 
by  the  government  and  the  church,  abstained  from  at- 
tacking the  government,  but  directed  all  their  hostility 
against  the  church.  This  apparent  anomaly,  of  the 
religious  institutions  being  assailed,  and  the  political 
institutions  being  spared,  has  been  shown  to  be  a 
i2 


324  PROXIMATE    CAUSES   OP 

perfectly  natural  circumstance,  arising  out  of  the  antece- 
dents of  the  French  nation ;  and  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  explain  what  those  antecedents  were,  and  how 
they  acted.  In  the  present  chapter,  I  purpose  to  complete 
this  inquiry  by  examining  the  next  great  stage  in  the 
history  of  the  French  mind.  It  was  needful  that,  before 
both  church  and  state  could  fall,  men  should  change  the 
ground  of  their  hostility,  and  should  attack  political 
abuses  with  the  zeal  they  had  hitherto  reserved  for  re- 
ligious ones.  The  question,  therefore,  now  arises,  as  to 
the  circumstances  under  which  this  change  took  place, 
and  the  period  when  it  actually  occurred. 

The  circumstances  which  accompanied  this  great 
change  are,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  very  complicated ; 
and,  as  they  have  never  yet  been  studied  in  connexion 
with  each  other,  I  shall,  in  the  remaining  part  of  this 
volume,  examine  them  at  considerable  length.  On  this 
point  it  will,  I  think,  be  practicable  to  arrive  at  some 
precise  and  well-defined  results  respecting  the  history  of 
the  French  Revolution.  But  the  other  point,  namely, 
the  time  at  which  the  change  took  place,  is  not  only 
much  more  obscure,  but  by  its  nature  will  never  admit 
of  complete  precision.  This,  however,  is  a  deficiency  it 
possesses  in  common  with  every  other  change  in  the 
history  of  man.  The  circumstances  of  each  change 
may  always  be  known,  provided  the  evidence  is  ample 
and  authentic.  But  no  amount  of  evidence  can  enable 
us  to  fix  the  date  of  the  change  itself.  That  to  which 
attention  is  usually  drawn  by  the  compilers  of  history 
is,  not  the  change,  but  is  merely  the  external  result 
which  follows  the  change.  The  real  history  of  the  hu- 
man race  is  the  history  of  tendencies  which  are  perceived 
by  the  mind,  and  not  of  events  which  are  discerned  by 
the  senses.  It  is  on  this  account  that  no  historical 
epoch  will  ever  admit  of  that  chronological  precision 
familiar  to  antiquaries  and  genealogists.  The  death  of 
a  prince,  the  loss  of  a  battle,  and  the  change  of  a  dy- 
nasty, are  matters  which  fall  entirely  within  the  province 
of  the  senses  ;  and  the  moment  in  which  they  happen 
can  be  recorded  by  the  most  ordinary  observers.  But 
those  great  intellectual  revolutions  upon  which  all  other 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  325 

revolutions  are  based,  cannot  be  measured  by  so  simple 
a  standard.  To  trace  the  movements  of  the  human 
mind,  it  is  necessary  to  contemplate  it  under  several 
aspects,  and  then  coordinate  the  results  of  what  we 
have  separately  studied.  By  this  means  we  arrive  at 
certain  general  conclusions,  which,  like  the  ordinary 
estimate  of  averages,  increase  in  value  in  proportion  as 
we  increase  the  number  of  instances  from  which  they 
are  collected.  That  this  is  a  safe  and  available  method, 
appears  not  only  from  the  history  of  physical  knowledge,1 
but  also  from  the  fact,  that  it  is  the  basis  of  the  empirical 
maxims  by  which  all  men  of  sound  understanding  are 
guided  in  those  ordinary  transactions  of  life  to  which 
the  generalizations  of  science  have  not  yet  been  applied. 
Indeed  such  maxims,  which  are  highly  valuable,  and 
which  in  their  aggregate  form  what  is  called  common 
sense,  are  never  collected  with  any  thing  like  the  pre- 
cautions that  the  philosophic  historian  ought  to  feel 
himself  bound  to  employ. 

The  real  objection,  therefore,  to  generalizations  re- 
specting the  development  of  the  intellect  of  a  nation  is, 
not  that  they  want  certainty,  but  that  they  lack  preci- 
sion. This  is  just  the  point  at  which  the  historian 
diverges  from  the  annalist.  That  the  English  intellect, 
for  example,  is  gradually  becoming  more  democratic,  or, 
as  it  is  termed,  more  liberal,  is  as  certain  as  that  the 
crown  of  this  country  is  worn  by  Queen  Victoria.  But 
though  both  these  statements  are  equally  certain,  the 
latter  statement  is  more  precise.  We  can  tell  the  very 
day  on  which  the  Queen  ascended  the  throne ;  the 
moment  of  her  death  will  be  known  with  equal  preci- 
sion ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  '  other 
particulars  respecting  her  will  be  minutely  and  accurately 
preserved.  In  tracing,  however,  the  growth  of  English 
liberaHsm,  all  such  exactness  deserts  us.  We  can  point 
out  the  year  in  which  the  Reform  Bill  was  passed ;  but 
who  can  point  out  the  year  in  which  the  Reform  Bill 
first  became  necessary  ?     In  the  same  way,  that  the 

1  For  a  popular  but  able  view    Disc,  on  Nat.  Philos.  pp.  215- 
of  the  value  of  averages  in  sci-     219. 
entific   inquiries,  see   HerschcVs 


326 


PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 


Jews  will  be  admitted  into  parliament,  is  ascertain  as  that 
the  Catholics  have  been  admitted.  Both  these  measures 
are  the  inevitable  result  of  that  increasing  indifference 
to  theological  disputes,  which  must  now  be  obvious  to 
every  man  who  does  not  wilfully  shut  his  eyes.  But 
while  we  know  the  hour  in  which  the  bill  for  Catholic 
emancipation  received  the  assent  of  the  crown,  there  is 
no  one  now  living  who  can  tell  even  the  year  in  which 
similar  justice  will  be  granted  to  the  Jews.  Both  events 
are  equally  certain,  but  both  events  are  not  equally 
precise. 

This  distinction  between  certainty  and  precision  I 
have  stated  at  some  length,  because  it  seems  to  be  little 
understood,2  and  because  it  is  intimately  connected  with 
the  subject  now  before  us.     The  fact  of  the  French 


2  As  we  see  in  the  pretensions 
set  forth  by  mathematicians,  who 
often  suppose  that  an  amount  of 
certainty  can  be  attained  in  their 
own  pursuits  not  to  be  found  in 
any  other.  This  error  has  pro- 
bably arisen,  as  Locke  suggests, 
from  confusing  clearness  with 
certainty.  Essay  on  Human 
Understanding,  book  iv.  chap.  ii. 
sees.  9  and  10,  in  Works,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  73,  74.  See  also  Comte, 
Philos.  Pos.  vol.  i.  p.  103,  where 
it  is  justly  observed,  that  all 
branches  of  knowledge  capable 
of  being  generalized  into  sciences 
admit  of  equal  certainty,  but  not 
of  equal  precision :  '  si  d'apres 
l'expbxation  precedente,  les  di- 
verges sciences  doivent  neces- 
sairement  presenter  une  preci- 
sion tres-inegale,  il  n'en  est 
nullementainsi  de  leur  certitude.' 
This  is  handled  unsatisfactorily 
by  Montucla  (Hist,  des  Mathe- 
mat.  vol.  i.  p.  33),  who  says, 
that  the  principal  cause  of  the 
peculiar  certainty  reached  by  the 
mathematician  is,  that  '  d'une 
idee  claire  il  ne  deduit  que  des 


consequences  claires  et  incontest- 
ables.'  Similarly,  Cudworth  (In- 
tellect. System,  vol.  iii.  p.  377) : 
'  nay  the  very  essence  of  truth 
here  is  this  clear  perceptibility, 
or  intelligibility.'  On  the  other 
hand,  Kant,  a  far  deeper  thinker, 
avoided  this  confusion,  by  mak- 
ing mathematical  clearness  the 
mark  of  a  kind  of  certainty 
rather  than  of  a  degree  of  it: 
1  Die  mathematische  Gewissheit 
heisst  auch  Evidenz,  weil  ein  in- 
tuitives  Erkenntniss  klarer  ist, 
als  ein  discursives.  Obgleich 
also  beides,  das  mathematische 
und  das  philosophische  Ver- 
nunfterkenntniss  an  sichgleich 
gewiss  ist,  so  ist  doch  die  Art 
der  Gewissheit  in  beiden  ver- 
schieden.'  Logik,  Einleitung, 
sec.  9,  in  Kant's  Werke,  vol.  i. 
p.  399.  On  the  opinions  of  the 
ancients  respecting  certainty, 
compare  Matter,  Hist,  de  VEcole 
oVAlexandrie,  vol.  i.  p.  195,  with 
Sitter's  Hist,  of  Ancient  Philos. 
vol.  ii.  p.  46,  vol.  iii.  pp.  74,  426, 
427,  484,  614. 


THE    FEENCH    REVOLUTION.  327 

intellect  having,  during  the  eighteenth  century,  passed 
through  two  totally  distinct  epochs,  can  be  proved 
by  every  description  of  evidence  ^  but  it  is  impos- 
sible to  ascertain  the  precise  time  when  one  epoch 
succeeded  the  other.  All  that  we  can  do  is,  to  compare 
the  different  indications  which  the  history  of  that  age 
presents,  and  arrive  at  an  approximation  which  may 
guide  future  inquirers.  It  would  perhaps  be  more  pru- 
dent to  avoid  making  any  particular  statement ;  but  as 
the  employment  of  dates  seems  necessary  to  bring  such 
matters  clearly  before  the  mind,  I  will,  by  way  of  pro- 
visional hypothesis,  fix  on  the  year  1750,  as  the  period 
when  those  agitations  of  society  which  caused  the 
French  Revolution  entered  into  their  second  and  politi- 
cal stage. 

That  this  was  about  the  period  when  the  great  move- 
ment, hitherto  directed  against  the  church,  began  to  be 
turned  against  the  state,  is  an  inference  which  many 
circumstances  seem  to  warrant.  We  know  on  the  best 
authority,  that  towards  the  year  1750,  the  French  began 
their  celebrated  inquiries  respecting  political  economy,3 
and  that,  in  their  attempt  to  raise  it  to  a  science,  they 
were  led  to  perceive  the  immense  injury  which  the  in- 
terference of  government  had  produced  on  the  material 
interests  of  the  country.4   Hence  a  conviction  arose  that, 


*  'Vera   1750,  deux  hommes  JPhilos.  article  Bll,  in  (Euvres, 

de  g6nie,  observateurs  judicieux  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  384)  6ays,  '  vers 

et  profonds,   conduits  par  une  l'an  1750,  la  nation,  rassasiee  de 

force  d' attention  tres-soutenue  a  vers,  de  tragedies,  de  comeaies, 

une  logique  rigoureuse,  animes  d'opera,  de  romans,   d'histoires 

d'un  noble  amour  pour  la  patrie  romanesques,  de  reflexions  mo- 

et  pour  l'humanite,  M.  Quesnay  rales  plus  romanesques  encore, 

et  M.  de  Gournay,  s'occuperent  et  de  disputes  th£ologiques  sur  la 

avec  suite  de  savoir  si  la  nature  grace  et  sur  les  convulsions,  se 

des  choses  n'indiquerait  pas  une  mit  enfin  a  raisonner  sur  les  bl6s.' 

science  de  1' economic  politique,  4  The  revolutionary  tendency 

et  quels  seraient  les  principes  de  of    this    economical    movement 

cette    science.'     Additions    aux  is  noticed  in   Alison's   Europe, 

(Euvres  de   Turgot,   vol.  iii.  p.  voL    i.    pp.    184,    185;    where, 

310.     M.     Blanqui     {Hist,     de  however,  its   commencement  is 

FEconomie     Politique,    vol.    ii.  erroneously  assigned  to  *  about 

p.  78)  also  says,  'versl'annee  the  year  1761.'    See  also,  on  the 

1750;'     and    Voltaire     (Diet,  hostility  this     caused    against 


328 


PEOXIMATE   CAUSES   OP 


even  in  regard  to  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  the  autho- 
rity possessed  by  the  rulers  of  France  was  mischievous, 
since  it  enabled  them,  under  the  notion  of  protecting  com- 
merce, to  trouble  the  freedom  of  individual  action,  and  to 
prevent  trade  from  running  into  those  profitable  channels 
which  traders  are  best  able  to  select  for  themselves. 
Scarcely  had  a  knowledge  of  this  important  truth  been 
diffused,  when  its  consequences  were  quickly  seen  in  the 
national  literature,  and  in  the  habits  of  national  thought. 
The  sudden  increase  in  Franceofworks  relating  to  finance 
and  to  other  questions  of  government,  is,  indeed,  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  features  of  that  age.  With  such 
rapidity  did  the  movement  spread,  that  we  are  told  that, 
soon  after  1755,  the  economists  effected  a  schism  between 
the  nation  and  the  government  ;5  and  Voltaire,  writing 
in  1759,  complains  that  the  charms  of  lighter  literature 
were  entirely  neglected  amidst  the  general  zeal  for 
these  new  studies.6     It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  the 


government,  Mem.  de  Campan, 
vol.  i.  pp.  7,  8 ;  Mem.  of  Mallet 
du  Pan,  vol.  i.  p.  32 ;  and  Bar- 
ruel,  Hist,  du  Jacobinisme,  vol.  i. 
p.  193,  vol.  ii.  p.  152. 

4  •  D'ailleurs  la  nation  s'etoit 
accoutumee  a,  se  separer  toujours 
de  pins  en  plus  de  son  gouverne- 
ment,  en  raison  meme  de  ce  que 
ses  ecrivains  avoient  commence 
a  aborder  les  etudes  politiques. 
C'etoit  l'epoque  ou  la  secte  des 
economistes  se  donnoit  le  plus  de 
mouvement,  depuis  que  le  mar- 
quis de  Mirabeau  avoit  publie, 
en  1755,  son  Ami  des  Hommes.' 
Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Frang.  vol. 
xxix.  p.  269.  Compare  Tocque- 
ville,  Etgne  de  Louis  XV,  vol.  ii. 
p.  58.  In  this  same  year,  1755, 
Goldsmith  was  in  Paris,  and 
•was  so  struck  by  the  progress 
of  insubordination,  that  he  fore- 
told the  freedom  of  the  people ; 
though  I  need  hardly  say  that 
he  was  not  a  man  to  understand 
the  movement  of  the  economists. 


Prior's  Life  of  Goldsmith,  vol.  i. 
pp.  198,  199;  Forster's  Life  of 
Goldsmith,  vol.  i.  p.  66. 

6  In  February  1759,  he  writes 
to  Madame  du  Boccage :  '  II  me 
parait  que  les  graces  et  le  bon 
gout  sont  bannis  de  France,  et 
ont  cede  la  place  a,  la  metaphy- 
sique  embrouillee,  a,  la  politique 
des  cerveaux  creux,  a  des  dis- 
cussions enormes  sur  les  finances, 
sur  le  commerce,  sur  la  popula- 
tion, qui  ne  mettront  jamais 
dans  l'etat  ni  un  ecu,  ni  un 
homme  de  plus.'  (Euvres  de 
Voltaire,  vol.  lx.  p.  485.  In 
1763  (vol.  lxiii.  p.  204):  'Adieu, 
nos  beaux  arts,  si  les  choses  con- 
tinuent  comme  elles  sont.  La 
rage  des  remontrances  et  des 
projets  sur  les  finances  a  saisi  la 
nation.'  Many  of  the  ablest  men 
being  thus  drawn  off  from  mere 
literary  pursuits,  there  began, 
about  twenty  years  before  the 
Revolution,  a  marked  deteriora- 
tion in  style,  particularly  among 


THE    FEENCH   REVOLUTION. 


329 


subsequent  history  of  this  great  change;  nor  need  I 
trace  the  influence  exercised  shortly  before  the  Revolu- 
tion by  the  later  economists,  and  particularly  by  Turgot, 
the  most  eminent  of  their  leaders.7  It  is  enough  to  say, 
that  within  about  twenty  years  after  the  movement  was 
first  clearly  seen,  the  taste  for  economical  and  financial 
inquiries  became  so  common,  that  it  penetrated  those 
parts  of  society  where  habits  of  thought  are  not  very 
frequent ;  since  we  find  that,  even  in  fashionable  life, 
the  conversation  no  longer  turned  upon  new  poems 
and  new  plays,  but  upon  political  questions,  and  sub- 
jects immediately  connected  with  them.8  Indeed,  when 
Necker,  in  1781,  published  his  celebrated  Report  on  the 
Finances  of  France,  the  eagerness  to  obtain  it  was 
beyond  all  bounds  ;  six  thousand  copies  were  sold  the 
first  day  ;  and  the  demand  still  increasing,  two  presses 
were  kept  constantly  at  work  in  order  to  satisfy  the 
universal  curiosity.9     And  what  makes  the  democratic 


prose  -writers.  Compare  Lettres 
de  Dudeffand  a  Walpole,  vol.  ii. 
p.  358,  vol.  iii.  pp.  163,  299; 
Mknu  de  Genlis,  vol.  ii.  p.  374, 
vol.v.  p.  123,  vol.  viii.  pp.  180, 
275 ;  Merrier  sur  Eousseau,  vol. 
ii.  p.  151. 

7  Georgel,  who  hated  Turgot, 
says  of  him :  '  son  cabinet  et  ses 
bureaux  se  transformerent  en 
ateliers  ou  les  economistes  for- 
geoient  leur  systems  et  leurs 
speculations.'  Mem.  de  Georgel, 
vol.  i.  p.  4£6 :  see  also  Blanqui, 
Hist,  de  VEcon.  Politique,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  96-112;  Condor cet,  Vie  de 
Turgot,  pp.  32-35  ;  Twiss,  Pro- 
gress of  Political  Econ.  pp.  142 
seq. 

8  Sismondi,  under  the  year 
1774,  notices  '  les  ecrits  innom- 
brable3  que  chaque  jour  voyoit 
iclore  sur  la  politique,  et  qxii 
avoient  desormais  remplace  dans 
Tinteret  des  salons  ces  nou- 
veautes  litteraires,  ces  vers,  ces 
anecdotes    galantcs,    dont    pea 


d'annees  auparavant  le  public 
etoit  uniquement  occupeV  Hist, 
des  Francais,  vol.  xxix.  p.  495 ; 
and  a  similar  remark  in 
Schlosser's  Eighteenth  Century, 
vol.  ii.  p.  126. 

9  See  the  account,  written  in 
Feb.  1781,  in  Grimm,  Corr.Lit. 
vol.  xi.  260,  where  it  is  said  of 
Necker's  Compte  Eendu,  'La 
sensation  qu'a  faite  cet  ouvrage 
est,  je  crois,  sans  exemple;  il 
s'en  est  debite  plus  de  six  mille 
exemplaires  lejour  memo  qu'il  a 
paru,  et  depuis,  le  travail  con- 
tinuel  de  deux  imprimeries  n'a 
pu  suffire  encore  aux  demandes 
multipliees  de  la  capitale,  des 
provinces,  et  des  pays  etrangers.' 
Segur  (Souvenirs,  vol.  i.  p.  138) 
mentions,  that  Necker's  work 
■was  '  dans  la  poche  de  tous  les 
abbes,  et  sur  la  toilette  de  toutes 
les  dames.'  The  daughter  of 
Necker,  Madame  de  Stael,  says 
of  her  father's  work,  Admini- 
stration des   Finances,  '  on    en 


330  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

tendency  of  all  this  the  more  obvious  is,  that  ISecker 
was  at  that  time  one  of  the  servants  of  the  crown  ;  so 
that  his  work,  looking  at  its  general  spirit,  has  been 
truly  called  an  appeal  to  the  people  against  the  king  by 
one  of  the  ministers  of  the  king  himself.10 

This  evidence  of  the  remarkable  change  which,  in  or 
about  1750,  the  French  mind  underwent,  and  which 
formed  what  I  term  the  second  epoch  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  might  be  easily  strengthened  by  a  wider  survey 
of  the  literature  of  that  time.  Immediately  after  the 
middle  of  the  century,  Rousseau  published  those  elo- 
quent works,  which  exercised  immense  influence,  and  in 
which  the  rise  of  the  new  epoch  is  very  observable ;  for 
this  most  powerful  writer  abstained  from  those  attacks 
on  Christianity,1 1  which  unhappily  had  been  too  frequent, 
and  exerted  himself  almost  exclusively  against  the  civil 
and  political  abuses  of  the  existing  society.12  To  trace 
the  effects  which  this  wonderful,  but  in  some  instances 
misguided,  man  produced  on  the  mind  of  his  own  and 
of  the  succeeding  generation,  would  occupy  too  large  a 
share  of  this  Introduction  ;  though  the  inquiry  is  full 
of  interest,  and  is  one  which  it  were  to  be  wished  some 


vendit  quatre-vingt  mille  exem-  general  charges.     Compare  Life 

plaires.'     Be  Stael  sur  la  Revo-  of  Rousseau,  in  Brougham's  Men 

lution,  vol.  i.  p.  111.  of  Letters,  vol,  i.  p.  189;  St'dud- 

10  The  expression  of  the  Baron  lin,  Gesch.  der  theolog.  Wissen- 
de  Montyon:  see  Adolphus's  schaften,  vol.  ii.  p.  442;  Mercier 
History  of  George  LLT.  vol.  iv.  sur  Rousseau,  1791,  vol.  i.  pp. 
p.  290 ;  and  on  the  revolutionary  27-32,  vol.  ii.  pp.  279,  280. 
tendency  of  Necker's  financial  ,2  '  Kousseau,  qui  deja  en 
works,  Soulavie,  Regne  de  Louis  1753  avoit  touche  aux  bases 
XVI,  vol  ii.  pp.  xxxvii.  xxxviii.,  memes  de  la  societe  humaine, 
vol.  iv.  pp.  18,  143.  Necker  dans  son  Biscours  sur  Vorigine 
published  a  justification  of  his  de  Vinegalite parmi  les  homines' 
book,  'malgre  la  defense  du  roi.'  Sismondi,  vol.  xxix.  p.  270. 
Bu  Mesnii,  Mem.  sur  Lebrun,  Schlosser  {Hist,  of  the  Eighteenth 
p.  108.  Century,  vol.  i.  p.  138)  notices 

11  So  far  as  I  remember,  there  '  the  entirely  new  system  of  ab- 
is  not  a  single  instance  in  any  of  solute  democracy  which  was 
his  works  ;  and  those  who  assail  brought  forward  by  J.  J.  Eous- 
him  on  this  ground  should  ad-  seau ; '  see  also  p.  289,  and 
duce  the  passages  on  which  they  Soulavie,  Regne  de  Louis  XVI, 
rely,  instead  of  bringing  vague  vol.  v.  p,  208. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


331 


competent  historian  would  undertake.13  Inasmuch, 
however,  as  the  philosophy  of  Rousseau  was  itself  only 
a  single  phase  of  a  far  larger  movement,  I  shall  at  pre- 
sent pass  over  the  individual,  in  order  to  consider  the 
general  spirit  of  an  age  in  which  he  played  a  vast,  but 
still  a  subsidiary  part. 

The  formation  of  a  new  epoch  in  France,  about  the 
year  1750,  may  be  further  illustrated  by  three  circum- 
stances of  considerable  interest,  all  pointing  in  the  same 
direction.  The  first  circumstance  is,  that  not  a  single 
great  French  writer  attacked  the  political  institutions 
of  the  country  before  the  middle  of  the  century  ;  while, 
after  that  period,  the  attacks  of  the  ablest  men  were 
incessant.  The  second  circumstance  is,  that  the  only- 
eminent  Frenchmen  who  continued  to  assail  the  clergy, 
and  yet  refused  to  interfere  in  politics,  were  those  who, 


Is  Napoleon  said  to  Stanislas 
Girardin  respecting  Rousseau, 
'  sans  lui  la  France  n'auroit  pas 
eu  de  revolution.'  Hollands 
Foreign  'Reminiscences,  Lond. 
1850,  p.  261.  This  is  certainly 
an  exaggeration  ;  but  the  in- 
fluence of  Rousseau  was,  during 
the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  most  extraordinary.  In 
1765,  Hume  writes  from  Paris: 
'  It  is  impossible  to  express  or 
imagine  the  enthusiasm  of  this 
nation  in  his  favour ;  ....  no 
person  ever  so  much  engaged 
their  attention  as  Rousseau. 
Voltaire  and  every  body  else  are 
quite  eclipsed  by  him.'  Burton's 
Life  of  Hume,  vol.  ii.  p.  299.  A 
letter  written  in  1754  (in  Grimm, 
Correspond,  vol  i.  p.  122)  says 
that  his  Dijon  Discourse  '  fit  une 
espece  de  revolution  a  Paris.' 
The  circulation  of  his  works  was 
unprecedented ;  and  when  La 
Nouvelle  Helo'ise  appeared,  'les 
.libraires  ne  pouvaient  sufiire  aux 
demandes  de  toutes  les  classes. 
On  louait  l'ouvrage  a  tant  par 


jour,  ou  par  heure.  Quand  il 
parut,  on  exigeait  douze  sous 
par  volume,  en  n'accordant  que 
soixante  minutes  pour  le  lire.' 
Musset  Pathay,  Vie  de  Rousseau, 
vol.  ii.  p.  361.  For  further  evi- 
dence of  the  effect  produced  by 
his  works,  see  Lerminier,  Philos. 
du  Droit,  vol.  ii.  p.  251  ;  Mem. 
de  Roland,  vol.  i.  p.  196,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  337,  359;  Mem.  de  Genlis, 
vol.  v.  p.  193,  vol.  vi.  p.  14 ; 
Alison's  Europe,  vol.  i.  p.  170, 
vol.  iii.  p.  369,  vol.  iv.  p.  376 ; 
Mim.  de  MoreUet,  vol.  i.  p.  116  ; 
Longchamp,  Mem.  sur  Voltaire, 
vol.  ii.  p.  50 ;  Life  of  Romilly, 
vol.  i.  p.  267  ;  Mem.  of  Mallet 
du  Pan,  vol.  i.  p.  127 ;  Burke's 
Works,  vol.  i.  p.  482  ;  Cassagnac, 
Causes  de  la  Riv.  vol.  iii.  p.  549 ; 
Lamartine,  Hist,  dcs  Girondins, 
vol.  ii.  p.  38,  vol.  iv.  p.  93,  voL 
viii.  p.  125  ;  Wahrheit  und  Dich- 
tung,  in  Gothe's  Werke,  Stutt- 
gart, 1 837,  vol.  ii.  part  ii.  pp.  83, 
104  ;  Grimm,  Correspond.  Lit. 
vol.  xii.  p.  222;  De  Stael,  Consid. 
sur  la  Rev.  vol.  ii.  p.  371. 


332  PEOXIMATE   CAUSES   OP 

like  Voltaire,  had  already  reached  an  advanced  age,  and 
had,  therefore,  drawn  their  ideas  from  the  preceding 
generation,  in  which  the  church  had  been  the  sole  object 
of  hostility.  The  third  circumstance,  which  is  even 
more  striking  than  the  other  two,  is,  that  almost  at  the 
same  moment  there  was  seen  a  change  in  the  policy  of 
the  government ;  since,  singularly  enough,  the  ministers 
of  the  crown  displayed  for  the  first  time  an  open  enmity 
against  the  church,  just  as  the  intellect  of  the  country 
was  preparing  for  its  decisive  onslaught  on  the  govern- 
ment itself.  Of  these  three  propositions,  the  first  two 
will  probably  be  admitted  by  every  student  of  French 
literature :  at  all  events,  if  they  are  false,  they  are  so 
exact  and  peremptory,  that  it  will  be  easy  to  refute  them 
by  giving  examples  to  the  contrary.  But  the  third 
proposition,  being  more  general,  is  less  susceptible  of  a 
negative,  and  will  therefore  require  the  support  of  that 
special  evidence  which  I  will  now  adduce. 

The  great  French  writers  having  by  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  succeeded  in  sapping  the  foundations 
of  the  church,  it  was  natural  that  the  government 
should  step  in  and  plunder  an  establishment  which  the 
course  of  events  had  weakened.  This,  which  took  place 
in  France  under  Louis  XV.,  was  similar  to  what  occurred 
in  England  under  Henry  VIII.  ;  for  in  both  cases  a 
remarkable  intellectual  movement,  directed  against  the 
clergy,  preceded  and  facilitated  the  attacks  made  on 
them  by  the  crown.  It  was  in  1749  that  the  French 
government  took  the  first  decisive  step  against  the 
church.  And  what  proves  the  hitherto  backward  state 
of  the  country  in  such  matters  is,  that  this  consisted  of 
an  edict  against  mortmain,  a  simple  contrivance  for 
weakening  the  ecclesiastical  power,  which  we  in  England 
had  adopted  long  before.  Machault,  who  had  recently 
been  raised  to  the  office  of  controller-general,  has  the 
glory  of  being  the  originator  of  this  new  policy.  In 
August  1749,14  he  issued  that  celebrated  edict  which 

14    Sismondi    (xrix.    p.    20),  the  date  1749;  so  that  1747,  in 

Lacretelle  {XVIII'  Siecle,  vol.  ii.  Biog,  Univ.  vol.  xxvi.  p.   46,  is 

p.  110),  and  Tocqneville  (Begne  apparently  a  misprint. 
de  Louis  XV,  vol.  ii.  p.  103),  give 


THE    FEENCH   REVOLUTION.  333 

forbade  the  formation  of  any  religious  establishment 
without  the  consent  of  the  crown,  duly  expressed  in 
letters-patent,  and  registered  in  parliament ;  effective 
precautions,  which,  says  the  great  historian  of  France, 
show  that  Machault  '  considered  not  only  the  increase, 
but  even  the  existence  of  these  ecclesiastical  properties, 
as  a  mischief  to  the  kingdom.'  15 

This  was  an  extraordinary  step  on  the  part  of  the 
French  government ;  but  what  followed  showed  that  it 
was  only  the  beginning  of  a  much  larger  design.16 
Machault,  so  far  from  being  discountenanced,  was,  the 
year  after  he  had  issued  this  edict,  intrusted  with  the 
seals  in  addition  to  the  controllership  ;17  for,  as  Lacre- 
telle  observes,  the  court  'thought  the  time  had  now 
come  to  tax  the  property  of  the  clergy.'18  During  the 
forty  years  which  elapsed  between  this  period  and  the 
beginning  of  the  Revolution,  the  same  anti-ecclesiastical 
policy  prevailed.  Among  the  successors  of  Machault, 
the  only  three  of  much  ability  were  Choiseul,  JSTecker, 
and  Turgot,  all  of  whom  were  strenuous  opponents  of 
that  spiritual  body,  which  no  minister  would  have  as- 
sailed in  the  preceding  generation.  Not  only  these 
eminent  statesmen,  but  even  such  inferior  men  as 
Calonne,  Malesherbes,  and  Terray,  looked  on  it  as  a 
stroke  of  policy  to  attack  privileges  which  superstition 


15  '  Laissant  voir  dans  "toute  plusieurs  Merits,  les  immunities 
cette  loi,  qui  est  assez  longue,  du  clergeV  On  the  dislike  felt 
qu'il  regardoit  non-seulement  by  the  clergy  against  the  mini- 
l'aecroissement,  mais  1' existence  ster,  see  Sigur,  Souvenirs,  vol.  i. 
de  ces  proprietds  ecclesiastiques,  p.  35 ;  Soulavie,  Begne  de  Louis 
comme  un  mal  pour  le  royaume.'  XVI,  vol.  i.  pp.  283,  310,  vol.  ii. 
Sismondi,  Hist,   des  Franc,  vol.  p.  146. 

xxix.  p.  21.    This,  I  suppose,  is  17  In  1750,  'Machault  obtint 

the  edict  mentioned  by  Turgot,  les  sceaux  en  conservant  le  con- 

who  wished  to  push  the  principle  tr61e-g£neral.'    JBiog.  Univ.  vol. 

still  further.     (Euvres  de  Turgot,  xxvi.  p.  46. 

vol.  iii.  pp.  254,  255 ;  a  bold  and  I8  '  Croyait    6urfrout    que    le 

striking  passage.  temps  6tait  venu  d'imposer  les 

16  Mably  mentions  the  excite-  biens    du    clerge.'      Lacretettc, 
ment  caused  by  this  proceeding  XVIIP  Siecle,   voL   ii.   p.  %07. 
of  Machault,    Observations  sur  Nearly  the  same  words  are  used 
rHistoire  dc  France,  vol.  ii.  p.  in  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxvi.  p.  46. 
415:    'On  attao.ua  alors,   dans 


334  PROXIMATE    CAUSES   OF 

had  consecrated,  and  which,  the  clergy  had  hitherto 
reserved,  partly  to  extend  their  own  influence,  and 
partly  to  minister  to  those  luxurious  and  profligate 
habits,  which  in  the  eighteenth  century  were  a  scandal 
to  the  ecclesiastical  order. 

While  these  measures  were  being  adopted  against  the 
clergy,  another  important  step  was  taken  in  precisely 
the  same  direction.  Now  it  was  that  the  government 
began  to  favour  that  great  doctrine  of  religious  liberty, 
the  mere  defence  of  which  it  had  hitherto  punished  as  a 
dangerous  speculation.  The  connexion  between  the 
attacks  on  the  clergy  and  the  subsequent  progress  of 
toleration,  may  be  illustrated,  not  only  by  the  rapidity 
with  which  one  event  succeeded  the  other,  but  also  by 
the  fact,  that  both  of  them  emanated  from  the  same 
quarter.  Machault,  who  was  the  author  of  the  edict  of 
mortmain,  was  also  the  first  minister  who  showed  a 
wish  to  protect  the  Protestants  against  the  persecutions 
of  the  Catholic  priesthood.19  In.  this  he  only  partly 
succeeded;  but  the  impetus  thus  given  soon  became 
irresistible.  In  1760,  that  is  only  nine  years  later, 
there  was  seen  a  marked  change  in  the  administration 
of  the  laws  ;  and  the  edicts  against  heresy,  though  not 
yet  repealed,  were  enforced  with  unprecedented  mild- 
ness.20 The  movement  quickly  spread  from  the  capital 
to  the  remoter  parts  of  the  kingdom ;  and  we  are  as- 
sured that,  after  the  year  1762,  the  reaction  was  felt 
even  in  those  provinces,  which,  from  their  backward 
condition,  had  always  been  most  remarkable  for  reli- 
gious bigotry.21    At  the  same  time,  as  we  shall  presently 


19  On  -which  account,  he  still  urgent  remonstrances  to  the  king 
further  provoked  the  indignation  against  this  remission  of  the 
of  the  Catholic  clergy.  See  laws.'  Felice,  Protest,  of  France, 
Felice,  Hist,  of  the  Protest,  of  p.  422.  Comp.  an  interesting 
France,  pp.  401,  402;  a  letter  letter  from  Nismes  in  1776,  in 
written  in  1751  Thicknesse's    Journey     through 

20  'The  approach  of  the  year  France,  London,  1777,  vol.  i.  p. 
1760  witnessed  a  sensible  relax-  66. 

ation"  of  persecution.  .  .    .  The  21  Sismondi  says  of  1762, 'Des- 

clergy  perceived  this  with  dis-  lors,   la    reaction    de    l'opinion 

may ;     and,    in    their    general  publique      contre      l'intolerance 

assembly  of  1 760,  they  addressed  penetra  jusque  dans  les  provinces 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION.  335 

see,  a  great  schism  arose  in  the  church  itself,  which 
lessened  the  power  of  the  clergy,  by  dividing  them  into 
two  hostile  parties.  Of  these  factions,  one  made 
common  cause  with  the  state,  still  further  aiding  the 
overthrow  of  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy.  Indeed,  the 
dissensions  became  so  violent,  that  the  last  great  blow 
dealt  to  spiritual  ascendency  by  the  government  of 
Louis  XVI.  proceeded  not  from  the  hands  of  a  layman, 
but  from  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  church  ;  a  man  who, 
from  his  standing  ,  would,  under  ordinary  circumstances, 
have  protected  the  interests  which  he  now  eagerly  at- 
tacked. In  1787,  only  two  years  before  the  Revolution, 
Brienne,  archbishop  of  Toulouse,22  who  was  then  mini- 
ster, laid  before  the  parliament  of  Paris  a  royal  edict, 
by  which  the  discouragement  hitherto  thrown  upon 
heresy  was  suddenly  removed.  By  this  law,  the  Pro- 
testants were  invested  with  all  those  civil  rights  which 
the  Catholic  clergy  had  long  held  out  as  the  reward  of 
adherence  to  their  own  opinions.23  It  was,  therefore, 
natural  that  the  more  orthodox  party  should  condemn, 
as  an  impious  innovation,24  a  measure  which,  by  placing 
the  two  sects,  in  some  degree,  on  the  same  footing, 
seemed  to  sanction  the  progress  of  error ;  and  which 
certainly  deprived  the  French  church  of  one  of  the  chief 
attractions  by  which  men  had  hitherto  been  induced  to 
join  her  communion.  Now,  however,  all  these  conside- 
rations were  set  at  nought.  Such  was  the  prevailing 
temper,  that  the  parliament,  though  then  in  a  mood 
very  refractory  to  the  royal  authority,  did  not  hesitate 


les  plus  fanatiques.'    Hist,  des  should  be  contrasted  with  the 

Frang.   vol.  xxix.  p.  296.     See  opposite  exaggerations,  in  Mem. 

also  a  letter  to  Damilaville,  dated  de  Genlis,  vol.  ix.  pp.  360-363, 

6th  of  May,    1765,   in   Lettres  aadBarruel,Hist.duJacobinisme, 

inidites  de    Voltaire,  vol.  i.  p.  vol.  i.  pp.  87,  199. 

412;  and  two  other  letters  in  M  Lavalle,  Hist,  des    Frang. 

CEuvres  de  Voltaire,  vol.  lxiv.  p.  iii.   516;   Biog.    Univ.  xxiv.   p. 

225,  vol.  lxvi.  p.  417.  656. 

22  Of   whom    Hume,   several  2i  Georgel,  Mbnoires',  vol.  ii. 

years  before,  had  formed  a  very  pp.  293,  294  ;  a  violent  outbreak 

high  opinion.     See  Burton's  Life  against  '  l'irreligieux  edit  .... 

of  Hume,  vol.  ii.  p.  497 ;   a  too  qui  autorise  tous  les  cultes.' 
favourable     judgment,      which 


336  PEOXIMATE   CAUSES   OP 

to  register  the  edict  of  the  king  ;  and  this  great  measure 
became  law ;  the  dominant  party  being  astonished,  we 
are  told,  how  any  doubt  could  be  entertained  as  to  the 
wisdom  of  the  principles  on  which  it  was  based.25 

These  were  omens  of  the  coming  storm ;  signs  of  the 
time,  which  those  who  run  may  read.  Nor  are  there 
wanting  other  marks,  by  which  the  true  complexion  of 
that  age  may  be  clearly  seen.  In  addition  to  what  has 
been  just  related,  the  government,  soon  after  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  inflicted  a  direct  and  fatal 
injury  upon  the  spiritual  authority.  This  consisted  in 
the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  ;  which  is  an  event,  impor- 
tant not  only  for  its  ultimate  effects,  but  also  as  an 
evidence  of  the  feelings  of  men,  and  of  what  could  be 
peaceably  accomplished  by  the  government  of  him  who 
was  called  'the  most  Christian  king.'26 

The  Jesuits,  for  at  least  fifty  years  after  their  insti- 
tution, rendered  immense  services  to  civilization,  partly 
by  tempering  with  a  secular  element  the  more  super- 
stitious views  of  their  great  predecessors,  the  Domini- 
cans and  Franciscans,  and  partly  by  organizing  a  system 
of  education  far  superior  to  any  yet  seen  in  Europe.  In 
no  university  could  there  be  found  a  scheme  of  instruc- 
tion so  comprehensive  as  theirs  ;  and  certainly  no  where 
was  displayed  such  skill  in  the  management  of  youth, 
or  such  insight  into  the  general  operations  of  the 
human  mind.     It  must,  in  justice,  be  added,  that  this 

25  '  Le  parlement  de  Paris  dis-  himself  concerned  in  the  nego- 

cutait  l'eait  sur  les  protestans.  tiation. 

Vingt  ans  plus  t6t,  combien  une  26  Henry  II.  used  to  refer  to 

telle    resolution    n'eut-elle    pas  this  title,  by  way  of  justifying 

agite  etdivise  les  esprits?     En  his  persecution  of  the  Protestants 

1787,  on  ne  s'etonnait  que  d'une  (Banke's  Civil  Wars  in  France, 

chose:  c'etait  qu'il  put  y  avoir  vol.  i.  p.  241)  ;  and  great  account 

une  discussion  sur  des  prineipes  was  made  of  it  by  that  exemplary 

evidens.'      Lacretelle,      XVIII'  prince,    Louis    XV.      Soulavie, 

Siecle,  vol.  iii.  pp.  342,  343.     In  Begne  de   Louis  XVI,  vol.  L  p. 

1776,  IV^alesherbes,  who  was  then  155.      The  Prench    antiquaries 

minister,  wished  to  secure  nearly  trace  it  back  to  Pepin,  the  father 

the    same    privileges     for    the  of  Charlemagne.      Barrington's 

Protestants,  but  was  prevented  Observations  on  the  Statutes,  p. 

from  doing  so.  Dutens,  Memoircs,  168. 
vol.  ii.  pp.  56-58.    Dutens  was 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION".  387 

illustrious  society,  notwithstanding  its  eager,  and  often 
unprincipled,  ambition,  was,  during  a  considerable  period, 
the  steady  friend  of  science,  as  well  as  of  literature  ;  and 
that  it  allowed  to  its  members  a  freedom  and  a  boldness 
of  speculation  which  had  never  been  permitted  by  any 
other  monastic  order. 

As,  however,  civilization  advanced,  the  Jesuits,  like 
every  spiritual  hierarchy  the  world  has  yet  seen,  began 
to  lose  ground ;  and  this  not  so  much  from  their  own 
decay,  as  from  a  change  in  the  spirit  of  those  who  sur- 
rounded them.  An  institution  admirably  adapted  to  an 
early  form  of  society,  was  ill  suited  to  the  same  society 
in  its  maturer  state.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  the 
Jesuits  were  before  their  age;  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
they  were  behind  it.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  they 
were  the  great  missionaries  of  knowledge ;  because  they 
believed  that,  by  its  aid,  they  could  subjugate  the  con- 
sciences of  men.  But,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  their 
materials  were  more  refractory ;  they  had  to  deal  with 
a  perverse  and  stiff-necked  generation ;  they  saw  in 
every  country  the  ecclesiastical  authority  rapidly  de- 
clining; and  they  clearly  perceived  that  their  only 
chance  of  retaining  their  old  dominion  was,  by  checking 
that  knowledge,  the  progress  of  which  they  had  formerly 
done  much  to  accelerate.27 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  statesmen  of  France, 
almost  immediately  after  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  determined  to  ruin  an  order  which  had  long 
ruled  the  world,  and  which  was  still  the  greatest  bul- 
wark of  the  church.  In  this  design  they  were  aided  by 
a   curious   movement   which   had  taken   place  in  the 

27  The  Prince  de  Montbarey,  vol.  i.  pp.  12,  13.    Montbarey,  bo 

who  was  educated  by  the  Jesuits  far  from  being  prejudiced  against 

about  1740,  says,  that,  in  their  the  Jesuits,  ascribes  the  Kevo- 

sehools,    the  greatest  attention  lution  to  their  overthrow.     Ibid. 

was  paid  to  pupils  intended  for  vol.  iii.  p.  94.     For  other  evidence 

the  church;    while  the  abilities  of  the  exclusive  and  unsecular 

of  those  destined  for  secular  pro-  character  of  their  education   in 

fessions  were  neglected.     See  this  the     eighteenth      century,     see 

statement,  which,  coming  from  Sehlosser's   Eighteenth    Omtury, 

snch  a  quarter,  is  very  remark-  voL  iv.  pp.  29,  30,  245. 
able,  in  Mimoires  de  Montbarey, 

VOL.  n.  X 


338  PKOXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 

church  itself,  and  which,  being  connected  with  views  of 
much  wider  import,  deserves  the  attention  even  of  those 
for  whom  theological  controversies  have  no  interest. 

Among  the  many  points  on  which  metaphysicians 
have  wasted  their  strength,  that  of  free-will  has  pro- 
voked the  hottest  disputes.  And  what  has  increased 
the  acerbity  of  their  language,  is,  that  this,  which  is 
eminently  a  metaphysical  question,  has  been  taken  up 
by  theologians,  who  have  treated  it  with  that  warmth 
for  which  they  are  remarkable.28  From  the  time  of 
Pelagius,  if  not  earlier,29  Christianity  has  been  divided 
into  two  great  sects,  which,  though  in  some  respects 
uniting  by  insensible  shades,  have  always  preserved  the 
broad  features  of  their  original  difference.  By  one  sect, 
the  freedom  of  the  will  is  virtually,  and  often  expressly, 
denied ;  for  it  is  asserted,  not  only  that  we  cannot  of 
our  own  will  effect  anything  meritorious,  but  that  what- 
ever good  we  may  do  will  be  useless,  since  the  Deity 
has  predestined  some  men  to  perdition,  others  to  salva- 
tion. By  the  other  sect,  the  freedom  of  the  will  is  as 
strongly  upheld  ;  good  works  are  declared  essential  to 
salvation  ;  and  the  opposite  party  is  accused  of  exagge- 
rating that  state  of  grace  of  which  faith  is  a  necessary 
accompaniment.30 

.  These  opposite  principles,  when  pushed  to  their 
logical  consequences,  must  lead  the  first  sect  into  anti- 

M  See  some  singular  obser-  p.  cxxsv. ;  an  important  work  on 
rations  in  Parr's  first  sermon  on  the  Asiatic  religions, 
faith  and  morals  (Parr's  Works,  •  Neander  [Hist,  of the  Church, 
vol.  vi.  p.  598),  where  we  are  told  vol.  iv.  p.  105)  finds  the  germ  of 
that,  in  the  management  of  the  the  Pelagian  controversy  in  the 
feud  between  Calvinists  and  dispute  between  Athanasins  and 
Axminians,  'the  steadiness  of  Apollinaris.  Compare,  respect- 
defence  should  be  proportionate  ing  its  origin,  a  note  in  Milman's 
to  the  impetuosity  of  assault;'  Hist,  of  Christianity,  1840,  vol. 
unnecessary  advice,  so  far  as  his  iii.  pp.  270,  271. 
own  -profession  is  concerned.  30  No  writer  I  have  met  with, 
However,  the  Mohammedan  theo-  has  stated  so  fairly  and  clearly 
logians  are  said  to  have  been  the  theological  boundaries  of 
even  keener  than  the  Christians  these  doctrines,  as  Gothe.  Wahr- 
on  this  subject.  See  Troyer's  heitundBichtung,\nWerke,Yo\.'\\. 
Discourse  on  the  Dabiskm,  vol.  i.  part  ii.  p.  200,  Stuttgart,  1 837. 


THE    FRENCH   EEVOLUTION. 


339 


nomianism,31  and  the  second  sect  into  the  doctrine  of 
supererogatory  works.32  But  since  on  such  subjects, 
men  feel  far  more  than  they  reason,  it  usually  happens 
that  they  prefer  following  some  common  and  accredited 
standard,  or  appealing  to  some  ancient  name  :33  and 
they,  therefore,  generally  class  themselves  on  the  one 
side  under  Augustin,  Calvin,  and  Jansenius  ;  on  the 
other  side  under  Pelagius,  Arminius,  and  Molina. 

Now,  it  is  an  interesting  fact,  that  the  doctrines 
which  in  England  are  called  Calvinistic,  have  been 
always  connected  with  a  democratic  spirit ;  while  those 
of  Arminianism  have  found  most  favour  among  the 
aristocratic  or  protective  party.  In  the  republics  of 
Switzerland,  of  North  America,  and  of  Holland,  Calvin- 
ism was  always  the  popular  creed.34  On  the  other 
hand,  in  those  evil  days,  immediately  after  the  death  of 
Elizabeth,  when  our  liberties  were  in  imminent  peril ; 
when  the  Church  of  England,  aided  by  the  crown, 
attempted  to  subjugate  the  consciences  of  men ;  and 
when  the  monstrous  claim  of  the  divine  right  of  episco- 


81  Compare  Butler's  Mem.  of 
the  Catliolies,  vol.  iii.  p.  224 ; 
Copleston  on  Necessity  and  Pre- 
destination, pp.  25,  26 ;  Mas- 
helm's  Eccles.  History,  vol.  ii.  p. 
254. 

82  Hence  the  theory  of  indul- 
gences, constructed  by  the  Church 
of  Rome  with  perfect  consistency, 
and  against  which  most  of  the 
Protestant  arguments  are  illogi- 
cal. 

88  This  seems  to  be  the  natu- 
ral tendency,  and  has  been  ob- 
served by  Neander  in  his  instruc- 
tive account  of  the  Gnostics, 
History  of  the  Church,  vol.  ii.  p. 
121:  'The  custom  with  such 
sects  to  attach  themselves  to 
some  celebrated  name  or  other 
of  antiquity.' 

84  The  Dutch  church  was  the 
first  which  adopted,  as  an  article 


of  faith,  the  doctrine  of  election 
held  at  Geneva.  Mosheim's 
Eccles.  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  112. 
See  also,  on  this  doctrine  in  the 
Netherlands,  Sinclair's  Corresp. 
vol.  ii.  p.  199  ;  Coventry's  Speech 
in  1672,  in  Pari.  Hist.  vol.  iv.  p. 
537 ;  and  Staudlin,  Gesch.  der 
theolog.  Wissenschaften,  vol.  i. 
p.  262 :  '  In  den  Niederlanden 
wurde  der  Calvinische  Lehrbe- 
griff  zuerst  in  eine  scholastische 
Form  gebracht.' 

As  to  the  Calvinism  of  North 
America,  compare  Bancroft's 
American  Revolution,  voL  i.  pp. 
165,  173,  174,  vol.  ii.  pp.  329, 
363,  vol.  iii.  p.  213;  LyelVs 
Second  Visit  to  the  United  States, 
1849,  vol.  i.  p.  61 ;  and  Combe's 
Notes  on  the  United  States,  vol. 
i.  pp.  35,  99,  223,  voL  iii.  pp.  88, 
118,  219,  226. 


z2 


340  PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

pacy  was  first  put  forward  ;35 — then  it  was  that  Armi- 
nianism  became  the  cherished  doctrine  of  the  ablest  and 
most  ambitions  of  the  ecclesiastical  party.36  And  in 
that  sharp  retribution  which  followed,  the  Puritans  and 
Independents,  by  whom  the  punishment  was  inflicted, 
were,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  Calvinists  :37  nor 
should  we  forget,  that  the  first  open  movement  against 
Charles  proceeded  from  Scotland,  where  the  principles 
of  Calvin  had  long  been  in  the  ascendant. 

This  different  tendency  of  these  two  creeds  is  so 
clearly  marked,  that  an  inquiry  into  its  causes  becomes 
a  necessary  part  of  general  history,  and  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  is  intimately  connected  with  the  history 
of  the  French  Revolution. 

The  first  circumstance  by  which  we  must  be  struck 
is,  that  Calvinism  is  a  doctrine  for  the  poor,  and  Armi- 
nianism  for  the  rich.  A  creed  which  insists  upon  the 
necessity  of  faith,  must  be  less  costly  than  one  which 
insists  upon  the  necessity  of  works.  In  the  former  case, 
the  sinner  seeks  salvation  by  the  strength  of  his  belief ; 
in  the  latter  case,  he  seeks  it  by  the  fullness  of  his  con- 

3i  It  is  sometimes  said  that  Eeale,  in  Boyle's  Works,  vol.  v. 

this  was  advocated  by  Bancroft  p.  483 ;  and  on  this  movement 

as  early  as  1588  ;  but  this  asser-  in  the   church  after  Elizabeth, 

tion  appears   to  be    erroneous,  compare  Yonge's  Diary,  p.   93, 

and  Mr.  Hallam  can  find  no  in-  edit.  Camden  Soc.  1848  ;   Orme's 

stance  before  the  reign  of  James  Life  of  Owen,  p.  32  ;    Harris  s 

I.     Const.  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.   390.  Lives  of  the  Stuarts,  vol.  i.  pp. 

The  dogma,  though  new  in  the  154-156, vol.ii.pp. 208,213,214  ; 

Church  of  England,  was  of  great  Hutchinson's  Mem.   pp.   66,  77  ; 

antiquity.     See,   on    its    origin  Hallam's  Const.  Hist.    vol.  i.  p. 

among    the     early     Christians,  466;    Des   Maizeauxs    Life    of 

Klimrath,  Hist,  du  Droit,  vol.  i.  Chillingworth,  p.  112. 
p.  253.  S7  Respecting    the   Calvinism 

88  The  spread  of  Arminianism  of  the   opponents   of  the  king, 

was  frequently  noticed  in  Par-  see    Clarendon's    Rebellion,   pp. 

liament    during    the    reign    of  36,  37  ;  Bulstrode's  Memoirs,  pp. 

Charles  I.     Pari.  Hist.  vol.    ii.  8,  9 ;  Burton's  Diary,  vol.  iii.  p. 

pp.  444,  452,  455,  470,  484,  487,  206  ;  Carlyle's  Cromwell,  vol.  i. 

491,    660,  947,   1368.     On   the  p.  68;  and  on  its  influence  in 

decline  of  Calvinism  at  the  Uni-  the  House  of  Commons  in  1628, 

versities  of  Oxford  and   Cam-  Carwithen's  Hist,  of  the  Church 

bridge  early  in  the  seventeenth  of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  64. 
century,  see  a  curious  letter  from 


THE  FEENCH  EE  VOLUTION.        841 

tributions.  And  as  those  contributions,  wherever  the 
clergy  have  much  power,  always  flow  in  the  same  direc- 
tion, we  find  that  in  countries  which  favour  the  Armi- 
nian  doctrine  of  works,  the  priests  are  better  paid,  and 
the  churches  more  richly  ornamented,  than  they  are 
where  Calvinism  has  the  upper  hand.  Indeed  it  is 
evident  to  the  most  vulgar  calculation,  that  a  religion 
which'  concentrates  our  charity  upon  ourselves,  is  less 
expensive  than  one  which  directs  our  charity  to  others. 

This  is  the  first  great  practical  divergence  of  the  two 
creeds  :  a  divergence  which  may  be  verified  by  any  one 
who  is  acquainted  with  the  histories  of  different  Christian 
nations,  or  who  has  even  travelled  in  countries  where 
the  different  tenets  are  professed.  It  is  also  observable, 
that  the  Church  of  Rome,  whose  worship  is  addressed 
mainly  to  the  senses,  and  who  delights  in  splendid 
cathedrals  and  pompous  ceremonies,  has  always  dis- 
played against  the  Calvinists  an  animosity  far  greater 
than  she  has  done  against  any  other  Protestant  sect/'8 

Out  of  these  circumstances,  inevitably  arose  the  aris- 
tocratic tendency  of  Arminianism,  and  the  democratic 
tendency  of  Calvinism.  The  people  love  pomp  and 
pageantry  as  much  as  the  nobles  do,  but  they  do  not 
love  to  pay  for  them.  Their  untutored  minds  are  easily 
captivated  by  the  array  of  a  numerous  priesthood,  and 
by  the  gorgeousness  of  a  well-appointed  temple.  Still, 
they  know  full  well  that  these  things  absorb  a  large  part 
of  that  wealth  which  would  otherwise  flow  into  their 
own  cottages.  On  the  other  hand,  the  aristocracy,  by 
their  standing,  their  habits,  and  the  traditions  of  their 
education,  naturally  contract  a  taste  for  expense,  which 
makes  them  unite  splendour  with  religion,  and  connect 
pomp  with  piety.     Besides  this,  they  have  an  intuitive 

88  Heber  (life  of  Jeremy  Tay-  Hist.  vol.  x.  p.  705:  compare 
lor,  p.  cxx.)  6ays,  that  Calvinism  vol.  xi.  p.  458.  To  give  an  ear- 
is  '  a  system  of  all  others  the  lier  instance ;  when  the  Roman 
least  attractive  to  the  feelings  of  inquisition  was  revived  in  1542, 
a  Roman  Catholic'  Philip  II.,  it  was  ordered  that  heretics,  and 
the  great  Catholic  champion,  es-  in  particular  Calvinists,  should 
pecially  hated  the  Calvinists,  not  be  tolerated :  '  besonders 
and  in  one  of  his  edicts  called  Calvinisten.'  Ranke,  Die  Pdpste, 
their  sect '  detestable.'    Be  Tfwu,  vol.  i.  p.  2 1 1 . 


342 


PROXIMATE    CAUSES   OF 


and  well-founded  belief  that  their  own  interests  are 
associated  with  the  interests  of  the  priesthood,  and  that 
whatever  weakens  the  one  will  hasten  the  downfall  of 
the  other.  Hence  it  is,  that  every  Christian  democracy 
has  simplified  its  external  worship ;  every  Christian 
aristocracy  has  embellished  it.  By  a  parity  of  reason- 
ing, the  more  any  society  tends  to  equality,  the  more 
likely  it  is  that  its  theological  opinions  will  be  Ca?vin- 
istic;  while  the  more  a  society  tends  towards  inequa- 
lity, the  greater  the  probability  of  those  opinions  being 
Arminian. 

It  would  be  easy  to  push  this  contrast  still  further, 
and  to  show  that  Calvinism  is  more  favourable  to  the 
sciences,  Arminianism  to  the  arts  ;39  and  that,  on  the 
same  principle,  the  first  is  better  suited  to  thinkers,  the 
other  to  scholars.40  But  without  pretending  to  trace 
the  whole  of  this  divergence,  it  is  very  important  to 
observe,  that  the  professors  of  the  former  rebgion  are 
more  likely  to  acquire  habits  of  independent  thinking 
than   those   of  the   latter.     And  this  on  two  distinct 


89  By  way  of  illustrating  this, 
I  may  mention,  that  an  intelli- 
gent observer,  who  travelled  all 
through  Germany,  remarked,  in 
1 780,  that  the  Calvinists,  though 
richer  than  their  opponents,  had 
less  taste  for  the  arts.  Bies- 
beck's  Travels  through  Germany, 
London,  1787,  vol.  ii.  p.  240.  An 
interesting  passage;  in  which, 
however,  the  author  has  shown 
himself  unable  to  generalize  the 
facts  which  he  indicates. 

40  The  Arminians  have  had 
among  them  many  men  of  great 
learning,  particularly  of  patristic 
learning ;  but  the  most  profound 
thinkers  have  been  on  the  other 
6ide,  as  in  the  instances  of  Au- 
gustin,  Pascal,  and  Jonathan 
Edwards.  To  these  Calvinistic 
metaphysicians  the  Arminian 
party  can  oppose  no  one  of  equal 
ability;    and   it  is  remarkable, 


that  the  Jesuits,  by  far  the  most 
zealous  Arminians  in  the  Romish 
Church,  have  always  been  cele- 
brated for  their  erudition,  but 
have  paid  so  little  attention  to 
the  study  of  the  mind,  that,  as 
Sir  James  Mackintosh  says 
(Dissert,  on  Ethical  Pkilos.  p. 
185),  Burner  is  'the  only  Jesuit 
whose  name  has  a  place  in  the 
history  of  abstract  philosophy.' 
And  it  is  interesting  to  observe, 
that  this  superiority  of  thought 
on  the  part  of  the  Calvinists,  ac- 
companied by  an  inferiority  of 
learning,  existed  '  from  the  be- 
ginning ;  for  Neander  (History 
of  the  Church,  vol.  iv.  p.  299) 
remarks,  that  Pelagius  '  was  not 
possessed  of  the  profound  specu- 
lative spirit  which  we  find  in 
Augustin,'  but  that  '  in  learning 
he  was  Augustin's  superior.' 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION.  343 

grounds.  In  the  first  place,  even  the  most  ordinary  of 
the  Calvinistic  party  are,  by  the  very  terms  of  their 
creed,  led,  in  religious  matters,  to  fix  their  attention  *on 
their  own  minds  rather  than  on  the  minds  of  others. 
They,  therefore,  as  a  body,  are  intellectually  more  nar- 
row than  their  opponents,  but  less  servile ;  their  views, 
though  generalized  from  a  smaller  field,  are  more  inde- 
pendent ;  they  are  less  attached  to  antiquity,  and  more 
heedless  of  those  traditions  to  which  the  Arminian  scho- 
lars attach  great  importance.  In  the  second  place,  those 
who  associate  metaphysics  with  their  religion  are  led 
by  Calvinism  into  the  doctrine  of  necessity  ;41  a  theory 
which,  though  often  misunderstood,  is  pregnant  with 
great  truths,  and  is  better  calculated  than  any  other 
system  to  develop  the  intellect,  because  it  involves 
that  clear  conception  of  law,  the  attainment  of  which  is 
the  highest  point  the  human  understanding  can  reach. 
These  considerations  will  enable  the  reader  to  see 
the  immense  importance  of  that  revival  of  Jansenism, 
which  took  place  in  the  French  church  during  the 
eighteenth  century.  For,  Jansenism  being  essentially 
Calvinistic,42  those  tendencies  appeared  in  France  by 
which  Calvinism  is  marked.  There  appeared  the  inqui- 
sitive, democratic,  and  insubordinate  spirit,  which  has 
always  accompanied  that  creed.  A  farther  confirmation 

41  '  A  philosophical  necessity,  at  all  events  of  superintendence, 

grounded  on  the  idea  of  God's  *2  'The  five  principal  tenets 

foreknowledge,    has    been   sup-  of  Jansenism,  which  amount  in 

ported    by   theologians    of   the  fact  to  the  doctrine  of  Calvin.' 

Calvinistic  school,  more  or  less  Palmer  on  the  Church,  vol.  i.  p. 

rigidly,  throughout  the  whole  of  320  ;    and  see  the  remarks   of 

the    present  century.'     MoreWs  Mackintosh  in  his  Memoirs,  vol. 

Speculative  Philosophy  of  Europe,  i.  p.  411.     According  to  the  Je- 

1846,   vol.   i.   p.    366.     Indeed,  suits,    'Paulus   genuit  Augusti- 

this  tendency  is  so  natural,  that  num,  Augustinus  Calvinum,  Cal- 

we  find  the  doctrine  of  necessity,  vinus     Jansenium,      JanseniuS 

or  something  extremely  like  it,  Sancryanum,  Sancryanus  Arnal- 

laid  down  by  Augustin.     Seethe  dum  et fratres  ejus.'     DesReaux, 

interesting    extracts    in    Nean-  Historitttes,  vol.  iv.  pp.  71,  72. 

tier's    History    of   the    Church,  Compare   Huctius  de  Rebus  ad 

vol.  vi.  pp.   424,     425 ;    where,  eum  pertinentibus,  p.  64 :  '  Jan- 

however,  a  loophole  is  left  to  let  Benium  dogmata  sua  ex  Calvin- 

in  the   idea  of  interference,  or  ianis  fontibus  derivasso.' 


344 


PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 


of  the  truth  of  the  principles  just  laid  down  is,  that 
Jansenism  originated  with  a  native  of  the  Dutch  Re- 
public ;43  that  it  was  introduced  into  France  during  the 
glimpse  of  freedom  which  preceded  the  power  of  Louis 
XTV.  ;44  that  it  was  forcibly  repressed  in  his  arbitrary 
reign  ;45  and  that  before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  it  again  arose,  as  the  natural  product  of  a  state 
of  society  by  which  the  French  Revolution  was  brought 
about. 

The  connexion  between  the  revival  of  Jansenism  and 
the  destruction  of  the  Jesuits,  is  obvious.  After  the 
death  of  Louis  XTV.,  the  Jansenists  rapidly  gained 
ground,  even  in  the  Sorbonne  ;46  and  by  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  they  had  organized  a  powerful 
party  in  the  French  parliament.47  About  the  same 
period,  their  influence  began  to  show  itself  in  the  exe- 
cutive government,  and  among  the  officers  of  the 
crown.     Machault,  who  held  the  important  post  of  con- 


4S  Jansenius  was  born  in  a 
village  near  Leerdam,  and  was 
educated,  if  I  mistake  not,  in 
Utrecht. 

44  The  introduction  of  Jansen- 
ism into  France  is  superficially 
related  by  Duvernet  (Hist,  de  la 
Sorbonne,  vol.  ii.  pp.  170-175) ; 
but  the  reader  will  find  a  con- 
temporary and  highly  character- 
istic account  in  Mem.  de  Motte- 
ville,  vol.  ii.  pp.  224-227.  The 
connexion  between  it  and  the 
spirit  of  insubordination  was  re- 
marked at  the  time ;  and  Des 
Reaux,  who  wrote  in  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  men- 
tions an  opinion  that  the  Fronde 
'  etoit  venue  du  Jansenisme.' 
Historiettes,  vol.  iv.  p.  72.  Omer 
Talon  too  says  that,  in  1648, '  il 
Be  trouvoit  que  tous  ceux  qui 
etoientde  cette  opinion  n'aimoient 
pas  le  gouvernement  present  de 
l'etat.'  Mem.  d'Omer  Talon,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  280,  281. 

44  Brienne,   who  knew  Louis 


XIV.  personally,  says,  'Janse- 
nisme, l'horreur  du  roi.'  Mem. 
de  Brienne,  vol.  ii.  p.  240. 
Compare  Duclos,  Mem.  Secvets, 
vol.  i.  p.  112.  At  the  end  of  his 
reign  he  promoted  a  bishop  on 
the  avowed  ground  of  his  oppo- 
sition to  the  Jansenists ;  this  was 
in  1713.  Lettres  inedites  de 
Maintenon,  vol.  ii.  pp.  396,  406  ; 
and  see  further  vol.  i.  pp.  220, 
222. 

48  'La  Sorbonne,  moliniste 
sous  Louis  XIV,  fut  janseniste 
sous  le  regent,  et  toujours  divisee.' 
Duvernet,  Hist,  de  la  Sorbonne, 
vol.  ii.  p.  225. 

47  On  the  strength  of  the  Jan- 
senists in  the  parliament  of 
Paris,  see  TocquevUle,  Eegne  de 
Louis  XV,  vol.  i.  p.  352,  vol.  ii. 
p.  176;  Flassan,  Diplomatie, 
vol.  vi.  p.  486  ;  Mem.  de  Geor- 
gel,  vol.  ii.  p.  262;  Mem.  de 
Bouille,  vol.  I.  p.  67 ;  Palmer's 
Treatise  on  the  Church,  vol.  i. 
pp.  327,  328. 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION.  346 

troller-general,  was  known  to  favour  their  opinions  ;48 
and  a  few  years  after  his  retirement,  Choisenl  was  called 
to  the  head  of  affairs  ;  a  man  of  considerable  ability, 
by  whom  they  were  openly  protected.49  Their  views 
were  likewise  supported  by  Laverdy,  controller-general 
in  1764,  and  by  Terray,  controller  of  finances  in  1769. 50 
The  procureur-general,  Gilbert  des  Yoisins,  was  a  Jan- 
senist;61  so  also  was  one  of  his  successors,  Chauvelin;52 
and  so  was  the  advocate-general  Pelletier  de  Saint- 
Fargeau  ;53  and  so  too  was  Camus,  the  well-known 
advocate  of  the  clergy.54  Turgot,  the  greatest  states- 
man of  the  age,  is  said  to  have  embraced  the  same 
opinions  ;55  while  Necker,  who  on  two  different  occa- 
sions possessed  almost  supreme  power,  was  notoriously 
a  rigid  Calvinist.  To  this  may  be  added,  that  not  only 
Necker,  but  also  Rousseau,  to  whom  a  large  share  in 
causing  the  Revolution  is  justly  ascribed,  were  born  in 
Geneva,  and  drew  their  earliest  ideas  from  that  great 
nursery  of  the  Calvinistic  theology. 

In  such  a  state  of  things  as  this,  it  was  impossible 
that  a  body  like  the  Jesuits  should  hold  their  ground. 
They  were  the  last  defenders  of  authority  and  tradition, 
and  it  was  natural  that  they  should  fall  in  an  age  when 
statesmen  were  sceptics,  and  theologians  were  Calvinists. 
Even  the  people  had  already  marked  them  for  destruc- 
tion; and  when  Damiens,  in  1757,  attempted  to  assas- 
sinate the  king,  it  was  generally  believed  that  they  were 
the  instigators  of  the  act.66     This  we  now  know  to  be 

48  LavaUee,  Hist,  des  Fran-  **  La  Fayette,  Mem.  vol.  ii.  p. 
cats,  vol.  iii.  p.  439.  53  ;  Dumont,  Souvenirs,  p.  154  ; 

49  Soidavie,  Eigne  de  Louis  Georgel,  vol.  ii.  p.  353,  voL  iii.  p. 
XVI,\o\.  i.  pp.  31,  145.  10. 

40  Tocqueville,  Eigne  de  Louis  M  Soulavie,  Eigne  de  Louis 
XV,  vol.  ii.  p.  385;   (Euvres  de    XVI,  vol.  iii.  p.  137. 

Voltaire,  vol.  liv.  p.  275;  Mem.  *•  'The  Jesuits  are  charged  by 

de  Georgel,  vol.  i.  pp.  49-51.  the  vulgar  as  promoters  of  that 

41  Buvzrnet,  Vie  de  Voltaire,  attempt.'  Letter  from  Stanley, 
p.  90.  written  in    1761,    in    Chatham 

42  Lacretelle,  XVIII'  Steele,  Correspond,  vol.  ii.  p.  127. 
vol.  ii.  p.  119  ;  Lavallie,  vol.  iii.  Compare  Campan,  MSm.  de 
p.  477.  Marie  Antoinette,  vol.  iii.  pp.  19, 

4S  Mem.  de  Georgel,  vol.  i.  p.  21  ;  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Frang. 
67.  vol.  xxix.  pp.  Ill,  227. 


346  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES   OP 

false ;  but  the  existence  of  such  a  rumour  is  evidence 
of  the  state  of  the  popular  mind.  At  all  events,  the 
doom  of  the  Jesuits  was  fixed.  In  April  1 761,  parlia- 
ment ordered  their  constitutions  to  be  laid  before  them.57 
In  August,  they  were  forbidden  to  receive  novices,  their 
colleges  were  closed,  and  a  number  of  their  most  cele  • 
brated  works  were  publicly  burned  by  the  common 
hangman.58  Finally,  in  1762,  another  edict  appeared, 
by  which  the  Jesuits  were  condemned  without  even 
being  heard  in  their  own  defence  ;59  their  property  was 
directed  to  be  sold,  and  their  order  secularized ;  they 
were  declared  '  unfit  to  be  admitted  into  a  well-governed 
country,'  and  their  institute  and  society  were  formally 
abolished.60 

Such  was  the  way  in  which  this  great  society,  long 
the  terror  of  the  world,  fell  before  the  pressure  of  public 
opinion.  What  makes  its  fall  the  more  remarkable,  is, 
that  the  pretext  which  was  alleged  to  justify  the  exami- 
nation of  its  constitutions,  was  one  so  slight,  that  no 
former  government  would  have  listened  to  it  for  a  single 
moment.  This  immense  spiritual  corporation  was 
actually  tried  by  a  temporal  court  for  ill  faith  in  a 
mercantile  transaction,  and  for  refusing  to  pay  a  sum  of 
moijey  said  to  be  due  !61  The  most  important  body  in 
the  Catholic  church,  the  spiritual  leaders  of  France, 
the  educators  of  her  youth,  and  the  confessors  of  her 
kings,  were  brought  to  the  bar,  and  sued  in  their  col- 
lective capacity,  for  the  fraudulent  repudiation  of  a 
common  debt  !6a     So  marked  was  the  predisposition  of 


47  Lavallee,  Hist,  des  Francois,  by  Diderot,  who,  though  he  was 
vol.  iii.  p.  476.  in  Paris  at  the  time,  gives  rather 

48  Flassan,  Diplomatic  Franc,  an  incomplete  account,  Mem.  de 
vol.  vi.  p.  491.  Diderot,  vol.  ii.  pp.   127,  130- 

49  'Sans     que     les      accuses  132. 

eussent  ete  entendus.'     Lavallee,  61  Flassan,  Hist,  de  la  Diplo~ 

vol.  iii.  p.  477.     '  Pas  un  seul  matie,  vol.  vi.  pp.  486-488. 

n'a  £te  entendu  dans  leur  cause.'  S2  '  Enfin   ils   furent    mis    en 

Barruel    sur  FHist.    du    Jaco-  cause,  et  le  parlement  de  Paris 

binisme,  vol.  ii.  p.  264.  eut  l'etonnement  et  la  joie  de  voir 

*•  Lavallee,  iii. p.  477;  Flassan,  les  jesuites   amenes   devant  lui 

vi.  pp.  604,  505 ;  Sismondi,  xxix.  comme  de  vils    banqueroutiers ' 

p.  234 ;  and  the  letters  written  Lacretelle,  XVIII'  Steele,  vol.  ii. 


THE    FRENCH   DEVOLUTION.  347 

affairs,  that  it  was  not  found  necessary  to  employ  for  the 
destruction  of  the  Jesuits  any  of  those  arts  by  which 
the  popular  mind  is  commonly  inflamed.  The  charge 
upon  which  they  were  sentenced,  was  not  that  they  had 
plotted  against  the  state ;  nor  that  they  had  corrupted 
the  public  morals ;  nor  that  they  wished  to  subvert 
religion.  These  were  the  accusations  which  were 
brought  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  which  suited 
the  genius  of  that  age.  But  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
all  that  was  required  was  some  trifling  accident,  that 
might  serve  as  a  pretence  to  justify  what  the  nation  had 
already  determined.  To  ascribe,  therefore,  this  great 
event  to  the  bankruptcy  of  a  trader,  or  the  intrigues  of 
a  mistress,63  is  to  confuse  the  cause  of  an  act  with  the 
pretext  under  which  the  act  is  committed.  In  the  eyes 
of  the  men  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  real  crime  of 
the  Jesuits  was,  that  they  belonged  to  the  past  rather 
than  to  the  present,  and  that  by  defending  the  abuses 
of  ancient  establishments,  they  obstructed  the  progress 
of  mankind.  They  stood  in  the  way  of  the  age,  and  the 
age  swept  them  from  its  path.  This  was  the  real  cause 
of  their  abolition :  a  cause  not  likely  to  be  perceived  by 
those  writers,  who,  under  the  guise  of  historians,  are 
only  collectors  of  the  prattle  and  gossip  of  courts ;  and 
who  believe  that  the  destinies  of  great  nations  can  be 
settled  in  the  ante-chambers  of  ministers,  and  in  the 
councils  of  kings. 

After  the  fall  of  the  Jesuits,  there  seemed  to  be 
nothing  remaining  which  could  save  the  French  church 
from  immediate  destruction.64  The  old  theological  spirit 
had  been  for  some  time  declining,  and  the  clergy  were 
suffering  from  their  own  decay  even  more  than  from  the 
attacks  made  upon  them.  The  advance  of  knowledge 
was  producing  in  Trance  the  same   results  as  those 


p.  252.     '  Condemned  in  France  **  Choiseul  is  reported  to  have 

as  fraudulent  traders.'  Schlosser'a  said  of  the  Jesuits:  *  leur  edu- 

FAghteenth  Century,  vol.  iv.  p.  451.  cation  detruite,  tous  les  autres 

**  Several    writers     attribute  corps  religieux  toraberont  d'eux- 

the  destruction  of  the  Jesuits  to  memes.'       Barruel,     Hist      du 

the    exertions    of    Madame    de  Jacobinisme,  vol.  i.  p.  63. 
Pompadour ! 


348  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

which  I  have  pointed  out  in  England  ;  and  the  increas- 
ing attractions  of  science  drew  off  many  illustrious  men, 
who  in  a  preceding  age  would  have  been  active  mem- 
bers of  the  spiritual  profession.  That  splendid  eloquence, 
for  which  the  French  clergy  had  been  remarkable,  was 
now  dying  away,  and  there  were  no  longer  heard  the 
voices  of  those  great  orators,  at  whose  bidding  the 
temples  had  formerly  been  filled.65  Massillon  was  the  last 
of  that  celebrated  race  who  had  so  enthralled  the  mind, 
and  the  magic  of  whose  fascination  it  is  even  now  hard 
to  withstand.  He  died  in  1742 ;  and  after  him  the 
French  clergy  possessed  no  eminent  men  of  any  kind, 
neither  thinkers,  nor  orators,  nor  writers.06  Nor  did 
there  seem  the  least  possibility  of  then  recovering  their 
lost  position.  While  society  was  advancing  they  were 
receding.  All  the  sources  of  their  power  were  dried  up. 
They  had  no  active  leaders  ;  they  had  lost  the  confidence 
of  government ;  they  had  forfeited  the  respect  of  the 
people  ;  they  had  become  a  mark  for  the  gibes  of  the 


asre 


ti- 


lt does,  at  first  sight,  seem  strange  that,  under  these 


63  In   1771,   Horace  Walpole  the  productions  called  forth  were 

writes     from     Paris     that    the  so  despicable  that  they  sensibly 

churches    and     convents     were  injured  the    cause   of   religion.' 

become  so  empty,  as  to  '  appear  Alison's  Hist,  of  Europe,  vol.  i. 

like  abandoned  theatres  destined  pp.  180,  181. 

to  destruction  ;'  and  this  he  con-  67  In  1766,  the  Eev.  William 

trasts  with  his  former  experience  Cole  writes  to  Alban  Butler :  'I 

of  a  different    state  of  things,  travelled  to  Paris  through  Lille 

Walpole' s  Letters,  vol.  v.  p.  310,  and   Cambray   in    their    public 

edit.  1840.  voitures,  and  was  greatly  scan- 

66  '  So  low  had  the  talents  of  dalized  and  amazed  at  the  open 

the    once    illustrious  church  of  and  unresers-ed  disrespect,  both 

France  fallen,  that  in  the  latter  of    the    trading    and   military 

part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  people,  for  their  clergy  and  re- 

when    Christianity    itself    was  ligious  establishment.     "When  I 

assailed,   not  one    champion  of  got  to  Paris,  it  was  much  worse.' 

note  appeared  in  its  ranks ;  and  Ellis's   Original  Letters,   second 

when    the    convocation    of  the  series,  vol.  iv.  p.  485.     See  also 

clergy,  in  1770,  published  their  Walpole 's  Letter \s  to  Lady  Ossory, 

famous    anathema    against   the  vol.  ii.  p.  513,  edit.  1848 ;  and 

dangers  of  unbelief,  and  offered  the  complaint  made  at  Besancon 

rewards  for  the  best   essays  in  in  1761,  in  Lepan,    Vie  de  Vol- 

defence  of  the   Christian  faith,  taire,p.  113. 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION.  349 

circumstances,  the  French  clergy  should  have  been  able, 
for  nearly  thirty  years  after  the  abolition  of  the  Jesuits, 
to  maintain  their  standing,  so  as  to  interfere  with  im- 
punity in  pnblic  affairs.68  The  truth,  however,  is,  that 
this  temporary  reprieve  of  the  ecclesiastical  order  was 
owing  to  that  movement  which  I  have  already  noticed, 
and  by  virtue  of  which  the  French  intellect,  during  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  changed  the  ground 
of  its  attack,  and,  directing  its  energies  against  politi- 
cal abuses,  neglected  in  some  degree  those  spiritual 
abuses  to  which  its  attention  had  been  hitherto  confined. 
The  result  was,  that  in  France  the  government  enforced 
a  policy  which  the  great  thinkers  had  indeed  originated, 
but  respecting  which  they  were  becoming  less  eager. 
The  most  eminent  Frenchmen  were  beginning  their 
attacks  upon  the  state,  and  in  the  heat  of  their  new 
warfare  they  slackened  their  opposition  to  the  church. 
But  in  the  mean  time,  the  seeds  they  had  sown  germi- 
nated in  the  state  itself.  So  rapid  was  the  march  of 
affairs,  that  those  anti-ecclesiastical  opinions  which, 
a  few  years  earlier,  were  punished  as  the  paradoxes  of 
designing  men,  were  now  taken  up  and  put  into  execu- 
tion by  senators  and  ministers.  The  rulers  of  France 
carried  into  effect  principles  which  had  hitherto  been 
simply  a  matter  of  theory  ;  and  thus  it  happened,  as  is 
always  the  case,  that  practical  statesmen  only  apply  and 
work  out  ideas  which  have  long  before  been  suggested 
by  more  advanced  thinkers. 

Hence  it  followed,  that  at  no  period  during  the  eigh- 
teenth century  did  the  speculative  classes  and  practical 
classes  thoroughly  combine  against  the  church :  since, 
in  the  first  half  of  the  century,  the  clergy  were  prin- 
cipally assailed  by  the  literature,  and  not  by  the 
government ;  in  the  latter  half  of  the  century,  by  the 
government,  and  not  by  the  literature.  Some  of  the 
circumstances   of  this   singular   transition   have  been 

"*  And  also  to  retain  their  im-  revenue    of    '  somewhat    under 

mense  property,  which,  when  the  75,000,000      francs.'       Alison's 

Revolution    occurred,  was    esti-  Europe,  vol.  i.  p.  183,  vol.  ii.  p. 

mated  at    80,000,000^.    English  20,  vol.  xiv.  pp.  122,  123. 
money,    bringing    in    a    yearly 


350  PROXIMATE    CAUSES   OP 

already  stated,  and  I  hope  clearly  brought  before  the 
mind  of  the  reader.  I  now  purpose  to  complete  the 
generalization,  by  proving  that  a  corresponding  change 
was  taking  place  in  all  other  branches  of  inquiry ;  and 
that,  while  in  the  first  period  attention  was  chiefly 
directed  towards  mental  phenomena,  it  was  in  the  second 
period  more  directed  towards  physical  phenomena. 
From  this,  the  political  movement  received  a  vast  acces- 
sion of  strength.  For  the  French  intellect,  shifting 
the  scene  of  its  labours,  diverted  the  thoughts  of  men 
from  the  internal  to  the  external,  and  concentrating 
attention  upon  their  material  rather  than  upon  their 
spiritual  wants,  turned  against  the  encroachments  of 
the  state  an  hostility  formerly  reserved  for  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  church.  Whenever  a  tendency  arises  to 
prefer  what  comes  from  without  to  what  comes  from 
within,  and  thus  to  aggrandize  matter  at  the  expense  of 
mind,  there  will  also  be  a  tendency  to  believe  that  an 
institution  which  hampers  our  opinions  is  less  hurtful 
than  one  which  controls  our  acts.  Precisely  in  the  same 
way,  men  who  reject  the  fundamental  truths  of  religion, 
will  care  little  for  the  extent  to  which  those  truths  are 
perverted.  Men  who  deny  the  existence  of  the  Deity 
and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  will  take  no  heed  of 
the  way  in  which  a  gross  and  formal  worship  obscures 
those  sublime  doctrines.  All  the  idolatry,  all  the  cere- 
monials, all  the  pomp,  all  the  dogmas,  and  all  the 
traditions  by  which  religion  is  retarded,  will  give  them 
no  disquietude,  because  they  consider  the  opinions  that 
are  checked  to  be  equally  false  with  those  that  are 
favoured.  Why  should  they,  to  whom  transcendental 
truths  are  unknown,  labour  to  remove  the  superstitions 
which  darken  the  truths  ?  Such  a  generation,  so  far 
from  attacking  ecclesiastical  usurpations,  would  rather 
look  on  the  clergy  as  convenient  tools  to  ensnare  the 
ignorant  and  control  the  vulgar.  Therefore  it  is  that 
we  rarely  hear  of  a  sincere  atheist  being  a  zealous 
polemic.  But  if  that  should  occur,  which  a  century 
ago  occurred  in  France ;  if  it  should  happen  that  men 
of  great  energy,  and  actuated  by  the  feelings  I  have 
described,  were  to  find  themselves  in  the  presence  of  a 


,  THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  351 

political  despotism, — they  would  direct  against  it  the 
whole  of  their  powers  ;  and  they  would  act  with  the 
more  determined  vigour,  because,  believing  that  their 
all  was  at  stake,  temporal  happiness  would  be  to  them 
not  only  the  first,  but  also  the  sole  consideration. 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  the  progress  of  those 
atheistical  opinions,  which  now  rose  in  France,  becomes 
a  matter  of  great  though  painful  interest.  And  tbe 
date  at  which  they  appeared,  fully  corroborates  what  I 
have  just  said  respecting  the  change  that  took  place  in 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  first  great 
work  in  which  they  were  openly  promulgated,  was  the 
celebrated  Encyclopaedia,  published  in  1751. 69  Before 
that  time  such  degrading  opinions,  though  occasionally 
broached,  were  not  held  by  any  men  of  ability ;  nor 
could  they  in  the  preceding  state  of  society  have  made 
much  impression  upon  the  age.  But  during  the  latter 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  they  affected  every  de- 
partment of  French  literature.  Between  1758  and 
1770,  atheistical  tenets  rapidly  gained  ground  ;70  and  in 
1770  was  published  the  famous  work,  called  the  System 
of  Nature ;  the  success,  and,  unhappily,  the  ability  of 
wliich,  makes  its  appearance  an  important  epoch  in  the 
history  of  France.     Its  popularity  was  immense  ;71  and 


69  M.  Barante  (Litterature  douze  annees,  de  1758  a  1770,  la 
Francaise  au  XVIII'  Sieele,  p.  literature  francaise  fut  souillee 
94)  says,  '  On  arriva  bientot  a  par  un  grand  nombre  d'ouvragea 
tout  nier ;  deja  l'incredulite  avait  ou  l'atheisme  etoit  ouvertement 
rejete  les  preuves  divines  de  la  professe.'  Lacretelle,  XVIll* 
revelation,  et   avait  abjure   les  isttcle,  vol.  ii.  p.  310. 

devoirs  et  les  souvenirs  Chretiens ;  "  Voltaire,  who  wrote  against 
on  vit  alors  l'atheisme  lever  un  .  it,  mentions  its  diffusion  among 
front  plus  hardi,  et  proclamer  all  classes,  and  says  it  was  read 
que  tout  sentiment  religieux  etait  by  '  des  savants,  des  ignorants, 
une  reverie  et  un  desordre  de  des  femmes.'  Diet.  Pkilos.  article 
1' esprit  humain.  C'est  de  l'e-  Dieu,  section  iv.,  in  (Euvres  de 
poque  de  l'Encyclopedie  que  Voltaire,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  366  :  see 
datent  les  ecrits  ou  cette  opinion  also  vol.  lxvii.  p.  260  ;  Long- 
est le  plus  expressement  pro-  champ  et  Wagniere,  Mem.  sur 
fessee.  lis  furent  peu  unites.'  Voltaire,  vol.  i.  pp.  13,  £34 ; 
This  last  sentence  is  erroneous,  I  Lettres  inMites  de  Voltaire,  vol. 
am  sorry  to  say.  ii.  pp.  210,  216;   and  a   letter 

70  '  Dans     un    intervnlle    de  from    him    in     Correspond,    de 


352  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 

the  views  it  contains  are  so  clearly  and  methodically 
arranged,  as  to  have  earned  for  it  the  name  of  the  code 
of  atheism.72  Five  years  later,  the  Archbishop  of  Tou- 
louse, in  a  formal  address  to  the  king  on  behalf  of  the 
clergy,  declared  that  atheism  had  now  become  the  pre- 
vailing opinion.73  This,  like  all  similar  assertions,  must 
have  been  an  exaggeration  ;  but  that  there  was  a  large 
amount  of  truth  in  it,  is  known  to  whoever  has  studied 
the  mental  habits  of  the  generation  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  Revolution.  Among  the  inferior  class  of 
writers,  Damilaville,  Deleyre,  Marechal,  Naigeon,  Tous- 
saint,  were  active  supporters  of  that  cold  and  gloomy 
dogma,  which,  in  order  to  extinguish  the  hope  of  a 
future  life,  blots  out  from  the  mind  of  man  the  glorious 
instincts  of  his  own  immortaHty.74  And,  strange  to  say, 
several  even  of  the  higher  intellects  were  unable  to 
escape  the  contagion.  Atheism  was  openly  advocated 
by  Condorcet,  by  D  Alembert,  by  Diderot,  by  Helvetius, 
by  Lalande,  by  Laplace,  by  Mirabeau,  and  by  Saint 
Lambert.75     Indeed,  so  thoroughly  did  all  this  harmo- 


Dudeffand,  vol.  ii.  p.  329.     Com-  worden.'     Gesch.  der  PhUos.  vol. 

pare     Tennemann,     Gesch.    der  xi.  p.  349. 

Philos.    vol.  xi.   p.  320:     'mit  rs  'Le  monstrueux    atheisme 

ungetheiltem  Beifalle  aufgenom-  est  devenu  1' opinion  dominante.' 

men  worden  und  grossen  Einfluss  Soulavie,  Eegne  de  Louis  XVI, 

gehabt  hat.'  vol.  iii.  p.  16  :  the  address  of  the 

72    'Le       code      monstrueux  archbishop    with    a  deputation, 

d'atheisme.'     Biog.     Univ.    vol.  '  muni  des  pouvoirs  de  l'assem- 

xxix.  p.    88.     Morellet,  who  in  blee  generale  du  clerge,'  in  Sep- 

such  matters  was  by  no  means  a  tember  1775. 

harsh  judge,  says,   '  Le  Systeme  74  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  x.  pp.  471, 

de  la  Nature,   surtout,    est    un  669,  vol.  xxvii.  p.  8,  vol.  xxx.  p. 

catechisme  d'atheisme  complet.'  542  ;  Mem.  de  Brissot,  vol.  i.  p. 

Mem.  de  Morellet,  vol.  i.  p.  133.  305  ;   Tocqueville,  Eegne  de  Louis 

StSudlin    {Gesch.     der    theolog.  XV,  vol.  ii.  p.  77. 

"ten,   vol.  ii.  p.  440)  75  Mem.  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  vol. 


calls  it '  ein  System  des  entschie-  i.  p.  50 ;  Soulavie,  Eigne  de  Louis 

denen  Atheismus :' while  Tenne-  XVI,  vol.  v.   p.  127;   Barruel, 

mann,  who  has  given  by  far  the  Hist,  du  Jacobin,  vol.  i.  pp.  104, 

best  account  of  it  I  have  met  with,  135,  225,  vol.  ii.  p.  23,  vol.  iii.  p. 

says,    '  Es    machte    bei   seinem  200  ;  Life  of  Eomilly,  voL  i.  pp. 

Erscheinen  gewaltiges  Aufsehen,  46,     145;      Staudlin,     Theolog. 

und  ist  fast  immer  als  das  Hand-  Wissenschaften,    vol.  ii.  p.  440; 

buch  des  Atheismus  betrachtet  Georgel,    Mem.  vol.  ii.  pp.  250 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  353 

nize  with,  the  general  temper,  that  in  society  men 
boasted  of  what,  in  other  countries,  and  in  other  days, 
has  been  a  rare  and  singular  error,  an  eccentric  taint, 
which  those  affected  by  it  were  willing  to  conceal.  In 
1764  Hume  met,  at  the  house  of  Baron  d'Holbach,  a 
party  of  the  most  celebrated  Frenchmen  then  residing 
in  Paris.  The  great  Scotchman,  who  was  no  doubt 
aware  of  the  prevailing  opinion,  took  occasion  to  raise 
an  argument  as  to  the  existence  of  an  atheist,  properly 
so  called ;  for  his  own  part,  he  said,  he  had  never 
chanced  to  meet  with  one.  '  You  have  been  somewhat 
unfortunate,'  replied  Holbach ;  '  but  at  the  present 
moment  you  are  sitting  at  table  with  seventeen  of 
them.' 76 

This,  sad  as  it  is,  only  forms  a  single  aspect  of  that 
immense  movement,  by  which,  during  the  latter  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  the  French  intellect  was  -with- 
drawn from  the  study  of  the  internal,  and  concentrated 
upon  that  of  the  external  world.  Of  this  tendency,  we 
find  an  interesting  instance  in  the  celebrated  woik  of 
Helvetius,  unquestionably  the  ablest  and  most  influential 
treatise  on  morals  which  France  produced  at  this  period. 
It  was  published  in  1758  ;77  and,  although  it  bears  the 
title  of  an  essay  on  '  the  Mind,'  it  does  not  contain  a 
single  passage  from  which  we  could  infer  that  the  mind, 
in  the  sense  in  which  the  word  is  commonly  used,  has 
any  existence.  In  this  work,  which,  during  fifty  years, 
was  the  code  of  French  morals,  principles  are  laid  down 


350 ;    Grimm,    Correspond,  vol.  Priestley,  who  visited  France  in 

xv.   p.  87;    Mem.  de    Morellet,  1774,  says,  that  'all  the  philo- 

vol.  i.  p.  130 ;    Lepan,   Vie    de  sophical  persons  to  whom  I  was 

Voltaire,   p.    369 ;    Tennemann,  introduced  at  Paris   (were)  un- 

Gesch.  derPhilos.  vol.  xi.  p.  350;  believers    in    Christianity,    and 

Musset  Pathay,  Vie  de  lioxisseau,  even  professed  atheists.'     Priest- 

vol.  ii.  pp.  177,  297  ;   MSm.  de  ley's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  74.    See 

Genlis,  vol.  v.  p.  1 80;  Hitchcock's  also  a  letter  by  Horace   Wal- 

Geol.  p.  263;    Mem.   d'Epinay,  pole,  written  from  Paris  in  1765 

vol.  ii.  pp.  63,  66,  76.  ( Walpole's  Letters,  edit.  1840,  vol. 

'8  This  was  related  to  Komilly  v.  p.  96) :  '  their  awowed  doctrine 

by  Diderot.   LifeofRomilly,\o\.  is  atheism.' 
i.  pp.  131,132:  see  also  Burton's        "  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xx.  p.  29. 
Life  of    Hume,  vol.  ii.  pp.  220. 

VOL.  II.  A  A 


354  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

which  bear  exactly  the  same  relation  to  ethics  that 
atheism  bears  to  theology.  Helvetius,  at  the  beginning 
of  his  inquiry,  assumes,  as  an  incontestable  fact,  that  the 
difference  between  man  and  other  animals  is  the  result 
of  a  difference  in  their  external  form ;  and  that  if,  for 
example,  our  wrists,  instead  of  ending  with  hands  and 
flexible  fingers,  had  merely  ended  like  a  horse's  foot,  we 
should  have  always  remained  wanderers  on  the  face  of 
the  earth,  ignorant  of  every  art,  entirely  defenceless, 
and  having  no  other  concern  but  to  avoid  the  attacks  of 
wild  beasts,  and  find  the  needful  supply  of  our  daily 
food.78  That  the  structure  of  our  bodies  is  the  sole 
cause  of  our  boasted  superiority,  becomes  evident,  when 
we  consider  that  our  thoughts  are  simply  the  product  of 
two  faculties,  which  we  have  in  common  with  all  other 
animals  ;  namely,  the  faculty  of  receiving  impressions 
from  external  objects,  and  the  faculty  of  remember- 
ing those  impressions  after  they  are  received.79  From 
this,  says  Helvetius,  it  follows,  that  the  internal  powers 
of  man  being  the  same  as  those  of  all  other  animals, 
our  sensibility  and  our  memory  would  be  useless,  if  it. 
were  not  for  those  external  peculiarities  by  which  we 
are  eminently  distinguished,  and  to  which  we  owe  every 
thing  that  is  most  valuable.80  These  positions  being 
laid  down,  it  is  easy  to  deduce  all  the  essential  princi- 
ples of  moral  actions.  For,  memory  being  merely  one 
of  the  organs  of  physical  sensibility,81  and  judgment 
being  only  a  sensation,82  all  notions  of  duty  and  of 

78  '  Si  la    nature,  au  lieu  de  typoviiu&Tarov  slv cu  ruv  C^0^  T°v 

mains  et  de  doigts  flexibles,  eut  &v6pwicov  ?     Cudworth,  Intellect. 

tennine  nos  poignetspar  unpied  Syst.  toI.  iii.  p.  §11. 

de   cheval ;    qui  doute   que  les  79  De  V Esprit,  vol.  i.  p.  2. 

hommes,   sans   art,   sans    habi-  M  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  4. 

tations,  sans  defense  contre  les  81  'En  effet   la    memoire  ne 

animaux,  tout  occupes  du  soin  de  peut  etre  qu'un  des  organes  de  la 

pourvoir    a    leur  nourriture   et  sensibilite  physique.'     vol.  i.  p. 

d'eviter    les    betes    feroces,   ne  6.     Compare  whatM.  Lepelletier 

fnssent  encore  errants   dans  les  says  on  this,  in  his  Physiologic 

forets    comme     des     troupeaux  Medicale,  vol.  iii.  p.  272. 

fugitifs  ? '   Helvetius,  De  P  Esprit,  82  '  IPou  je  conclus  que  tout 

vol.  i.  p.  2.     Had  Helvetius  ever  jugement  n'est  qu'une  sensation.* 

read    the    attack    of    Aristotle  De  F  Esprit,  vol.  i.  p.  10;  'juger, 

against  Anaxagoras  for  asserting  comme  je  l'ai  deja  prouve,  n'est 

that      Sik     rb     x^oas      ^Xfty>  proprement  que  sentir.'  p.  41. 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION.  355 

virtue  must  be  tested  by  their  relation  to  the  senses ;  in 
other  words,  by  the  gross  amount  of  physical  enjoyment 
to  which  they  give  rise.  This  is  the  true  basis  of  moral 
philosophy.  To  take  any  other  view,  is  to  allow  our- 
selves to  be  deceived  by  conventional  expressions,  which 
have  no  foundation  except  in  the  prejudices  of  ignorant 
men.  Our  vices  and  our  virtues  are  solely  the  result  of 
our  passions  ;  and  our  passions  are  caused  by  our  phy- 
sical sensibility  to  pain  and  to  pleasure.83  It  was  in  this 
way  that  the  sense  of  justice  first  arose.  To  physical 
sensibility  men  owe  pleasure  and  pain ;  hence  the  feel- 
ing of  their  own  interests,  and  hence  the  desire  of  living 
together  in  societies.  Being  assembled  in  society,  there 
grew  up  the  notion  of  a  general  interest,  since,  without 
it,  society  could  not  hold  together  ;  and,  as  actions  are 
only  just  or  unjust  in  proportion  as  they  minister  to 
this  general  interest,  a  measure  was  established,  by 
which  justice  is  discriminated  from  injustice.84  With, 
the  same  inflexible  spirit,  and  with  great  fullness  of 
illustration,  Helvetius  examines  the  origin  of  those 
other  feelings  which  regulate  human  actions.  Thus, 
he  says  that  both  ambition  and  friendship  are  entirely 
the  work  of  physical  sensibility.  Men  yearn  after  fame, 
on  account  either  of  the  pleasure  which  they  expect  the 
mere  possession  of  it  will  give,  or  else  as  the  means  of 
subsequently  procuring  other  pleasures.85  As  to  friend- 
ship, the  only  use  of  it  is  to  increase  our  pleasures  or 
mitigate  our  pains ;  and  it  is  with  this  object  that  a 

83  '  Ne  sensible  a  la  douleur  et  d'interet  personnel ;  que  sans  in- 
au  plaisir,  c'est  a  la  sensibilite  teret  personnel  ils  ne  se  fussent 
physique  que  l'homme  doit  ses  point  rassembles  en  society,  n'eus- 
passions ;  et  a  ses  passions,  qu'il  sent  point  fait  entr'eux  de  con- 
doit  tous  ses  vices  et  toutes  ses  ventions,  qu'il  n'y  eut  point  eu 
vertus.'  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  53  ;  and  d'interet  general,  par  consequent 
see  vol.  i.  p.  239.  point  d'actions  justes  ou  injustes ; 

84  '  Une  fois  parvenu  a  cette  et  qu'ainsi  la  sensibilite  physique 
verite,  je  decouvre  facilement  la  et  l'interet  personnel  ont  ete  lea 
source  des  vertus  humaines ;  je  auteurs  de  toute  justice.'  Ibid. 
vois  que  sans  la  sensibilite  a  la  vol.  i.  p.  278. 

douleur  et  au  plaisir  physique,  M  De  V Esprit,  vol.  ii.  pp.  19,20, 
les  hommes,  sans  desirs,  sans  30,  34,  293,  294,  318.  Compare 
passions,  egalement  indifferents  Epicurus,  in  Diog.  Laert.  de  ViU 
a  tout,  n'eussent  point  connu  PMos.lib.x.scg.  120,vol.i.p.654. 
kk.% 


356  PKOXIMATE    CAUSES   OF 

man  longs  to  hold  communion  with  his  friend.86  Be- 
yond this,  life  has  nothing  to  offer.  To  love  what  is  good 
for  the  sake  of  the  goodness,  is  as  impossible  as  to  love 
what  is  bad  for  the  sake  of  the  evil.87  The  mother  who 
weeps  for  the  loss  of  her  child,  is  solely  actuated  by 
selfishness ;  she  mourns  because  a  pleasure  is  taken 
from  her,  and  because  she  sees  a  void  difficult  to  fill 
up.88  So  it  is,  that  the  loftiest  virtues,  as  well  as  the 
meanest  vices,  are  equally  caused  by  the  pleasure  we 
find  in  the  exercise  of  them.89  This  is  the  great  mover 
and  originator  of  all.  Every  thing  that  we  have,  and 
every  thing  that  we  are,  we  owe  to  the  external  world ; 
nor  is  Man  himself  aught  else  except  what  he  is  made 
by  the  objects  which  surround  him.90 

The  views  put  forward  in  this  celebrated  work  I  have 
stated  at  some  length ;  not  so  much  on  account  of  the 
ability  with  which  they  are  advocated,  as  on  account  of 
the  clue  they  furnish  to  the  movements  of  a  most  re- 
markable age.  Indeed,  so  completely  did  they  harmonize 
with  the  prevailing  tendencies,  that  they  not  only 
quickly  obtained  for  their  author  a  vast  European 
reputation,91  but,  during  many  years,  they  continued  to 
increase  in  influence,  and,  in  France  in  particular,  they 
exercised  great  sway.92    As  that  was  the  country  in 


86  De  VEsprit,  vol.  ii.  p.  45.  par  leurs  dignit£s  ou  pax  leurs 
He  sums  up :  '  il  s'ensuit  que  lumieres,  desiraient  d'etre  intro- 
1'amitie,  ainsi  que  1' avarice,  l'or-  duits  chez  un  philosophe  dont 
gueil,  l'ambition  et  les  autres  le  nom  retentissait  dans  toute 
passions,  est  l'effet  immediat  de  l'Europe.'  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xx. 
la  sensibilite  physique.'  p.  33. 

87  '  II  lui  est  aussi  impossible  92  Brissot  (Memoires,  vol.  i.  p. 
d' aimer  le  bien  pour  le  bien,  que  339)  says,  that  in  1775,  '  le  sys- 
d'aimer  le  mal  pour  le  mal.'  Ibid,  teme  d'Helvetius  avait  alors  la 
vol.  i.  p.  73.  plus  grande  vogue.'     Turgot,  who 

88  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  249.  wrote  against  it,  complains  that 

89  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  58.  it  was  praised  '  avec  une  sorte  de 

80  '  Nous  sommes  uniquement  fureur '  ( (Euvres  de  Turgot,  vol. 
ce  que  nous  font  les  objets  qui  ix.  p.  297) ;  and  Georgel  (Me- 
nous  environnent.'  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  moires,  vol.  ii.  p.  256)  says,  '  ce 
p.  306.  livre,  ecrit  avec  un  style  plein  de 

81  Saint  Surin,  a  zealous  oppo-  chaleur  et  d'images,  se  trouvoit 
nent  of  Helvetius,  admits  that  sur  toutes  les  toilettes.' 

•  les  etrangers  les  plus  eminents 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  357 

which  they  arose,  so  also  was  it  the  country  to  which 
they  were  best  adapted.  Madame  Dudeffand,  who  passed 
her  long  life  in  the  midst  of  French  society,  and  was 
one  of  the  keenest  observers  of  her  time,  has  expressed 
this  with  great  happiness.  The  work  of  Helvetins,  she 
says,  is  popular,  since  he  is  the  man  who  has  told  to  all 
their  own  secret.93 

True  it  was,  that,  to  the  contemporaries  of  Helvetins, 
his  views,  notwithstanding  their  immense  popularity, 
bore  the  appearance  of  a  secret ;  because  the  connexion 
between  them  and  the  general  march  of  events  was,  as 
yet,  but  dimly  perceived.  To  us,  however,  who,  after 
this  interval  of  time,  can  examine  the  question  with  the 
resources  of  a  larger  experience,  it  is  obvious  how  such 
a  system  met  the  wants  of  an  age  of  which  it  was  the 
exponent  and  the  mouthpiece.  That  Helvetius  must 
have  carried  with  him  the  sympathies  of  his  country- 
men, is  clear,  not  only  from  the  evidence  we  have  of  his 
success,  but  also  from  a  more  comprehensive  view  of 
the  general  complexion  of  those  times.  Even  while  he 
was  still  pursuing  his  labours,  and  only  four  years 
before  he  published  them,  a  work  appeared  in  France, 
which,  though  displaying  greater  ability,  and  possessing 
a  higher  influence  than  that  of  Helvetius,  did,  never- 
theless, point  in  exactly  the  same  direction.  I  allude  to 
the  great  metaphysical  treatise  by  Condillac,  in  many 
respects  one  of  the  most  remarkable  productions  of  the 
eighteenth  century  ;  and  the  authority  of  which,  during 
two  generations,  was  so  irresistible,  that,  without  some 
acquaintance  with  it,  we  cannot  possibly  understand 
the  nature  of  those  complicated  movements  by  which 
the  French  Revolution  was  brought  about. 

In  1754,94   Condillac  put  forth  his  celebrated  work 

83  '  D'ailleurs  le  siecle  de  Louis  a  similar  sentiment  in  Mem.  de 

XV  se  reconnut  dans  l'ouvrage  Boland,  vol.  i.  p.  104.     The  rela- 

d'Helv&ius,  et  on  prete  a  Mme.  tion  of  Helvitius's  work  to  the 

Dudeffand  ce  mot  fin  et  profond :  prevailing  philosophy  is  noticed 

"  C'est  un  homme  qui  a  dit  le  in  Comte's  Philos.  Pos.  vol.  iii. 

secret  de  tout  le  monde."  '     Cou-  pp.  791,  792.  vol.  v.  pp.   744, 

sin,  Hist,  de  la  Philos.  I.  serie,  745. 

voL  iii.  p.  201.  Compare  Corresp.        w  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  \x.  p.  399. 
de  Dudeffand,  vol.  i.  p.  xxii.;  and 


858  PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

on  the  mind ;  the  very  title  of  which  was  a  proof  of  the 
Has  with  which  it  was  written.  Although  this  profound 
thinker  aimed  at  nothing  less  than  an  exhaustive 
analysis  of  the  human  faculties,  and  although  he  is  pro- 
nounced by  a  very  able,  but  hostile  critic,  to  be  the  only 
metaphysician  France  produced  during  the  eighteenth 
century,95  still  he  found  it  utterly  impossible  to  escape 
from  those  tendencies  towards  the  external  which 
governed  his  own  age.  The  consequence  was,  that  he 
called  his  work  a  '  Treatise  on  Sensations  ;'96  and  in  it 
he  peremptorily  asserts,  that  every  thing  we  know  is 
the  result  of  sensation ;  by  which  he  means  the  effect 
produced  on  us  by  the  action  of  the  external  world. 
Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  accuracy  of  this 
opinion,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  enforced  with  a 
closeness  and  severity  of  reasoning  which  deserves  the 
highest  praise.  To  examine,  however,  the  arguments 
by  which  his  view  is  supported,  would  lead  to  a  dis- 
cussion foreign  to  my  present  object,  which  is,  merely 
to  point  out  the  relation  between  his  philosophy  and  the 
general  temper  of  his  contemporaries.  Without,  there- 
fore, pretending  to  anything  like  a  critical  examination 
of  this  celebrated  book,  I  will  simply  bring  together  the 
essential  positions  on  which  it  is  based,  in  order  to 
illustrate  the  harmony  between  it  and  the  intellectual 
habits  of  the  age  in  which  it  appeared.97 

The  materials  from  which  the  philosophy  of  Condillao 
was  originally  drawn,  were  contained  in  the  great  work 
published  by  Locke  about  sixty  years  before  this  time. 
But  though  much  of  what  was  most  essential  was 
borrowed  from  the  English  philosopher,  there  was  one 
very  important  point  in  which  the  disciple  differed  from 
his  master.     And  this  difference  is  strikingly  charac- 

65  '  Condillac  est  le  metaphysi-  97  On  the  immense   influence 

cien  fram;ais  du  XVIII8    siecle.'  of  Condillac,  compare  Senouard, 

Cousin,  Hist,  de  la  Philos.  I.  s6rie,  Hist,   de  la    Medecine,    vol.    ii. 

vol.  iii.  p.  83.  p.  355 ;  Cuvier,  Eloges,  vol.  iii. 

86  'Traite     des      Sensations,'  p.    387  ;    Broussais,    Cours   de 

which,   as  M.   Cousin   says,   is,  Phrenologie,  pp.  45,  68-71,829; 

'  sans  comparaison,  le  chef-d'ceu-  Pinel,    Alien.    Mentale,    p.   94 ; 

vre  de   Condillac'    Hist,  de  la  Brown's  Philos.  of  the  Mind,  p. 

Philos.  II.  serie,  vol.  ii.  p.  77.  212. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  359 

teristic  of  the  direction  which  the  French  intellect  was 
now  taking.  Locke,  with  some  looseness  of  expression, 
and  possibly  with  some  looseness  of  thought,  had  as- 
serted the  separate  existence  of  a  power  of  reflection, 
and  had  maintained  that  by  means  of  that  power  the 
products  of  sensation  became  available.98  Condillac, 
moved  by  the  prevailing  temper  of  his  own  time,  would 
not  hear  of  such  a  distinction.  He,  like  most  of  his 
contemporaries,  was  jealous  of  any  claim  which  in- 
creased the  authority  of  the  internal,  and  weakened 
that  of  the  external.  He,  therefore,  altogether  rejects 
the  faculty  of  reflection  as  a  source  of  our  ideas ;  and 
this  partly  because  it  is  but  the  channel  through  which 
ideas  run  from  the  senses,  and  partly  because  in  its 
origin  it  is  itself  a  sensation."  Therefore,  according  to 
him,  the  only  question  is  as  to  the  way  in  which  our 
contact  with  nature  supplies  us  with  ideas.  For  in  this 
scheme,  the  faculties  of  man  are  solely  caused  by  the 
operation  of  his  senses.  The  judgments  which  we  form 
are,  says  Condillac,  often  ascribed  to  the  hand  of  the 
Deity  ;  a  convenient  mode  of  reasoning,  which  has  only 
arisen  from  the  difliculty  of  analyzing  them.100  By 
considering  how  our  judgments  actually  arise,  we  can 
alone  remove  these  obscurities.  The  £act  is,  that 
the  attention  we  give  to  an  object  is  nothing  but  the 


89  Whether  or  not  Locke  held  soit  parce  qu'elle   est   moins  la 

that  reflection  is  an  independent  source  des  idees  que  le  canal  par 

as  •well  as  a  separate  faculty,  is  lequel  elles  decoulent  des  sens.' 

uncertain;      because      passages  Condillac,  Traite  des  Sensations,^. 

could  be  quoted  from  his  writings  13 :    see  also,  at  pp.  19,  216,  the 

to  prove  either  the  affirmative  or  way  in  -which  sensation  becomes 

the     negative.       Dr.     Whewell  reflection ;  and  the  summing  up, 

justly  remarks,  that  Locke  uses  at  p.  416,    'que  toutes  nos  con- 

the  -word  so  vaguely  as  to  'allow  noissances  viennent  des  sens,  et 

his  disciples  to  make  of  his  doc-  particulierement  du  toucher.' 
trines  what  they  please.'  History         10°  He   says   of  Mallebranche 

of  Moral  Philosophy,  1852,  p.  71.  (Traite  des  "Sensations, -p.  312), 

m  '  Locke  distingue  deux  '  ne  pouvant  comprendre  corn- 
sources  de  nos  id£es,  les  sens  et  ment  nous  formerions  nous- 
lareflexion.  Ilseroitplus  exact  de  memes  ces  jugemens,  il  les  attri- 
n'enreconnoitrequ'une,soitparce-  bue a Dieu  ;  manierede  raisonner 
que  la  reflexion  n'est  dans  son  fort  commode,  et  presque  toujoura 
prncipe  que  la  sensation  meme,  la  ressourco  des  philosophes.' 


360  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 

sensation  which  that  object  excites  ;101  and  what  we  call 
abstract  ideas  are  merely  different  ways  of  being  atten- 
tive.102 Ideas  being  thus  generated,  the  subsequent 
process  is  very  simple.  To  attend  to  two  ideas  at  the 
same  time,  is  to  compare  them  ;  so  that  comparison  is 
not  a  result  of  attention,  but  is  rather  the  attention  it- 
self.103 This  at  once  gives  us  the  faculty  of  judging, 
because  directly  we  institute  a  comparison,  we  do  of 
necessity  form  a  judgment.104  Thus,  too,  memory  is  a 
transformed  sensation  ;105  while  the  imagination  is 
nothing  but  memory,  which,  being  carried  to  its  highest 
possible  vivacity,  makes  what  is  absent  appear  to  be 
present.106  The  impressions  we  receive  from  the  ex- 
ternal world  being,  therefore,  not  the  cause  of  our 
faculties,  but  being  the  faculties  themselves,  the  con- 
clusion to  which  we  are  driven  is  inevitable.  It  follows, 
says  Condillac,  that  in  man  nature  is  the  beginning  of 
all ;  that  to  nature  we  owe  the  whole  of  our  knowledge  ; 
that  we  only  instruct  ourselves  according  to  her  lessons  ; 
and  that  the  entire  art  of  reasoning  consists  in  con- 
tinuing the  work  which  she  has  appointed  us  to  per- 
form.10* 

It  is  so  impossible  to  mistake  the  tendency  of  these 
views,  that  I  need  not  attempt  to  estimate  their  result 

101  'Mais  a  peine  j'arrete  la  I06  L'imagination  est  la  me- 
vue  sur  un  objet,  que  les  sensa-  moire  meme,  parvenue  a,  toute  la 
tions  particulieres  que  j'en  re^-ois  vivacite  dont  elle  est  susceptible.' 
sont  l'attention  meme  que  je  lui  p.  78.  '  Or  j'ai  appele  imagina- 
donne.'  Traite  des  Sensations,  tion  cette  memoire  vive  qui  fait 
p.  16.  paroitre  present  ce  qui   est  ab- 

102  '  Ne    sont   que   differentes  sent.'  p.  245. 

manieres  d'etre  attentif.'  p.  122.  ,07  '  II  resulte  de  cette  verite, 

103  <  Des  qu'il  y  a  double  atten-  que  la  nature  commence  tout  en 
tion,  il  yacomparaison  ;  caretre  nous:  aussi  ai-je  demontre  que, 
attentif  a  deux  idees  ou  les  com-  dans  le  principe  ou  dans  le  com- 
parer, c'est  la  meme  chose.'  p.  mencement,  nos  connoissances 
17.  sont  uniquement    son    ouvrage, 

101  «  Des  qu'il  ya  comparaison,  que    nous    ne  nous  instruisons 

il  y  a  jugement.'     p.  65.  que  d'apres  sesle9ons,et  que  tout 

103  '  La  memoire  n'est  done  que  l'art  de  raisonner  consiste  a  con- 
la  sensation  transformee.'  p.  17.  tinuer  comme  elle  nous  a  fait 
Compare  p.  61.  commencer.'  p.  178. 


THE    FBENCH   REVOLUTION.  361 

otherwise  than  by  measuring  the  extent  to  which  they 
were  adopted.  Indeed,  the  zeal  with  which  they  were 
now  carried  into  every  department  of  knowledge,  can 
only  surprise  those  who,  being  led  by  their  habits  of 
mind  to  study  history  in  its  separate  fragments,  have  not 
accustomed  themselves  to  consider  it  as  an  united  whole, 
and  who,  therefore,  do  not  perceive  that  in  every  great 
epoch  there  is  some  one  idea  at  work,  which  is  more 
powerful  than  any  other,  and  which  shapes  the  events  of 
the  time  and  determines  their  ultimate  issue.  In  France, 
during  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  this 
idea  was,  the  inferiority  of  the  internal  to  the  external. 
It  was  this  dangerous  but  plausible  principle  which 
drew  the  attention  of  men  from  the  church  to  the  state  ; 
which  was  seen  in  Helvetius  the  most  celebrated  of  the 
French  moralists,  and  in  Condillac  the  most  celebrated 
of  the  French  metaphysicians.  It  was  this  same 
principle  which,  by  increasing,  if  I  may  so  say,  the 
reputation  of  Nature,  induced  the  ablest  thinkers  to 
devote  themselves  to  a  study  of  her  laws,  and  to 
abandon  those  other  pursuits  which  had  been  popular  in 
the  preceding  age.  In  consequence  of  this  movement, 
such  wonderful  additions  were  made  to  every  branch  of 
physical  science,  that  more  new  truths  concerning  the 
external  world  were  discovered  in  France  during  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  than  during  all  the 
previous  periods  put  together.  The  details  of  these 
discoveries,  so  far  as  they  have  been  subservient  to  the 
general  purposes  of  civilization,  will  be  related  in 
another  place ;  at  present  I  will  indicate  only  the  most 
prominent,  in  order  that  the  reader  may  understand  the 
course  of  the  subsequent  argument,  and  may  see  the 
connexion  between  them  and  the  French  Revolution. 

Taking  a  general  view  of  the  external  world,  we  may 
say,  that  the  three  most  important  forces  by  which  the 
operations  of  nature  are  effected,  are  heat,  light,  and 
electricity;  including  under  this  last  magnetic  and 
galvanic  phenomena.  On  all  these  subjects,  the  French, 
for  the  first  time,  now  exerted  themselves  with  signal 
success.  In  regard  to  heat,  not  only  were  the  materials 
for  subsequent  induction  collected  with  indefatigable 


362 


PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 


industry,  but  before  that  generation  passed  away,  the 
induction  was  actually  made  ;  for  while  the  laws  of  its 
radiation  were  worked  out  by  Prevost,108  those  of  its 
conduction  were  established  by  Fourier,  who,  just  before 
the  Revolution,  employed  himself  in  raising  thermotics 
to  a  science  by  the  deductive  application  of  that  cele- 
brated mathematical  theory  which  he  contrived,  and 
which  still  bears  his  name.109  In  regard  to  electricity, 
it  is. enough  to  notice,  during  the  same  period,  the  im- 
portant experiments  of  D'Alibard,  followed  by  those 
vast  labours  of  Coulomb,  which  brought  electrical 
phenomena  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  mathematics, 
and  thus  completed  what  CEpinus  had  already  pre- 
pared.110 As  to  the  laws  of  light,  those  ideas  were  now 
accumulating  which  rendered  possible  the  great  steps 
that,  at  the  close  of  the  century,  were  taken  by  Malus, 
and  still  later  by  Fresnel.111  Both  of  these  eminent 
Frenchmen  not  only  made  important  additions  to  our 


108  Compare  Powell  on  Radiant 
Heat,  p.  261,  in  Second  Rep.  of 
Brit.  Assoc;  WhewelVs  History 
of  Sciences,  vol.  ii.  p.  526;  and 
his  Philosophy,  vol.  i.  pp.  339, 
340.  Prevost  was  professor  at 
Geneva ;  but  his  great  views 
were  followed  up  in  France  by 
Dulong  and  Petit ;  and  the  cele- 
brated theory  of  dew  by  Dr.Wells 
is  merely  an  application  of  them. 
HerscheVs  Nat.  Philosophy,  pp. 
163,  315,  316.  Kespecting  the 
further  prosecution  of  these  in- 
quiries, and  our  present  know- 
ledge of  radiant  heat,  see  Liebig 
and  Kopp's  Reports,  vol.  i.  p.  79, 
vol.  iii.  p.  30,  vol.  iv.  p.  45. 

109  On  Fourier's  mathematical 
theory  of  conduction,  see  Comte, 
Philos.  Positive,  vol.  i.  pp.  142, 
175,  345,  346,  351,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
453,  551  ;  Proufs  Bridgewater 
Treatise,  pp.  203,  204;  Kelland 
on  Heat,  p.  6,  in  Brit.  Assoc,  for 
1841 ;  Ermaris  Siberia,  vol.  i.  p. 
243;  Humboldt 's  Cosmos,  vol.  i. 


p.  169 ;  HitchcocKs  Geology,  p. 
198;  Pouillet,  Siemens  de  Phy- 
sique, ii.  696,  697. 

110  Coulomb's  memoirs  on  elec- 
tricity and  magnetism  were  pub- 
lished from  1782  to  1789.  Fifth 
Report  of  Brit.  Assoc,  p.  4.  Com- 
pare Liebig  and  Kopp's  Reports, 
vol.  iii.  p.  128 ;  and  on  his  re- 
lation to  CEpinus,  who  wrote 
in  1759,  see  WhewelVs  Indue. 
Sciences,  vol.  iii.  pp.  24-26,  35, 
36,  and  Haiiy,  Traite  de  Miner  a- 
logie,  vol.  iii.  p.  44,  vol.  iv.  p.  14. 
There  is  a  still  fuller  account  of 
what  was  effected  by  Coulomb  in 
M.  Pouillet's  able  work,  Elemens 
de  Physique,  vol.  i.  part  ii.  pp. 
63-79,  130-135. 

111  Fresnel  belongs  to  the  pre- 
sent century ;  but  M.  Biot  says 
that  the  researches  of  Malus 
began  before  the  passage  of  the 
Ehine  in  1797.  Biofs  Life  of 
Malus,  in  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxvi. 
p.  412. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


363 


knowledge  of  double  refraction,  but  Malus  discovered 
the  polarization  of  light,  undoubtedly  the  most  splendid 
contribution  received  by  optical  science  since  the 
analysis  of  the  solar  rays.112  It  was  also  in  consequence 
of  this,  that  Fresnel  began  those  profound  researches 
which  placed  on  a  solid  basis  that  great  undulatory 
theory  of  which  Hooke,  Huygehs,  and  above  all  Young, 
are  to  be  deemed  the  founders,  and  by  which  the  cor- 
puscular theory  of  Newton  was  finally  overthrown.113 

Thus  much  as  to  the  progress  of  French  knowledge 
respecting  those  parts  of  nature  which  are  in  themselves 
invisible,  and  of  which  we  cannot  tell  whether  they  have 
a  material  existence,  or  whether  they  are  mere  condi- 
tions and  properties  of  other  bodies.114  The  immense 
value  of  these  discoveries,  as  increasing  the  number  of 


,la  Pouillet,  EUmens  de  Phy- 
sique, vol.  ii.  p&rt  ii.  pp.  484,  514; 
Eeport  of  Brit.  Assoc,  for  1832, 
p.  314 ;  Leslie's  Nat.  Pfiilos.  p.  83 ; 
WhewelVs  Hist,  of  Sciences,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  408-410  ;  Philos.  of  Sciences, 
vol.  i.  p.  350,  vol.  ii.  p.  25 ; 
HerscheFs  Nat.  Philos.  p.  258. 

113  The  struggle  between  these 
rival  theories,  and  the  ease  with 
which  a  man  of  such  immense 
powers  as  Young  was  put  down, 
and,  as  it  were,  suppressed,  by 
those  ignorant  pretenders  who 
presumed  to  criticize  him,  will  be 
related  in  another  part  of  this 
work,  as  a  valuable  illustration 
of  the  history  and  habits  of  the 
English  mind.  At  present  the 
controversy  is  finished,  so  far  as 
the  advocates  of  emission  are 
concerned ;  but  there  are  still 
difficulties  on  the  other  side, 
which  should  have  prevented  Dr. 
"Whewell  from  expressing  himself 
with  such  extreme  positiveness 
on  an  unexhausted  subject.  This 
able  writer  says : '  The  undulatory 
theory  of  light ;  the  only  discovery 
which  can  stand  by  the  side  of 


the  theory  of  universal  gravita- 
tion, as  a  doctrine  belonging  to 
the  same  order,  for  its  generality, 
its  fertility,  and  its  certainty.' 
WhewelVs  Hist,  of  the  Indue. 
Sciences,  vol.  ii.  p.  425 ;  see  also 
p.  508. 

1,4  As  to  the  supposed  impos- 
sibility of  conceiving  the  exist- 
ence of  matter  without  properties 
which  give  rise  to  forces  (note  in 
Pagefs  Lectures  on  Pathology, 
1853,  vol.  i.  p.  61),  there  are  two 
reasons  which  prevent  me  from 
attaching  much  weight  to  it. 
First,  a  conception  which,  in  one 
stage  of  knowledge,  is  called  im- 
possible, becomes,  in  a  later  stage, 
perfectly  easy,  and  so  natural  as 
to  be  often  termed  necessary. 
Secondly,  however  indissoluble 
the  connexion  may  appear  be- 
tween force  and  matter,  it  was 
not  found  fatal  to  the  dynamical 
theory  of  Leibnitz ;  it  has  not 
prevented  other  eminent  thinkers 
from  holding  similar  views ;  and 
the  arguments  of  Berkeley,  though 
constantly  attacked,  have  never 
been  refuted. 


364  PROXIMATE    CAUSES   OP 

known  truths,  is  incontestable  :  but,  at  the  same  time, 
another  class  of  discoveries  was  made,  which,  dealing 
more  palpably  with  the  visible  world,  and  being  also 
more  easily  understood,  produced  more  immediate  re- 
sults, and,  as  I  shall  presently  show,  exercised  a  remark- 
able influence  in  strengthening  that  democratic  tendency 
which  accompanied  the  French  Revolution.  It  is  im- 
possible, within  the  limits  I  have  assigned  to  myself,  to 
give  anything  like  an  adequate  notion  of  the  marvellous 
activity  with  -which  the  French  now  pushed  their  re- 
searches into  every  department  of  the  organic  and  in- 
organic world ;  still  it  is,  I  think,  practicable  to  com- 
press into  a  few  pages  such  a  summary  of  the  more 
salient  points  as  will  afford  the  reader  some  idea  of  what 
was  done  by  that  generation  of  great  thinkers  which 
flourished  in  France  during  the  latter  half  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century. 

If  we  confine  our  view  to  the  globe  we  inhabit,  it 
must  be  allowed  that  chemistry  and  geology  are  the  two 
sciences  which  not  only  offer  the  fairest  promise,  but 
already  contain  the  largest  generalizations.  The  reason 
of  this  will  become  clear,  if  we  attend  to  the  ideas  on 
which  these  two  great  subjects  are  based.  The  idea  of 
chemistry,  is  the  study  of  composition;115  the  idea  of 
geology,  is  the  study  of  position.  The  object  of  the  first 
is,  to  learn  the  laws  which  govern  the  properties  of 
matter ;  the  object  of  the  second  is,  to  learn  the  laws 
which  govern  its  locality.  In  chemistry,  we  experiment ; 
in  geology,  we  observe.  In  chemistry,  we  deal  with 
the  molecular  arrangement  of  the  smallest  atoms  ;116 
in  geology,  with  the  cosmological  arrangement  of  the 
largest  masses.  Hence  it  is  that  the  chemist  by  his 
minuteness,  and  the  geologist  by  his  grandeur,  touch 


115  Every  chemical  decomposi-  the  atomic  theory,  is,   properly 

tion  being  only  a  new  form  of  speaking,  an  hypothesis,  and  not 

composition.     Robin  tt  Verdeil,  a  theory:  but  hypothesis  though 

Ckimie  Anatomique,  vol.  i.  pp.  it  be,  it  is  by  its  aid  that  we 

455,  456,  498:  'de  tout  cela  il  wield    the    doctrine   of    definite 

r^sulte,  que  la  dissolution  est  un  proportions,  the  corner  stone  of 

cas  particulier  des  combinaisons.'  chemistry. 

118  "What  is  erroneously  called 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  365 

the  two  extremes  of  the  material  universe ;  and, 
starting  from  these  opposite  points,  have,  as  I  conld 
easily  prove,  a  constantly  increasing  tendency  to  bring 
under  their  own  authority  sciences  which  have  at 
present  an  independent  existence,  and  which,  for  the 
sake  of  a  division  of  labour,  it  is  still  convenient  to 
stndy  separately ;  though  it  must  be  the  business  of 
philosophy,  properly  so  called,  to  integrate  them  into  a 
complete  and  effective  whole.  Indeed  it  is  obvious,  that 
if  we  knew  all  the  laws  of  the  composition  of  matter, 
and  likewise  all  the  laws  of  its  position,  we  should  like- 
wise know  all  the  changes  of  which  matter  is  capable 
spontaneously,  that  is,  when  uninterrupted  by  the  mind 
of  man.  Every  phenomenon  which  any  given  substance 
presents  must  be  caused  either  by  something  taking 
place  in  the  substance,  or  else  by  something  taking 
place  out  of  it,  but  acting  upon  it ;  while  what  occurs 
within  must  be  explicable  by  its  own  composition, 
and  what  occurs  without  must  be  due  to  its  position  in 
relation  to  the  objects  by  which  it  is  affected.  This  is 
an  exhaustive  statement  of  every  possible  contingency, 
and  to  one  of  these  two  classes  of  laws  every  thing  must 
be  referrible ;  even  those  mysterious  forces  which,  whe- 
ther they  be  emanations  from  matter,  or  whether  they 
be  merely  properties  of  matter,  must  in  an  ultimate 
analysis  depend  either  on  the  internal  arrangement,  or 
else  on  the  external  locality  of  their  physical  antece- 
dents. However  convenient,  therefore,  it  may  be,  in 
the  present  state  of  our  knowledge,  to  speak  of  vital 
principles,  imponderable  fluids,  and  elastic  aethers,  such 
terms  can  only  be  provisional,  and  are  to  be  considered 
as  mere  names  for  that  residue  of  unexplained  facts, 
which  it  will  be  the  business  of  future  ages  to  bring 
under  generalizations  wide  enough  to  cover  and  include 
the  whole. 

These  ideas  of  composition  and  of  position  being  thus 
the  basis  of  all  natural  science,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
chemistry  and  geology,  which  are  their  best,  but  still 
their  insufficient  representatives,  should  in  modern  times 
have  made  more  progress  than  any  other  of  the  great 
branches  of  human  knowledge.    Although  the  chemists 


366  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

and  geologists  have  not  yet  risen  to  the  fall  height  of 
their  respective  subjects,117  there  are  few  things  more 
curious  than  to  note  the  way  in  which,  during  the  last 
two  generations,  they  have  been  rapidly  expanding  their 
views — encroaching  on  topics  with  which,  at  first  sight, 
they  appeared  to  have  no  concern  —  making  other 
branches  of  inquiry  tributary  to  their  own — and  collect- 
ing from  every  quarter  that  intellectual  wealth  which, 
long  hidden  in  obscure  corners,  had  been  wasted  in  the 
cultivation  of  special  and  inferior  pursuits.  This,  as 
being  one  of  the  great  intellectual  characteristics  of  the 
present  age,  I  shall  hereafter  examine  at  considerable 
length  ;  but  what  I  have  now  to  show  is,  that  in  these 
two  vast  sciences,  which,  though  still  very  imperfect, 
must  eventually  be  superior  to  all  others,  the  first  im- 
portant steps  were  made  by  Frenchmen  during  the  latter 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

That  we  owe  to  France  the  existence  of  chemistry  as 
a  science,  will  be  admitted  by  everyone  who  uses  the 
word  science  in  the  sense  in  which  alone  it  ought  to  be 
understood,  namely,  as  a  body  of  generalizations  so 
irrefragably  true,  that,  though  they  may  be  subsequently 
covered  by  higher  generalizations,  they  cannot  be  over- 
thrown by  them  ;  in  other  words,  generalizations  which 
may  be  absorbed,  but  not  refuted.  In  this  point  of  view, 
there  are  in  the  history  of  chemistry  only  three  great 
stages.  The  first  stage  was  the  destruction  of  the 
phlogistic  theory,  and  the  establishment,  upon  its  ruins, 
of  the  doctrines  of  oxidation,  combustion,  and  respira- 
tion. The  second  stage  was  the  establishment  of  the 
principle  of  definite  proportions,  and  the  application  to 
it  of  the  atomic  hypothesis.  The  third  stage,  above 
which  we  have  not  yet  risen,  consists  in  the  union  of 
chemical  and  electrical  laws,  and  in  the  progress  we  are 
making  towards  fusing  into  one  generalization  their 
separate  phenomena.  Which  of  these  three  stages  was 
in  its  own  age  the  most  valuable,  is  not  now  the  ques- 
tion ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  first  of  them  was  the 

117  Many  of  them  being  still    mistry,  by  the  hypothesis  of  vital 
fettered,  in  geology,  by  the  hypo-     forces, 
thesis  of  catastrophes;  in   che- 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  367 

work  of  Lavoisier,  by  far  the  greatest  of  the  French 
chemists.  Before  him  several  important  points  had 
"been  cleared  up  by  the  English  chemists,  whose  experi- 
ments ascertained  the  existence  of  bodies  formerly  un- 
known. The  links,  however,  to  connect  the  facts,  were 
still  wanting ;  and  until  Lavoisier  entered  the  field, 
there  were  no  generalizations  wide  enough  to  entitle 
chemistry  to  be  called  a  science ;  or,  to  speak  more  pro-- 
perly,  the  only  large  generalization  commonly  received 
was  that  by  Stahl,  which  the  great  Frenchman  proved 
to  be  not  only  imperfect,  but  altogether  inaccurate.  A 
notice  of  the  vast  discoveries  of  Lavoisier  will  be  found 
in  many  well-known  books  :118  it  is  enough  to  say,  that 
he  not  only  worked  out  the  laws  of  the  oxidation  of 
bodies  and  of  their  combustion,  but  that  he  is  the  author 
of  the  true  theory  of  respiration,  the  purely  chemical 
character  of  which  he  first  demonstrated  ;  thus  laying 
the  foundation  of  those  views  respecting  the  functions 
of  food,  which  the  German  chemists  subsequently  de- 
veloped, and  which,  as  I  have  proved  in  the  second 
chapter  of  this  Introduction,  may  be  applied  to  solve 
some  great  problems  in  the  history  of  Man.  The  merit 
of  this  was  so  obviously  due  to  France,  that  though  the 
system  now  established  was  quickly  adopted  in  other 
countries,119  it  received  the  name  of  the  French  che- 
mistry.120 At  the  same  time,  the  old  nomenclature 
being  full  of  old  errors,  a  new  one  was  required,  and 
here  again  France  took  the  initiative ;  since  this  great 

118  See,  for  instance,    Currier,  far  as  England  is  concerned: 'He, 

Proyre's  des  Sciences,  vol.  i.  pp.  32-  first  of  all  his  contemporaries,  did 

34,  40;  Liebig's  Letters  on  Che-  justice  to  the  rival  theory  recently 

mistry,$.282;  Turned s  Chemistry,  proposed  by  Lavoisier.' 
vol.  i.  pp.   184,   185;  Brande'a        m    '  La     chimie    franchise. 

Chemistry,   vol.    i.   pp.  lxxxv.-  Thomson's    Hist,   of   Chemistry, 

Ixxxix.  302;  Thomson's  Animal  vol.  ii.  pp.  101, 130.     On  the  ex- 

Chemistry,  pp.  520,  634,  and  a  citement  caused   by  Lavoisier's 

great  part  of  the  second  volume  of  views,  see  a  letter  which  Jefferson 

his  History  of  Chemistry;    also  wrote  in  Paris,  in  1789,  printed 

Midler's  Physiol,  vol.  i.  pp.  90,  partly  in  Tucker's  Life  ofjeffer- 

323.  son,  vol.  i.  pp.  314,  315 ;  and  at 

"•  According  to  Mr.  Harcourt  length  in  Jefferson's  Correspond. 

(Brit.  Assoc.  Beport  for  1839,  p.  vol.  ii.  pp.  453-455. 
10),  Cavendish  has  this  merit,  bo 


368  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

reformation  was  begun  by  four  of  ber  most  eminent 
cbemists,  who  flourisbed  only  a  few  years  before  the 
Revolution.121 

While  one  division  of  the  French  thinkers  was  re- 
ducing to  order  the  apparent  irregularities  of  chemical 
phenomena,  another  division  of  them  was  performing 
precisely  the  same  service  for  geology.  The  first  step 
towards  popularizing  this  noble  study  was  taken  by 
Buffon,  who,  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
broached  a  geological  theory,  which,  though  not  quite 
original,'  excited  attention  by  its  eloquence,  and  by  the 
lofty  speculations  with  which  he  connected  it.122  This 
was  followed  by  the  more  special  but  still  important 
labours  of  Rouelle,  Desmarest,  Dolomieu,  and  Mont- 
losier,  who,  in  less  than  forty  years,  effected  a  complete 
revolution  in  the  ideas  of  Frenchmen,  by  familiarizing 
them  with  the  strange  conception,  that  the  surface  of 
our  planet,  even  where  it  appears  perfectly  stable,  is 
constantly  undergoing  most  extensive  changes.  It  began 
to  be  understood,  that  this  perpetual  flux  takes  place 


121  t  rp^Q  firSk  attempt  to  form  a  ancients,  the  real  founder  of  the 
systematic  chemical  nomenclature  doctrine  appears  to  have  been 
wasmadebyLavoisier,Berthollet,  Descartes.  SeeJBordasDemoidin, 
Gr.  de  Morveau,  and  Fourcroy,  Cartesianisme,  Paris,  1 843,  vol.  i. 
soon  after  the  discovery  of  oxy-  p.  312.  There  is  an  unsatisfactory 
gen  gas.'  Turner's  Chemistry,  note  on  this  in  PricharoVs  Physi- 
vol.  i.  p.  127.  Cuvier  (Progres  cal  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  100.  Compare 
des  Sciences,  vol.  i.  p.  39)  and  Experimental  Hist,  of  Cold,  tit.  17, 
Bobin  et  Verdeil  (Chimie  Anato-  in  Boyle's  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  308 ; 
mique,  vol.  i.  pp.  602,  603)  ascribe  Brewster's  Life  of  Newton,  vol.  ii. 
the  chief  merit  to  De  Morveau.  p.  100.  On  the  central  heat  of 
Thomson  says  {Hist,  of  Chemistry,  the  Pythagoreans,  see  Tennemann, 
vol.  ii.  p.  133):  'This  new  no-  Gesch.  der  Philos.  vol.  i.  p.  149; 
menclature  very  soon  made  its  and  as  to  the  central  fire  men- 
way  into  every  part  of  Europe,  tioned  in  the  so-called  Oracles  of 
and  became  the  common  language  Zoroaster,  see  Beausobre,  Hist,  de 
of  chemists,  in  spite  of  the  preju-  Manichee,  vol.  ii.  p.  152.  But  the 
dices  entertained  against  it,  and  complete ignoranceoftheancients 
the  opposition  which  it  every  respecting  geology  made  these 
where  met  with.'  views  nothing  but  guesses.    Com- 

122  The  famous  central  heat  of  pare  some  sensible  remarks  in 
Buffon  is  often  supposed  to  have  Matter's  Hist,  de  VEcole  dJAlex- 
been  taken  from  Leibnitz ;  but,  andrie,  vol.  ii.  p.  282. 

though  vaguely  taught   by  the 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION.  369 

not  only  in  those  parts  of  nature  which  are  obviously 
feeble  and  evanescent,  but  also  in  those  which  seem  to 
possess  every  element  of  strength  and  permanence,  such 
as  the  mountains  of  granite  which  wall  the  globe,  and 
are  the  shell  and  encasement  in  which  it  is  held.  As 
soon  as  the  mind  became  habituated  to  this  notion  of 
universal  change,  the  time  was  ripe  for  the  appearance 
of  some  great  thinker,  who  should  generalize  the  scat- 
tered observations,  and  form  them  into  a  science,  by 
connecting  them  with  some  other  department  of  know- 
ledge, of  which  the  laws,  or,  at  all  events,  the  empirical 
uniformities,  had  been  already  ascertained. 

It  was  at  this  point,  and  while  the  inquiries  of  geolo- 
gists, notwithstanding  their  value,  were  still  crude  and 
unsettled,  that  the  subject  was  taken  up  by  Cuvier,  one 
of  the  greatest  naturalists  Europe  has  ever  produced.  A 
few  others  there  are  who  have  surpassed  him  in  depth ; 
but  in  comprehensiveness  it  would  be  hard  to  find  his 
superior ;  and  the  immense  range  of  his  studies  gave 
him  a  peculiar  advantage  in  surveying  the  operations 
and  dependencies  of  the  external  world.123  This  re- 
markable man  is  unquestionably  the  founder  of  geology 
as  a  science,  since  he  is  not  only  the  first  who  saw  the 
necessity  of  bringing  to  bear  upon  it  the  generalizations 
of  comparative  anatomy,  but  he  is  also  the  first  who 
actually,  executing  this  great  idea,  succeeded  in  coordi- 
nating the  study  of  the  strata  of  the  earth  with  the 
study  of  the  fossil  animals  found  in  them.124     Shortly 

,M  This  comprehensiveness  of  views  of  the  theory  of  the  earth.' 

Cuvier  is  justly  remarked  by  M.  p.  209.     See  also  BakewelFs  Geo- 

Flourens  as  the  leading  charac-  logy,  p.  368 ;  and  Milne  Edwards, 

taristic  of  his  mind.     Flourens,  Zoologie,  part  ii.  p.  279.    The  im- 

Hist.  des  Travaux  de  Cuvier,  pp.  portance  of  this  step  is  becoming 

76,  142,  306:  'ce  qui  caracterise  more  evident  every  year;  and  it 

partout  M.  Cuvier,  c'est  l'esprit  has  been  justly  remarked,  that 

vaste.'  without  palaeontology  there  would 

124  Hence  he  is  called  by  Mr.  be,  properly  speaking,  no  geology. 

Owen,  'the  founder  of  palaeonto-  Balfour's  Botany,  1849,  p.  691. 

logical  science.'     Owen  on  Fossil  Sir  R.  Murchison  (SUuria,  1854, 

Mammalia,   in  Beport  of  Brit.  p.  366)  says, 'it  is  essentially  the 

Assoc,  for  1843,  p.  208.     It  was  study  of  organic  remains  which 

in    1796    that  there   were   thus  has    led    to   the   clear   subdivi- 

'  opened    to    him    entirely   new  sion  of  the  vast  mass  of  older 

VOL.  TI.  B  B 


370 


PEOXIMATB   CAUSES   OP 


before  his  researches  were  published,  many  valuable 
facts  had  indeed  been  collected  respecting  the  separate 
strata ;  the  primary  formations  being  investigated  by 
the  Germans,  the  secondary  ones  by  the  English.125. 
But  these  observations,  notwithstanding  their  merit, 
were  isolated  ;  and  they  lacked  that  vast  conception 
which  gave  unity  and  grandeur  to  the  whole,  by  con- 
necting inquiries  concerning  the  inorganic  changes  of 
the  surface  of  the  globe  with  other  inquiries  concerning 
the  organic  changes  of  the  animals  the  surface  con- 
tained. 

How  completely  this  immense  step  is  due  to  France, 
is  evident  not  only  from  the  part  played  by  Cuvier,  but 
also  from  the  admitted  fact,  that  to  the  French  we  owe 
our  knowledge  respecting  tertiary  strata,126  in  which  the 
organic  remains  are  most  numerous,  and  the  general 
analogy  to  our  present  state  is  most  intimate.127  Another 
circumstance  may  likewise  be  added,  as  pointing  to  the 


rocks,  which  were  there  formerly 
merged  under  the  unmeaning  term 
*  Grauwacke."  '  In  the  same  able 
work,  p.  465,  we  are  told  that,  'in 
surveying  the  whole  series  of  for- 
mations, the  practical  geologist  is 
fully  impressed  with  the  convic- 
tion that  there  has,  at  all  periods, 
subsisted  a  very  intimate  con- 
nexion between  the  existence,  or, 
at  all  events,  the  preservation  of 
animals,  and  the  media  in  which 
they  have  been  fossilized.'  For 
an  instance  of  this  in  the  old  red 
sandstone,  see  p.  329. 

125  WheweWs  Hist,  of  Sciences, 
vol.  iii.  p.  679  ;  LyeWs  Geol.  p. 
59.  Indeed  gneiss  received  its 
name  from  the  Germans.  Bake- 
welVs  Geol.  p.  108. 

126  Compare  Conybeare's  Ee- 
port  on  Geology,  p.  371  {Brit. 
Assoc,  for  1832),  with  BakewelVs 
Geol.  pp.  367,  368,  419,  and 
LyelVs  Geol.  p.  59. 

127  In  the  older  half  of  the 
secondary  rocks,  mammals   are 


hardly  to  be  found,  and  they  do 
not  become  common  until  the 
tertiary.  Murchison's  Siluria, 
pp.  466,  467;  and  Strickland  on 
Ornithology,  p.  210  {Brit.  Assoc, 
for  1 844).  So,  too,  in  the  vegeta- 
ble kingdom,  many  of  the  plants 
in  the  tertiary  strata  belong  to 
genera  still  existing ;  but  this  is 
rarely  the  case  with  the  se- 
condary strata;  while  in  the 
primary  strata,  even  the  families 
are  different  to  those  now  found 
on  the  earth.  Balfour's  Botany, 
pp.  592,  593.  Compare  Wilson's 
additions  to  Jussieu's  Botany, 
1849,  p.  746;  and  for  further 
illustration  of  this  remarkable 
law  of  the  relation  between  ad- 
vancing time  and  diminished 
similarity,  a  law  suggesting  the 
most  curious  speculations,  see 
Hitchcock's  Geology,  p.  21  ; 
LyeWs  Geology,  p.  183 ;  and 
Owen's  Lectures  on  the  Inverte- 
brata,  1855,  pp.  38,576. 


THE    FBENCH    REVOLUTION.  371 

same  conclusion.  This  is,  that  the  first  application  of 
the  principles  of  comparative  anatomy  to  the  study  of 
fossil  bones  was  also  the  work  of  a  Frenchman,  the 
celebrated  Daubenton.  Hitherto  these  bones  had  been 
the  object  of  stupid  wonder ;  some  saying  that  they 
were  rained  from  heaven,  others  saying  that  they  were 
the  gigantic  limbs  of  the  ancient  patriarchs,  men  who 
were  believed  to  be  tall  because  they  were  known  to  be 
old.128  Such  idle  conceits  were  for  ever  destroyed  by 
Daubenton,  in  a  Memoir  he  published  in  1762  ;129  with 
which,  however,  we  are  not  now  concerned,  except  that 
it  is  evidence  of  the  state  of  the  French  mind,  and  is 
worth  noting  as  a  precursor  of  the  discoveries  of  Cuvier. 
By  this  union  of  geology  and  anatomy,  there  was  first 
introduced  into  the  study  of  nature  a  clear  conception 
of  the  magnificent  doctrine  of  universal  change ;  while 
at  the  same  time  there  grew  up  by  its  side  a  conception 
equally  steady  of  the  regularity  with  which  the  changes 
are  accomplished,  and  of  the  undeviating  laws  by 
which  they  are  governed.  Similar  ideas  had  no  doubt 
been  occasionally  held  in  preceding  ages  ;  but  the  great 
Frenchmen  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  the  first  who 
applied  them  to  the  entire  structure  of  the  globe,  and 
who  thus  prepared  the  way.  for  that  still  higher  view 
for  which  their  minds  were  not  yet  ripe,130  but  to  which 


128  Mr.  Greoffroy  Saint  Hilaire  I2*  '  Daubenton  a  le  premier 
(Anomalies  de  F  Organisation,  d^truit  toutes  ces  id6es ;  il  a  le 
vol.  i.  pp.  121-127)  has  collected  premier  appliqu6  l'anatomie  corn- 
some  evidence  respecting  the  par6e  a  la  determination  de  ces 
opinions  formerly  held  on  these  os.  .  .  .  Le  niemoire  ou  Dau- 
subjects.  Among  other  instances,  benton  a  tented,  pour  la  premiere 
he  mentions  a  learned  man  named  fois,  la  solution  de  ce  probleme 
Henrion,  an  academician,  and,  I  important  est  de  1762.'  Flourens, 
suppose,  a  theologian,  who  in  Travaux  de  Cuvier,  pp.  3G,  37. 
1718  published  a  work,  in  which  Agassiz  (Report  on  Fossil  Fishes, 
'  il  assignait  a  Adam  cent  vingt-  p.  82,  Brit.  Assoc,  for  1842) 
trois  pieds  neuf  pouces ; '  Noah  claims  this  merit  too  exclusively 
being  twenty  feet  shorter,  and  so  for  Cuvier,  overlooking  the 
on.  The  bones  of  elephants  earlier  researches  of  Daubenton ; 
were  sometimes  taken  for  giants :  and  the  same  mistake  is  made  in 
see  a  pleasant  circumstance  in  Hitchcock's  Geoi.  p.  249,  and  in 
Curicr,  Hist,  des  Sciences,  part  ii.  BakewtlVs  Geol.  p.  384. 
p.  43.  lM  Even  Cuvier  held  the  doe- 
B  n  2 


372  PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

in  our  own  time  the  most  advanced  thinkers  are  rapidly 
rising.  For  it  is  now  beginning  to  he  understood,  that 
since  every  addition  to  knowledge  affords  fresh  proof 
of  the  regularity  with  which  all  the  changes  of  nature 
are  conducted,  we  are  bound  to  believe  that  the  same 
regularity  existed  long  before  our  little  planet  assumed 
its  present  form,  and  long  before  man  trod  the  surface 
of  the  earth.  We  have  the  most  abundant  evidence 
that  the  movements  incessantly  occurring  in  the  mate- 
rial world  have  a  character  of  uniformity;  and  this 
uniformity  is  so  clearly  marked,  that  in  astronomy,  the 
most  perfect  of  all  the  sciences,  we  are  able  to  predict 
events  many  years  before  they  actually  happen ;  nor 
can  any  one  doubt,  that  if  on  other  subjects  our  science 
were  equally  advanced,  our  predictions  would  be  equally 
accurate.  It  is,  therefore,  clear,  that  the  burden  of  proof 
lies  not  on  those  who  assert  the  eternal  regularity 
of  nature,  but  rather  on  those  who  deny  it ;  and  who  set 
up  an  imaginary  period,  to  which  they  assign  an  ima- 
ginary catastrophe,  during  which  they  say  new  laws 
were  introduced  and  a  new  order  established.  Such 
gratuitous  assumptions,  even  if  they  eventually  turn  out 
to  be  true,  are  in  the  present  state  of  knowledge  un- 
warrantable, and  ought  to  be  rejected,  as  the  last  re- 
-  mains  of  those  theological  prejudices  by  which  the 
march  of  every  science  has  in  its  turn  been  hindered. 
These  and  all  analagous  notions  work  a  double  mischief. 
They  are  mischievous,  because  they  cripple  the  human 


trine  of  catastrophes ;  but,  as  Sir  vol.  i.  p.  155.     To  this  I  may 

Charles  Lyell  says  {Principles  of  add,  that  Cuvier  unconsciously 

Geology,  p.    60),   his   own   dis-  prepared  the  way  for  disturbing 

coveries  supplied  the  means  of  the  old  dogma  of  fixity  of  species, 

overthrowing  it,  and  of  familiar-  though  he  himself  clung  to  it  to 

izing  us  with  the  idea  of  con-  the  last.     See  some  observations, 

tinuity.     Indeed   it  was  one  of  which  are  very  remarkable,  con- 

the  fossil  observations  of  Cuvier  sidering  the  period  when  they 

which  first  supplied  the  link  be-  were  written,  in   Cabanis,  Eap- 

tween  reptiles,  fishes,  and  ceta-  ports  du  Physique  et  du  Moral, 

ceous  mammals.     See  Owen  on  pp.  427, 428  :  conclusions  drawn 

Fossil  Reptiles,  pp.  60,  198,  Brit,  from  Cuvier,  which  Cuvier  would 

Assoc,  for   1841  ;  and  compare  have  himself  rejected. 
Carus's    Comparative    Anatomy, 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION.  373 

mind  by  imposing  limits  to  its  inquiries  ;  and  above  all 
they  are  mischievous,  because  they  weaken  that  vast 
conception  of  continuous  and  uninterrupted  law,  which 
few  indeed  are  able  firmly  to  seize,  but  on  which  the 
highest  generalizations  of  future  science  must  ulti- 
mately depend. 

It  is  this  deep  conviction,  that  changing  phenomena 
have  unchanging  laws,  and  that  there  are  principles  of 
order  to  which  all  apparent  disorder  may  be  referred, — 
it  is  this,  which,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  guided  in 
a  limited  field  Bacon,  Descartes,  and  Newton  ;  which  in 
the  eighteenth  century  was  applied  to  every  part  of  the 
material  universe ;  and  which  it  is  the  business  of  the 
nineteenth  century  to  extend  to  the  history  of  the 
human  intellect.  This  last  department  of  inquiry  we 
owe  chiefly  to  Germany  ;  for,  with  the  single  exception 
of  Vico,  no  one  even  suspected  the  possibility  of  arriv- 
ing at  complete  generalizations  respecting  the  progress 
of  man,  until  shortly  before  the  French  Revolution, 
when  the  great  German  thinkers  began  to  cultivate 
this,  the  highest  and  most  difficult  of  all  studies.  But 
the  French  themselves  were  too  much  occupied  with 
physical  science  to  pay  attention  to  such  matters;131 

131  Neither  Montesquieu   nor  former  writer,  in  particular,  dis- 

Turgot  appear  to  have  believed  played  such  extraordinary  abi- 

in  the  possibility  of  generalizing  lity,   that    there    can   be    little 

the  past,  so   as  to   predict  the  doubt,  that  had  he  lived  at  a 

future  ;  while  as  to  Voltaire,  the  later  period,  and  thus  had  the 

weakest  point  in   his  otherwise  means  of  employing  in  their  full 

profound  view  of  history  was  his  extent  the  resources  of  political 

love  of  the  old  saying,  that  great  economy  and  physical  science,  he 

events  spring  from  little  causes  ;  would  have  had  the  honour  not 

a  singular  error  for  so  compre-  only  of  laying  the  basis,  but  also 

hcnsive  a  mind,  because  it  de-  of  rearing  the  structure  of  the 

pended  on  confusing  causes  with  philosophy  of  the  history  of  Man. 

conditions.     That    a    man    like  As  it  was,  he  failed  in  conceiving 

Voltaire  should  have  committed  what  is  the  final  object  of  every 

what    now    seems    so    gross    a  scientific    inquiry,   namely,  the 

blunder,  is  a  mortifying  reflec-  power  of  foretelling  the  future  : 

tion  for  those  who  are  able  to  and  after  his  death,  in  1755,  all 

appreciate  his   vast  and    pene-  the  finest  intellects  in  France, 

trating  genius,  and  it  may  teach  Voltaire  alone  excepted,  concen- 

thebest  of  usawholosomelesson.  trated  their  attention  upon  the 

This  fallacy  was  avoided  by  Mon-  study  of  natural  phenomena, 
tesquieu   and   Turgot ;   and  the 


374  PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 

and  speaking  generally,  we  may  say  that,  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  each  of  the  three  leading  nations  of 
Europe  had  a  separate  part  to  play.  England  diffused 
a  love  of  freedom ;  France,  a  knowledge  of  physical 
science ;  while  Germany,  aided  in  some  degree  by  Scot- 
land, revived  the  study  of  metaphysics,  and  created  the 
study  of  philosophic  history.  To  this  classification 
some  exceptions  may  of  course  be  made  ;  but  that  these 
were  the  marked  characteristics  of  the  three  countries, 
is  certain.  After  the  death  of  Locke  in  1704,  and  that 
of  Newton  in  1727,  there  was  in  England  a  singular 
dearth  of  great  speculative  thinkers ;  and  this  not 
because  the  ability  was  wanting,  but  because  it  was 
turned  partly  into  practical  pursuits,  partly  into  political 
contests.  I  shall  hereafter  examine  the  causes  of  this 
peculiarity,  and  endeavour  to  ascertain  the  extent  to 
which  it  has  influenced  the  fortunes  of  the  country. 
That  the  results  were,  on  the  whole,  beneficial,  I  enter- 
tain no  doubt ;  but  they  were  unquestionably  injurious 
to  the  progress  of  science,  because  they  tended  to  divert 
it  from  all  new  truths,  except  those  likely  to  produce 
obvious  and  practical  benefit.  The  consequence  was, 
that  though  the  English  made  several  great  discoveries, 
they  did  not  possess,  during  seventy  years,  a  single  man 
who  took  a  really  comprehensive  view  of  the  pheno- 
mena of  nature ;  not  one  who  could  be  compared  with 
those  illustrious  thinkers  who  in  France  reformed  every 
branch  of  physical  knowledge.  Nor  was  it  until  more 
than  two  generations  after  the  death  of  Newton,  that 
the  first  symptoms  appeared  of  a  remarkable  reaction, 
which  quickly  displayed  itself  in  nearly  every  depart- 
ment of  the  national  intellect.  In  physics,  it  is  enough 
to  mention  Dalton,  Davy,  and  Young,  each  of  whom 
was  in  his  own  field  the  founder  of  a  new  epoch ;  while 
on  other  subjects  I  can  only  just  refer,  first,  to  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Scotch  school ;  and,  secondly,  to  that 
sudden  and  well-deserved  admiration  for  the  German 
literature  of  which  Coleridge  was  the  principal  expo- 
nent, and  which  infused  into  the  English  mind  a  taste 
for  generalizations  higher  and  more  fearless  than  any 
hitherto  known.     The  history  of  this  vast  movement, 


THE    FEENCH   REVOLUTION.  375 

which  began  early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  will  be 
traced  in  the  future  volumes  of  this  work :  at  present 
I  merely  notice  it,  as  illustrating  the  fact,  that  until 
the  movement  began,  the  English,  though  superior  to 
the  French  in  several  matters  of  extreme  importance, 
were  for  many  years  inferior  to  them  in  those  large  and 
philosophic  views,  without  which  not  only  is  the  most 
patient  industry  of  no  avail,  but  even  real  discoveries 
lose  their  proper  value,  for  want  of  such  habits  of  gene- 
ralization as  would  trace  their  connexion  with  each 
other,  and  consolidate  their  severed  fragments  into  one 
vast  system  of  complete  and  harmonious  truth. 

The  interest  attached  to  these  inquiries  has  induced 
me  to  treat  them  at  greater  length  than  I  had  intended ; 
perhaps  at  greater  length  than  is  suitable  to  the  sug- 
gestive and  preparatory  character  of  this  Introduction. 
But  the  extraordinary  success  with  which  the  French 
now  cultivated  physical  knowledge  is  so  curious,  on  ac- 
count of  its  connexion  with  the  Revolution,  that  I  must 
mention  a  few  more  of  its  most  prominent  instances  : 
though,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  I  will  confine  myself 
to  those  three  great  divisions  which,  when  put  together, 
form  what  is  called  Natural  History,  and  in  all  of  which 
we  shall  see  that  the  most  important  steps  were  taken  in 
France  during  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

In  the  first  of  these  divisions,  namely,  the  depart- 
ment of  zoology,  we  owe  to  the  Frenchmen  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  those  generalizations  which  are  still  the 
highest  this  branch  of  knowledge  has  reached.  Taking 
zoology  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  it  consists  only 
of  two  parts,  the  anatomical  part,  which  is  its  statics, 
and  the  physiological  part,  which  is  its  dynamics  :  the 
first  referring  to  the  structure  of  animals ;  the  other, 
to  their  functions.138     Both  of  these  were  worked  out, 

132  The   line   of  demarcation  is  6aid  by  Carus  (Comparative 

between    anatomy   as    statical,  Anatomy,  vol.  ii.  p.  3.56)  and  by 

and  physiology  us  dynamical,  is  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  (Lectures  on 

clearly    drawn    by    M.    Comte  Pathology  and    Surgery,    p.   6) 

(Philos.  Positive,  vol.  iii.  p.  303)  comes  nearly  to  the  same  thing, 

and  by  MM.  Robin  et  Verdeil  though  expressed  with  less  pre- 

(Chimie  Anatomique,  vol.  i.  pp.  cision.      On     the    other    hand, 

11,12,40,102,188,434).  What  M.    Milne    Edwards    (Zootogie, 


376  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 

nearly  at  the  same  time,  by  Cuvier  and  Bichat ;  and 
the  leading  conclusions  at  which  they  arrived,  remain, 
after  the  lapse  of  sixty  years,  undisturbed  in  their 
essential  points.  In  1795,  Cuvier  laid  down  the  great 
principle,  that  the  study  and  classification  of  animals 
was  to  be,  not  as  heretofore,  with  a  view  to  external 
peculiarities,  but  with  a  view  to  internal  organization ; 
and  that,  therefore,  no  real  advance  could  be  made  in 
our  knowledge  except  by  extending  the  boundaries  of 
comparative  anatomy.133  This  step,  simple  as  it  now 
appears,  was  of  immense  importance,  since  by  it  zoology 
was  at  once  rescued  from  the  hands  of  the  observer, 
and  thrown  into  those  of  the  experimenter  :  the  conse- 
quence of  which  has  been  the  attainment  of  that  preci- 
sion and  accuracy  of  detail,  which  experiment  alone  can 
give,  and  which  is  every  way  superior  to  such  popular 
facts  as  observation  supplies.  By  thus  indicating  to 
naturalists  the  true  path  of  inquiry,  by  accustoming 
them  to  a  close  and  severe  method,  and  by  teaching 
them  to  despise  those  vague  descriptions  in  which  they 
had  formerly  delighted,  Cuvier  laid  the  foundation  of 
a  progress  which,  during  the  last  sixty  years,  has  sur- 
passed the  most  sanguine  expectations.  This,  then,  is 
the  real  service  rendered  by  Cuvier,  that  he  overthrew 
the  artificial  system  which  the  genius  of  Limrams  had 
raised  up,134  and  substituted  in  its  place  that  far  superior 
scheme  which  gave  the  freest  scope  to  future  inquiry  ; 
since,  according  to  it,  all  systems  are  to  be  deemed  im- 
part i.  p.  9)  calls  physiology  '  la  cette  obligation  me  prit  un 
science  de  la  vie ; '  which,  if  true,  temps  considerable,  je  dus  faire 
would  simply  prove  that  there  is  marcher  de  front  l'anatomie  et 
no  physiology  at  all,  for  there    la  zoologie,  les  dissections  et  le 

certainly  is  at  present  no  science     classement Les  premiers 

of  life.  resultats   de   ce    double  travail 

138  In  his  Begne  Animal,  vol.  i.  parurent  en  1795,  dans  un  me- 
pp.  vi.  vii.,  he  says  that  pre-  moire  special  sur  uue  nouvelle 
ceding  naturalists  '  n'avaient  division  des  animaux  a  sang 
guere  considere  que  les  rapports    blanc' 

exterieurs  de  ces  especes,  et  per-  IS4  On  the  opposition  between 
sonne  ne  s'etait  occupe  de  ccor-  the  methods  of  Linnaeus  and  of 
donner  les  classes  et  les  ordres  Cuvier,  see  Jeni/ns'  Beport  on 
d'apres  l'ensemble  de  la  struc-  Zoology,  pp.  144,  145,  in  Brit. 
ture Je    dus     done,    et     Assoc,  for  1834. 


THE    FEENCH    EEVOLUTION. 


377 


perfect  and  provisional  so  long  as  any  thing  remains  to 
be  learned  respecting  the  comparative  anatomy  of  the 
animal  kingdom.  The  influence  exercised  by  this  great 
view  was  increased  by  the  extraordinary  skill  and  in- 
dustry with  which  its  proposer  followed  it  out,  and 
proved  the  practicability  of  his  own  precepts.  His 
additions  to  our  knowledge  of  comparative  anatomy  are 
probably  more  numerous  than  those  made  by  any  other 
man ;  but  what  has  gained  him  most  celebrity  is,  the 
comprehensive  spirit  with  which  he  used  what  he  ac- 
quired. Independently  of  other  generalizations,  he  is 
the  author  of  that  vast  classification  of  the  whole  animal 
kingdom  into  vertebrata,  mollusca,  articulata,  and  ra- 
diate, ;135  a  classification  which  keeps  its  ground,  and  is 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  instances  of  that  large  and 
philosophic  spirit  which  France  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  phenomena  of  the  material  world.136 

Great,  however,  as  is  the  name  of  Cuvier,  a  greater 


134  The  foundations  of  this 
celebrated  arrangement  was  laid 
by  Cuvier,  in  a  paper  read  in 
1795.  WhewelFs  History  of  the 
Indue.  Sciences,  vol.  iii.  p.  494. 
It  appears,  however  (Flourens, 
Travaux  de  Cuvier,  pp.  69,  70), 
that  it  was  in,  or  just  after, 
1791,  that  the  dissection  of  some 
mollusca  suggested  to  him  the 
idea  of  reforming  the  classifica- 
tion of  the  whole  animal  king- 
dom. Compare  Cuvier,  Begne 
Animal,  vol.  i.  pp.51,  52  note. 

1,8  The  only  formidable  oppo- 
sition made  to  Cuvier' s  arrange- 
ment has  proceeded  from  the 
advocates  of  the  doctrine  of 
circular  progression  :  a  remark- 
able theory,  of  which  Lamarck 
and  Macleay  are  the  real  origi- 
nators, and  which  is  certainly 
supported  by  a  considerable 
amount  of  evidence.  Still,  among 
the  great  majority  of  competent 
Boologists,  the  fourfold  division 


holds  its  ground,  although  iat, 
constantly-increasing  accuracy 
of  microscopical  observations  has 
detected  a  nervous  system  much 
lower  in  the  scale  than  was  for- 
merly suspected,  and  has  thereby 
induced  some  anatomists  to  di- 
vide the  radiata  into  acrita  and 
nematoneura.  Owen's  Inverte- 
brata,  1855,  pp.  14,  15;  and 
Jtymer  Jones's  Animal  Kingdom, 
1855,  p.  4.  As,  however,  it 
seems  probable  that  all  ani- 
mals have  a  distinct  nervous 
system,  this  subdivision  is  only 
provisional ;  and  it  is  very  likely 
that  when  our  microscopes  are 
more  improved,  we  shall  have  to 
return  to  Cuvier's  arrangement. 
Some  of  Cuvier's  successors  have 
removed  the  apodous  echino- 
derms  from  the  radiata ;  but  in 
this  Mr.  Eymer  Jones  {Animal 
Kingdom,  p.  211)  vindicates  the 
Cuverian  classification. 


378  PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 

still  remains  behind.  I  allude,  of  course,  to  Bichat, 
whose  reputation  is  steadily  increasing  as  our  know- 
ledge advances,  and  who,  if  we  compare  the  shortness 
of  his  life  with  the  reach  and  depth  of  his  views,  must 
be  pronounced  the  most  profound  thinker  and  the  most 
consummate  observer  by  whom  the  organization  of  the 
animal  frame  has  yet  been  studied.137  He  wanted,  in- 
deed,  that  comprehensive  knowledge  for  which  Cuvier 
was  remarkable  ;  but  though,  on  this  account,  his  gene- 
ralizations were  drawn  from  a  smaller  surface,  they  were, 
on  the  other  hand,  less  provisional :  they  were,  I  think, 
more  complete,  and  certainly  they  dealt  with  more  mo- 
mentous topics.  For  the  attention  of  Bichat  was  preemi- 
nently directed  to  the  human  frame138  in  the  largest 
sense  of  the  word ;  his  object  being  so  to  investigate 
the  organization  of  man,  as  to  rise,  if  possible,  to  some 
knowledge  concerning  the  causes  and  nature  of  life. 
In  this  magnificent  enterprise,  considered  as  a  whole, 
he  failed  ;  but  what  he  effected  in  certain  parts  of  it  is 
so  extraordinary,  and  has  given  such  an  impetus  to 
some  of  the  highest  branches  of  inquiry,   that  I  will 


137  We  may  except  Aristotle;  363,  364,  400,  478,  501,  vol.  iv. 
but  between  Aristotle  and  Bichat  pp.  27,  28,  34,  46,  229,  247,  471 : 
I  can  find  no  middle  man.  see  also  Bichat,   Eecherches  sur 

138  But  not  exclusively.  Mr.  la  Vie,  pp.  262,  265,  277,  312, 
Blainville  {Physiol. compares,  vol.  336,  356,  358,  360,  368,  384, 400, 
ii.  p.  304)  says, '  celui  qui,  comme  411,  439,  455,  476,  482,  494, 
Bichat,  bornait  ses  etudes  a  512 :  and  his  Traite  ales  Mem- 
l'anatomie  humaine; '  and  at  p.  branes,  pp.  48,  64,  67,  130,  158, 
350,  'quand  on  ne  considere  196,  201,  224.  These  are  all 
que  ce  qui  se  passe  chez  l'homme,  experiments  on  inferior  animals, 
ainsi  que  l'a  fait  Bichat.'  This,  which  aided  this  great  physiolo-' 
however,  is  much  too  positively  gist  in  establishing  those  vast 
stated.  Bichat  mentions  '  les  generalizations,  which,  though 
experiences  nombreuses  que  j'ai  applied  to  man,  were  by  no 
faites  sur  les  animaux  vivans.'  means  collected  merely  from 
Bichat,  Anatomie  Generate,  vol.  i.  human  anatomy.  The  impossi- 
p.  332 ;  and  for  other  instances  bility  of  understanding  physio- 
of  his  experiments  on  animals  logy  without  studying  compara- 
below  man,  see  the  same  work,  tive  anatomy,  is  well  pointed 
vol.  i.  pp.  164,  284,  311,  312,  out  in  Mr.  Rymer  Jones's  work, 
326,  vol.  ii.  pp.  13,  25,  69,  73,  Organization  of  the  Animal  King_- 
107,   133,  135,  225,    264,    423,  dam,  1855,  pp.  601,  791. 

vol.  iii.  pp.  151,  218.   242,  262, 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  379 

briefly  indicate  his  method,  in  order  to  compare  it  with 
that  other  method  which,  at  the  same  moment,  Cuvier 
adopted  with  immense  success. 

The  important  step  taken  by  Cuvier  was,  that  he 
insisted  on  the  necessity  of  a  comprehensive  study  of  the 
organs  of  animals,  instead  of  following  the  old  plan  of 
merely  describing  their  habits  and  external  peculiari- 
ties. This  was  a  vast  improvement,  since,  in  the  place 
of  loose  and  popular  observations,  he  substituted  direct 
experiment,  and  hence  introduced  into  zoology  a  pre- 
cision formerly  unknown.139  But  Bichat,  with  a  still 
keener  insight,  saw  that  even  this  was  not  enough.  He 
saw  that,  each  organ  being  composed  of  different  tissues, 
it  was  requisite  to  study  the  tissues  themselves,  before 
we  could  learn  the  way  in  which,  by  their  combinations, 
the  organs  are  produced.  This,  like  all  really  great 
ideas,  was  not  entirely  struck  out  by  a  single  man ;  for 
the  physiological  value  of  the  tissues  had  been  recog- 
nized by  three  or  four  of  the  immediate  predecessors  of 
Bichat,  such  as  Carmichael,  Smyth,  Bonn,  Bordeu,  and 
Fallopius.  These  inquirers,  however,  notwithstanding 
their  industry,  had  effected  nothing  of  much  moment, 
since,  though  they  collected  several  special  facts,  there 
was  in  their  observations  that  want  of  harmony  and 
that  general  incompleteness  always  characteristic  of  the 


139  Mr.  Swainson  ( Geography  Asiatic  Besearches,  vol.   xix.  p. 

and  Classification  of  Animals,  p.  179,  Calcutta,   1836.)     In  other 

170)  complains,  strangely  enough,  words,  this  is  a  complaint  that 

that  Cuvier   '  rejects   the   more  Cuvier  attempted  to  raise  zoology 

plain    and     obvious    characters  to  a  science,  and,  therefore,  of 

■which   every   one   can  see,  and  course,  deprived  it  of  some  of 

which  had  been  so  happily  em-  its  popular  attx-actions,  in  order 

ployed  by  Linnaeus,  and  makes  to  invest  it  with  other  attractions 

the    differences    between    these  of  a  far  higher  character.     The 

groups  to  depend  upon  circum-  errors  introduced  into  the  natu- 

stances   which  no   one   but    an  ral   sciences    by    relying    upon 

anatomist  can  understand.'     See  observation   instead    of    experi- 

also  p.  173:  'characters  which,  ment,  have  been  noticed  by  many 

however  good,   are   not   always  writers ;  and  by  none  more  judi- 

comprehensible,   except  to    the  ciously  than  M.  Saint  Hilaire  in 

anatomist.'     (Compare  Hodgson  his  Anomalies  de  C  Organisation, 

on  the   Ornithology  of  Nepal,  in  vol.  i.  p.  98. 


380 


PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 


labours  of  men  who  do  not  rise  to  a  commanding  view 
of  the  subject  with  which  they  deal.140 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  Bichat  began 
those  researches,  which,  looking  at  their  actual  and  still 
more  at  their  prospective  results,  are  probably  the  most 
valuable  contribution  ever  made  to  physiology  by  a 
single  mind.  In  1801,  only  a  year  before  his  death,141 
he  published  his  great  work  on  anatomy,  in  which  the 
study  of  the  organs  is  made  altogether  subservient  to 
the  study  of  the  tissues  composing  them.  He  lays  it 
down,  that  the  body  of  man  consists  of  twenty-one  dis- 
tinct tissues,  all  of  which,  though  essentially  different, 
have  in  common  the  two  great  properties  of  extensibi- 
lity and  contractility.142  These  tissues  he,  with  inde- 
fatigable industry,143  subjected  to  every  sort  of  exami- 


"•  It  is  very  doubtful  if  Bi- 
chat was  acquainted  with  the 
works  of  Smyth,  Bonn,  or  Fallo- 
pius,  and  I  do  not  remember 
that  he  any  where  even  men- 
tions their  names.  He  had, 
however,  certainly  studied  Bor- 
deu ;  but  I  suspect  that  the  au- 
thor by  whom  he  was  most  in- 
fluenced was  Pinel,  whose  patho- 
logical generalizations  were  put 
forward  just  about  the  time 
when  Bichat  began  to  write. 
Compare  Bichat,  Traite  des  Mem- 
branes, pp.  3,  4,  107,  191 ;  BS- 
clard,  Anat.  Gen.  pp.  65,  66 ; 
Bouillaud,  Philos.  Medicate,  p. 
26 ;  Blainville,  Physiol,  comparee, 
vol.  i.  p.  284,  vol.  ii.  pp.  19, 
252 ;  Henle,  Anat.  Gen.  vol.  i. 
pp.  119,  120. 

141  Biog.  Univ.  vol.  iv.  pp. 
468,  469. 

142  For  a  list  of  the  tissues, 
see  Bichat,  Anat.  Gen.  vol.  i.  p. 
49.  At  p.  50  he  says,  '  en  effet, 
quel  que  soit  le  point  de  vue 
sous  lequel  on  considere  ces 
tissus,  ils  ne  se  ressemblent 
nullement :  e'est  la  nature,  et  non 


la  science,  qui  a  tire  une  ligne 
de  demarcation  entre  eux.' 
There  is,  however,  now  reason  to 
think,  that  both  animal  and  ve- 
getable tissues  are,  in  all  their 
varieties,  referrible  to  a  cellular 
origin.  This  great  view,  which 
M.  Schwann  principally  worked 
out,  will,  if  fully  established,  be 
the  largest  generalization  we 
possess  respecting  the  organic 
world,  and  it  would  be  difficult 
to  overrate  its  value.  Still  there 
is  danger  lest,  in  prematurely 
reaching  at  so  vast  a  law,  we 
should  neglect  the  subordinate, 
but  strongly-marked  differences 
between  the  tissues  as  they  ac- 
tually exist.  Burdach  (Traite 
de  Physiologie,  vol.  vi.  pp.  195, 
196)  has  made  some  good  re- 
marks on  the  confusion  intro- 
duced into  the  study  of  tissues, 
by  neglecting  those  salient  cha- 
racteristics which  were  indicated 
by  Bichat. 

143  Pinel  says,  'dans  un  seul 
hiver  il  ouvrit  plus  de  six  cents 
cadavres.'  Notice  sur  Bichat, 
p.  xih.,  in  vol.  i.  of  Anat.   Gen. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


381 


nation ;  he  examined  them  in  different  ages  and  diseases, 
with  a  view  to  ascertain  the  laws  of  their  normal  and 
pathological  development.144  He  studied  the  way  each 
tissue  is  affected  by  moisture,  air,  and  temperature ; 
also  the  way  in  which  their  properties  are  altered  by 
various  chemical  substances,145  and  even  the,ir  effect 
on  the  taste.146     By  these  means,  and  by  many  other 


By  such  enormous  labour,  and 
by  working  day  and  night  in  a 
necessarily  polluted  atmosphere, 
he  laid  the  foundation  for  that 
diseased  habit  -which  caused  a 
slight  accident  to  prove  fatal, 
and  carried  him  off  at  the  age  of 
thirty-one.  '  L'esprit  a  peine 
a  concevoir  que  la  vie  d'un  seul 
homme  puisse  euffire  a  tant  de 
travaux,  a  tant  de  decouvertes, 
faites  ou  indiquees:  Bichat  est 
mort  avant  d' avoir  accompli  sa 
trente-deuxieme  annee ! '  Find, 
p.  xvi. 

144  To  this  sort  of  comparative 
anatomy  (if  it  may  be  so  called), 
which  before  his  time  scarcely 
existed,  Bichat  attached  great 
importance,  and  clearly  saw  that 
it  would  eventually  become  of 
the  utmost  value  for  pathology. 
Anat.  Gen.  vol.  i.  pp.  331,  332, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  234-241,  vol.  iv.  p. 
417,  &c.  Unfortunately  these 
investigations  were  not  properly 
followed  up  by  his  immediate 
successors;  and  Muller,  writing 
long  after  his  df  ath,  was  obliged 
to  refer  chiefly  to  Bichat  for  '  the 
true  principles  of  general  patho- 
logy. Muller1  s  Physiology,  1840, 
vol.  i.  p.  808.  M.  Vbgel  too,  in 
his  Pathological  Anatomy,  1847, 
pp.  398,  413,  notices  the  error 
committed  by  the  earlier  patho- 
logists, in  looking  at  changes  in 
the  organs,  and  neglecting  those 
in  the  tissues  ;  and  the  same  re- 
mark is  made  in  Robin  et  Ver- 
deil,  Chimie  Anatomique,    1853, 


voL  i.  p.  45 ;  and  in  Henle, 
Traiti  oVAnatomie,  vol.  i.  p.  vii., 
Paris,  1843.  That  'structural 
anatomy,'  and  '  structural  deve- 
lopment,' are  to  be  made  the 
foundations  of  pathology,  is, 
moreover,  observed  in  Simon's 
Pathology,  1850,  p.  115  (compare 
Williams's  Principles  of  Medi- 
cine, 1848,  p.  67),  who  ascribes 
the  chief  merit  of  this  '  rational 
pathology '  to  Henle  and  Schwann: 
omitting  to  mention  that  they 
only  executed  Bichat's  scheme, 
and  (be  it  said  with  every  re- 
spect for  these  eminent  men) 
executed  it  with  a  comprehen- 
siveness much  inferior  to  that 
displayed  by  their  great  prede- 
cessor. In  Broussais,  Examen 
des  Doctrines  Medicates,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  106,  107,  there  are  some  just 
and  liberal  observations  on  the 
immense  service  which  Bichat 
rendered  to  pathology.  See  also 
BSclard,  Anatomic,  Paris,  1852, 
p.  184. 

144  Bichat,  Anat.  Gin.  vol.  i. 
pp.  51,  160,  161,  259,  372,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  47,  448,  449,  vol.  iii.  pp. 
33,  168,  208,  309,  406,  435,  vol. 
iv.  pp.  21,  52,  455-461,  517. 

148  According  to  M.  Comte 
(Philos.  Pos.  vol.  iii.  p.  319),  no 
one  had  thought  of  this  before 
Bichat.  MM.  Robin  et  Verdeil, 
in  their  recent  great  work,  fully 
admit  the  necessity  of  employing 
this  singular  resource.  Chimie 
Anatomique,  1853,  vol.  i.  pp.  18, 
125,  182,  367,  531. 


382 


PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 


experiments  tending  in  the  same  direction,  he  took  so 
great  and  sndden  a  step,  that  he  is  to  be  regarded  not 
merely  as  an  innovator  on  an  old  science,  but  rather  as 
the  creator  of  a  new  one.147  And  although  subsequent 
observers  have  corrected  some  of  his  conclusions,  this 
has  only  been  done -by  following  his  method ;  the  value 
of  which  is  now  so  generally  recognized,  that  it  is 
adopted  by  nearly  all  the  best  anatomists,  who,  differing 
in  other  points,  are  agreed  as  to  the  necessity  of  basing 
the  future  progress  of  anatomy  on  a  knowledge  of  the 
tissues,  the  supreme  importance  of  which  Bichat  was 
the  first  to  perceive.148 

The  methods  of  Bichat   and  of  Cuvier,  when  put 

147  'Des-lors  il  crea  une  sci- 
ence nouvelle,  l'anatomie  gene- 
rale.'  Pinel  stir  Bichat,  p.  xii. 
'  A  Bichat  appartient  veritarble- 
ment  la  gloire  d' avoir  concu  et 
surtout  execute,  le  premier,  le 
plan  d'une  anatomie  nouvelle.' 
Bouillaud,  Philvs.  Medicate,  p. 
27.  'Bichat  fut  le  createur  de 
l'histologie  en  assignant  des 
caracteres  precis  a  chaque  classe 
de  tissue.'  Burdach,  Physiologie, 
vol.  vii.  p.  111.  'Le  createur  de 
l'anatomie  generale  fut  Bichat.' 
Hente,  Anatomie,  vol.  i.  p.  120. 
Similar  remarks  will  be  found 
in  Saint-Hilaire,  Anomalies  de 
V  Organisation,  vol.  i.  p.  10;  and 
in  Robin  et  Verdetl,  Ghimie 
Anat.  vol.  i.  p.  xviii.,  vol.  iii.  p. 
405. 

148  In  Beclard,  Anat.  Gin. 
1852,  p.  61,  it  is  said  that  'la 
recherche  de  ces  tissus  elemen- 
taires,  ou  elements  organiques, 
est  devenue  la  preoccupation 
presque  exclusive  desanatomistes 
de  nos  jours.'  Compare  Blain- 
vilte,  Physiol.  Gen.  et  Comp.  vol. 
i.  p.  93 :  '  Aujourd'hui  nous 
allons  plus  avant,  nous  pene- 
trans dans  la  structure  intime, 
non  seulement  de   ces  organes, 


mais  encore  des  tissus  qui  con- 
courent  a  leur  composition ;  nous 
faisons  en  un  mot  de  la  veritable 
anatomie,  de  l'anatomie  propre- 
ment  dite.'  And  at  p.  105 : 
'c'est  un  genre  de  recherches 
qui  a  ete  cultive  avec  beaucoup 
d'activite,  et  qui  a  re$u  une 
grande  extension  depuis  la  pub- 
lication du  bel  ouvrage  de  Bi- 
chat.'    See  also  vol.  ii.  p.  303. 

In  consequence  of  this  move- 
ment, there  has  sprung  up,  under 
the  name  of  Degenerations  of 
Tissues,  an  entirely  new  branch 
of  morbid  anatomy,  of  which,  I 
believe,  no  instance  will  be  found 
before  the  time  of  Bichat,  but 
the  value  of  which  is  now  recog- 
nized by  most  pathologists. 
Compare  Paget 's  Surgical  Patho- 
logy,vol.  i.  pp.  98-1 12;  Williams's 
Principles  of  Medicine,  pp.  369- 
376  ;  Burdach' s  Physiologie,  vol. 
viii.  p.  367  ;  Reports  of  Brit. 
Assoc,  vol.  vi.  p.  147  ;  Jones's 
and  Sieveking's  Pathological 
Anatomy,  1854,  pp.  154-156, 
302-304,  555-558.  'They  are,' 
say  these  last  writers,  'of  ex- 
tremely frequent  occurrence  ; 
but  their  nature  has  scarcely 
been  recognized  until  of  late.' 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION.  383 

together,  exhaust  the  actual  resources  of  zoological 
science ;  so  that  all  subsequent  naturalists  have  been 
compelled  to  follow  one  of  these  two  schemes  ;  that  is, 
either  to  follow  Cuvier  in  comparing  the  organs  of 
animals,  or  else  to  follow  Bichat  in  comparing  the  tissues 
which  compose  the  organs.149  And  inasmuch  as  one 
comparison  is  chiefly  suggestive  of  function,  and  the 
other  comparison  of  structure,  it  is  evident,  that  to 
raise  the  study  of  the  animal  world  to  the  highest  point 
of  which  it  is  capable,  both  these  great  plans  are 
necessary ;  but  if  we  ask  which  of  the  two  plans,  un- 
aided by  the  other,  is  more  likely  to  produce  important 
results,  the  palm  must,  I  think,  be  yielded  to  that  pro- 
posed by  Bichat.  Certainly,  if  we  look  at  the  question 
as  one  to  be  decided  by  authority,  a  majority  of  the  most 
eminent  anatomists  and  physiologists  now  incline  to  the 
side  of  Bichat,  rather  than  to  that  of  Cuvier  ;  while,  as 
a  matter  of  history,  it  may  be  proved  that  the  reputa- 
tion of  Bichat  has,  with  the  advance  of  knowledge, 
increased  more  rapidly  than  that  of  his  great  rival. 
What,  however,  appears  to  me  still  more  decisive,  is, 
that  the  two  most  important  discoveries  made  in  our 
time  respecting  the  classification  of  animals,  are  entirely 
the  result  of  the  method  which  Bichat  suggested.  The 
first  discovery  is  that  made  by  Agassiz,  who,  in  the 
course  of  his  ichthyological  researches,  was  led  to 
perceive  that  the  arrangement  by  Cuvier  according 
to  organs,  did  not  fulfil  its  purpose  in  regard  to  fossil 
fishes,  because  in  the  lapse  of  ages  the  characteristics 
of  their  structure  were  destroyed.150     He,   therefore, 


149  Cuviercompletelyneglected  Is0  A  well-known  ornithologist 

the  study  of  tissues ;  and  in  the  makes     the      same     complaint 

Tery  few  instances  in  which  he  respecting  the   classification    of 

mentions  them,  his  language  is  birds.  Strickland  on  Ornithology, 

•  xtremely  vague.     Thus,  in  his  Brit.  Assoc,  for  1844,  pp.  209, 

llegne  Animal,  vol.  i.  p.  12,  he  210.     Even  in  regard  to  living 

says  of  living  bodies,  '  leur  tissu  species,  Cuvier  (Rtgne  Animal, 

est  done  compose  de  reseaux  et  vol.  ii.  p.  126)  says  :  '  La  classe 

de  mailles,  ou  de  fibres   et  de  des  poissons  est  de  toutes  celle 

lames   solides,   qui    renferment  qui  offre  le    plus  de   difficult^ 

des   liquides  dans   lours    inter-  quand  on  veut  la  subdiviser  en 
guiles.' 


384  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES   OP 

adopted  the  only  other  remaining  plan,  and  studied  the 
tissues,  which,  being  less  complex  than  the  organs,  are 
oftener  found  intact.  The  result  was  the  very  remarkable 
discovery,  that  the  tegumentary  membrane  of  fishes  is 
so  intimately  connected  with  their  organization,  that  if 
the  whole  of  a  fish  has  perished  except  this  membrane, 
it  is  practicable,  by  noting  its  characteristics,  to  recon- 
struct the  animal  in  its  most  essential  parts.  Of  the 
value  of  this  principle  of  harmony,  some  idea  may  be 
formed  from  the  circumstance,  that  on  it  Agassiz  has 
based  the  whole  of  that  celebrated  classification,  of 
which  he  is  the  sole  author,  and  by  which  fossil  ich- 
thyology has  for  the  first  time  assumed  a  precise  and ' 
definite  shape.181 

The  other  discovery,  of  which  the  application  is  much 
more  extensive,  was  made  in  exactly  the  same  way.  It 
consists  of  the  striking  fact,  that  the  teeth  of  each 
animal  have  a  necessary  connexion  with  the  entire 
organization  of  its  frame ;  so  that,  within  certain 
limits,  we  can  predict  the  organization  by  examining 
the  tooth.  This  beautiful  instance  of  the  regularity  of 
the  operations  of  nature  was  not  known  until  more  than 
thirty  years  after  the  death  of  Bichat,  and  it  is  evidently 
due  to  the  prosecution  of  that  method  which  he  sedu- 
lously inculcated.  For  the  teeth  never  having  been 
properly  examined  in  regard  to  their  separate  tissues, 
it  was  believed  that  they  were  essentially  devoid  of 
structure,  or,  as  some  thought,  were  simply  a  fibrous 
texture.152     But  by  minute  microscopic  investigations, 


ordres    d'apres     des    caracteres  for    1844,    pp.    279-310.     How 

fixes  et  sensibles.'  essential  this    study   is  to  the 

151    The     discoveries     of    M.  geologist,     appears      from     the 

Agassiz    are    embodied    in    his  remark    of    Sir    E.    Murchison 

great  work,   Becherches  sur  les  (Siluria,    1854,    p.    417),    that 

Poissons  fossiles :  but  the  reader  'fossil   fishes   have   everywhere 

who  may  not  have  an  opportunity  proved    the    most    exact    chro- 

of  consulting  that  costly  publi-  nometers  of  the  age  of  rocks.' 

cation,  will  find  two  essays  by  152  That  they  were  composed 

this   eminent  naturalist,   which  of   fibres,    was    the    prevailing 

will  give  an  idea  of  his  treatment  doctrine,  until  the  discovery  of 

of  the  subject,  in  Reports  of  Brit,  their  tubes,  in  1835,  by  Purkinje. 

Assoc,  for  1842,  pp.  80-88,  and  Before      Purkinje,      only      one 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


385 


it  has  been  recently  ascertained  that  the  tissues  of  the 
teeth  are  strictly  analogous  to  those  of  other  parts  of 
the  body;153  and  that  the  ivory,  or  dentine,  as  it  is  now 
called,154  is  highly  organized ;  that  it,  as  well  as  the 
enamel,  is  cellular,  and  is,  in  fact,  a  development  of 
the  living  pulp.  This  discovery,  which,  to  the  philo- 
sophic anatomist,  is  pregnant  with  meaning,  was  made 
about  1838 ;  and  though  the  preliminary  steps  were 
taken  by  Purkinje,  Retzius,  and  Schwann,  the  principal 
merit  is  due  to  Nasmyth  and  Owen,155  between  whom 
it  is  disputed,  but  whose  rival  claims  we  are  not  here 
called  upon  to  adjust.156  "What  I  wish  to  observe  is, 
that  the  discovery  is  similar  to  that  which  we  owe  to 
Agassiz ;  similar  in  the  method  by  which  it  was  worked 


•observer,  Leeuwenhcek,  had 
announced  their  tubular  struc- 
ture ;  but  no  one  believed  what 
he  said,  and  Purkinje  was 
unacquainted  with  his  re- 
searches. Compare  Nasmyth's 
"Researches  on  the  Teeth,  1839, 
p.  159 ;  Owen's  Odontography, 
1840-1845,  vol.  i.  pp.  ii.  x.; 
Henle,  Anat.  Gen.  vol.  ii.  p.  457 ; 
Reports  of  Brit.  Assoc,  vol.  vii. 
pp.  135,  136  (Transac.  of  Sec- 
tions). 

153  Mr.  Nasmyth,  in  his  valua- 
ble, but,  I  regret  to  add,  posthu- 
mous work,  notices,  as  the  result 
of  these  discoveries,  'the  close 
affinity  subsisting  between  the 
dental  and  other  organized  tissues 
of  the  animal  frame.'  Researches 
on  the  Development,  8[C.  of  the 
Teeth,  1849,  p.  198.  This  is, 
properly  speaking,  a  continuation 
of  Mr.  Nasmyth's  former  book, 
which  bore  the  same  title,  and 
was  published  in  1839. 

144  This  name,  which  Mr. 
Owen  appears  to  have  first 
suggested,  has  been  objected  to, 
though,  as   it  seems   to  me,  on 

■  insufficient   grounds.    Compare 
VOL.  n.  G 


Owen's  Odontography,  vol.  i.  p. 
iii.,  with  Nasmyth's  Researches, 
1849,  pp.  3,  4.  It  is  adopted  in 
Carpenter's  Human  Physiol. 
1846,  p.  154  ;  and  in  Jones  and 
Sievehing's  Patholog.  Anat.  1854, 
pp.  483,  486. 

15S  See  the  correspondence  in 
Brit.  Assoc,  for  1841,  Sec.,  pp. 
2-23. 

158  In  the  notice  of  it  in 
WheweWs  Hist,  of  Sciences,  vol. 
iii.  p.  678,  nothing  is  said  about 
Mr.  Nasmyth  ;  while  in  that  in 
Wilson's  Human  Anatomy,  p. 
65,  edit.  1851,  nothing  is  said 
about  Mr.  Owen.  A  specimen 
of  the  justice  with  which  men 
treat  their  contemporaries.  Dr. 
Grant  (Supplement  to  Hooper's 
MedicalBict.  1848,  p.  1390)  says, 
'the  researches  of  Mr.  Owen 
tend  to  confirm  those  of  Mr. 
Nasmyth.'  Nasmyth,  in  his  last 
work  (Researches  on  the  Teeth, 
1849,  p.  81),  only  refers  to  Owen 
to  point  out  an  error ;  while 
Owen  ( Odontography,  vol.  i.  pp. 
advi.-lvi.)  treats  Nasmyth  as  an 
impudent  plagiarist. 


386  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

out,  and  also  in  the  results  which,  have  followed  from  it. 
Both  are  due  to  a  recognition  of  the  fundamental 
maxim  of  Bichat,  that  the  study  of  organs  must  be 
subordinate  to  the  study  of  tissues,  and  both  have 
supplied  the  most  valuable  aid  to  zoological  classifica- 
tion. On  this  point,  the  service  rendered  by  Owen  is 
incontestable,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  his  original 
claims.  This  eminent  naturalist  has,  with  immense 
industry,  applied  the  discovery  to  all  vertebrate  animals  ; 
and  in  an  elaborate  work,  specially  devoted  to  the 
subject,  he  has  placed  beyond  dispute  the  astonishing 
fact,  that  the  structure  of  a  single  tooth  is  a  criterion 
of  the  nature  and  organization  of  the  species  to  which 
it  belongs.187 

Whoever  has  reflected  much  on  the  different  stages 
through  which  our  knowledge  has  successively  passed, 
must,  I  think,  be  led  to  the  conclusion,  that  while  fully 
recognizing  the  great  merit  of  these  investigators  of  the 
animal  frame,  our  highest  admiration  ought  to  be 
reserved  not  for  those  who  make  the  discoveries,  but 
rather  for  those  who  point  out  how  the  discoveries  are 
to  be  made.158  When  the  true  path  of  inquiry  has  once 
been  indicated,  the  rest  is  comparatively  easy.  The 
beaten  highway  is  always  open ;  and  the  difficulty  is, 
not  to  find  those  who  will  travel  the  old  road,  but  those 
who  will  make  a  fresh  one.  Every  age  produces  in 
abundance  men  of  sagacity  and  of  considerable  industry, 

,ST    Dr.   Whewell     {Hist,     of  his    own   -words    from    Odonto- 

Induc.  Sciences,  vol.  iii.-p.  678)  graphy,   vol.   i.    p.    lxvii.),  and 

says,  that  'he  has  carried  into  appears  to  think,  that  below  the 

every  part  of  the  animal  kingdom  vertebrata,    the    inquiry   would 

an    examination,   founded  upon  furnish  little  or  no  aid  for  the 

this  discovery,  and  has  published  purposes  of  classification, 
the  results  of  this  in  his    Odon-         IM  But  in  comparing  the  merits 

tography.'      If    this    able,    but  of   discoverers    themselves,    we 

rather  hasty  writer,   had    read  must  praise    him    who  proves 

the  Odontography,  he  would  have  rather  than  him  who  suggests. 

found  that  Mr.  Owen,  so  far  from  See    some   sensible   remarks  in 

carrying  the  examination  '  into  Owen's  Odontography,  vol.  i.  p. 

every  part  of  the  animal  king-  xlix.;    which,  however,  do    not 

dom,'  distinctly  confines  himself  affect  my  observations   on   the 

to  '  one  of  the  primary  divisions  superiority  of  method, 
©f  the  animal  kingdom'  (I  quote 


THE  FRENCH  RE  VOLUTION.        387 

■who,  while  perfectly  competent  to  increase  the  details 
of  a  science,  are  unable  to  extend  its  distant  boundaries. 
This  is  because  such  extension  must  be  accompanied  by 
a  new  method,159  which,  to  be  valuable  as  well  as  new, 
supposes  on  the  part  of  its  suggester,  not  only  a  com- 
plete mastery  over  the  resources  of  his  subject,  but  also 
the  possession  of  originality  and  comprehensiveness, — 
the  two  rarest  forms  of  human  genius.  In  this  consists 
the  real  difficulty  of  every  great  pursuit.  As  soon  as 
any  department  of  knowledge  has  been  generalized  into 
laws,  it  contains,  either  in  itself  or  in  its  applications, 
three  distinct  branches;  namely,  inventions,  discoveries, 
and  method.  Of  these,  the  first  corresponds  to  art ;  the 
second  to  science ;  and  the  third  to  philosophy.  In  this 
scale,  inventions  have  by  far  the  lowest  place,  and  minds 
of  the  highest  order  are  rarely  occupied  by  them.  Next 
in  the  series  come  discoveries ;  and  here  the  province 
of  intellect  really  begins,  since  here  the  first  attempt 
is  made  to  search  after  truth  on  its  own  account,  and  to 
discard  those  practical  considerations  to  which  inven- 
tions are  of  necessity  referred.  This  is  science  properly 
so  called ;  and  how  difficult  it  is  to  reach  this  stage,  is 
evident  from  the  fact,  that  all  half-civilized  nations  have 
made  many  great  inventions,  but  no  great  discoveries. 
The  highest,  however,  of  all  the  three  stages,  is  the 
philosophy  of  method,  which  bears  the  same  relation 
to  science  that  science  bears  to  art.  Of  its  immense, 
and  indeed  supreme  importance,  the  annals  of  knowledge 
supply  abundant  evidence ;  and  for  want  of  it,  some 
very  great  men  have  effected  absolutely  nothing,  con- 
suming their  fives  in  fruitless  industry,  not  because  their 
labour  was  slack,  but  because  their  method  was  sterile. 

149  By  a  new  method  of  inductive  and  the  deductive; 
inquiring  into  a  subject,  I  mean  which,  though  essentially  differ- 
an  application  to  it  of  generali-  ent,  are  so  mixed  together,  as  to 
zations  from  some  other  subject,  make  it  impossible  wholly  to 
so  as  to  widen  the  field  of  separate  them.  The  discussion 
thought.  To  call  this  a  new  of  the  real  nature  of  this  differ- 
method,  is  rather  vague  ;  but  ence  I  reserve  for  my  comparison, 
there  is  no  other  word  to  express  in  tho  next  volume,  of  the 
the  process.  Properly  speaking,  German  and  American  cm- 
there  are  only  two  methods,  the  lizations. 
oc2 


388  PROXIMATE   CAUSES    OP 

The  progress  of  every  science  is  affected  more  by  the 
scheme  according  to  which  it  is  cultivated,  than  by  the 
actual  ability  of  the  cultivators  themselves.  If  they  who 
travel  in  an  unknown  country,  spend  their  force  in  run- 
ning on  the  wrong  road,  they  will  miss  the  point  at 
which  they  aim,  and  perchance  may  faint  and  fall  by 
the  way.  In  that  long  and  difficult  journey  after  truth, 
which  the  human  mind  has  yet  to  perform,  and  of  which 
we  in  our  generation  can  only  see  the  distant  prospect, 
it  is  certain  that  success  will  depend  not  on  the  speed 
with  which  men  hasten  in  the  path  of  inquiry,  but 
rather  on  the  skill  with  which  that  path  is  selected  for 
them  by  those  great  and  comprehensive  thinkers,  who 
are  as  the  lawgivers  and  founders  of  knowledge ;  because 
they  supply  its  deficiencies,  not  by  investigating  par- 
ticular difficulties,  but  by  establishing  some  large  and 
sweeping  innovation,  which  opens  up  a  new  vein  of 
thought,  and  creates  fresh  resources,  which  it  is  left  for 
their  posterity  to  work  out  and  apply. 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  we  are  to  rate  the 
value  of  Bichat,  whose  works,  like  those  of  all  men  of 
the  highest  eminence, — like  those  of  Aristotle,  Bacon, 
and  Descartes, — mark  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
human  mind ;  and  as  such,  can  only  be  fairly  estimated 
by  connecting  them  with  the  social  and  intellectual 
condition  of  the  age  in  which  they  appeared.  This 
gives  an  importance  and  a  meaning  to  the  writings  of 
Bichat,  of  which  few  indeed  are  fully  aware.  The  two 
greatest  recent  discoveries  respecting  the  classification 
of  animals  are,  as  we  have  just  seen,  the  result  of  his 
teaching  ;  but  his  influence  has  produced  other  effects 
still  more  momentous.  He,  aided  by  Cabanis,  ren- 
dered to  physiology  the  incalculable  service,  of  pre- 
venting it  from  participating  in  that  melancholy  reac- 
tion to  which  France  was  exposed  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  This  is  too  large  a  subject  to  discuss 
at  present ;  but  I  may  mention,  that  when  Napoleon, 
not  from  feelings  of  conviction,  but  for  selfish  purposes 
of  his  own,  attempted  to  restore  the  power  of  ecclesias- 
tical principles,  the  men  of  letters,  with  disgraceful 
subserviency,  fell  into  his   view;  and  there  began  a 


THE   FEENOH   REVOLUTION.  389 

marked  decline  in  that  independent  and  innovating 
spirit,  with  which  during  fifty  years  the  French  had 
cultivated  the  highest  departments  of  knowledge. 
Hence  that  metaphysical  school  arose,  which,  though 
professing  to  hold  aloof  from  theology,  was  intimately 
allied  with  it ;  and  whose  showy  conceits  form,  in  their 
ephemeral  splendour,  a  striking  contrast  to  the  severer 
methods  followed  in  the  preceding  generation.160 
Against  this  movement,  the  French  physiologists  have, 
as  a  body,  always  protested;  and  it  may  be  clearly 
proved  that  their  opposition,  which  even  the  great 
abilities  of  Cuvier  were  unable  to  win  over,  is  partly 
due  to  the  impetus  given  by  Bichat,  in  enforcing  in  his 
own  pursuit  the  necessity  of  rejecting  those  assumptions 
by  which  metaphysicians  and  theologians  seek  to  con- 
trol every  science.  As  an  illustration  of  this  I  may 
mention  two  facts  worthy  of  note.  The  first  is,  that  in 
England,  where  during  a  considerable  period  the  in- 
fluence of  Bichat  was  scarcely  felt,  many,  even  of  our 
eminent  physiologists,  have  shown  a  marked  disposition 
to  ally  themselves  with  the  reactionary  party ;  and  have 
not  only  opposed  such  novelties  as  they  could  not 
immediately  explain,  but  have  degraded  their  own 
noble  science  by  making  it  a  handmaid  to  serve  the 
purposes  of  natural  theology.  The  other  fact  is,  that 
in  France  the  disciples  of  Bichat  have,  with  scarcely  an 
exception,  rejected  the  study  of  final  causes,  to  which 
the  school  of  Cuvier  still  adheres :  while  as  a  natural 


1W  In  literature  and  in  theo-  many  who  care  nothing  for  the 

logy,    Chateaubriand    and    De  gorgeous   declamation   of   Cha- 

Maistre  were  certainly  the  most  teaubriand.     In  metaphysics,  a 

eloquent,  and  were  probably  the  precisely  similar  movement  oc- 

most  influential  leaders  of  this  curredjandLaromiguiere,  Eoyer 

reaction.    Neither  of  them  liked  Collard,  and  Maine  de  Biran, 

induction,  but  preferred  reason-  founded  that  celebrated  school 

ing    deductively  from  premises  which  culminated  in  M.  Cousin, 

which  they  assumed,  and  which  and   which  is    equally   charac- 

they  called  first  principles.     De  terized  by  an  ignorance  of  the 

Maistre,  however,  was  a  power-  philosophy    of    induction,    and 

ful  dialectician,  and  on  that  ac-  by  a  want  of  sympathy  with 

count  his  works    are    read  by  physical  science. 


390  PROXIMATE    CAUSES   OP 

consequence,  the  followers  of  Bichat  are  associated  in 
geology  with  the  doctrine  of  uniformity ;  in  zoology, 
with  that  of  the  transmutation  of  species  ;  and  in  as- 
tronomy, with  the  nebular  hypothesis :  vast  and  mag- 
nificent schemes,  under  whose  shelter  the  human  mind 
seeks  an  escape  from  that  dogma  of  interference,  which 
the  march  of  knowledge  every  where  reduces,  and  the 
existence  of  which  is  incompatible  with  those  concep- 
tions of  eternal  order,  towards  which,  during  the  last 
two  centuries,  we  have  been  constantly  tending. 

These  great  phenomena,  which  the  French  intellect 
presents,  and  of  which  I  have  only  sketched  a  rapid 
outline,  will  be  related  with  suitable  detail  in  the  latter 
part  of  this  work,  when  I  shall  examine  the  present 
condition  of  the  European  mind,  and  endeavour  to  esti- 
mate its  future  prospects.  To  complete,  however,  our 
appreciation  of  Bichat,  it  will  be  necessary  to  take 
notice  of  what  some  consider  the  most  valuable  of  all 
his  productions,  in  which  he  aimed  at  nothing  less  than 
an  exhaustive  generalization  of  the  functions  of  life. 
It  appears,  indeed,  to  me,  that  in  many  important 
points  Bichat  here  fell  short ;  but  the  work  itself  still 
stands  alone,  and  is  so  striking  an  instance  of  the  genius 
of  the  author,  that  I  will  give  a  short  account  of  its 
fundamental  views. 

Life  considered  as  a  whole  has  two  distinct  branches;161 
one  branch  being  characteristic  of  animals,  the  other  of 
vegetables.  That  which  is  confined  to  animals  is  called 
animal  life ;  that  which  is  common  both  to  animals  and 
vegetables  is  called  organic  life.  While,  therefore, 
plants  have  only  one  life,  man  has  two  distinct  lives, 
which  are  governed  by  entirely  different  laws,  and 
which,  though  intimately  connected,  constantly  oppose 
each  other.  In  the  organic  life,  man  exists  solely  for 
himself;  in  the  animal  life  he  comes  in  contact  with 
others.  The  functions  of  the  first  are  purely  internal, 
those  of  the  second  are  external.     His  organic  life  is 


161  Bichat,  Becherches  sur  la  Vie  et  la  Mori,  pp.  5-9,  226 ;  and 
his  Anat.  Gen.  voL  i.  p.  73. 


THE   FEENCH  REVOLUTION.  391 

limited  to  the  double  process  of  creation  and  destruc 
tion :  the  creative  process  being  that  of  assimilation,  as 
digestion,  circulation,  and  nutrition ;  the  destructive 
process  being  that  of  excretion,  such  as  exhalation  and 
the  like.  This  is  "what  man  has  in  common  with 
plants  ;  and  of  this  life  he,  when  in  a  natural  state,  is 
unconscious.  But  the  characteristic  of  his  animal  life 
is  consciousness,  since  by  it  he  is  made  capable  of 
moving,  of  feeling,  of  judging.  By  virtue  of  the  first 
life  he  is  merely  a  vegetable  ;  by  the  addition  of  the 
second  he  becomes  an  animal. 

If  now  we  look  at  the  organs  by  which  in  man  the 
functions  of  these  two  lives  are  carried  on,  we  shall  be 
struck  by  the  remarkable  fact,  that  the  organs  of  his 
vegetable  life  are  very  irregular,  those  of  his  animal 
life  very  symmetrical.  His  vegetative,  or  organic,  life 
is  conducted  by  the  stomach,  the  intestines,  and  the 
glandular  system  in  general,  such  as  the  liver  and  the 
pancreas ;  all  of  which  are  irregular,  and  admit  of  the 
greatest  variety  of  form  and  development,  without  their 
functions  being  seriously  disturbed.  But  in  his  animal 
life  the  organs  are  so  essentially  symmetrical,  that  a 
very  slight  departure  from  the  ordinary  type  impairs 
their  action.162    Not  only  the  brain,  but  also  the  organs 


1,2  '  C'est  de  la,  sans  doute,  taires,  le  larynx ;  tout  y  est  exact, 
que  nait  cette  autre  difference  precis,  rigoureusement  determine 
entre  les  organes  des  deux  vies,  dans  la  forme,  la  grandeur  et  la 
savoir,  que  la  nature  se  livre  bien  position.  On  n'y  voit  presque 
plus  rarement  a  des  ecarts  de  jamais  de  varietes,  de  conforma- 
conformation  dans  la  vie  animale  tion  ;  s'il  en  existe,  les  fonctions 
que  dans  la  vie  organique.  .  .  .  sont  troubles,  aneanties  ;  tandis 
C'est  une  remarque  qui  n'a  pu  qu'elles  restent  les  memes  dans 
echapper  a,  celui  dont  les  dissec-  la  vie  organique,  au  milieu  des 
tions  ont  et6  un  peu  multiplies,  alterations  diverses  des  parties.' 
que  les  frequentes  variations  de  Bichat  sur  la  Vie,  pp.  23-25 
formes,  de  grandeur,  de  position,  Part  of  this  view  is  corroborated 
de  direction  des  organes  internes,  by  the  evidencecollectedby  Saint 
comme  la  rate,  lefoie,  l'estomac,  Hilaire  {Anomalies  de  F  Organi- 
ses reins,  les  organes  salivaires,  sation,  vol.  i.  pp.  248  seq.)  of 
etc.  .  .  .  Jetons  maintenant  les  the  extraordinary  aberrations  to 
yeux  sur  les  organes  de  la  vie  which  the  vegetative  organs  are 
animale,  sur  les  sens,  les  nerfs,  liable ;  and  he  mentions  (vol.  ii 
le  cerveau,   les  muscles   volon-  p.  8)  the  case  of  a  man,  in  whose 


392  PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

of  sense,  as  the  eyes,  the  nose,  the  ears,  are  perfectly 
symmetrical ;  and  they  as  well  as  the  other  organs  of 
animal  life,  as  the  feet  and  hands,  are  double,  present- 
ing on  each  side  of  the  body  two  separate  parts  which 
correspond  with  each  other,  and  produce  a  symmetry 
unknown  to  our  vegetative  life,  the  organs  of  which  are, 
for  the  most  part,  merely  single,  as  in  the  stomach, 
liver,  pancreas,  and  spleen.163 

Erom  this  fundamental  difference  between  the  organs 
of  the  two  lives,  there  have  arisen  several  other  differ- 
ences of  great  interest.  Our  animal  life  being  double, 
while  our  organic  life  is  single,  it  becomes  possible  for 
the  former  life  to  take  rest,  that  is,  stop  part  of  its 
functions  for  a  time,  and  afterwards  renew  them.  But 
in  organic  life,  to  stop  is  to  die.  The  life,  which  we 
have  in  common  with  vegetables,  never  sleeps  ;  and  if 
its  movements  entirely  cease  only  for  a  single  instant, 
they  cease  for  ever.  That  process  by  which  our  bodies 
receive  some  substances  and  give  out  others,  admits  of 
no  interruption ;  it  is,  by  its  nature,  incessant,  because, 


body,  on  dissection, '  on  reconnut  cretion  are  often  very  active,  are 

que    tous    les    visceres    etaient  at  the  same  time  remarkable  for 

transposes.'     Comparative    ana-  a    want    of   symmetry    in    the 

tomy  supplies  another  illustra-  organs  of  sensation.      Esquirol, 

tion.     The  bodies  of  mollusca  Maladies  Mentales,  vol.  ii.  pp. 

are  less  symmetrical  than  those  331,  332. 

of  articulate;  and  in  the  former,  A  result,  though  perhaps  an 

the  '  vegetal  series   of  organs,'  unconscious  one,  of  the  applica- 

says  Mr.  Owen,  are  more  deve-  tion  and  extension  of  these  ideas, 

loped  than  the  animal  series ;  is,  that  within  the  last  few  years 

while  in  the  articulata,  '  the  ad-  there  has  arisen  a  pathological 

vance    is  most  conspicuous  in  theory  of  what  are  called  '  sym- 

the   organs  peculiar  to  animal  metrical  diseases,'   the    leading 

life.'   Owen's  Invertebrata,  p.  470.  facts  of  which  have  been  long 

Compare  Burdach's  Physiologie,  known,  but  are  now  only  begin- 

vol.  i.  pp.  153,  189;  and  a  con-  ning  to    be    generalized.      See 

firmation  of  the  '  un symmetrical'  Paget  s  Pathology,  vol.  i.  pp.  18- 

organs    of   the    gasterpoda,   in  22,  vol.  ii.  pp.  244,  245 ;  Simon's 

Grants    Comparative  Anatomy,  Pathology,   pp.  210,  211;    Car- 

p.  461.  This  curious  antagonism  Renter's  Human  Physiol,  pp.  607, 

is  still  further  seen  in  the  cir-  608. 

cumstance,  that    idiots,    whose  163  Bichat  sur  la  Vie,  pp.  15- 

functions  of  nutrition  and  of  ex-  21. 


THE    FRENCH   EEVOLUTION.  393 

being  single,  it  can  never  receive  supplementary  aid. 
The  other  life  we  may  refresh,  not  only  in  sleep,  bat 
even  when  we  are  awake.  Thus  we  can  exercise  the 
organs  of  movement  while  we  rest  the  organs  of 
thought ;  and  it  is  even  possible  to  relieve  a  function 
while  we  continue  to  employ  it,  because,  our  animal  life 
being  double,  we  are  able  for  a  short  time,  in  case  of 
one  of  its  parts  being  fatigued,  to  avail  ourselves  of  the 
corresponding  part ;  using,  for  instance,  a  single  eye  or 
a  single  arm,  in  order  to  rest  the  one  which  circum- 
stances may  have  exhausted  ;  an  expedient  which  the 
single  nature  of  organic  life  entirely  prevents.164 

Our  animal  life  being  thus  essentially  intermittent, 
and  our  organic  life  being  essentially  continuous,165  it 
has  necessarily  followed  that  the  first  is  capable  of  an 
improvement  of  which  the  second  is  incapable.  There 
can  be  no  improvement  without  comparison,  since  it  is 
only  by  comparing  one  state  with  another  that  we  can 
rectify  previous  errors,  and  avoid  future  ones.  Now, 
our  organic  life  does  not  admit  of  such  comparison, 
because,  being  uninterrupted,  it  is  not  broken  into 
stages,  but  when  unchequered  by  disease,  runs  on  in 
dull  monotony.  On  the  other  hand,  the  functions  of 
our  animal  life,  such  as  thought,  speech,  sight,  and 
motion,  cannot  be  long  exercised  without  rest ;  and  as 
they  are  constantly  suspended,  it  becomes  practicable 
to  compare  them,  and,  therefore,  to  improve  them.  It 
is  by  possessing  this  resource  that  the  first  cry  of  the 
infant  gradually  rises  into  the  perfect  speech  of  the 
man,  and  the  unformed  habits  of  early  thought  are 
ripened  into  that  maturity  which  nothing  can  give  but 
a  long  series  of  successive  efforts.166  But  our  organic 
life,  which  we  have  in  common  with  vegetables,  admits 


164  Ibid.  pp.  21-50.  vol.  viii.  p.  420.    M.  Comte  has 

,6i  On    intermittence     as     a  made  some  interesting  remarks 

quality  of  animal  life,  see  Hoi-  on  Bichat's  law  of  intermittence. 

land's  Medical  Notes,  pp.    313,  Philos.  Positive,  vol.  iii.  pp.  300, 

314,  -where  Bichat  is  mentioned  395,  744,  745,  750,  751. 

as  its  great  expounder.     As  to  ,M  On  the  development  arising 

the  essential  continuity  of  organic  from  practice,  see  Bichat  surla 

life,   see  Burdach'a  Physiologie,  Vie,  pp.  207-225. 


894  PROXIMATE    CAUSES   OP 

of  no  interruption,  and  consequently  of  no  improvement. 
It  obeys  its  own  laws ;  but  it  derives  no  benefit  from 
that  repetition  to  which  animal  life  is  exclusively  in- 
debted. Its  functions,  such  as  nutrition  and  the  like, 
exist  in  man  several  months  before  he  is  born,  and 
while,  his  animal  life  not  having  yet  begun,  the  faculty 
of  comparison,  which  is  the  basis  of  improvement,  is 
impossible.167  And  although,  as  the  human  frame  in- 
creases in  size,  its  vegetative  organs  become  larger,  it 
cannot  be  supposed  that  their  functions  really  improve, 
since,  in  ordinary  cases,  their  duties  are  performed  as 
regularly  and  as  completely  in  childhood  as  in  middle 
age.168 

Thus  it  is,  that  although  other  causes  conspire,  it 
may  be  said  that  the  progressiveness  of  animal  life  is 
due  to  its  intermittence ;  the  unprogressiveness  of  or- 
ganic life  to  its  continuity.  It  may,  moreover,  be  said, 
that  the  intermittence  of  the  first  life  results  from  the 
symmetry  of  its  organs,  while  the  continuity  of  the 
second  life  results  from  their  irregularity.  To  this  wide 
and  striking  generalization,  many  objections  may  be 
made,  some  of  them  apparently  insuperable ;  but  that 
it  contains  the  germs  of  great  truths  I  entertain  little 
doubt,  and,  at  all  events,  it  is  certain  that  the  method 


187  Bid.  pp.  189-203, 225-230.  specting  even  the  vagitus  uteri- 

M.   Broussais  also  (in  his   able  nus,   which,  if  it  exists  to   the 

work,   Cours  de  Phrenologie,  p.  extent  alleged  by  some  physiolo- 

487)  says,  that  comparison  only  gists,  would  be  a  decisive  proof 

begins  after  birth;    but  surely  that  animal  life  (in  the  sense  of 

this  must  be  very  doubtful.  Few  Bichat)  does  begin  during  the 

physiologists  will  deny  that  em-  foetal  period.  Compare  Surdach, 

bryological  phenomena,  though  Physiol,   vol.   iv.  pp.  113,    114, 

neglected     by     metaphysicians,  with  Wagner's  Physiol,  p.  182. 

play  a  great  part  in  shaping  the  168  'Les  organes  internes  qui 

future  character;  and  I  do  not  entrent  alors  en  exercice,  ou  qui 

see  how  any  system  of  psycho-  accroissent  beaucoup  leur  action, 

logy  can  be  complete  which  ig-  n'ont  besoin  d'aucune  education ; 

nores  considerations,  probable  in  ils  atteignent  tout  a  coup  une 

themselves,  and  not  refuted  by  perfection  a  laquelle  ceux  de  la 

special  evidence.     So  carelessly,  vie  animale  ne  parviennent  que 

however,  has   this  subject  been  par    habitude    d'agir    souvent.' 

investigated,  that  we  have  the  Bichat  sur  la  Vie,  p.  231. 
most  conflicting  statements  re- 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  395 

cannot  be  too  highly  praised,  for  it  unites  the  study  of 
function  and  structure  with  that  of  embryology,  of 
vegetable  physiology,  of  the  theory  of  comparison,  and 
of  the  influence  of  habit ;  a  vast  and  magnificent  field, 
which  the  genius  of  Bichat  was  able  to  cover,  but  of 
which,  since  him,  neither  physiologists  nor  metaphy- 
sicians have  even  attempted  a  general  survey. 

This  stationary  condition,  during  the  present  century, 
of  a  subject  of  such  intense  interest,  is  a  decisive  proof 
of  the  extraordinary  genius  of  Bichat ;  since,  notwith- 
standing the  additions  made  to  physiology,  and  to  every 
branch  of  physics  connected  with  it,  nothing  has  been 
done  at  all  comparable  to  that  theory  of  life  which  he, 
with  far  inferior  resources,  was  able  to  construct.  This 
stupendous  work  he  left,  indeed,  very  imperfect ;  but 
even  in  its  deficiencies  we  see  the  hand  of  the  great 
master,  whom,  on  his  own  subject,  no  one  has  yet  ap- 
proached. His  essay  on  life  may  well  be  likened  to 
those  broken  fragments  of  ancient  art,  which,  imper- 
fect as  they  are,  still  bear  the  impress  of  the  inspiration 
which  gave  them  birth,  and  present  in  each  separate 
part  that  unity  of  conception  which  to  us  makes  them 
a  complete  and  bving  whole. 

From  the  preceding  summary  of  the  progress  of  phy- 
sical knowledge,  the  reader  may  form  some  idea  of  the 
ability  of  those  eminent  men  who  arose  in  France 
during  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  To 
complete  the  picture,  it  is  only  necessary  to  examine 
what  was  done  in  the  two  remaining  branches  of  natural 
history,  namely,  botany  and  mineralogy,  in  both  of 
which  the  first  great  steps  towards  raising  each  study 
to  a  science  were  taken  by  Frenchmen  a  few  years 
before  the  Revolution. 

In  botany,  although  our  knowledge  of  particular 
facts  has,  during  the  last  hundred  years,  rapidly  in- 
creased,169 we  are  only  possessed  of  two  generalizations 


189   Dioscorides     and     Galen  cording  to  Cuvier  (Eloges,  vol.  iii. 

knew  from  450   to    600   plants  p.  468),  Linnaeus,  in   1778,  '  en 

(  WincMer,   Geschichte  dcr  Beta-  indiquait  environ  huit  mille  es- 

nik,  1854,  pp.  34,  40);  but,  ac-  peces;  and    Meyen    (Geoff,   of 


396 


PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 


wide  enough  to  be  called  laws  of  nature.  The  first 
generalization  concerns  the  structure  of  plants;  the 
other  concerns  their  physiology.  That  concerning  then* 
physiology  is  the  beautiful  morphological  law,  accord- 
ing to  which  the  different  appearance  of  the  various 
organs  arises  from  arrested  development :  the  stamens, 
pistils,  corolla,  calyx,  and  bracts  being  simple  modifi- 
cations or  successive  stages  of  the  leaf.  This  is  one  of 
many  valuable  discoveries  we  owe  to  Germany ;  it  being 
made  by  Gothe  late  in  the  eighteenth  century.170  With 
its  importance  every  botanist  is  familiar  ;  while  to  the 
historian  of  the  human  mind  it  is  peculiarly  interesting, 
as  strengthening  that  great  doctrine  of  development, 
towards  which  the  highest  branches  of  knowledge  are 
now  hastening,  and  which,  in  the  present  century,  has 
been  also  carried  into  one  of  the  most  difficult  depart- 
ments of  animal  physiology.171 


Plants,  p.  4)  says,  at  the  time  of 
Linnseus's  death,  '  about  8,000 
species  -were  known.'  (Dr.  Whe- 
well,  in  his  Bridgewater  Treatise, 
p.  247,  says,  'about  10,000.') 
Since  then  the  progress  has  been 
uninterrupted ;  and  in  Henslow's 
Botany,  1837,  p.  136,  we  are 
told  that '  the  number  of  species 
already  known  and  classified  in 
works  of  botany  amounts  to  about 
60,000.'  Ten  years  later,  Dr. 
Lindley  ( Vegetable  Kingdom, 
1847,  p.  800)  states  them  at 
92,930 ;  and  two  years  after- 
wards, Mr.  Balfour  says  '  about 
100,000.'  Balfour's  Botany, 
1849,  p.  560.  Such  is  the  rate 
at  which  our  knowledge  of 
nature  is  advancing.  To  complete 
this  historical  note,  I  ought  to 
have  mentioned,  that  in  1812, 
Dr. Thomson  says  'nearly 30,000 
species  of  plants  have  been  exa- 
mined and  described.'  Thomson's 
Hist,  of  the  Royal  Society,  p.  21. 
iro  It  was  published  in  1790. 


WincMer,  Gesch.  der  Botanik,  p. 
389.  But  the  historians  of  botany 
have  overlooked  a  short  passage 
in  Gothe's  works,  which  proves 
that  he  had  glimpses  of  the  dis- 
covery in  or  before  1786.  See 
Italidnische  Beise,  in  Gothe's 
Werhe,  vol.  ii.  part  ii.  p.  286, 
Stuttgart,  1837,  where  he  writes 
from  Padua,  in  September  1786, 
'  Hier  in  dieser  neu  mir  entgegen 
tretenden  Mannigfaltigkeit  wird 
jener  G-edanke  immer  lebendiger : 
dass  man  sich  alle  Pflanzenge- 
stalten  vielleicht  aus  Einer  ent- 
wickeln  konne.'  There  are  some 
interesting  remarks  on  this  bril- 
liant generalization  in  Owen's 
Parthenogenesis,  1849,  pp.  53seq. 
171  That  is,  into  the  study  of 
animal  monstrosities,  which, 
however  capricious  they  may  ap- 
pear, are  now  understood  to  be 
the  necessary  result  of  preceding 
events.  Within  the  last  thirty 
years  several  of  the  laws  of  these 
unnatural  births,  as  they  U6ed  to 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


897 


But  the  most  comprehensive  truth  with  which  we 
are  acquainted  respecting  plants,  is  that  which  includes 
the  whole  of  their  general  structure  ;  and  this  we  learnt 
from  those  great  Frenchmen  who,  in  the  latter  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  began  to  study  the  external 
world.  The  first  steps  were  taken  directly  after  the 
middle  of  the  century,  by  Adanson,  Duhamel  de  Mon- 
ceau,  and,  above  all,  Desfontaines;  three  eminent  thinkers, 
who  proved  the  practicability  of  anatural  methodhitherto 
unknown,  and  of  which  even  Ray  himself  had  only  a 
faint  perception.172  This,  by  weakening  the  influence 
of  the  artificial  system  of  Linnaeus,173  prepared  the  way 
for  an  innovation  more  complete  than  has  been  effected 
in  any  other  branch  of  knowledge.  In  the  very  year  in 
which  the  Revolution  occurred,  Jussieu  put  forward  a 
series  of  botanical  generalizations,  of  which  the  most 
important  are  all  intimately  connected,  and  still  remain 
the  highest  this  department  of  inquiry  has  reached.174 


be  called,  have  been  discovered ; 
and  it  has  been  proved  that,  so 
far  from  being  unnatural,  they 
are  strictly  natural.  A  fresh 
science  has  thus  been  created, 
under  the  name  of  Teratology, 
•which  is  destroying  the  old  lusus 
naturm  in  one  of  its  last  and 
favourite  strongholds. 

172  Dr.  Lindley  {Third  Report 
of  Brit.  Assoc,  p.  33)  says,  that 
Desfontaines  was  the  first  who 
demonstrated  the  opposite  modes 
of  increase  in  dicotyledonous  and 
monocotyledonous  stems.  See 
also  Richard,  Elements  de  Bota- 
nique,  p.  131 ;  and  Cuvier,  Eloges, 
vol.  i.  p.  64.  In  regard  to  the 
steps  taken  by  Adanson  and  De 
Monceau,  see  Winckler,  Gesch. 
der  Botanik,  pp.  204,  205 ; 
Thomson's  Chemistry  of  Vege- 
tables, p.  951 ;  IAndler/s  Introduc. 
to  Botany,  vol.  ii.  p.  132. 

m  It  is  curious  to  observe 
how  even  good  botanists  clung 


to  the  Linnaean  system  long  after 
the  superiority  of  a  natural  sys- 
tem was  proved.  This  is  the 
more  noticeable,  because  Lin- 
naeus, who  was  a  man  of  un- 
doubted genius,  and  who  pos- 
sessed extraordinary  powers  of 
combination,  always  allowed  that 
his  own  system  was  merely  pro- 
visional, and  that  the  great  ob- 
ject to  be  attained  was  a  classi- 
fication according  to  natural 
families.  See  Winckler,  Ge- 
schichte  der  Botanik,  p.  202 ;  and 
Richard,  Elements  de  Botanique, 
p.  570.  Indeed,  what  could  be 
thought  of  the  permanent  value 
of  a  scheme  which  put  together 
the  reed  and  the  barberry,  be- 
cause they  were  both  hexandria ; 
and  forced  sorrel  to  associate 
with  saffron,  because  both  were 
trigynia  ?  Jussieu' 's  Botany, 
1849,  p.  624. 

1,4  The  Genera  Plantarum  of 
Antoine  Jussieu  was  printed  at 


398 


PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 


Among  these,  I  need  only  mention  the  three  vast  pro- 
positions which  are  now  admitted  to  form  the  basis  of 
vegetable  anatomy.  The  first  is,  that  the  vegetable 
kingdom,  in  its  whole  extent,  is  composed  of  plants 
either  with  one  cotyledon,  or  with  two  cotyledons,  or 
else  with  no  cotyledon  at  all.  The  second  proposition 
is,  that  this  classification,  so  far  from  being  artificial,  is 
strictly  natural ;  since  it  is  a  law  of  nature,  that  plants 
having  one  cotyledon  are  endogenous,  and  grow  by 
additions  made  to  the  centre  of  their  stems,  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  plants  having  two  cotyledons  are  exo- 
genous, and  are  compelled  to  grow  by  additions  made, 
not  to  the  centre  of  their  stems,  but  to  the  circum- 
ference.175    The  third  proposition  is,  that  when  plants 


Paris  in  1789  ;  and,  though  it  is 
known  to  have  been  the  result  of 
many  years  of  continued  labour, 
some  writers  have  asserted  that 
the  ideas  in  it  were  borrowed 
from  his  uncle,  Bernard  Jussieu. 
But  assertions  of  this  kind  rarely 
deserve  attention ;  and  as  Ber- 
nard did  not  choose  to  publish 
anything  of  his  own,  his  reputa- 
tion ought  to  suffer  for  his  un- 
communicativeness.  Compare 
Winckler,  Gesch.  der  Botanik, 
pp.  261-272,  with  Biog.  Univ. 
vol.  xxii.  pp.  162-166.  I  will 
only  add  the  following  remarks 
from  a  work  of  authority,  Richard, 
Elements  de  Botanique,  Paris, 
1846,  p.  572:  'Mais  ce  ne  fut 
qu'en  1789  que  Ton  eut  veritable- 
ment  un  ouvrage  complet  sur  la 
methode  des  families  naturelles. 
Le  Genera  Plantarum  d'A.  L.  de 
Jussieu  presenta  la  science  des 
vegetaux  sous  un  point  de  vue  si 
nouveau,  par  la  precision  et 
1' elegance  qui  y  regnent,  par  la 
profondeur  et  la  justesse  des 
principes  generaux  qui  y  sont  ex- 
poses pour  la  premiere  fois,  que 
c'est  depuis  cette  epoque  seule- 


ment  que  la  methode  des  families 
naturelles  a  ete  veritablement 
cr£ee,  et  que  date  la  nouvelle  ere 
de  la  science  des  vegetaux.  .  .  , 
L'auteur  du  Genera  Plantarum 
posa  le  premier  les  bases  de  la 
science,  en  faisant  voir  quelle- 
etait  l'importance  relative  des 
differents  organes  entre  eux,  et 
par  consequent  leur  valeur  dans 
la  classification.  ...  II  a  fait, 
selon  la  remarque  de  Cuvier,  la 
m&ne  revolution  dans  les  sciences 
d'observation  que  la  chimie  de 
Lavoisier  dans  les  sciences  d' ex- 
perience. En  effet,  il  a  non 
seulement  change^  la  face  de  la 
botanique ; .  mais  son  influence 
s'est  egalement  exercee  sur  les 
autres  branches  de  l'histoire 
naturelle,  et  y  a  introduit  cet 
esprit  de  recherches,  de  compa- 
raison,  et  cette  methode  philoso- 
phique  et  naturelle,  vers  le  per- 
fectionnement  delaquelle  tendent 
desormais  les  efforts  de  tous  les 
naturalistes.' 

175  Hence  the  removal  of  a 
great  source  of  error ;  since  it  is 
now  understood  that  in  dicotyle- 
dons alone  can  age  be  known 


THE    FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  899 

grow  at  their  centre,  the  arrangement  of  the  fruit  and 
leaves  is  threefold ;  when,  however,  they  grow  at  the 
circumference,  it  is  nearly  always  fivefold.176 

This  is  what  was  effected  by  the  Frenchmen  of  the 
eighteenth  century  for  the  vegetable  kingdom  :  m  and 
if  we  now  turn  to  the  mineral  kingdom,  we  shall  find 
that  our  obligations  to  them  are  equally  great.  The 
study  of  minerals  is  the  most  imperfect  of  the  three 
branches  of  natural  history,  because,  notwithstanding 
its  apparent  simplicity,  and  the  immense  number  of  ex- 
periments which  have  been  made,  the  true  method  of 
investigation  has  not  yet  been  ascertained ;  it  being 
doubtful  whether  mineralogy  ought  to  be  subordinated 
to  the  laws  of  chemistry,  or  to  those  of  crystallography, 
or  whether  both  sets  of  laws  will  have  to  be  con- 
sidered.178 At  all  events  it  is  certain  that,  down  to 
the  present  time,  chemistry  has  shown  itself  unable  to 
reduce  mineralogical  phenomena  ;  nor  has  any  chemist, 
possessing  sufficient  powers  of  generalization,  attempted 
the  task  except  Berzelius ;  and  most  of  his  conclusions 


with  certainty.  Henslow's  Bo-  and  a  mere  fragment  even  of  the 
tany,  p.  243  :  compare  Bichard,  stem,  leaf,  or  some  other  part,  is 
Elements  de  Botanique,  p.  159,  often  quite  sufficient  to  enable 
aphorisme  xxiv.  On  the  stems  him  to  decide  this  question.' 
of  endogenous  plants,  which,  Henslow's  Botany,  p.  30.  In  re- 
being  mostly  tropical,  have  been  gard  to  some  difficulties  still  re- 
less  studied  than  the  exogenous,  maining  in  the  way  of  the  three- 
see  IAndlexfs  Botany,  vol.  i.  pp.  fold  cotyledonous  division  of  the 
221-236 ;  where  there  is  also  an  whole  vegetable  world,  see  Lind- 
account,  pp.  229  seq.,  of  the  ley's  Botany,  vol.  ii.  pp.  61  seq. 
views  which  Schleiden  advanced  178  Mr.  Swainson  {Study  of 
on  this  subject  in  1839.  Natural    History,  p.   356)    says 

176  On  the  arrangement  of  the  '  mineralogy,  indeed,  which  forms 

leaves,   now  called  phyllotaxis,  but  a  part  of  chemistry.'     This 

see  Balfour's  Botany,  p.  92 ;  Bur-  is  deciding  the  question  very  ra- 

dach's  Physiologie,  vol.  v.  p.  518.  pidly ;  but  in  the  meantime,  what 

'"  The  classification  by  coty-  becomes  of  the  geometrical  laws 
ledons  has  been  so  successful,  of  minerals  ?  and  what  are  we  to 
that,  '  with  very  few  exceptions,  do  with  that  relation  between 
however,  nearly  all  plants  may  their  structure  and  optical  phe- 
be  referred  by  any  botanist,  at  a  nomena,  which  Sir  David  Brew- 
single  glance,  and  with  unerring  ster  has  worked  out  with  signal 
certainty,  to  their  proper  class ;  ability? 


400 


PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 


were  overthrown  by  the  splendid  discovery  of  isomor- 
phism, for  which,  as  is  well  known,  we  are  indebted  to 
Mitscherlich,  one  of  the  many  great  thinkers  Germany 
has  produced.179 

Although  the  chemical  department  of  mineralogy  is 
in  an  unformed  and  indeed  anarchical  condition,  its 
other  department,  namely,  crystallography,  has  made 
great  progress  ;  and  here  again  the  earliest  steps  were 
taken  by  two  Frenchmen,  who  lived  in  the  latter  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  About  1760,  Rome  De 
Lisle180  set  the  first  example  of  studying  crystals,  ac- 
cording to  a  scheme  so  large  as  to  include  all  the  varieties 
of  their  primary  forms,  and  to  account  for  their  irregu- 
larities, and  the  apparent  caprice  with  which  they  were 
arranged.  In  this  investigation  he  was  guided  by  the 
fundamental  assumption,  that  what  is  called  an  irregu- 
larity, is  in  truth  perfectly  regular,  and  that  the  opera- 
tions of  nature  are  invariable.181      Scarcely  had  this 


179  The  difficulties  introduced 
into  the  study  of  minerals  by  the 
discovery  of  isomorphism  and 
polymorphism,  are  no  doubt  con- 
siderable ;  but  M.  Beudant 
(Mineralogie,  Paris,  1841,  p.  37) 
seems  to  me  to  exaggerate  their 
effect  upon  '  l'importance  des 
formes  crystallines.'  They  are 
much  more  damaging  to  the 
purely  chemical  arrangement, 
because  our  implements  for  mea- 
suring the  minute  angles  of  crys- 
tals are  still  very  imperfect,  and 
the  goniometer  may  fail  in  detect- 
ing differences  which  really 
exist;  and,  therefore,  many  al- 
leged cases  of  isomorphism  are 
probably  not  so  in  reality.  Wol- 
laston's  reflecting  goniometer  has 
been  long  considered  the  best  in- 
strument possessed  by  crystallo- 
graphers  ;  but  I  learn  from  Liebig 
and  Kopp's  Reports,  vol.  i.  pp. 
19,  20,  that  Frankenheim  has  re- 
cently invented  one  for  measuring 


the  angles  of  '  microscopic  crys- 
tals.' On  the  amount  of  error  in 
the  measurement  of  angles,  see 
Phillips's  Mineralogy,  1837,  p. 
viii. 

180  He  says,  '  depuis  plus  de 
vingt  ans  que  je  m'occupe  de  cet 
objet.'  Rome  de  Lisle,  Cristallo- 
graphie,  ou  Description  des  Formes 
propres  a  tons  les.  Corps  du  Regne 
Mineral,  Paris,  1783,  vol.  i.  p.  91. 

181  See  his  Essai  de  Cristallo- 
graphie,  Paris,  1772,  p.  x. :  'un 
de  ceux  qui  m'a  le  plus  frappe 
ce  sont  les  formes  regulieres  et 
constantes  que  prennent  natu- 
rellement  certains  corps  que  nous 
designons  par  le  nom  de  cristaux.' 
In  the  same  work,  p.  13  :  'il  faut 
necessairement  supposer  que  les 
molecules  integrantes  des  corps 
ont  chacune,  suivant  qui  lui  est 
propre,  une  figure  constante  et 
determinee.'  In  his  later  trea- 
tise {Cristallographie,  1783,  vol. 
i.  p.  70),  after  giving  some  in- 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


401 


great  idea  been  applied  to  the  almost  innumerable  forms 
into  which  minerals  crystallize,  when  it  was  followed 
up  with  still  larger  resources  by  Haiiy,  another  emi- 
nent Frenchman.182     This  remarkable  man  achieved  a 


stances  of  the  extraordinary  com- 
plications presented  by  minerals, 
he  adds  :  '  II  n'est  doucpas  eton- 
nant  que  d'habiles  chimistes 
n'aient  rien  vu  de  constant  ni  de 
determine  dans  les  formes  cris- 
tallines,  tandis  qu'il  n'en  est 
aucune  qu'on  ne  puisse,  avec  un 
peu  d'attention  rapporter  a,  la 
figure  elementaire  et  primordiale 
dont  elle  derive.'  Even  Buffon, 
notwithstanding  bis  fine  percep- 
tion of  law,  bad  just  declared, 
'  qu'en  general  la  forme  de  cris- 
tallisation  n'est  pas  un  caractere 
constant,  mais  plus  equivoque  et 
plus  variable  qu'aucun  autre  des 
caracteres  par  lesquels  on  doit 
distinguer  les  mineraux.'  De 
Lisle,  vol.  i.  p.  xviii.  Compare, 
on  this  great  acbievement  of  De 
Lisle's,  HerscheTs  Nat.  Philos. 
p.  239:  'be  first  ascertained  the 
important  fact  of  the  constancy 
of  the  angles  at  which  their  faces 
meet.' 

182  The  first  work  of  Haiiy  ap- 
peared in  1784  (Querard,  France 
Litttrairc,  vol.  iv.  p.  41);  but 
ho  had  read  two  special  memoirs 
in  1781.  Cuvicr,  Eloges,  vol.  iii. 
p.  138.  The  intellectual  relation 
between  bis  views  and  those  of 
his  predecessor  must  be  obvious 
to  every  mineralogist;  but  Dr. 
Whewell,  who  has  noticed  this 
judiciously  enough,  adds  (Hist, 
of  the  Indue.  Sciences,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  229,  230):  'Unfortunately 
Rome  do  Lisle  and  "Haiiy  were 
not  only  rivals,  but  in  some  mea'-1 
sure  enemies.  .  .  .  Haiiy  re- 
venged  himself  by  rarely  men- 

VOL.  II.  D 


tioning  Rome  in  his  works, 
though  it  was  manifest  that  his 
obb'gations  to  him  were  immense; 
and  by  recording  his  errors  while 
he  corrected  them.'  The  truth, 
however,  is,  that  so  far  from 
rarely  mentioning  De  Lisle,  he 
mentions  him  incessantly ;  and  I 
have  counted  upwards  of  three 
hundred  instances  in  Hatty's 
great  work,  in  which  he  is  named, 
and  his  writings  are  referred  to. 
On  one  occasion  he  says  of  De 
Lisle,  '  En  un  mot,  sa  cristallo- 
graphie  est  le  fruit  d'un  travail 
immense  par  son  etendue,  pres- 
que  entierement  neuf  par  son 
objet,  et  tres-precieux  par  son 
utilite.'  Haiiy,  Traite  de  Mine- 
ralogie,  Paris,  1801,  vol.  i.  p.  17. 
Elsewhere  he  calls  him,  'cet 
habile  naturaliste ;  ce  savant 
celebre,'  vol.  ii.  p.  323;  'ce 
celebre  naturabste,'  vol.  iii.  p. 
442 ;  see  also  vol.  iv.  pp.  51,  &c. 
In  a  work  of  so  much  merit  as 
Dr.  Whewell's,  it  is  important 
that  these  errors  should  be  indi- 
cated, because  we  have  no  other 
book  of  value  on  the  general  his- 
tory of  the  sciences ;  and  many 
authors  have  deceived  themselves 
and  their  readers,  by  implicitly 
adopting  the  statements  of  this 
able  and  industrious  writer.  I 
would  particularly  caution  the 
student  in  regard  to  the  physio- 
logical part  of  Dr.  Whewell's 
History,  where,  for  instance,  the 
antagonism  between  the  methods 
of  Cuvier  and  Bichat  is  entirely 
lost  sight  of,  and  while  whole 
pages    are    devwted    to  Cuvier, 


402 


PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 


complete  union  "between  mineralogy  and  geometry  ;  and, 
bringing  the  laws  of  space  to  bear  on  the  molecular 
arrangements  of  matter,  he  was  able  to  penetrate  into 
the  intimate  structure  of  crystals.183  By  this  means,  he 
succeeded  in  proving  that  the  secondary  forms  of  all 
crystals  are  derived  from  their  primary  forms  by  a 
regular  process  of  decrement  ;184  and  that,  when  a  sub- 
stance is  passing  from  a  liquid  to  a  solid  state,  its  par- 
ticles are  compelled  to  cohere,  according  to  a  scheme 
which  provides  for  every  possible  change,  since  it  in- 
cludes even  those  subsequent  layers  which  alter  the 
ordinary  type  of  the  crystal,  by  disturbing  its  natural 
symmetry.185  To  ascertain  that  such  violations  of  sym- 
metry are  susceptible  of  mathematical  calculation,  was 
to  make  a  vast  addition  to  our  knowledge ;  hut  what 
seems  to  me  still  more  important  is,  that  it  indicates  an 
approach  to  the  magnificent  idea,  that  every  thing  which 
occurs  is  regulated  by  law,  and  that  confusion  and  dis- 
order are  impossible.186     For,  by  proving  that  even  the 


Bichat  is    disposed  of    in  four 
lines. 

183  'Haiiy  est  done  le  seul 
veritable  auteur  de  la  science 
mathematique  des  cristaux.'  Cu- 
vier,  Progres  des  Sciences,  vol.  i. 
p.  8;  see  also  p.  317.  Dr. 
Clarke,  whose  celebrated  lectures 
on  mineralogy  excited  much  at- 
tention among  his  hearers,  was 
indebted  for  some  of  his  prin- 
cipal views  to  his  conversations 
with  Haiiy :  see  Otter's  Life  of 
Clarke,  vol.  ii.  p.  192. 

184  See  an  admirable  statement 
of  the  three  forms  of  decrement, 
in  Haiiy,  Traite  de  Mineralogie, 
vol.  i.  pp.  285,  286.  Compare 
WhewelVs  Hist,  of  the  Indue. 
Sciences,  vol.  iii.  pp.  224,  225 ; 
who,  however,  does  not  mention 
Haiiy's  classification  of '  decroisse- 
mens  sur  les  bords,'  'decroisse- 
mens  sur  les  angles,'  and  '  de- 
croissemens  intermedi  aires.' 


185  And,  as  he  clearly  saw,  the 
proper  method  was  to  study  the 
laws  of  symmetry,  and  then  apply 
them  deductively  to  minerals, 
instead  of  rising  inductively  from 
the  aberrations  actually  presented 
by  minerals.  This  is  interesting 
to  observe,  because  it  is  analo- 
gous to  the  method  of  the  best 
pathologists,  who  seek  the  philo- 
sophy of  their  subject  in  physio- 
logical phenomena,  rather  than  in 
pathological  ones;  striking  down- 
wards from  the  normal  to  the 
abnormal.  '  La  symetrie  des 
formes  sous  lesquelles  se  presen- 
tent  les  solides  que  nous  avons 
considered  jusqu'ici,  nous  afourni 
des  donnees  pour  exprimer  les  lois 
de  decroissemens  dont  ces  solides 
sont  susceptibles.'  Haiiy,  Traite 
de  Mineralogie,  vol.  i.  p.  442; 
compare  vol.  ii.  p.  192. 

isb  <  Un  coup  d'ceil  peu  atten- 
tif,  jete  sur  les  cristaux,  les  fit 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  403 

most  uncouth  and  singular  forms  of  minerals  are  the 
natural  results  of  their  antecedents,  Haiiy  laid  the 
foundation  of  what  may  be  called  the  pathology  of  the 
inorganic  world.  However  paradoxical  such  a  notion 
may  seem,  it  is  certain  that  symmetry  is  to  crystals 
what  health  is  to  animals ;  so  that  an  irregularity  of 
shape  in  the  first,  corresponds  with  an  appearance  of 
disease  in  the  second.187  When,  therefore,  the  minds  of 
men  became  familiarized  with  the  great  truth,  that  in 
the  mineral  kingdom  there  is,  properly  speaking,  no 
irregularity,  it  became  more  easy  for  them  to  grasp  the 
still  higher  truth,  that  the  same  principle  holds  good 
of  the  animal  kingdom,  although,  from  the  superior 
complexity  of  the  phenomena,  it  will  be  long  before  we 
can  arrive  at  an  equal  demonstration.  But,  that  such  a 
demonstration  is  possible,  is  the  principle  upon  which 
the  future  progress  of  all  organic,  and  indeed  of  all 
mental  science,  depends.  And  it  is  very  observable, 
that  the  same  generation  which  established  the  fact, 
that  the  apparent  aberrations  presented  by  minerals  are 
strictly  regular,  also  took  the  first  steps  towards  esta- 
blishing the  far  higher  fact,  that  the  aberrations  of  the 
human  mind  are  governed  by  laws  as  unfailing  as 
those  which  determine  the  condition  of  inert  matter. 


appeler  d'abord  de  purs  jeux  de  dans  leur  ensemble.' 
la  nature,  ce  qui  n'etoit  qu'une         187  On  the  remarkable  power 

maniere  plus  elegante  de  faire  possessed  by  crystals,  in  common 

l'aveu    de    son    ignorance.     Un  ■with  animals,  of  repairing  their 

examen  reflechi  nous  y  decouvre  own  injuries,  see  Paget' s  Patho- 

des  lois  d'arrangement,  a  l'aide  logy,  1853,  vol.  i.  pp.  152,  153, 

desquelles  le  calcul  represente  et  confirming  the    experiments   of 

enchaine  l'un  a  1' autre  les  resul-  Jordan  on  this  curious  subject : 

tats  observes ;   lois  si  variables  '  The  ability  to  repair  the  damages 

et  en  meme  temps  si  precises  et  sustained  by  injury  ...  is  not 

si  regulieres  ;  ordinairement  tres-  an  exclusive  property  of  living 

simples,  sans  rien  perdre  de  leur  beings ;    for  even   crystals  will 

fecondite.'     Haiiy,   Mineralogie,  repair    themselves    when,    after 

vol.  i.  pp.  xiii.  xiv.      Again,  vol.  pieces  have   been  broken   from 

ii.   p.    67,   'notre  but,   qui   est  them,  they  are  placed  in  the  same 

de    prouver  que    les   lois   d'ou  conditions  in  which  they  were 

depend  la  structure   du  cristal  first  formed.' 
Bout  les  plus  simples  possibles 

DI)2 


404  PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

The  examination  of  this  would  lead  to  a  digression 
foreign  to  my  present  design ;  but  I  may  mention  that,  at 
the  end  of  the  century,  there  was  written  in  France  the 
celebrated  treatise  on  insanity,  by  Pinel ;  a  work  re- 
markable in  many  respects,  but  chiefly  in  this,  that  in  it 
the  old  notions  respecting  the  mysterious  and  inscru- 
table character  of  mental  disease  are  altogether  dis- 
carded : 188  the  disease  itself  is  considered  as  a 
phenomenon  inevitably  occurring  under  certain  given 
conditions,  and  the  foundation  laid  for  supplying  an- 
other link  in  that  vast  chain  of  evidence  which  connects 
the  material  with  the  immaterial,  and  thus  uniting 
mind  and  matter  into  a  single  study,  is  now  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  some  generalization,  which,  being  com- 
mon to  both,  shall  serve  as  a  centre  round  which  the 
disjointed  fragments  of  our  knowledge  may  safely 
rally. 

These  were  the  views  which,  during  the  latter  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  began  to  dawn  upon  French 
thinkers.     The  extraordinaiy  ability  and  success  with 


is3  .jyL  pinei  a  imprime  une  une    inspiration    ou   une   puni- 

inarche  nouvelle  a  l'etude  de  la  tion  des  dieux,  qui  dans  la  suite 

folie.  .  . .  En  la  rangeant  simple-  fut  prise  pour  la  possession  des 

nient,  et  sans  differences  aucunes,  demons,  qui  dans  d'autres  temps 

au  nombre  des  autres  derange-  passa  pour    une    ceuvre    de    la 

mens  de  nos  organes,  en  lui  as-  magie ;  l'alienation  mentale,  dis- 

signant  une  place  dans  le  cadre  je,  avec  toutes  ses  especes  et  ses 

nosographique,  il  fit  faire  un  pas  varietes  innombrables,  ne  differe 

immense  a  son  histoire.'   Georget  en  rien    des    autres    maladies.' 

de  la  Folie,  Paris,  1820,  p.  69.  The  recognition  of  this  he   ex- 

In  the  same  work,  p.  295,  '  M.  pressly  ascribes  to  his  predeces- 

Pinel,  le  premier  en  France,  on  sor: 'grace  auxprincipes  exposes 

pourrait  dire  en  Europe,  j eta  les  par  Pinel.'  p.  340.     Pinel  hinyself 

fondemens  d'un  traitement  vrai-  clearly  sawthe  connexion  between 

ment  rationnel  en   rangeant  la  his  own  opinions  and  the  spirit 

folie  au  nombre  des  autres  affec-  of   the    age:    see   Pinel,    Traite 

tions  organiquos.'     M.  Esquirol,  Medico-Philosophique  sur  VAlie- 

who  expresses  the  modern  and  nation  Mentale,  p.  xxxii. :    '  Un 

purely  scientific  view,  says  in  his  ouvrage  de  medecine,  publie  en 

great  work  (Des  Maladies  Men-  France  a  la  fin  du  dix-huitieme 

tcaes,  Paris,  1838,  vol.  i.  p.  336),  siecle,  doit  avoir  un  autre  carac- 

'  L'alienation  mentale,  que  les  an-  tere  que  s'il  avoit  ete  ecrit  a  une 

ciens  peuples  regardaient  comme  epoque  anterieure.' 


THE    FEENCH   EEVOLTJTION.  405 

■which  these  eminent  men  cultivated  their  respective 
sciences,  I  have  traced  at  a  length  greater  that  I  had 
intended,  but  still  very  inadequate  to  the  importance 
of  the  subject.  Enough,  however,  has  been  brought 
forward,  to  convince  the  reader  of  the  truth  of  the  pro- 
position I  wished  to  prove  ;  namely,  that  the  intellect 
of  France  was,  during  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  concentrated  upon  the  external  world  with  un- 
precedented zeal,  and  thus  aided  that  vast  movement, 
of  which  the  Revolution  itself  was  merely  a  single  con- 
sequence. The  intimate  connexion  between  scientific 
progress  and  social  rebellion,  is  evident  from  the  fact, 
that  both  are  suggested  by  the  same  yearning  after  im- 
provement, the  same  dissatisfaction  with  what  has  been 
previously  done,  the  same  restless,  prying,  insubordinate, 
and  audacious  spirit.  But  in  France  this  general  ana- 
logy was  strengthened  by  the  curious  circumstances  1 
have  already  noticed,  by  virtue  of  which,  the  activity  of 
the  country  was,  during  the  first  half  of  the  century, 
directed  against  the  church  rather  than  against  the 
state ;  so  that  in  order  to  complete  the  antecedents  of 
the  Revolution,  it  was  necessary  that,  in  the  latter  half 
of  the  century,  the  ground  of  attack  should  be  shifted. 
This  is  precisely  what  was  done  by  the  wonderful  im- 
petus given  to  every  branch  of  natural  science.  For, 
the  attention  of  men  being  thus  steadily  fixed  upon  the 
external  world,  the  internal  fell  into  neglect ;  while,  as 
the  external  corresponds  to  the  state,  and  the  internal 
to  the  church,  it  was  part  of  the  same  intellectual 
development,  that  the  assailers  of  the  existing  fabric 
should  turn  against  political  abuses  the  energy  which 
the  preceding  generation  had  reserved  for  religious 
ones. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  French  Revolution,  like  ever}* 
great  revolution  the  world  has  yet  seen,  was  preceded 
by  a  complete  change  in  the  habits  and  associations  of 
the  national  intellect.  But  besides  this,  there  was  also 
taking  place,  precisely  at  the  same  time,  a  vast  social 
movement,  which  was  intimately  connected  with  the 
intellectual  movement,  and  indeed  formed  part  of  it,  in 
so  far  as  it  was  followed  by  similar  results  and  produced 


406  PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

by  similar  causes.  The  nature  of  this  social  revolution 
I  shall  examine  only  very  briefly,  because  in  a  future 
volume  it  will  be  necessary  to  trace  its  history  minutely, 
in  order  to  illustrate  the  slighter  but  still  remarkable 
changes  which  in  the  same  period  were  going  on  in 
English  society. 

In  France,  before  the  Revolution,  the  people,  though 
always  very  social,  were  also  very  exclusive.  The 
upper  classes,  protected  by  an  imaginary  superiority, 
looked  with  scorn  upon  those  whose  birth  or  titles  were 
unequal  to  their  own.  The  class  immediately  below 
them  copied  and  communicated  their  example,  and 
every  order  in  society  endeavoured  to  find  some  fanciful 
distinction  which  should  guard  them  from  the  conta- 
mination of  their  inferiors.  The  only  three  real  sources 
of  superiority, — the  superiority  of  morals,  of  intellect, 
and  of  knowledge, — were  entirely  overlooked  in  this 
absurd  scheme  ;  and  men  became  accustomed  to  pride 
themselves  not  on  any  essential  difference,  but  on  those 
inferior  matters,  which,  with  extremely  few  exceptions, 
are  the  result  of  accident,  and  therefore  no  test  of 
merit.189 

The  first  great  blow  to  this  state  of  things,  was  the 
unprecedented  impulse  given  to  the  cultivation  of 
physical  science.  Those  vast  discoveries  which  were 
being  made,  not  only  stimulated  the  intellect  of  think- 
ing men,  but  even  roused  the  curiosity  of  the  more 
thoughtless  parts  of  society.  The  lectures  of  chemists, 
of  geologists,  of  mineralogists,  and  of  physiologists, 
were  attended  by  those  who  came  to  wonder,  as  well  as 
by  those  who  came  to  learn.  In  Paris,  the  scientific 
assemblages  were  crowded  to  overflowing.190    The  halls 


189  Comp.  Mem.  de  Segur,  vol.  who  were  not    of   high    birth, 

i.  p.  23,  with  the  Introduction  to  Mem.  de  Montbarey,  vol.  i.  p.  341, 

Des  Beaux,  Historiettes,  vol.  i.  p.  and  see  vol.  iii.  p.  117. 

34.     A  good  illustration  of  this  190  And  that  too  even  on  such 

is,  that  the  Prince  de  Montbarey,  a  subject  as  anatomy.     In  1768, 

in  his  Memoirs,  gently  censures  Antoine  Petit  began  his  anato- 

Louis  XV.,  not  for  his  scandalous  mical  lectures  in  the  great  am- 

profligacy,  but  because  he  selected  phitheatre  of  the  Jardin  du  Eoi ; 

for  his  mistresses  some  women  and  the  press  to  hear  him  was 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


407 


and  amphitheatres  in  which  the  great  truths  of  nature 
were  expounded,  were  no  longer  able  to  hold  their 
audience,  and  in  several  instances  it  was  found  neces- 
sary to  enlarge  them.191  The  sittings  of  the  Academy, 
instead  of  being  confined  to  a  few  solitary  scholars, 
were  frequented  by  every  one  whose  rank  or  influence 
enabled  them  to  secure  a  place.192  Even  women  of 
fashion,  forgetting  their  usual  frivolity,  hastened  to 
hear  discussions  on  the  composition  of  a  mineral,  on 
the  discovery  of  a  new  salt,  on  the  structure  of  plants, 
on  the  organization  of  animals,  on  the  properties  of  the 
electric  fluid.193     A   sudden  craving  after  knowledge 


so  great,  that  not  only  all  the 
seats  were  occupied,  but  the  Tery 
■window-ledges  were  crowded. 
See  the  animated  description  in 
Biog.  Univ.  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  494. 

191  Dr.  Thomson  {History  of 
Chemistry,  vol.  ii.  p.  169)  says  of 
Fourcroy's  lectures  on  chemistry, 
which  began  in  1784:  'Such 
were  the  crowds,  both  of  men  and 
women,  who  flocked  to  hear  him, 
that  it  was  twice  necessary  to 
enlarge  the  size  of  the  lecture- 
room.'  This  circumstance  is  also 
mentioned  in  Cuvier,  Eloges,  vol. 
ii.  p.  19. 

192  In  1779,  it  was  remarked 
that '  les  seances  publiques  de 
l'Academie  Franchise  sont  deve- 
nues  une  espece  de  spectacle  fort 
a  la  mode :'  and  as  this  continued 
to  increase,  the  throng  became  at 
length  so  great,  that  in  1785  it 
was  found  necessary  to  diminish 
the  number  of  tickets  of  admis- 
sion, and  it  was  even  proposed 
that  ladies  should  be  excluded, 
in  conseqxience  of  some  iiproari- 
ous  scenes  which  had  happened. 
Grimm  et  Diderot,  Correspond. 
Lit.  vol.  x.  p.  341,  vol  xiv.  pp. 
148,  149,  185,  251. 

m  Goldsmith,    who    was     in 


Paris  in  1755,  says  with  sur- 
prise, '  I  have  seen  as  bright  a 
circle  of  beauty  at  the  chemical 
lectures  of  Eouelle,  as  gracing 
the  court  of  Versailles.'  Prior's 
Life  of  Goldsmith,  vol.  i.  p.  1 80 ; 
Forster's  Life  of  Goldsmith,  vol. 
i.  p.  65.  In  the  middle  of  the 
century,  electricity  was  very 
popular  among  the  Parisian 
ladies  ;  and  the  interest  felt  in  it 
was'  revived  several  years  later 
by  Franklin.  Compare  Grimm, 
Correspondence,  vol.  vii.  p.  122, 
with  Tucker's  Life  of  Jefferson, 
vol.  i.  pp.  190,  191.  Cuvier 
{Eloges,  vol.  i.  p.  56)  tells  us  that 
even  the  anatomical  descriptions 
which  Daubenton  wrote  for  Buf- 
fon  were  to  be  found  '  sur  la 
toilette  des  femmes.'  This  change 
of  taste  is  also  noticed,  though  in 
a  jeering  spirit,  in  Mem.  de  Genlis, 
vol.  vi.  p.  32.  Compare  the  ac- 
count given  by  Townsend,  who 
visited  France  in  1786,  on  his 
way  to  Spain :  '  A  numerous 
society  of  gentlemen  and  ladies 
of  the  first  fashion  meet  to  hear 
lectures  on  the  sciences,  delivered 
by  men  of  the  highest  rank  in 
their  profession.  ...  I  was 
much  struck  with  the  fluency  and 


408 


PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 


seemed  to  have  smitten  every  rank.  The  largest  and 
the  most  difficult  inquiries  found  favour  in  the  eyes  of 
those  whose  fathers  had  hardly  heard  the  names  of  the 
sciences  to  which  they  belonged.  The  brilliant  ima- 
gination of  Buffon  made  geology  suddenly  popular  ;  the 
same  thing  was  effected  for  chemistry  by  the  eloquence 
of  Fourcroy,  and  for  electricity  by  Nollet ;  while  the 
admirable  expositions  of  Lalande  caused  astronomy  it- 
self to  be  generally  cultivated.  In  a  word,  it  is  enough 
to  say,  that  during  the  thirty  years  preceding  the 
Revolution,  the  spread  of  physical  science  was  so  rapid, 
that  in  its  favour  the  old  classical  studies  were  des- 
pised;194 it  was  considered  the  essential  basis  of  a  good 
education,  and  some  slight  acquaintance  with  it  was 
deemed  necessary  for  every  class,  except  those  who 
were  obliged  to  support  themselves  by  their  daily 
labour.195 


elegance  of  language  ■with  which 
the  anatomical  professor  spoke, 
and  not  a  little  so  with  the  deep 
attention  of  his  auditors.'  Towns- 
end' 's  Journey  through  Spain,  vol. 
i.  p.  41 :  see  also  Smith's  Tour  on 
the  Continent  in  1786,  vol.  i.'p. 
117. 

191  In  a  letter 'written  in  1756, 
it  is  said,  '  Mais  c'est  peine  per- 
due aujourd'hui  que  de  plaisanter 
leserudits;  il  n'y  en  a  plus  en 
France.'  Grimm,  Correspond. 
vol.  ii.  p.  15.  In  1764, '  II  est 
hontetix  et  incroyable  a  quel 
point  l'etude  des  anciens  est  ne- 
gligee.' vol.  iv.  p.  97.  In  1768, 
'  Une  autre  raison  qui  rendra  les 
traductions  des  auteurs  anciens 
de  plus  en  plus  rares  en  France, 
c'est  que  depuis  long  temps  on 
n'y  sait  plus  le  Grec,  et  qu'on 
neglige  l'etude  du  Latin  tous  les 
jours  davantage.'  vol.  vi.  p.  140. 
Sherlock  {New  Letters  from  an 
English  Traveller,  London,  1781, 
p.  86)  says,  'It  is  very  rare  to 
meet  a  man  in  France  that  under- 


stands Greek.'  In  1785,  Jeffer- 
son ■writes  from  Paris  to  Madi- 
son, '  Greek  and  Roman  authors 
are  dearer  here  than,  I  believe, 
■any  ■where  in  the  world ;  nobody 
here  reads  them,  wherefore  they 
are  not  reprinted.'  Jefferson's 
Correspond,  vol.  i.  p.  301.  See 
further,  on  this  neglect  of  the 
ancients,  a  significant  precursor 
of  the  Eevolution,  Mem.  de  Mont- 
barey,  vol.  iii.  p.  181 ;  Villemain, 
Litterature  au  XVIII'  Siecle,  vol. 
iii.  pp.  243-248  ;  Schlosser's 
Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  i.  p. 
344. 

195  For  further  evidence  of  the 
popularity  of  physical  knowledge, 
and  of  its  study,  even  by  those 
■who  might  Lave  been  expected  to 
neglect  it,  see  Mem.  de  Boland, 
vol.  i.  pp.  115,  268,  324,  343; 
Mem.  de  Morellet,  vol.  i.  p.  16; 
Ditpont  de  Nemours,  Mem.  sar 
Turgot,  pp.  45,  52,  53,  411; 
Mem.  de  Brissot,  vol.  i.  pp.  62, 
151,319,336,  338,357;  Cuvier, 
Progres  des  Sciences,  vol.  i.  p.  89. 


THE    FBENCH   DEVOLUTION.  409 

The  results  produced  by  this  remarkable  change  are 
very  curious,  and  from  their  energy  and  rapidity  were 
very  decisive.  As  long  as  the  different  classes  confined 
themselves  to  pursuits  peculiar  to  their  own  sphere, 
they  were  encouraged  to  preserve  their  separate  habits; 
and  the  subordination,  or,  as  it  were,  the  hierarchy,  of 
society  was  easily  maintained.  But  when  the  members 
of  the  various  orders  met  in  the  same  place  with  the 
same  object,  they  became  knit  together  by  a  new  sym- 
pathy. The  highest  and  most  durable  of  ail  pleasures, 
the  pleasure  caused  by  the  perception  of  fresh  truths, 
was  now  a  great  link,  which  banded  together  those 
social  elements  that  were  formerly  wrapped  up  in  the 
pride  of  their  own  isolation.  Besides  this,  there  was 
also  given  to  them  not  only  a  new  pursuit,  but  also  a 
new  standard  of  merit.  In  the  amphitheatre  and  the 
lecture-room,  the  first  object  of  attention  is  the  professor 
and  the  lecturer.  The  division  is  between  those  who 
teach  and  those  who  learn.  The  subordination  of  ranks 
makes  way  for  the  subordination  of  knowledge.196  The 
petty  and  conventional  distinctions  of  fashionable  life 
are  succeeded  by  those  large  and  genuine  distinctions, 
by  which  alone  man  is  really  separated  from  man.  The 
progress  of  the  intellect  supplies  a  new  object  of  vene- 
ration ;  the  old  worship  of  rank  is  rudely  disturbed, 
and  its  superstitious  devotees  are  taught  to  bow  the 
knee  before  what  to  them  is  the  shrine  of  a  strange  god. 
The  hall  of  science  is  the  temple  of  democracy.  Those 
who  come  to  learn,  confess  their  own  ignorance,  abro- 
gate in  some  degree  their  own  superiority,  and  begin  to 
perceive  that  the  greatness  of  men  has  no  connexion 
with  the  splendour  of  their  titles,  or  the  dignity 
of  their  birth ;  that  it  is  not  concerned  with  their 
quarterings,  their  escutcheons,  their  descents,  their 
dexter-chiefs,    their     sinister-chiefs,     their    chevrons, 


,!",  A    celebrated  writer    has  sciences  physiques,  ni  maitres,  ni 

•well  said,  though  in  a  somewhat  esclaves,   ni  rois,   ni    sujets,  ni 

different  point  of  view,   '  II  ne  citoyens,  ni  etrangers.'      Comte, 

peut  y  avoir  dans  les    sciences  Traite    de    legislation,  vol.  i.  p. 

morales,  pas  plus  que  dans  les  43. 


410  PROXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

their  bends,  their  azures,  their  gules,  and  the  other 
trumperies  of  their  heraldry ;  but  that  it  depends  upon 
the  largeness  of  their  minds,  the  powers  of  their 
intellect,  and  the  fullness  of  their  knowledge. 

These  were  the  views  which,  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  began  to  influence  those  classes 
which  had  long  been  the  undisputed  masters  of 
society.197  And  what  shows  the  strength  of  this  great 
movement  is,  that  it  was  accompanied  by  other  social 
changes,  which,  though  in  themselves  apparently 
trifling,  become  full  of  meaning  when  taken  in  con- 
nexion with  the  general  history  of  the  time. 

While  the  immense  progress  of  physical  knowledge 
was  revolutionizing  society,  by  inspiring  the  different 
classes  with  an  object  common  to  all,  and  thus  raising 
a  new  standard  of  merit,  a  more  trivial,  but  equally 
democratic  tendency  was  observable  even  in  the  con- 
ventional forms  of  social  life.  To  describe  the  whole  of 
these  changes  would  occupy  a  space  disproportioned  to 
the  other  parts  of  this  Introduction ;  but  it  is  certain 
that,  until  the  changes  have  been  carefully  examined, 
it  will  be  impossible  for  any  one  to  write  a  history  of 
the  French  Revolution.  As  a  specimen  of  what  I  mean, 
I  will  notice  two  of  these  innovations  which  are  very 
conspicuous,  and  are  also  interesting  on  account  of 
their  analogy  with  what  has  happened  in  English 
society. 

The  first  of  these  changes  was  an  alteration  in  dress, 
and  a  marked  contempt  for  those  external  appearances 
hitherto  valued  as  one  of  the  most  important  of  all 


197  The  remarks  which  Thomas  no  one  -would  have  used  such 

made  upon  Descartes  in  1765,  in  language,  on   such  an  occasion, 

an  eloge  crowned  by  the  Acade-  thirty  years  earlier.     So,  too,  the 

my,  illustrate  the  opinions  which,  Count  de    Segur    says    of   the 

in  the  latter  half  of  the  eigh-  younger  nobles  before  the  Kevo- 

teenth  century,  were  becoming  lution,  '  nous  preferions  un  mot 

rapidly  diffused  in  France.    See  d'eloges  deD'Alembert,  deDide- 

the  passage  beginning  '  0  pre-  rot,  a  la  faveur  la  plus  signalee 

juges !  6  ridicule  fiert^  des  places  d'un  prince.'      Mem.  de  Segur, 

et    du    rang ! '  &c.    (Euvres  de  voL  i.  p.  142 :  see  also  vol.  ii. 

Descartes,  vol.  i.  p.  74.  Certainly  p.  46. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  411 

matters.  During  the  reign  of  Louis  XTV.,  and  indeed 
during  the  first  half  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.,  not  only 
men  of  frivolous  tastes,  but  even  those  distinguished  for 
their  knowledge,  displayed  in  their  attire  a  dainty 
precision,  a  nice  and  studied  adjustment,  a  pomp  of 
gold,  of  silver,  and  of  ruffles,  such  as  in  our  days  can 
nowhere  be  seen,  except  in  the  courts  of  European 
princes,  where  a  certain  barbarian  splendour  is  still 
retained.  So  far  was  this  carried,  that  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  the  rank  of  a  person  might  be  imme- 
diately known  by  his  appearance ;  no  one  presuming 
to  usurp  a  garb  worn  by  the  class  immediately  above 
his  own.198  But  in  that  democratic  movement  which 
preceded  the  French  Revolution,  the  minds  of  men 
became  too  earnest,  too  intent  upon  higher  matters,  to 
busy  themselves  with  those  idle  devices  which  engrossed 
the  attention  of  their  fathers.  A  contemptuous  disre- 
gard of  such  distinctions  became  general.  In  Paris  the 
innovation  was  seen  even  in  those  gay  assemblies, 
where  a  certain  amount  of  personal  decoration  is  still 
considered  natural.  At  dinners,  suppers,  and  balls,  it 
is  noticed  by  contemporary  observers,  that  the  dress 
usually  worn  was  becoming  so  simple  as  to  cause  a 
confusion  of  ranks,  until  at  length  every  distinction  was 
abandoned  by  both  sexes  ;  the  men,  on  such  occasions, 
coming  in  a  common  frock-coat,  the  women  in  their 
ordinary  morning  gowns.199     Nay,  to  such  a  pitch  was 


198  Among  many  other  illus-  cepted.   They  are  too  high  to  be 

trations  which  might  he  given  of  reached  by  any    improvement, 

this   distinction    of   classes  by  They  are  the  last  refuge  from 

dress,  see  Monteil,  Hist,  dcs  di-  which  etiquette,  formality,  and 

vers  Etats,  vol.  vii.  pp.  7-10;  folly  will  be  driven.   Takeaway 

and  Tallemant  dcs  Beaux,  His-  these,  and  they  would  be  on  a 

toriettes,  vol.i.  p.  36  note.  level    with  other  people.'     Jef- 

198  In  August  1787,  Jefferson  ferson  was   a  statesman  and   a 

writes  from    Paris  (Correspon-  diplomatist,       and      was     well 

dcnce,  vol.  ii.  p.  224) :  '  In  soci-  acquainted  with   his  profession, 

ety,  the  habit  habillk  is   almost  The  change,  however,  which  he 

banished,  and  they  begin  to  go  noticed,  had  been  coming  on  some 

even  to  great  suppers  in  frock :  years  earlier.  In  a  letter  written 

the  court  and  diplomatic  corps,  in  May  1786,  it  is  said:  •  II  est 

however,  must    always  bo   ex-  rare  aujourd'hui  de  rencontrer 


412 


PKOXIMATE    CAUSES   OP 


this  carried,  that  we  are  assured  by  the  Prince  de 
Montbarey,  who  was  in  Paris  at  the  time,  that  shortly 
before  the  Revolution,  even  those  who  had  stars  and 
orders  were  careful  to  hide  them  by  buttoning  their 
coats,  so  that  these  marks  of  superiority  might  no  longer 
be  seen.200 

The  other  in  novation  to  which  I  have  referred  is 
equally  interesting  as  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  the 
time.  This  is,  that  the  tendency  to  amalgamate  the 
different  orders  of  society201  was  shown  in  the  institu- 
tion of  clubs  ;  a  remarkable  contrivance,  which  to  us 
seems  perfectly  natural  because  we  are  accustomed  to 


dans  le  monde  des  personnes  qui 
soient  ce  qu'on  appelle  habillees. 
Les  femmes  sont  en  chemise  et  en 
chapeau,  les  hommes  en  froc  et 
en  gilet.'  Grimm,  Correspond. 
vol.  xiv.  p.  485  ;  and  on  the  in- 
creased simplicity  of  attire  in 
1780,  see  vol.  xi.  pp.  141,  142. 
Segur,  who  witnessed  these 
changes,  and  was  much  dis- 
pleased by  them,  says  of  their 
advocates,  '  ils  ne  voyaient  pas 
que  les  frocs,  remplac^nt  les 
amples  et  imposans  vetemens  de 
l'ancienne  cour,  presagaient  un 
penchant  general  pour  l'egalite.' 
Mem.  de  Segur,  vol.  i.  p.  131. 
Soulavie  {Begne  de  Louis  XVI, 
vol.  vi.  p.  38)  observes,  that '  les 
grands,  vers  les  approches  de  la 
revolution,  n'avoient  plus  que  des 
habits  simples  et  peu  couteux ; ' 
and  that  '  on  ne  distingua  plus 
une  duchesse  d'une  actrice,'  p. 
43 :  see  also  an  extract  from 
Montjoye,-  in  Alison's  History, 
vol.  i.  pp.  352,  353.  Compare 
Mem.  sur  Marie  Antoinette,  vol.  i. 
pp.  226,  372,  vol.  ii.  p.  174,  and 
Mem.  de  Madame  du  Hausset, 
introduc.  p.  17. 

200  '  Les  personnes  du  premier 
rang  et  meme  d'un  age  mur,  qui 


avaient  travaille  toute  leur  vie 
pour  obtenir  les  ordres  du  roi, 
preuve  de  la  plus  haute  faveur, 
s'habituerent  a  en  cacher  les  mar- 
ques distinctives  sous  le  froc  le 
plus  simple,  qui  leur  permettait 
de  courir  a  pied  dans  les  rues  et 
de  se  confondre  dans  la  foule.' 
Mem.  de  Montbarey,  vol.  iii.  pp. 
161,  162.  Another  alteration  of 
the  same  tendency  is  worth  re- 
cording. The  Baroness  d'Ober- 
kirch,  who  revisited  Paris  in 
1784,  remarked,  on  her  arrival, 
that  'gentlemen  began  about 
this  time  to  go  about  unarmed, 
and  wore  swords  only  in  full 
dress.  .  .  .  And  thus  the  French 
nobility  laid  aside  a  usage  which 
the  example  of  their  fathers  had 
consecrated  through  centuries.' 
If  OberhircKs  Memoirs,  Lond. 
1852,  vol.  ii.  p.  211. 

201  A  striking  instance  of  which 
was,  moreover,  seen  in  the  num- 
ber of  mesalliances,  which  first 
became  frequent  about  the  middle 
of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.  Com- 
pare Mem.  de  Montbarey,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  116,  156,  157;  Lacretelle, 
Dix-huitieme  Swcle,  vol.  iii.  p. 
220. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  413 

it,  but  of  which  it  may  be  truly  said,  tbat  until  the 
eighteenth  century  its  existence  was  impossible.  Before 
the  eighteenth  century,  each  class  was  so  jealous  of  its 
superiority  over  the  one  below  it,  that  to  meet  together 
on  equal  terms  was  impracticable;  and  although  a 
certain  patronizing  familiarity  towards  one's  inferiors 
might  be  safely  indulged  in,  this  only  marked  the 
immense  interval  of  separation,  since  the  great  man  had 
no  fear  of  his  condescension  being  abused.  In  those 
good  old  times  a  proper  respect  was  paid  to  rank  and 
birth ;  and  he  who  could  count  his  twenty  ancestors 
was  venerated  to  an  extent  of  which  we,  in  these  dege- 
nerate days,  can  hardly  form  an  idea.  As  to  any  thing 
like  social  equality,  that  was  a  notion  too  preposterous 
to  be  conceived  ;  nor  was  it  possible  that  any  institution 
should  exist  which  placed  mere  ordinary  men  on  a  level 
with  those  illustrious  characters,  whose  veins  were  filled 
with  the  purest  blood,  and  the  quarterings  of  whose 
arms  none  could  hope  to  rival. 

But  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  progress  of  know- 
ledge became  so  remarkable,  that  the  new  principle  of 
intellectual  superiority  made  rapid  encroachments  on 
the  old  principle  of  aristocratic  superiority.  As  soon 
as  these  encroachments  had  reached  a  certain  point, 
they  gave  rise  to  an  institution  suited  to  them;  and 
thus  it  was  that  there  were  first  established  clubs,  in 
which  all  the  educated  classes  could  assemble,  without 
regard  to  those  other  differences  which,  in  the  preceding 
period,  kept  them  separate.  The  peculiarity  of  this 
was,  that,  for  mere  purposes  of  social  enjoyment,  men 
were  brought  into  contact,  who,  according  to  the  aris- 
tocratic scheme,  had  nothing  in  common,  but  who  were 
now  placed  on  the  same  footing  in  so  far  as  they 
belonged  to  the  same  establishment,  conformed  to  the 
same  rules,  and  reaped  the  same  advantages.  It  was, 
however,  expected  that  the  members,  though  varying  in 
many  other  respects,  were  to  be  all,  in  some  degree, 
educated  ;  and  in  this  way  society  first  distinctly  recog- 
nized a  classification  previously  unknown  ;  the  division 
between  noble  and  ignoble  being  succeeded  by  another 
division  between  educated  and  uneducated. 


414  PEOXIMATE   CAUSES    OF 

The  rise  and  growth  of  clubs  is,  therefore,  to  the  phi- 
losophic observer,  a  question  of  immense  importance ; 
and  it  is  one  which,  as  I  shall  hereafter  prove,  played  a 
great  part  in  the  history  of  England  during  the  latter 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  reference  to  our 
present  subject,  it  is  interesting  to  observe,  that  the  first 
clubs,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  which  ever 
existed  in  Paris,  were  formed  about  1782,  only  seven 
years  before  the  French  Revolution.  At  the  beginning 
they  were  merely  intended  to  be  social  assemblages ; 
but  they  quickly  assumed  a  democratic  character,  con- 
formable to  the  spirit  of  the  age.  Their  first  result,  as 
was  noticed  by  a  keen  observer  of  what  was  then  passing, 
was  to  make  the  manners  of  the  upper  classes  more 
simple  than  they  had  hitherto  been,  and  to  weaken  that 
love  of  form  and  ceremony  suitable  to  their  earlier  habits. 
These  clubs  likewise  effected  a  remarkable  separation 
between  the  sexes  ;  and  it  is'  recorded,  that  after  their 
establishment,  women  associated  more  with  each  other, 
and  were  offcener  seen  in  public  unaccompanied  by 
men.202  This  had  the  effect  of  encouraging  among  men 
a  republican  roughness,  which  the  influence  of  the  other 
sex  would  have  tended  to  keep  down.  All  these  things 
effaced  the  old  lines  of  demarcation  between  the  diffe- 


202  «Nous  commencames  aussi  gur,  vol.  ii.  p.  28.  By  the  spring 

a  avoir  des  clubs:   les  hommes  of  1786,  this  separation  of  the 

s'y  reunissaient,  non  encore  pour  sexes    had    become    still   more 

discuter,  mais  pour  diner,  jouer  marked;  and  it  was  a  common 

au  wisk,  etliretous  les  ouvrages  complaint,  that  ladies  were  ob» 

nouveaux.    Ce  premier  pas,  alors  liged  to  go  to  the  theatre  alone, 

presque  inapercju,    eut  dans    la  men  being  at  their  clubs.     See 

suite  de  grandes,  et  momentane-  the  very  curious  observations  in 

ment  de  funestes  consequences.  Grimm,  Correspond,  vol.  xiv.  pp. 

Dans  le  commencement,  son  pre-  486-489,  'where  there  is  also  a 

mier  r^sultat  fut  de  separer  les  notice  of  '  le  prodigieux  succes 

hommes  des  femmes,  et  d'appor-  qu'a  eu  l'etablissement  des  clubs 

ter  ainsi  un  notable  changement  a  l'anglaise.'      See  also,  on  the 

dans  nos  mceurs :  elles  devinrent  diminished    attention     paid    to- 

moins  frivoles,  mais  moins   po-  women,  Williams's  Letters  from 

lies ;   plus    fortes,   mais    moins  France,  vol.  ii.  p.  80,  3rd    edit, 

aimables:  la  politique  y  gagna,  1796. 
la  societe  y  perdit.'  Mem.  de  Si- 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  415 

rent  ranks,  and  by  merging  the  various  classes  into  one, 
made  the  force  of  their  nnited  opposition  irresistible, 
and  speedily  overthrew  both  the  church  and  the  state. 
The  exact  period  at  which  the  clubs  became  political 
cannot,  of  course,  be  ascertained,  but  the  change  seems 
to  have  taken  place  about  1784.203  From  this  moment 
all  was  over ;  and  although  the  government,  in  1787, 
issued  orders  to  close  the  leading  club,  in  which  all 
classes  discussed  political  questions,  it  was  found  im- 
possible to  stem  the  current.  The  order,  therefore, 
was  rescinded ;  the  club  re-assembled,  and  no  further 
attempt  was  made  to  interrupt  that  course  of  affairs 
which  a  long  train  of  preceding  events  had  rendered 
inevitable.204 

While  all  these  things  were  conspiring  to  overthrow 
the  old  institutions,  an  event  suddenly  occurred  which 
produced  the  most  remarkable  effects  in  France,  and  is 
itself  strikingly  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  On  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  a 
great  people,  provoked  by  the  intolerable  injustice  of 
the  English  government,  rose  in  arms,  turned  on  their 
oppressors,  and,  after  a  desperate  struggle,  gloriously 


203  The  remarks  of  Georgel  hommes  de  lettres  les  plus  con- 
appear  to  apply  to  the  political  sideres.  Cette  reunion  offrait, 
clubs  only:  '  A  Paris  les  assem-  pour  la  premiere  fois,  1' image 
blees  de  nouvellistes,  les  clubs  d'une  egalite  qui  devient  bientot, 
qui  s'etoient  formes  a  l'instar  de  plus  que  la  liberte  meme,  le  vcou 
ceux  des  Anglais,  s'expliquaient  le  plus  ardent  de  la  plus  grande 
hautement  et  sans  retenue  sur  partie  de  la  nation.  Aussi  le  me- 
les  droits  de  l'homme,  sur  les  contentement  produit  par  la  clo- 
avantages  de  la  liberte,  sur  les  ture  de  ce  club  fut  si  vif,  que 
grands  abus  de  l'inegalite  des  l'autorite  se  crut  obligee  de  la 
conditions.  Ces  clubs,  Jtrop  ac-  rouvrir.''  Mem.  de  Segur,  vol. 
credites,  avoient  commence  a  se  iii.  pp.  258,  259.  On  the  increase 
former  en  1784.'  Mem.  de  Geor-  of  these  clubs  from  1787  to  1789, 
gel,  vol.  ii.  p.  310.  compare  Du  Mesnil,  Mem.  sur  Le 

204  'Le  lieutenant  de  police  Brun,-p.  148;  Mem.  deLafayette, 
fit  fermer  le  club  nomme  Club  du  vol.  i.  pp.  312,  322,  391,  434,  vol. 
Salon  ;  ordre  arbitraire  et  inutile :  ii.  p.  9  ;  Barrucl,  gist,  du  Jacob. 
ce  club  alors  etait  compost  de  vol.  i.  p.  40,  vol.  ii.  p.  310,  vol. 
personnes  distinguees  de  la  no-  v.  pp.  101,  168  ;  Thiers,  Hist,  de 
blesse  ou  de  la  haute  bourgeoi-  la  revolution,  vol.  i.  p.  36,  Paris, 
sie,  ainsi  que  des  artistes  et  des  1834. 


416  PROXIMATE    CAUSES   OP 

obtained  their  independence.  In  1776,  the  Americans 
laid  before  Europe  that  noble  Declaration,  which  ought 
to  be  hung  up  in  the  nursery  of  every  king,  and  bla- 
zoned on  the  porch  of  every  royal  palace.  In  words, 
the  memory  of  which  can  never  die,  they  declared,  that 
the  object  of  the  institution  of  government  is  to  secure 
the  rights  of  the  people  ;  that  from  the  people  alone  it 
derives  its  powers ;  and  '  that  whenever  any  form  of 
government  becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the 
right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  abolish  it,  and  to  institute 
a  new  government,  laying  its  foundations  on  such 
principles,  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as 
to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  safety  and 
happiness.'  205 

If  this  declaration  had  been  made  only  one  generation 
earlier,  the  whole  of  France,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
advanced  thinkers,  would  have  rejected  it  with  horror 
and  with  scorn.  Such,  however,  was  now  the  temper 
of  the  public  mind,  that  the  doctrines  it  contained  were 
not  merely  welcomed  by  a  majority  of  the  French 
nation,  but  even  the  government  itself  was  unable  to 
withstand  the  general  feeling.206  In  1776,  Franklin 
arrived  in  France,  as  envoy  from  the  American  people. 
He  met  with  the  warmest  reception  from  all  classes,207 
and  succeeded  in  inducing  the  government  to  sign  a 
treaty,  engaging  to  defend  the  young  republic  in  the 
rights  it  had  gloriously  won.208     In  Paris,  the  enthu- 

205  Mem.  of  Franklin,  vol.  ii.  reached  England.  In  January 
pp.  14  seq. ;  and  Mem.  of  Jeffer-  1777,  Burke  -writes  (Works,  vol. 
son,  vol.  i.  pp.  17-22,  where  the  ii.  p.  394),  'I  hear  that  Dr. 
passages  are  given  which  Con-  Franklin  has  had  a  most  ex- 
gress  altered.  traordinary  reception    at  Paris 

206  Segur  (ifcf em.  vol.  i.  p.  Ill)  from  all  ranks  of  people.'  Sou- 
says  that  his  father  had  been  lavie  (Regne  de  Louis  XVI,  vol. 
frequently  told  by  Maurepas  ii.  p.  50)  says,  '  «Pai  vu  Franck- 
that  public  opinion  forced  the  lin  devenir  un  objet  de  culte.' 
government,  against  its  own  See  also,  on  his  popularity,  Mem. 
wishes,  to  side  with  America.  cEEpinay,  vol.  iii.  p.  419. 
Compare  Mem.  de  Georgel,  vol.  208  Flassan,  Diplomatie  Fran- 
iv.  p.  370 ;  and  Flassan,  LHplo-  caise,  vol.  vii.  p.  159 ;  Life  of 
matie  Francaise,  vol.  vii.  p.  Franklin,  by  Himself,  vol.  ii. 
166.  pp.    60,    61 ';  Mahon's  Hist,   of 

207  The  news  of  which   soon  England,  vol  vii.  pp.  197, 198. 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  417 

siasmwas  irresistible.209  From  every  quarter  large  bodies 
of  men  came  forward,  volunteering  to  cross  tbe  Atlantic 
and  to  fight  for  tbe  bberties  of  America.  Tbe  beroism 
with  which  these  auxiliaries  aided  the  noble  struggle, 
forms  a  cheering  passage  in  the  history  of  that  time ; 
but  is  foreign  to  my  present  purpose,  which  is  merely 
to  notice  its  effect  in  hastening  the  approach  of  the 
French  Revolution.  And  this  effect  was  indeed  most 
remarkable.  Besides  the  indirect  result  produced  by 
the  example  of  a  successful  rebellion,  the  French  were 
still  further  stimulated  by  actual  contact  with  their  new 
allies.  The  French  officers  and  soldiers  who  served  in 
America,  introduced  into  their  own  country,  on  their 
return,  those  democratic  opinions  which  they  bad  im- 
bibed in  the  infant  republic.210  By  this  means,  fresh 
strength  was  given  to  the  revolutionary  tendencies 
already  prevalent;  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that 
Lafayette  borrowed  from  the  same  source  one  of  his 
most  celebrated  acts.  He  drew  his  sword  on  behalf  of 
the  Americans ;  and  they,  in  their  turn,  communicated 
to  him  that  famous  doctrine  respecting  the  rights  of 
man,  which,  at  his  instigation,  was  formally  adopted  by 
the  National  Assembly.211      Indeed,  there  is  reason  to 


209  The  sneering  letter  written  rabeau,   p.    176  ;  Mem.  de    Tu 

from  Paris  by  Lord  Stonnont,  as  Hausset,  introduc.  p.  40 ;  Mem. 

early  as  December    1774  (Adol  de  Genlis,  vol.  vi.  p.  57 ;  Jejfer- 

phus's  George  III.  vol.  ii.  p.  316),  son's  Mem.  and  Correspond,  vol. 

should  bo  compared  with  Lafa-  i.  p.  59 ;  and  Maitland's  speech, 

yettc,  Memoires,  vol.  i.  pp.    24,  in  Pari.  Hist.  vol.  xxx.  pp.  198, 

169,  229;  Butens,    Mem.    dun  199;   also  the    remarks   of  the 

Voyageur,  vol.  ii.  p.  317;  Mem.  Duke  of  Bedford,  vol.  xxxi.  p. 

de   Segur,   vol.   i.  p.    149 ;  and  663. 

Scklosscr's  Eighteenth   Century,  2U     Lamartine,  Hist,  des   Gi- 

vol.  v.  p.  175.  rondins,  vol.  i.  p.  46.     Dumout 

2,0  Be  Stael  sur  la  Eevolution,  (Souvenirs,  p.  97)  calls  this  '  une 

vol.  i.  p.    88;  Mem.   de  Mont-  idee  americaine ; '  and  see  to  the 

harey,    vol.    iii.    pp.    134,  186;  same  effect,  Mem.  de  Lafayette, 

Mem.  de  Segur,  vol.  i.  p.  277 ;  vol.  i.   pp.   193,  268,  269,"  416, 

Campan,  Mem.  de  Marie  Antoi-  vol.  ii.  pp.  139,  140;   Jcferson'a 

nctte,  vol.  i.  p.  233,  vol.  iii.  pp.  Correspond,  vol.  i.  p.  90;  Barruel, 

96,    116;    Soulavie,    Eigne    de  Hist,  du  Jacobinisme,  vol.  v.  \\ 

Louis  XVI,  vol.  ii.  pp.  xxiv.  Ii.  311.     The  influence  which  the 

Hi.  ;  Bumont,  Souvenirs  sur  Mi-  American   Revolution  exercised 

VOL.   n.                                   E  E 


418  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES   OP 

"believe,  that  the  final  blow  the  French  government 
received  was  actually  dealt  by  the  hand  of  an  American ; 
for  it  is  said  that  it  was  in  consequence  of  the  advice  of 
Jefferson,  that  the  popular  part  of  the  legislative  body 
proclaimed  itself  the  National  Assembly,  and  thus  set 
the  crown  at  open  defiance.212 

I  have  now  brought  to  a  close  my  examination  of  the 
causes  of  the  French  Revolution  ;  but  before  concluding 
the  present  chapter,,  it  appears  to  me  that  the  variety  of 
topics  which  have  been  discussed,  makes  it  advisable 
that  I  should  sum  up  their  leading  points ;  and  should 
state,  as  briefly  as  possible,  the  steps  of  that  long  and 
complicated  argument,  by  which  I  have  attempted  to 
prove,  that  the  Revolution  was  an  event  inevitably 
arising  out  of  preceding  circumstances.  Such  a  sum- 
mary, by  recalling  the  entire  subject  before  the  reader, 
will  remedy  any  confusion  which  the  fullness  of  detail 
may  have  produced,  and  will  simplify  an  investigation 
which  many  will  consider  to  have  been  needlessly 
protracted  ;  but  which  could  not  have  been  abridged 
without  weakening,  in  some  essential  part,  the  support 
of  those  general  principles  that  I  seek  to  establish. 

Looking  at  the  state  of  France  immediately  after  the 
death  of  Louis  XIV".,  we  have  seen  that,  his  policy 
having  reduced  the  country  to  the  brink  of  ruin,  and 
having  destroyed  every  vestige  of  free  inquiry,  a  reac- 
tion became  necessary ;  but  that  the  materials  for  the 
reaction  could  not  be  found  among  a  nation,  which  for 
fifty  years  had  been  exposed  to  so  debilitating  a  system. 
This  deficiency  at  home,  caused  the  most  eminent 
Frenchmen  to  turn  their  attention  abroad,  and  gave  rise 
to  a  sudden  admiration  for  the  English  literature,  and 


over  the    mind   of  Lafayette  is  American  minister  at  this  court, 

noticed  by  Bouille,  his  cousin  and  has  been  a  great  deal  consulted 

his   enemy.      Mem.  de  Bouille,  by  the  principal  leaders  of  the 

vol.  i.  p.  102,  vol.  ii.  pp.  131,  tiers  etat;    and    I    have    great 

183.  reason  to  think  that  it  was  owing 

312  '  The  Duke  of  Dorset,  the  to  his  advice  that  order  called 

English  ambassador,  writing  to  itself  UAssemblee    Nationale." ' 

Mr.  Pitt  from  Paris,   July  9  th,  Tomline's  Life   of  Pitt,  vol.  ii. 

1789,  said,  "Mr.  Jefferson,  the  p.  266. 


THE    FBENCH   EEVOLUTION.  419 

for  those  habits  of  thought  which  were  then  peculiar  to 
the  English  people.  New  life  being  thus  breathed  into 
the  wasted  frame  of  French  society,  an  eager  and 
inquisitive  spirit  was  generated,  such  as  had  not  been 
seen  since  the  time  of  Descartes.  The  upper  classes, 
taking  offence  at  this  unexpected  movement,  attempted 
to  stifle  it,  and  made  strenuous  efforts  to  destroy  that 
love  of  inquiry  which  was  daily  gaining  ground.  To 
effect  their  object,  they  persecuted  literary  men  with 
such  bitterness,  as  to  make  it  evident  that  the  intellect 
of  France  must  either  relapse  into  its  former  servility, 
or  else  boldly  assume  the  offensive.  Happily  for  the 
interests  of  civilization,  the  latter  alternative  was 
adopted;  and,  in  or  about  1750,  a  deadly  struggle 
began,  in  which  those  principles  of  liberty  which  France 
borrowed  from  England,  and  which  had  hitherto  been 
supposed  only  applicable  to  the  church,  were  for  the 
first  time  applied  to  the  state.  Coinciding  with  this 
movement,  and  indeed  forming  part  of  it,  other  circum- 
stances occurred  of  the  same  character.  Now  it  was 
that  the  political  economists  succeeded  in  proving  that 
the  interference  of  the  governing  classes  had  inflicted 
great  mischief  even  upon  the  material  interests  of  the 
country ;  and  had,  by  their  protective  measures,  injured 
what  they  were  believed  to  have  benefited.  This 
remarkable  discovery  in  favour  of  general  freedom,  put 
a  fresh  weapon  into  the  hands  of  the  democratic  party ; 
whose  strength  was  still  further  increased  by  the  un- 
rivalled eloquence  with  which  Rousseau  assailed  the 
existing  fabric.  Precisely  the  same  tendency  was 
exhibited  in  the  extraordinary  impulse  given  to  every 
branch  of  physical  science,  which  familiarized  men  with 
ideas  of  progress,  and  brought  them  into  collision  with 
the  stationary  and  conservative  ideas  natural  to  govern- 
ment. The  discoveries  made  respecting  the  external 
world,  encouraged  a  restlessness  and  excitement  of 
mind  hostile  to  the  spirit  of  routine,  and  therefore  full 
of  danger  for  institutions  only  recommended  by  their 
antiquity.  This  eagerness  for  physical  knowledge  also 
effected  a  change  in  education ;  and  the  ancient  lan- 
guages being  neglected,  another  link  was  severed  which 
ee2 


420  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OP 

connected  the  present  with  the  past.  The  church,  the 
legitimate  protector  of  old  opinions,  was  unable  to  resist 
the  passion  for  novelty,  because  she  was  weakened  by 
treason  in  her  own  camp.  For  by  this  time,  Calvinism 
had  spread  so  much  among  the  French  clergy,  as  to 
break  them  into  two  hostile  parties,  and  render  it 
impossible  to  rally  them  against  their  common  foe. 
The  growth  of  this  heresy  was  also  important,  because 
Calvinism  being  essentially  democratic,  a  revolutionary 
spirit  appeared  even  in  the  ecclesiastical  profession,  so 
that  the  feud  in  the  church  was  accompanied  by  another 
feud  between  the  government  and  the  church.  These 
were  the  leading  symptoms  of  that  vast  movement 
which  culminated  in  the  French  Revolution ;  and  all  of 
them  indicated  a  state  of  society  so  anarchical  and  so 
thoroughly  disorganized,  as  to  make  it  certain  that 
some  great  catastrophe  was  impending.  At  length, 
and  when  everything  was  ready  for  explosion,  the  news 
of  the  American  Rebellion  fell  like  a  spark  on  the 
inflammatory  mass,  and  ignited  a  flame  which  never 
ceased  its  ravages  until  it  had  destroyed  all  that 
Frenchmen  once  held  dear,  and  had  left  for  the 
instruction  of  mankind  an  awful  lesson  of  the  crimes 
into  which  continued  oppression  may  hurry  a  generous 
and  long-suffering  people. 

Such  is  a  rapid  outline  of  the  view  which  my  studies 
have  led  me  to  take  of  the  causes  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. That  I  have  ascertained  all  the  causes,  I  do  not 
for  a  moment  suppose ;  but  it  will,  I  believe,  be  found 
that  none  of  importance  have  been  omitted.  It  is, 
indeed,  true,  that  among  the  materials  of  which  the 
evidence  consists,  many  deficiencies  will  be  seen ;  and  a 
more  protracted  labour  would  have  been  rewarded  by  a 
greater  success.  Of  these  shortcomings  I  am  deeply 
sensible;  and  I  can  only  regret  that  the  necessity  of 
passing  on  to  a  still  larger  field  has  compelled  me  to 
leave  so  much  for  future  inquirers  to  gather  in.  At  the 
same  time,  it  ought  to  be  remembered,  that  this  is  the 
first  attempt  which  has  ever  been  made  to  study  the 
antecedents  of  the  French  Revolution  according  to  a 
scheme  wide  enough  to  include  the  whole  of  their  intel- 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  421 

lectual  bearings.  In  defiance  of  sound  philosophy,  and, 
I  may  say,  in  defiance  of  common  understanding,  his- 
torians obstinately  persist  in  neglecting  those  great 
branches  of  physical  knowledge,  in  which  in  every 
civilized  country  the  operations  of  the  human  mind 
may  be  most  clearly  seen,  and  therefore  the  mental 
habits  most  easily  ascertained.  The  result  is,  that  the 
French  Revolution,  unquestionably  the  most  important, 
the  most  complicated,  and  the  most  glorious  event  in 
history,  has  been  given  over  to  authors,  many  of  whom 
have  displayed  considerable  ability,  but  all  of  whom 
have  shown  themselves  destitute  of  that  preliminary 
scientific  education,  in  the  absence  of  which  it  is  impos- 
sible to  seize  the  spirit  of  any  period,  or  to  take  a 
comprehensive  survey  of  its  various  parts.  Thus,  to 
mention  only  a  single  instance :  we  have  seen  that  the 
extraordinary  impulse  given  to  the  study  of  the  external 
world  was  intimately  connected  with  that  democratic 
movement  which  overthrew  the  institutions  of  France. 
But  this  connexion  historians  have  been  unable  to 
trace  ;  because  they  were  unacquainted  with  the  pro- 
gress of  the  various  branches  of  natural  philosophy  and 
of  natural  history.  Hence  it  is  that  they  have  exhibited 
their  great  subject  maimed  and  mutilated,  shorn  of 
those  fair  proportions  which  it  ought  to  possess.  Ac- 
cording to  this  scheme,  the  historian  sinks  into  the 
annalist ;  so  that,  instead  of  solving  a  problem,  he 
merely  paints  a  picture.  Without,  therefore,  disparag- 
ing the  labours  of  those  industrious  men  who  have 
collected  materials  for  a  history  of  the  French  Revolu- " 
tion,  we  may  assuredly  say,  that  the  history  itself  has 
never  been  written ;  since  they  who  have  attempted  the 
task  have  not  possessed  such  resources  as  would 
enable  them  to  consider  it  as  merely  a  single  part  of 
that  far  larger  movement  which  was  seen  in  every 
department  of  science,  of  philosophy,  of  religion,  and  of 
politics. 

Whether  or  not  I  have  effected  anything  of  real 
value  towards  remedying  this  deficiency,  is  a  question 
for  competent  judges  to  decide.  Of  this,  at  least,  I  feel 
certain,  that  whatever  imperfections  may  be  observed, 


422  PEOXIMATE    CAUSES    OF 

the  fault  consists,  not  in  the  method  proposed,  but  in 
the  extreme  difficulty  of  any  single  man  putting  into 
full  operation  all  the  parts  of  so  vast  a  scheme.  It  is 
on  this  point,  and  on  this  alone,  that  I  feel  the  need  of 
great  indulgence.  But,  as  to  the  plan  itself,  I  have  no 
misgivings  ;  because  I  am  deeply  convinced  that  the 
time  is  fast  approaching  when  the  history  of  Man  will 
be  placed  on  its  proper  footing  ;  when  its  study  will  be 
recognized  as  the  noblest  and  most  arduous  of  all  pur- 
suits ;  and  when  it  will  be  clearly  seen,  that,  to  cultivate 
it  with  success,  there  is  wanted  a  wide  and  comprehen- 
sive mind,  richly  furnished  with  the  highest  branches 
of  human  knowledge.  When  this  is  fully  admitted, 
history  will  be  written  only  by  those  whose  habits  fit 
them  for  the  task;  and  it  will  be  rescued  from  the 
hands  of  biographers,  genealogists,  collectors  of  anec- 
dotes, chroniclers  of  courts,  of  princes,  and  of  nobles, — 
those  babblers  of  vain  things,  who  he  in  wait  at  every 
corner,  and  infest  this  the  public  highway  of  our 
national  literature.  That  such  compilers  should  trespass 
on  a  province  so  far  above  their  own,  and  should  think 
that  by  these  means  they  can  throw  light  on  the  affairs 
of  men,  is  one  of  many  proofs  of  the  still  backward 
condition  of  our  knowledge,  and  of  the  indistinctness 
with  which  its  boundaries  have  been  mapped  out.  If  I 
have  done  anything  towards  bringing  these  intrusions 
into  discredit,  and  inspiring  historians  themselves  with 
a  sense  of  the  dignity  of  their  own  calling,  I  shall  have 
rendered  in  my  time  some  little  service,  and  I  shall  be 
well  content  to  have  it  said,  that  in  many  cases  I  have 
failed  in  executing  what  I  originally  proposed.  Indeed, 
that  there  are  in  this  volume  several  instances  of  such 
failure,  I  willingly  allow ;  and  I  can  only  plead  the 
immensity  of  the  subject,  the  shortness  of  a  single  life, 
and  the  imperfection  of  every  single  enterprise.  I, 
therefore,  wish  this  work  to  be  estimated,  not  according 
to  the  finish  of  its  separate  parts,  but  according  to  the 
way  in  which  those  parts  have  been  fused  into  a  com- 
plete and  symmetrical  whole.  This,  in  an  undertaking 
of  such  novelty  and  magnitude,  I  have  a  right  to  expect. 
And  I  would,  moreover,  add,  that  if  the  reader  has  met 


THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  423 

with  opinions  adverse  to  his  own,  he  should  remember 
that  his  views  are,  perchance,  the  same  as  those  which 
I  too  once  held,  and  which  I  have  abandoned,  because, 
after  a  wider  range  of  study,  I  found  them  unsupported 
by  solid  proof,  subversive  of  the  interests  of  Man,  and 
fatal  to  the  progress  of  his  knowledge.  To  examine 
the  notions  in  which  we  have  been  educated,  and  to 
turn  aside  from  those  which  will  not  bear  the  test,  is  a 
task  so  painful,  that  they  who  shrink  from  the  suffering 
should  pause  before  they  reproach  those  by  whom  the 
suffering  is  undergone.  What  I  have  put  forward  may, 
no  doubt,  be  erroneous  ;  but  it  is,  at  all  events,  the 
result  of  an  honest  searching  after  truth,  of  unsparing 
labour,  of  patient  and  anxious  reflection.  Conclusions 
arrived,  at  in  this  way,  are  not  to  be  overturned  by 
stating  that  they  endanger  some  other  conclusions ;  nor 
can  they  be  even  affected  by  allegations  against  their 
supposed  tendency.  The  principles  which  I  advocate, 
are  based  upon  distinct  arguments,  supported  by  well- 
ascertained  facts.  The  only  points,  therefore,  to  be 
ascertained,  are,  whether  the  arguments  are  fair,  and 
whether  the  facts  are  certain.  If  these  two  conditions 
have  been  obeyed,  the  principles  follow  by  an  inevitable 
inference.  Their  demonstration  is,  in  the  present 
volume,  necessarily  incomplete ;  and  the  reader  must 
suspend  his  final  judgment  until  the  close  of  this  Intro- 
duction, when  the  subject  in  all  its  bearings  will  be  laid 
before  him.  The  remaining  part  of  the  Introduction 
will  be  occupied,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  with  an 
investigation  of  the  civilizations  of  Germany,  .America, 
Scotland,  and  Spain;  each  of  which  presents  a  different 
type  of  intellectual  development,  and  has,  therefore, 
followed  a  different  direction  in  its  religious,  scientific, 
social,  and  political  history.  The  causes  of  these  differ- 
ences I  shall  attempt  to  ascertain.  The  next  step  will 
be  to  generalize  the  causes  themselves  ;  and  having 
thus  referred  them  to  certain  principles  common  to  all, 
we  shall  be  possessed  of  what  may  be  called  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  European  thought ;  the  divergence  of 
the  different  countries  being  regulated  either  by  the 
direction  those  laws  take,  or  else  by  their  comparative 


424  THE   FEENCH    REVOLUTION. 

energy.  To  discover  these  fundamental  laws  will  be 
the  business  of  the  Introduction  ;  while,  in  the  body  of 
the  work,  I  shall  apply  them  to  the  history  of  England, 
and  endeavour  by  their  aid  to  work  out  the  epochs 
through  which  we  have  successively  passed,  fix  the 
basis  of  our  present  civilization,  and  indicate  the  path 
of  our  future  progress. 


425 


CHAPTER  VHI. 

OUTLINE    OF    THE    HISTOBY    OF    THE    SPANISH   INTELLECT   FKOM   THE 
FIFTH   TO   THE   MIDDLE    OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

In  the  preceding  chapters,  I  have  endeavoured  to  establish 
four  leading  propositions,  which,  according  to  my  view, 
are  to  be  deemed  the  basis  of  the  history  of  civilization. 
They  are :  1st,  That  the  progress  of  mankind  depends 
on  the  success  with  which  the  laws  of  phenomena  are 
investigated,  and  on  the  extent  to  which  a  knowledge 
of  those  laws  is  diffused.  2nd,  That  before  such  inves- 
tigation can  begin,  a  spirit  of  scepticism  must  arise, 
which,  at  first  aiding  the  investigation,  is  afterwards 
aided  by  it.  3rd,  That  the  discoveries  thus  made,  in- 
crease the  influence  of  intellectual  truths,  and  diminish, 
relatively  not  absolutely,  the  influence  of  moral  truths ; 
moral  truths  being  more  stationary  than  intellectual 
truths,  and  receiving  fewer  additions.  4th,  That  the 
great  enemy  of  this  movement,  and  therefore  the  great 
enemy  of  civilization,  is  the  protective  spirit ;  by  which 
I  mean  the  notion  that  society  cannot  prosper,  unless 
the  affairs  of  life  are  watched  over  and  protected  at 
nearly  every  turn  by  the  state  and  the  church ;  the 
state  teaching  men  what  they  are  to  do,  and  the  church 
teaching  them  what  they  are  to  believe.  Such  are  the 
propositions  which  I  hold  to  be  the  most  essential  for 
a  right  understanding  of  history,  and  which  I  have  de- 
fended in  the  only  two  ways  any  proposition  can  be 
defended;  namely,  inductively  and  deductively.  The 
inductive  defence  comprises  a  collection  of  historical 
and  scientific  facts,  which  suggest  and  authorize  the 
conclusions  drawn  from  them ;  while  the  deductive  de- 
fence consists  of  a  verification  of  those  conclusions,  by 
showing  how  they  explain  the   history  of  different 


426       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

countries  and  their  various  fortunes.  To  the  former, 
or  inductive  method  of  defence,  I  am  at  present  unable  to 
add  anything  new ;  but  the  deductive  defence  I  hope  to 
strengthen  considerably,  and  by  the  aid  of  the  following 
chapters,  confirm  not  only  the  four  cardinal  propositions 
just  stated,  but  also  several  minor  propositions,  which, 
though  strictly  speaking  flowing  from  them,  will  re- 
quire separate  verification.  According  to  the  plan 
already  sketched,  the  remaining  part  of  the  intro- 
duction will  contain  an  examination  of  the  history  of 
Spain,  of  Scotland,  of  Germany,  and  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  with  the  object  of  elucidating  prin- 
ciples on  which  the  history  of  England  supplies  inade- 
quate information.  And  as  Spain  is  the  country  where 
what  I  conceive  to  be  the  fundamental  conditions  of 
national  improvement  have  been  most  flagrantly  vio- 
lated, so  also  shall  we  find  that  it  is  the  country  where 
the  penalty  paid  for  the  violation  has  been  most  heavy, 
and  where,  therefore,  it  is  most  instructive  to  ascertain 
how  the  prevalence  of  certain  opinions  causes  the  decay 
of  the  people  among  whom  they  predominate. 

We  have  seen  that  the  old  tropical  civilizations  were 
accompanied  by  remarkable  features  which  I  have  termed 
Aspects  of  Nature,  and  which,  by  inflaming  the  imagi- 
nation, encouraged  superstition,  and  prevented  men 
from  daring  to  analyze  such  threatening  physical  phe- 
nomena ;  in  other  words,  prevented  the  creation  of  the 
physical  sciences.  Now,  it  is  an  interesting  fact  that, 
in  these  respects,  no  European  country  is  so  analogous 
to  the  tropics  as  Spain.  No  other  part  of  Europe  is  so 
clearly  designated  by  nature  as  the  seat  and  refuge  of 
superstition.  Recurring  to  what  has  been  already 
proved,1  it  will  be  remembered  that  among  the  most 
important  physical  causes  of  superstition  are  famines, 
epidemics,  earthquakes,  and  that  general  unhealthiness 
of  climate,  which,  by  shortening  the  average  duration 
of  life,  increases  the  frequency  and  earnestness  with 
which  supernatural  aid  is  invoked.    These  peculiarities, 

1  In  the  second  chapter  of  the  first  volume  of  Buckles  History  of 
Civilisation. 


TO   THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUET.  427 

taken  together,  are  more  prominent  in  Spain  than  any- 
where else  in  Enrope ;  it  will  therefore  be  useful  to 
give  such  a  summary  of  them  as  will  exhibit  the  mis- 
chievous effects  they  have  produced  in  shaping  the 
national  character. 

If  we  except  the  northern  extremity  of  Spain,  we 
may  say  that  the  two  principal  characteristics  of  the 
climate  are  heat  and  dryness,  both  of  which  are  favoured 
by  the  extreme  difficulty  which  nature  has  interposed 
in  regard  to  irrigation.  For,  the  rivers  which  intersect 
the  land,  run  mostly  in  beds  too  deep  to  be  made  avail- 
able for  watering  the  soil,  which  consequently  is,  and 
always  has  been,  remarkably  arid.8  Owing  to  this,  and 
to  the  infrequency  of  rain,  there  is  no  European  country 
as  richly  endowed  in  other  respects,  where  droughts 
and  therefore  famines  have  been  so  frequent  and 
serious.3  At  the  same  time  the  vicissitudes  of  climate, 
particularly  in  the  central  parts,  make  Spain  habitu- 
ally unhealthy ;  and  this  general  tendency  being 
strengthened  in  the  middle  ages  by  the  constant  occur- 
rence of  famine,  caused  the  ravages  of  pestilence  to  be 


2  '  The  low  state  of  agriculture  Espana,  Madrid,  1794,  vol.  ii.  p. 

in  Spain  may  be  ascribed  partly  270,  vol.  iii.  p.  225,  vol.  iv.  p. 

to  physical  and  partly  to  moral  32.     Conde,  Historia  de  la  Do~ 

causes.      At    the  head  of   the  minacion  de  los  Arabes  en  Espana, 

former  must  be  placed  the  heat  Paris,  1840,  pp.  142,  149,  154, 

of  the  climate  and  the  aridity  of  170.    Davila,  Historia  de  la  Vida 

the  soil.    Most  part  of  the  rivers  de  Felipe  Tercero,  Madrid,  1771, 

with  which  the  country  is  inter-  folio,  lib.  ii.  p.   114.      Clarke's 

sected  run  in  deep  beds,  and  are  Letters   concerning  the  Spanish 

but  little  available  except  in  a  Nation,  London,    1763,  4to.  p. 

few  favoured  localities,  for  pur-  282.   Udal  ap Rhys?  Tour  through 

poses  of  irrigation.'    M'CuIloch's  Spain,  London,  1760,  pp.   292, 

Geographical  and  Statistical  Die-  293.      Spain   by  an  American, 

tionary,  London,  1849,  vol.  ii.  p.  London,  1831,  vol.   ii.  p.   282. 

708.     See  also  Laborde's  Spain,  Hoskins'  Spain,  London,  1851, 

London,   1809,  vol.  iv.  p.  284,  vol.  i.  pp.  127,  132,  152.     *Es- 

vol.  v.  p.  261.  The  relative  aridity  pafia  es  castigada  frecuentemente 

•of  the  different  parts  is  stated  in  con  las  6equedades  y  faltas  de 

Cook's  Spain,  London,  1834,  vol.  lluvias.'      Muriel,    Gobierno  de 

ii.  pp.  216-219.  Carlos  III.,    Madrid,    1839,  p. 

.  ■  On  these  droughts  and  fa-  193. 
mines,  see  Mariana,  Historia  de 


428       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

unusually  fatal.4  When  we  moreover  add  that  in  the 
Peninsula,  including  Portugal,  earthquakes  have  been 
extremely  disastrous,5  and  have  excited  all  those  super- 


4  '  ASadase  a  todo  esto  las  re- 
petidas  pestes,  y  mortales  epi- 
demias  que  han  afligido  a  las 
provincias  de  EspaSa,  mayor- 
mente  a  las  meridionales  que  han 
sido  las  mas  sujetas  a  estas 
plagas.  De  estas  se  hace  men- 
cion  en  los  anales  e  historias 
muy  freqiientemente ;  y  en  su 
confirmacion  se  puede  leer  el 
tratado  historico,  6  epidemiologic! 
que  sobre  ellas  ha  puhlicado 
Don  Joachin  de  Villalba,  donde 
se  vera  con  dolor  y  espanto  con 
quanta  freqiiencia  se  repetian 
estos  azotes  desde  mediados  del 
siglo  decimoquarto.'  .  .  .  '  Dos 
exemplos  bien  recientes  y  dolo- 
rosos  hemos  visto,  y  conser- 
varemos  en  la  memoria,  en  los 
formidables  estragos  que  acaban 
de  padecer  gran  parte  del  reyno 
de  Sevilla,  Cadiz,  y  sus  contornos, 
Malaga,  Cartagena,  y  Alicante ; 
sin  contar  la  mortandad  con  que 
han  afligido  a  la  mayor  parte  de 
los  pueblos  de  ambas  Castillas 
las  epidemias  de  calenturas  pii- 
tridas  en  el  aiio  pasado  de  1805/ 
.  .  .  .  '  Por  otra  parte  la  funda- 
cion  de  tantas  capillas  y  proce- 
siones  a  San  Roque,  y  a  San 
Sebastian,  como  abogados  contre 
la  peste,  que  todavia  se  conservan 
en  la  mayor  parte  de  nuestras 
ciudades  de  Espana,  son  otro 
testimonio  de  los  grandes  y  re- 
petidos  estragos  que  habian  pa- 
decido  sus  pueblos  de  este  azote. 
Y  el  gran  mimero  de  medicos 
espanoles  que  publicaron  tratados 
preservatives  y  curativos  de  la 
peste  en  los  reynados  de  Carlos 
V.,  Felipe  II.,   Eelipe    III.,  y 


Felipe  IV.,  confirman  mas  la 
verdad  de  los  hechos.'  Capmany, 
Questiones  Criticas,  Madrid,  180  7, 
pp.  51,  52;  see  also  pp.  66,  67 ; 
and  Janer,  Condition  Social  de 
los  Moriscos  de  Espana,  Madrid, 
1857,  pp.  106,  107;  and  the 
notice  of  Malaga  in  Bourgoing, 
Tableau  de  PEspagne,  Paris,  1 808, 
vol.  iii.  p.  242. 

4  '  Earthquakes  are  still  often 
felt  at  Granada  and  along  the 
coast  of  the  province  of  Alicante, 
where  their  effects  have  been  very 
disastrous.  Much  further  in  the 
interior,  in  the  small  Sierra  del 
Tremedal,or  district  of  Albarracia, 
in  the  province  of  Terruel,  erup- 
tions and  shocks  have  been  very 
frequent  since  the  most  remote 
periods;  the  black  porphyry  is 
there  seen  traversing  the  altered 
strata  of  the  oolitic  formation. 
The  old  inhabitants  of  the  coun- 
try speak  of  sinking  of  the  ground 
and  of  the  escape  of  sulphureous 
gases  "when  they  were  young; 
these  same  phenomena  have  oc- 
curred during  four  consecutive 
months  of  the  preceding  winter, 
accompanied  by  earthquakes, 
which  have  caused  considerable 
mischief  to  the  buildings  of  seven 
villages  situated  within  a  radius 
of  two  leagues.  They  have  not, 
however,  been  attended  with  any 
loss  of  life,  on  account  of  the  in- 
habitants hastening  to  abandon 
their  dwellings  at  the  first  indi- 
cations of  danger.'  Ezquerra  on 
the  Geology  of  Spain,  in  the 
Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Geo- 
logical Society  of  London,  vol.vi. 
pp.    412,    413,    London,    1850. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


429 


stitious  feelings  which  they  naturally  provoke,  we  may 
form  some  idea  of  the  insecurity  of  life,  and  of  the  ease 


•  The  provinces  of  Malaga,  Mur- 
cia,  and  Granada,  and,  in  Por- 
tugal, the  country  round  Lisbon, 
are  recorded  at  several  periods 
to  have  been  devastated,  by  great 
earthquakes.'  LyclXs  Principles 
of  Geology,  London,  1853,  p.  358. 
'  Los  tcrremotos  son  tan  sensibles 
y  freqtientes  en  lo  alto  de  las 
montanas,  como  en  lo  llano,  pues 
Sevilla  esta  sujeta  a  elloshallan- 
dose  situada  sobre  una  llanura 
tan  igual  y  baxa  como  Holanda.' 
Bowles,  Introduction  a  la  His- 
toria  Natural  de  Espaiia,  Madrid, 
1789,  4to,  pp.  90,  91.  'The 
littoral  plains,  especially  about 
Cartagena  and  Alicante,  are 
much  subject  to  earthquakes.' 
Ford's  Spain,  1 847,  p.  1 68.  '  This 
comer  of  Spain  is  the  chief  vol- 
canic district  of  the  Peninsula, 
which  stretches  from  Cabo  de 
Gata  to  near  Cartagena ;  the 
earthquakes  are  very  frequent.' 
Ford,  p.  174.  'Spain,  including 
Portugal,  in  its  external  con- 
figuration, with  its  vast  tableland 
of  the  two  Castiles,  rising  nearly 
2,000  feet  above  the  sea,  is  per- 
haps the  most  interesting  portion 
of  Europe,  not  only  in  this  re- 
spect, but  as  a  region  of  earth- 
quake disturbance,  where  the 
energy  and  destroying  power  of 
this  agency  have  been  more  than 
once  displayed  upon  the  most  tre- 
mendous scale.'  Mallet's  Earth- 
quake Catalogue  of  the  British 
Association,  Report  for  1858,  p.  9, 
London,  1858. 

I  quote  these  passages  at 
length,  partly  on  account  of  their 
interest  as  physical  truths,  and 
partly  because  the  facts  stated  in 


them  are  essential  for  a  right 
understanding  of  the  history  of 
Spain.  Their  influence  on  the 
Spanish  character  was  pointed 
out,  for  I  believe  the  first  time, 
in  my  History  of  Civilization, 
vol.  i.  pp.  123,  124.  On  that 
occasion,  I  adduced  no  evidence 
to  prove  the  frequency  of  earth- 
quakes in  the  Peninsula,  because 
I  supposed  that  all  persons  mo- 
derately acquainted  with  the 
physical  history  of  the  earth 
were  aware  of  the  circumstance. 
But,  in  April  1858,  a  criticism 
of  my  book  appeared  in  the 
Edinburgh  Eeview,  in  which  the 
serious  blunders  which  I  am  said 
to  have  committed  are  unspar- 
ingly exposed.  In  p.  468  of 
that  Eeview,  the  critic,  after 
warning  his  readers  against  my 
'  inaccuracies,'  observes,  '  But 
Mr.  Buckle  goes  on  to  state  that 
"  earthquakes  and  volcanic  erup 
tions  aro  more  frequent  and  more 
destructive  in  Italy,  and  in  tho 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  penin- 
sula, than  in  any  other  of  the 
great  countries."  Whence  he 
infers,  by  a  singular  process  of 
reasoning,  that  superstition  is 
more  rife,  and  the  clergy  more 
powerful ;  but  that  the  fine  arts 
nourish,  poetry  is  cultivated,  and 
the  sciences  neglected.  Every 
link  in  this  chain  is  more  or  less 
faulty.  There  is  no  volcano  in 
the  Spanish  peninsula,  and  the 
only  earthquake  known  to  have 
occurred  there  was  that  of  Lis- 
bon.' Now,  I  have  certainly  no 
right  to  expect  that  a  reviewer, 
composing  a  popular  article  for 
an  immediate  purpose,  and  know- 


430       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 
■with  which,  an  artful  and  ambitious  priesthood,  could 


ing  that  when  his  article  is  read, 
it  will  be  thrown  aside  and  for- 
gotten, should,  under  such  un- 
favourable circumstances,  be  at 
the  pains  of  mastering  all  the 
details  of  his  subject.  To  look 
for  this  would  be  the  height  of 
injustice.  He  has  no  interest  in 
being  accurate ;  his  name  being 
concealed,  his  reputation,  if  he 
have  any,  is  not  at  stake ;  and 
the  errors  into  which  he  falls 
ought  to  be  regarded  with 
leniency,  inasmuch  as  their  ve- 
hicle being  an  ephemeral  publi- 
cation, they  are  not  likely  to  be 
remembered,  and  they  are  there- 
fore not  likely  to  work  much 
mischief. 

These  considerations  have  al- 
ways prevented  me  from  offering 
any  reply  to  anonymous  criti- 
cisms. But  the  passage  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  to  which  I 
have  called  attention,  displays 
such  marvellous  ignorance,  that 
I  wish  to  rescue  it  from  oblivion, 
and  to  put  it  on  record  as  a  lite- 
rary curiosity.  The  other  charges 
brought  against  me  could,  I  need 
hardly  say,  be  refuted  with  equal 
ease.  Indeed,  no  reasonable  per- 
son can  possibly  suppose  that, 
after  years  of  arduous  and  unin- 
terrupted study,  I  should  have 
committed  those  childish  blun- 
ders with  which  my  opponents 
unscrupulously  taunt  me.  Once 
for  all,  I  may  say  that  I  have 
made  no  assertion  for  the  truth 
of  which  I  do  not  possess  ample 
and  irrefragable  evidence.  But 
it  is  impossible  for  me  to  arrange 
and  adduce  all  the  proofs  at  the 
same  time;  and,  in  so  vast  an 
enterprise,  I  must  in  some  degree 


rely,  not  on  the  generosity  of  the 
reader,  but  on  his  candour.  I  do 
not  think  that  I  am  asking  too 
much  in  requesting  him,  if  on 
any  future  occasion  his  judgment 
should  be  in  suspense  between 
me  and  my  critics,  to  give  me 
the  benefit  of  the  doubt,  and  to 
bear  in  mind  that  statements 
embodied  in  a  deliberate  and 
slowly-concocted  work,  authen- 
ticated by  the  author's  name, 
are,  as  a  mere  matter  of  antece- 
dent probability,  more  likely  to 
be  accurate  than  statements 
made  in  reviews  and  newspapers, 
which,  besides  being  written 
hastily,  and  often  at  very  short 
notice,  are  unsigned,  and  by 
which,  consequently,  their  pro- 
mulgators evade  all  responsi- 
bility, avoid  all  risk,  and  can,  in 
their  own  persons,  neither  gain 
fame  nor  incur  obloquy. 

The  simple  fact  is,  that  in 
Spain  there  have  been  more 
earthquakes  than  in  all  other 
parts  of  Europe  put  together, 
Italy  excepted.  If  the  destruc- 
tion of  property  and  of  life  pro- 
duced by  this  one  cause  were 
summed  up,  the  results  would 
be  appalling.  When  we  more- 
over add  those  alarming  shocks, 
which,  though  less  destructive, 
are  far  more  frequent,  and  of 
which  not  scores,  nor  hundreds, 
but  thousands  have  occurred,  and 
which  by  increasing  the  total 
amount  of  fear,  have  to  an  in- 
calculable extent  promoted  the 
growth  of  superstition,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  such  phenomena  must 
have  played  an  important  part 
in  forming  the  national  character 
of  the  Spaniards.    Whoever  will 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


431 


turn  such  insecurity  into  an  engine  for  the  advance- 
ment of  their  own  power.6 


take  the  trouble  of  consulting 
the  following  passages  will  find 
decisive  proofs  of  the  frightful 
ravages  committed  by  earth- 
quakes in  Spain  alone ;  Portugal 
being  excluded.  They  all  refer 
to  a  period  of  less  than  two  hun- 
dred years ;  the  first  being  in 
1639,  and  the  last  in  1829.  Let- 
ires  de  Madame  de  Villars,  Am- 
bassadrice  en  Espagne,  Amster- 
dam, 1759,  p.  205.  Laborde's 
Spain,  London,  1 809,  vol.  i.  p. 
169.  Dunlop's  Memoirs  of  Spain, 
Edinburgh,  1834,  vol.  ii.  pp.  226, 
227.  Boisel,  Journal  du  Voyage 
d'Espagne,  Paris,  1669,  4to,  p. 
243.  Mallet's  Earthquake  Cata- 
logue of  the  British  Association, 
London,  1858;  Keport  for  1853, 
p.  146  ;  for  1854,  pp.  26,  27,  54, 
55,  57,  58,  65,  110,  140,  173, 
196,  202.  Swinburne's  Travels 
through  Spain,  London,  1787, 
vol.i.  p.  166.  Ford's  Spain,  Lon- 
don, 1847,  p.  178.  Bacon's  Six 
Yearsin Biscay,  London,  1838,  p. 
32,  compared  with  Inglis'  Spain, 
London,  1831,  vol.  i.  p.  393,  vol. 
ii.  p.  289-291. 

These  authorities  narrate  the 
ravages  committed  during  a  hun- 
dred and  ninety  years.  From 
their  account  it  is  manifest,  that 
in  Spain    hardly   a    generation 

{>assed  by  without  castles,  vil- 
ages,  and  towns  being  destroyed, 
and  men,  women,  or  children 
killed  by  earthquakes.  But  ac- 
cording to  our  anonymous  in- 
structor, it  is  doubtful  if  there 
ever  was  an  earthquake  in  Spain ; 
for  he  says  of  the  whole  Penin- 
sula, including  Portugal,  '  the 
only  earthquake  known  to  have 


occurred  there  was  that  of  Lis- 
bon.' 

6  On  the  superstitious  fears 
caused  by  earthquakes  in  Spain, 
see  a  good  passage  in  Conde, 
Historia  de  la  Bominacion  de  los- 
Arabes,  p.  155.  '  En  el  aSo 
267,  dia  jeuves,  22  de  la  luna  de 
Xawal,  temblo  la  tierra  con  tan 
espantoso  ruido  y  estremecimi- 
ento,  que  cayeron  muchos  alca- 
zares  y  magnificos  edificios,  y 
otros  quedaron  muy  quebran- 
tados,  se  hundieron  montes,  so 
abrieron  penascos,  y  la  tierra  so 
hundio  y  trago  pueblos  y  alturas, 
el  mar  se  retrajo  y  aparto  de  las 
costas,  y  desaparecieron  islas  y 
escollos  en  el  mar.  Las  gentes 
abandonaban  los  pueblos  y  huian 
a  los  campos,  las  aves  salian  de 
sus  nidos,  y  las  fieras  espantadas 
dejaban  sus  grutas  y  madrigueras 
con  general  turbacion  y  tras- 
torno ;  nunca  los  hombres  vieron 
ni  oyeron  cosa  semejante;  se 
arruinaron  muchos  pueblos  de  la 
costa  meridional  y  occidental  de 
Espana.  Todas  estas  cosas  in- 
fluyeron  tanto  en  los  animos  de 
los  hombres,  y  en  especial  en  la 
ignorante  multitud,  que  no  pudo 
Almondhir  persuadirles  que  eran 
cosas  naturales,  aunque  poco 
freciientes,  que  no  tenian  influjo 
ni  relacion  con  las  obras  de  los 
hombres,  ni  con  sus  empresas, 
sino  por  su  ignorancia  y  vanos 
temores,  que  lo  mismo  temblaba 
la  tierra  para  los  muslimes  que 
para  los  cristianos,  para  las  fiera3 
que  para  las  inocentes  criaturas.' 
Compare  Geddes'  Tracts  con- 
cerning Spain,  London,  1730, 
vol.  i.  p.  89 ;  and  Mariana,  who. 


432       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM    THE    FIFTH 


Another  feature  of  this  singular  country  is  the  pre- 
valence of  a  pastoral  life,  mainly  caused  by  the  difficulty 
of  establishing  regular  habits  of  agricultural  industry. 
In  most  parts  of  Spain,  the  climate  renders  it  impos- 
sible for  the  labourer  to  work  the  whole  of  the  day ;  * 
and  this  forced  interruption  encourages  among  the 
people  an  irregularity  and  instability  of  purpose,  which 
makes  them  choose  the  wandering  avocations  of  a  shep- 
herd, rather  than  the  more  fixed  pursuits  of  agriculture.8 


under  the  year  1395,  says  (His- 
toria  de  Espana,  vol.  v.  p.  27) : 
'Temblo  la  tierra  en  Valencia 
mediado  el  mes  de  Dicierubre, 
con  que  muchos  edificios  cayeron 
por  tierra,  otros  quedaron  des- 
plomados  ;  que  era  maravilla  y 
lastima.  El  pueblo,  como  ago- 
rero  que  es,  pensaba  eran  senates 
del  cielo  y  pronostioos  de  los 
danos  que  temian.'  The  history 
of  Spain  abounds  with  similar 
instances  far  too  numerous  to 
quote  or  even  to  refer  to.  But 
the  subject  is  so  important  and 
has  been  so  misrepresented,  that, 
even  at  the  risk  of  wearying  the 
reader,  I  will  give  one  more  illus- 
tration of  the  use  of  earthquakes 
in  fostering  Spanish  superstition. 
In  1504  '  an  earthquake,  accom- 
panied by  a  tremendous  hurri- 
cane, such  as  the  oldest  men  did 
not  remember,  had  visited  Anda- 
lusia, and  especially  Carmona,  a 
place  belonging  to  the  Queen, 
and  occasioned  frightful  desola- 
tion there.  The  superstitious 
Spaniards  now  read  in  these  por- 
tents the  prophetic  signs  by  which 
Heaven  announces  some  great 
calamity.  Prayers  were  put  up 
in  every  temple,  &c.  &c.  Pres- 
cott's  History  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  Paris,  1842,  vol.  iii.  p. 
174. 
7  Buckle's  History  of  Civiliza- 


tion, vol.  i.  p.  43.    See  also  La- 
borde's  Spain,  vol.  iv.  p.  42. 

8  A  writer  early  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  notices  'el  gran 
numero  de  pastores  que  hay.' 
Uztariz,  Theorica  y  Practica  de 
Comcrcio,  3rd  ed.  Madrid,  1757, 
folio  p.  20.  As  to  the  Arabic 
period,  see  Conde,  Historia  de  la 
Dominacion,  p.  244 :  '  Muchos 
pueblos,  siguiendo  su  natural 
inclinacion,  se  entregaron  a  la 
ganaderia.'  Hence  '  the  wander- 
ing life  so  congenial  to  the  habits 
of  the  Spanish  peasantry,'  noticed 
in  Cook's  Spain,  vol.  i.  p.  85, 
where,  however,  the  connexion 
between  this  and  the  physical 
constitution  of  the  country  is  not 
indicated.  The  solution  is  given 
by  Mr.  Ticknor  with  his  usual 
accuracy  and  penetration  :  'The 
climate  and  condition  of  the 
Peninsula,  which  from  a  very 
remote  period  had  favoured  the' 
shepherd's  life  and  his  pursuits, 
facilitated,  no  doubt,  if  they  did 
not  occasion,  the  first  introduc- 
tion into  Spanish  poetry  of  a 
pastoral  tone,  whose  echoes  are 
heard  far  back  among  the  old 
ballads.'  .  .  .  '  From  the  Middle 
Ages  the  occupations  of  a  shep- 
herd's life  had  prevailed  in 
Spain  and  Portugal  to  a  greater 
extent  than  elsewhere  in  Europe ; 
and,   probably,    in   consequence 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


433 


And  during  the  long  and  arduous  war  which  they  waged 
against  their  Mohammedan  invaders,  they  were  subject 
to  such  incessant  surprises  and  forays  on  the  part  of 
the  enemy,  as  to  make  it  advisable  that  their  means  of 
subsistence  should  be  easily  removed ;  hence  they  pre- 
ferred the  produce  of  their  flocks  to  that  of  their  lands, 
and  were  shepherds  instead  of  agriculturists,  simply 
because  by  that  means  they  would  suffer  less  in  case  of 
an  unfavourable  issue.  Even  after  the  capture  of  To- 
ledo, late  in  the  eleventh  century,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
frontier  in  Estramadura,  La  Mancha,  and  New  Castile, 
were  almost  entirely  herdsmen,  and  their  cattle  were 
pastured  not  in  private  meadows  but  in  the  open 
fields.9  All  this  increased  the  uncertainty  of  life,  and 
strengthened  that  love  of  adventure,  and  that  spirit  of 
romance,  which,  at  a  later  period,  gave  a  tone  to  the 


of  this  circumstance,  eclogues 
and  bucolics  were  early  known 
in  the  poetry  of  both  coun- 
tries, and  became  connected  in 
both  with  the  origin  of  the 
popular  drama.'  Ticlcnor's  His- 
tory of  Spanish  Literature,  Lon- 
don, 1849,  vol.  iii.  pp.  9,  36.  On 
the  pastoral  literature  of  Spain, 
see  Bouterwe/c's  History  of  Span- 
ish Literature,  London,  1823,  vol. 
i.  pp.  123-129 ;  and  on  the  great 
number  of  pastoral  romances, 
SoutJiey's  Letters  from  Spain, 
Bristol,  1799,  p.  336.  But  these 
writers,  not  seizing  the  whole 
question,  have  failed  to  ob- 
serve the  relation  between  tho 
literary,  physical,  and  social 
phenomena. 

9  See  the  memoir  by  Jovella- 
nos,  in  Laborde's  Spain,  vol.  iv. 
p.  127.  This  was  the  necessary 
consequence  of  those  vindictive 
attacks  by  which,  for  several 
centuries,  both  Mohammedans 
and  Christians  seemed  resolved 
to  turn  Spain  into  a  desert ;  ra- 

VOL.   II.  F 


vaging  each  other's  fields,  and 
destroying  every  crop  they  could 
meet  with.  Conde,  Domination 
de  los  Arahes,  pp.  75,  188,  278, 
346,  396,  417,  418,471,499,500, 
505,  523, 539,  544,  551,  578,  645, 
651,  658.  To  quote  one  of  these 
instances,  late  in  the  eleventh 
century:  'La  constancia  de  Al- 
fonso ben  Ferdeland  en  hacer 
entradas  y  talas  en  tierra  de 
Toledo  dos  veces  cada  ano,  fue 
tanta  que  empobreci'6  y  apuro  los 
pueblos ;'  .  .  .  .  '  el  tirano  Al- 
fonso talo  y  quemo  los  campos 
y  los  pueblos.'  Conde,  p.  346. 
As  such  havoc,  which  was  con- 
tinued with  few  interruptions  for 
about  seven  hundred  years,  has 
done  much  towards  forming  the 
national  character  of  the  Span- 
iards, it  may  be  worth  while  to 
refer  to  Mariana,  Historia  de 
Espana,  vol.  iii.  p.  438,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  193,  314,  vol.  v.  pp.  92,  317, 
337 ;  and  to  Circourt,  Histoire 
des  ArabesoVEspagne,  Paris,  1846, 
vol.  i.  p.  99. 
■ 


434       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FKOM    THE    FIFTH 

popular  literature.  Under  such,  circumstances,  every- 
thing grew  precarious,  restless,  and  unsettled ;  thought 
and  inquiry  were  impossible ;  doubt  was  unknown ; 
and  the  way  was  prepared  for  those  superstitious  habits, 
and  for  that  deep-rooted  and  tenacious  belief,  which 
have  always  formed  a  principal  feature  in  the  history 
of  the  Spanish  nation. 

To  what  extent  these  circumstances  would,  if  they 
stood  by  themselves,  have  affected  the  ultimate  destiny 
of  Spain,  is  a  question  hardly  possible  to  answer ;  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  their  effects  must  always 
have  been  important,  though,  from  the  paucity  of  evi- 
dence, we  are  unable  to  measure  them  with  precision. 
In  regard,  however,  to  the  actual  result,  this  point  is  of 
little  moment,  because  a  long  chain  of  other  and  still 
more  influential  events  became  interwoven  with  those 
just  mentioned,  and,  tending  in  precisely  the  same 
direction,  produced  a  combination  which  nothing  could 
resist,  and  from  which  we  may  trace  with  unerring 
certainty  the  steps  by  which  the  nation  subsequently 
declined.  The  history  of  the  causes  of  the  degradation 
of  Spain  will  indeed  become  too  clear  to  be  mistaken,  if 
studied  in  reference  to  those  general  principles  which 
I  have  enunciated,  and  which  will  themselves  be  con- 
firmed by  the  light  they  throw  on  this  instructive 
though  melancholy  subject. 

After  the  subversion  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  first 
leading  fact  in  the  history  of  Spain  is  the  settlement  of 
the  Visigoths,  and  the  establishment  of 'their  opinions  in 
the  Peninsula.  They,  as  well  as  the  Suevi,  who  imme- 
diately preceded  them,  were  Arians,  and  Spain  during 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  became  the  rallying  point  of 
that  famous  heresy,10  to  which  indeed  most  of  the  Gothic 


10  The  unsettled  chronology  of  lacion  Espanola,  Madrid,   1849, 

the  early  history  of  Spain  appears  p.  37)  says,  'La   secta  Arriana, 

from  the  different  statements  of  pues,   segun   las  epocas  fijadas, 

various   •writers  respecting    the  permanecio  enEspana  125anos;' 

duration  of  Arianism,  a  point  of  Fleury   (Histoire  Ecclesiastique, 

much  more  importance  than  the  vol.  vii.  p.  586,  Paris,  1758)  says 

death  and    accession  of  kings,  'environ  180  ansj'and  M'Cne, 

Antequera  (Historia  de  la  Legis-  generally  well  informed,  says  in 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUEY. 


435 


tribes  then  adhered.  But,  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, the  Franks,  on  their  conversion  from  Paganism, 
adopted  the  opposite  and  orthodox  creed,  and  were  eno 
couraged  by  their  clergy  to  make  war  upon  their  here- 
tical neighbours.  Clovis,  who  was  then  king  of  the 
Franks,  was  regarded  by  the  church  as  the  champion 
of  the  faith,  in  whose  behalf  he  attacked  the  unbe- 
lieving Visigoths.11  His  successors,  moved  by  the  same 
motives,  pursued  the  same  policy ; 12  and,  during  nearly 
a  century,  there  was  a  war  of  opinions  between  France 
and  Spain,  by  which  the  Visigothic  Empire  was  seriously 
endangered,  and  was  more  than  once  on  the  verge  of 
dissolution.  Hence,  in  Spain,  a  war  for  national  inde- 
pendence became  also  a  war  for  national  religion,13  and 


his  History  of  the  Eeformation  in 
Spain,  Edinburgh,  1829,  p.  7, 
*  Arianism  was  the  prevailing 
and  established  creed  of  the 
country  for  nearly  two  centuries:' 
for  this,  he  refers  to  Gregory  of 
Tours.  With  good  reason,  there- 
fore, does  M.  Fauriel  term  it 
'une  question  qui  souffre  des 
difficultes.'  See  his  able  work, 
Histoire  de  la  Gaule  Meridionale, 
Paris,  1836,  vol.  i.  p.  10. 

11  In  496,  the  orthodox  clergy 
looked  on  Clovis  as  '  un  champion 
qu'il  peut  opposer  aux  heretiques 
visigoths  et  burgondes.'  Fauriel, 
Histoire  de  la  Gaule  Meridionale, 
vol.ii.  p.  41.  They  also  likened 
him  to  Gideon,  p.  66.  Compare 
Fleury,  Histoire  Ecclisiastique, 
vol.  vii.  pp.  89,  90.  Ortiz  is  so 
enthusiastic  that  he  forgets  his 
patriotism,  and  warmly  praises 
the  ferocious  barbarian  who  made 
war,  indeed,  on  his  country,  but 
still  whose  speculative  opinions 
were  supposed  to  be  sound. 
'  Mientras  Alarico  desfogaba  su 
encono  contra  los  Catolicos,  tuvo 
la  Iglesia  Galicana  el  consuelo  de 
ver  Catolico  a  su  gran  Eey  Clo- 

F 


doveo.  Era  el  unico  Monarca  del 
mundo  que  a  la  sazon  profesaba 
la  ReHgion  verdadera.'  Ortiz, 
Compendio  de  la  Historia  de  Es- 
pana, vol.ii.  p.  96,  Madrid,  1796. 

12  Thus,  in  531,  Childebert 
marched  against  the  Visigoths, 
because  they  were  Arians.  Fau- 
riel, Histoire  de  la  Gaule  Meri- 
dionale, vol.  ii.  p.  131 ;  and  in  542, 
Childebert  and  Clotaire  .  made 
another  attack,  and  laid  siege  to 
Saragossa,  p.  142.  'No  adver- 
tian  los  Godos  lo  que  su  falsa 
creencia  les  perjudicaba,  y  si  lo 
advertian,  su  obcecacion  les  hacia 
no  poner  remedio.  Los  reyes 
francos,  que  eran  catolicos,  les 
movian  guerras  en  las  Galias  por 
arrianos,  y  los  obispos  catolico3 
delamisma  Galia  gotica deseaban 
la  dominacion  de  los  francos.' 
Lafuente,  Historia  de  Espana, 
vol.  ii.  p.  380,  Madrid,  1850. 

13  'Los  Francos  por  el  amor  que 
tenian  a  la  Religion  Catholica,  quo 
poco  antes  abrazaran,  aborrecian 
a  los  Visigodos  como  gente  iufi- 
cionada  de  la  secta  Arriana.' 
Mariana,  Historia  de  Espana, 
vol.  ii.  p.  43.  And  of  one  of  their 

f2 


436       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM    THE    FIFTH 


an  intimate  alliance  was  formed  between  the  Arian 
kings  and  the  Arian  clergy.  The  latter  class  were,  in 
those  ages  of  ignorance,  sure  to  gain  by  such  a  com- 
pact,14 and  they  received  considerable  temporal  advan- 
tages in  return  for  the  prayers  which  they  offered  up 
against  the  enemy,  as  also  for  the  miracles  which  they 
occasionally  performed.  Thus  early  a  foundation  was 
laid  for  the  immense  influence  which  the  Spanish  priest- 
hood have  possessed  ever  since,  and  which  was  strength- 
ened by  subsequent  events.  For,  late  in  the  sixth 
century,  the  Latin  clergy  converted  their  Visigothic 
masters,  and  the  Spanish  government,  becoming  ortho- 
dox, naturally  conferred  upon  its  teachers  an  authority 
equal  to  that  wielded  by  the  Arian  hierarchy.15  Indeed, 
the  rulers  of  Spain,  grateful  to  those  who  had  shown 
them  the  error  of  their  ways,  were  willing  rather  to 
increase  the  power  of  the  church  than  to  diminish  it. 


great  battles  he  says,  p.  46,  'vul- 
garmente  se  Uamo  el  campo  Ar- 
riano  por  causa  de  la  religion  que 
los  Godos  seguian.' 

14  ■  En  religion  et  en  croyance, 
comme  en  toute  chose,  les  Visi- 
goths se  montrerent  plus  s^rieux, 
plus  profonds,  plus  tenaces  quo 
les  Burgondes.  J'ai  dit  ailleurs 
comment  ils  etaient  devenus  pres- 
que  en  meme  temps  Chretiens  et 
ariens.  Transplanted  en  Gaule 
et  en  Espagne,  non-seulement  ils 
avaient  persevere  dans  leur  here- 
sie ;  ils  s'y  etaient  affermis,  affec- 
tionnes,  et  dans  le  peu  que  l'his- 
toire  laisse  apercevoir  de  leur 
clerge,  on  s'assure  qu'il  6tait  aus- 
tere, zele,  et  qu'il  exercait  un 
grand  empire  sur  les  chefs  comme 
sur  la  masse  de  la  nation  visi- 
gothe.'  ....  '  Les  rois  visigoths 
se  croyaient  obliges  a  de  grandes 
demonstrations  de  respect  pour 
leur  clerge  arien.'  Fauriel,  His- 
toire  de  la  Gaule  Meridwnale,Yol. 
i.  pp.  577,  578. 


15  The  abjuration  of  Eecared 
took  place  between  the  years  586 
and  589.  Dunham's  History  of 
Spain  and  Portugal,  London, 
1832,  vol.  i.  pp.  126-128.  Man- 
ana,  Historia  de  Espana,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  99-101.  Ortiz,  Compendia 
de  la  Historia  de  Espana,  vol.  ii. 
p.  120.  Lafuente,  Historia  de 
Espana,  vol.  ii.  pp.  360-363  ;  and 
says  Lafuente,  p.  384,  'Recaredo 
fue  el  primero  que  con  todo  el 
ardor  de  un  neofito,  comenzo  en 
el  tercer  concilio  toledano  a  dar  a 
estas  asambleas  conocimiento  y 
decision  en  negocios  pertenecien- 
tes  al  gobierno  temporal  de  los 
pueblos.'  Similarly,  Antequera 
{Historia  de  la  Legislacion,  p.  31) 
is  happy  to  observe  that  '  Reca- 
redo abjuro  la  heregia  arriana, 
abrazo  decididamente  la  religion 
de  Jesu-Cristo,  y  concedio  a  los 
ministros  de  la  Iglesia  una  influ- 
encia  en  el  gobierno  del  Estado, 
que  vino  a  ser  en  adelante,  ilimi- 
tada  y  absoluta.' 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  437 

The  clergy  took  advantage  of  this  disposition ;  and  the 
result  was,  that  before  the  middle  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury the  spiritual  classes  possessed  more  influence  in 
Spain  than  in  any  other  part  of  Europe.16  The  eccle- 
siastical synods  became  not  only  councils  of  the  church, 
but  also  parliaments  of  the  realm.17  At  Toledo,  which 
was  then  the  capital  of  Spain,  the  power  of  the  clergy 
was  immense,  and  was  so  ostentatiously  displayed,  that 
in  a  council  they  held  there  in  the  year  633,  we  find  the 
king  literally  prostrating  himself  on  the  ground  before 
the  bishops;18  and  half  a  century  later,  the  ecclesias- 
tical historian  mentions  that  this  humiliating  practice 
was  repeated  by  another  king,  having  become,  he  says, 
an  established  custom.19  That  this  was  not  a  mere 
meaningless  ceremony,  is  moreover  evident  from  other 
and  analogous  facts.  Exactly  the  same  tendency  is  seen 
in  their  jurisprudence  ;  since,  by  the  Visigothic  code, 
any  layman,  whether  plaintiff  or  defendant,  might  insist 
on  his  cause  being  tried  not  by  the  temporal  magis- 
trate, but  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese.     Nay,  even  if 

18  '  As  for  the  councils  held  Arianism,  that  the  hishops  more 
under  the  Visigoth  kings  of  Spain  manifestly  influence  the  whole 
during  the  seventh  century,  it  is  character  of  the  legislation.  The 
not  easy  to  determine  whether  synods  of  Toledo  were  not 
they  are  to  be  considered  as  ec-  merely  national  councils,  but 
clesiastical  or  temporal  assem-  parliaments  of  the  realm.'  Mil- 
blies.  No  kingdom  was  so  tho-  maris  History  of  Latin  Chris- 
roughly  under  the  bondage  of  the  tianity,  London,  1854,  vol.  i.  p. 
hierarchy  as  Spain.'  Hallam's  380.  See  also  Antequera,  His- 
Middle  Ages,  edit.  1846,  vol.  i.  toria  de  la  Legislation  Espanola, 
p.  511.  'Les  pretres  etaient  les  pp.  41,  42. 
seuls  qui  avaient  conserve  et  18  In  633,  at  a  council  of 
meme  augmente  leur  influence  Toledo,  the  king 's'etantprosterne 
dans  la  monarchic  goth-espa-  a  terre  devant  les  eveques.' 
gnole.'  Sempere,  Histoire  des  Cor-  Fleury,  Histoire  Eccllsiastique, 
tes  d'Espagne,  Bordeaux,  1815,  vol.  viii.  p.  308,  Paris,  1758. 
p.  19.  Compare  Lafuente,  His-  ,8  In  688,  at  a  council  of  To* 
zoria  de  Espana,  vol.  ii.  p.  368,  ledo,  '  le  roi  Egica  y  etoit  en 
on'lainfluenciaypreponderancia  personne;  et  apres  s'etre  pros- 
del  clero,  no  ya  solo  en  los  nego-  terne  devant  les  eveques,  suivant 
cios  eclesiasticos,  sino  tambien  en  la  coutume,  il  fit  lire  un  memoire 
los  politicos  y  de  estado.'  ou  il  leur  demandoit  conseil,'  &c. 

17  '  But  it  is  in  Spain,  after  the  Fleury,  Histoire    Ecclesiastique, 

Visigoths    had    cast    off    their  vol.  ix.  p.  89,  Paris,  1758. 


438       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 


both,  parties  to  the  suit  were  agreed  in  preferring  the 
eivil  tribunal,  the  bishop  still  retained  the  power  of  re- 
voking the  decision,  if  in  his  opinion  it  was  incorrect ; 
and  it  was  his  especial  business  to  watch  over  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  and  to  instruct  the  magistrates 
how  to  perform  their  duty.20  Another,  and  more  pain- 
ful proof  of  the  ascendency  of  the  clergy,  is  that  the 
laws  against  heretics  were  harsher  in  Spain  than  in  any 
other  country  ;  the  Jews  in  particular  being  persecuted 
with  unrelenting  "rigour.21     Indeed,  the  desire  of  up- 


20  See  a  short  but  admirable 
summary  of  this  part  of  the  Visi- 
gothic  code  in  Dunham's  History 
of  Spain,  vol.  iv.  pp.  77,  78; 
perhaps  the  best  history  in  the 
English  language  of  a  foreign 
modern  country.  '  In  Spain,  the 
bishops  had  a  special  charge  to 
keep  continual  watch  over  the 
administration  of  justice,  and 
were  summoned  on  all  great  occa- 
sions to  instruct  the  judges  to  act 
with  piety  and  justice.'  Mil- 
man's  History  of  Latin  Christian- 
ity, 1854,  vol.  i.  p.  386.  The 
council  of  Toledo,  in  633,  directs 
bishops  to  admonish  judges. 
Fleury,  Histoire  Ecclesiastique, 
vol.  viii.  p.  313 ;  and  a  learned 
Spanish  lawyer,  Sempere,  says 
of  the  bishops,  'Le  code  du  Fuero 
Juzgo  fut  leur  ouvrage ;  les  juges 
etaient  sujets  a  leur  juridiction  ; 
les  plaideurs,  greves  par  la  sen- 
tence des  juges,  pouvaient  se 
plaindre  aux  eveques,  et  ceux-ci 
evoquer  ainsi  leurs  arrets,  les 
reformer,  etchatier  les  magistrats. 
Les  procureurs  du  roi,  comme  les 
juges,  etaient  obliges  de  se  pre- 
senter aux  synodes  diocesains 
annuels,  pour  apprendre  des  ec- 
clesiastiques  l'administration  de 
la  justice ;  enfin  le  gouvernement 
des  Goths  n'etait  qu'une  monar- 
chic theocratique.'    Sempere,  Mo- 


narchic Espagnole,  Paris,   1826, 
vol.  i.  p.  6,  vol.  ii.  pp.  212-214. 

21  '  The  terrible  laws  against 
heresy,  and  the  atrocious  juridi- 
cal persecutions  of  the  Jews, 
already  designate  Spain  as  the 
throne  and  centre  of  merciless 
bigotry.'  Milman's  History  of 
Latin  Christianity,  vol.  i.  p.  381. 
'  Tan  luego  como  la  religion  ca- 
tolica  se  hallo  dominando  en  el 
trono  y  en  el  pueblo,  comenzaron 
los  concilianos  toledanos  a  dictar 
disposiciones  canonicas  y  a,  pre- 
scribir  castigos  contra  los  idola- 
tras,  contra  los  judios,  y  contra 
los  hereges.'  Lafuente,  Historia 
de  Espana,  vol.  ix.  pp.  199-200. 
See  also  p.  214,  and  vol.  ii.  pp. 
406,  407,  451.  Prescotfs  History 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  vol.  i. 
pp.  235,  236.  Johnston's  Insti- 
tutes of  the  Civil  Law  of  Spain, 
p.  262,  Circourt,  Histoire  des 
Arabes  oVEspagne,  vol.  i.  pp.  260, 
261 ;  and  Southey's  Chronicle  of 
the  Cid,  p.  18.  I  particularly 
indicate  these  passages,  on  ac- 
count of  the  extraordinary  asser- 
tion of  Dr.  M'Crie,  that  'on  a 
review  of  criminal  proceedings  in 
Spain  anterior  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  court  of  Inquisition, 
it  appears  in  general  that  heretics 
were  more  mildly  treated  there 
than  in  other  countries.'  M'Crie '* 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUET.  439 

holding  the  faith  was  strong  enough  to  produce  a 
formal  declaration  that  no  sovereign  should  be  acknow- 
ledged, unless  he  promised  to  preserve  its  purity  ;  tho 
judges  of  the  purity  being  of  course  the  bishops  them- 
selves, to  whose  suffrage  the  king  owed  his  throne.22 

Such  were  the  circumstances  which,  in  and  before 
the  seventh  century,  secured  to  the  Spanish  Church  an 
influence  unequalled  in  any  other  part  of  Europe.23 
Early  in  the  eighth  century,  an  event  occurred  which 
apparently  broke  up  and  dispersed  the  hierarchy,  but 
which  in  reality  was  extremely  favourable  to  them.  In 
711  the  Mohammedans  sailed  from  Africa,  landed  in  the 
south  of  Spain,  and  in  the  space  of  three  years  con- 
quered the  whole  country,  except  the  almost  inacces- 
sible regions  of  the  north-west.  The  Spaniards,  secure 
in  their  native  mountains,24  soon  recovered  heart,  rallied 
their  forces,  and  began  in  their  turn  to  assail  the  in- 
vaders. A  desperate  struggle  ensued,  which  lasted 
nearly  eight  centuries,  and  in  which,  a  second  time  in 
the  history  of  Spain,  a  war  for  independence  was  also  a 
war  for  religion  ;  the  contest  between  Arabian  Infidels 
and  Spanish  Christians,  succeeding  that  formerly  carried 


History  of  the  Reformation  in  perio  y  el   sacerdocio,  por  cuyo 

Spain,  p.  83,  the  best  book  on  inestimable    beneficio    debemos 

the  Spanish  Protestants.  hacer  incesantes  votos.'     Obser- 

12  A  council  of  Toledo  in  638  vaciones  sobre  El  Presente  y  El 

orders, 'qu' a,  l'avenir  aucun  roi  Porvenir  de  la  Iglesia  en  Espana, 

ne  montera  sur  le  trone  qu'il  ne  por  Domingo    Costa  y  Borras, 

promette  de  conserver  la  foi  ca-  Obispo  de  Barcelona,  Barcelona, 

tholique  ; '  and  at  another  council  1857,  pp.  73,  75. 
in  681,  'le  roi  ypresenta  un  ecrit         M  To  which  they  fled  with  a 

par  lequel  il  prioit  les  eveques  de  speed  which  caused  their  great 

lui  assurer  le  royaume,  qu'il  tenoit  enemy,  Muza,  to  pass  upon  them 

de  leurs  suffrages.'     Fleury,  His-  a  somewhat  ambiguous   eulogy. 

toire  Ecclesiaslique,  vol.  viii.  p.  '  Dijo,  son  leones  en  sus  castillos. 

339,  vol.  ix.  p.  70.  aguilasen  sus  caballos,  ymugeres 

23  Those  happy  times  have  re-  en   sus   escuadrones   de   a   pie  ; 

ceived  the  warm  applause  of  a  pero  si  ven  la  ocasion  la  saben 

modern    theologian,    because  in  aprovechar,  y  cuando  quedan  ven- 

them  the  church,  '  ha  opuesto  un  cidos  son  cabras  en  escapar  a  los 

muro  de  bronce  al  error ; '  and  montes,  que  no  ven  la  tierra  que 

because   there  existed   'la  mas  pisan.'      Conde,   Historia   de   la 

estrecha  concordia  entre  el  im-  Lominacion  de  los  Arabcs,  p.  30. 


440       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 


on  between  the  Trinitarians  of  France  and  the  Arians 
of  Spain.  Slowly,  and  with  infinite  difficulty,  the  Chris- 
tians fought  their  way.  By  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
century,  they  reached  the  line  of  the  Douro.26  Before- 
the  close  of  the  eleventh  century,  they  conquered  as  far 
as  the  Tagus,  and  Toledo,  their  ancient  capital,  fell  into 
their  hands  in  1085.26  Even  then  much  remained  to  be 
done.  In  the  south,  the  struggle  assumed  its  deadliest 
form,  and  there  it  was  prolonged  with  such  obstinacy, 
that  it  was  not  until  the  capture  of  Malaga  in  1487, 
and  of  Granada  in  1492,  that  the  Christian  empire  was 
re-established,  and  the  old  Spanish  monarchy  finally 
restored.27 

The  effect  of  all  this  on  the  Spanish  character  was 
most  remarkable.  During  eight  successive  centuries, 
the  whole  country  was  engaged  in  a  religious  crusade ; 
and  those  holy  wars  which  other  nations  occasionally 
waged,  were,  in  Spain,  prolonged  and  continued  for 
more  than  twenty  generations.28     The  object  being  not 


S5  Prescotfs  History  of  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella,  vol.-  i.  pp. 
xxxviii.  287.  Lafuente  {Historia 
de  Espana,  vol.  iii.  p.  363)  marks 
the  epoch  rather  indistinctly, 
'basta  ya  el  Duero.'  Compare 
Florez,  Memorias  de  las  Eeynas 
Catholicas,  Madrid,  4to,  1761, 
vol.  i.  p.  68. 

20  There  is  a  spirited  account 
of  its  capture  in  Mariana's  His- 
toria de  Espana,  vol.  ii.  pp.  506- 
513;  after  which  Ortiz  ( Compen- 
dia de  la  Historia,  vol.  iii.  p.  156) 
and  Lafuente  {Historia  General, 
vol.  iv.  pp.  236-242)  are  rather 
tame.  The  Mohammedan  view 
of  this,  the  first  decisive  blow  to 
their  cause,  will  be  foundin  Conde, 
Historia  de  la  Dominacion  de  los 
Arabes,  p.  347.  'Asi  se  perdio 
aquella  inclita  ciudad,  y  acabo  el 
reino  de  Toledo  con  grave  perdida 
del  Islam.'  The  Christian  view 
is  that '  concedio  Dios  al  Rey  la 


conquista  de  aquella  capital.' 
Florez,  Eeynas  Catholicas,  vol.  i. 
p.  165. 

27  Cir court, Histoire  des  Arabes, 
vol.  i.  pp.  313,  349.  Conde,  Do- 
minacion de  los  Arabes,  pp.  656, 
664.  Ortiz,  Compendia,  vol.  v. 
pp.  509,  561.  Lafuente  Historia, 
vol.  ix.  pp.  341,  399. 

28  '  According  to  the  magnifi- 
cent style  of  the  Spanish  histo- 
rians, eight  centuries  of  almost 
uninterrupted  warfare  elapsed, 
and  three  thousand  seven  hundred 
battles  were  fought,  before  the 
last  of  the  Moorish  kingdoms  in- 
Spain  submitted  to  the  Christian 
arms.'  Eobertson's  Charles  V. 
by  Prescott,  London,  1857,  p.  65. 
'  En  nuestra  misma  EspaSa,  en 
Leon  y  Castilla,  en  esta  nueva 
Tierra  Santa,  donde  se  sostenia 
una  cruzada  perpetua  y  constant© 
contra  los  infieles,  donde  se  man- 
tenia  en  todo  su  fervor  el  espiritu 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTTJET. 


441 


only  to  regain  a  territory,  bnt  also  to  re-establish  a 
creed,  it  naturally  happened  that  the  expounders  of 
that  creed  assumed  a  prominent  and  important  position. 
In  the  camp,  and  in  the  council-chamber,  the  voice  of 
ecclesiastics  "was  heard  and  obeyed;  for  as  the  war 
aimed  at  the  propagation  of  Christianity,  it  seemed 
right  that  her  ministers  should  play  a  conspicuous  part 
in  a  matter  which  particularly  concerned  them.29  The 
danger  to  which  the  country  was  exposed  being  more- 
over very  imminent;  those  superstitious  feelings  were 
excited  which  danger  is  apt  to  provoke,  and  to  which, 
as  I  have  elsewhere  shown,30  the  tropical  civilizations 
owed  some  of  their  leading  peculiarities.  Scarcely  were 
the  Spanish  Christians  driven  from  their  homes  and 
forced  to  take  refuge  in  the  north,  when  this  great 
principle  began  to  operate.  In  their  mountainous  re- 
treat, they  preserved  a  chest  filled  with  relics  of  the 
saints,  the  possession  of  which  they  valued  as  their 
greatest  security.31     This  was  to  them  a  national  stan- 


a  la  vez  religioso  y  guerrero.' 
Lafuente,  Historia  de  Espana, 
vol.  v.  p.  293.  'Era  Espana 
theatro  de  una  continua  guerra 
contra  los  enemigos  de  la  Fe.' 
Florez,  Reynas  Catholicas,  vol.  i. 
p.  226.  '  El  glorioso  empeno  de 
exterminar  a  los  enemigos  de  la 
Fe.'  p.  453.  '  Esta  guerra  sa- 
grada.'  Vol.  ii.  p.  800.  'Se 
armaron  nuestros  Reyes  Catholi- 
cos,  con  zelo  y  animo  alentado  del 
cielo;  y  como  la  causa  era  de 
Religion  para  ensanchar  los  Do- 
minios  de  la  Fe,  sacrificaron  todas 
las  fuerzas  del  Reyno,  y  sus  mis- 
mas  personas.'  p.  801.  What 
was  called  the  Indulgence  of  the 
Crusade  was  granted  by  the 
Popes  '  aux  Espagnols  qui  com- 
battoient  cootre  les  Mores.' 
Floury,  Histoire  EccUsiastique, 
vol.  xviii.  p.  xxi.,  vol.  xix.  pp. 
158,  458,  vol.  xxi.  p.  171. 
9  '  En  .  aquehos   tiempos    [y 


duro  hasta  todo  el  siglo  xv.  y 
toma  de  Granada]  eran  los  obis- 
pos  los  primeros  capitanes  de 
los  exercitos.'  Ortiz,  Compendio, 
vol.  iii.  p.  189.  'Los  prelados 
habian  sido  siempre  los  primeros 
no  solo  en  promover  la  guerra 
contra  Moros,  sino  a,  presentarse 
en  campana  con  todo  su  poder  y 
esfuerzo,  animando  a  los  demas 
con  las  palabras  y  el  exemplo.' 
Vol.  v.  pp.  507,  508. 

30  History  of  Civilization,  vol. 
i.  pp.  121-i30. 

"  '  Les  chretiens  avoient  ap- 
porte  dans  les  Asturies  une  arche 
ou  coflre  plein  de  reliques,  qu'ils 
regarderent  depuis  comme  la 
sauve-garde  de  leur  etat.'  .... 
'  Elle  fut  emporteo  et  mise  enfin 
a  Oviedo,  comme  le  lieu  le  plus 
sur  entre  ces  montagnes,  l'ere 
773,  l'an  775.'  Fleury,  Histoire 
EccUsiastique,  vol.  ix.  p.  190. 
This  'area  llena  de   roliquias' 


442       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM    THE    FIFTH 

dard,  round  which  they  rallied,  and  by  the  aid  of  which 
they  gained  miraculous  victories  over  their  infidel  oppo- 
nents. Looking  upon  themselves  as  soldiers  of  the 
cross,  their  minds  became  habituated  to  supernatural 
considerations  to  an  extent  which  we  can  now  hardly 
believe,  and  which  distinguished  them  in  this  respect 
from  every  other  European  nation.32  Their  young  men 
saw  visions,  and  their  old  men  dreamed  dreams.33 
Strange  sights  were  vouchsafed  to  them  from  heaven  ; 
on  the  eve  of  a  battle  mysterious  portents  appeared ; 
and  it  was  observed  that  whenever  the  Mohammedans 
violated  the  tomb  of  a  Christian  saint,  thunder  and 


-was  taken  to  the  Asturias  in  714. 
Mariana,  Historia  de  Espana, 
vol.  ii.  p.  227 ;  and,  according  to 
Ortiz  (Compendio,  vol.ii.  p.  182), 
it  was  '  un  tesoro  inestimable  de 
sagradas  reliquias.'  See  also 
Geddes'  Tracts  concerning  Spain, 
vol.  ii.  p.  237,  London,  1730; 
and  Ford's  Spain,  1847,  p.  388. 
32  '  But  no  people  ever  felt 
themselves  to  be  so  absolutely 
soldiers  of  the  cross  as  the 
Spaniards  did,  from  the  time  of 
their  Moorish  wars ;  no  people 
ever  trusted  so  constantly  to  the 
recurrence  of  miracles  in  the 
affairs  of  their  daily  life ;  and 
therefore  no  people  ever  talked 
of  Divine  things  as  of  matters  in 
their  nature  so  familiar  and 
common-place.  Traces  of  this 
state  of  feeling  and  character  aro 
to  be  found  in  Spanish  literature 
on  all  sides.'  Ticknor's  History  . 
of  Spanish  Literature,  vol.  ii. 
p.  333.  Compare  BouterweKs 
History  of  Spanish  Literature, 
vol.  i.  pp.  105,  106;  and  the 
account  of  the  battle  of  las 
Navas  in  Circourt,  Histoire  des 
Arabes  aVEspagne,  vol.  i.  p. 
153 :  '  On  voulait  trouver  par- 


tout  des  miracles.'  Some  of  thj 
most  startling  of  these  miracles 
may  be  found  in  Lafuente,  His- 
toria de  Espana,  vol.  v.  p.  227;  in 
Mariana, Historia  de  Espana,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  378,  395,  vol.  iii.  p.  338 ; 
and  in  Ortiz,  Compendio,  vol.  iii. 
p.  248,  vol.  iv.  p.  22. 

33  One  of  the  most  curious  of 
these  prophetic  dreams  is  pre- 
served in  Conde,  Dominacion  de 
los  Arabes,  pp.  378,  379,  with  its 
interpretation  by  the  theologians. 
They  were  for  the  most  part  ful- 
filled. In  844  '£1  Apostol  San- 
tiago, segun  que  lo  prometiera  al 
Rey,  fue  visto  en  un  caballo 
bianco,  y  con  una  bandera  blanca 
y  en  medio  della  una  cruz  roxa, 
que  capitaneaba  nuestra  gente.' 
Mariana,  Historia  de  Espana, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  310,  311.  In  957  'El 
Apostol  Santiago  fue  visto  entre 
las  hacas  dar  la  victoria  a  los 
fieles,'  p.  382.  In  1236  <Pub- 
licose  por  cierto  que  San  Jorge 
ayudo  a  los  Christianos,  y  que  se 
hallo  en  la  pelea.'  Vol.  iii.  p. 
323.  On  the  dreams  which  fore- 
shadowed these  appearances,  see 
Mariana,  vol.  ii.  pp.  309,  446, 
vol.  iii.  pp.  15,  108. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


443 


lightning  were  sent  to  rebuke  the  misbelievers,  and,  if 
need  be,  to  punish  their  audacious  invasion.34 

Under  circumstances  like  these,  the  clergy  could  not 
fail  to  extend  their  influence ;  or,  we  may  rather  say,  the 
course  of  events  extended  it  for  them.  The  Spanish 
Christians,  pent  up  for  a  considerable  time  in  the  moun- 
tains of  Asturias,  and  deprived  of  their  former  resources, 
quickly  degenerated,  and  soon  lost  the  scanty  civiliza- 
tion to  which  they  had  attained.  Stripped  of  all  their 
wealth,  and  confined  to  what  was  comparatively  a  barren 
region,  they  relapsed  into  barbarism,  and  remained,  for 
at  least  a  century,  without  arts,  or  commerce,  or  lite- 
rature.35  As  their  ignorance  increased,  so  also  did  their 


84  '  Priests  mingle  in  the 
council  and  the  camp,  and,  ar- 
rayed in  their  sacerdotal  robes, 
not  unfrequently  led  the  armies 
to  battle.  They  interpreted  the 
mil  of  Heaven  as  mysteriously 
revealed  in  dreams  and  visions. 
Miracles  were  a  familiar  occur- 
rence. The  violated  tombs  of 
the  saints  sent  forth  thunders 
and  lightnings  to  consume  the 
invaders.'  Prescott's  History  of 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  vol.  i.  p. 
39.  In  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
century,  there  happened  the  fol- 
lowing event :  '  En  lo  mas  cruel 
de  los  tormentos  '  [to  which  the 
Christians  were  exposed]  '  subio 
Abderramen  un  dia  a  las  azuteas 
6  galerias  de  su  Palacio.  Des- 
cubrio  desde  alii  los  cuerpos  de 
los  Santos  martirizados  en  los 
patibulos  y  atravesados  con  los 
palos,  mando  los  quemasen  todos 
para  que  no  quedase  reliquia. 
Cumpliose  luego  la  orden  :  pero 
aquel  impio  probo  bien  presto 
los  rigores  de  la  venganza  divina 
que  volvia  por  la  6angre  derra- 
mada  de  sus  Santos.  Improvisa- 
mento  se  le  peg6  la  lengua  al 
jpaladar  y  fauces;    cerrosele  la 


boca,  y  no  pudo  pronunciar  una 
palabra,  ni  dar  un  gemido.  Con- 
duxeronle,  sus  criados  a  la  cama, 
murio  aquella  misma  noche,  y 
antes  de  apagarse  las  hogueras 
en  que  ardian  los  santos  cuerpos, 
entro  la  infeliz  alma  de  Abderra- 
men en  los  eternos  fuegos  del 
infiorno.'  Ortiz,  Compendio,  vol. 
iii.  p.  52. 

34  Circouvt(HistoiredesArabes, 
vol.  i.  p.  5)  says, '  Les  Chretiens 
qui  ne  voulurent  pas  se  soumettre 
furent  rejetes  dans  les  incultes 
ravins  des  Pyrenees,  ou  ils  purent 
se  maintenir  comme  les  betes 
fauves  se  maintiennent  dans  les 
forets.'  But  the  most  curious  ac- 
count of  the  state  of  the  Spanish 
Christians  in  the  last  half  of  tho 
eighth  century,  and  in  the  first 
half  of  the  ninth,  will  be  found 
in  Conde,  Historia  de  la  Domina- 
tion, pp.  95,  125.  '  Referian  de 
estos  pueblos  de  Galicia  que  son 
cristianos,  y  de  los  mas  bravos  do 
Afranc;  pero  que  viven  como 
fieras,  que  nunca  lavan  sus 
cuerpos  ni  vestidos,  que  no  so 
los  mudan,  y  los  llevan  puestos 
hasta  que  86  los  caen  despe- 
dazados  en  andrajos,  que  entran 


444       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

superstition ;  while  this  last,  in  its  turn,  strengthened 
the  authority  of  their  priests.  The  order  of  affairs, 
therefore,  was  very  natural.  The  Mohammedan  inva- 
sion made  the  Christians  poor ;  poverty  caused  igno- 
rance ;  ignorance  caused  credulity ;  and  credulity, 
depriving  men  both  of  the  power  and  of  the  desire  to 
investigate  for  themselves,  encouraged  a  reverential 
spirit,  and  confirmed  those  submissive  habits,  and  that 
blind  obedience  to  the  Church,  which  form  the  leading 
and  most  unfortunate  peculiarity  of  Spanish  history. 

From  this  it  appears,  that  there  were  three  ways  in 
which  the  Mohammedan  invasion  strengthened  the 
devotional  feelings  of  the  Spanish  people.  The  first 
way  was  by  promoting  a  long  and  obstinate  religious 
war ;  the  second  was  by  the  presence  of  constant  and 
imminent  dangers  ;  and  the  third  way  was  by  the 
poverty,  and  therefore  the  ignorance,  which  it  produced 
among  the  Christians. 

These  events  being  preceded  by  the  great  Arian  war, 
and  being  accompanied  and  perpetually  reinforced  by 
those  physical  phenomena  which  I  have  indicated  as 
tending  in  the  same  direction,  worked  with  such  com- 
bined and  accumulative  energy,  that  in  Spain  the  theo- 
logical element  became  not  so  much  a  component  of  the 
national  character,  but  rather  the  character  itself.  The 
ablest  and  most  ambitious  of  the  Spanish  kings  were 
compelled  to  follow  in  the  general  wake  ;  and,  despots 
though  they  were,  they  succumbed  to  that  pressure  of 
opinions  which  they  believed  they  were  controlling. 
The  war  with  Granada,  late  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
was  theological  far  more  than  temporal ;  and  Isabella, 
who  made  the  greatest  sacrifices  in  order  to  conduct  it, 
and  who  in  capacity  as  well  as  in  honesty  was  superior 
to  Ferdinand,  had  for  her  object  not  so  much  the  acqui- 
sition of  territory  as  the  propagation  of  the  Christian 


unos  en  las  casas  de  otros  sin  por  esperanza  de  sacar  grandes 

pedir  licencia.' In  a.d.  riquezas,  por  ser  los  cristianos 

815,  'no habia  guerra sino contra  gente    pobre    de    montana,  sin 

cristianos  por  mantener  frontera,  saber  nada   de    comercio  ni  d& 

y  no  con  deseo  de  ampliar  y  ex-  buenas  artes.' 
tender  los  limites  del  reino,  ni 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUET. 


445 


faith.36  Indeed,  any  doubts  which,  could  be  entertained 
respecting  the  purpose  of  the  contest  must  have  been 
dissipated  by  subsequent  events.  Tor,  scarcely  was  the 
war  brought  to  a  close;  when  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
issued  a  decree  expelling  from  the  country  every  Jew 
who  refused  to  deny  his  faith  ;  so  that  the  soil  of  Spain 
might  be  no  longer  polluted  by  the  presence  of  unbe- 
lievers-.37    To  make  them  Christians,  or,  failing  in  that, 


36  Isabella  may  be  regarded  as 
the  soul  of  this  war.  She  en- 
gaged in  it  with  the  most  exalted 
views,  less  to  acquire  territory 
than  to  reestablish  the  empire  of 
the  Cross  over  the  ancient  do- 
main of  Christendom.'  Prescott's 
History  of  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella, vol.  i.  p.  392.  Compare 
Fleury,  Histoire  Ecclesiastique, 
vol.  xxiii.  p.  583,  '  bannir  de 
toute  l'Espagne  la  secte  de  Ma- 
homet;' and  Circourt,  Histoire 
des  Arabes  cCEspagne,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
99,  109,  '  pour  elle  une  seule 
chose  avait  de  l'importance  ;  ex- 
tirper  de  ses  royaumes  le  nom 
et  la  secte  de  Mahomet.'  .  .  '  Sa 
vie  fut  presque  exclusivement 
consacree  a  faire  triompher  la 
croix  sur  le  croissant.'  Mariana 
(Historia  de  Espana,  vol.  v.  p. 
344,  and  vol.  vii.  pp.  51,  52)  has 
warmly  eulogized  her  character, 
which  indeed,  from  the  Spanish 
point  of  view,  was  perfect.  See 
also  Flares,  Reynas  Catholicas, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  774,  788,  829. 

87  '  En  Espana  los  Reyes  Don 
Fernando  y  Dona  Isabel  luego 
que  se  vieron  desembarazados  de 
la  guerra  de  los  Moros,  acor- 
daron  de  echar  do  todo  su  reyno 
a  los  Judios.'  Mariana,  Historia 
de  Espana,  vol.  vi.  p.  303.  A 
Spanish  historian,  writing  less 
than  seventy  years  ago,  expresses 
his  approbation  in  the  following 


terms :  '  Arrancado  de  nuestra 
peninsula  el  imperio  Mahome- 
tano,  quedaba  todavia  la  secta 
Judayca,  peste  acaso  mas  perni- 
ciosa,  y  sin  duda  mas  peligrosa 
y  extendida,  por  estar  los  Judios 
establecidos  en  todos  los  pueblos 
de  ella.  Pero  los  Catolicos 
Monarcas,  cuyo  mayor  afan  era 
desarraigar  de  sus  reynos  toda 
planta  y  raiz  infecta  y  contraria 
a  la  fe  de  Jesu-Cristo,  dieron 
decreto  en  Granada  dia  30  do 
Marzo  del  ano  mismo  de  1492, 
mandando  saliesen  de  sus  do- 
minios  los  Judios  que  no  se  bau- 
tizasen  dentro  de  4  meses.'  Ortiz, 
Compendio,  Madrid,  1798,  vol. 
v.  p.  564.  The  importance  of 
knowing  how  these  and  simi- 
lar events  are  judged  by 
Spaniards,  induces  me  to  give 
their  own  words  at  a  length 
which  otherwise  would  be  need- 
lessly prolix.  Historians,  gene- 
rally, are  too  apt  to  pay  more 
attention  to  public  transactions 
than  to  the  opinions  which  those 
transactions  evoke ;  though,  in 
point  of  fact,  the  opinions  form 
the  most  valuable  part  of  history, 
since  they  are  the  result  of  more 
general  causes,  while  political 
actions  are  often  due  to  the 
peculiarities  of  powerful  indi- 
viduals. 

Of  themtniber  of  Jews  actually 
expelled,  I    can  find  no  trust- 


446       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FEOH    THE    FIFTH 


to  exterminate  them,  was  the  business  of  the  Inqui- 
sition, which  was  established  in  the  same  reign,  and 
which  before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  was  in  full 
operation.38  During  the  sixteenth  century,  the  throne 
was  occupied  by  two  princes  of  eminent  ability,  who 
pursued  a  similar  course.  Charles  V.,  who  succeeded 
Ferdinand  in  1516,  governed  Spain  for  forty  years,  and 
the  general  character  of  his  administration  was  the 
same  as  that  of  his  predecessors.  In  regard  to  his 
foreign  policy,  his  three  principal  wars  were  against 
France,  against  the  German  princes,  and  against  Turkey. 
Of  these,  the  first  was  secular ;  but  the  two  last  were 
essentially  religious.  In  the  German  war,  he  defended 
the  church  against  innovation;  and  at  the  battle  of 
Muhlberg,  he  so  completely  humbled  the  Protestant 
princes,  as  to  retard  for  some  time  the  progress  of  the 
Reformation.39   In  his  other  great  war,  he,  as  the  cham- 


■worthy  account.  They  axe  dif- 
ferently estimated  at  from 
160,000  to  800,000.  Prescott's 
History  of  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella, vol.  ii.  p.  148.  Mariana, 
Historia  de  Espana,  vol.  vi.  p. 
304.  Ortiz,  Compendio,  vol.  v. 
p.  564.  La/uente,  Historia  de 
Espana,  vol.  ix.  pp.  412,  413. 
Llorente,  Histoire  de  V Inquisi- 
tion, Paris,  1817,  vol.  i.  p.  261. 
Mata,  Dos  Discursos,  Madrid, 
1794,  pp.  64,  65.  Castro,  De- 
cadencia  de  Espana,  Cadiz,  1852, 
p.  19. 

38  It  had  been  introduced  into 
Aragon  in  1242 ;  but,  according 
to  M.  Tapia,  '  sin  embargo  la 
persecucion  se  limito  entonces  a 
la  secta  de  los  albigenses;  y 
como  de  ellos  hubo  tan  pocos  en 
Castilla,  no  se  considero  sin 
duda  necesario  en  ella  el  esta- 
Hecimiento  da  aquel  tribunal.' 
Tapia,  Historia  de  la  Civiliza- 
tion Espanola,  Madrid,  1840, 
vol.  ii.  p.  302.  Indeed,  Llorente 


says  {Histoire  de  V Inquisition 
d'Espagne,  Paris,  1817,  vol.  i.  p. 
88),  '  II  est  incertain  si  au  com- 
mencement du  15*  siecle  l'lnqui- 
sition  existait  en  Castille.'  In 
the  recent  •work  by  M.  Lafuente, 
1232  is  given  as  its  earliest  date ; 
but,  *  a  fines  del  siglos  xiv.  y 
principios  del  xv.  apenas  puede 
saberse  si  existia  tribunal  de  In- 
quisition en  Castilla.'  Lafuente, 
Historia  de  Espana,  vol.  ix.  pp. 
204-206,  Madrid,  1852.  It 
seems  therefore  with  good  reason 
that  Mariana  (Historia,  vol.  vi. 
p.  171)  terms  the  Inquisition  of 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  '  un. 
nuevo  y  santo  tribunal.'  See 
also  Florez,  Memorias  de  las 
Eeynas  Catholicas,  vol.  ii.  p. 
799. 

39  Prescott's  History  of  Philip 
II,  vol.  i.  p.  23,  London,  1857 
Dairies'  History  of  Holland,  vol.  i. 
p.  447,  London,  1841.  On  the 
religious  character  of  his  German 
policy,  compare  Mariana,  His- 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


447 


pion  of  Christianity  against  Mohammedanism,  consum- 
mated what  his  grandfather  Ferdinand  had  begun. 
Charles  defeated  and  dislodged  the  Mohammedans  in 
the  east,  just  as  Ferdinand  had  done  in  the  west ;  the 
repulse  of  the  Turks  before  Vienna  being  to  the  six- 
teenth century  what  the  conquest  of  the  Arabs  of 
Granada  was  to  the  fifteenth.40  It  was,  therefore,  with 
reason  that  Charles,  at  the  close  of  his  career,  could 
boast  that  he  had  always  preferred  his  creed  to  his 
country,  and  that  the  first  object  of  his  ambition  had 
been  to  maintain  the  interests  of  Christianity.41  The 
zeal  with  which  he  struggled  for  the  faith,  also  appears 
in  his  exertions  against  heresy  in  the  Low  Countries. 
According  to  contemporary  and  competent  authorities, 
from  fifty  thousand  to  a  hundred  thousand  persons 
were  put  to  death  in  the  Netherlands  during  his  reign 
on  account  of  their  religious  opinions.42  Later  inquirers 
have  doubted  the  accuracy  of  this  statement,43  which 
is  probably  exaggerated ;  but  we  know  that,  between 


toria  de  Espana,  vol.  vii.  p.  330 ; 
Ortiz,  Compendia,  vol.  vi.  pp. 
195,  196. 

40  Preseotfs  Philip  II,  vol.  i. 
p.  3 ;  and  the  continuation  of 
Fleury,  Histoire  Ecclesiastique, 
vol.  xxvii.  p.  280.  Robertson, 
though  praising  Charles  V.  for 
this  achievement,  seems  rather 
inclined  to  underrate  its  magni- 
tude ;  History  of  Charles  V.,  p. 
246. 

41  In  the  speech  he  made  at 
his  abdication,  he  said  that '  he 
had  been  ever  mindful  of  the 
interests  of  the  dear  land  of  his 
birth,  but  above  all  of  the  great 
interests  of  Christianity.  His 
first  object  had  been  to  maintain 
these  inviolate  against  the  in- 
fidel.' Prescott'8  Philip  II,  vol. 
i.  p.  8.  Minana  boasts  that '  el 
Cesar  con  piadoso  y  noble  animo 
exponia  su  vida  a  los  peligros 
para  extender    los  limites  del 


Imperio  Christiano.'  Continua- 
tion de  Mariana,  vol.  viii.  p.  352. 
Compare  the  continuation  of 
Fleury,  Histoire  Ecclisiastigue, 
vol.  xxxi.  p.  19. 

42  Grotius  says,  100,000 ;  Bor, 
Meteren,  and  Paul  say  50,000. 
Watson's  History  of  Philip  U., 
London,  1839,  pp.  45,  51.  Da- 
vies'  History  of  Holland,  London, 
1841,  vol.  i.  pp.  498, 499.  Mot- 
ley's Butch  Bepublic,  London, 
1858,  vol.  i.  pp.  103,  104. 

48  It  is  doubted,  if  I  rightly 
remember,  by  Mr.  Prescott.  But 
the  opinion  of  that  able  historian 
is  entitled  to  less  weight  from 
his  want  of  acquaintance  with 
Dutch  literature,  where  the  prin- 
cipal evidence  must  be  sought 
for.  On  this,  as  on  many  other 
matters,  the  valuable  work  of 
Mr.  Motley  leaves  little  to  de- 
sire. 


448       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 


1520  and  1550,  lie  published  a  series  of  laws,  to  the 
effect  that  those  who  were  convicted  of  heresy  should 
be  beheaded,  or  burned  alive,  or  buried  alive.  The 
penalties  were  thus  various,  to  meet  the  circumstances 
of  each  case.  Capital  punishment,  however,  was  always 
to  be  inflicted  on  whoever  bought  an  heretical  book,  or 
sold  it,  or  even  copied  it  for  his  own  use.44  His  last 
advice  to  his  son,  well  accorded  with  these  measures. 
Only  a  few  days  before  his  death,  he  signed  a  codicil  to 
his  will,  recommending  that  no  favour  should  ever  be 
shown  to  heretics ;  that  they  should  all  be  put  to  death ; 
and  that  care  should  be  taken  to  uphold  the  Inquisition, 
as  the  best  means  of  accomplishing  so  desirable  an 
end.45 


44  Prescott's  Philip  II,  vol.  i. 
pp.  196,  197.  In  1523,  the  first 
persons  were  burned.  Motley's 
Dutch  Republic,  vol.  i.  p.  69. 
The  mode  of  burying  alive  is 
described  in  Davies'  History  of 
Holland,  vol.  i.  p.  383,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
311,  312. 

45  He  died  on  the  21st  Sep- 
tember; and  on  the  9th  he  signed 
a  codicil,  in  which  he  '  enjoined 
upon  his  son  to  follow  up  and 
bring  to  justice  every  heretic  in 
his  dominions,  and  this  without 
exception,  and  without  favour  or 
mercy  to  any  one.  He  conjured 
Philip  to  cherish  the  holy  inqui- 
sition as  the  best  means  of  ac- 
complishing this  good  work.' 
Prescott's  Additions  to  Robertson's 
{Jharles  V.,  p.  576.  See  also  his 
instructions  to  Philip  in  Raumer's 
History  of  the  Sixteenth  and 
Seventeenth  Centuries,  vol.  i.  p. 
91 ;  and  on  his  opinion  of  the 
Inquisition,  see  his  conversation 
with  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  printed 
from  the  State  Papers  in  Froude's 
History  of  England,  vol.  iii.  p. 
456,  London,  1858.  This  may 
have   been   mere   declamation ; 


but  in  Tapia's  Civilisation  Es- 
panola,  Madrid,  1840,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  76,  77,  will  be  found  a  de- 
liberate and  official  letter,  in 
which  Charles  does  not  hesitate 
to  say,  'La  santa  inquisicion 
como  oficio  santo  y  puesto  por 
los  reyes  catolicos,  nuestros  se- 
fiores  y  abuelos  a  honra  de  Dios 
nuestro  senor  y  de  nuestra  santa 
fe  catolica,  tengo  firme  6  entra- 
nablemente  asentado  y  fijado  en 
mi  corazon,  para  la  mandar  fa- 
vorecer  y  honrar,  como  principe 
justo  y  temeroso  de  Dios  es  obli- 
gado  y  debe  hacer.' 

The  codicil  to  the  will  of 
Charles  still  exists,  or  did  very 
recently,  among  the  archives  at 
Simancas.  Ford's  Spain,  1847, 
p.  334.  In  M.  Lafuente's  great 
work,  Historia  de  Espana,  vol. 
xii.  pp.  494,  495,  Madrid,  1853, 
it  is  referred  to  in  language 
which,  in  more  senses  than  one, 
is  perfectly  Spanish :  '  Su  testa- 
mento  y  codicilo  respiran  las 
ideas  cristianas  y  religiosas  en 
que  habia  vivido  y  la  piedad  que 
senalo  su  muerte.'  .  .  .  '  Es  muy 
de  notar  su  primera  clausula  [i.e. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


449 


This  barbarous  policy  is  to  be  ascribed,  not  to  tbe 
vices,  nor  to  the  temperament  of  the  individual  ruler, 
but  to  the  operation  of  large  general  causes,  which 
acted  upon  the  individual,  and  impelled  him  to  the 
course  he  pursued.  Charles  was  by  no  means  a  vin- 
dictive man ;  his  natural  disposition  was  to  mercy 
rather  than  to  rigour ;  his  sincerity  is  unquestionable ; 
he  performed  what  he  believed  to  be  his  duty ;  and  he 
was  so  kind  a  friend,  that  those  who  knew  him  best 
were  precisely  those  who  loved  him  most.46  Little, 
however,  could  all  that  avail  in  shaping  his  public 
conduct.  He  was  obliged  to  obey  the  tendencies  of  the 
age  and  country  in  which  he  lived.  And  what  those 
tendencies  were,  appeared  still  more  clearly  after  his 
death,  when  the  throne  of  Spain  was  occupied  upwards 
of  forty  years  by  a  prince  who  inherited  it  in  the  prime 
of  life,  and  whose  reign  is  particularly  interesting  as  a 
symptom  and  a  consequence  of  the  disposition  of  the 
people  over  whom  he  ruled. 

Philip  II<,  who  succeeded  Charles  V.  in  1555,  was 


of  the  codicil]  por  la  cual  deja 
muy  encarecidamente  recomend- 
ado  al  rey  Don  Felipe  que  use  de 
todo  rigor  en  el  castigo  de  los 
hereges  luteranos  que  habian 
sido  presos  y  se  hubieren  de 
prender  en  Espana.'  .  .  .  '" Sin 
escepcion  de  persona  alguna,  ni 
admitir  ruegos,  ni  tener  respeto 
a  persona  alguna ;  porque  para 
el  efecto  de  ello  favorezca  y 
maude  favorecer  al  Santo  Oficio 
de  la  Inquisicion," '  &c. 

48  Native  testimony  may  per- 
haps be  accused  of  being  partial; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  Raumer, 
in  his  valuable  History  of  the 
Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Cen- 
turies, vol.  i.  p.  22,  justly  ob- 
serves, that  his  character  has 
been  misrepresented  '  by  reason 
that  historians  have  availed 
themselves  by  preference  of  the 
inimical    narratives  of   French 

VOL.  II.  G 


and  Protestant  writers.'  To 
steer  between  these  extremes,  I 
will  transcribe  the  summing  up 
of  Charles's  reign  as  it  is  given 
by  a  learned  and  singularly  un- 
prejudiced writer.  '  Tortuous  as 
was  sometimes  the  policy  of  the 
emperor,  he  never,  like  Francis, 
acted  with  treachery ;  his  mind 
had  too  much  of  native  grandeur 
for  such  baseness.  Sincere  in 
religion  and  friendship,  faithful 
to  his  word,  clement  beyond  ex- 
ample, liberal  towards  his  ser- 
vants, indefatigable  in  his  regal 
duties,  anxious  for  the  welfare 
of  his  subjects,  and  generally 
blameless  in  private  life,  his 
character  will  not  suffer  by  a 
comparison  with  that  of  any 
monarch  of  his  times.'  Dunham' it 
History  of  Spain,  vol.  v.  p.  41. 
1  Clemency  was  the  basis  of  his 
character.'  p.  30. 
0 


450       SPANISH   INTELLECT    FEOM   THE    FIFTH 


indeed  eminently  a  creature  of  the  time,  and  the  ablest 
of  his  biographers  aptly  terms  him  the  most  perfect 
type  of  the  national  character.47  His  favourite  maxim, 
which  forms  the  key  to  his  policy,  was,  'That  it  is 
better  not  to  reign  at  all  than  to  reign  over  heretics.'4* 
Armed  with  supreme  power,  he  bent  all  his  energies 
towards  carrying  this  principle  into  effect.  Directly 
that  he  heard  that  the  Protestants  were  making  con- 
verts in  Spain,  he  strained  every  nerve  to  stifle  the 
heresy;49  and  so  admirably  was  he  seconded  by  the 
general  temper  of  the  people,  that  he  was  able  without 
risk  to  suppress  opinions  which  convulsed  every  other 
part  of  Europe.  In  Spain,  the  Reformation,  after  a 
short  struggle,  died  completely  away,  and  in  about  ten 
years  the  last  vestige  of  it  disappeared.50  The  Dutch 
wished  to  adopt,  and  in  many  instances  did  adopt,  the 


47  •  The  Spaniards,  as  he  grew 
in  years,  beheld,  with  pride  and 
satisfaction,  in  their  future  sove- 
reign, the  most  perfect  type  of 
the  national  character.'  Pres- 
cott's  History  of  Philip  II.  vol. 
i.  p.  39.  So,  too,  in  Motley's 
Dutch  Republic,  vol.  i.  p.  128, 
'  he  was  entirely  a  Spaniard  ;' 
and  in  Lafuente,  Historia  de 
Espana,  vol.  i.  p.  155,  'pero  el 
reinado  de  Felipe  rue  todo  Es- 
panol.' 

48  Prescott's  Philip  II.  vol.  i. 
pp.  68,  210,  vol.  ii.  p.  26.  Wat- 
son's Philip  II.  p.  55.  Compare 
Fleury,  Histoire  Ecclesiastique, 
vol.  xxxiv,  p.  273. 

49  '  Como  era  tan  zeloso  en 
la  extirpation  de  la  heregia,  uno 
de  sus  primeros  cuidados  fue  el 
castigo  de  los  Luteranos ;  y  a 
presencia  suya,  se  executo  en 
Valladolid  el  dia  ocho  de  Octubre 
el  snplicio  de  muehos  reos  de  este 
deli  to.'  Minana,  Continuation 
de  Mariana,  vol.  ix.  p.  212. 

40  '  The  contest  with  Protest- 


antism in  Spain,  under  such  aus- 
pices, was  short.  It  began  in 
earnest  and  in  blood  about  1559, 
and  was  substantially  ended  in 
1570.'  Ticknor's  History  of 
Spanish  Literature,  vol.  i.  p.  425. 
See  also  M'Crie's  History  of  the 
Reformation  in  Spain,  pp.  336, 
346.  Thus  it  was  that '  Espana 
se  preservo  del  contagio.  Hi- 
zolo  con  las  armas  Carlos  V.,  y 
con  las  hogueras  los  inquisidores. 
Espana  se  aislo  del  movimi- 
ento  europeo.'  Lafuente,  Historia 
de  Espana,  vol.  i.  p.  144,  Madrid, 
1850.  M.  Lafuente  adds,  that,  in 
his  opinion,  all  Christendom  is 
about  to  follow  the  good  example 
set  by  Spain  of  rejecting  Pro- 
testantism. '  Si  no  nos  equivo- 
camos,  en  nuestra  misma  edad  se 
notan  sintomas  de  ir  marchando 
esteproblema  haciasu  resolucion. 
El  catolicismo  gana  proselitos; 
los  protestantes  de  hoy  no  son  lo 
que  antes  fueron,  y  creemos  que 
la  unidad  catolica  se  realizara.' 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


451 


reformed  doctrine ;  therefore  Philip  waged  against 
them  a  cruel  war,  which  lasted  thirty  years,  and  which 
he  continued  till  his  death,  because  he  was  resolved  to 
extirpate  the  new  creed.51  He  ordered  that  every 
heretic  who  refused  to  recant  should  be  burned.  If 
the  heretic  did  recant,  some  indulgence  was  granted ; 
but  having  once  been  tainted,  he  must  die.  Instead  of 
being  burned,  he  was  therefore  to  be  executed.52  Of 
the  number  of  those  who  actually  suffered  in  the  Low 
Countries,  we  have  no  precise  information ; 53  but  Alva 
triumphantly  boasted  that,  in  the  five  or  six  years  of 
his  administration,  he  had  put  to  death  in  cold  blood 
more  than  eighteen  thousand,  besides  a  still  greater 
number  whom  he  had  slain  on  the  field  of  battle.54 
This,  even  during  his  short  tenure  of  power,  would 
make  about  forty  thousand  victims ;  an  estimate  pro- 
bably not  far  from  the  truth,  since  we  know,  from  other 
sources,  that  in  one  year  more  than  eight  thousand  were 


S1  Before  the  arrival  of  Alva, 
'  Philip's  commands  to  Margaret 
were  imperative,  to  use  her  ut- 
most efforts  to  extirpate  the 
heretics.'  Davies'  History  of  Hol- 
land, vol.  i.  p.  551 ;  and  in  1563 
he  wrote,  '  The  example  and  ca- 
lamities of  France  prove  how 
wholesome  it  is  to  punish  heretics 
with  rigour.'  Returner's  History 
of  the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth 
Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  171.  The 
Spaniards  deemed  the  Dutch 
guilty  of  a  double  crime ;  being 
rebels  against  God  and  the  king: 
'  Rebeldes  a  Dios  por  la  heregia, 
y  a  su  Principe  a  quien  debian 
obedecer.'  Mariana,  Historia  de 
Espana,  vol.  vii.  p.  410.  '  Tra- 
tauan  de  socreto  de  quitar  la 
obediencia  a  Dios  y  a  su  Principe.' 
Vanderhammen' s  Bon  Filipe  el 
Prudente  Segundo  deste  Nombre, 
Madrid,  1632,  p.  44  rev.  Or,  as 
Minana  phrases  it,  Philip  '  tenia 


los  mismos  enemigos  que  Dios.' 
Continuacion  de  Mariana,  vol.  x. 
p.  139. 

M  Motley's  Dutch  Republic,  vol. 
i.  p.  229.  Watson's  Philip  II. 
pp.  51,  52,  177. 

53  Mr.  Motley,  under  the  year 
1566,  says, '  The  Prince  of  Orange 
estimated  that  up  to  this  period 
fifty  thousand  persons  in  the  pro- 
vinces had  been  put  to  death  in 
obedience  to  the  edicts.  He  was 
a  moderate  man,  and  accustomed 
to  weigh  his  words.'  Motley's 
Butch  Republic,  vol.  i.  pp.  424, 
425. 

54  Watson's  Philip  II.  pp.  248, 
249.  Tapia  {Civilization  Espa- 
nola,  vol.  iii.  p.  95)  says,  '  quito 
la  vida  a  mas  de  diez  y  ocho  mil 
protestantes  con  diversos  generos 
de  suplicios.'  Compare  Motley's 
Butch  Republic,  vol.  ii.  p.  423, 
and  Bavirs'  History  of  Holland, 
vol.  i.  p.  608. 


oo  2 


452       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

either  executed  or  burned.55  Such  measures  were  the 
result  of  instructions  issued  by  Philip,  and  formed  a 
necessary  part  of  his  general  scheme.56  The  desire 
paramount  in  his  mind,  and  to  which  he  sacrificed  all 
other  considerations,  was  to  put  down  the  new  creed, 
and  to  reinstate  the  old  one.  To  this,  even  his  immense 
ambition  and  his  inordinate  love  of  power  were  subordi- 
nate. He  aimed  at  the  empire  of  Europev  because  he 
longed  to  restore  the  authority  of  the  Church.57  All 
his  policy,  all  his  negotiations,  all  his  wars,  pointed  to 
this  one  end.  Soon  after  his  accession,  he  concluded 
an  ignominious  treaty  with  the  Pope,  that  it  might  not 
be  said  that  he  bore  arms  against  the  head  of  the  Chris- 
tian world.58     And  his  last  great  enterprise,  in  some 


55  Dames'  History  of  Holland, 
vol.  i.  p.  567.  Vanderhammen 
{Bon  FUipe  el  Prudente,  Madrid, 
1632,  p.  52  rev.),  with  tranquil 
pleasure,  assures  us  that  ■  muri- 
essen  mil  y  setecientas  personas 
en  pocos  dias  con  fuego,  cordel  y 
cuchillo  en  diuersos  lugares.' 

56  '  El  duque  de  Alba,  obrando 
en  confonnidad  a  las  instruccio- 
nes  de  su  soberano,  y  apoyado  en 
Ja  aprobacion  quemerecianal  rey 
todas  sus  medidas.'  Lafuente, 
Historia  de  Espana,  vol.  xiii.  p. 
221. 

57  '  It  was  to  restore  the  Ca- 
tholic Church  that  he  desired  to 
obtain  the  empire  of  Europe.' 
Davies'  History  of  Holland,vol.  ii. 
p.  329.  'El  protesto  siempre 
"  que  sus  desinios  en  la  guerra,  y 
sus  exercitos  no  se  encaminauan 
a  otra  cosa,  que  el  ensalcamiento 
de  la  Eeligion  Christiana."  '  Van- 
derkammen's  Don  FUipe  el  Pru- 
dente, p.  125.  '  El  que  aspiraba 
a  someter  todas  las  naciones  de 
la  tierra  a  su  credo  religiose' 
Lafuente,  Historia  de  Espana,Tol. 
«v.  p.  203.    The  bishop  of  Sala- 


manca in  1563  openly  boasted 
'  que  son  roi  ne  s'etoit  marie  avec 
la  reine  d'Angleterre  que  pour 
ramener  cette  isle  a  l'ob&ssance 
de  l'eglise.'  Continuation  de 
Fleury,  Histoire  Ecclesiastique, 
voL  xxxiii.  p.  331.  Compare 
Ortiz,  Compendio,  vol.  vi.  p.  204. 
■  Este  casamiento  no  debio  de 
tener  otras  miras  que  el  de  la 
religion.' 

58  On  this  treaty,  the  only  hu- 
miliating one  which  he  ever  con- 
cluded, see  Prescott's  Philip  II. 
vol.  i.  p.  104.  His  dying  advice 
to  his  son  was,  '  Siempre  estareis 
en  la  obediencia  de  la  Santa  Igle- 
siaEomana,  y  del  Sumo  Pontifice, 
teniendole  por  vuestro  Padre  es- 
piritual.'  Davila,  Historia  de  la 
Vida  de  Felipe  Tercero,  Madrid, 
1771,  folio,  lib.  i.  p.  29.  Accord- 
ing to  another  writer,  'La ultima 
palabra  que  le  salio  con  el  espi- 
ritu,  fue :  "Yomuero  como  Cato- 
lico  Christiano  en  la  Fe  y  obedi- 
encia de  la  Iglesia  Eomana,  y 
respeto  al  Papa,  como  a  quien 
trae  en  sus  manos  las  llaues  del 
Cielo,    como    a  Principe  de  la 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


45a 


respects  the  most  important  of  all,  was  to  fit  out,  at  an 
incredible  cost,  that  Famous  Armada  with  which  he 
hoped  to  humble  England,  and  to  nip  the  heresy  of 
Europe  in  its  bud,  by  depriving  the  Protestants  of  their 
principal  support,  and  of  the  only  asylum  where  they 
were  sure  to  find  safe  and  honourable  refuge.69 

While  Philip,  following  the  course  of  his  prede- 
cessors, was  wasting  the  blood  and  treasure  of  Spain  in 
order  to  propagate  religious  opinions,60  the  people,  in- 
stead of  rebelling  against  so  monstrous  a  system,  acqui- 
esced in  it,  and  cordially  sanctioned  it.  Indeed,  they 
not  only  sanctioned  it,  but  they  almost  worshipped  the 
man  by  whom  it  was  enforced.  There  probably  never 
lived  a  prince  who,  during  so  long  a  period,  and  amid 
so  many  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  was  adored  by  his  sub- 
jects as  Philip  H.  was.  In  evil  report,  and  in  good 
report,  the  Spaniards  clung  to  him  with  unshaken 
loyalty.  Their  affection  was  not  lessened,  either  by  his 
reverses,  or  by  his  forbidding  deportment,  or  by  his 


Iglesia,  y  Teniente  de  Dios  sobre 
el  imperio  de  las  almas."  '  Van- 
derhammen,  Bon  Filtpe  el  Pru- 
dente,  p.  124. 

**  Elizabeth,  uniting  the  three 
terrible  qualities  of  heresy,  power, 
and  ability,  was  obnoxious  to  the 
Spaniards  to  an  almost  incredible 
degree,  and  there  never  was  a 
more  thoroughly  national  enter- 
prise than  the  fitting  out  of  the 
Armada  against  her.  One  or  two 
passages  from  a  grave  historian, 
will  illustrate  the  feelings  with 
which  she  was  regarded  even 
after  her  death,  #nd  will  assist 
the  reader  in  forming  an  opinion 
respecting  the  state  of  the  Spanish 
mind.  ■  Isabel,  6  Jezabel,  Keyna 
de  Inglaterra,  heretica  Calvinista, 
y  la  mayor  perseguidora  que  ha 
tenido  la  sangre  de  Jesu-Christo 
y  los  hijos  de  la  Iglesia.'  Davila, 
Historia  de  Felipe  Tercero,  p.  74. 
'Los  sucesos  de  fuera  causaron 


admiracion ;  y  el  mayor  y  muy 
esperado  de  toda  la  Christiandad 
fue  la  muerte  de  Isabela,  Reyna 
de  Inglaterra,  heretica  Calvinista, 
que  hizo  su  nombre  famoso  con 
la  infamia  de  su  vida,  y  perseguir 
a  la  Iglesia,  derramando  la  sangre 
de  los  Santos,  que  defendian 
la  verdadera  Religion  Catolica, 
dexando  registradas  sus  maldades 
en  las  historias  piiblicas  del 
mundo,  pasando  su  alma  a  coger 
el  desdichado  fruto  de  su  obsti- 
nada  soberbia  en  las  penas  del 
Infierno,  donde  conoce  con  el 
castigo  perpetuo  el  engano  de  su 
vida.'  pp.  83,  84. 

*  One  of  the  most  eminent  of 
living  historians  well  says, '  It  was 
Philip's  enthusiasm  to  embody 
the  wrath  of  God  against  heretics.' 
Motlet/s  Dutch  Republic,  voL  ii. 
p.  155.  'Philip  lived  but  to  en- 
force what  he  chose  to  consider 
the  will  of  God.'  p.  285. 


454      SPANISH   INTELLECT    FEOM    THE    FIFTH 


cruelty,  or  by  his  grievous  exactions.  In  spite  of  all, 
they  loved  him  to  the  last.  Such  was  his  absurd  arro- 
gance, that  he  allowed  none,  not  even  the  most  powerful 
nobles,  to  address  him,  except  on  their  knees,  and,  in 
return,  he  only  spoke  in  half  sentences,  leaving  them  to 
guess  the  re3t,  and  to  fulfil  his  commands  as  best  they 
might.61  And  ready  enough  they  were  to  obey  his 
slightest  wishes.  A  contemporary  of  Philip,  struck  by 
the  universal  homage  which  he  received,  says  that  the 
Spanish  did  '  not  merely  love,  not  merely  reverence, 
but  absolutely  adore  him,  and  deem  his  commands  so 
sacred,  that  they  could  not  be  violated  without  offence 
to  God.' 62 


61  •  Personne  vivante  ne  parloit 
a  lui  qu'a  genoux,  et  disoit  pour 
son  excuse  a  cela  qu'estant  petit 
de  corps,  chacun  eust  paru  plus 
esleve  que  lui,  outre  qu'il  S9avoit 
que  les  Espagnols  estoient  d'hu- 
meur  si  altiere  et  hautaine,  qu'il 
estoit  besom  qu'il  les  traittast  de 
cette  facon ;  et  pour  ce  mesme  ne 
se  laissoit  voir  que  peu  souvent 
du  peuple,  n'y  mesme  des  grands, 
sinon  aux  jours  solemnels,  et  ac- 
tion necessaire.  en  cette  facon  ?  il 
faisoit  ses  commandemens  a  demy 
mot,  et  falloit  que  Ton  devinast 
le  reste.  et  que  Ton  ne  manquast 
a  bien  accomplir  toutes  ses  in- 
tentions ;  mesmes  les  gentils- 
hommes  de  sa  chambre,  et  autres 
qui  approchoient  plus  pres  de  sa 
personne,  n'eussent  ose  parler 
devant  luy  s'il  ne  leur  eust  com- 
mande,  se  tenant  un  tout  seul  a 
la  fois  pres  de  la  porte  du  lieu 
ou  il  estoit,  et  demeurant  nud 
teste  incessamment,  et  appuye 
contra  une  tapisserie,  pour  atten- 
dre  et  recevoir  ses  commande- 
mens.' Memoires  de  Cheverny, 
pp.  352,  353,  in  Petitofs  Collec- 
tion des  Memoires,  vol.  xxxvi. 
Paris,  1823. 


62  These  are  the  words  of 
Contarini,  as  given  in  Ranke's 
Ottoman  and  Spanish  Empires, 
London,  1843,  p.  33.  Sismondi, 
though  unacquainted  with  this 
passage,  observes  in  his  Litera- 
ture of  the  South  of  Europe,  vol. 
ii.  p.  273,  London,  1846,  that 
Philip,  though  '  little  entitled  to 
praise,  has  yet  been  always  re- 
garded with  enthusiasm  by  the 
Spaniards.'  About  half  a  century 
after  his  death,  Sommerdyck 
visited  Spain,  and  in  his  curious 
account  of  that  country  he  tells 
us  that  Philip  was  called  'le 
Salomon  de  son  siecle.'  Aarsens 
de  Sommerdyck,  Voyage  cFEs- 
pagne,  Paris,  1665,  4to,  pp.  63, 
95.  See  also  Yanez,  Memorias 
para  la  Historia  de  Felipe  III., 
Madrid,  1 723,  p.  294.  '  El  gran 
Felipe,  aquel  'Sabio  Salomon.' 
Another  writer  likens  him  to 
Numa.  '  Hacia  grandes  progre- 
sos  la  piedad,  a  la  qual  se  dedi- 
caba  tanto  el  Eey  Don  Felipe, 
que  parecia  su  reynado  en  Espa- 
Sa  lo  que  en  Roma  el  de  Numa, 
despues  de  Romulo.'  Minana 
Continuacion  de  Mariana,  vol. 
ix.  p.  241.    When  he  died,  «cele- 


TO  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUET.  455 

That  a  man  like  Philip  II.,  who  never  possessed  a 
friend,  and  whose  usual  demeanour  was  of  the  most 
repulsive  kind,  a  harsh  master,  a  brutal  parent,  a  bloody 
and  remorseless  ruler, — that  he  should  be  thus  reve- 
renced by  a  nation  among  whom  he  lived,  and  who  had 
their  eyes  constantly  on  his  actions ;  that  this  should 
have  happened,  is  surely  one  of  the  most  surprising, 
and,  at  first  sight,  one  of  the  most  inexplicable  facts  in 
modern  history.  Here  we  have  a  king  who,  though 
afflicted  by  every  quality  most  calculated  to  excite  terror 
and  disgust,  is  loved  far  more  than  he  is  feared,  and  is 
the  idol  of  a  very  great  people  during  a  very  long  reign. 
This  is  so  remarkable  as  to  deserve  our  serious  atten- 
tion ;  and  in  order  to  clear  up  the  difficulty,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  that  spirit  of 
loyalty  which,  during  several  centuries,  has  distin- 
guished the  Spaniards  above  every  other  European 
people. 

One  of  the  leading  causes  was  undoubtedly  the  im- 
mense influence  possessed  by  the  clergy.  For  the 
maxims  inculcated  by  that  powerful  body  have  a  natural 
tendency  to  make  the  people  reverence  their  princes 
more  than  they  would  otherwise  do.  And  that  there 
is  a  real  and  practical  connexion  between  loyalty  and 
superstition,  appears  from  the  historical  fact  that  the 
two  feelings  have  nearly  always  flourished  together  and 
decayed  together.  Indeed,  this  is  what  we  should  ex- 
pect on  mere  speculative  grounds,  seeing  that  both 
feelings  are  the  product  of  those  habits  of  veneration 
which  make  men  submissive  in  their  conduct  and  credu- 
lous in  their  belief.63  Experience,  therefore,  as  well  as 
reason,  points  to  this  as  a  general  law  of  the  mind, 
which,  in  its  operation,  may  be  occasionally  disturbed, 


bradas  bus   exequias    entre   la-  mas  que  las  ordinarias  a  los  de- 

grimas  y  gemidos.'  vol.  x. pp.  259,  mas  hombres.' 

260.      We    further  learn  from  n  'Habits  of  reverence,  which, 

VanderhammerisFMpe  Scgundo,  if  carried  into  religion,  cause  su- 

Madrid,  1632,  p.  120  rev.,  that  perstition,  and  if  carried  into  po- 

the  people  ascribed  to  him  'una  litics,  cause  despotism.'  Buckle's 

grandeza  adorable,  y  alguna  cosa  Hist,  of  Civilization,  vol.  ii.  p.  1 1 7. 


456       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

but  which  holds  good  in  a  large  majority  of  cases. 
Probably"  the  only  instance  in  which  the  principle  fails 
is,  when  a  despotic  government  so  misunderstands  its 
own  interests  as  to  offend  the  clergy,  and  separate  itself 
from  them.  Whenever  this  is  done,  a  struggle  will 
arise  between  loyalty  and  superstition ;  the  nrst  being 
upheld  by  the  political  classes,  the  other  by  the  spiritual 
classes.  Such  a  warfare  was  exhibited  in  Scotland; 
but  history  does  not  afford  many  examples  of  it,  and 
certainly  it  never  took  place  in  Spain,  where,  on  the 
contrary,  several  circumstances  occurred  to  cement  the 
union  between  the  Crown  and  the  Church,  and  to  accus- 
tom the  people  to  look  up  to  both  with  almost  equal 
reverence. 

By  far  the  most  important  of  these  circumstances 
was  the  great  Arab  invasion,  which  drove  the  Chris- 
tians into  a  corner  of  Spain,  and  reduced  them  to  such 
extremities,  that  nothing  but  the  strictest  discipline, 
and  the  most  unhesitating  obedience  to  their  leaders, 
could  have  enabled  them  to  make  head  against  their 
enemies.  Loyalty  to  their  princes  became  not  merely 
expedient,  but  necessary ;  for  if  the  Spaniards  had 
been  disunited,  they  would,  in  the  face  of  the  fearful 
odds  against  which  they  fought,  have  had  no  chance 
of  preserving  their  national  existence.  The  long  war 
which  ensued,  being  both  political  and  religious,  caused 
an  intimate  alliance  between  the  political  and  religious 
classes,  since  the  kings  and  the  clergy  had  an  equal 
interest  in  driving  the  Mohammedans  from  Spain. 
During  nearly  eight  centuries,  this  compact  between 
Church  and  State  was  a  necessity  forced  upon  the 
Spaniards  by  the  peculiarities  of  their  position ;  and, 
after  the  necessity  had  subsided,  it  naturally  happened 
that  the  association  of  ideas  survived  the  original 
danger,  and  that  an  impression  had  been  made  upon  the 
popular  mind  which  it  was  hardly  possible  to  efface. 

Evidence  of  this  impression,  and  of  the  unrivalled 
loyalty  it  produced,  crowds  upon  us  at  every  turn.  In  no 
other  country  are  the  old  ballads  so  numerous  and  so 
intimately  connected  with  the  national  history.  It  has, 
however,  been  observed,  that  their  leading  characteristic 


TO   THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


457 


is  the  zeal  with  which  they  inculcate  obedience  and 
devotion  to  princes,  and  that  from  this  source,  even 
more  than  from  military  achievements,  they  draw  their 
most  favourite  examples  of  virtue.64  In  literature  the 
first  great  manifestation  of  the  Spanish  mind  was  the 
poem  of  The  Cid,  written  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth 
century,  in  which  we  find  fresh  proof  of  that  extra- 
ordinary loyalty  which  circumstances  had  forced  upon 
the  people.65  The  ecclesiastical  councils  display  a  simi- 
lar tendency;  for,  notwithstanding  a  few  exceptions, 
no  other  church  has  been  equally  eager  in  upholding 
the  rights  of  kings.66     In  civil  legislation,  we  see  the 


•*  'More  ballads  are  con- 
nected with  Spanish  history 
than  with  any  other,  and,  in 
general,  they  are  better.  The 
most  striking  peculiarity  of  the 
whole  mass  is,  perhaps,  to  be 
found  in  the  degree  in  which  it 
expresses  the  national  character. 
Loyalty  is  constantly  prominent. 
The  Lord  of  Butrago  sacrifices 
his  own  life  to  save  that  of  his 
sovereign,'  &c.  Ticknor's  His- 
tory of  Spanish  Literature,  vol. 
i.  p.  133.  'In  the  implicit 
obedience  of  the  old  Spanish 
knight,  the  order  of  the  king 
was  paramount  to  every  con- 
sideration, even  in  the  case  of 
friendship  and  love.  This  code 
of  obedience  has  passed  into  a 

Eroverb— "mas  pesa  el  Rey  que 
i  sangre," '  Ford's  Spain,  p. 
183.  Compare  the  admirable 
little  work  of  Mr.  Lewes,  The 
Spanish  Drama,  London,  1846, 
p.  120,  'ballads  full  of  war, 
loyalty,  and  love.' 

64  See  some  interesting  re- 
marks in  M.  Tapia's  Civilization 
EspaHola,  vol.  i.  He  observes 
that,  though  cruelly  persecuted 
by  Alfonso,  the  first  thing  done 
by  the  Cid,  after  gaining  a  great 


victory,  was  to  order  one  of  his 
captains  'para  que  lleve  al  rey 
Alfonso  treinta  caballos  arabes 
bien  ensillados,  con  sendas  es- 
padas  pendientes  de  los  arzones 
en  senal  de  homenage,  a  pesar 
del  agravio  que  haHa  recibido.' 
p.  274.  And  at  p.  280,  '  come- 
dido  y  obediente  subdito  a  un 
rey  que  tan  mal  le  habia  tra- 
tado.'  Southey  (Chronicle  of 
the  Cid,  p.  268)  notices  with 
surprise  that  the  Cid  is  repre- 
sented in  the  old  chronicles  as 
'  offering  to  kiss  the  feet  of  the 
king.' 

68  'Le  xvi°  Concile  de  Toledo 
appelait  les  rois  "vicaires  de 
Dieu  et  du  Christ ; "  et  rien 
n'est  plus  frequent  dans  les 
conciles  de  cette  epoque  que 
leurs  exhortations  aux  peuples 
pour  l'observation  du  serment 
de  fidelite  a  leur  roi,  et  leurs 
anathemes  contre  les  seditieux.' 
Sempere,  Monarchie  Espagnole, 
vol.  i.  p.  41.  'Aparte  de  los 
asuntos  de  derecho  civil  y  ca- 
nonico  y  de  otros  varios  que 
dicen  relacion  al  gobierno  de  la 
iglesia,  sobre  los  cuales  se  con- 
tienen  en  todos  ellos  disposi- 
ciones  muy  utiles   y  acertadas, 


458       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 


same  principle  at  work ;  it  being  asserted,  on  high 
authority,  that  in  no  system  of  laws  is  loyalty  carried 
to  such  extreme  height  as  in  the  Spanish  codes.67  Even 
their  dramatic  writers  were  unwilling  to  represent  an 
act  of  rebellion  on  the  stage,  lest  they  should  appear  to 
countenance  what,  in  the  eyes  of  every  good  Spaniard, 
was  one  of  the  most  heinous  of  all  offences.68  What- 
ever the  king  came  in  contact  with,  was  in  some  degree 
hallowed  by  his  touch.  No  one  might  mount  a  horse 
which  he  had  ridden ;  69  no  one  might  marry  a  mistress 


la  mayor  parte  de  las  leyes 
dictadas  en  estas  asambleas  tu- 
vieron  por  objeto  dar  fuerza  y 
estabilidad  al  poder  real,  pro- 
clamando  su  inviolabilidad  y 
estableciendo  graves  penas  con- 
tra los  infractores ;  condenar 
las  heregias,'  &c.  Antequera, 
Historia  de  la  Legislation  Es- 
panola,  p.  47. 

67  'Loyalty  to  a  superior  is 
carried  to  a  more  atrocious 
length  by  tbe  Spanish  law  than 
I  have  seen  it  elsewhere.'  .  .  . 
•  The  Partidas  (P.  2,  T.  13,  L.  1) 
speaks  of  an  old  law  whereby 
any  man  who  openly  wished  to 
see  the  King  dead,  was  con- 
demned to  death,  and  the  loss 
of  all  that  he  had.  The  utmost 
mercy  to  be  shown  him  was  to 
spare  his  life  and  pluck  out  his 
eyes,  that  he  might  never  see 
with  them  what  he  had  desired. 
To  defame  the  King  is  declared 
as  great  a  crime  as  to  kill  him, 
and  in  like  manner  to  be  pun- 
ished. The  utmost  mercy  that 
could  be  allowed  was  to  cut  out 
the  offender's  tongue.  P.  2,  T.  13, 
L.  4.'  Souther/ s  Chronicle  of  the 
Cid,  p.  442.  Compare  Johnston's 
Civil  Law  of  Spain,  London, 
1825,  p.  269,  on  '  Blasphemers 
of  the  King.' 

63  Thus,  Montalvan,  the  emi- 


nent poet  and  dramatist,  who  was 
born  in  1602,'  avoided.we  are  told, 
representing  rebellion  on  the 
stage,  lest  he  should  seem  to  en- 
courage it.'  Ticknor's  History  of 
Spanish  Literature,  vol.  ii.  p. 
283.  A  similar  spirit  is  exhibited 
in  the  plays  of  Calderon  and  of 
Lope  deVega.  On  the  '  Castilian 
loyalty '  evinced  in  one  of  Cal- 
deron's  comedies,  see  Hallam's 
Literature  of  Europe,  2d  edit. 
London,  1843,  vol.  iii.  p.  63; 
and  as  to  Lope,  see  Lewes  on  the 
Spanish  Drama,  p.  78. 

63  'His  Majesty's  horses  could 
never  be  used  by  any  other  per- 
son. One  day,  while  Philip  IV. 
was  going  in  procession  to  the 
church  of  Our  Lady  of  Atocha, 
the  Duke  of  Medina-de-las- 
Torres  offered  to  present  him 
with  a  beautiful  steed  which  be- 
longed to  him,  and  which  was 
accounted  the  finest  in  Madrid ; 
but  the  King  declined  the  gift, 
because  he  should  regret  to 
render  so  noble  an  animal  ever 
after  useless.'  Lunlop's  Memoirs, 
vol.  ii.  p.  372.  Madame  d'Aul- 
noy,  who  travelled  in  Spain  in 
1679,  and  who,  from  her  position, 
had  access  to  the  best  sources  of 
information,  was  told  of  thi6 
piece  of  etiquette.  'L'on  m'a 
dit  que   lors   que  le  Koy  s'est 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


459 


■whom  lie  had  deserted.70  Horse  and  mistress  alike 
were  sacred,  and  it  would  have  been  impious  for  any 
subject  to  meddle  with  what  had  been  honoured  by  the 
Lord's  anointed.  Nor  were  such  rules  confined  to  the 
prince  actually  reigning.  On  the  contrary,  they  sur- 
vived him,  and,  working  with  a  sort  of  posthumous 
force,  forbade  any  woman  whom  he  had  taken  as  a 
wife,  to  marry,  even  after  he  was  dead.  She  had  been 
chosen  by  the  king  •  such  choice  had  already  raised  her 
above  the  rest  of  mortals  ;  and  the  least  she  could  do 
was  to  retire  to  a  convent,  and  spend  her  life  mourning 
over  her  irreparable  loss.  These  regulations  were 
enforced  by  custom  rather  than  by  law.71     They  were 


eervy  d'un  cheval,  personne  par 
respect  ne  le  monte  jamais.' 
HAulnoy,  Belation  du  Voyage 
d'Espagne,  Lyon,  1693,  vol.  ii. 
p.  40.  In  tiie  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  I  find  another 
notice  of  this  loyal  custom, 
which,  likely  enough,  is  still  a 
tradition  in  the  Spanish  stables. 
*  If  the  king  has  once  honoured 
a  Pad  so  much  as  to  cross  his 
back,  it  is  never  to  be  used 
again  by  anybody  else.'  A  Tour 
through  Spain,  by  Udal  ap  Rhys, 
2d  edit.  London,  1760,  p.  15. 

70  Madame  d'Aulnoy,  who  was 
very  inquisitive  respecting  these 
'  matters,  says  {Relation  du  Voyage 
d'Espagne,  vol.  ii.  p.  411),  '  II  y 
a  une  autre  Etiquette,  c'est 
qu'apres  que  le  Eoi  a  eu  une 
Maitresse,  s'il  vient  a  la  quitter, 
il  faut  qu'elle  se  fasse  Religieuse, 
comme  je  vous  l'ai  deja  ecrit;  et 
Ton  m'a  conti  que  le  feu  Eoi 
s'estant  amoureux  d'une  Dame 
du  Palais,  il  fut  un  soir  fraper 
doucement  a  la  porte  de  sa 
chambre.  Comme  elle  comprit 
que  c'estoit  lui,  elle  ne  voulut 

Sas  lui  ouvrir,  et  elle  se  contenta 
e  lui  dire  au  travers  de  la  porte, 


JSaya,  baya,  con  Bios,  no  quiero 
ser  monja  ;  c'est  a  dire,  "  Allez 
allez,  Dieu  vous  conduise,  je  na'i 
pas  envied'estre Religieuse."'  So 
too  Henry  IV.  of  Castile,  who 
came  to  the  throne  in  the  year 
1454,  made  one  of  his  mistresses 
'  abbess  of  a  convent  in  Toledo ;' 
in  this  case  to  the  general  scandal, 
because,  says  Mr.  Prescott,  he 
first  expelled  'her  predecessor, 
a  lady  of  noble  rank  and  irre- 
proachable character.'  Prescotfs 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  vol.  i. 
p.  68. 

71  There  is,  however,  one  very 
remarkable  old  law,  in  the  form 
of  a  canon  enacted  by  the  third 
Council  of  Saragossa,  which 
orders  that  the  royal  widows 
'  seront  obligees  a  prendre  l'habit 
de  religieuses,  et  a  s'enfermer 
dans  un  monastere  pour  le  reste 
de  leur  vie.'  Fleury,  Histoire 
Ecclesiastique,  vol.  ix.  p.  104.  In 
1065  Ferdinand  I.  died ;  and, 
says  the  biographer  of  the 
Spanish  Queens,  '  La  Reyna  so- 
brevivi6 :  y  parece,  que  muerto 
su  marido,  entr6  en  algun  Monas- 
terio ;  lo  que  expressamos  no 
tanto  por  la  costumbre  antigua, 


460       SPANISH   INTELLECT   PEOM   THE    FIFTH 


upheld  by  the  popular  will,  and  were  the  result  of  the 
excessive  loyalty  of  the  Spanish  nation.  Of  that  loyalty 
their  writers  often  boast,  and  with  good  reason,  since 
it  was  certainly  matchless,  and  nothing  seemed  able  to 
shake  it.  To  bad  kings  and  to  good  kings  it  equally 
applied.  It  was  in  full  strength  amid  the  glory  of 
Spain  in  the  sixteenth  century ;  it  was  conspicuous 
when  the  nation  was  decaying  in  the  seventeenth 
century  ;  and  it  survived  the  shock  of  civil  wars  early 
in  the  eighteenth.72     Indeed,  the  feeling  had  so  worked 


quanto  porconstar  en  la  Memoria 
referida  de  la  Iglesia  de  Leon,  el 
dictado  de  '  Consagrada  a  Dios,' 
frasse  que  denota  estado  Reli- 
gioso.'  Florez,  Memorias  de  las 
Beynas  Catholicas,  Madrid,  1761, 
4to,  vol.  i.  p.  148.  In  1667  it 
was  a  settled  principle  that  '  les 
reines  d'Espagne  n'en  sortent 
point.  Le  convent  de  las  Se- 
noras  descalgas  reales  est  fonde 
afin  qne  les  reines  veuves  s'y 
enferment.'  Discours  die  Comte 
de  Castrillo  a  la  Seine  d'Espagne, 
in  Mignefs  Negotiations  relatives 
a  la  Succession  tfEspagne,  vol. 
ii.  p.  604,  Paris,  1835,  4to.  This 
valuable  work  consists  for  the 
most  part  of  documents  pre- 
viously unpublished,  many  of 
which  are  taken  from  the  archives 
at  Simaneas.  To  the  critical 
historian,  it  would  have  been 
more  useful  if  the  original 
Spanish  had  been  given. 

72  See  some  good  remarks  on 
San  Phelipe,  in  Tkknor's  History 
of  Spanish  Literature,  vol.  iS. 
pp.  213, 214,  which  might  easily 
be  corroborated  by  other  testi- 
mony; as,  for  instance,  Lafuente 
under  the  year  1710:  'Ni  el 
abandono  de  la  Erancia,  ni  la 
prolongacion  y  los  azares  de 
la  guerra,  ni  los  sacrificios 
pecuniarios     y     personales    de 


tantos  anos,  nada  bastaba  a  en- 
tibiar  el  amor  de  los  castellanos 
a  su  rey  Felipe  V.'  (Historia  de 
Espana,  vol.  xviii.  p.  258) ;  and 
Berwick    (Memoires,   vol.  ii.  p. 
114,   edit.  Paris,   1778)  :    « La 
fidelite   inouie  des  Espagnols;' 
and,  nine  years  earlier,  a  letter 
from  Louville  to  Torcy :  'Le  mot 
revolte,  pris  dans  une  aceeption 
rigoureuse,  n'a  pas  de  sens   en 
Espagne.'  Louville,  MSmoires  sur 
Vetablissenient  de  la  Maison  de 
Bourbon  en  Espagne,  edit.  Paris, 
1818,  vol.  i.  p.  128.     See  also 
Memoirs  of  Bipperda,   London, 
1740,  p.  58 ;    and  Memoires  de 
Gramont,  vol.  ii.    p.    77,    edit. 
Petitot,  Paris,  1827.    All  these 
passages      illustrate       Spanish 
loyalty  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
except  the  reference  to  Gramont, 
which  concerns  the  seventeenth, 
and  which  should  be  compared 
with  the  following  observations 
of  Madame  D'Aulnoy,  who  writes 
from  Madrid  in  1679:  'Quelques 
richesses    qu'ayent    les    grands 
Seigneurs,  quelque    grande  que 
soit  leur  fiertd  ou  leur  pr^somp- 
tion,  ils  obei'ssent  aux  moindrea 
ordres  du  Roy,  avec  une  exacti- 
tude et  un  respect  que  Ton  ne 
peut  assez  loiier.    Sur  le  premier 
ordre  ils  partent,  ils  reviennent, 
ils  vont  en  prison,  ou  en  exil, 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  461 

itself  into  the  traditions  of  the  country,  as  to  become 
not  only  a  national  passion,  but  almost  an  article  of 
national  faitb.  Clarendon,  in  bis  History  of  tbat  great 
English  Rebelbon,  the  like  of  which,  as  he  well  knew, 
could  never  have  happened  in  Spain,  makes  on  this 
subject  a  just  and  pertinent  remark.  He  says  that  a 
want  of  respect  for  kings  is  regarded  by  the  Spaniards 
as  a '  monstrous  crime  ; '  '  submissive  reverence  to  their 
princes  being  a  vital  part  of  their  religion.'  73 

These,  then,  were  the  two  great  elements  of  which 
the  Spanish  character  was  compounded.  Loyalty  and 
superstition;  reverence  for  their  kings  and  reverence 
for  their  clergy  were  the  leading  principles  which 
influenced  the  Spanish  mind,  and  governed  the  march 
of  Spanish  history.  The  peculiar  and  unexampled  cir- 
cumstances under  which  they  arose,  have  been  just 
indicated ;  and  having  seen  their  origin,  we  will  now 
endeavour  to  trace  their  consequences.  Such  an  exami- 
nation of  results  will  be  the  more  important,  not  only 
because  nowhere  else  in  Europe  have  these  feelings 
been  so  strong,  so  permanent,  and  so  unmixed,  but  also 
because  Spain,  being  seated  at  the  further  extremity  of 
the  Continent,  from  which  it  is  cut  off  by  the  Pyrenees, 
has,  from  physical  causes,  as  well  as  from  moral  ones, 
come  httle  into  contact  with  other  nations.74  The  course 


eans  se  plaindre.     II  ne  se  peut  of  their  religion.'      Clarendon's 

trouver  une  soumission,  et  une  History  of  the  Bebellion,  ed.  Ox- 

obe'issance  plus  parfaite,  ni  un  ford,  1843,  p.  15.     For  the  reli- 

amour  plus  sincere,  que  celui  des  gion  of  loyalty,  in  an    earlier 

Espagnols  pour   leur  Roi.     Ce  period,  see  Florez,  Beynas  Ca- 

nom  leur  est  sacre,  et  pour  re-  tholicas,  vol.  i.  p.  421 :  'La  per- 

duire  le  peuple  a  tout  ce  que  sona  del  Key  fue  mirada  de  bus 

Ton  souhaite,  il   suffit  de  dire,  fieles  vassallos  con  respeto  tan 

"Le  Roi  le  veut.'"    HAtdnoy,  sagrado,'    that    resistance    was 

Voyage,  vol.  ii.  pp.  256,  257.  '  una  especie  de  sacrilegio.' 

"  '  And  Olivarez  had  been  ' T4  These  impediments  to  inter- 
heard  to  censure  very  severely  courseVere  once  deemed  almost 
the  duke's  (Buckingham's)  fa-  invincible.  Fontenay-Mareuil, 
miliarity  and  want  of  respect  who  visited  Spain  in  1612,  and 
towards  the  prince,  a  crime  was  not  a  little  proud  of  the 
monBtrous  to  the  Spaniard.'  .  .  .  achievement,  says,  '  Au  reste, 
'  Their  submissive  reverence  to  parcequ'on  ne  va  pas  aussy  or- 
their  princes  being  a  vital  part  dinairement  en   Espagne  qu'en 


462       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

of  affairs  being,  therefore,  undisturbed  by  foreign 
habits,  it  becomes  easier  to  discover  the  pure  and 
natural  consequences  of  superstition  and  loyalty,  two 
of  the  most  powerful  and  disinterested  feelings  -which 
have  ever  occupied  the  human  heart,  and  to  whose 
united  action  we  may  clearly  trace  the  leading  events 
in  the  history  of  Spain. 

The  results  of  this  combination  were,  during  a  con- 
siderable period,  apparently  beneficial,  and  certainly 
magnificent.  For,  the  church  and  the  crown  making 
common  cause  with  each  other,  and  being  inspirited  by 
the  cordial  support  of  the  people,  threw  their  whole 
soul  into  their  enterprises,  and  displayed  an  ardour 
which  could  hardly  fail  to  insure  success.  Gradually 
advancing  from  the  north  of  Spain,  the  Christians, 
fighting  their  way  inch  by  inch,  pressed  on  till  they 
reached  the  southern  extremity,  completely  subdued 
the  Mohammedans,  and  brought  the  whole  country 
under  one  rule  and  one  creed.  This  great  result  was 
achieved  late  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  it  cast  an 
extraordinary  lustre  on  the  Spanish  name.7*  Spain, 
long  occupied  by  her  own  religious  wars,  had  hitherto 


France,  en  Italie  et  ailleurs ;  et  little  known  and  not  much  worth 

qu'estant  comme  en  un  coin,  et  knowing,  forms  the  third  volume 

separee  du  reste  du  monde  par  of  Le  Prudent  Voyageur. 

la  mer  ou  par  les  Pyrenees,  on  ,s  *  Con  razon  se  miro  la  con- 

n'en  a,  ce  me  semble,  guere  de  quista  de  Granada,  no  como  un 

connoissance,  j'ay  pense  queje  acontecimiento     puramente    es- 

devois  faire  icy  une  petite  di-  panol,  sino  como  un  suceso  que 

gression  pour  dire  ce  que  j'en  ay  interesaba  al  mundo.    Con  razon 

appris  dana  ce  voyage  et  despuis.'  tambien  se  regocijo  toda  la  cris- 

Memoires  de  Fontenay-Mareuil,  tiandad.       Hacia    medio    siglo 

in  Collection  des  Memoires  par  que  otros  mahometanos  se  habian 

Petitot,  vol.  l.  p.  169,   1*  Serie,  apoderado  de  Constantinopla ;  la 

Paris,     1826.       Seventy    years  caida  de  la  capital  y  del  imperio 

later,  another  writer  on  Spain  bizantino  en  poder  de  los  turcos 

says  of  the  Pyrenees,  '  Ces  mon-  habia  llenado  de  terror  a  la  Eu- 

tagnes    sont    a    nos    voyageurs  ropa ;  pero  la  Europa  se  consolo  al 

modernes,  ce  qu'etoit  aux  anciens  saber  que  en  Espafia  habia  con- 

mariniers  le  Non  plus  ultra  et  cluido    la    dominacion    de    los 

les  colomnes  du  grand  Hercule.'  musulmanes.'  Lafuente,  Historia 

L'Estat    de    VEspagne,  Geneve,  de  Espana,  vol.  xi.  p.  15. 
1681  Epistre,  p.  ii.    This  work, 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUBY.  463 

been  little  noticed  by  foreign  powers,  and  bad  possessed 
little  leisure  to  notice  tbem.  Now,  bowever,  sbe 
formed  a  compact  and  undivided  monarchy,  and  at 
once  assumed  an  important  position  in  European 
affah'S.76  During  tbe  next  bundred  years,  ber  power 
advanced  witb  a  speed  of  wbicb  tbe  world  bad  seen  no 
example  since  tbe  days  of  tbe  Roman  Empire.  So  late 
as  1478  Spain  was  still  broken  up  into  independent  and 
often  bostile  states ;  Granada  was  possessed  by  tbe 
Mohammedans  ;  tbe  throne  of  Castile  was  occupied  by 
one  prince,  tbe  throne  of  Aragon  by  another.  Before 
the  year  1590,  not  only  were  these  fragments  firmly 
consobdated  into  one  kingdom,  but  acquisitions  were 
made  abroad  so  rapidly  as  to  endanger  the  inde- 
pendence of  Europe.  The  history  of  Spain,  during 
this  period,  is  the  history  of  one  long  and  uninter- 
rupted success.  That  country,  recently  torn  by  civil 
wars,  and  distracted  by  hostile  creeds,  was  able  in 
three  generations  to  annex  to  her  territory  the  whole 
of  Portugal,  Navarre,  and  Roussillon.  By  diplomacy, 
or  by  force  of  arms,  she  acquired  Artois  and  Franche 
Comte,  and  tbe  Netherlands  ;  also  the  Milanese,  Naples, 
Sicily,  Sardinia,  the  Balearic  Islands,  and  the  Canaries. 
One  of  her  kings  was  emperor  of  Germany  ;  while  his 
son  influenced  the  councils  of  England,  whose  queen 
he  married.  The  Turkish  power,  then  one  of  tbe  most 
formidable  in  tbe  world,  was  broken  and  beaten  back 
on  every  side.  The  French  monarchy  was  humbled. 
French  armies  were  constantly  worsted ;  Paris  was 
once  in  imminent  jeopardy ;  and  a  king  of  France, 
after  being  defeated  on  the  field,  was  taken  captive,  and 
led  prisoner  to  Madrid.     Out  of  Europe,   the  deeds 


,a 'L'Espagne,  long-temps  par-  lation  between  this  and  some 

tagee    en     plusienrs    etats,    et  changes  in  literature  which  cor- 

comme  etrangere    au   reste  de  responded  to  it,  see  Bouterweka 

l'Europe,  devint  tout-a-coup  une  History  of  Spanish   Literature, 

puissance     redoutable,     faisant  vol.  i.  pp.  148-152,  where  therft 

pencher  pour  elle  la  balance  de  are  some  ingenious,  though  per- 

la  politique.'    Koch,  Tableau  des  haps  scarcely  tenable,  specula- 

Eivolutions  de  FEurope,  Paris,  tions. 
1823,  vol.  i.  p.  362.    On  the  re- 


464       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

of  Spain  were  equally  wonderful.  In  America,  the 
Spaniards  became  possessed  of  territories  which  covered 
sixty  degrees  of  latitude,  and  included  both  the  tropics . 
Besides  Mexico,  Central  America,  Venezuela,  New 
Granada,  Peru,  and  Chili,  they  conquered  Cuba,  San 
Domingo,  Jamaica,  and  other  islands.  In  Africa,  they 
obtained  Ceuta,  Melilla,  Oran,  Bougiah,  and  Tunis,  and 
overawed  the  whole  coast  of  Barbary.  In  Asia,  they 
had  settlements  on  each  side  of  the  Deccan  ;  they  held 
part  of  Malacca;  and  they  established  themselves  in 
the  Spice  Islands.  Finally,  by  the  conquest  of  the  noble 
archipelago  of  the  Philippines,  they  connected  their 
most  distant  acquisitions,  and  secured  a  communication 
between  every  part  of  that  enormous  empire  which 
girdled  the  world. 

In  connexion  with  this,  a  great  military  spirit  arose, 
such  as  no  other  modern  nation  has  ever  exhibited.  All 
the  intellect  of  the  country  which  was  not  employed  in 
the  service  of  the  Church  was  devoted  to  the  profession 
of  arms.  Indeed,  the  two  pursuits  were  often  united  ; 
and  it  is  said  that  the  custom  of  ecclesiastics  going  to 
war  was  practised  in  Spain  long  after  it  was  abandoned 
in  other  parts  of  Europe.77  At  all  events,  the  general 
tendency  is  obvious.  A  mere  list  of  successful  battles 
and  sieges  in  the  sixteenth  and  part  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, would  prove  the  vast  superiority  of  the  Spaniards, 
in  this  respect,  over  their  contemporaries,  and  would 
show  how  much  genius  they  had  expended  in  maturing 
the  ai'ts  of  destruction.  Another  illustration,  if  another 
were  required,  might  be  drawn  from  the  singular  fact 
that  since  the  time  of  ancient  Greece,  no  country  has 
produced  so  many  eminent  literary  men  who  were  also 
soldiers.  Calderon,  Cervantes,  and  Lope  de  Vega 
risked  their  lives  in  fighting  for  their  country.  The 
military  profession  was  also  adopted  by  many  other 
celebrated  authors,  among  whom,  may  be  mentioned, 

n  *  The  holy  war  with  the  later  period,  and  long  after  it 

infidels' (Mohammedans)  'per-  had  disappeared  from  the  rest  of 

petuated  the  unbecoming  spec-  civilized     Europe.'       Prescottfs 

tacle    of   militant    ecclesiastics  History  of  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 

among  the  Spaniards,  to  a  still  bella,  vol.  i.  p.  162. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  465 

Argote  de  Molina,  Acufia,  Bernal  Diaz  del  Castillo, 
Boscan,  Carrillo,  Cetina,  Ercilla,  Espinel,  Francisco  de 
Figueroa,  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  Guillen  de  Castro, 
Hita,  Hurtado  de  Mendoza,  Marmol  Carvajal,  Perez  de 
Guzman,  Pulgar,  Rebolledo,  Roxas,  and  Yirues ;  all  of 
whom  bore,  in  this  manner,  unconscious  testimony  to  * 
the  spirit  by  which  Spain  was  universally  pervaded. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  combination  which  many 
readers  will  still  consider  with  favour,  and  which,  at 
the  time  it  occurred,  excited  the  admiration,  albeit  the 
terror,  of  Europe.  We  have  a  great  people  glowing 
with  military,  patriotic,  and  religious  ardour,  whose 
fiery  zeal  was  heightened,  rather  than  softened,  by  a 
respectful  obedience  to  their  clergy,  and  by  a  chivalrous 
devotion  to  their  kings.  The  energy  of  Spain,  being 
thus  both  animated  and  controlled,  became  wary  as 
well  as  eager ;  and  to  this  rare  union  of  conflicting 
qualities  we  must  ascribe  the  great  deeds  which  have 
just  been  related.  But  the  unsound  part  of  a  progress 
of  this  sort  is,  that  it  depends  too  much  upon  indi- 
viduals, and  therefore  cannot  be  permanent.  Such  a 
movement  can  only  last  as  long  as  it  is  headed  by  able 
men.  When,  however,  competent  leaders  are  succeeded 
by  incompetent  ones,  the  system  immediately  falls  to 
the  ground,  simply  because  the  people  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  supply  to  every  undertaking  the  necessary 
zeal,  but  have  not  been  accustomed  to  supply  the  skill 
by  which  the  zeal  is  guided.  A  country  in  this  state, 
if  governed  by  hereditary  princes,  is  sure  to  decay ; 
inasmuch  as,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  affairs,  incapable 
rulers  must  sometimes  arise.  Directly  this  happens, 
the  deterioration  begins  ;  for  the  people,  habituated  to 
indiscriminate  loyalty,  will  follow  wherever  they  are 
led,  and  will  yield  to  foolish  counsels  the  same  obedience 
that  they  had  before  paid  to  wise  ones.  This  leads  us 
to  perceive  the  essential  difference  between  the  civiliza- 
tion of  Spain  and  the  civilization  of  England.  We,  in 
England,  are  a  critical,  dissatisfied,  and  captious  people, 
constantly  complaining  of  our  rulers,  suspecting  their 
schemes,  discussing  their  measures  in  a  hostile  spirit, 

VOL.  II.  H  H 


466       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM    THE    FIFTH 

allowing  very  little  power  either  to  the  Church  or  to  the 
Crown,  managing  our  own  affairs  in  our  own  way,  and 
ready,  on  the  slightest  provocation,  to  renounce  that 
conventional,    lip-deep    loyalty,   which,   having   never 
really  touched  our  hearts,  is  a  habit  lying  on  the  surface, 
bat  not  a  passion  rooted  in  the  mind.     The  loyalty  of 
Englishmen  is  not  of  that  sort  which  would  induce 
them  to  sacrifice  their  liberties  to  please  their  prince, 
nor  does  it  ever,  for  a  moment,  blind  them  to  a  keen 
sense  of  their  own  interests.     The  consequence  is,  that 
our  progress  is  uninterrupted,  whether  our  kings  are 
good  or  whether  they  are  bad.    Under  either  condition, 
the  great  movement  goes  on.    Our  sovereigns  have  had 
their  full  share  of  imbecility  and  of  crime.     Still,  even 
men  like  Henry  III.  and  Charles  II.  were  unable  to  do 
us  harm.     In  the  same  way,  during  the  eighteenth  and 
many  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  our  im- 
provement was  very  conspicuous,  our  rulers  were  very 
incompetent.     Anne  and  the  first  two   Georges  were 
grossly  ignorant ;  they  were  wretchedly  educated,  and 
nature  had  made  them  at  once  weak  and  obstinate. 
Their  united  reigns  lasted  nearly  sixty  years  ;  and  after 
they  had  passed  away,  we,  for  another  period  of  sixty 
years,  were  governed  by  a  prince  who  was  long  inca- 
pacitated by  disease,  but  of  whom  we  must  honestly  say 
that,  looking  at  his  general  policy,  he  was  least  mis- 
chievous when  he  was  most  incapable.     This  is  not  the 
place  to  expose  the  monstrous  principles  advocated  by 
George  III.,  and  to  which  posterity  will  do  that  justice 
from  which  contemporary  writers  are  apt  to  shrink ; 
but  it  is   certain   that  neither  his  contracted  under- 
standing, nor  his  despotic  temper,  nor  his  miserable 
superstition,  nor  the  incredible  baseness  of  that  ignoble 
voluptuary  who  succeeded  him  on  the  throne,  could  do 
-  aught  to  stop  the  march  of  English  civilization,  or  to 
stem  the  tide  of  English  prosperity.     "We  went  on  our 
way  rejoicing,   caring  for  none  of  these  things.     We 
were  mot  to  be  turned  aside  from  our  path  by  the  folly 
of  our  rulers,  because  we  know  full  well  that  we  hold 
our  own  fate  in  our  own  hands,  and  that  the  English 
people  possess  within  themselves  those  resources  and 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


467 


that  fertility  of  contrivance  by  which  alone  men  can  be 
made  great,  and  happy,  and  wise. 

In  Spain,  however,  directly  the  government  slackened 
its  hold,  the  nation  fell  to  pieces.78  During  that  pros- 
perous career  which  has  just  been  noticed,  the  Spanish 
throne  was  invariably  filled  by  very  able  and  intelligent 
princes.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  Charles  V.  and  Philip 
II.,  formed  a  line  of  sovereigns  not  to  be  matched  in  any 
other  country  for  a  period  of  equal  length.  By  them, 
the  great  things  were  effected,  and  by  their  care,  Spain 
apparently  flourished.  But,  what  followed  when  they 
were  withdrawn  from  the  scene,  showed  how  artificial 
all  this  was,  and  how  rotten,  even  to  the  core,  is  that 


,s  A  learned  Spanish  lawyer  has 
made  some  remarks  which  are 
worth  quoting,  and  which  contain 
a  carious  mixture  of  truth  and 
error :  '  Comment  la  monarchie 
espagnole  fut-elle  dechue  de  tant 
de  grandeur  et  de  gloire  ?  Com- 
ment perdit-elle  les  Pays-Bas  et 
le  Portugal  dans  le  dix-septieme 
biecle,  et  s'y  trouva-t-elle  reduite 
a  n'etre  qu'un  squelette  de  ce 
qu'elle  avait  ete  auparavant? 
Comment  vit-elle  disparaitre  plus 
d'une  moitie  de  sa  population  ? 
Comment,  possedant  les  mines 
inepuisables  du  Nouveau  Monde, 
les  revenus  de  l'etat  n'etaient  a 
peine  que  de  six  millions  de  du- 
cats 60us  le  regne  de  Philippe 
III  ?  Comment  son  agriculture 
et  son  industrie  furent-elles  rui- 
nees  ?  et  comment  presque  tout 
eon  commerce  passa-t-il  dans  les 
mains  de  ses  plus  grands  enne- 
mis  ?  Ce  n'est  point  ici  le  lieu 
d'esaminer  les  veritables  causes 
d'une  metamorphose  si  triste  ;  il 
suffira  d'indiquer  que  tous  les 
grands  empires  contiennent  en  eux- 
memes  legerme  de  leur  dissolution  ' 
&c.  'iyailleurs  lessuccesseursde 
ces  deux  monarques '  (Charles  V. 


and  Philip  II.)  'n'eurent  point 
les  memes  talens,  ni  les  dues  de 
Lerme  et  d'Olivares,  leurs  mini- 
stres,  ceux  du  cardinal  Cisne- 
ros  ;  et  il  est  difficile  de  calculer 
l'influence  de  la  bonne  ou  de  la 
mauvaise  direction  des  affaires 
sur  la  prosperity  ou  les  malheurs 
des  nations.  Sous  une  meme 
forme  de  gouvernement,  quel 
qu'il  puisse  etre,  elles  tombent  ou 
se  relevent  suivant  la  capacitS  des 
hommesqui  les  dirigent,  et  d'apres 
les  circonstances  ou  ils  agissent.' 
Sempire,  Histoire  des  Cortes, 
Bordeaux,  1815,  pp.  265-267. 
Of  the  two  passages  which  I  have 
marked  with  italics,  the  first  is  a 
clumsy,  though  common,  attempt 
to  explain  complicated  pheno- 
mena by  a  metaphor  which  saves 
the  trouble  of  generalizing  their 
laws.  The  other  passage,  though 
perfectly  true  as  regards  Spain, 
does  not  admit  of  that  universal 
application  which  M.  Sempere 
supposes ;  inasmuch  as  in  Eng- 
land, and  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  national  prosperity  has 
steadily  advanced,  even  when  the 
rulers  have  been  very  incapable 
men. 

■  a 


468       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM    THE    FIFTH 

system  of  government  which  must  be  fostered  before  it 
can  thrive,  and  which,  being  based  on  the  loyalty  and 
reverence  of  the  people,  depends  for  success  not  on  the 
ability  of  the  nation,  but  on  the  skill  of  those  to  whom 
the  interests  of  the  nation  are  entrusted. 

Philip  II.,  the  last  of  the  great  kings  of  Spain,  died 
in  1598,  and  after  his  death  the  decline  was  porten- 
tously rapid.79  Prom  1598  to  1700,  the  throne  was 
occupied  by  Philip  III.,  Philip  IV.,  and  Charles  II.  The 
contrast  between  them  and  their  predecessors  was  most 
striking.80  Philip  III.  and  Philip  TV.  were  idle,  igno- 
rant, infirm  of  purpose,  and  passed  their  lives  in  the 
lowest  and  most  sordid  pleasures.  Charles  II.,  the  last 
of  that  Austrian  dynasty  which  had  formerly  been  so 
distinguished,  possessed  nearly  every  defect  which  can 
make  a  man  ridiculous  and  contemptible.  His  mind 
and  his  person  were  such  as,  in  any  nation  less  loyal 
than  Spain,  would  have  exposed  him  to  universal  de- 
rision. Although  his  death  took  place  while  he  was 
still  in  the  prime  of  life,  he  looked  like  an  old  and  worn- 
out  debauchee.  At  the  age  of  thirty-five,  he  was 
completely  bald ;   he  had  lost  his  eyebrows ;   he  was 

79  ■  "With  Philip   II.  ends  the  nation  ever  was,  or  ever  will  be, 

greatness  of  the  kingdom,  which  ruined  by  the  prodigality  of  its 

from  that  period  declined  with  government.     Such  extravagance 

fearful  rapidity.'    Dunham's  His-  causes  general  discomfort,  and 

tory  of  Spain,  vol.  v.  p.  87.  And  therefore  ought  not  to  be  tole- 

Ortiz  (Compendio,  vol.  vii.,  Pro-  rated  ;  but  if  this  were  the  place 

logo,  p.  6)  classes  together  '  la  for  so  long  an  argument,  I  could 

muerte  de  Felipe  II.  y  principios  easily  show  that   its  other  and 

de    nuestra    decadencia.'      The  more  permanent  inconveniences 

same   judicious   historian   else-  are  nothing  like  what  they  are 

where  observes  (vol.  vi.  p.  211),  commonly  supposed  to  be. 
that  if  Philip  III.  had  been  equal         80  '  Abstraido   Felipe   III.  en 

to  his  father,  Spain  would  have  devociones,  amante  Felipe  IV.  de 

continued  to  nourish.     Several  regocijos,  mortificado  Carlos  II. 

of  the  more  recent  Spanish  wri-  por    padecimientos,    cuidaronse 

ters,  looking  at  the  heavy  ex-  poco  6  nada  de  la  gobernacion 

penses  caused  by  the  policy  of  del  Estado,  y  confiaronla  a  vali- 

Philip  II.,  and  at  the  debts  which  dos   altaneros,  codiciosos,   inca- 

he  incurred,  have  supposed  that  paces,  y  de  muy  funesta  memoria.' 

the  decline  of  the  country  began  Bio,    Historia   del    Beinado   de 

in  the  latter  years  of  his  reign.  Carlos  III.,  Madrid,  1856,  vol.  i. 

But  the  truth  is,  that  no  great  p.  33. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


469 


paralyzed ;  he  was  epileptic  ;  and  he  was  notoriously 
impotent.81  His  general  appearance  was  absolutely 
revolting,  and  was  that  of  a  drivelling  idiot.  To  an 
enormous  mouth,  he  added  a  nether  jaw  protruding  so 
hideously  that  his  teeth  could  never  meet,  and  he  was 
unable  to  masticate  his  food.82  His  ignorance  would 
be  incredible,  if  it  were  not  substantiated  by  unim- 
peachable evidence.  He  did  not  know  the  names  of 
the  large  towns,  or  even  of  the  provinces,  in  his  do- 
minions ;  and  during  the  war  with  France  he  was  heard 
to  pity  England  for  losing  cities  which  in  fact  formed 
part  of  his  own  territory.83     Finally,  he  was  immersed 


81  'Sans  esperanee  de  pos- 
terite.'  Millot,  Memoires  de 
Noailles,  vol.  i.  p.  419.  '  Incapaz 
detenerhijos.'  Ortiz,  Compendio, 
vol.  vi.  p.  560.  See  also  Me- 
moires de  Louville,  vol.  i.  p.  82  ; 
and  the  allusions  in  Lettres  de 
Madame  de  Villars,  edit.  Am- 
sterdam, 1759,  pp.  53,  120,  164. 
She  was  ambassadress  in  Spain 
in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  M. 
Lafuente,  who,  if  I  rightly  re- 
member, never  quotes  these  inte- 
resting letters,  and  who  indeed, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  has 
used  none  but  Spanish  authori- 
ties, ventures  nevertheless  to  ob- 
serve that '  La  circunstancia  de 
nohabertenido  sucesion.faltaque 
en  general  se  achabaca  mas  al 
rey  que  a  la  reina,'  &c.  Historia 
de  Espana,  vol.  xvii.  pp.  198, 
199,  Madrid,  1856.  According 
to  the  biographer  of  the  Spanish 
Queens,  some  persons  imputed 
this  to  sorcery,  '  y  aun  se  dijo  si 
intervenia  maleficio.'  Floret, 
Memorias  de  las  Reynas  Catholi- 
cas,  vol.  ii.  p.  973,  Madrid,  1761, 
4to. 

82  In  1696,  Stanhope,  the  Eng- 
lish minister  at  Madrid,  writes : 
'  He  has  a  ravenous  stomach,  and 


swallows  all  he  eats  whole,  for 
his  nether  jaw  stands  so  much 
out  that  his  two  rows  of  teeth 
cannot  meet;  to  compensate 
which,  he  has  a  prodigious  wide 
throat,  so  that  a  gizzard  or  liver 
of  a  hen  passes  down  whole,  and 
his  weak  stomach  not  being  able 
to  digest  it,  he  voids  it  in  the 
same  manner.'  Mahon's  Spain 
under  Charles  II.,  London,  1840, 
p.  79  ;  a  very  valuable  collection 
of  original  documents,  utterly 
unknown  to  any  Spanish  histo- 
rian I  have  met  with.  Some 
curious  notices  of  the  appearance 
of  Charles  II.  in  his  childhood 
may  be  seen  published  for  the 
first  time  in  Mignets  Negotia- 
tions relatives  a  la  Succession 
oV  Espagne,Vax\s,  1835-1842,  4to. 
vol.  i.  pp.  294,  295,  310,  396, 
404,  419,  vol.  ii.  p.  130,  vol.  iiL 
pp.  418,  419,  423.  See  also  vol. 
iv.  p.  636,  for  an  instance  of  his 
taciturnity,  which  was  almost 
the  only  mark  of  sense  he  ever 
gave,  'Le  roi  l'ecouta,  et  ne  lui 
repondit  rien.' 

83  '  LeKoydemeuroitdansune 
profonde  ignorance  et  de  ses 
affaires  et  menu:  des  Etats  de  sa 
couronne ;  a  peine  connoissoit-il 


470       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

in  the  most  grovelling  superstition ;  he  heheved  him- 
self to  be  constantly  tempted  by  the  devil ;  he  allowed 
himself  to  be  exorcised  as  one  possessed  by  evil  spirits  ; 
and  he  would  not  retire  to  rest,  except  with  his  con- 
fessor and  two  friars,  who  had  to  lie  by  his  side  during 
the  night.84 

Now  it  was  that  men  might  clearly  see  on  how  sandy 
a  foundation  the  grandeur  of  Spain  was  built.  When 
there  were  able  sovereigns,  the  country  prospered ; 
when  there  were  weak  ones,  it  declined.  Nearly  every- 
thing that  had  been  done  by  the  great  princes  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  was  undone  by  the  little  princes  of 
the  seventeenth.  So  rapid  was  the  fall  of  Spain,  that 
in  only  three  reigns  after  the  death  of  Philip  II.,  the 
most  powerful  monarchy  existing  in  the  world  was  de- 
pressed to  the  lowest  point  of  debasement,  was  insulted 
with  impunity  by  foreign  nations,  was  reduced  more 
than  once  to  bankruptcy,  was  stripped  of  her  fairest 
possessions,  was  held  up  to  public  opprobrium,  was 
made  a  theme  on  which  school-boys  and  moralists  loved 
to  declaim  respecting  the  uncertainty  of  human  affairs, 
and,  at  length,  was  exposed  to  the  bitter  humiliation  of 
seeing  her  territories  mapped  out  and  divided  by  a 
treaty  in  which  she  took  no  share,  but  the  provisions  of 


quelles  etoient  les  places  qui  lui  tion    of   the   devil,    and    never 

appartenoient  hors  du  continent  thinking  himself  safe  but  with 

d'Espagne.'    ...    'La  perte  de  his  confessor,  and  two  friars  by 

Barcelone   lui  fut  plus  sensible  his  side,  -whom  he  makes  lie  in 

qu'aucune  autre,  parce  que  cette  his  chamber  every  night.'     Ma- 

ville,  capitale  de  la  Catalogne,  et  hon's  Spain  under   Charles  II., 

situee    dans     le     continent    de  p.  102.     On  account,- no  doubt, 

l'Espagne,  lui  etoit  plus  connue  of  this  affection  for  monks,  he  is 

que  les  villes  de  Flandre,  dont  il  declared  by  a  Spanish  historian 

ignoroit    l'importance   au  point  to  have  possessed  a  '  corazon  pio 

de  croire  que  Mons  appartenoit  y  religioso.'      Bacallar,  Comen- 

au    roi   d'Angleterre,   et  de   le  tarios  de  la  Gucrra  de   Espana, 

plaindre  lorsque  le  Eoi  fit  la  con-  vol.  i.  p.  20.     The  best  notice  of 

quete  de   cette  province.'     Me-  the  exorcism  will  be  found  in 

moires  du  Marquis  de  Torcy,  vol.  Lafuent'/s  Historia  de  Espana, 

i.  pp.  19,  23,  edit.  Petitot,  Paris,  vol.  xvii.    pp.    294-309,   where 

1 828.  there  is  an  entire  chapter,  headed 

84  '  Fancying  everything  that  '  Los  Hcchizos  del  Rev.' 
is  said  or  done  to  be  a  tempta- 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUET. 


471 


which  she  was  unable  to  resent.85  Then,  truly,  did  she 
drink  to  the  dregs  the  cup  of  her  own  shame.  Her 
glory  had  departed  from  her,  she  was  smitten  down 
and  humbled.  Well  might  a  Spaniard  of  that  time 
who  compared  the  present  with  the  past,  mourn  over 
his  country,  the  chosen  abode  of  chivalry  and  romance, 
of  valour  and  of  loyalty.  The  mistress  of  the  world, 
the  queen  of  the  ocean,  the  terror  of  nations,  was  gone  ; 
her  power  was  gone,  no  more  to  return.  To  her  might 
be  applied  that  bitter  lamentation,  which,  on  a  much 
slighter  occasion,  the  greatest  of  the  sons  of  men  has 
put  into  the  mouth  of  a  dying  statesman.  Good  reason, 
indeed,  had  the  sorrowing  patriot  to  weep,  as  one  who 
refused  to  be  comforted,  for  the  fate  of  his  earth,  his 
realm,  his  land  of  dear  souls,  his  dear,  dear  land,  long 
dear  for  her  reputation  through  the  world,  but  now 
leased  out  like  to  a  tenement  or  pelting  farm.86 


85  '  La  foiblesse  de  l'Espagne 
ne  permettoit  pas  a  son  roi  de  se 
ressentir  du  traitement  dont  il 
croyoit  a  propos  de  se  plaindre.' 
Memoires  de  Torcy,  vol.  i.  p.  81. 
Or,  as  an  eminent  native  writer 
bitterly  says,  '  Las  naciones  es- 
trangeras  disponiendo  de  la 
monarquia  espar.ola  como  de 
bienes  sin  dueno.'  Tapia,  Civi- 
lization Espanola,  vol.  iii.  p.  187. 

86  '  This  royal  throne  of  kings, 
this  scepter'd  isle, 

This  earth  of  majesty,  this  seat 

of  Mars, 
This  other  Eden,  demi-paradise; 
This  fortress,  built  by  nature  for 

herself 
Against  infection  and  the  hand 

of  war ; 
This  happy  breed  of  men,  this 

little  world, 
This  precious  stone  set  in  the 

silver  sea, 
^Vhich  serves  it  in  the  office  of  a 

wall, 


Or  as   a    moat  defensive  to   a 

house, 
Against  the  envy  of  less  happier 

lands  ; 
This    blessed    plot,   this   earth, 

this  realm,  this  England, 
This  nurse,  this  teeming  womb 

of  royal  kings, 
Fear'd  by  their  breed  and  famous 

by  their  birth, 
Renowned  for  their  deeds  as  far 

from  home, 
For  Christian  service  and  true 

chivalry, 
As  is  the  sepulchre  in  stubborn 

Jewry 
Of  the  world's  ransom,  blessed 

Mary's  son : 
This  land  of  such   dear  souls, 

this  dear,  dear  land, 
Dear  for  her  reputation  through 

the  world, 
Is  now  leas'd  out,  I  die  pro- 
nouncing it, 
Like  to  a  tenement   or  pelting 

farm. 


472       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

It  would  be  a  weary  and  unprofitable  task  to  relate 
the  losses  and  disasters  of  Spain  during  tbe  seven- 
teenth century.  The  immediate  cause  of  them  was 
undoubtedly  bad  government  and  unskilful  rulers  ;  but 
the  real  and  overriding  cause,  which  determined  the 
whole  march  and  tone  of  affairs,  was  the  existence  of 
that  loyal  and  reverential  spirit  which  made  the  people 
submit  to  what  any  other  country  would  have  spurned, 
and,  by  accustoming  them  to  place  extreme  confidence 
in  individual  men  reduced  the  nation  to  that  pre- 
carious position  in  which  a  succession  of  incompetent 
princes  was  sure  to  overthrow  the  edifice  which  com- 
petent ones  had  built  up.87 

The  increasing  influence  of  the  Spanish  Church  was 
the  first  and  most  conspicuous  consequence  of  the 
declining  energy  of  the  Spanish  government.  For, 
loyalty  and  superstition  being  the  main  ingredients  of  % 
the  national  character,  and  both  of  them  being  the 
result  of  habits  of  reverence,  it  was  to  be  expected  that, 
unless  the  reverence  could  be  weakened,  what  was 
taken  from  one  ingredient  would  be  given  to  the  other. 
As,  therefore,  the  Spanish  government,  during  the 
seventeenth  century,  did,  owing  to  its  extreme  im- 
becility, undoubtedly  lose  some  part  of  the  hold  it 
possessed  over  the  affections  of  the  people,  it  naturally 
happened  that  the  Church  stepped  in,  and  occupying 
the  vacant  place,  received  what  the  crown  had  forfeited. 
Besides  this,  the  weakness  of  the  executive  government 
encouraged  the  pretensions  of  the  priesthood,  and 
emboldened  the  clergy  to  acts  of  usurpation,  which  the 

87  The  Spanish  theory  of  go-  sobre  las  aguas,  ciencia  y  provi- 

vernment  is  well  stated  in  the  deneia  de  todo,  para  que  nada  se 

following    passage    in   Davila's  hiciese   sin   su  saber  y  querer: 

Life  of  Philip  III.  The  remarks  no  serviendo  los  Ministros  mas 

apply  to  Philip  II.  'Que  solo  ha  via  que  de  poner  por  obra  (obedeci- 

gobernado  sin  Validos  ni  Priva-  endo)  lo  que  su  Senor  mandaba. 

dos,  tomando  para  si  solo,  como  velando  sobre   cada  uno,  como 

primera  causa  de  su  gobierno,  el  pastor  de  sus  orejas,  para  ver  la 

maudar,  prohibir,  premiar,  casti-  verdad   eon   que   executan    sus 

gar,  hacer  mercedes,  conocer  su-  mandamientos  y  acuerdos.'    Da- 

getos,  elegir  Ministros,  dar  oficios,  vila,  Historia  de  Felipe  Tercero 

y  tenercomo  espiritu  que  andaba  lib.  i.  pp.  22,  23. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  473 

Spanish  sovereigns  of  the  sixteenth  century,  super- 
stitions though  they  were,  would  not  have  allowed  for 
a  single  moment.88  Hence  the  very  striking  fact,  that, 
while  in  every  other  great  country,  Scotland  alone 
excepted,  the  power  of  the  Church  diminished  during 
the  seventeenth  century,  it,  in  Spain,  actually  increased. 
The  results  of  this  are  well  worth  the  attention,  not 
only  of  philosophic  students  of  history,  but  also  of 
every  one  who  cares  for  the  welfare  of  his  own  country, 
or  feels  an  interest  in  the  practical  management  of 
public  affairs. 

For  twenty- three  years  after  the  death  of  Philip  II., 
the  throne  was  occupied  by  Philip  HI.,  a  prince  as 
distinguished  by  his  weakness  as  his  predecessors  had 
been  by  their  ability.  During  more  than  a  century 
the  Spaniards  had  been  accustomed  to  be  entirely  ruled 
by  their  kings,  who,  with  indefatigable  industry,  per- 
sonally superintended  the  most  important  transactions, 
and  in  other  matters  exercised  the  strictest  supervision 
over  their  ministers.  But  Philip  HI.,  whose  listlessness 
almost  amounted  to  fatuity,  was  unequal  to  such 
labour,  and  delegated  the  powers  of  government  to 
Lerma,  who  wielded  supreme  authority  for  twenty 
years.89     Among  a  people  so  loyal  as  the  Spaniards, 


88  Even    Philip     II.    always  poder    desmedido.'         Lafuente 

retained   a  certain   ascendency  Historia  de  Espana,  vol.  xv.  p. 

over  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  114. 

though  he  was  completely  subju-  89  '  Por  cuyo  absoluto  poderio 

gated  by  ecclesiastical  prejudices,  se  executaba  todo.'   Yanez,  Me- 

'  While  Philip  was  thus  willing  morias  para  la  Historia  de  Felipe 

to  exalt  the  religious  order,  al-  III.,  Prologo,  p.  150.     '  An  ab- 

ready  far  too  powerful,  he  was  soluteness    in  power  over  king 

careful  that  it  should  never  gain  and    kingdom.'       Letter     from 

such  a  height  as  would  enable  it  Sir    Charles   Cornwallis  to   the 

to  overtop  the  royal  authority.'  Lords  of  the  Council  in  England, 

Prescotfs  History  of  Philip  II,  dated  Valladolid,  May  31,  1605, 

vol.  iii.  p.  235.     '  Pero  este  mo-  in  WinwoooVs  Memorials,  vol.  ii. 

narca  tan  afecto  a  la  Inquisicion  p.  73,  London,  1725,  folio.  'Por- 

mientras  le  servia  para  sus  fines,  que  no  era  facil  imaginar  enton- 

sabia  bien  tener  a  raya  al  Santo  ces,  ni  por  fortuna  se  ha  repetido 

Oficio  cuando  intentaba  invadir.  el  ejemplo  despues,  que  hubiera 

6  usurpar  las  preeminencias  de  la  un  monarca  tan  prodigo  de  auto- 

autoridad  real,  6  arrogarse  un  ridad,   y  al   propio  tiempo  tan 


474       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

this  unusual  proceeding  could  not  fail  to  weaken  the 
executive  ;  since,  in  their  eyes,  the  immediate  and  irre- 
sistible interference  of  the  sovereign  was  essential  to 
the  management  of  affairs,  and  to  the  well-being  of  the 
nation.  Lerma,  well  aware  of  this  feeling,  and  con- 
scious that  his  own  position  was  very  precarious, 
naturally  desired  to  strengthen  himself  by  additional 
support,  so  that  he  might  not  entirely  depend  on  the 
favour  of  the  king.  He  therefore  formed  a  strict 
alliance  with  the  clergy,  and,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  his  long  administration  did  everything  in  his 
power  to  increase  their  authority.90  Thus  the  influence 
lost  by  the  crown  was  gained  by  the  Church,  to  whose 
advice  a  deference  was  paid  even  greater  than  had 
been  accorded  by  the  superstitious  princes  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  In  this  arrangement,  the  interests 
of  the  people  were  of  course  unheeded.  Their  welfare 
formed  no  part  of  the  general  scheme.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  clergy,  grateful  to  a  government  so  sensible 
of  their  merits,  and  so  religiously  disposed,  used  all 
their  influence  in  its  favour ;  and  the  yoke  of  a  double 


indolente,  que   por   no  tomarse  Tercero,  lib.  ii.  p.  41),  after  eu- 

siquiera  el  trabajo  de  firmar  los  logizing  the  personal  qualities  of 

documentos  de  Estado,  quisiera  Lerma,  adds,  '  Y  sin  estas  gran- 

dar  a  la  firma  de  un  vasalla  suyo  des   partes  tuvo  demostraciones 

la  misma  autoridad  que  a  la  suya  Christianas,  manifestandolo  en  los 

propia,  y  que  advirtiera  y  orde-  conventos,    iglesias,    colegiatas, 

nara,  como  ordeno  Felipe  III.  a.  hospitales,   ermitas  y  catedras, 

todos  sus  consejos,  tribunales,  y  que  dejo  fundadas,  en  que  gasto, 

siibditos,  que  dieran  a,  los  des-  como  me  consta  de  los  libros  de 

pachos  firmados  por  el  duque  de  su  Contaduria,  un  millon  ciento 

Lerma  el  mismo  cumplimiento  y  cincuenta  y  dos  mil  doscientos 

obediencia,  y  los   ejecutaran  y  ochenta  y  tres  ducados.'     After 

guardaran  con  el  mismo  respeto  such      monstrous      prodigality, 

que  si  fueran  firmados  por  el.'  "Watson  might  well  say,  in  his 

Lafuente,   Historia  de  Espana,  rather  superficial,   but,    on  the 

vol.  xv.  pp.  449,  450.  '  El  duque  whole,     well-executed    History, 

de  Lerma,  su  valido,  era  el  que  that  Lerma   showed  '  the  most 

gobernaba  el  reino  solo.'  vol.  xvii.  devoted  attachment  to  the  church,' 

p.  332.     His  power  lasted  from  and  'conciliated   the    favour  of 

io98  to  1618.     Ortiz,  Compen  ecclesiastics.'     Watson's  History 

dio,  vol.  vi.  pp.  290,  325.  of  Philip  HI.,  London,  1S39,  pp. 

80  Davila  {Historia  do  Felipe  4,  8,  46,  224. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


475 


despotism  was  riveted  more  firmly  than  ever  upon  the 
neck  of  that  miserable  nation,  which  was  now  about  to 
reap  the  bitter  fruit  of  a  long  and  ignominious  sub- 
mission.91 

The  increasing  power  of  the  Spanish  Church  during 
the  seventeenth  century,  may  be  proved  by  nearly  every 
description  of  evidence.  The  convents  and  churches 
multiplied  with  such  alarming  speed,  and  their  wealth 
became  so  prodigious,  that  even  the  Cortes,  broken  and 
humbled  though  they  were,  ventured  on  a  public  re- 
monstrance. In  1626,  only  five  years  after  the  death 
of  Philip  III.,  they  requested  that  some  means  might 
be  taken  to  prevent  what  they  described  as  a  constant 
invasion  on  the  part  of  the  Church.  In  this  remarkable 
document,  the  Cortes,  assembled  at  Madrid,  declared 
that  never  a  day  passed  in  which  laymen  were  not 
deprived  of  their  property  to  enrich  ecclesiastics  ;  and 
the  evil,  they  said,  had  grown  to  such  a  height,  that 


9'  The  only  energy  Philip  III. 
ever  displayed,  was  in  seconding 
the  efforts  of  his  minister  to  ex- 
tend the  influence  of  the  Church ; 
and  hence,  according  to  a  Spanish 
historian,  he  was  '  monarque  le 
plus  pieux  parmi  tous  ceux  qui 
ont  occupe  le  trone  d'Espagne 
depuis  saint  Ferdinand.'  Sem- 
pire,  Monarchie  Espagnole,  vol.  i. 
p.  245.  '  El  principal  cuidado 
de  nuestro  Rey  era  tener  a  Dios 
por  amigo,  grangear  y  beneficiar 
su  gracia,  para  que  le  asistiese 
propicio  en  quanto  obrase  y  di- 
xese.  De  aqui  tuvieron  principio 
tantos  dones  ofrecidos  a  Dios, 
tanta  fundacion  de  Conventos,  y 
favores  hechos  a  Iglesias  y  Re- 
ligiones.'  Bavila,  Historia  de 
Felipe  Tercero,  lib.  ii.  p.  170. 
His  wife,  Margaret,  was  equally 
sictivo.  See  Florez,  Reynas  Ca- 
fholicas,  vol.  ii.  pp.  915,  916. 
'  Demas  de  km  frutos  que  dio 
para  el  Cielo  y  para  la  tierra 


nuestra  Reyna,  tuvo  otros  de 
ambas  lineas  en  fundaciones  de 
Templos  y  obras  de  piedad  para 
bien  del  Reyno  y  de  la  Iglesia. 
En  Valladolid  fundo  el  Convento 
de  las  Franciscas  Desealzas.  En 
Madrid  traslado  a  las  Agustinas 
Recoletas  de  Santa  Isabel  desde 
la  calle  del  Principe  al  6itio  en 
que  hoy  estan.  Protegi6  con  sus 
limosnas  la  fundacion  de  la  Igle- 
sia de  Carmelitas  Desealzas  da 
Santa  Ana  ;  y  empezo  a  fundar 
el  Real  Convento  de  las  Agus- 
tinas Recoletas  con  titulo  do  la 
Encarnacion  en  este  misma  Corte, 
cuya  primera  piedra  se  puso  a 
10  de  Junio  del  1611.  En  la 
parroquia  de  S.  Gil  junto  al  Pa- 
lacio  introdujo  los  Religiosos 
Franciscos,  cuyo  Convento  per- 
severa  hoy  con  la  misma  adro- 
cacion.'  How  the  country  fared, 
while  all  this  was  going  on,  we 
shall  presently  see. 


476       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM    THE    FIFTH 


there  were  then  in  Spain  upwards  of  nine  thousand 
monasteries,  besides  nunneries.92  This  extraordinary 
statement  has,  I  believe,  never  been  contradicted,  and 
its  probability  is  enhanced  by  several  other  circum- 
stances. Davila,  who  lived  in  the  reign  of  Philip  III., 
affirms  that  in  1623,  the  two  orders  of  Dominicans  and 
Franciscans  alone  amounted  to  thirty-two  thousand.93 
The  other  clergy  increased  in  proportion.  Before  the 
death  of  Philip  III.,  the  number  of  ministers  perform- 
ing in  the  Cathedral  of  Seville  had  swelled  to  one 
hundred ;  and  in  the  diocese  of  Seville,  there  were 
fourteen  thousand  chaplains ;  in  the  diocese  of  Cala- 
horra,  eighteen  thousand.94     Nor  did  there  seem  any 


92  The  burden  of  the  petition 
was,  '  Que  se  tratasse  con  mas 
veras  de  poner  limite  a  los  bienes, 
que  se  sacauan  cada  dia  del  braco 
•  Seglar  al  Eclesiastico,  enflaque- 
ciendo  no  tan  solo  el  patrimonio 
Real,  mas  el  comun,  pues  siendo 
aquel  libre  de  pechos,  contribu- 
ciones,  y  gauelas,  alojamientos, 
huespedes,  y  otros  grauamenes 
mayores,  presidios,  guerras,  y 
soldados.'  .  .  .  .  '  Que  las  Reli- 
giones  eran  muchas,  las  Mendi- 
cantes  en  excesso,  y  el  Clero  en 
grande  multitud.  Que  auia  en 
Espafia  9088  monasterios,  aun 
no  cotando  los  de  Monjas.  Que 
yuan  metiedo  poco  a  poco,  con 
dotaciones,  cofradias,  capella- 
nias,  o  con  copras,  a  todo  el 
Reyno  en  su  poder.  Que  se 
atajasse  tanto  mal.  Que  huuies- 
se  numero  en  los  frayles,  mo- 
deracion  en  los  Couentos,  y  aun 
en  los  Clerigos  seglares.'  Ces- 
pedes,  Historic/,  de  Don  FelipelV., 
Barcelona,  1634,  fol.  lib.  vii.  cap. 
9,  p.  272  rev.  This  is  the  only 
noticeable  passage  in  an  unusu- 
ally dull  chronicle,  which,  though 
professing  to    be  a   history  of 


Philip  IV.,  is   confined  to   the 
first  few  years  of  his  reign. 

83  '  En  estS  afio,  que  iba  escri- 
biendo  esta  Historia,  tenian  las 
Ordenes  de  Santo  Domingo,  y  S. 
Francisco  en  Espafia,  treinta  y 
dos  mil  Religiosos,  y  los  Obispa- 
dos  de  Calahorra  y  Pamplona 
veinte  y  quatro  mil  clerigos; 
pues  qu6  tendran  las  demas  Re- 
ligiones,  y  los  demas  Obispados  ? ' 
Davila,  Historia  de  Felipe  Ter- 
cerc,  lib.  ii.  p.  215.  See  also  cap. 
xcvii.  pp.  248,  249  ;  and,  on  the 
increase  of  convents,  see  Yanez, 
Memorias  para  la  Historia  de 
Felipe  III,  pp.  240,  268,  304, 
305. 

84  *  The  reign  of  Philip  III., 
surnamed  from  his  piety  the 
Good,  was  the  golden  age  of 
Churchmen.  Though  religious 
foundations  were  already  too 
numerous,  great  additions  were 
made  to  them;  and  in  those 
which  already  existed,  new  altars 
or  chancels  were  erected.  Thus, 
the  duke  of  Lerma  founded  seven 
monasteries  and  two  collegiate 
churches  ;  thus,  also,  the  diocese 
of  Calahorra  numbered  18,000 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUKY. 


477 


prospect  of  remedying  this  frightful  condition.  The 
richer  the  Church  became,  the  greater  was  the  induce- 
ment for  laymen  to  enter  it ;  so  that  there  appeared  to 
be  no  limit  to  the  extent  to  which  the  sacrifice  of 
temporal  interests  might  be  carried.95  Indeed,  the 
movement,  notwithstanding  its  suddenness,  was  per- 
fectly regular,  and  was  facilitated  by  a  long  train  of 


chaplains,  Seville  14,000.  How 
uselessly  the  ministers  of  religion 
were  multiplied,  will  appear  still 
more  clearly  from  the  fact  that 
the  cathedral  of  Seville  alone 
had  a  hundred,  when  half-a-dozen 
would  assuredly  have  been 
sufficient  for  the  public  offices  of 
devotion.'  Dunham's  History  of 
Spain,  vol.  v.  p.  274.  According 
to  the  passage  quoted  in  note  93, 
from  Davila,  there  were  twenty- 
four  thousand  '  clerigos '  in  the 
two  dioceses  of  Calahorra  and 
Pamplona. 

9i  '  Entre  tanto  crecia  por  in- 
stantes  y  se  aumentaba  prodigio- 
samente  el  poder  y  la  autoridad 
de  la  Iglesia.  Sus  pingiies  ri- 
quezas  desmembraban  de  una 
manera  considerable  las  rentes 
de  la  corona ;  y  el  estado  ecle- 
siastico,  que  muchos  abrazaron 
en  un  principio  a  consecuencia 
de  las  desgracias  y  calamidades 
de  la  epoca,  fue  despues  el  mas 
solicitado  por  las  inmensas  ven- 
tajas  que  ofrecia  su  condicion 
comparada  con  la  de  las  clases 
restantes.'  Antequera,Historiade 
la  Legislation,  pp.  223,  224.  See 
also  in  Campomanes,  Apendice  a  la 
Education,  Madrid,  1775-1777, 
vol.  i.  p.  465,  and  vol.  iv.  p.  219,  a 
statement  made  by  the  Univer- 
sity of  Toledo  in  1619,  or  1620, 
that  '  hay  doblados  religiosos, 
clerigos  y  estudiantes;  porquo 
ya  no  kalian  otro  modo  de  vivir, 


ni  de  poder  sustentarse.'     If  the 
eye  of  M.  Lafuente  had  lighted 
upon  this  and   other  passages, 
which  I  shall  shortly  quote  from 
contemporary      observers,      he 
would,  I  think,  have  expressed 
himself  much  more  strongly  than 
he    has    done    respecting    this 
period,  in   his   recent  brilliant, 
but    unsatisfactory,   History  of 
Spain.  On  the  great  wealth  of  the 
convents  in  1679,  when  the  rest 
of  the  country  was   steeped  in 
poverty,  see  a  letter  dated  Ma- 
drid, July  25, 1679,  in  D'Aulnoy, 
Belation  du   Voyage  d'Espagne, 
Lyon,  1693,  vol.  ii.  p.  251.    But 
the  earliest  evidence  I  have  met 
with  is  in  a  letter,  written  in 
1609,  to  Prince  Henry  of  Eng- 
land, by  Sir  Charles  Cornwallis, 
the  English  ambassador  at  Ma- 
drid.     'The  furniture  of  their 
churches   here,   and   the  riches 
and  lustre  of  their   sepulchres 
made  in  every  monasterie  (the 
general  povertye  of  this  king- 
dome    considered),    are    almost 
incredible.      The    laity  of  this 
nation    may   say  with   Davyde 
(though  in  another  sense),  "  Ze- 
lus  domus   fuse  comedit   me : " 
for,  assuredly,  the  riches  of  the 
Temporall  hath  in  a  manner  all 
fallen  into  the  mouthes  and  de- 
vouring throates  of  the  Spiritual.' 
WinwoocCs  Memorials  of  Affairs 
of  State,  vol.  iii.  p.  10,  London, 
1725,  folio. 


478        SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM    THE    FIFTH 

preceding  circumstances.  Since  the  fifth  century,  the 
course  of  events,  as  we  have  already  seen,  invariably 
tended  in  this  direction,  and  insured  to  the  clergy  a 
dominion  which  no  other  nation  would  have  tolerated. 
The  minds  of  the  people  being  thus  prepared,  the 
people  themselves  looked  on  in  silence  at  what  it  would 
have  been  impious  to  oppose  ;  for,  as  a  Spanish  historian 
observes,  every  proposition  was  deemed  heretical  which 
tended  to  lessen  the  amount,  or  even  to  check  the 
growth  of  that  enormous  wealth  which  was  now  pos- 
sessed by  the  Spanish  Church.96 

How  natural  all  this  was,  appears  also  from  another 
fact  of  considerable  interest.  In  Europe  generally,  the 
seventeenth  century  was  distinguished  by  the  rise  of  a 
secular  literature  in  which  ecclesiastical  theories  were 
disregarded  ;  the  most  influential  writers,  such  as  Bacon 
and  Descartes,  being  laymen,  rather  hostile  to  the 
Church  than  friendly  to  it,  and  composing  their  works 
with  views  purely  temporal.  But  in  Spain,  no  change 
of  this  sort  occurred.97     In  that  country,  the  Church 

98  'Deux  millions  de  ducats,  and    Newton,   who,    no   doubt, 

que  le  clerge  possedait  sous  le  were  clever  men,  but  were  no- 

regne  de  Charles  V,  etaient  re-  wise   comparable  to    the    great 

putes  comme  un  revenu  exorbi-  thinkers  of  the  Peninsula.    Such 

tant ;  et,  un  demi-siecle  plus  tard,  assertions,  proceeding,  not  from 

lorsque  ces  revenus  s'elevaient  a  some  ignorant  despiser  of  physi- 

huit  millions,  on  qualifiat  d'he-  cal  science,  who  contemns  what 

retique,  toute  proposition    ten-  he  has  never  been  at  the  pains 

dant  a  operer  quelque  modifica-  to  study,  but  from  a  really  able 

tion   dans    leur  accroissement.'  and,  in  some  respects,  competent 

Sempere,  Monarchic  Espagnole,  judge,  are  important  for  the  his- 

vol.  ii.  p.  16.  tory  of  opinion ;  and  as  the  book 

97  In     a    work     on    Spanish  is  not  very  common,  I  will  give 

literature  which  was  published  two  or  three  extracts.     '  Confie- 

about   seventy  years   ago,   and  sanlos  Franceses  con  ingenuidad 

which,  at  the  time  of  its  appear-  que  Descartes  fue  un  novelista : 

ance,  made  considerable  noise,  y  con  todo  eso  quieren  hacerle 

this  peculiarity  is  frankly   ad-  pasar  por  el  promoter  de  la  filo- 

mitted,  but  is  deemed  rather  an  sofia  en  Europa,  como  si  su  filo- 

honour  to  Spain  than  otherwise,  sofia  se  desemejase  mucho  de  la 

inasmuch  as  that  country,  we  are  que  dominaba  en  las  sectas  de  la 

told,  has  produced  philosophers  antigiiedad.     Su    tratado  "  Del 

who  have  gone  much  deeper  into  Metodo"  esnadaen  comparacion 

things   than  Bacon,   Descartes,  de  los  libros  "  De  la  Corrupcion 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


479 


retained  her  hold  over  the  highest  as  well  as  over  the 
lowest  intellects.  Such  was  the  pressure  of  public 
opinion,  that  authors  of  every  grade  were  proud  to 
count  themselves  members  of  the  ecclesiastical  profes- 
sion, the  interests  of  which  they  advocated  with  a  zeal 
worthy  of  the  Dark  Ages.  Cervantes,  three  years 
before  his  death,  became  a  Franciscan  monk.98  Lope 
de  Vega  was  a  priest ;  he  was  an  officer  of  the  Inqui- 
sition; and  in  1623  he  assisted  at  an  auto  da  fe,  in 
which,  amid  an  immense  concourse  of  people,  a  heretic 
was  burned  outside  the  gate  of  Alcala  at  Madrid." 
Moreto,  one  of  the  three  greatest  dramatists  Spain  has 
produced,  assumed  the  monastic  habit  during  the  last 
twelve  years  of  his  life.100  Montalvan,  whose  plays  are 
still  remembered,  was  a  priest,  and  held  office  in  the 
Inquisition.101     Tarrega,  Mira  de  Mescua,  and  Tirso  de 


de  las  Artes"  de  Juan  Luis  Vives, 
que  le  antecedio  buen  numerode 
afios.'  Oration  Apologetica  por 
la  Espana  y  su  Merito  Literario 
por  B.  J.  P.  Forner,  Madrid, 
1786,  p.  xi.  '  No  hemos  tenido 
en  los  efectos  un  Cartesio,  no  un 
Neuton :  demoslo  de  barato : 
pero  hemos  tenido  justisimos  le- 
gisladores  y  excelentes  filosofos 
practicos,  que  ban  preferido  el 
inefable  gusto  de  trabajar  en 
beneficio  de  la  humanidad  a  la 
ociosa  ocupacion  de  edificarmun- 
dos  imaginarios  en  la  soledad  y 
silencio  de  un  gabinete.'  p.  12. 
'  Nada  se  disputaba  en  Espafia.' 
p.  61.  At  p.  143  a  comparison 
between  Bacon  and  Vives ;  and 
the  final  decision,  p.  146,  that 
Vives  enjoys  'una  gloriosa  supe- 
rioridad  sobre  todos  los  sabios  de 
todos  los  siglos.' 

•8  The  final  profession  was  not 
made  till  1616;  but  he  began  to 
wear  the  clothes  in  1613.  'Tal 
era  su  situacion  el  sabado  santo 
2  de  abril'  [1616]  'que  por  no 
poder  salir  de  su  casa  hubieron 


de  darle  en  ella  la  profesion  de 
la  venerable  orden  tercera  de 
San  Francisco,  cuyo  habito  habia 
tornado  en  Alcala,  el  dia  2  de 
julio  de  1613.'  Navarrete,  Vida 
de  Cervantes,  p.  cii.  prefixed  to 
Bon  Quijote,  Barcelona,  1839. 
Even  in  1609,  says  Navarrete, 
(p.  lxii.),  'Se  ha  creido  que  en- 
tonces  se  incorporo  tambien 
Cervantes,  como  lo  hizo  Lope  de 
Vega,  en  la  congregation  del 
oratorio  del  Caballero  de  Gracia, 
mientras  que  su  muger  y  su  her- 
mana  dona  Andrea  se  dedicaban 
a  semejantes  ejercicios  de  piedad 
en  la  venerable  orden  tercera  de 
San  Francisco,  cuyo  habito  reci- 
bieron  en  8  de  junio  del  mismo 
ano.' 

**  Ticknor's  History  of  Span- 
ish Literature,  vol.  ii.  pp.  125, 
126,  137,  147,  148. 

100  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  374.  Bw- 
graphie  Universelle,  vol.  xxx.  pp. 
149,  150. 

m  Ticknor's  History  of  Spa7i- 
ish  Literature,  vol.  ii.  pp.  276, 
327. 


480    ,    SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM    THE    FIFTH 

Molina,  were  all  successful  writers  for  the  stage,  and 
were  all  clergymen.102  Solis,  the  celebrated  historian 
of  Mexico,  was  also  a  clergyman.103  Sandoval,  whom 
Philip  III.  appointed  historiographer,  and  who  is  the 
principal  authority  for  the  reign  of  Charlf-s  V.,  was  at 
first  a  Benedictine  monk,  afterwards  became  bishop  of 
Tuy,  and  later  still,  was  raised  to  the  see  of  Pampeluna. 104 
Davila,  the  biographer  of  Philip  III.,  was  a  priest.105 
Mariana  was  a  Jesuit ; 10(J  and  Minana,  who  continued 
his  History,  was  superior  of  a  convent  in  Valencia.107 
Martin  Carrillo  was  a  jurisconsult  as  well  as  an  his- 
torian, but,  not  satisfied  with  his  double  employment, 
he  too  entered  the  Church,  and  became  canon  of  Sara- 
gossa.108  Antonio,  the  most  learned  bibliographer 
Spain  ever  possessed,  was  a  canon  of  Seville.109  Gra- 
cian,  whose  prose  works  have  been  much  read,  and  who 
was  formerly  deemed  a  great  writer,  was  a  Jesuit.110 
Among  the  poets,  the  same  tendency  was  exhibited. 
Paravicino  was  for  sixteen  years  a  popular  preacher  at 
the  courts  of  Philip  III.  and  Philip  IV.111  Zamora  was 
a  monk.112  Argensola  was  a  canon  of  Saragossa.113 
Gongora  wasapriest; 114  andKioja  receivedahighpost118 


102  Ticknor,  vol.  ii.  p.  327.  ,0»  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  293. 

,os  Bouterwek's     History     of  "°   Ticknor's  History  of  Span- 
Spanish  Literature,  vol.  i.  p.  525.  ish  Literature,  vol.  iii.  p.  177. 
But  the  best  account  is  that  given  ,u  Ibid.  vol.  ii,  p.  491,  vol.  iii. 
by  his  biographer,  who  assures  pp.  117,  118. 
us  of  two  facts;  that  he  received  m  SismondHs  Literature  of  the 
'  todas    las    ordenes    sagradas,'  South  of  Europe,  vol.  ii.  p.  348, 
and  that  he  was  'devotisimo  de  London,  1846. 
Maria     santisima.'        Vida     de  "3  'Pero  en  fin    murio    Don 
Solis,  p.   15,  prefixed  to  Solis,  Andres  Martinez,  y  sucediole  en 
Historia  de  la  Conquista  de  Me-  la  Canongia  nuestro  Bartholome.' 
jico,  edit.  Paris,  1844.  Pellicer,  Ensayo  de  una  Biblio- 

104  Biographu  Universelle,Tol.  tkeca,  Madrid,  1778,  4to.  p.  94. 

xl.  p.  319.  This  was  the  younger  Argensola. 

103  '  Sacerdote  soy.'     Davila,  1M  Ticknof  s  History  of  Span- 
Historia  de  la    Vida  de  Felipe  ish  Literature,  vol.  ii.  p.  486. 
Tercero,  lib.  ii;  p.  215.  lls  '  Occupied  a  high  place  in 

106  Biographie  Universelle,  vol.  the  Inquisition.'      Ticknor,  vol. 
xxvii.  p.  42.  ii.  p.  507.     '  Prit  les  ordres,  et 

107  Ibid.  vol.  xxix.  p.  80.  obtint  un  canonicat.'  Biographie 

108  Ibid.  vol.  vii.  p.  219.  Univ.  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  120. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUET.  481 

in  the  Inquisition.  Calderon  was  chaplain  to  Philip 
TV.  ;116  and  so  fanatical  are  the  sentiments  which  tar- 
nish his  brilliant  genius,  that  he  has  been  termed  the 
poet  of  the  Inquisition.117  His  love  for  the  Church  was 
a  passion,  and  he  scrupled  at  nothing  which  could 
advance  its  interests.  In  Spain,  such  feelings  were 
natural ;  though  to  other  nations  they  seem  so  strange, 
that  an  eminent  critic  has  declared  that  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  read  his  works  without  indignation.118  If 
this  be  so,  the  indignation  should  be  extended  to  nearly 
all  his  contemporary  countrymen,  great  or  small.  There 
was  hardly  a  Spaniard  of  that  period  who  did  not  enter- 
tain similar  sentiments.  Even  Villa viciosa,  author  of 
one  of  the  very  best  mock-heroic  poems  Spain  has  pro- 
duced, was  not  only  an  officer  in  the  Inquisition,  but,  in 
his  last  will,  he  strongly  urged  upon  his  family  and  all 
his  descendants,  that  they  too  should,  if  possible,  enter 
the  service  of  that  noble  institution,  taking  whatever 
place  in  it  they  could  obtain,  since  all  its  offices  were, 
he  said,  worthy  of  veneration.119     In  such  a  state  of 

116  In  1663  Philip  IV.  'le  ment  a  confirmer  les  prejuges  et 
honro  con  otra  Capellania  de  les  superstitions  lesplus  ridicules 
honor  en  su  real  Capilla.'  Vi-  de  sa  nation.'  Ginguene,  His- 
da  de  Calderon,  p.  iv.,  prefixed  toire  Litteraire  d'ltalie,  vol.  xii. 
to    Las   Comedias  de   Calderon,  p.  499,  Paris,  1834. 

edit.  Keil,  Leipsique,  1827.  ,M  'Entro  en  el  ano  de  1622  a 

117  '  Calderon  is,  in  fact,  the  ser  Relator  del  Consejo  de  la  (re- 
true  poet  of  the  Inquisition,  neral  Inquisition,  cuyo  empleo 
Animated  by  a  religious  feeling,  servio  y  desempeno  con  todo 
■which  is  too  visible  in  all  his  honor  muchos  anos.'  And  he 
pieces,  he  inspires  me  only  with  declared,  '  en  esta  clausula  de  su 
horror  for  the  faith  which  he  Testamento  :  "  Y  por  quanto  yo 
professes.'  Sismondi's  Literature  y  mis  hermanos  y  toda  nuestra 
of  the  South  of  Europe,  vol.  ii.  familia  nos  hemos  sustentado, 
p.  379.  Compare  Lewes  on  the  autorizado  y  puesto  en  estado 
Spanish  Drama,  pp.  176-179.  con  las  honras  y  mercedes,  qua 

118  Salfi  says,  '  Calderon  de  la  nos  ha  hecho  elsanto  Oficiodela 
Barca  excite  encore  plus  une  Inquisicion,  a  quien  hemos  servi- 
sorte  d'indignation,  malgre  son  do  como  nuestros  antepassados; 
genie  dramatique,  qui  le  mit  au-  encargo  afectuosissimamente  a 
dessus  de  Vega,  son  predecesseur.  todos  mis  successores  le  sean 
En  lisant  ses  drames  sans  pre-  para  siempre  los  mas  respetuosos 
vention,  vous  diriez  qu'il  a  voulu  servidores  y  criados,  viviendo  en 
faire  servir  son   talent  unique-  ocupacion  de  su  santo  servicio. 

VOL.   II.  I  I 


482       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

society,  anything  approaching  to  a  secular  or  scientific 
spirit  was,  of  course,  impossible.  Every  one  believed  ; 
no  one  inquired.  Among  the  better  classes,  all  were 
engaged  in  war  or  theology,  and  most  were  occupied 
with  both.  Those  who  made  literature  a  profession, 
ministered,  as  professional  men  too  often  do,  to  the 
prevailing  prejudice.  Whatever  concerned  the  Church 
was  treated  not  only  with  respect,  but  with  timid  vene- 
ration. Skill  and  industry  worthy  of  a  far  better  cause, 
were  expended  in  eulogizing  every  folly  which  super- 
stition had  invented.  The  more  cruel  and  preposterous 
a  custom  was,  the  greater  the  number  of  persons  who 
wrote  in  its  favour,  albeit  no  one  had  ventured  to  assail 
it.  The  quantity  of  Spanish  works  to  prove  the  neces- 
sity of  religious  persecution  is  incalculable ;  and  this 
took  place  in  a  country  where  not  one  man  in  a  thousand 
doubted  the  propriety  of  burning  heretics.  As  to 
miracles,  which  form  the  other  capital  resource  of 
theologians,  they,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  were  con- 
stantly happening,  and  as  constantly  being  recorded. 
All  literary  men  were  anxious  to  say  something  on  that 
important  subject.  Saints,  too,  being  in  great  repute, 
their  biographies  were  written  in  profusion,  and  with 
an  indifference  to  truth  which  usually  characterizes 
that  species  of  composition.  With  these  and  kindred 
topics,  the  mind  of  Spain  was  chiefly  busied.  Mo- 
nasteries, nunneries,  religious  orders,  and  cathedrals 
received  equal  attention,  and  huge  books  were  written 
about  them,  in  order  that  every  particular  might  be 
preserved.  Indeed,  it  often  happened  that  a  single 
convent,  or  a  single  cathedral,  would  have  more  than 
one  historian ;  each  seeking  to  distance  his  immediate 
competitor,  and  all  striving  which  could  do  most  to 
honour  the  Church  and  to  uphold  the  interests  of  which 
the  Church  was  the  guardian.120 

procurando  adelantarse  y  seSa-  logo,  pp.  x.-xii.,  edit.  Madrid, 

larso  en  el,  quanto  les  fuere  pos-  1777. 

sible,  en  qualquiera  de  sus  minis-  12°  '  Hardly  a    convent  or   a 

terios ;  pues  todos  son  tan  dignos  saint  of   any  note   in    Spain, 

de  estimacion  y  veneracion." '  La  during  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 

Mosquea,  por  Villaviciosa,  Pro-  teenth  centuries,  failed  of  especial 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


483 


Such,  was  the  preponderance  of  the  ecclesiastical 
profession,  and  such  was  the  homage  paid  to  ecclesias- 
tical interests  by  the  Spaniards  during  the  seventeenth 
century.121  They  did  everything  to  strengthen  the 
Church  in  that  very  age  when  other  nations  first  set 
themselves  in  earnest  to  weaken  it.  This  unhappy 
peculiarity  was  undoubtedly  the  effect  of  preceding 
events ;  but  it  was  the  immediate  cause  of  the  decline 
of  Spain,  since,  whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in 
former  periods,  it  is  certain  that,  in  modern  times,  the 
prosperity  of  nations  depends  on  principles  to  which 
the  clergy,  as  a  body,  are  invariably  opposed.  Under 
Philip  ILT.  they  gained  an  immense  accession  of 
strength ;  and  in  that  very  reign  they  signalized  this 
new  epoch  of  their  power  by  obtaining,  with  circum- 
stances of  horrible  barbarity,  the  expulsion  of  the 
whole  Moorish  nation.     This  was  an  act  so  atrocious 


commemoration ;  and  each  of  the 
religious  orders  and  great  cathe- 
drals had  at  least  one  historian, 
and  most  of  them  several.  The 
number  of  books  on  Spanish 
ecclesiastical  history,  is,  there- 
fore, one  that  may  well  be  called 
enormous.'  Tictcnor's  History 
of  Spanish  Literature,  vol.  iii. 
p.  132.  Forner  assures  us,  some- 
what needlessly,  of  what  no  one 
ever  doubted,  that  '  los  estudios 
sagrados  jamas  decayeron  en 
EspaSa.  Forner,  Oraeion  Apo- 
logetica,  Madrid,  1786,  p.  141. 

121  In  1623,  Howell  writes 
from  Madrid :  '  Such  is  the  re- 
verence they  bear  to  the  church 
here,  and  so  holy  a  conceit  they 
have  of  all  ecclesiastics,  that 
the  greatest  Don  in  Spain  will 
tremble  to  offer  the  meanest 
of  them  any  outrage  or  affront.' 
HoweWs  Letters,  edit.  London, 
1754,  p.  138.  'The  reverence 
they  show  to  the  holy  function  of 
the  church  is  wonderful ;  Princes 
and  Queens  will  not  disdain  to 


kiss  a  Capuchin's  sleeve,  or  the 
surplice  of  a  priest.'  .  .  .  '  There 
are  no  such  sceptics  and  cavillers 
there,  as  in  other  places.'  p.  496. 
In  1 669,  another  observer  writes : 
'  En  Espagne  les  Keligieux  sont 
les  maitres,  et  l'emportent  par- 
tout  ou  ils  se  trouvent.'  Voyages 
faits  en  divers  Temps  en  Es- 
pagne, Amsterdam,  1700,  p.  35. 
And,  to  quote  one  more  autho- 
rity, the  following  picture  is  given 
of  Spanish  society  in  the  reign  of 
Philip  IV. :  '  No  habia  familia 
con  quien  no  estuvieran  entron- 
cados  los  frailes  por  amistad  6 
parentesco  ;  ni  casa  que  les  cer- 
rara  sus  puertas ;  ni  conversacion 
en  que  no  se  les  cediera  la  pala- 
bra;  ni  mesa  en  que  no  se  les 
obligara  a  ocupar  la  primera 
silla;  ni  resolucion  grave  entre 
ricos  6  pobres  que  se  adoptara 
sin  su  consejo ;  y  si  no  tomaban 
parte  en  ellas,  las  satisfacciones 
dom£sticas  no  eran  cabales.'  Bio, 
Historia  del  Beinado  de  Carlos 
III,  vol.  i.  p.  94. 
2 


484      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

in  itself,122  and  so  terrible  in  its  consequences,  that 
some  writers  have  ascribed  to  it  alone,  the  subsequent 
ruin  of  Spain  ;  forgetting  that  other  causes,  far  more 
potent,  were  also  at  work,  and  that  this  stupendous 
crime  could  never  have  been  perpetrated,  except  in  a 
country  which,  being  long  accustomed  to  regard  heresy 
as  the  most  heinous  of  all  offences,  was  ready,  at  any 
cost,  to  purge  the  land  and  to  free  itself  from  men 
whose  mere  presence  was  regarded  as  an  insult  to  the 
Christian  faith. 

After  the  reduction,  late  in  the  fifteenth  century,  of 
the  last  Mohammedan  kingdom  in  Spain,  the  great 
object  of  the  Spaniards  became  to  convert  those  whom 
they  had  conquered.123  They  believed  that  the  future 
welfare  of  a  whole  people  was  at  stake ;  and  finding 
that  the  exhortations  of  their  clergy  had  no  effect,  they 
had  recourse  to  other  means,  and  persecuted  the  men 
they  were  unable  to  persuade.  By  torturing  some, 
by  burning  others,  and  by  threatening  all,  they  at 
length  succeeded ;  and  we  are  assured  that,  after  the 
year  1526,  there  was  no  Mohammedan  in  Spain,  who 
bad  not  been  converted  to   Christianity.124      Immense 


122  'Le  cardinal  de  Richelieu,  sixteenth  century,  at  Granada, 
qui  n'etoit  pas  tres-susceptible  where  he  lived  for  a  considerable 
de  pitie,  l'appelle  "  le  plus  hardi  period. 

etle  plus  barbare  conseil  dont         121  'L'annee    1526    vit    done 

l'histoire  de  tous  les  siecles  pre-  disparaitre  dans  toutes  les  parties 

c6densfassemention."'  Sismondi,  del'Espagnelessignes  exterieurs 

Histoire  des  Frangais,  vol.  xxii.  de  l'islamisme.'      Circourt,  Hist. 

p.  163,  Paris,  1839.  des     Arabes    cCEspagne,    Paris, 

123  <porque  i03  Reyes  queri-  1846,  vol.  ii.  p.  220.  M.  La- 
endo,  que  en  todo  el  Reino  fuesen  fuente  (Historia  de  Espana,  vol. 
Christianos,  embiaron  a  Frai  x.  p.  132)  says  of  1502,  that 
Francisco  Ximenez,  que  fue  Ar-  '  desde  entonces,  por  primera  vez 
zobispo  de  Toledo  i  Cardenal,  al  cabo  de  ocho  siglos,  no  quedo 
para  que  los  persuadiese.  Mas  un  solo  habitante  en  Espana  que 
ellos,  gente  dura,  pertinaz,  nue-  esteriormente  diera  culto  a  Ma- 
vamente  conquistada,  estuvieron  homa  :'  but  in  vol.  xi.  p.  447,  he 
recios.'  Mendoza,  Guerra  de  says  that,  in  1524,  'volvieron 
Granada  que  hizo  Felipe  II.  inmediatamente  a  sus  ritos  y 
contra  los  Moriscos,  Valencia,  ceremonias  muslimicas.'  As  M. 
1776,  4to.  p.  10.  The  author  of  de  Circourt  was  well  acquainted 
this  book  was  born  early  in  the  with  all  the  materials  used  by 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTTJKY. 


485 


numbers  of  them  "were  baptized  by  force;  but  being 
baptized,  it  was  held  that  they  belonged  to  the  Church, 
and  were  amenable  to  her  discipline.125  That  dis- 
cipline was  administered  by  the  Inquisition,  which, 
during  the  rest  of  the  sixteenth  century,  subjected 
these  new  Christians,  or  Moriscoes,  as  they  were  now 
called,126  to  the  most  barbarous  treatment.  The 
genuineness  of  their  forced  conversion  was  doubted; 
it  therefore  became  the  business  of  the  Church  to 
inquire  into  their  sincerity.127  The  civil  government 
lent  its  aid ;  and  among  other  enactments,  an  edict  was 
issued  by  Philip  II.  in  1566,  ordering  the  Moriscoes  to 
abandon  everything  which  by  the  slightest  possibility 
could  remind  them  of  their  former  religion.  They 
were  commanded,  under  severe  penalties,  to  learn 
Spanish,  and  to  give  up  all  their  Arabic  books.  They 
were  forbidden  to  read  their  native  language,  or  to 
write  it,  or  even  to  speak  it  in  their  own  houses. 
Their  ceremonies   and  their  very  games  were  strictly 


M.  Lafuente,  and  is,  moreover,  a 
much  more  critical  writer,  it 
seems  likely  that  his  statement 
is  the  correct  one. 

124  '  Ces  malheureux  auraient 
tous  ete  exterminea,  s'ils  n'avai- 
ent  consenti  a  recevoir  le  bap- 
t&me.  Au  milieu  des  decombres 
de  leurs  maisons,  sur  les  cada- 
vres  fumans  de  leurs  femmes,  ils 
s'agenouillerent.  Les  germanos, 
ivres  de  sang,  firent  V  office  de 
pretres  ;  l'un  d'eux  prit  tin 
balai,  aspergea  la  foule  des  mu- 
sulmans,  en  prononcant  les  pa- 
roles sacramentelles,  et  crut  avoir 
fait  des  Chretiens.  L'armee  des 
germanos  se  repandit  ensuite  dans 
le  pays  environnant,  saccageant 
d'abord,  baptisant  apres.'  Cir- 
court,  Histoire  des  Arabes  d'Es- 
pagne,  vol.  ii.  p.  175.  See  also 
p.  202. 

m  That    was    their    general 


name  ;  but,  in  Aragon,  they  were 
termed' "  tornadizos,"  en  lenguage 
insultante.'  Janer,  Condicionde 
los  Moriscos  de  Espana,  Madrid, 
1857,  p.  26. 

127  'Eecibieron  el  Sacramento 
por  comodidad,  no  de  voluntad^ 
y  asi  encubrian  todo  lo  possible* 
el  viuir  y  morir  en  la  secta  de 
Mahoma,  siendo  infieles  apos- 
tatas.'  Vanderkammen's  FUipe 
Segundo,  p.  12.  '  Porque  la  In- 
quisicion  los  comenzo  a  apretae 
mas  de  lo  ordinario.'  Mendoza, 
Guerrade  Granada,  p.  20.  'Po- 
ner  nuevo  cuidado  i  diligencia 
en  descubrir  los  motivos  destos 
hombres,'  p.  26.  And  yet  this 
very  writer  has  the  impudence 
to  declaim  against  Mohammed- 
anism as  a  cruel  religion.  '  Cruel 
i  abominable  religion  aplacar  a 
Dios  con  vida  i  sangre  inno- 
centel'pp.  107,  108. 


486       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FEOM    THE    FIFTH 


prohibited.  They  were  to  indulge  in  no  amusements 
which  had  been  practised  by  their  fathers ;  neither 
were  they  to  wear  such  clothes  as  they  had  been 
accustomed  to.  Their  women  were  to  go  unveiled ;  and 
as  bathing  was  a  heathenish  custom,  all  public  baths 
were  to  be  destroyed,  and  even  all  baths  in  private 
houses.128 

By  these  and  similar  measures,129  these  unhappy 
people  were  at  length  goaded  into  rebellion  ;  and  in 
1568  they  took  the  desperate  step  of  measuring  their 
force  against  that  of  the  whole  Spanish  monarchy. 
The  result  could  hardly  be  doubted ;  but  the  Moriscoes 
maddened  by  their  sufferings,  and  fighting  for  their  all, 
protracted  the  contest  till  1571,  when  the  insurrection 


1!S  Vanderhammen  (Filipe  Se- 
gundo,  p.  12,  Madrid,  1632) 
merely  tells  us  that  t  Por  cedula 
el  aSo  sesenta  y  seis  les  mando 
dexassen  el  habito,  lengua  y  cos- 
tumbres  de  Moros,  y  fuessen 
Christianos  y  lo  pareciessen.' 
But  the  exact  provisions  were, 
'  Que  dentro  de  tres  afios  apren- 
diesen  los  moriscos  a  hablar  la 
lengua  castellana,  y  de  alii  ade- 
lante  ninguno  pudiese  hablar, 
leer  ni  escriber  arabigo  en  publico 
ni  en  secreto :  que  todos  los  con- 
tratos  que  se  hiciesen  eh  arabigo 
fuesen  nulos:  que  todos  los  libros 
asi  escritos  los  llevasen  en  ter- 
mino  de  treinta  dias  al  presidente 
de  la  audiencia  de  Granada  para 
que  los  mandase  examinar,  de- 
volviendoseles  aquellos  que  no 
ofrecieran  inconveniente  para  que 
los  pudiesen  guardar  solo  durante 
los  tres  anos :  que  no  se  hicie- 
ran  de  nuevo  marlotas,  almalafas, 
ealzas  ni  otra  suerte  de  vestidos 
de  los  que  se  usaban  en  tiempos  de 
moros;  que  durante  este  tiempo, 
las  mujeres  vestidas  a  la  morisca 
llevarian  la  eara  descubierta ; 
que  no  usasen  de  las  ceremonias 


ni  de  los  regocijos  moros  en  las 
bodas,  sino  conforme  al  uso  de  la 
Santa  Madre  Iglesia,  abriendo 
las  puertas  de  sus  casas  en  tales 
dias,  y  tambien  en  los  de  fiesta, 
no  haciendo  zambras  ni  leylas 
con  instrumentos  ni  cantares 
moriscos,  aunque  no  dijesen  en 
ellos  cosas  contraria  a  la  reli- 
gion cristiana,'  &c.  Janer,  Con- 
dition de  los  Moriscos,  ■pp.  31,  32, 
where  other  particulars  will  be 
found,  which  should  be  compared 
with  Circourt,  Histoire  des  Arabes 
oVEspagne,  vol.  ii.  pp.  278,  283, 
459-463. 

129  Some  of  the  other  steps 
which  were  taken,  before  1566, 
to  affront  the  Moriscoes  are  enu- 
merated in  Prescott's  History  of 
Philip  II.,  vol.  iii.  p.  10,  and 
elsewhere.  In  the  reign  of 
Charles  V.,  there  were  many  acts 
of  local  tyranny  which  escape 
the  general  historian.  One  of 
them,  on  the  part  of  the  Bishop 
of  Guadix,  is  worth  quoting. 
'  On  le  vit  pousser  l'intoleranca 
jusqu'a,  faire  raser  les  femmes  et 
les  obliger  a,  racier  leurs  ongles 
pour    en    faire     disparaitre    les 


TO   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTUET.  487 

was  finally  put  down.130  By  this  unsuccessful  effort, 
they  were  greatly  reduced  in  numbers  and  in  strength  ; 
and,  during  the  remaining  twenty-seven  years  of  the 
reign  of  Philip  II.  we  hear  comparatively  little  of 
them.  Notwithstanding  an  occasional  outbreak,  the 
old  animosities  were  subsiding,  and  in  the  course  of 
time  would  probably  have  disappeared.  At  all  events, 
there  was  no  pretence  for  violence  on  the  part  of  the 
Spaniards,  since  it  was  absurd  to  suppose  that  the 
Moriscoes,  weakened  in  every  way,  humbled,  broken, 
and  scattered  through  the  kingdom,  could,  even  if 
they  desired  it,  effect  any  thing  against  the  resources 
of  the  executive  government. 

But,  after  the  death  of  Philip  II.,  that  movement 
began  which  I  have  just  described,  and  which,  con- 
trary to  the  course  of  affairs  in  other  nations,  secured 
to  the  Spanish  clergy  in  the  seventeenth  century,  more 
power  than  they  had  possessed  in  the  sixteenth.  The 
consequences  of  this  were  immediately  apparent. 
The  clergy  did  not  think  that  the  steps  taken  by 
Philip  II.  against  the  Moriscoes  were  sufficiently  de- 
cisive ;  and  even  during  his  lifetime  they  looked  forward 
to  a  new  reign,  in  which  these  Christians  of  doubtful 
sincerity  should  be  either  destroyed  or  driven  from 
Spain.131     "While  he  was  on  the  throne,  the   prudence 

traces  du  henne,  cosmetique  in-  tions  which  they  had  received 
offensif  dont  il  abhorrait  l'usage,  from  the  Spanish  Christians, 
en  raison  de  ce  que  les  Arabes  What  he  mentions  of  one  of  the 
l'avaient  introduit.'  Circourt,  battles  is  curious,  and  I  do  not  re- 
Histoire  des  Arabes  cPEspagne,  member  to  have  seen  it  elsewhere 
vol.  ii.  p.  226.  recorded.  '  Fue  porfiado  por 
1S0  Its  concluding  scene,  in  ambas  partes  el  combat*  hasta 
March,  1571,  is  skilfully  de-  venir  a  las  espadas,  de  que  los 
picted  in  Prescotfs  History  of  Moros  se  aprovechan  menos  que 
Philip  III.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  148-151.  nosotros,  por  tener  las  suyas  un 
The  splendid  courage  of  the  filo  i  no  herir  ellos  de  punta.' 
Moriscoes  is  attested  by  Mendoza  Mendoza,  Chierra  de  Granada, 
in  his  contemporary  history  of  edit.  4to.  Valencia,  1776,  p.  168. 
the  war ;  but,  in  narrating  the  lsl  An  instance  of  this  was  ex- 
horrible  outrages  which  they  un-  hibited  in  1578,  on  the  very  day 
doubtedly  committed,  he  makes  in  which  Philip  III.  was  born, 
no  allowance  for  the  long-con-  '  Predicando  en  un  lugar  de  Ara- 
timied  and  insufferable  provoca-  gon,  todo  de  Moriscos,  llamado 


488       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 


of  the  government  restrained  in  some  degree  the  eager- 
ness of  the  Church ;  and  the  king,  following  the 
advice  of  his  ablest  ministers,  refused  to  adopt  the 
measures  to  which  he  was  urged,  and  to  which  his 
own    disposition  prompted  him.132      But,    under  his 


Eicla,  6  Torrellas,  un  religioso, 
llamado  Vargas,  el  mismo  dia 
que  nacio  su  Magestad,  viendo  el 
poco  fruto  que  hacia  con  sus 
sermones,  dixo,  como  en  Profecia, 
a  aquella  gente  rebelde :  Pues  no 
quereis  despedir  de  vuestros 
pechos  esta  infernal  secta,  sabed, 
que  ha  nacido  en  Castilla  vn 
Principe  que  os  ha  de  echar  de 
Espafia/  Porreno,  Diehos  y 
Hechos  de  Phelipe  III.,  in  Yanez, 
Memorias,  Madrid,  1723,  p.  224; 
and  nearly  the  same  words  in 
Janer,  Condition  de  los  Moriscos, 
p.  60.  Mr.  Prescott,  in  his 
History  of  Philip  II.,  vol.  iii.  p. 
139,  quotes  a  Ms.  letter  from 
Don  John  of  Austria  to  Philip 
II.,  written  in  1570,  and  stating 
that  the  Spanish  monks  were 
openly  preaching  against  the 
leniency  with  which  the  king 
treated  the  Moriscoes.  'Predi- 
cando  en  los  pulpitos  publica- 
mente  contra  la  benignidad  y  cle- 
mencia  que  V.  M.  ha  mandado 
usar  con  esta  gente.' 

132  In  a  recent  work  of  con- 
siderable authority,  it  is  denied 
that  Philip  II.  entertained  the 
desire  of  expelling  the  Moriscoes. 
1  El  caracter  austero  y  la  severi- 
dad  do  Felipe  II.  redundaban  en 
favor  de  los  moriscos,  porque  no 
daba  oidos  a  las  instigaciones  de 
algunos  personajes  que  senala- 
ban  la  expulsion  general  como 
unico  remedio  eficaz  para  los 
males  que  ofrecia  al  pais  aquella 
desventurada  raza.  Acababa  el 
monarca  de  tocar  los  tristes  re- 


sultados  de  una  emigracion  por 
las  funestas  consecuencias  de  la 
despoblacion  del  reino  granadino, 
y  preferia  continual  en  la  senda 
de  la  conciliation,  procurando  de 
nuevo  la  ensenanza  de  los  con- 
versos.'  Janer,  Condition  de  los 
Moriscos,  Madrid,  1857,  p.  59. 
But  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact 
that  this  is  contrary  to  all  we 
know  of  the  character  of  Philip, 
we  have,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
question,  the  testimony  of  Arch- 
bishop Bibera,  who  had  often 
communicated  with  the  King  on 
the  subject,  and  who  distinctly 
states  that  Philip  desired  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Moors  from  Spain, 
1  El  hechar  los  Moros  deste  Key- 
no,  ha  sido  cosa  muy  desseada,  y 
procurada  por  los  Beyes  Prede- 
cessores  del  Bey  nuestro  Senor, 
aunque  no  executada,'  ...  'El 
Bey  Don  Felipe  Segundo,  nuestro 
Senor,  despues  de  suceder  en 
estos  Beynos,  tuvo  el  mis7no  des- 
seo  ;  y  assi  mando,  que  se  jun- 
tassen  16s  Prelados  deste  Beyno 
para  buscar  remedio  el  afio  de 
1568;  siendo  Arcjobispo  desta 
Metropoli  el  Beverendissimo 
Don  Hernando  de  Lloazes. 
Hizieronse  en  aquella  Junta  al- 
gunas  Constituciones  de  conside- 
racion.  Visto  que  no  aprovecha- 
ban,  mando  el  ano  1587  que  se 
hiziesse  otra  Junta,  en  la  qualme 
halle  yo :  anadimos  tambien  al- 
gunas  nuevas  Constituciones.  Y 
constando  a  su  Magestad  que  no 
eran  bastantes  las  diligencias 
passadas,  y  que  siempre  perse- 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


489 


successor,  the  clergy,  as  we  have  already  seen,  gained 
fresh  strength,  and  they  soon  felt  themselves  suffi- 
ciently powerful  to  begin  another  and  final  crusade 
against  the  miserable  remains  of  the  Moorish  nation.133 
The  Archbishop  of  Valencia  was  the  first  to  take 
the  field.  In  1602,  this  eminent  prelate  presented  a 
memorial  to  Philip  HI.  against  the  Moriscoes;  and 
finding  that  his  views  were  cordially  supported  by  the 
clergy,  and  not  discouraged  by  the  crown,  he  followed 
up  the  blow  by  another  memorial  having  the  same 
object.134     The  Archbishop,  who  spoke  as  one  having 


veraban  en  su  heregia,  se  resolvio 
de  mandarlos  hechar  del  Reyno, 
6  por  lo  menos  meterlos  dentro 
de  la  tierra.'  Ximenez,  Vida  de 
Bibera,  Roma,  1734,  4to.  pp.  419, 
420.  This  important  passage  is 
decisive  as  to  the  real  feelings 
of  Philip,  unless  we  assume  that 
Ribera  has  stated  a  deliberate 
falsehood.  But,  strange  to  say, 
even  the  book  in  which  so  re- 
markable a  passage  is  contained, 
appears  to  be  unknown  either  to 
M.  Janer  or  to  M.  Lafuente.' 

m  *  El  rey  Felipe  III.,  hombre 
de  rudo  ingenio,  se  dejaba  go- 
bernar  con  facilidad  por  aquellos 
que  sabiendo  los  temores  de  su 
conciencia,  se  aprovechaban  de 
su  iinbecilidad  para  conseguir 
cuanto  querian.  Muchos  ecle- 
siasticos,  recordando  las  espul- 
siones  de  judios  y  moros  ejecu- 
tadas  de  orden  de  Fernando  e 
Isabel,  y  conociendo  que  a  Felipe 
III.  seria  agradable  imitar  a 
estos  monarcas,  le  aconsejaron 
que  condenase  al  destierro  a 
todos  los  moriscos  que  vivian 
en  sus  reynos;  pues  no  solo  se 
obstinaban  en  seguir  la  ley  ma- 
hometana,  sino  que  tenian  tratos 
con  los  turcos  y  entre  si  para 
buscar  sus  libertades  por  medio 
del  rigor  de  las  armas.'     Castro. 


Decadencia    de    Espana,    Cadiz, 
1852,  pp.  101,  102. 

134  These  memorials  are  printed 
in  the  Appendix  to  his  Life  by 
Ximenez.  See  the  very  curious 
book,  entitled  Vida  y  Virtudes 
del  Venerable  Siervo  de  Dies  D. 
Juan  de  Bibera,  por  el  B.  P.  Fr. 
Juan  Ximenez,  Eoma,  1734,  4to. 
pp.  367-374,  376-393.  This 
work  is,  I  believe,  extremely 
rare ;  at  all  events,  I  endeavoured 
in  vain  to  obtain  a  copy  from 
Spain  or  Italy,  and,  after  some 
years'  unsuccessful  search,  I  met 
with  the  one  I  now  have,  on  a 
London  book-stall.  M.  de  Cir- 
court,  in  his  learned  History  of 
the  Spanish  Arabs,  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  aware  of  its 
existence,  and  he  complains  that 
he  could  not  procure  the  works  of 
Ribera,  whose  Memorials  he  con- 
sequently quotes  second-hand. 
Circourt,  Histoire  des  Arabes 
oVEspagne,  Paris,  1846,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  168,  351.  Nor  does  Watson 
seem  to  have  known  it ;  though 
both  he  and  M.  de  Circourt  refer 
to  Escriva's  Life  of  Ribera.  Wat- 
son's Philip  III.,  London,  1839, 
pp.  214-221.  An  abstract  of 
these  Memorials  is  given  by 
Geddes,  who,  though  a  learned 
and    accurate  writer,    had    the 


490      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 


authority,  and  who  from  his  rank  and  position  was  a 
natural  representative  of  the  Spanish  Church,  assured 
the  king  that  all  the  disasters  which  had  befallen  the 
monarchy,  had  been  caused  by  the  presence  of  these 
unbelievers,  whom  it  was  now  necessary  to  root  out, 
even  as  David  had  done  to  the  Philistines,  and  Saul  to 
the  Amalekites.135  He  declared  that  the  Armada, 
which  Philip  II.  sent  against  England  in  1588,  had 
been  destroyed,  because  God  would  not  allow  even 
that  pious  enterprise  to  succeed,  while  those  who 
undertook  it,  left  heretics  undisturbed  at  home.  For 
the  same  reason,  the  late  expedition  to  Algiers  had 
failed;  it  being  evidently  the  will  of  Heaven  that 
nothing  should  prosper  while  Spain  was  inhabited  by 
apostates.136     He,  therefore,  exhorted  the  king  to  exile 


mischievous  habit  of  not  indicat- 
ing the  sources  of  his  informa- 
tion. Geddei  Tracts,  London, 
1730,  toI.  i.  pp.  60-71. 

135  <  por  ]0  qy^i  se  pUede  creer, 

que  nuestro  Senor  ha  querido 
reservar  esta  obra  tan  digna  de 
pecho  Heal  para  Vuestra  Ma- 
gestad,  como  reservo  la  libertad 
de  su  pueblo  para  Moyses,  la 
entrada  de  la  Tierra  de  Promis- 
sion  para  Josue,  la  venganc^,  de 
la  injuria  antigua  de  los  Amale- 
quitas  para  Saul,  y  la  victoria  de 
los  Filisteos  para  David.'  Xime- 
nez,  Vida  de  Ribera,  p.  370. 
Again,  p.  377:  'Y  al  primer 
Key  que  tuvo  el  Mundo,  en  siendo 
elegido  por  Dios,  y  confirmado  en 
su  Keyno,  le  embia  a  mandar  por 
un  Propheta  que  destruya  a  los 
Amalequitas,  sin  dexar  hombres, 
ni  mugeres,  ni  ninos,  aunque  sean 
de  leche,  en  fin  que  no  quede 
rastro  de  ellos,  ni  des  sus  ha- 
ziendas.  Y  porque  no  cumplio 
exactamente  su  mandamiento, 
cayo  en  indignacion  de  Dios,  y 
fue  privado  del  Keyno.  Al 
eegundo  Key,  que  fue  David,  le 


mando  Dios  en  siendo  jurado,  que 
destruyesse  los  Philisteos,  como 
lo  hizo.' 

,ss  'El  ano  quando  se  perdio 
la  poderosa  Armada,  que  iba  a 
Inglaterra,  confiado  de  labenigni- 
dad  del  Rey  nuestro  Senor,  que 
esta  en  el  Cielo,  me  atrevi  con  el 
zelo  de  fiel  vassallo  y  Capellan, 
a  dezir  a  Su  Magestad;  que 
aviendo  gastado  mucho  tiempo  en 
discurrir,  que  causa  podia  aver 
para  que  Dios,  nuestro  Senor, 
permitiesse  aquel  mal  sucesso  se 
me  havia  ofrecido  una  cosa  de 
mucha  consideracion,  y  era, 
querer  dezir  la  Magestad  Divina 
a  Su  Magestad  Catolica ;  que 
mientras  no  ponia  remedio  en 
estas  Heregias  de  Espana,  cuyos 
Keynos  le  avia  encomendado,  no 
se  debia  ocupar  en  remediar  las 
de  los  Keynos  agenos.  Y  ahora 
confiando  en  la  misma  benigni- 
dad,  y  clemencia  de  Vuestra 
Magestad,  me  atrevo  tambien  a 
dezir,  que  aviendo  considerado  la 
causa,  porque  Dios  nos  ha  qui- 
tado  de  las  manos  la  toma  de 
Argel,  aviendose  dispuesto  todas 


TO  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 


491 


all  the  Moriscoes,  except  some  whom  he  might  condemn 
to  work  in  the  galleys,  and  others  who  could  become 
slaves,  and  labour  in  the  mines  of  America.137  This, 
he  added,  would  make  the  reign  of  Philip  glorious  to 
all  posterity,  and  would  raise  his  fame  far  above  that 
of  his  predecessors,  who  in  this  matter  had  neglected 
their  obvious  duty.138 


las  prevenciones  para  ella  con  la 
mayor  prudencia,  y  sagacidad, 
que  hemos  visto  en  nuestros 
tiempos,  y  sirviendonos  el  mar, 
y  los  ayres,  y  las  ocasiones,  de  la 
manera,  que  podiamos  dessear, 
tengo  por  sin  duda,  que  ha  sido, 
querer  nuestro  Senor  dar  a  Vues- 
tra  Magestad  el  ultimo  recuerdo 
de  la  obligacion,  que  tiene,  de 
resolver  esta  platica.'  Ximenez, 
Vida  de  Bibera,  p.  373.  It  would 
be  a  pity  if  such,  admirable  speci- 
mens of  theological  reasoning 
were  to  remain  buried  in  an  old 
Roman  quarto.  I  congratulate 
myself  and  the  reader  on  my 
acquisition  of  this  volume,  which 
is  a  vast  repertory  of  powerful, 
though  obsolete,  weapons. 

187  i  Todas  estas  cosas,  y  otras 
muchas,  que  dexo  de  dezir,  por 
no  ser  prolixo,  me  hazen  eviden- 
cia,  de  que  conviene  para  el  ser- 
vicio  de  Dios  nuestro  Senor,  y 
que  Vuestra  Magestad  esta  obli- 
gado  en  conciencia,  como  Rey,  y 
Supremo  Senor,  a  quien  toca  de 
justicia  defender,  y  conservar  sus 
Reynos,  mandar  desterrar  de 
Espana  todos  estoB  Moriscos,  sin 
que  quede  hombre,  ni  muger 
grande,  ni  pequeno;  reservando 
tan  solamente  los  ninos,  y  ninas, 
que  no  llegaren  4  siete  anos,  para 
que  se  guarden  entre  nosotros, 
repartien  dolos  por  las  casas  par- 
ticulares  de  Christianos  viejos. 
Y  auto  hay  opinion  de  personas 
doctas,  que  estos  tales,  ninos  y 


ninas,  los  puede  Vuestra  Mages- 
tad dar  por  esclavos,  y  lo  fundan 
con  razones  probables.'  Ximenez, 
Vida  de  Bibera,  pp.  379,  380. 
'  Destos  que  se  han  de  desterrar, 
podra  Vuestra  Magestad  tomarlos 
que  fuere  servido  por  esclavos, 
para  proveer  sus  Galeras,  6  para 
embiar  a  las  minas  de  las  Indias, 
sin  escrupulo  alguno  de  concien- 
cia, lo  que  tambien  sera  de  no 
poca  utilidad.'  p.  384.  To  do 
this,  was  to  be  merciful ;  for  they 
all  deserved  capital  punishment, 
'merecian  pena  capital.'  p.  381. 
is8  <  Aora,  Catollca  Magestad, 
vemos  que  Dios  nuestro  Senor  ha 
reservado  para  Vuestra  Mages- 
tad, y  para  su  Real  Corona,  el 
nombre,  y  hechos  do  Rey  Catho- 
lico:  permitiendoporsus  secretos 
juizios,  que  los  que  han  sido  siem- 
pre  enemigos  de  su  Iglesia  se  con- 
serven,  y  que  los  que  antes  eran 
Catholicos,  ayan  degenerado,  y 
apostatado  de  su  santa  ley  y  assi 
va  la  honra  de  Dios  nuestro 
Senor,  y  el  exemplo,  y  confusion 
de  los  otros  Reyes,  en  que  Vuestra 
Magestad  tenga  sus  Reynos  lim- 
pios  de  Hereges,  y  principal- 
mente  a  Espaiia.  Yquando  esto 
huviesse  de  costar  grandes  traba- 
jos,  y  todo  el  oro,  y  plata,  que 
hay  en  las  Indias,  estaria  muy 
bien  empleado :  pues  se  atra- 
viessa  la  honra  de  Dios,  la  de  su 
Santa  Iglesia,  el  antiguo  re- 
nombre  desta  Corona,'  &c  Xime- 
nea,    Vida   de  Bibera,    p.    382. 


492       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

These  remonstrances,  besides  being  in  accordance 
with  the  known  views  of  the  Spanish  Church,  were 
warmly  supported  by  the  personal  influence  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Toledo,  the  primate  of  Spain.  In  only 
one  respect  did  he  differ  from  the  views  advocated  by 
the  Archbishop  of  Valencia.  The  Archbishop  of 
Valencia  thought  that  children  under  seven  years  of 
age  need  not  share  in  the  general  banishment,  but 
might,  without  danger  to  the  faith,  be  separated  from 
their  parents,  and  kept  in  Spain.  To  this,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Toledo  strongly  objected.  He  was  unwilling, 
he  said,  to  run  the  risk  of  pure  Christian  blood  being 
polluted  by  infidels ;  and  he  declared  that  sooner  than 
leave  one  of  these  unbelievers  to  corrupt  the  land,  he 
would  have  the  whole  of  them,  men,  women,  and 
children,  at  once  put  to  the  sword.139 

That  they  should  all  be  slain,  instead  of  being 
banished,  was  the  desire  of  a  powerful  party  in  the 
Church,  who  thought  that  such  signal  punishment 
would  work  good  by  striking  terror  into  the  heretics 
of  every  nation.  Bleda,  the  celebrated  Dominican, 
one  of  the  mo^t  influential  men  of  his  time,  wished 
this  to  be  done,  and  to  be  done  thoroughly.     He  said, 


And  on  the  neglect  of  duty  by  to  cut  the  throats  of  all  the  Mo- 
Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.,  see  riscoes,  men,  women,  and  ehil- 
p.  370.  dren,  than  to  have  any  of  their 
139  'The  most  powerful  pro-  children  left  in  Spain,  to  defile 
moter  of  their  expulsion  was  Don  the  true  Spanish  blood  with  a 
Bernardo  de  Eoias  y  Sandoval,  mixture  of  the  Moorish.'  Geddes1 
Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  Tracts,  vol.  i.  pp.  85,  86.  Na- 
and  Inquisitor-General  and  Chan-  varrete  has  pronounced  a  glow- 
cellor  of  Spain.  This  great  pre-  ing  eulogy  upon  the  piety  and 
late,  who  was  brother  to  the  Duke  other  noble  qualities  of  this 
of  Lerma,  by  whom  the  king  for  prelate ;  and  says  that '  llenando 
some  years  before,  and  for  some  de  esplendor  con  su  virtud  tres 
years  after  the  expulsion  was  ab-  sillas  episcopales,  merecio  que 
solutely  governed,  was  so  zealous  Clemente  VIII.  le  honrase  con  el 
to  have  the  whole  race  of  the  capelo,-  y  fue  elevado  a  la  primada 
Moriscoes  extinguished,  that  he  de  Toledo  y  al  empleo  de  in- 
opposed  the  detaining  of  their  quisidor  general.'  Vida  de 
children  who  were  under  seven  Cervantes,  pp.  xcvii.,  xcviii., 
years  of  age,  affirming  that  of  the  Barcelona,  1839. 
two  he  judged  it  more  advisable 


TO   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


493 


that,  for  the  sake  of  example,  every  Morisco  in  Spain 
should  have  his  throat  cut,  because  it  was  impossible 
to  tell  which  of  them  were  Christians  at  heart,  and  it 
was  enough  to  leave  the  matter  to  God,  who  knew  his 
own,  and  who  would  reward  in  the  next  world  those 
who  were  really  Catholics.140 

It  was  evident  that  the  fate  of  the  wretched  remnant 
of  a  once  splendid  nation  was  now  sealed.  The  re- 
ligious scruples  of  Philip  III.  forbade  him  to  struggle 
with  the  Church ;  and  his  minister  Lerma  would  not 
risk  his  own  authority  by  even  the  show  of  opposition. 
In  1609,  he  announced  to  the  king,  that  the  expulsion 
of  the  Moriscoes  had  become  necessary.  'The  reso- 
lution,' replied  Philip,  '  is  a  great  one ;  let  it  be 
executed.'141  And  executed  it  was,  with  unflinching 
barbarity.  About  one  million  of  the  most  industrious 
inhabitants  of  Spain  were  hunted  out  like  wild  beasts, 
because  the  sincerity  of  their  religious  opinions  was 
doubtful.142     Many  were  slain,  as  they  approached  the 


140  '  He  did  assure  all  the  old 
Christian  laity,  that  whenever 
the  king  should  give  the  word, 
they  might,  without  any  scruple 
of  conscience,  cut  the  throats  of 
all  the  Moriscoes,  and  not  spare 
any  of  them  upon  their  profess- 
ing themselves  Christians ;  but 
to  follow  the  holy  and  laudable 
example  of  the  Croisado  that  was 
raised  against  the  Albigenses, 
who,  upon  their  having  made 
themselves  masters  of  the  city  of 
Bezeir;  wherein  were  two  hun- 
dred thousand  Catholics  and 
hereticks,  did  ask  Father  Arnold, 
a  Cistercian  monk,  who  was  their 
chief  preacher,  "  Whether  they 
should  put  any  to  the  sword  that 
pretended  to  be  Catholics  ;"  and 
were  answered  by  the  holy  Abbot, 
"  That  they  should  kill  all  with- 
out distinction,  and  leave  it  to 
God,  who  knew  his  own,  to 
reward  them  for  being  true 
Catholics   in  the  next  world;" 


which  was  accordingly  executed.' 
Geddes,  vol.  i.  p.  84. 

141  "'Grande  resolucion  ! "  con- 
testo  el  debil  monarea  al  ministro 
favorito :  "  hacedlo  vos,  duque." ' 
Lafuente,  Historia  de  Espana, 
vol.  xv.  p.  375.  But  this  reply, 
so  far  from  being  a  mark  of 
weakness  on  the  part  of  Philip, 
was  a  strictly  logical  application 
of  the  principles  which  he  enter- 
tained, and  which,  indeed,  were 
almost  universal  in  Spain.  We 
know  from  his  contemporary  bio- 
grapher, that '  Determin6  el  Key 
en  los  principios  de  su  Keynado, 
como  Rey  tan  poderoso  y  Catolico, 
de  consagrar  y  dedicar  a  Dios  la 
potencia  de  sus  Consejos  y  Armas 
para  extinguir  y  acabar  los  enemi- 
gos  de  la  Iglesia  Santa.'  Davila. 
Historia  dc  la  Vida  de  Felipe 
Tercero,  lib.  i.  p.  44. 

142  This  is  the  average  esti- 
mate. Some  authors  make  it 
less,  and  some  more ;  while  one 


494      SPANISH    INTELLECT    FEOM    THE    FIFTH 


coast ;  others  were  beaten  and  plundered ;  and  the 
majority,  in  the  most  wretched  plight,  sailed  for  Africa. 
During  the  passage,  the  crew,  in  many  of  the  ships,  rose 
upon  them,  butchered  the  men,  ravished  the  women, 
and  threw  the  children  into  the  sea.  Those  who  escaped 
this  fate,  landed  on  the  coast  of  Barbary,  where  they 
were  attacked  by  the  Bedouins,  and  many  of  them  put 
to  the  sword.  Others  made  their  way  into  the  desert, 
and  perished  from  famine.  Of  the  number  of  lives  ac- 
tually sacrificed,  we  have  no  authentic  account ;  but  it 
is  said,  on  very  good  authority,  that  in  one  expedition, 
in  which  140,000  were  carried  to  Africa,  upwards  of 
100,000  suffered  death  in  its  most  frightful  forms 
within  a  few  months  after  their  expulsion  from  Spain.143 


■writer  says,  '  The  numbers  ex- 
pelled have  been  estimated  at 
four  hundred  thousand  families, 
or  two  millions  of  souls.'  Clarke's 
Internal  State  of  Spain,  London, 
1818,  p.  33.  But  this  is  incre- 
dible. M.  Castro  (Decadencia  de 
Espana,  Cadiz,  1852,  p.  105) 
says,  '  Espana  perdio  en  los  mo- 
riscos  un  millon  de  habitantes ;' 
and  M.  Janer  {Condition  de  los 
Moriscos,  Madrid,  1857,  p.  93), 
'  Sin  entrar  en  calculos  sobre  los 
que  habia  cuando  se  expidio  el 
edicto  de  Valencia  en  1609,  ni 
sobre  los  que  fenecieron  en  las 
rebeliones,  de  mano  armada,  de 
sed,  de  hambre  6  ahogados,  cree- 
mos  poder  fijar,  aproximada- 
mente,  en  novecientos  mil  los  que 
llegaron  a  poner  el  pie  fuera  de 
la  peninsula,  despidiendose  para 
siempre  de  las  costas  y  fronteras 
de  Espana,  cuya  cifra  deducimos 
del  examen  y  contexto  de  unos  y 
otros  escritores,  de  las  listas  que 
nos  han  quedado  de  los  expulsos, 
de  los  datos  de  diversas  rela- 
ciones,  estados  y  documentos 
examinados  con  este  solo  intento ;' 
and  further  on,  p.  105, '  la  expul- 


sion de  un  millon,  6  novecientos 
mil  de  sus  habitantes.'  Llorente 
(Histoire  de  V Inquisition,  vol.  iii. 
p.  430,  Paris,  1818)  says,  'un 
million  d'habitans  utiles  et  labo- 
rieux ;'  Ximenez  ( Vida  de  Eibera, 
Eoma,  1734,  4to.  p.  70),  'nove- 
cientos mil ;'  and  Boisel,  who  was 
in  Spain,  fifty  years  after  the  ex- 
pulsion, and  collected  the  tradi- 
tionary evidence,  says,  "II  sortit 
neuf  cens  tant  de  mille  hommes  de 
compte  fait,  de  Valence,  d'Anda- 
lousie,  et  de  Castille.'  Boisel, 
Journal  du  Voyage  d'Espagne, 
Paris,  1669,  4to.  p.  275. 

143  Watson's  Philip  III,  pp. 
234-235.  Davila,  Vida  de  Fe- 
lipe III,  p.  146.  Yanez,  Memo- 
Has  para  la  Historia  de  Felipe 
III.,  pp.  281,  290.  Janer,  Con- 
dition de  los  Moriscos,  pp.  83,  84, 
90.  Some  particulars  respecting 
their  expulsion  may  also  be  seen 
in  Cottington's  Letters  from 
Madrid,  which  were  written  in 
1609,  but  are  of  very  little  value. 
WinwoodJs  Memorials  of  Affairs 
of  State,  vol.  iii.  pp.  73,  91,  103, 
118,  London,  folio,  1725. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


49i 


Now,  for  the  first  time,  the  Church  was  really  trium- 
phant.144 For  the  first  time,  there  was  not  a  heretic 
to  be  seen  between  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Straits  of 
Gibraltar.  All  were  orthodox,  and  all  were  loyal. 
Every  inhabitant  of  that  great  country  obeyed  the 
Church,  and  feared  the  king.  And  from  this  happy 
combination,  it  was  believed  that  the  prosperity  and 
grandeur  of  Spain  were  sure  to  follow.  The  name  of 
Philip  III.  was  to  be  immortal,  and  posterity  would 
never  weary  of  admiring  that  heroic  act  by  which  the 
last  remains  of  an  infidel  race  were  cast  out  from  the 
land.  Those  who  had  even  remotely  participated  in 
the  glorious  consummation,  were  to  be  rewarded  by 
the  choicest  blessings.  Themselves,  and  their  families, 
were  under  the  immediate  protection  of  Heaven.  Tho 
earth  should  bear  more  fruit,  and  the  trees  should  clap 
their  hands.  Instead  of  the  thorn  should  come  up  the 
fir-tree,  and  instead  of  the  brier,  the  myrtle.  A  new 
era  was  now  inaugurated,  in  which  Spain,  purged  of  her 
heresy,  was  to  be  at  ease,  and  men,  living  in  safety, 
were  to  sleep  under  the  shade  of  their  own  vineyards, 
sow  their  gardens  in  peace,  and  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the 
trees  they  had  planted.145 


H*  In  a  contemporary  sermon 
in  commemoration  of  their  expul- 
sion, the  preacher  joyfully  ex- 
claims, '  Pues,  que  mayor  honra 
podemos  toner  en  este  Eeyno,  que 
ser  todos  los  que  vivimos  en  el, 
fieles  a  Dios,  y  al  Eey,  sin  com- 

Sania  de  estos  Hereges  y  tray- 
ores  ?'  Ximenez,  Vida  de  Eibera, 
p.  423.  Another  clergyman 
cries  out,  '  Al  fin  salieron  estos,  y 
quedo  la  tierra  libre  de  la  infa- 
mia  de  este  gente.'  Davila,  Vida 
de  Felipe  Tercero,  p.  149.  See 
also  p.  151.  'Y  es  digno  de 
poner  en  consideracion  el  zelo 
que  los  Reyes  de  Espafia  tuvie- 
ron  en  todo  tiempo  de  sustentar 
la  F6  Catolica;  pues  en  difer- 
entes  expulsiones  que  han  hecho, 


han  sacado  de  sus  Eeynos  tres 
millones  de  Moros,  y  dos  mil- 
lones  de  Judios,  enemigos  de 
nnestra  Iglesia.' 

l4S  See  the  sermon  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Valencia,  printed 
at  length  in  the  Appendix  to 
Ximenez,  Vida  de  Eibera,  pp. 
411-428.  I  would  fain  quote  it 
all,  but  the  reader  must  be  con- 
tent with  part  of  the  peroration, 
pp.  426,  427.  '  Entre  las  felizi- 
dades,  que  cuenta  el  Espiritu 
Santo  que  tuvieron  los  hijos  de 
Israel  en  el  govierno  del  Eey 
Salomon,  es  una ;  que  vivian  los 
hombres  seguros,  durmiendo  a  la 
sombra  de  su  parra,  y  de  su 
higuera,  sin  tener  de  quien  temer. 
Assi  estaremos  en  este  Beyno  de 


496       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM   THE    FIFTH 


These  were  the  promises  held  out  by  the  Church, 
and  believed  by  the  people.  It  is  ou  business  to 
inquire  how  far  the  expectations  were  ulfilled,  and 
what  the  consequences  were  of  an  act  which  was  insti- 
gated by  the  clergy,  welcomed  by  the  nation,  and  eagerly 
applauded  by  some  of  the  greatest  men  of  genius 
Spain  has  produced.146 


aqui  adelante,  porla  misericordia 
de  nuestro  Sefior,  y  paternal  pro- 
videncia  de  Su  Magestad,  todo 
nos  sobrara,  y  la  misma  tierra  se 
fertilizara  y  dara  fruto  de  bendi- 
cion.  Brocardico  es,  de  que  todos 
usabades,  diziendo  que  despues, 
que  estos  se  bautizaron,  no  se 
avia  visto  un  ano  fertil;  aora 
todos  lo  seran,  porque  las  here- 
gias  y  blasfemias  de  estos  tenian 
esterilizada,  abrasada,  y  infi- 
cionada  la  tierra,  como  dixo  el 
Keal  Propheta  David,  con  tantos 
pecados  y  abominaciones.'  .... 
'  Y  edificaran  en  las  tierras,  que 
antes  eran  desiertas,  plantando 
virias,  y  bebiendo  el  vino  de  ellas, 
y  sembraran  huertas,  y  comeran 
del  fruto  de  los  arboles,  que  han 
plantado,  y  nunca  seran  hechados 
de  sus  casas,  dize  Dios.  Todo 
esto  promete  nuestro  Senor  por 
dos  Prophetas  suyos.  Todo  (digo 
otra  vez)  nos  sobrara.'  All  this 
was  to  happen  to  the  people; 
■while,  as  to  the  king,  he,  in  the 
same  sermon,  p.  416,  is  likened 
to  David ;  and  it  was  declared 
by  another  high  authority,  that 
his  expulsion  of  the  Moriscoes 
was  so  great  an  exploit  ('  ha- 
zana '),  that '  durara  su  memoria 
por  los  venideros  siglos.'  Por- 
reno,  in  Yanez,  Memorias  para 
Felipe  in., -p.  281. 

146  'Amidst  the  devout  exulta- 
tion of  the  whole  kingdom, — 
Cervantes,  Lope  de  Vega,  and 
others  of  the  principal  men  of 


genius  then  alive,  joining  in  the 
general  jubilee.'  Ticknor's  His- 
tory of  Spanish  Literature,  vol.  i. 
pp.  428,  429.  Compare  Dunlop's 
Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  16.  Porreno 
says  that  it  may  be  placed  among 
the  seven  wonders  of  the  world ; 
'  la  podemos  poner  entre  las  siete 
maravillas  del  mundo.'  Yanez, 
Memorias,  p.  297 :  and  Davila 
(Vida  de  Felipe  Tercero,  lib.  ii. 
cap.  41,  p.  139)  pronounces  it  to 
be  the  most  glorious  achievement 
which  had  been  seen  since  the 
days  of  Pelayo.  All  this  is  natural 
enough ;  but  what  is  really  curious 
is,  to  trace  the  modern  remains 
of  this  feeling.  Campomanes 
(Apendice  a  la  Educacion  Popular, 
vol.  iv.  p.  130,  Madrid,  1777),  a 
very  able  man,  and  far  more 
liberal  than  most  of  his  country- 
men, is  not  ashamed  to  speak  of 
'  la  justa  expulsion  de  los  mo- 
riscos  desde  1610  a  1613.'  Ortiz, 
in  1801,  expresses  himself  with 
more  hesitation,  but  is  evidently 
in  favour  of  a  measure  which 
liberated  Spain  from  'la  perni- 
ciosa  semilla  de  Mahoma  que 
restaba  en  ella.'  Compendio  de 
la  Historia  de  Espana,  voL  vi. 
pp.  304,  305.  Nay,  even  in  1856, 
the  great  modern  historian  of 
Spain,  while  admitting  the  serious 
material  injury  which  this  hor- 
rible crime  inflicted  on  the  coun- 
try, assures  us  that  it  had  the 
'  immense  advantage '  of  produc- 
ing religious  unity;    unable  to 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


497 


The  effects  upon  the  .material  prosperity  of  Spain 
may  he  stated  in  a  few  words.  From  nearly  every  part 
of  the  country,  large  bodies  of  industrious  agricul- 
turists and  expert  artificers  were  suddenly  withdrawn. 
The  best  systems  of  husbandry  then  known,  were 
practised  by  the  Moriscoes,  who  tilled  and  irrigated 
with  indefatigable  labour.147  The  cultivation  of  rice, 
cotton,   and  sugar,   and  the  manufacture  of  silk  and 


perceive  that  the  very  unity  of 
which  he  boasts,  generates  an 
■acquiescence  and  stagnation  of 
mind  fatal  to  all  real  improve- 
ment, because  it  prevents  that 
play  and  collision  of  opinions  by 
which  the  wits  of  men  are  sharp- 
ened and  made  ready  for  use, 
'  Con  la  expulsion  se  complete 
el  principio  de  la  unidad  reli- 
giosa  en  Espana,  que  fiie"  un  bien 
inmenso,  pero  se  consumo  la 
ruina  de  la  agricultura,  que  fue 
un  inmenso  maL'  Lqfuente, 
Historia  de  Espana,  vol.  xvii. 
p.  340,  Madrid,  1856.  And,  the 
year  after  this  sagacious  senti- 
ment had  been  given  to  the 
world,  another  eminent  Spaniard, 
in  a  work  crowned  by  the  Royal 
Academy  of  History,  went  still 
further,  and  declared,  that  not 
only  did  the  expulsion  of  the 
Moriscoes  cause  great  benefit  by 
securing  unity  of  creed,  but  that 
such  unity  was  '  necessary  on  the 
Spanish  soil.'  'Y  si  bajo  el 
aspecto  economico  rcprobamos 
semejante  medida  por  la  influen- 
cia  perniciosa  que  tuvo  desde 
el  momento  de  dictarse,  la  im- 
parcialidad  de  historiadores  nos 
obliga  a  respetarla  por  los  in- 
mensos  bienes  que  produjo  en  el 
orden  religioso  y  en  el  orden 
politico.'  ...  'La  unidad  reli- 
giosa  era  necesaria  en  el  suelo 
espanoL'  Janer,  Condition  Social 
VOL.  II.  K 


de  los  Moriscos  de  Espana,  Ma- 
drid, 1857,  pp.  110,  114.  What 
are  we  to  think  of  a  coun- 
try in  which  these  opinions  are 
expressed,  not  by  some  obscure 
fanatic,  from  the  platform  or 
the  pulpit,  but  by  able  and 
learned  men,  who  promulgate 
them  with  all  the  authority  of 
their  position,  being  themselves 
deemed,  if  anything,  rather  too 
bold  and  too  liberal  for  the  peo- 
ple to  whom  they  address  their 
works  ? 

147  •  Los  moros  eran  muy  dies- 
tros  en  todo  lo  que  mira  a  obras 
de  agua.'  Campomanes,  Apendioe 
a  la  Education  Popular,  vol.  iii. 
p.  cvii.  'The  Moors  were  the 
most  intelligent  agriculturists 
Spain  ever  had.'  Laborde's 
Spain,  vol.  ii.  p.  218.  Even  Jo- 
vellanos  admits  that '  except  in 
the  parts  occupied  by  the  Moors, 
the  Spaniards  were  almosttotally 
unacquainted  with  the  art  of  irri- 
gation.' Clarke's  Internal  State, 
of  Spain,  p.  116.  See  also  Cir- 
court,  Arabes  d'Espagne,  voL  i. 
p.  255,  vol.  ii.  p.  12,  vol.  iii.  pp. 
162,  222;  Bourgoing,  Tableau 
de  VEspagne,  vol.  ii.  pp.  170, 
171 ;  and  Townsend's  Spain, 
vol.  iii.  p.  74.  Remains  of  theis 
splendid  aqueducts  still  exist. 
Hoskins'  Spain,  vol.  i.  pp.  120, 
125,  291,  292.  Compare  Spain 
by  an  American,  vol.  ii.  p.  112 


498       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FKOM    THE    FIFTH 


paper,  were  almost  confined  to  them.148  By  their  ex- 
pulsion, all  this  was  destroyed  at  a  blow,  and  most  of 
it  was  destroyed  for  ever.  For,  the  Spanish  Christians 
considered  such  pursuits  beneath  their  dignity.  In 
their  judgment,  war  and  religion  were  the  only  two 
avocations  worthy  of  being  followed.  To  fight  for  the 
king,  or  to  enter  the  Church  was  honourable ;  but 
everything  else  was  mean  and  sordid.149  When,  there- 
fore, the  Moriscoes  were  thrust  out  of  Spain,  there  was 
no  one  to  fill  their  place ;  arts  and  manufactures  either 
degenerated,  or  were  entirely  lost,  and  immense  regions 
of  arable  land  were  left  uncultivated.  Some  of  the 
richest  parts  of  Valencia  and  Granada  were  so  ne- 
glected, that  means  were  wanting  to  feed  even  the 
scanty  population  which   remained  there.150     Whole 


with  L'Estat  de  VEspagne,  Ge- 
neve, 1681,  p.  399. 

148  Compare  Janer,  Condition 
de  los  Moriscos,  pp.  47,  48,  with 
Campomanes,  Apendice  a  la  Edu- 
cation Popular,  vol.  iii.  p.  xxii., 
and  Dunlop's  Memoirs,  vol.  i. 
p.  13. 

149  The  more  sensible  among 
the  Spaniards  notice,  with  regret, 
this  national  contempt  for  every 
form  of  useful  industry.  See 
Campomanes,  Education  Popu- 
lar, p.  128,  and  Sempere,  Mo- 
narchic Espagnole,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
277,  278.  A  traveller  in  Spain 
in  1669,  says  of  the  people,  '  ils 
meprisent  tellement  le  travail, 
que  la  plupart  des  artisans  sont 
strangers.'  Voyages  fails  en 
divers  Temps  par  M.  M****, 
Amsterdam,  1700,  p.  80.  An- 
other traveller,  between  1693 
and  1695,  says,  they  'think  it 
below  the  dignity  of  a  Spaniard 
to  labour  and  provide  for  the 
future.'  Travels  by  a  Gentle- 
man (by  Bromley?),  London, 
1702,  p.  35.  A  third  observer, 
in    1679,   assures  us  that   'ils 


souffrent  plus  aisement  la  faim 
et  les  autres  necessitez  de  la  vie, 
que  de  travailler,  disent-ils, 
comme  des  mercenaires,  ce  qui 
n'appartient  qu'a,  des  esclaves.' 
IfAulnoy,  Relation  du  Voyage 
cCEspagne,  Lyon,  1693,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  369,  370.  For  further  illus- 
trations of  this,  see  Labat,  Voy- 
ages en  Espagne,  Paris,  1730, 
vol.  i.  pp.  285,  286.  Capmany, 
Questiones  Critkas,  pp.  43,  49, 
50.  Laborde's  Spain,  vol.  i.  p.  r 
Ranke's  Spanish  Empire,  p.  103. 
Townsend's  Journey  through 
Spain,  vol.  ii.  pp.  240,  241. 

150  i  pu(j0)  pues,  decirse  con 
razon  de  nuestra  patria,  que  de 
Arabia  Feliz  se  habia  convertido 
en  Arabia  Desierta,  y  de  Valen- 
cia en  particular,  que  el  bello 
jardin  de  Espana  se  habia  con- 
vertido en  paramo  seco  y  deslu- 
cido.  Dejose  en  breve  sentir  en 
todas  partes  el  azote  del  hambre ; 
y  al  alegre  bullicio  de  las  po- 
blaciones  sucedio  el  melancolico 
silencio  de  los  despoblados,  y  al 
frecuente  cruzar  de  lo3  labra- 
dores  y  trajineros  por  los  caminos 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  49$ 

districts  were  suddenly  deserted,  and  down  to  the 
present  day  have  never  been  repeopled.  These  soli- 
tudes gave  refuge  to  smugglers  and  brigands,  who 
succeeded  the  industrious  inhabitants  formerly  occupy- 
ing them ;  and  it  is  said,  that  from  the  expulsion  of  the 
Moriscoes  is  to  be  dated  the  existence  of  those  organized 
bands  of  robbers,  which,  after  this  period,  became  the 
scourge  of  Spain,  and  which  no  subsequent  government 
has  been  able  entirely  to  extirpate.181 

To  these  disastrous  consequences,  others  were  added, 
of  a  different,  and,  if  possible,  of  a  still  more  serious 
kind.  The  victory  gained  by  the  Church  increased 
both  her  power  and  her  reputation.  During  the  rest 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  not  only  were  the  interests 
of  the  clergy  deemed  superior  to  the  interests  of  laymen, 
but  the  interests  of  laymen  were  scarcely  thought  of. 
The  greatest  men,  with  hardly  an  exception,  became 
ecclesiastics,  and  all  temporal  considerations,  all  views 
of  earthly  policy,  were  despised  and  set  at  nought. 
No  one  inquired;  no  one  doubted;  no  one  presumed 
to  ask  if  all  this  was  right.  The  minds  of  men  suc- 
cumbed and  were  prostrate.  While  every  other 
country  was  advancing,    Spain   alone  was    receding. 


siguio  el  peligroso  encuentro  funeste  mot,  despoblado ;  en  mill© 
de  los  salteadores  quelos  infes-  endroits  la  nature  sauvage  a^re- 
taban,  abrigandose  en  las  ruinas  pris  la  place  des  cultures.  Etu- 
de los  pueblos  desiertos.'  Janer,  diez  la  direction  des  despoblados, 
Condition  de  los  Moriscos,  p.  1 00.  et  consultez  les  registres  des  com- 
See  also  Dunlop's  Memoirs,  vol.  missaires  de  l'expulsion,  vous 
i.  p.  16.  Campomanes  says, '  El  verrez  presque  toujours  que  les 
gran  numero  de  artesanos,  que  families  morisques  couvraient 
aalieron  con  la  expulsion  de  los  ces  solitudes.  Leur  patrimoine- 
moriscos,  causo  un  golpe  mortal  abandonne  forma  lo  domaine  des 
a  las  manufacturas,  y  a  la  voleurs,  qui  etablirent  avec  una 
labranza.'  Apendice  a  la  Educa-  sorte  de  securite  leurs  correspon- 
cion  Popular,  vol.  i.  p.  13.  And  dances  effrontees  a  travers  toute 
p.  268,  '  El  punto  de  decadencia  l'Espagne.  Le  brigandage  s'or- 
de  nuestras  manufacturas,  puede  ganisa  comme  une  profession 
fbtarse  desde  el  aiio  de  1609,  en  ordinaire;  et  la  contrebande,  sa 
que  tubo  principio  la  expulsion  compagne,  leva  le  front  avec  au- 
de  los  Moriscos.'  tant  d'audace,  autant  de  sncces.' 
1M  'Sut  la  carte  d'Espagne,  Circourt,  Histoire  des  Arabes 
en  mille  endroits  est  inscrit  ce  d'Espagne,  vol.  iii.  pp.  227,  228. 

» a 


500      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

Every  other  country  was  making  some  addition  to 
knowledge,  creating  some  art,  or  enlarging  some 
science.  Spain,  numbed  into  a  death-like  torpor,  spell- 
bound and  entranced  by  the  accursed  superstition 
which  preyed  on  her  strength,  presented  to  Europe  a 
solitary  instance  of  constant  decay.  For  her,  no  hope 
remained;  and,  before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  only  question  was,  by  whose  hands  the 
blow  should  be  struck,  which  would  dismember  that 
once  mighty  empire,  whose  shadow  had  covered  the 
world,  and  whose  vast  remains  were  imposing  even  in 
their  ruin. 

To  indicate  the  different  steps  which  mark  the 
'decline  of  Spain  would  be  hardly  possible,  since  even 
the  Spaniards,  who,  when  it  was  too  late,  were  stung 
with  shame,  have  abstained  from  writing  what  would 
only  be  the  history  of  their  own  humiliation  ;  so  that 
there  is  no  detailed  account  of  the  wretched  reigns  of 
Philip  TV.  and  Charles  II.,  which  together  comprise  a 
period  of  nearly  eighty  years.152     Some  facts,  however, 

152  'Declino  pues  miiy  sen-  volumes  of  his  History  of  Spain, 
siblementelavasta  monarquia,  y  which  contain  the  reigns  of 
callaron  atonitos  los  historia-  Philip  IV.  and  Charles  PL  Of 
dores,  como  huyendo  la  necesidad  this  work,  I  have  no  desire  to 
de  traer  a  la  memoria  lo  que  speak  disrespectfully ;  on  the 
veian  y  apenas  creian.  Enmu-  contrary,  it  is  impossible  to  read 
decio  pues  la  historia  de  EspaSa  it  without  interest,  on  account  of 
en  los  dos  reyDados  de  Felipe  the  admirable  clearness  with 
IV.  y  Carlos  II.  viendo  conti-  which  the  different  topics  are 
nuaba  nuestra  decadencia,  hasta  arranged,  and  also  on  account  of 
quedar  Espana  al  nivel  de  los  its  beautiful  style,  which  reminds 
menos  poderosos  Estados  de  us  of  the  best  days  of  Castilian 
Europa.  Este  silencio  nos  ha  pri-  prose.  But  I  feel  constrained  to 
vado  de  saber  no  solo  las  causas  say,  that,  as  a  history,  and  es- 
de  nuestra  decadencia,  sino  pecially  as  a  history  which 
tambien  de  los  acontecimientos  undertakes  to  investigate  the 
civiles  y  militares  del  siglo  xvii.'  causes  of  the  decline  of  Spain,  it 
Ortiz,  Compendio  de  la  Historia  is  a  complete  failure.  In  the 
de  Espana,  vol.  vi.,  Prologo,  p.  i.  first  place,  M.  Lafuente  has  not 
No  attempt  was  made  to  supply  emancipated  himself  from  those 
the  deficiency  complained  of  by  very  prejudices  to  which  the  de- 
Ortiz,  until  1856,  when  M.  La-  cline  of  his  country  is  owing, 
fuente  published,  in  Madrid,  And,  in  the  second  place,  he  has, 
the  sixteenth   and    seventeenth  particularly  in    the    reigns    of 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUET. 


501 


I  Lave  been  able  to  collect,  and  tbey  are  very  signifi- 
cant. At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  population  of  Madrid  was  estimated  to  be  400,000  \ 
at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  less  than 
200,000.163  Seville,  one  of  the  richest  cities  in  Spain, 
possessed  in  the  sixteenth  century  upwards  of  sixteen 
thousand  looms,  which  gave  employment  to  a  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  persons.154     By  the  reign  of  Philip 


Philip  IV.  and  Charles  II.,  not 
used  sufficient  diligence  in 
searching  for  materials  for  study- 
ing the  economical  changes 
through  ■which  Spain  has  passed. 
Looking  too  intently  at  the  sur- 
face, he  mistakes  symptoms  for 
causes ;  so  that  the  real  history 
of  the  Spanish  people  every  where 
escapes  his  grasp.  As  the  object 
to  -which  my  studies  are  directed, 
compels  me  to  contemplate  affairs 
from  a  larger  and  more  general 
point  of  view  than  he  has  done, 
it  naturally  happens  that  the 
conclusions  at  which  we  arrive 
are  very  different;  but  I  wish 
to  bear  my  testimony,  whatever 
it  may  be  worth,  to  the  great 
merit  of  his  book  as  a  work  of 
art,  though,  as  a  work  of  science, 
it  appears  to  me  that  he  has 
effected  nothing,  and  has  thrown 
no  new  light  on  the  real  history 
of  that  unfortunate,  albeit  once 
•splendid,  nation,  of  which  his 
eloquence,  his  learning,  and  his 
taste,  make  him  one  of  the  chief- 
est  ornaments. 

IM  See  Dunlop's  Memoirs,  vol. 
ii.  p.  320 ;  and  the  interesting 
calculations  in  Uztariz,  Theorica 
y  Practica  de  Comercio,  Madrid, 
1757,  folio,  pp.  35,  36.  Owing 
to  the  ignorance  which  formerly 
prevailed  respecting  statistics, 
such  estimates  are  necessarily 
imperfect ;  but,  after  the  desola- 
tion of  Spain  in  the  seventeenth 


century,  an  extraordinary  dimi- 
nution in  the  population  of  the 
capital  was  inevitable.  Indeed, 
a  contemporary  of  Charles  II. 
states  that  in  1699,  Madrid  had 
only  150,000  inhabitants.  Me- 
moir es  de  Louville,  Paris,  1818, 
vol.  i.  p.  72.  This  account  is 
taken  from  '  un  m6moire  manu- 
scrit,  en  langue  espagnole,trouve 
dans  les  papiers  du  marquis  de 
Louville.'  p.  67. 

154  Capmany  (Qiiestiones  Cri- 
ticas,  p.  30),  who  seems  to  have 
written  his  able,  but  not  very 
accurate,  work  for  the  express 
purpose  of  concealing  the  decline 
of  his  country,  has  given  these 
figures  erroneously.  My  infor- 
mation is  derived  from  an  official 
report  made  in  1701,  by  the 
trade  -  corporations  ('gremios') 
of  Seville.  Tijan  la  epoea  de 
la  ruina  de  nuestras  fabricas 
desde  el  reynado  de  Felipe  II.  y 
anaden  "haber  llegado  a  tener 
solo  en  esta  ciudad  al  arte  mayor, 
y  menor  de  la  sede,  el  numero  de 
mas  de  diez  y  seis  mil  telares,  y 
so  ocupaban  en  los  exercicios 
adherentes  a  el,  mas  de  ciento 
treinta  mil  personas  de  ambos 
6exos.  " '  Campomanes,  Apendice 
&  la  Education  Popular,  vol.  i. 
p.  473,  Madrid,  1775.  See  also 
Uztariz,  Theorica  y  Practica  de 
Comercio,  p.  14,  'diez  y  seis  mil 
telares ;'  where,  however,  no 
authority  is  quoted. 


-502      SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM   THE    FIFTH 

V.,  these  sixteen  thousand  looms  had  dwindled  away 
to  less  than  three  hundred ; 155  and,  in  a  report  which 
the  Cortes  made  to  Philip  IV.,  in  1662,  it  is  stated  that 
the  city  contained  only  a  quarter  of  its  former  number 
of  inhabitants,  and  that  even  the  vines  and  olives  cul- 
tivated in  its  neighbourhood,  and  which  comprised  a 
considerable  part  of  its  wealth,  were  almost  entirely 
neglected.156  Toledo,  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  had  upwards  of  fifty  woollen  manufactories ; 
in  1655,  it  had  only  thirteen,  almost  the  whole  of  the 
trade  having  been  carried  away  by  the  Moriscoes,  and 
established  at  Tunis.157  Owing  to  the  same  cause,  the 
art  of  manufacturing  silk,  for  which  Toledo  was  cele- 
brated, was  entirely  lost,  and  nearly  forty  thousand 
persons,  who  depended  on  it,  were  deprived  of  their 
means  of  support.158  Other  branches  of  industry 
shared  the  same  fate.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
early  in  the  seventeenth,  Spain  enjoyed  great  repute 
for  the  manufacture  of  gloves,  which  were  made  in 
enormous  quantities,  and  shipped  to  many  "parts,  being 
particularly  valued  in  England  and  France,  and  being 
also  exported  to  the  Indies.  But  Martinez  de  Mata, 
who  wrote  in  the  year  1655,  assures  us  that  at  that 
time  this  source  of  wealth  had  disappeared ;  the  manu- 
facture of  gloves  having  quite  ceased,  though  formerly, 


,M  '  El     principal    origen    y  imitated  at  Orleans.'    Compare, 

causa  de  que  los  1 6,000  telares  on    the     cap  -  manufactories  of 

de  seda,  lana,  oro  y  plata,  que  se  Tunis,  a  note   in  Campomanes, 

contaban  en  Sevilla,  se  hallen  oy  Apendice,  &  la  Education  Popular, 

reducidos    a    menos    de     300.'  vol.  iv.  p.  249. 

Uctariz,    Theorica  de  Comercio.  ,S8  '  Toledo,  ou  se  mettaient 

p.  243.  en  ceuvre  435,000  livres  de  soie, 

156  Sempere,  Monarchic  Espa-  avait  deja  perdu  ce  travail,  qui 
gnole,  vol.  ii.  p.  52,  who  refers  to  suffisait  autrefois  a  1' existence  de 
the  reportof  the  Cortes  published  38,484  personnes.  La  popula- 
by  Alonso  Nunez  de  Castro.  tion  de  cette  ville  avait  eprouve 

157  Laborde's  Spain,  vol.  iv.  p.  un  tiers  de  diminution,  et  vingt- 
338,  where  it  is  also  6aid,  that  cinq  maisons  de  ses  families  les 
Tunis  became,  in  consequence  of  plus  illustres  6taient  passees 
the  expulsion  of  the  Moriscoes,  dans  le  domaino  de  divers  cou- 

.  famous  for  the  manufacture  of  vens.'     Sempere,  Monarohie  Es- 

caps,  which  '  were  subsequently  pagnole,  vol.  ii.  p.  50. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


503 


he  says,  it  had  existed  in  every  city  in  Spain.159  In 
the  once-flourishing  province  of  Castile,  every  thing 
was  going  to  ruin.  Even  Segovia  lost  its  manufac- 
tures, and  retained  nothing  but  the  memory  of  its 
former  wealth.160  The  decay  of  Burgos  was  equally 
rapid  ;  the  trade  of  that  famous  city  perished ;  and  the 
deserted  streets  and  empty  houses  formed  such  a 
picture  of  desolation,  that  a  contemporary,  struck  by 
the  havoc,  emphatically  declared  that  Burgos  had  lost 
every  thing  except  its  name.161     In  other  districts,  the 


159  See  his  interesting  essay, 
reprinted  in  the  appendix  to 
Campomanes,  vol.  iv.  p.  251.  He 
says,  *  La  fabrica  de  los  guantes, 
que  tenian  pocos  anos  ha  todas 
las  ciudades  de  estos  reynos  para 
el  consume-  de  Espana  y  las  In- 
dias,  era  muy  considerable ;  y 
se  ha  destruido,  despues  que  se 
dio  entrada  al  consumo  de 
guantes  estrangeros.'  Such  a 
statement,  made  by  a  contempo- 
rary, is  unimpeachable ;  but  the 
reason  he  assigns  is  inadequate. 

160  Segovia,  as  it  appeared  in 
1659,  is  thus  described  in  Boisel, 
Journal  du  Voyage  dJEspagne, 
Paris,  1669,  4to.  p.  186:  'Au- 
tresfois,  cette  ville  qui  paroist 
assez  grande,  estoit  fort  riche, 
tant  a  cause  que  les  rois  de  Cas- 
tille  y  demeuroient,  qu'a,  cause 
du  grand  commerce  des  laines  et 
des  beaux  draps  qui  s'y  faisoient; 
mais  a  present  le  trafic  n'y  est 
plus,  et  on  n'y  fait  plus  que  fort 
peu  de  draps,  de  sorte  que  la 
ville  est  presque  desert  et  fort 
pauvre.  Une  marque  de  sa  pau- 
vret£,  du  mauvais  ordre  d'Es- 
pagne,  et  du  peu  de  prevoyance 
des  Espagnols  (quoy  qu'on  dise 
de  leur  fiegme),  e'est  que  lo  jour 
que  j'y  arrivay  jusques  a  deux 
heures  apres  midy  il  n'y  avoit 
point  eu  de  pain  en  toute  la  ville, 


et  ils  ne  s'en  etonnoient  point.' 
The  decline  of  the  silk  and  wool 
manufactures  of  Segovia  is  also 
noticed  by  Martinez  de  la  Mata, 
who  wrote  in  1650.  See  his 
Dos  Discursos,  edited  by  Canga, 
Madrid,  1794,  p.  8.  Saint  Simon, 
who  was  there  in  1722,  says,  'A 
regard  de  leurs  laines,  j'en  vis 
les  manufactures  a.  Segovie  qui 
me  parurent  peu  de  chose  et  fort 
tombdes  de  leur  ancienne  reputa- 
tion.' Memoires  du  Due  de  Saint 
Simon,  vol.  xxxviL  p.  230,  Paris, 
1841.  Segovia  used  to  be  famous 
for  the  beautiful  colour  of  its 
cloth,  the  dye  of  which  was  taken 
from  a  shell-fish  found  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  is  supposed  to 
be  the  same  as  the  purpura  cf 
the  ancients.  See  a  note  in 
Dillon's  Spain,  Dublin,  1781, 
pp.  19,  20. 

161  Such  is  the  language  of  a 
Spaniard  in  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  *  Porque 
a  la  ciudad  de  Burgos,  cabeza  de 
Castilla,  no  le  ha  quedado  sino 
el  nombre,  ni  aun  vestigios  de 
sus  ruinas  ;  reducida  la  grandeza 
de  sus  tratos,  Prior,  y  Consulee, 
y  ordenanzas  para  la  conserva- 
cion  de  ellos,  a  600  vecinos,  one 
conservanel  nombre  y  lustre  de 
aquella  antigua  y  noble  ciudad, 
que  encerro  en  si  mas  de  seis 


504      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 


results  were  equally  fatal.  The  beautiful  provinces  of 
the  south,  richly  endowed  by  nature,  had  formerly 
been  so  wealthy,  that  their  contributions  alone  sufficed, 
in  time  of  need,  to  replenish  the  imperial  treasury ;  but 
they  now  deteriorated  with  such  rapidity,  that,  by  the 
year  1640,  it  was  found  hardly'  possible  to  impose  a  tax 
on  them  which  would  be  productive.162  During  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  matters  became 
still  worse,  and  the  poverty  and  wretchedness  of  the 
people  surpass  all  description.  In  the  villages  near 
Madrid,  the  inhabitants  were  literally  famishing  ;  and 
those  farmers  who  had  a  stock  of  food  refused  to  sell 


mil,  sin  la  gente  suelta,  natural, 
y  forastera.'  Campomanes,  Apen- 
dice  a  la  Education,  vol.  i.  p. 
453,  Madrid,  1765.  An  intelli- 
gent Dutchman,  who  visited 
Spain  in  1665,  says  of  Burgos, 
'  elle  a  est6  autrefois  fort  mar- 
chande,  mais  depuis  peu,  elle  a 
presque  perdu  tout  son  com- 
merce.' Aarsens  de  Sommer- 
dych,  Voyage  cPEspagne,  Paris, 
1665,  4to.  p.  16.  To  me,  it  cer- 
tainly appears  that  facts  of  this 
sort  have  more  to  do  with  the 
real  history  of  Spain  than  the 
details  of  kings,  and  treaties, 
and  battles,  which  the  Spanish 
historians  love  to  accumulate. 

,8S  •  Could  contribute  little  to 
the  exigencies  of  the  state.' 
Dunlop's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  285. 
Compare  Lamentos  Apologeticos, 
in  Dos  Discursos,  edit.  Canga, 
Madrid,  1794,  p.  82,  on  the  state 
of  things  in  '  lo  mas  fertil  de 
Andalucia.'  The  government 
first  became  alive  to  all  this 
when  it  found  that  no  more 
money  could  be  wrung  from  the 
people.  In  May  1667,  a  council 
of  state,  convoked  by  the  queen, 
reported  that  '  quant  aux  res- 
sources  qu'on  voudrait  tirer  de 


l'Espagne,  sous  forme  de  dons 
volontaires  ou  autrement,  le 
conseil  estime  qu'il  est  bien  diffi- 
cile d'imposer  aux  peuples  des 
charges  nouvelles ;'  and  in  No- 
vember of  that  same  year,  at 
another  meeting  of  the  council, 
a  memoir  was  drawn  up,  stating 
that  'depuis  le  regne  de  Don 
Ferdinand  le  Catholique  jusqu'a 
ce  jour,  la  monarchie  d'Espagno 
ne  s'est  pas  encore  vue  si  pres 
de  sa  ruine,  si  epuisee,  si  denueo 
des  ressources  necessaires  pour 
faire  face  a  un  grand  peril.'  See 
extracts  from  the  proceedings  of 
the  Councils,  published,  for,  I 
believe,  the  first  time,  by  M. 
Mignet,  in  his  Negotiations  rela- 
tives a  la  Succession  dJEspagne, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  124,  601,  Paris,  1835, 
4to.  See  also,  in  the  same 
valuable  work,  vol.  ii.  p.  127,  a 
letter  to  Louis  XIV.,  from  his 
ambassador  at  Madrid,  dated 
2nd  June,  1667,  and  stating  that 
Textremit6  est  ici  si  grande 
qu'il  se  fait  une  contribution 
volontaire  de  tous  les  particuliers 
que  Ton  appelle  donativo,  pour 
fournir  quelque  argent  present 
pour  les  necessites  publiques.' 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  505 

it,  because,  much  as  they  needed  money,  they  were  ap- 
prehensive of  seeing  their  families  perish  around  them. 
The  consequence  was,  that  the  capital  was  in  danger 
of  being  starved ;  and  ordinary  threats  producing  no 
effect,  it  was  found  necessary,  in  1664,  that  the  Presi- 
dent of  Castile,  with  an  armed  force,  and  accompanied 
by  the  public  executioner,  should  visit  the  adjacent 
villages,  and  compel  the  inhabitants  to  bring  their  sup- 
plies to  the  markets  of  Madrid.163  All  over  Spain,  the 
same  destitution  prevailed.  That  once  rich  and 
prosperous  country  was  covered  with  a  rabble  of 
monks  and  clergy,  whose  insatiate  rapacity  absorbed 
the  little  wealth  yet  to  be  found.  Hence  it  happened, 
that  the  government,  though  almost  penniless,  could 
obtain  no  supplies.  The  tax-gatherers,  urged  to  make 
up  the  deficiency,  adopted  the  most  desperate  expe- 
dients. They  not  only  seized  the  beds  and  all  the 
furniture,  but  they  unroofed  the  houses,  and  sold  the 
materials  of  the  roof,  for  whatever  they  would  fetch. 
The  inhabitants  were  forced  to  fly  ;  the  fields  were  left 
uncultivated  ;  vast  multitudes  died  from  want  and  ex- 
posure ;  entire  villages  were  deserted;  and  in  many  of  the 
towns,  upwards  of  two-thirds  of  the  houses  were,  by 
the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  utterly  destroyed.164 


163  In  1664,  Sir  Kichard  Fan-  make  such  things  credible.    In 

shawe  writes  from    Madrid  to  1686,  Alvarez   Osorio  y  Bedin 

Secretary    Bennet,    '  Since     my  wrote  his  Discursos.    They  were 

last  to  you,   of  yesterday,  the  published  in   1687   and  1688   ; 

President  of  Castile,  having,  by  they  were  reprinted  at  Madrid 

the  king's    special    and    angry  in  1775;  and  from  the  reprint, 

command,   gone    forth   to    the  pp.  345-348,  I  extract  the  fol- 

neighbouring  villages,  attended  lowing  particulars  :  '  Es  preciso 

with  the  hangman,  and  what-  decir  con  la  mayor  brevedad,  que 

soever  else  of  terror  incident  to  pide  ol  asunto,  en  la  forma  que 

his  place  and  derogatory  to  his  los  comisionantes  continuamonto 

person,  the  markets  in  this  town  estan  saqueando  todos    los   lu- 

begin  to  be  furnished  again  plen-  gares,  con  capa  de  servir  a  V.M. 

tifully  enough.'  Memoirs  of  Lady  Entran   en  ellps,    intiman    sus 

Fanshawe,    written    by   herself,  comisiones  a  las  justicias,  y  ellaa 

edit.  London,  1830,  p.  291.  les  suplican,  tengan  misericordia 

161  Nothing  but    the   precise  de  los  moradores,  que  estan  con 

and  uncontradicted  evidence  of  mucha  necesidad.    Y  luego  que 

a  contemporary  witness    could  toman  el  uso,  dicen  :  que  a  elloa 


506      SPANISH    INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 


In  the  midst  of  these  calamities,  the  spirit  and 
energy  of  Spain  were  extinguished.  In  every  depart- 
ment, all  power  and  life  disappeared.  The  Spanish 
troops  were  defeated  at  Rocroy  in  1643 ;  and  several 
writers  ascribe  to  that  battle  the  destruction  of 
the  military  reputation  of  Spain.165  This,  however, 
was  only  one  of  many  symptoms.166     In  1656,  it  was 


no  les  toca  dispensar  en  hacer 
gracias :  que  traen  orden  de  co- 
brar  con  todo  rigor  las  cantidades, 
que  deben  los  lugares  ;  y  tambien 
dicen  han  de  cobrar  sus  salarios. 
Y  se  van  entrando  por  las  casas 
de  los  pobres  labradores,  y  de- 
mas  vecinos ;  y  con  mucha  cuenta 
y  razon,  les  quitan  el  poco  dine- 
ro,  que  tienen:  y  a  los  que 
no  tienen,  les  sacan  prendas :  y 
donde  no  las  hallan,  les  quitan  las 
pobres  camas,  en  que  duermen  : 
y  se  detienen  en  vender  las  pren- 
das, todo  el  tiempo  que  pueden.' 
.  .  .  '  Los  saquebs  referidos  van 
continuando,  obligando  a  los 
mas  vecinos  de  los  lugares,  a,  que 
se  vayan  buyendo  de  sus  casas, 
dexando  baldias  sus  baciendas  de 
campo;  y  los  cobradores  no 
tienen  lastima  de  todas  estas 
miserias,  y  asolacdones,  como  si 
entraran  en  lugares  de  enemigos. 
Las  casas,  que  hallan  vacias,  si 
hay  quien  se  las  compre,  las 
venden:  y  quando  no  pueden 
venderlas,  las  quitan  los  texados ; 
y  venden  la  texa,  y  madera  por 
qualquier  dinero.  Con  esta  de- 
Btruicion  general,  no  han  quedado 
en  pie  en  los  lugares  la  tercera 
parte  de  casas,  y  han  muerto 
de  necesidad  gran  multitud  de 
personas.  Con  lo  qual  los  lu- 
gares no  tienen  la  mitad  de  fa- 
milias,  que  antiguamente  habia 
en  EspaSa.  Y  si  no  se  pone 
remedio  a    todo  referido,    sera 


preciso,  que  la  vengan  a  poblarde 
otros  Eeynos.' 

la*  «AJii  acabo  aquella  an- 
tigua  milicia  espanola  que  desde 
el  tiempo  de  los  reyes  catolicos 
habia  ganado  tan  gloriosos  tri- 
unfos,  siendo  el  terror  de  sus 
enemigos.'  Tapia,  Civilisation 
Espanola,  vol.  iii.  p.  150,  Ma- 
drid, 1840.  '  La  batalla  de  Roc- 
roy, en  que  el  joven  Conde 
reeogio  los  laureles  con  que 
engalano  la  dorado  cuna  del 
nino  Luis  XIV.,  acabo  con  la 
reputacion  que  aim  habian  podi- 
do  ir  conservando  los  viejos 
tercios  espanoles  de  Flandres.' 
Lafuente,  Historia  de  Espana, 
vol.  xvii.  p.  368,  Madrid,  1856. 

168  In  the  Clarendon  State 
Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  275,  Oxford, 
1767,  folio,  I  find  a  letter  written 
by  Hopton  to  Secretary  Winde- 
bank,  dated  Madrid,  31st  May, 
1635.  The  author  of  this  official 
communication  gives  an  account 
of  the  Spanish  troops  just  raised, 
and  says,  '  I  have  observed  these 
levies,  and  I  find  the  horses  are 
so  weak,  as  the  most  of  them  will 
never  be  able  to  go  to  the  rendez- 
vous, and  those  very  hardly 
gotten,  the  infantry  so  unwilling 
to  serve,  as  they  are  carried  like 
galley-slaves,  in  chains,  which 
serves  not  the  turn,  and  so  far 
short  of  the  number  that  was 
proposed,  as  they  come  not  to 
one  of  three.'     This  was   eight 


TO   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


507 


proposed  to  fit  out  a  small  fleet ;  but  the  fisheries  on  tho 
coast  had  so  declined,  that  it  was  found  impossible  to 
procure  sailors  enough  to  man  even  the  few  ships 
which  were  required.167     The  charts  which  had  been 


years  before  the  battle  of  Rocroy ; 
after  it,  matters  became  rapidly 
worse.  A  letter  from  Sir  Ed- 
ward Hyde  to  Secretary  Nicholas, 
dated  Madrid,  18th  March,  1649- 
50,  states,  that  Spanish  '  affairs 
are  really  in  huge  disorder,  and 
capable  of  being  rendered  almost 
desperate;'  and  another  letter, 
on  14th  April,  1650,  •  if  some 
miracle  do  not  preserve  them, 
this  crown  must  be  speedily  de- 
stroyed.' Clarendon  State  Pa- 
pers, vol.  iii.  pp.  13,  17,  Oxford, 
1786.  An  official  Report  on  the 
Netherlands,  presented  to  Louis 
XIV.  in  1665,  declares  that  the 
Dutch  'considered  Spain  so 
weakened,  as  to  be  out  of  con- 
dition to  renew  the  war  within 
the  next  one  hundred  years.' 
Baumer's  History  of  the  Six- 
teenth and  Seventeenth  Centu- 
ries, illustrated  by  Original  Docu- 
ments, London,  1835,  vol.  i.  p. 
237.  See  also  Mignet,  Negocia- 
tvons  relatives  a  la  Succession 
dEspagne,  Paris,  1835  -  1842, 
4to.  vol.  i.  pp.  37,  38,  314,  315, 
vol.  iii.  p.  684,  vol.  iv.  p.  218 ;  and 
L'Estat  de  VEspagne,  Geneve, 
1681,  pp.  83,  271.  'L'Espagne 
faisant  en  nos  jours  plus 
de  pitie  que  de  peur  a  ceux 
qu'elle  a  tenus  long-tems  dans 
nne  crainte  perpetuelle,  et  dans 
une  respectueuse  veneration.' 
.  .  .  'Aussi  peut-on  dire  que 
les  Espagnols  qui  etoient  autre- 
fois des  lions,  ou  des  veritables 
hommes  et  incomparables  en 
valeur,sont  maintenant  des  cerfs, 
ou  des  femines,  et  enfin  des  per- 


sonnes  peu  propres  a  la  guerre.' 
And  finally,  the  Spanish  ex- 
planation of  all  this  in  Yanez, 
Memorias,  Prologo,  pp.  148, 149, 
Madrid,  1723.  '  La  Monarquia 
de  Espana,  cuya  decadencia  la 
avia  ya  Dios  decretado  desde  el 
ano  de  1621,'  &c.  ;  blasphe- 
mously ascribing  to  the  Al- 
mighty, what  was  the  result  of 
their  own  folly,  and  obstinately 
shutting  their  eyes  to  the  real 
cause  of  their  ruin. 

167  '  A  century  ago,  Spain  had 
been  as  supreme  at  sea  as  on 
land;  her  ordinary  naval  force 
was  140  galleys,  which  were  the 
terror  both  of  the  Mediterranean 
and  Atlantic.  But  now' (1656), 
'  in  consequence  of  the  decline  of 
commerce  and  fisheries  on  the 
coast,  instead  of  the  numerous 
squadrons  of  the  Dorias  and 
Mendozas,  which  were  wont  to 
attend  the  movements  of  the 
first  great  John  of  Austria  and 
the  Emperor  Charles,  the  present 
High  -  Admiral  of  Spain,  and 
favourite  son  of  its  monarch, 
put  to  sea  with  three  wretched 
galliee,  which,  with  difficulty, 
escaped  from  some  Algerine  cor- 
sairs, and  were  afterwards  nearly 
shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Africa.'  Bunions  Memoirs,  vol. 
i.  p.  549.  In  1663,  '  II  n'y  avait 
a  Cadix  ni  vaisseaux  ni  galeres 
en  dtat  d'aller  en  mer.  Les 
Maures  insultaient  audacieuse- 
ment  les  cotes  de  1'Andalousie, 
et  prenaient  impunement  les 
barques  qui  se  hasardaient  a  une 
lieuo    de    la    rade.      Le     due 


508      SPANISH    INTELLECT   FKOM    THE    FIFTH 


made,  were  either  lost  or  neglected  ;  and  the  ignorance 
of  the  Spanish  pilots  became  so  notorious,  that  no  one 
was  willing  to  trust  them.168  As  to  the  military 
service,  it  is  stated,  in  an  account  of  Spain,  late  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  that  most  of  the  troops  had 
deserted  their  colours,  and  that  the  few  who  were  faith- 
ful were  clothed  in  rags,  received  no  pay,  and  were 
dying  of  hunger.169    Another  account  describes  this- 


d' Albuquerque,  qui  commandait 
les  forces  navales,  se  plaignait 
hautement  de  la  position  hu- 
miliante  dans  laquelle  on  le  lais- 
sait.  11  avait  demande  avec  in- 
stance qu'on  lui  donnat  des  mate- 
lots  et  des  soldats  pour  mettre 
sur  les  vaisseaux ;  mais  le  Comte 
de  Castrillo,  president  duConseil 
de  Finances  (de  la  hacienda) 
avait  declare  qu'il  n'avait  ni 
argent,  ni  la  possibility  d'en 
trouver,  et  conseillait  de  renoncer 
a  l'armee  navale.'  Mignet,  Ne- 
gotiations relatives  a  la  Succession 
d'Espagne,  vol.  i.  pp.  315,  316, 
Paris,  1835,  4to.  from  contempo- 
rary manuscripts.  Even  in  1648, 
Spain  had  '  become  so  feeble  in 
point  of  naval  affairs  as  to  be 
obb'ged  to  hire  Dutch  vessels  for 
carrying  on  her  American  com- 
merce.' Macpherson's  Annals 
of  Commerce,  vol.  ii.  p.  435, 
London,  1805,  4to.  And,  to 
complete  the  chain  of  evidence, 
there  is  a  letter  in  the  Clarendon 
State  Papers,  vol.  ii.  p.  86,  Ox- 
ford, 1773,  folio,  written  from 
Madrid  in  June  1640,  stating 
that, '  For  ships  they  have  few, 
mariners  fewer,  landsmen  not  so 
many  as  they  need,  and,  by  all 
signs,  money  not  at  all  that  can 
be  spared.'  The  history  of 
Spain  during  this  period  never 
having  been  written,  I  am  com- 
pelled, in  my  own  justification, 


to  give  these  and  similar  pas- 
sages with  a  fulness  which  I  fear 
will  weary  some  readers. 

168  And  when  they  did,  it  was 
to  their  own  cost,  as  Stanhope 
found,  at  the  beginning  of  his 
career  as  British  minister  to  the 
court  of  Madrid,  in  1690.  See 
his  letter  to  Lord  Shrewsbury, 
in  Mahoris  Spain  under  Charles 
II,  London,  1 1840,  p.  3.  '  "We 
were  forced  into  a  small  port, 
called  Ferrol,  three  leagues  short 
of  the  Groyne,  and,  by  the  igno- 
rance of  a  Spanish  pilot,  our 
ships  fell  foul  one  with  another, 
and  the  admiral's  ship  was  on 
ground  for  some  hours,  but  got 
off  clear  without  any  damage.' 
Indeed,  the  Spanish  seamen, 
once  the  boldest  and  most  skil- 
ful navigators  in  the  world,  so 
degenerated,  that,  early  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  we  find  it 
stated  as  a  matter  of  course,  that 
'  to  form  the  Spaniard  to  marine 
affairs,  is  transporting  them  into 
unknown  countries.'  The  His- 
tory of  Cardinal  Alberoni,  Lon- 
don, 1719,  p.  257. 

169  'Le  peu  de  soldats  qui 
resistaient  a  la  desertion,  etaient 
vetus  de  haillons,  sans  solde, 
sans  pain.'  Memoires  de  Lou- 
ville,  edit.  Paris,  1818,  vol.  i.  p. 
72.  '  Dans  l'&at  le  plus  mise- 
rable.' p.  43.  Compare  Lafuente, 
in    the    reign    of    Philip    IV. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  509 

once  mighty  kingdom  as  utterly  unprotected ;  the 
frontier  towns  ungarrisoned ;  the  fortifications  dilapi- 
dated and  crumbling  away;  the  magazines  without 
ammunition  ;  the  arsenals  empty  ;  the  workshops  unem- 
ployed; and  even  the  art  of  building  ships  entirely 
lost.1?0 

While  the  country  at  large  was  thus  languishing,  as 
if  it  had  been  stricken  by  some  mortal  distemper*  the 
most  horrible  scenes  were  occurring  in  the  capital, 
under  the  eyes  of  the  sovereign.  The  inhabitants  of 
Madrid  were  starving;  and  the  arbitrary  measures 
which  had  been  adopted  to  supply  them  with  food, 
could  only  produce  femporary  relief.  Many  persons 
fell  down  in  the  streets  exhausted,  and  died  where  they 
fell ;  others  were  seen  in  the  public  highway  evidently 
dying,  but  no  one  had  wherewithal  to  feed  them.  At 
length  the  people  became  desperate,  and  threw  off  all 
control.  In  1680,  not  only  the  workmen  of  Madrid,  but 
large  numbers  of  the  tradesmen,  organized  themselves 
into  bands,  broke  open  private  houses,  and  robbed  and 
murdered  the  inhabitants  in  the  face  of  day.171    During 

(Historia,  vol.  xvi.  p.  519), 'los  arte  de  construir   naves,   y  no 

soldados  peleaban  andrajosos  y  tenia  el  Key  mas  que  las  desti- 

medio  desnudos  ;'  and  D'Aulnoy,  nadas  al  comercio  de  Indias,  y 

in    1679    {Relation  du    Voyage  algunos  galeones;    seis  galeras, 

d'Espagne,  vol.  i.  p.  168),  'II  est  consumidas    del  tiempo,   y  dol 

rare  quo  dans  tout  un  regiment,  ocio,  se  ancoraban  en  Cartagena.' 

il    so  trouve  deux  soldats   qui  Bacallar,     Comentarios     de    la 

ayent  plus  d'une  chemise.'  Guerra  de  Espana,  vol.  i.  p.  43. 

170  '  Iluinosos    los   muros   de  Another    eye-witness    describee 

sus  fortalezas,  aun  tenia  Barce-  'the  best  fortresses  consisting  of 

lona    abiertas   las  brechas,  que  ruined  walls,  mounted  with  here 

hizo  el  duquo  de  Vendoma ;    y  and  there  a  rusty  cannon,  and 

desde    Rosas    hasta    Cadiz,   no  the  man  thought  an  able  engi- 

habia  Alcazar,   ni   Castillo,   no  neer  who  knew  how  to  fire  them.' 

solo  presidiado,  poro  ni  montada  Ripperda's  Memoirs,  second  edi- 

su  artilleria.     La  misma  negli-  tion,  London,  1740,  p.  227. 

gencia  se  admiraba  on  los  puertos  '"  Dunlop's  Memoirs,  vol.  ii. 

do  Vizcaya,  y  Galicia ;  no  tenian  pp.  224,  225.     In  1680,  Madame 

los    almazenes   sus   provisiones,  de    Villars,     the    wife    of    the 

faltaban  fundidores  de  armas,  y  French  Ambassador,  writes  from 

las  quo  habia,  eran  de  ningun  Madrid,  that  such  was  the  state 

uso.       Vacios    los    arsenales    y  of  affairs   there,  that  her  hus- 

artilleros,   so  habia  olvidado  el  band  thought  it  advisable  that 


510      SPANISH    INTELLECT    FBOM   THE    FIFTH 


the  remaining  twenty  years  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  capital  was  in  a  state,  not  of  insurrection,  but  of 
anarchy.  Society  was  loosened,  and  seemed  to  be 
resolving  itself  into  its  elements.  To  use  the  emphatic 
language  of  a  contemporary,  liberty  and  restraint  were 
equally  unknown.172  The  ordinary  functions  of  the 
executive  government  were  suspended.  The  police  of 
Madrid,  unable  to  obtain  the  arrears  of  their  pay,  dis- 
banded, and  gave  themselves  up  to  rapine.  !Nbr  did 
there  seem  any  means  of  remedying  these  evils.  The 
exchequer  was  empty,  and  it  was  impossible  to  re- 
plenish it.  Such  was  the  poverty  of  the  court,  that 
money  was  wanting  to  pay  the  wages  of  the  king's 
private  servants,  and  to  meet  the  daily  expenses  of  his 
household. 173    In  1693,  payment  was  suspended  of  every 


she  should  return  home.  Lettresde 
Madame  de  VUlars,  Amsterdam, 
1759,  p.  169.  A  letter  -written 
by  the  Danish  ambassador  in 
1677,  describes  every  house  in 
Madrid  as  regularly  armed  from 
top  to  bottom ;  '  de  haut  en 
bas.'  Miff  net,  Negotiations  re- 
latives a  la  Succession,  vol.  iv. 
p.  638,  Paris,  1842,  4to.  The 
deaths  from  starvation  are  said 
to  have  been  particularly  nume- 
rous in  Andalusia..  See  Tapia, 
Civilization  EspaSiola,  vol.  iii.  p. 
167.  'En  Andalucia  espeeial- 
mente  moria  mucha  gente  de 
hambre,  y  el  consulado  de  Se- 
villa  envio  una  diputacion  para 
representar  que  aquella  ciudad 
habia  quedado  reducida  a  la 
cuarta  parte  de  la  poblacion  que 
habia  tenido  cincuenta  anos 
antes.'  On  the  state  of  the 
people  generally,  in  1680,  com- 
pare Lettres  de  VUlars,  pp.  145, 
152,  161. 

172  *  Point  de  liberies  et  point 
de  frein.  Mem.  de  Louville, 
vol.  i.  p.  68. 

"■  'In  1681,  the  French  am- 


bassadress -writes  from  Madrid, 
'  Je  ne  vous  parle  point  de  la 
misere  de  ce  royaume.  La  faim 
est  jusques  dans  le  palais. 
J'etois  hier  avec  huit  ou  dix 
camaristes,  et  La  Moline,  qui 
disoient  qu'il  y  avoit  fort  long- 
tems  qu'on  ne  leur  donnoit  plus 
ni  pain  ni  viande.  Aux  ecuries 
du  roi  et  de  la  reine,  de  meme. 
Lettres  de  Madame  la  Marquise 
de  VUlars,  Amsterdam,  1759, 
pp.  216,  217.  The  year  after 
Charles  II.  died :  '  II  n'y  avoit 
pas  de  fonds  pour  les  choses  le3 
plus  necessaires,  pour  la  cuisine, 
l'ecurie,  les  valets  de  pied,'  &c. 
Millot,  Memoires  du  Due  de 
Noailles,  vol.  ii.  p.  26,  ed.  Petitot, 
Paris,  1828.  Among  other 
reckless  expedients,  the  currency 
■was  so  depreciated,  that,  in  a 
letter  from  Martin  to  Dr.  Frazer, 
dated  Madrid,  March  6th,  1680, 
-we  hear  of  '  the  fall  of  money  to 
one  fourth  part  of  its  former 
value.'  Miscellany  of  the  Spal- 
ding Club,  vol.  v.  p.  187,  Aber- 
deen, 4to.  1852. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


511 


life-pension  ;  and  all  officers  and  ministers  of  the  crown 
were  mulcted  of  one- third  of  their  salaries.174  Nothing, 
however,  could  arrest  the  mischief.  Famine  and  poverty 
continued  to  increase  ;175  and,  in  1699,  Stanhope,  the 
British  minister  then  residing  in  Madrid,  writes,  that 
never  a  day  passed  in  which  people  were  not  killed  in 
the  streets  scuffling  for  bread  ;  that  his  own  secretary 
had  seen  five  women  stifled  to  death  by  the  crowd 
before  a  bakehouse ;  and  that,  to  swell  the  catalogue  of 
misery,  upwards  of  twenty  thousand  additional  beggars 
from  the  country  had  recently  flocked  into  the  capital.1'6 


174  '  The  king  has  taken  away, 
by  a  late  decree,  a  third  part  of 
all  -wages  and  salaries  of  all 
officers  and  ministers  without 
exception,  and  suspended  for  the 
ensuing  year,  1694,  all  pensions 
for  life  granted  either  by  himself 
or  his  father.'  Letter  from  the 
English  Ambassador,  dated 
Madrid,  November  18th,  1693, 
in  Mahon's  Spain  under  Charles 
II,  London,  1840,  p.  40.  This 
is  also  stated  in  Millot,  Me- 
moires  de  NoaiUes,  vol.  i.  p.  359, 
Paris,  1828;  'retranchant  le 
tiers  des  depenses  de  sa  maison,  et 
des  appointemens  de  ses  officiers 
tant  militaires  que  civils.'  In 
the  preceding  reign,  the  pension 
had  been  stopped,  at  all  events 
for  a  time.  In  1650,  Sir 
Edward  Hyde,  writes  from  Ma- 
drid, '  there  is  an  universal  stop 
of  all  pensions  which  have  been 
granted  formerly.'  Clarendon 
State  Papers,  vol.  ii.  p.  538, 
Oxford,  1773.  The  next  step 
which  was  taken  was  a  proposal, 
in  1667,  to  tax  the  salaries  of 
the  members  of  the  Council  of 
Castile,  Arragon,  &c ;  but  this 
idea  was  abandoned,  until  at 
length,  they,  like  all  other  public 
servants,  came  under  the  com- 
prehensive edict  of  1693.     See 


the  letter  from  the  French  Am- 
bassador to  Louis  XIV.,  dated 
Madrid,  June  2nd,  1667,  in 
Mignet,  Negotiations,  vol.  ii.  p. 
128,  Paris,  1835,  4to.  The  only 
chance  of  recovering  the  history 
of  Spain  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  is  by  collating  these  and 
similar  documents  with  the 
meagre  notices  to  be  found  in 
Spanish  writers. 

175  In  1695,  'the  miserable 
poverty  in  this  country.'  Travels 
through  Spain,  performed  by 
a  Gentleman,  London,  1702, 
p.  62.  And,  in  the  same  year, 
'  L*Espagne,  manquant  do  tout 
d'hommes,  et  d' argent.'  Mbnoires 
de  NoaiUes,  vol.  i.  p.  402.  '  L'Es- 
pagne,  presque  aneantie.'  p.  424. 

176  See  the  letters  in  Mahon's 
Spain  under  Charles  II.,  pp. 
138-140.  On  the  21st  of  May, 
'  We  have  an  addition  of  above 
20,000  beggars,  flocked  from  the 
country  round,  to  share  in  that 
little  here  is,  who  were  starving 
at  home,  and  look  like  ghosts.' 
On  the  27th  of  May,  _  '  The 
scarcity  of  bread  is  growing  on 
apace  towards  a  famine,  which 
increases,  by  vast  multitudes  of 
poor  that  swarm  in  upon  us  from 
the  countries  round  about.  I 
shifted  the  best  I  could  till  this 


512     SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM   THE    FIFTH 


If  this  state  of  things  had  continued  for  another 
generation,  the  wildest  anarchy  must  have  ensued,  and 
the  whole  frame  of  society  been  broken  up.177  The 
only  chance  of  saving  Spain  from  a  relapse  into  bar- 
barism, was  that  it  should  fall,  and  fall  quickly,  under 
foreign  dominion.  Such  a  change  was  indispensable  ; 
and  there  was  reason  to  fear  that  it  might  come  in  a 
form  which  would  have  been  inexpressibly  odious  to 
the  nation.  For,  late  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
Ceuta  was  besieged  by  the  Mohammedans  ;  and  as  the 
Spanish  Government  had  neither  troops  nor  ships,  the 
greatest  apprehensions  were  entertained  respecting  the 
fate  of  this  important  fortress  ;  there  being  little  doubt, 
that  if  it  fell,  Spain  would  be  again  overrun  by  the 
infidels,  who,  this  time,  at  least,  would  have  found 
little  difficulty  in  dealing  with  a  people  weakened  by 
suffering,  half  famished,  and  almost  worn  out.178 


day,  but  the  difficulty  of  getting 
any  without  authority,  has  made 
me  recur  to  the  Corregidor,  as 
most  of  the  foreign  Ministers 
had  done  before;  he,  very 
courteously,  after  inquiring  what 
my  family  was,  gave  me  an  order 
for  twenty  loaves  every  day :  but  I 
must  send  two  leagues,  toVallejas, 
to  fetch  it,  as  I  have  done  this 
night,  and  my  servants  with  long 
guns  to  secure  it  when  they  have  it, 
otherwise  it  would  be  taken  from 
them,  for  several  people  are  killed 
every  day  in  the  streets,  in  scuffles 
for  bread,  all  being  lawful  prize 

that  any  body  can  catch.' 

*  My  secretary,  Don  Francisco, 
saw  yesterday  five  poor  women 
stifled  to  death  by  the  crowd 
before  a  bakehouse.' 

177  Even  M.  Lafuente,  who 
having  used  scarcely  any  of  the 
authorities  which  I  have  quoted 
in  the  last  few  pages,  can  have 
no  adequate  idea  of  the  utter 
wretchedness  of  Spain,  confesses 
that  'Jamas  monarca  ni  pueblo 


alguno  se  vieron  en  tanlastimosa 
situacion  y  en  tan  misero  trance 
como  se  hallaron  en  este  tiempo ' 
(1699).  '  Carlos  II.  y  la  Espafia.' 
Lafuente,  Historia  de  Espana, 
vol.  xvii.  p.  426,  Madrid,  1856. 

178  '  Les  Maures  d'Afrique  as- 
siegeoient  Ceuta.  Le  roi  d'Es- 
pagne  manquait  non  seulement 
de  troupes,  mais  de  vaisseaux 
pour  transporter  le  peu  de  se- 
cours  qu'il  pouvoit  y  envoyer : 
Louis  XIV  lui  fit  offrir  les 
troupes  et  les  vaisseaux  dont  il 
auroit  besoin.  II  s'agissoit  non 
seulement  de  conserver  Ceuta, 
mais  de  plus  Oran;  par  conse- 
quent d'empecher  la  prise  de 
deux  places  dont  la  conquete 
facilitoit  aux  Maures  un  retour 
en  Espagne.'  Memoires  du 
Marquis  de  Torcy,  vol.  i.  p.  46, 
ed.  Paris,  1828.  Respecting  the 
attacks  made  on  Ceuta,  from 
1696  to  1698,  see  Ortiz,  Com- 
pendia de  la  Historia  de  Espanar 
vol.  vi.  pp.  556,  551T  561. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUET. 


513 


Fortunately,  in  the  year  1700,  when  affairs  were  at 
their  worst,  Charles  II.,  the  idiot  king,  died  ;  and  Spain 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Philip  V.,  the  grandson  of  Louis 
XIV.  This  change  from  the  Austrian  dynasty  to  the 
Bourbon,179  brought  with  it  many  other  changes. 
Philip,  who  reigned  from  1700  to  1746,180  was  a  French- 
man, not  only  by  birth  and  education,  but  also  in  feel- 
ings and  habits.181  Just  before  he  entered  Spain,  Louis 
charged  him  never  to  forget  that  he  was  a  native  of 
Prance,  the  throne  of  which  he  might  some  day  as- 
cend.182 After  he  became  king,  he  neglected  the 
Spaniards,  despised  their  advice,  and  threw  all  the 
power  he  could  command  into  the  hands  of  his  own 
countrymen.183     The  affairs  of  Spain  were  now  admi- 


1:9  A  celebrated  modern  writer 
has  made  some  remarks  upon 
this,  which  are  too  apposite  to 
be  omitted.  '  Con  el  siglo  xvii. 
acabo  tambien  la  dinastia  aus- 
triaca  en  Espana,  dejando  a  esta 
nacion  pobre,  despoblada,  sin 
fuerzas  maritimas  ni  terres- 
tres,  y  por  consiguiente  a  merced 
de  las  demas  potencias  que 
intentaron  repartir  entre  si 
sus  colonias  y  provincias.  Asi 
habia  desparecido  en  poco  mas  de 
un  siglo  aquella  grandeza  y 
poderio,  aquella  f  uerza  y  heroismo, 
aquella  cultura  6  ilustracion  con 
que  habia  descollado  entre  todas 
las  naciones.'  Biografia  de  En- 
senada,  in  Navarrete,  Opusculos, 
vol.  ii.  p.  5,  Madrid,  1848. 

180  Except  during  the  short 
interregnum  of  Louis,  in  1724, 
which  only  lasted  a  few  months, 
and  during  which,  the  boy, 
though  called  king,  exercised  no 
real  powor,  and  Philip  remained 
the  actual  ruler.  '  Aun  el  nuevo 
rey  no  rosolvia  negocio  de  consi- 
deracion  sin  asenso  de  su  padre.' 
Ortiz,  Compendio,  toI.  vii.  p. 
374. 

VOL.  II.  L 


181  Saint  Simon,  who  knew 
Philip  well,  and  who  was  in 
Spain  in  1721  and  1722,  says  of 
him,  '  L' amour  de  la  France  lui 
sortait  de  partout.'  Memoires 
du  Due  de  Saint  Simon,  vol. 
xxxvii.  p.  3,  Paris,  1841.  And, 
in  1746,  shortly  before  Ins  death, 
Noailles  writes  from  Aranjuez, 
'  Ce  prince  a  le  ccBur  tout  fran- 
cais.'  Millot,  Memoires  de  Noail- 
les, vol.  iv.  p.  191,  Paris,  1829. 

isi  t  N'oubliez  jamais  que  vous' 
etes  Francois,  et  ce  qui  peut  vous 
arriver.'  Millot,  Memoires  de 
Noailles,  vol.  ii.  p.  6.  Compare 
Coxe's  Memoirs  of  the  Bourbon 
Kings  of  Spain,  London,  1815, 
voL  i.  p.  103. 

183  In  1702,  Philip  'parlait 
moins  que  jamais,  et  seulement 
aux  Francois,  comme  s'ils  eus- 
sent  etc"  les  seuls  etres  de  son 
espece.'  Memoires  de  LouviUe, 
vol.  i.  p.  276.  'Le  degout  que 
Philippe  laissait  voir  pour  sa 
cour  espagnole.'  p.  333.  A 
Spanish  statesman,  celebrated, 
or,  I  would  rather  say,  notorious, 
at » the  close  of  the  century,  in- 
dignantly exclaims,  '  It  was  on 


514      SPANISH    INTELLECT    FKOM    THE    FIFTH 


nistered  by  subjects  of  Louis  XTV.,  -whose  ambassador 
at  Madrid  frequently  performed  the  functions  of  prime 
minister.184  What  had  once  been  the  most  powerful 
monarchy  in  the  world,  became  little  else  than  a  pro- 
vince of  France ;  all  important  matters  being  decided 
in  Paris,  from  "whence  Philip  himself  received  his  in- 
structions.185 

The  truth  is,  that  Spain,  broken  and  prostrate,  was 
unable  to  supply  ability  of  any  kind ;  and  if  the  go- 
vernment of  the  country  was  to  be  carried  on,  it  was 
absolutely  necessary  that  foreigners  should  be  called 


the  accession  of  the  Bourbon 
dynasty,  that  foreigners  came  to 
govern  us  on  our  native  soil.' 
Godorfs  Memoirs,  ed.  London, 
1836,  vol.  ii.  p.  271. 

181  In  1701,  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  French  ambassador,  '  qu'il 
put  au  besoin  etre  premier  mi- 
nistre  d'Espagne.'  Millot,  Me- 
moires  de  Noailles,  vol.  ii.  p.  31 ; 
'  que  l'ambassadeur  de  sa  Ma- 
jeste  soit  ministre  du  roi  Catho- 
lique ;  que,  sans  en  avoir  le  titre, 
il  en  exerce  les  fonctions ;  qu'il 
aide  au  roi  d'Espagne  a  connoitre 
l'etat  de  ses  affaires,  et  a  gouver- 
ner  par  lui-meme.'  p.  55.  In 
1702,  Marsin  writes  to  Louis 
XIV.,  '  Comme  il  est  absolument 
necessaire  que  l'ambassadeur  de 
Votre  Majeste  en  Espagne  ait 
un  credit  sans  bornes  aupres  du 
Eoy  son  petit-fils.'  p.  183.  In 
1705,  Amelot,  the  French  am- 
bassador, '  decidoit  de  tout  en 
Espagne.'  Memoires  de  Louville, 
vol.  ii.  p.  165 ;  and  in  1706, 
'  etant  a  la  tete  des  affaires,  et 
joignant  presque  les  fonctions  de 
premier  ministre  a  celles  d'am- 
Dassadeur.'  Noailles,  vol.  ii.  p. 
398. 

184  In  1703,  'II  est  clair  que 
l'embarras  de  Philippe  venoit 
surtout    de  la  crainte  que  ses 


decisions  ne  fussent  point  ap- 
prouvees  en  France,  ou  toutes  les 
affaires  import  antes  se  decidoient.' 
Millot,  Memoires  de  Noailles,  vol. 
ii.  p.  244.  '  The  King  of  France 
had  always  certain  persons  at 
Madrid,  which  compos'd  a 
Council,  of  which  that  of  Ver- 
sailles was  the  sold  ;  and  whoso 
members  were  all  creatures  of 
the  French  Court,  and  sent  to 
Madrid  from  time  to  time  to- 
direct  all  affairs  there,  according 
to  the  views  of  the  Most  Chris- 
tian King,  and  to  give  him  an 
account  of  every  thing  that 
pass'd  in  the  Councils  of  the-Es- 
curial.  Alberoni  got  to  be 
initiated  in  the  mysteries  of  this 
cabal.'  History  of  Cardinal 
Alberoni,  London,  1719,  p.  70. 

The  Spanish  historians  are  not 
very  fond  of  admitting  this  un- 
questionable fact ;  but  Bacallar, 
after  mentioning  the  influence  of 
the  French  Ambassador,  frankly 
adds  :  '  Desde  entonces  tomaron 
tanta  mano  sobre  los  de  Espana 
los  ministros  franceses,  que  die- 
ron  mas  zelos  a  los  Principes, 
viendo  estrechar  la  union  a  un 
grado,  que  todo  se  ponia  al  ar- 
bitrio  de  Luis  XIV.'  Bacallar, 
Comentarios  de  la  Guerra  de 
Espana,  vol.  i.  p.  33. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


515 


in.186  Even  in  1682,  that  is,  eighteen  years  before  the 
accession  of  Philip  V.,  there  was- not  to  be  found  a  single 
native  well  acquainted  with  the  art  of  war ;  so  that 
Charles  II.  was  obliged  to  intrust  the  military  defence 
of  the  Spanish  Netherlands  to  De  Grana,  the  Austrian 
ambassador  at  Madrid.187  When,  therefore,  the  War 
of  the  Succession  broke  out,  in  1702,  even  the  Spaniards 
themselves  desired  that  their  troops  should  be  com- 
manded by  a  foreigner.188  In  1704,  the  extraordinary 
spectacle  was  exhibited  of  the  Duke  of  Berwick,  an 
Englishman,  leading  Spanish  soldiers  against  the 
enemy,  and  being  in  fact  generalissimo  of  the  Spanish 
army.189       The   King   of  Spain,  dissatisfied  with  his 


188  Even  the  veteran  diplo- 
matist was  so  struck  by  the 
escape  of  Spain  from  complete 
ruin,  that  he  ascribes  its  change 
of  masters  to  the  direct  inter- 
ference of  the  Deity.  '  Sa  seule 
puissance  avait  place  Philippe 
V  sur  le  trone  d'Espagne;  elle 
seule  pouvait  l'y  maintenir ;  les 
hommes  n'avaient  pas  conduit  ce 
grand  ev6nement.'  Memoires  de 
Torcy,  vol.  i.  p.  333.  '  Le  trone 
ou  Dieu  l'avait  place.'  p.  401. 
See  also  vol.  ii.  pp.  3,  227.  '  The 
Spanish  people  received  him  with 
unhesitating  obedience  to  the 
deceased  king's  will,  and  rejoiced 
at  the  prospect  of  a  rule  that 
would  at  least  have  the  merit  of 
being  different  from  that  under 
which  they  had  so  long  withered.' 
Memoirs  of  Peterborough,  Lon- 
don, 1853,  vol.  i.  p.  102. 
1  Muchos  espaiioles  recibieron 
por  su  soberano  a  Felipe  V.,  can- 
sados  de  la  dominacion  de  la 
casa  de  Austria.  Esperaban  de 
la  mudanza  de  la  dinastia  la 
felicidad  y  el  buen  gobierno.' 
Castro,  Decadencia  de  Espaiia, 
Cadiz,  1852,  p.  131.  To  the 
same  effect,  MUlot,  Memoires  de 


Noailles,  vol.  i.  pp.  420,  426,  vol. 
ii.  p.  9. 

187  He 'committed  the  military 
defence  of  these  provinces  to  the 
Marquis  of  Grana,  the  Austrian 
ambassador  at  Madrid,  from  the 
want  of  any  Spanish  commander 
whose  courage  or  military  en- 
dowments qualified  him  to  repel 
such  an  enemy  as  the  king  of 
France.'  Dunlop's  Memoirs,  vol. 
ii.  p.  232.  Compare,  on  the 
want  of  Spanish  generals,  Me- 
moires du  Marechal  de  Gramont, 
vol.  ii.  p.  82,  edit.  Paris,  1827. 
The  opinion  which  Grana  him- 
self formed  of  the  Spanish 
government,  may  be  learned  from 
a  conversation  which  he  held  at 
Madrid,  in  1680,  with  the 
French  ambassadress,  and  which 
is  preserved  in  her  correspon- 
dence. Lettres  de  Madame  la 
Marquise  de  VUlars,  Amster- 
dam, 1759,  pp.  118,  119. 

188  See  the  letter  of  Philip  V. 
to  Louis  XIV.,  dated  June  22, 
1702,  in  Me" moires  de  Noailles, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  256,  257,  Paris,  1828, 
edit.  Petitot. 

189  See  Bacallar,  Comentarioa 
de  la  Guerra  de  Espana,  voL  i. 

l2 


516      SPANISH    INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 


proceedings,  determined  to  remove  him ;  but,  instead  of 
filling  his  place  "with  a  native,  he  applied  to  Louis  XIV. 
for  another  general ;  and  this  important  post  was  con- 
fided to  Marshal  Tesse,  a  Frenchman.190  A  little  later, 
Berwick  was  again  summoned  to  Madrid,  and  ordered 
to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Spanish  troops,  and 
defend  Estremadura  and  Castile.191  This  he  effected 
with  complete  success ;  and,  in  the  battle  of  Almansa, 
which  he  fought  in  1707,  he  overthrew  the  invaders, 
ruined  the  party   of    the  pretender   Charles,192    and 


pp.  137,  166,  where  he  is  called 
'  el  Duque  de  Bervich.'  His  own 
account  is,  '  J'arrivai  a  Madrid 
le  15  fevrier '  (1 704), '  ou  d'abord 
S.  M.  Catholique  me  fit  Capi- 
taine-General  de  ses  armees.' 
Memoires  de  Berwick,  Paris, 
1778,  vol.  i.  p.  227 ;  and  see  p. 
xxv.  No  one  would  suppose 
this,  from  the  observations  of  M. 
Lafuente,  in  his  Historia  de  Es- 
2>ana,  vol.  xviii.  p.  80,  Madrid, 
1857. 

190  'Philippe  n'etoit  pas  con- 
tent de  Berwick,  ou  plutot  il 
t^moigna  ne  le  pas  etre,  et  il  de- 
manda  un  autre  general  a  Louis 
XIV.  On  lui  envoya  le  mare- 
chal  de  Tess6,  pour  qui  il  avoit 
montre  du  penchant.'  Millot, 
Memoires  de  Noailles,  vol.  ii.  p. 
331.  Berwick  himself  ascribes 
his  dismissal  to  the  influence  of 
Gramont  and  of  the  Queen  of 
Spain.  Memoires  de  Berwick, 
vol.  i.  pp..  269-273.  At  all 
events,  the  new  general  became 
supreme.  In  December  1705, 
the  Princess  des  Ursins  writes 
from  Madrid  to  Madame  de 
Maintenon,  'M.  le  marechal  de 
Tess6,  quand  il  est  a  Madrid, 
est  consult^,  et  decide  sur  toutes 
les  affaires,  autant,  pour  le  moins, 
que  M.  V  ambassadeur  \  et  lors- 
^uil  est  a  l'armee,  ilestlemaitoe 


absolu  non  seulement  des  troupes 
de  France,  mais  encore  de  celles 
d'Espagne,  commandant  aux 
capitaines-generaux,  ses  anciens, 
contre.  l'usage  du  pays.'  Lettres 
inedites  de  Madame  de  Maintenon 
et  de  Madame  la  Princesse  des 
Ursins,  vol.  iii.  p.  259,  Paris, 
1826. 

191  In  1706,  'Le  due  de  Ber- 
wick, redemand£  par  Philippe  V., 
arrive  a  Madrid  le  11  mars,  avec 
le  titre  de  marechal  de  France, 
pour  defendre  l'Estramadure  et 
la  Castillo,  ayant  rassemble  ce 
qu'il  peut  de  troupes  espagnoles, 
empecha  les  ennemis  d'entre- 
prendre  le  siege  de  Badajoz.' 
Millot,  Memoires  de  Noailles,  vol. 
ii.  p.  387.  Philip  'pria  le  Eoi, 
son  grand-pere,  d'envoyer  un 
general  pour  commander  sur  les 
frontieres  de  Portugal.  Ce  fut 
done  sur  moi  que  le  choix  tomba.' 
Memoires  de  Berwick,  vol.  i.  p. 
305. 

192  In  a  recently  published 
work  {Memoirs  of  Peterborough, 
London,  1853,  vol.  i.  pp.  148, 
155,  161,  206,  210,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
34,  93),  Charles  is  not  only 
called  King  of  Spain,  which  he 
never  was,  as  Spain  always  re- 
fused to  accept  him,  but,  in  the 
teeth  of  all  history,  he  is  actually 
termed     Charles     III. ;     while 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


517 


secured  tlie  seat  of  Philip  on  the  throne.193  As  the  war, 
however,  still  continued,  Philip,  in  1710,  wrote  to 
Paris  for  another  general,  and  requested  that  the  Duke 
de  Vendome  might  be  sent  to  him.194  This  able  com- 
mander, on  his  arrival,  infused  new  vigour  into  the 
Spanish  counsels,  and  utterly  defeated  the  allies  ;195  so 
that  the  war  by  which  the  independence  of  Spain  was 
established,  owed  its  success  to  the  ability  of  foreigners, 


Philip  V.  is  merely  '  Philip  of 
Anjou.'  If  this  -were  allowed, 
the  consequence  would  be,  that 
the  king  whom  the  Spaniards 
now  call  Charles  III.,  would 
have  to  change  his  appellation, 
and  become  Charles  IV. ;  and 
Charles  IV.  would  be  changed 
into  Charles  V.  It  is  really  too 
much  when  mere  biographers  ob- 
trude, in  this  way,  their  own  little 
prepossessions  into  the  vast  field 
of  history,  and  seek  to  efface 
its  established  nomenclature,  be- 
cause they  are  enamoured  of  the 
hero  whose  life  they  write. 

193  « fjjjg  yictorv  established 
the  throne  of  Philip.'  Dunham's 
History  of  Spain,  vol.  v.  p.  136. 
'  A  victory  which  may  be  justly 
said  to  have  saved  Spain.'  Coxe's 
Bourbon  Kings  of  Spain,  vol.  i. 
p.  408.  Even  Ortiz  allows  that 
if  Berwick  had  failed,  PhiUp 
would  have  been  ruined.  •  Esta 
batalla  de  Almansa,  que  las  cir- 
cunstancias  hicieron  ruidosa,  co- 
menzo  a  poner  mejor  la  corona 
de  Espana  en  la  cabeza  de  Felipe 
V. ;  y  se  tuvo  por  indubitable 
que  si  la  hubiera  perdido,  tam- 
bien  hubiera  perdido  la  corona.' 
Ortiz,  Compendia,  vol.  vii.  p.  116. 
See  also  Lafuente,  Historia  de 
Espana,  vol.  xviii.  p.  1 8.r>.  '  Ber- 
wick, a  quien,  sin  duda,  debi6 
su  salvacion  la  Espana.' 

194  '  Sa  reputation  etoit  grande 


et  bien  etablie  ;  le  roi  d'Espagne 
avoit  et6  temoin  de  sa  conduite 
en  Lombardie ;    il  demanda  au 
Eoi  un   general   si   capable    de 
commander   ses   armies.'       Me- 
moir es  de   Torcy,  vol.  i.  p.  386. 
See    also    History  of  Alberoni, 
London,  1719,  p.  45.      'Le  due 
de  Vendome   alloit  enfin    com- 
mander les  troupes  d'Espagne.' 
Memoires  de  Noailles,  vol.  iii.  p. 
12.    According  to  Berwick,  the 
offer  was  first  made  to  himself. 
Memoires  de  Berwick,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
106,  109.    M.  Lafuente,  without 
quoting     any     authority,     says 
{Historia  de  Espana,  vol.  xviii. 
p.  279),  '  Luego  que  se  perdio  la 
batalla     de    Zaragoza    escribio 
Eelipe   al  rey  Cristianisimo,  bu 
abuelo,  rogandole  que,  ya  que  no 
pudiera  socorrerle  con  tropas,  le 
enviara  al  menos  al  duque  de 
Berwick  6  al  de  Vendome.'     But, 
as  Berwick  must  have  had  the 
means  of  knowing  the  real  stata* 
of  the  case,  he  is  probably  cor- 
rect in  saying  that  the  first  ap- 
plication was  in  his  own  favour. 
185  'Vend6me  arrived  at  this 
moment  to  call  into  action  the 
spirit  of  the  monarch  and  the 
zeal    of    his     subjects.'    Coxe's 
Bourbon  Kings  of  Spain,  vol.  ii. 
p.  41.     '  The  arrival  of  the  Duke 
ae  Vend6me  again  changed  the 
fate    of    Spain.'       Memoirs    of 
Peterborough,  vol.  ii.  p.  130. 


518      SPANISH   INTELLECT    FROM   THE    FIFTH 

and  to  the  fact  that  the  campaigns  were  planned  and 
conducted,  not  by  natives,  but  by  French  and  English 
generals. 

In  the  same  way,  the  finances  were,  by  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  in  such  deplorable  confusion, 
that  Portocarrero,  who  at  the  accession  of  Philip  V. 
was  the  nominal  minister  of  Spain,  expressed  a  desire 
that  they  should  be  administered  by  some  one  sent 
from  Paris,  who  could  restore  them.196  He  felt  that  no 
one  in  Spain  was  equal  to  the  task,  and  he  was  by  no 
means  singular  in  this  opinion.  In  1701,  Louville 
wrote  to  Torcy,  that  if  a  financier  did  not  soon  arrive 
from  France,  there  would  shortly  be  no  finances  to 
administer.197  The  choice  fell  upon  Orry,  who  reached 
Madrid  in  the  summer  of  1701.198  He  found  every- 
thing in  the  most  miserable  condition ;  and  the  incom- 
petence of  the  Spaniards  was  so  obvious,  that  he  was 
soon  forced  to  undertake  the  management,  not  only  of 
the  finances,  but  also  of  the  war-department.  To  save 
appearances,  Canalez  became  the  ostensible  minister  at 
war;  but  he,  being  completely  ignorant  of  affairs, 
merely  performed  the  drudgery  of  that  office,  the  real 
duties  of  which  were  fulfilled  by  Orry  himself.199 

we  'Portocarrero,     abrumado  pour  voir  et  connoitre  l'etat  de 

con  las  dificultades  de  la  gober-  celles  du  roi    d'Espagne,   pour 

nacion,  que  excedian  en  mucho  examiner    les   moyens  les   plus 

a  sus  escasas  luces,  no  contento  propres  de  soulager  ses  sujets,  et 

con  haber  inducido  al  rey  a  que  de  pourvoir  aux  plus  pressans 

aumentara  su  consejo  de  gabinete  besoins  du  public ;  qu'il  m'assure 

con  dos  ministros  mas,  que  fueron  que  toute  I'Espagne  le  desire  en 

el  marques  de  Mancera,  presi-  general :  toutes  ces  raisons  m'ont 

"dente  del  de  Aragon,  y  el  duque  determine  a,  choisir  le  sieur  Orry, 

de  Montalto,  del  de  Italia,  pidio  pour  l'envoyer  a,  Madrid.'  Millot, 

a  Luis  XIV.  le  enviara  una  per-  Memoires    de  Noailles,    vol.    ii. 

eona  que  pudiera  establecer  un  p.  44. 

plan  de  hacienda  en  Espana,  y  197  '  II  faudra  que  l'homme  que 

corregir  y  reformar  los  abusos  de  vous  enverrez  pour  les  finances 

la  administracion.'  Lafuente,  His-  (car  vous  aurez  la  bont6  d'en  en- 

toria  de  Espana,  vol.  xviii.  p.  15.  voyer  un,  ou  bien  nous  n'aurons 

On  22nd  June  1701,  Louis  XIV.  plus  de  finances).'     Memoires  de 

■writes   to  the  Due  d'Harcourt,  Louville,  vol.  i.  p.  149. 

'Qu'enfin  le  cardinal  Porto-Car-  198  3id.  vol.  i.  p.  181. 

rero  m'a  fait  demander  quelqu'un  I99  '  Canalez,   qu'on   a  substi- 

intelligent  en  matiere  de  finances  tue  a,  Eivas  pour  le  departement 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


519 


This  dominion  of  the  French  continued,  without  in- 
terruption, until  the  second  marriage  of  Philip  V.,  in 
1714,  and  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  in  1715,  both  of 
which  events  weakened  their  influence,  and  for  a  time 
almost  destroyed  it.  The  authority,  however,  which 
they  lost,  was  transferred,  not  to  Spaniards,  but  to 
other  foreigners.  Between  1714  and  1726,  the  two 
most  powerful  and  conspicuous  men  in  Spain  were 
Alberoni,  an  Italian,  and  Ripperda,  a  Dutchman.  Bip- 
perda  was  dismissed  in  1726  ;200  and  after  his  fall,  the 
affairs  of  Spain  were  controlled  by  Konigseg,  who 
was  a  German,  and  who,  indeed,  was  the  Austrian 
ambassador  residing   at  Madrid.201     Even    Grimaldo, 


de  la  guerre,  n'a  aucun  talent 
pour  cet  emploi,  selon  l'instruc- 
tion ;  et  toute  l'Espagne  voit 
clairement  qu'Orry  ne  le  lui  a 
procure  qu'afin  d'en  exercer  les 
fonctions  sous  le  nom  d'un  Es- 
pagnol.'  Millot,  Memoires  de 
NoaUles,  vol.  ii.'  p.  305 ;  under 
the  year  1704.  See  also,  on  the 
power  of  Orry  in  the  -war-depart- 
ment, Memoires  de  Berwick,  vol. 
i.  pp.  226,  227,  306,  316,  vol.  ii. 
p.  166.  Berwick,  who  hated 
Orry,  says  of  him  (vol.  i.  p.  232), 
'  il  se  meloit  de  tout  et  faisoit 
tout.'  But  there  can  be  no  doubt 
of  his  being  a  man  of  very  con- 
siderable ability;  and  M.  La- 
fuente  (Histories,  de  Espana,  vol. 
xix.  p.  253,  Madrid,  1857)  can- 
didly says,  '  Es  lo  cierto  que 
hizo  abrir  mucho  los  ojos  de  los 
espanoles  en  materia  de  adminis- 
tracion.'  Compare  vol.  xviii.  p. 
369  ;  Mbmoires  du  Due  de  Saint 
Simon,  vol.  vii.  pp.  102, 195,  Paris, 
1842;  and  Bacallar,  Comentarios 
•de  la  Guerra  de  Espana,  vol.  i. 
pp.  82,  83,  99,  168,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
95,  107.  Bacallar  treats  him 
harshly. 
200  Ripperda! s  Memoirs,  London, 


1740,  second  edition,  pp.  117, 
118.  Saint  Simon  (Memoires, 
vol.  xxxvi.  p.  246)  says,  that 
Bipperda  was  '  premier  ministre 
aussi  absolu  que  le  fut  jamais  son 
predecesseur,  Alberoni.'  The 
English  pamphleteers  and  poli- 
ticians of  the  last  century  were 
very  unjust  to  Alberoni,  who, 
notwithstanding  the  dangerous 
boldness  of  his  nature,  was  one 
of  the  best  ministers  who  ever 
governed  Spain.  M.  Lafuente, 
while  admitting  his  faults,  says 
(Historm  de  Espana,  vol.  xix.  pp. 
437,  438),  'Negarle  gran  capa- 
cidad  seria  una  gran  injusticia. 
Tampoco  puede  desconocerse  que 
reanimo  y  regenero  la  Espana, 
levantandola  a  un  grado  de 
esplendor  y  de  grandeza  en  que 
nunca  se  habia  vuelto  a  ver  desde 
los  mejores  tiempos  de  Felipe  II.' 
See  also  a  good  summary  of  what 
he  did  for  Spain,  in  Tapia,  His- 
toria  de  la  Civilization  Espanola, 
Madrid,  1840,  vol.  iv.  pp.  50,  51. 
201  'The  all-powerful  Konig- 
seg.' Coxds  Bourbon  Kings  of 
Spain,  vol.  iii.  p.  154;  'tho 
prime  mover  of  the  Spanish 
counsels,'    p.   159;     in  1727-8,' 


520      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE   FIFTH 

who  held  office  before  and  after  the  dismissal  of  Rip- 
perda,  was  a  disciple  of  the  French  school,  and  had 
been  brought  up  under  Orry.208  All  this  was  not  the 
result  of  accident,  nor  is  it  to  be  ascribed  to  the  caprice 
of  the  court.  In  Spain,  the  national  spirit  had  so  died 
away,  that  none  but  foreigners,  or  men  imbued  with 
foreign  ideas,  were  equal  to  the  duties  of  government. 
To  the  evidence  already  quoted  on  this  point,  I  will 
add  two  other  testimonies.  Nbailles,  a  very  fair  judge, 
and  by  no  means  prejudiced  against  the  Spaniards,  em- 
phatically stated,  in  1710,  that,  notwithstanding  their 
loyalty,  they  were  incapable  of  ruling,  inasmuch  as 
they  were  ignorant  both  of  war  and  of  politics.203  In 
1711,  Bonnac  mentions  that  a  resolution  had  been 
formed  to  place  no  Spaniard  at  the  head  of  affairs,  be- 
cause those  hitherto  employed  had  proved  to  be  either 
unfortunate  or  unfaithful.204 

The  government  of  Spain  being  taken  from  the 
Spaniards,  now  began  to  show  some  signs  of  vigour. 
The  change  was  slight,  but  it  was  in  the  right  diree- 

'  Konigseg  usurped  the  control  also  as   an  artistic  arranger  of 

over  every  operation  of  govern-  facts. 

ment,'  p.  190 ;    and  see  p.  235.  203  '  Que  les  Espagnols  depuis 

His  great  power  is  likewise  no-  longtemps  ignoroient  la  guerre  et 

ticed  in    Lafuente,   Historia  de  la  politique ;    qu'on  devoit   etre 

Espana,   vol.    xix.    p.    71:    'el  sensible  a  leurs  demonstrations 

hombre  de  mas  influjo  y  valimi-  d' attach ement   et  de   zele,    sans 

ento  en  la  corte.'  les  croire,  suffisantes  pour  soute- 

202  <  Originally  a  clerk  under  nir  un  Etat '  .  .  .  .  l'incapacite 

Orri,  he  gained  the  favour  of  his  des  sujets  pour  le  gouvernement.' 

employer,'  &c.     Core's  Bourbon  Millot,  Memoires  de  Noailles,  vol. 

Kings  of  Spain,  vol.  hi.  p.  39.  iii.  pp.  24,  25. 

Coxe  had  access  to  a  large  mass  204  '  C'etoit     un     parti    pris, 

of  letters,  which  were  written  in  comme  l'observe  Bonnac,  de  ne 

the  eighteenth  century,  by  per-  plus     mettre     le    gouvernement 

sons  connected  with  Spain,  and  entre    leurs    mains.     On     avoit 

many  of  which  are  still  unpub-  trouve  parmi  eux  peu  d'hommes 

lished.       This  makes  his  book  capables    des    grands    emplois: 

very  valuable ;  and,  as  a  recital  ceux  a  qui  on  les  avoit  confies,. 

of  political  events,  it  is  superior  malheureux  ou  infideles,  avoient 

to  anything  the  Spaniards  have  inspire    de  l'eloignement    pour 

produced,  though  the  author  is,  les  autres.'     Millot,  Memoires  de 

I  need  hardly  say,  far  inferior  to  Noailles,  vol.  iii.  p.  81. 
M.  Lafuente  as  a  writer,  and 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUET.  521 

tion,  though,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  it  could  not 
regenerate  Spain,  owing  to  the  unfavourable  operation 
of  general  causes.  Still,  the  intention  was  good.  For 
the  first  time,  attempts  were  made  to  vindicate  the 
rights  of  laymen,  and  to  diminish  the  authority  of 
ecclesiastics.  Scarcely  had  the  French  established 
their  dominion,  when  they  suggested  that  it  might  be 
advisable  to  relieve  the  necessities  of  the  state,  by 
compelling  the  clergy  to  give  up  some  of  the  wealth 
which  they  had  accumulated  in  their  churches.205 
Even  Louis  XTV.  insisted  that  the  important  office  of 
President  of  Castile  should  not  be  conferred  on  an 
ecclesiastic,  because,  he  said,  in  Spain  the  priests  and 
monks  had  already  too  much  power.206  Orry,  who  for 
several  years  possessed  immense  influence,  exerted  it 
in  the  same  direction.  He  endeavoured  to  lessen  the 
immunities  possessed  by  the  clergy,  in  regard  to  taxa- 
tion, and  also  in  regard  to  their  exemption  from  lay 
jurisdiction.  He  opposed  the  privilege  of  sanctuary  ; 
he  sought  to  deprive  churches  of  their  right  of  asylum. 
He  even  attacked  the  Inquisition,  and  worked  so 
powerfully  on  the  mind  of  the  king,  that  Philip,  at 
one  time,  determined  to  suspend  that  dreadful  tribunal, 
and  abolish  the  office  of  grand  inquisitor.207  This  in- 
tention was  very  properly  abandoned  ;  for  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  if  it  had  been  enforced,  it  would  have 
caused  a  revolution,  in  which  Philip  would  probably 

20S  In  1701,  'Les  eglisesd'Es-  tM  'II  insistoit  sur  la  n£ces- 

pagne  ont  des  richesses  immenses  sit&  de  ne  pas  donner  a  un  eccle- 

en  or  et  en  argenterie,  qui  aug-  siastique,  ni  a  une  creature  du 

mentent    tous  les  jours  par  le  cardinal,  la  presidence  de  Castille, 

credit  des  religieux ;  et  cela  rend  quand  on  rempliroit  cette  impor- 

l'espece  tres-rare  dans  le    com-  tante  place;    les  pretres   et  le3 

merce.      On  propose  d'obliger  le  moines  n'avoient  deja  que  trop 

clerge  a   vendre   une   partie  de  de  pouvoir.'     Millot,  Memoires  de 

cette  argenterie.     Avant  que  de  Noailles,  vol.  ii.  p.  77.     Compare 

prendre  ce  parti,  il  en  faudroit  pp.  71,  72;  a  letter  from  Lou- 

bien    examiner    non    seulement  ville  to  Torcy,  dated  August  5th, 

l'utilite,  que  Ton  connoit,  mais  1701. 

aussi  les  inconveniens  qu'un  pa-  20T  Coxe's  Bourbon   Kings   of 

reil    ordre    pourroit    produire.'  Spain,    vol.     ii.    pp.    163-165. 

Millot,  Mimoires  de  Noailles,  vol.  Mimoires  de    Noailles,  vol.   iii. 

ii.  p.  60.  p.  143. 


522      SPANISH    INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 


have  lost  Ms  crown.208  In  such  case,  a  reaction  would 
have  set  in,  which  would  have  left  the  Church  stronger 
than  ever.  Many  things,  however,  were  done  for 
Spain  in  spite  of  the  Spaniards.209  In  1707,  the  clergy 
were  forced  to  contribute  to  the  state  a  small  part 
of  their  enormous  wealth ;  the  tax  being  disguised 
under  the  name  of  a  loan.210  Ten  years  later,  during 
the  administration  of  Alberoni,  this  disguise  was  thrown 


208  In  1714,  it  was  thought 
necessary,  that  Philip  V.,  not 
having  had  the  benefit  of  a 
Spanish  education,  should  be  en- 
lightened on  the  subject  of  the 
Inquisition.  He  was,  therefore, 
informed,  '  que  la  pureza  de  la 
religion  Catolica  en  estos  reynos 
se  debia  a,  la  vigilancia  de  la  In- 
quisicion  y  sus  ministros,  todos 
justos,  clementes  y  circunspec- 
tos,  no  rigidos,  violentos  ni 
crueles,  como  por  error  6  malicia 
los  pintan  comunmente  los  Fran- 
ceses. Y  que  la  conservation  de  la 
Monarquia  dependia  en  gran  parte 
de  mantener  ilibata  la  religion 
Catolica.'  Ortiz,  Compendio,  vol. 
vii.  p.  286.  Bacallar(  Comentarios, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  122-125)  gives  an  in- 
teresting account  of  the  attacks 
made  on  the  rights  of  the  Church, 
and  which,  he  says,  p.  122,  were 
'  poco  ajustados  a  la  doctrina  de 
los  Santos  Padres,  a  la  Inmu- 
nidad  de  la  Iglesia,  y  que 
sonaban  a  heregia.'  He  sig- 
nificantly adds,  p.  125,  'Los 
pueblos  de  Espana,  que  son  tan 
religiosos,  y  professan  la  mayor 
veneracion  a  la  Iglesia,  creian 
que  esta  se  atropellaba,  y  huvo  al- 
guna  interna  inquietud,  no  sin 
fomento  de  los  adversos  al  Hey, 
cuyo  puro,  y  sincero  corazon 
podia  ser  enganado ;  pero  no  in- 
ducido  a  un  evidente  error  contra 
los  Sagrados  Canones,'  &c.  Such 


passages,  proceeding,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  from  a  man 
like  the  Marquis  de  San  Phelipe, 
are  of  no  slight  importance  in 
the  history  of  the  Spanish  mind. 

209  So  early  as  May  1702, 
Philip  V.,  in  a  letter  to  Louis 
XIV.,  complained  that  the  Span- 
iards opposed  him  in  every  thing. 
'Je  crois  etre  oblige  de  vous 
dire  que  je  m'apercjois  de  plus  en 
plus  du  peu  de  zele  que  les  Espa- 
gnols  ont  pour  mon  service, 
dans  les  petites  choses  comme 
dans  les  grandes,  et  qu'ils  s'op- 
posent  a  tout  ce  que  je  desire.' 
Millot,  Memoires  de  Noailles, 
vol.  ii.  p.  136.  The  dislike  which 
the  Spaniards  felt  for  the  liberal 
reforms  advocated  by  the  French, 
went  on  increasing,  until,  in 
1709,  '  se  renovaron  los  antiguos 
odios  entre  las  dos  naciones,  con 
tanto  ardor,  que  deseaban  las 
tropas  espanolas  el  haber  de 
combatir  con  los  Franceses.' 
Bacallar,  Comentarios,  vol.  i.  p. 
360. 

210  '  L'opulence  de  l'Eglise  de- 
voit  evidemment  fournir  des  se- 
cours  a(  la  patrie.  Un  emprunt 
de  quatre  millions,  fait  sur  le 
clerge  l'annee  precedente,  1 707, 
avoit  cependant  fort  deplu  au 
Pape  ou  a  ses  ministres.'  Millot, 
Memoires  de  Noailles,  vol.  ii.  p» 
412. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTUET.  523 

off ;  and  not  only  did  government  exact  what  was  now 
called  '  the  ecclesiastical  tax,'  but  it  imprisoned  or 
exiled  those  priests  who,  refusing  to  pay,  stood  up  for 
the  privileges  of  their  order.211  This  was  a  bold  step 
to  be  taken  in  Spain,  and  it  was  one  on  which,  at  that 
time,  no  Spaniard  would  have  ventured.  .Alberoni, 
however,  as  a  foreigner,  was  unversed  in  the  traditions 
of  the  country,  which,  indeed,  on  another  memorable 
occasion,  he  set  at  defiance.  The  government  of 
Madrid,  acting  in  complete  unison  with  public  opinion, 
had  always  been  unwilling  to  negotiate  with  infidels  ; 
meaning  by  infidels  every  people  whose  religious 
notions  differed  from  their  own.  Sometimes,  such 
negotiations  were  unavoidable,  but  they  were  entered 
into  with  fear  and  trembling,  lest  the  pure  Spanish  faith 
should  be  tainted  by  too  close  a  contact  with  un- 
believers. Even  in  1698,  when  it  was  evident  that  the 
monarchy  was  at  its  last  gasp,  and  that  nothing  could 
save  it  from  the  hands  of  the  spoiler,  the  prejudice  was 
so  strong,  that  the  Spaniards  refused  to  receive  aid 
from  the  Dutch,  because  the  Dutch  were  heretics.  At 
that  time,  Holland  was  in  the  most  intimate  relation 
with  England,  whose  interest  it  was  to  secure  the 
independence  of  Spain  against  the  machinations  of 
France.  Obvious,  however,  as  this  was,  the  Spanish 
theologians,  being  consulted  respecting  the  proposal, 
declared  that  it  was  inadmissible,  since  it  would  enable 
the  Dutch  to  propagate  their  religious  opinions;  so  that, 
according  to  this  view,  it  was  better  to  be  subjugated 
by  a  Catholic  enemy,  than  to  be  assisted  by  a  Protestant 
friend.212 

211  'He' (Alberoni) 'continued  at  Madrid,  -writes  from  that 
also  the  exaction  of  the  eccle-  capital :  '  This  Court  is  not  at  all 
siastical  tax,  in  spite  of  the  inclined  to  admit  the  offer  of  the 
papal  prohibitions,  imprisoning  Dutch  troops  to  garrison  their 
or  banishing  the  refractory  places  in  Flanders.  They  have 
priests  who  defended  the  privi-  consulted  their  theologians,  who 
leges  of  their  order.'  Coxe's  declare  against  it  as  a  matter  of 
Bourbon  Kings  of  Spain,  vol.  ii.  conscience,  since  it  would  give 
p.  288.  great  opportunities  to  the  spread- 

212  On  January  2nd,  1698,  ing  of  heresy.  They  have  not 
Stanhope,   the  British  Minister  yet  sent  their  answer    but  it  is 


524      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FKOM    THE    FIFTH 


Still,  much,  as  the  Spaniards  hated  Protestants,  they 
hated  Mohammedans  yet  more.213  They  could  never 
forget  how  the  followers  of  that  creed  had  once  con- 
quered nearly  the  whole  of  Spain,  and  had,  during 
several  centuries,  possessed  the  fairest  portion  of  it. 
The  remembrance  of  this  strengthened  their  religious 
animosity,  and  caused  them  to  be  the  chief  supporters 
of  nearly  every  war  which  was  waged  against  the 
Mohammedans,  both  of  Turkey  and  of  Africa.214  But 
Alberoni,  being  a  foreigner,  was  unmoved  by  these 
considerations,  and,  to  the  astonishment  of  all  Spain, 
he,  on  the  mere  ground  of  political  expediency,  set  at 


believed  it  will  be  in  the  nega- 
tive, and  that  they  will  rather 
choose  to  lie  at  the  mercy  of  the 
French,  as  being  Catholics.' 
Mahon's  Spain  under  Charles  II, 
pp.  S8,  99. 

2,3  '  Entre  el  catolicismo  y  las 
diferentes  sectas  que  brotaron  en 
las  imaginaciones  de  Calvino  y 
de  Lutero  podia  mediar  tole- 
rancia,  y  aun  transaccion,  si  bien, 
como  dice  un  escritor  politico, 
cuando  se  comienza  a  transigir 
sobre  un  principio,  ese  principio 
comienza  a  perder  su  imperio 
sobre  las  sociedades  humanas. 
Pero  entre  el  cristianismo  de  los 
espanoles  y  el  mahometismo  de 
los  moriscos  era  imposible  todo 
avenimiento.'  Janer,  Condition 
Social  de  los  Moriscos,  Madrid, 
1857,  p.  112. 

214  The  Marquis  of  San  Phe- 
lipe,  who  wrote  in  1725,  says, 
•  Es  ley  fundamental  de  los  Keyes 
Catholicos,  nunca  hacer  la  paz 
con  los  Mahometanos;  y  esta 
guerra  permanece  desde  el  Eey 
Don  Pelayo,  por  mas  de  siete 
siglos,  sin  hacer  jamas  paces,  ni 
treguas  con  ellos,  como  cada  dia 
las  hacen  el  Emperador,  y  otros 
Principes  Catholicos.'  Bacallar, 
Comentarios    de    la    Guerra  de 


Espana,  vol.  ii.  p.  169.  And,  in 
the  most  influential  work  on 
commerce  which  the  reign  of 
Philip  V.  produced,  I  find  the 
following  instructive  passage : 
'  Aunque  en  los  Puertos  de  las 
dilatadas  Costas,  que  de  Europa, 
Asia  y  Africa  bana  el  Mediter- 
raneo,  se  hace  comercio  muy 
considerable,  y  util  por  diversas 
naciones,  no  podra  Espana  tener 
gran  parte  en  el,  mientras  se 
observare  la  maxima  de  hacer 
continua  guerra  a  todos  los 
Moros  y  Turcos,  en  cuyo  dominio 
se  hallan  la  mayor  parte  de 
aquellas  Provincias ;  sin  embargo 
de  ser  constante,  que  en  esta 
guerra,  aunque  procedida  de  zelo 
Christiano,  es  mayor  el  daiio  que 
recibimos,  que  el  que  ocasionamos 
a  los  Infieles'  (the  way  the  mer- 
cantile spirit  peeps  out  here,  is 
extremely  curious)  '  a  lo  menos 
de  muchos  aiios  a,  esta  parte, 
como  lo  he  explicado  en  diversos 
capitulos.'  TJztariz,  Theorica  y 
Practica  de  Comercio,  Madrid, 
1757,  p.  399.  This  is  the  third 
edition  of  a  book,  which,  con- 
sidering the  circumstances  under 
which  it  was  written,  is  a  very 
remarkable  production. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUET.  525 

naught  the  principles  of  the  Church,  and  not  only  con- 
cluded an  alliance  with  the  Mohammedans,  hut  supplied 
them  with  arms  and  with  money.215  It  is,  indeed, 
true,  that,  in  these  and  similar  measures,  Alberoni 
opposed  himself  to  the  national  will,  and  that  he  lived 
to  repent  of  his  boldness.  It  is,  however,  also  true,  that 
his  policy  was  part  of  a  great  secular  and  anti-theologi- 
cal movement,  which,  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
was  felt  all  over  Europe.  The  effects  of  that  move- 
ment were  seen  in  the  government  of  Spain,  but  not 
in  the  people.  This  was  because  the  government  for 
many  years  was  wielded  by  foreigners,  or  by  natives 
imbued  with  a  foreign  spirit.  Hence  we  find  that, 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
politicians  of  Spain  formed  a  class  more  isolated,  and, 
if  I  may  so  say,  more  living  on  their  own  intellectual 
resources,  than  the  politicians  of  any  other  country 
during  the  same  period.  That  this  indicated  a  state  of 
disease,  and  that  no  political  improvement  can  produce 
real  good,  unless  it  is  desired  by  the  people  before 
being  conferred  on  them,  will  be  admitted  by  whoever 
has  mastered  the  lessons  which  history  contains.  The 
results  actually  produced  in  Spain,  we  shall  presently 
see.  But  it  will  first  be  advisable  that  I  should  give 
some  further  evidence  of  the  extent  to  which  the  in- 
fluence of   the   Church  had  prostrated  the  national 


215  Compare    Coxe's   Bourbon  1719,   p.  124.     Ortiz,  who  had 

Kings  of  Spain,  London,  1815,  evidently  not  looked  into    the 

vol.  ii.  p.  314,  with  The  History  evidence,  is  so  ill-informed  as  to 

of  Alberoni,  London,   1719,  pp.  suppose  that  this  was  a  calum- 

119,  253 ;  and  Bacallar,  Comen-  nious  accusation  brought  against 

tarios  de  la   Guerra  ale  Espana,  Alberoni  after  his  fall.     '  Caido 

vol.  ii.  pp.  168,  169.     The  out-  ya  por  entonces  Alberoni  de  su 

cry  which  this  caused,  may  be  grandeza,    expelido    ignominio- 

easily  imagined;  and  Alberoni,  samente  de  Espana,  y  aun  per- 

finding  himself  in   great  peril,  seguido  por  el   Eey  en   Italia, 

took  advantage  of  the  secrecy  of  preso  en  Eoma  pop  orden  del 

the  negotiations,  to  deny  part,  at  Papa,  etc.,  no  era  dificil  atribuirle 

least,    of     the     charges    made  culpas  agenas  6  no  cometidas.' 

against  him.    See  his  indignant,  Note  in  Ortiz,  Compendio,   vol. 

but  yet  cautious,  letter  to  the  vii.  p.  321. 
Pope,  in    History  of  Alberoni, 


526      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

intellect,  and  by  discouraging  all  inquiry,  and  fettering 
all  freedom  of  thought,  had  at  length  reduced  the- 
country  to  such  a  plight,  that  the  faculties  of  men, 
rusted  by  disuse,  were  no  longer  equal  to  fulfil  the 
functions  required  from  them ;  so  that  in  every  de- 
partment, whether  of  political  life,  or  of  speculative 
philosophy,  or  even  of  mechanical  industry,  it  was 
necessary  that  foreigners  should  be  called  in,  to  do 
that  work,  which  the  natives  had  become  unable  to 
perform. 

The  ignorance  in  which  the  force  of  adverse  circum- 
stances had  sunk  the  Spaniards,  and  their  inactivity, 
both  bodily  and  mental,  would  be  utterly  incredible,  if 
it  were  not  attested  by  every  variety  of  evidence. 
Gramont,  writing  from  personal  knowledge  of  the 
state  of  Spain,  during  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  describes  the  upper  classes  as  not  only  un- 
acquainted with  science  or  literature,  but  as  know- 
ing scarcely  any  thing  even  of  the  commonest  events- 
which  occurred  out  of  their  own  country.  The  lower 
ranks,  he  adds,  are  equally  idle,  and  rely  upon  foreigners- 
to  reap  their  wheat,  to  cut  their  hay,  and  to  build  their 
houses.216     Another  observer  of  society,  as  it  existed 


218  '  Leur  paresse,    et   l'igno-  qu'ils  ont  eu  de  leurs  peres,  c'est- 

rance  non  seulement  des  sciences  a-dire  sans  qu'ils  apprennent  ni 

et  des  arts,  mais  quasi  generale-  sciences  ni  exercices ;    et  je  ne 

ment  de  tout  ce  qui  se  passe  hors  crois   par    que  parmi  tous    les 

de   l'Espagne,    et  on  peut  dire  grands  que  j 'ay  pratiques,  ils' en 

meme  hors  du  lieu  ou  ils  habi-  trouvat  un  seul  qui  sut  decliner 

tent,  vont  presque   de  pair,   et  son  nom.\  .  .  .  '  Ils  n'ont  nulle 

sont    inconcevables.      La    pau-  curiosite     de     voir     les     pays 

vrete   est  grande  parmi  eux,  ce  etrangers,    et   encore  moins  de 

qui  provient  de  leur  extreme  pa-  s'enquerir  de  ce  qui  s'y  passe.' 

resse;  car    si    nombre  de    nos  Memoires  du  Marechal  de  Gra- 

Prancais  n'alloient  faucher  leurs  mont,  vol.  ii.  pp.  77,  78,  82,  83, 

foins,  couper  leurs  bles  et  faire  in    Collection  des  Memoires  far 

leurs   briques,    je    crois     qu'ils  Petitot  et  Monmerque,  vol.  lvii. 

courroient  fortune  de  se  laisser  See  also  Aarsensde  SommerdycJc, 

mourir  de  faim,  et  de  se  tenir  Voyage  oVEspagne,  Paris,  1665, 

sous  des  tentes  pour  ne  se  pas  4to.  p.  124.     'La  terre  mesme 

donner  la  peine  de   batir    des  n'y  est  pas  toute  cultiuee  par  des 

maisons.'  .  .  .    '  L'edueation  de  gens  du  pays :  au  temps  du  la- 

leurs  enfans  est  semblable  a  celle  bourage,  des  semailles  et  de  la 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


527 


in  Madrid  in  1679,  assures  us  that  men,  even  of  tho 
highest  position,  never  thought  it  necessary  that  their 
sons  should  study ;  and  that  those  who  were  destined 
for  the  army  could  not  learn  mathematics,  if  they  de- 
sired to  do  so,  inasmuch  as  there  were  neither  schools 
nor  masters  to  teach  them.817  Books,  unless  they 
were  books  of  devotion,  were  deemed  utterly  useless ; 
no  one  consulted  them ;  no  one  collected  them  ;  and, 
until  the  eighteenth  century,  Madrid  did  not  possess  a 
single  public  library.218  In  other  cities  professedly  de- 
voted to  purposes  of  education,  similar  ignorance  pre- 
vailed. Salamanca  was  the  seat  of  the  most  ancient 
and  most  famous  university  in  Spain,  and  there,  if  any- 
where, we  might  look  for  the  encouragement  of 
science.219      But   De    Torres,    who    was    himself   a 


recolte,  il  leur  vient  quantity  de 
paysans  du  Bearn  et  d'autres  en- 
droits  de  France,  qui  gagnent 
beaucoup  d'argent,  pour  leur 
mettre  leurs  bleds  en  terre  et 
pour  les  recueillir.  Les  archi- 
tectes  et  charpentiers  y  sont 
aussi  pour  la  plupart  estrangers, 
qui  se  font  payer  au  triple  de  ce 
qu'ils  gagneroient  en  leur  pays. 
Dans  Madrid  on  ne  voit  pas  un 
porteur  d'eau  qui  ne  soit  es- 
tranger,  et  la  plupart  des  cor- 
donniers  et  tailleurs  le  sont 
aussi.' 

417  '  Mais  aussi  de  quelle  ma- 
niere  les  eleve-t-on  ?  lis  n'etu- 
dient  point ;  on  neglige  de  leur 
donner  d'habiles  precepteurs ; 
dea  qu'on  les  destine  a  Tepee,  on 
ne  se  soucie  plus  qu'ils  appren- 
nent  le  latin  ni  l'histoire.  On 
devroit  au  moins  leur  enseigner 
ce  qui  est  de  leur  mestier,  les 
mathematiques,  a  faire  des  armea 
eta  monter  a  cheval.  lis  n'y 
pensent  seulement  pas.  II  n'y  a 
point  ici  d'Academie  ni  de 
maitrea  qui  montrent  ces  sortea 
de  choses.    Lea  jeunea  hommes 


passent  le  terns  qu'ils  devroient 
emploier  a  s'instruire  dans  un 
oisivete  pito'iable.'  Letter  from. 
Madrid,  dated  27th  June  1679r 
in  D'Aulnoy,  Belation  du  Voyage 
oVEspagne,  Lyon,  1693,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  232,  233. 

,218  '  Madrid  etant  la  capitale 
d'une  monarchic  aussi  vaste,  il 
n'y  eut  dans  cette  ville  jusqu'a 
l'epoque  du  regne  de  Philippe  V 
aucune  bibliotheque  publique.' 
Sempere,  Be  la  Monarchie  Espa- 
gnole,  Paris,  1826,  vol.  ii.  p. 
79. 

219  The  university  was  trans- 
ferred from  Palencia  to  Sala- 
manca, early  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  Forner,  Oration  Apo- 
logktica  por  la  Espana,  Madrid, 
1786,  p.  170.  By  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  had 
become  very  prosperous  (Sem- 
pere, De  la  Monarchie  Espagnole, 
vol.  i.  p.  65)  ;  and  in  1535,  it  ia 
described  as '  a  great  Universitie, 
conteyning  seven  or  eight  thow- 
sand  students.'  See  a  letter 
from  John  Mason,  dated  Valla- 
dolid,  3rd  July,  1535,  in  ElM 


528      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 


Spaniard,  and  was  educated  at  Salamanca,  early  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  declares  that  he  had  studied 
at  that  university  for  five  years  before  he  had  heard 
that  such  things  as  the  mathematical  sciences 
existed.220  So  late  as  the  year  1771,  the  same  uni- 
versity publicly  refused  to  allow  the  discoveries  of 
Newton  to  be  taught ;  and  assigned  as  a  reason,  that 
the  system  of  Newton  was  not  so  consonant  with  re- 


Original  Letters,  second  series, 
vol.  ii.  p.  56,  London,  1827. 
But,  like  every  thing  else  which 
was  valuable  in  Spain,  it  de- 
clined in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury ;  and  Monconys,  who  care- 
fully examined  it  in  1628,  and 
praises  some  of  its  arrangements 
which  were  still  in  force,  adds, 
*  Mais  je  suis  aussi  contraint  de 
dire  apres  tant  de  louanges,  que 
les  ecoliers  qui  £tudient  dans 
cette  university  sont  des  vrais 
ignorans.'  Les  Voyages  de  Mon- 
sieur  de  Monconys,  Quatrieme 
Partie,  vol.  v.  p.  22,  Paris,  1695. 
However,  their  ignorance,  of 
which  Monconys  gives  some 
curious  instances,  did  not  pre- 
vent Spanish  writers,  then,  and 
long  afterwards,  from  deeming 
the  University  of  Salamanca  to 
be  the  greatest  institution  of  its 
kind  in  the  world.  *  La  mayor 
del  orbe,  madre  gloriosisima  de 
todas  las  ciencias  y  de  los  mas 
vehementes  ingenios,  que  han 
ilustrado  las  edades.'  Vida  de 
Calderon  de  la  Barca,  pp.  iii.  iv., 
reprinted  in  Keil's  edition  of 
Calderon,  Leipsique,  1827.  Com- 
pare Davila  {Felipe  Tercero,  p. 
81),  'Salamanca,  madre  de  cien- 
cias y  letras  ;'  Yafiez  {Memorias, 
p.  228),  'Universidad  insigne,  y 
Oficina  de  las  buenas  Letras  de 
Espana ;'  Bacallar  (Comentarios, 
vol.  i.  p.  238),  '  El  emporio  de 


las  ciencias ;'  and  Ximenez  ( Vida 
de  Bibera,  p.  6),  '  Salamanca, 
cathedra  universal  de  las  artes, 
y  emporio  de  todas  ciencias.' 

220  '  Says,  that,  after  he  had 
been  five  years  in  one  of  the 
schools  of  the  university  there, 
it  was  by  accident  he  learned  the 
existence  of  the  mathematical 
sciences.'  Ticknor's  History  of 
Spanish  Literature,  vol.  iii.  p. 
223.  A  celebrated  Spanish 
writer  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
actually  boasts  of  the  ignorance 
of  his  countrymen  concerning 
mathematics,  and  discerns,  in 
their  neglect  of  that  foolish  pur- 
suit, a  decisive  proof  of  their 
superiority  over  other  nations. 
'  No  se  dexe  deslumbrar  con  los 
asperos  calculos  e  intrincadas 
demostraciones  geom^tricas,  con 
que,  astuto  el  entendimiento,  di- 
simula  el  engano  con  los  dis- 
fraees  de  la  verdad.  El  uso  de 
las  matematicas  es  la  alquimia 
en  la  fisica,  que  da  apariencias 
de  oro  a  lo  que  no  lo  es.'  For- 
ner,  Oracion  Apologetica  por  la 
Espana  y  su  Merito  Literario, 
Madrid,  1786,  p.  38.  Compare 
his  contemptuous  notice  (p.  66) 
of  those  insignificant  persons, 
who  '  con  titulo  de  filosofos  han 
dado  algun  aumento  a  las  mate- 
maticas;' and  his  comparison 
(p.  222)  of  Mercado  with  Newton. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUEY. 


529 


vealed  religion  as  the  system  of  Aristotle.221  All  over 
Spain,  a  similar  plan  was  adopted.  Everywhere, 
knowledge  was  spurned,  and  inquiry  discouraged. 
Feijoo,  who,  notwithstanding  his  superstition,  and  a 
certain  slavishness  of  mind,  from  which  no  Spaniard  of 
that  age  could  escape,  did,  on  matters  of  science,  seek 
to  enlighten  his  countrymen,  has  left  upon  record  his 
deliberate  opinion,  that  whoever  had  acquired  all  that 
was  taught  in  his  time  under  the  name  of -philosophy, 
would,  as  the  reward  of  his  labour,  be  more  ignorant 
than  he  was  before  he  began.222  And  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  he  was  right.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that,  in  Spain,  the  more  a  man  was  taught,  the  less  he 
would  know.  For,  he  was  taught  that  inquiry  was  sin- 
ful, that  intellect  must  be  repressed,  and  that  credulity 
and  submission  were  the  first  of  human  attributes.  The 
Duke  de  Saint  Simon,  who,  in  1721  and  1722,  was  the 
French  ambassador  at  Madrid,  sums  up  his  observa- 
tions by  the  remark,  that,  in  Spain,  science  is  a  crime, 
and  ignorance  a  virtue.223     Fifty  years  later,  another 


221  '  L'  university  de  Salaman- 
que,  excitee  par  le  Conseil,  a,  re- 
former ses  Etudes,  en  l'ann^e 
1771,  lui  ripondit  "  qu'elle  ne 
pouvait  se  s£parer  du  peri- 
patetisme,  parce  que  les  systemes 
de  Newton,  Gassendi  et  Des- 
cartes, ne  concordent  pas  autant 
avec  les  verites  re"  vel£es  que  ceux 
d'Aristote."  '  Semperc,  Monar- 
chic Espagnole,  vol.  ii.  p.  152. 
This  reply,  says  M.  Sempero,  p. 
153,  may  be  found  'dans  la  col- 
lection des  ordonnances  royales.' 
In  Letters  from  Spain  by  an 
English  Officer,  London,  1788, 
vol.  ii.  p.  256,  it  is  stated,  that, 
in  all  the  Spanish  universities', 
'Newton,  and  modern  philoso- 
phy, is  still  prohibited.  Nothing 
can  supplant  Aristotle,  and  the 
superstitious  fathers  and  doctors 
of  the  Church.' 

222  Or,  as  he,  in  one  place,  ex- 
VOL.  II.  II 


presses  himself,  would  know 
'  very  little  more  than  nothing.' 
'  El  que  estudio  Logica,  y  Mbta- 
physica,  con  lo  demas  que,  de- 
baxo  del  nombre  de  Philosofia, 
se  ensena  en  las  Escuelas,  por 
bien  que  sepa  todo,  sabe  muy 
poco  mas  que  nada ;  pero  suena 
mucho.  Dicese,  que  es  un  gran 
Philosofo;  y  no  es  Philosofo 
grande,  ni  chico.'  Feijoo,  Theatro 
Critico  Universal,  vol.  ii.  p.  187, 
quinta  impression,  Madrid,  1741. 
223  '  La  science  est  un  crime, 
l'ignorance  et  la  stupidity  la 
premiere  vertu.'  Memoires  du 
Due  de  Saint  Simon,  vol.  xxxv. 
p.  209,  Paris,  1840.  Elsewhere 
(vol.  xxxvi.  p.  252)  he  says, 
'  Les  jesuites  savants  partout  et 
en  tout  genro  de  science,  ce  qu 
ne  lour  est  pas  raerae  dispute 
par  leurs  ennemis,  les  jesuites, 
dis-je,   sont  ignorants   en    Es- 


530      SPANISH    INTELLECT    FEOM    THE    FIFTH 

shrewd  observer,  struck  'with  amazement  at  the  con- 
dition  of  the  national  mind,  expresses  his  opinion  in  a 
sentence  equally  pithy  and  almost  equally  severe. 
Searching  for  an  illustration  to  convey  his  sense  of  the 
general  darkness,  he  emphatically  says,  that  the  com- 
mon education  of  an  English  gentleman  would,  in 
Spain,  constitute  a  man  of  learning.224 

Those  who  know  what  the  common  education  of  an 
English  gentleman  was  eighty  years  ago, will  appreciate 
the  force  of  this  comparison,  and  will  understand  how 
benighted  a  country  must  have  been,  to  which  such  a 
taunt  was  applicable.  To  expect  that,  under  such  a 
state  of  things,  the  Spaniards  should  make  any  of  the 
discoveries  which  accelerate  the  march  of  nations, 
would  be  idle  indeed  ;  for  they  would  not  even  receive 
the  discoveries,  which  other  nations  had  made  for  them, 
and  had  cast  into  the  common  lap.  So  loyal  and 
orthodox  a  people  had  nothing  to  do  with  novelties, 
which,  being  innovations  on  ancient  opinions,  were 
fraught  with  danger.  The  Spaniards  desired  to  walk 
in  the  ways  of  their  ancestors,  and  not  have  their  faith 
in  the  past  rudely  disturbed.  In  the  inorganic  world, 
the  magnificent  discoveries  of  Newton  were  contumeli- 
ously  rejected ;  and,  in  the  organic  world,  the  circula- 
tion of  the  blood  was  denied,  more  than  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  after  Harvey  had  proved  it.225     These  things 

pagne,  mais  d'une   ignorance  a  country,  and  who,  by  previous 

surprendre.'  study,  had  well  qualified  him- 

224  '  The  common  education  of  self  for  such  an  undertaking, 
an  English  gentleman  would  says,  '  I  have  observed  in  gene- 
constitute  a  man  of  learning  ral,  that  the  physicians  with 
here  ;  and,  should  he  understand  whom  I  have  had  occasion  to 
Greek,  he  would  be  quite  a  phe-  converse,  are  disciples  of  their 
nomenon.'  Swinburne's  Travels  favourite  doctor  Piquer,  who 
through  Spain  in  1775  and  1776,  denied,  or  at  least  doubted  of, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  212,  213,  2d  edit.,  the  circulation  of  the  blood.' 
London,  1787.  Townsend's     Journey      through 

224  So  late  as  1787,  Townsend,  Spain,   2d  ed.,   London,   1792, 

a  very  accomplished  man,  who  vol.  iii.  p.   281.     At  that  time, 

travelled  through  Spain  with  the  the    Spanish    physicians    were, 

express  object  of  noting  the  state  however,  beginning  to  read  Hoff- 

of  knowledge,  as  well    as  the  mann,  Cullen,  and  other  heretical 

economical     condition     of    the  speculators,  in  whose  works  they 


TO   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  531 

were  new,  and  it  was  better  to  pause  a  little,  and  not 
receive  them  too  hastily.  On  the  same  principle,  when, 
in  the  year  1760,  some  bold  men  in  the  government 
proposed  that  the  streets  of  Madrid  should  be  cleansed, 
so  daring  a  suggestion  excited  general  anger.  Not 
only  the  vulgar,  but  even  those  who  were  called  edu- 
cated, were  loud  in  their  censure.  The  medical  pro- 
fession, as  the  guardians  of  the  public  health,  were 
desired,  by  the  government,  to  give  their  opinion. 
This,  they  had  no  difficulty  in  doing.  They  had  no 
doubt  that  the  dirt  ought  to  remain.  To  remove  it,  was 
a  new  experiment ;  and  of  new  experiments,  it  was  im- 
possible to  foresee  the  issue.  Their  fathers  having  lived 
in  the  midst  of  it,  why  should  not  they  do  the  same  ? 
Their  fathers  were  wise  men,  and  must  have  had  good 
reasons  for  their  conduct.  Even  the  smell,  of  which 
some  persons  complained,  was  most  likely  wholesome. 
For,  the  air  being  sharp  and  piercing,  it  was  extremely 
probable  that  bad  smells  made  the  atmosphere  heavy, 
and  in  that  way  deprived  it  of  some  of  its  injurious 
properties.  The  physicians  of  Madrid  were,  therefore, 
of  opinion  that  matters  had  better  remain  as  their  an- 
cestors had  left  them,  and  that  no  attempts  should  be 
made  to  purify  the  capital  by  removing  the  filth  which 
lay  scattered  on  every  side.226 


would  find,   to    their  astonish-  Carlos  had  not  a  lecture-room 

ment,  that  the  circulation  of  the  for  practical  instruction.' 

blood  was  assumed,  and  was  not  22<i  This  little  episode  is  noticed 

even    treated    as    a    debatable  by  Cabarrus,  in    his   Elogio  de 

question.    But  the  students  were  Carlos  III.,  Madrid,    1789,  4to. 

obliged  to  take  such  matters  on  p.  xiv.  '  La  salubridad  del  ayre, 

trust;    for,  adds  Townsend,   p.  la   limpieza  y  scguridad  do  las 

282,  'In  their  medical  classes,  calles.'  .  .  .  'Pero  <i  qui6n  creera 

they  had  no  dissections.'     Com-  que  este  noble  empeno  produxo 

pare  Laborde's  Spain,  vol.  i.  p.  las   mas  vivas    quejas :  que  so 

76,  vol.  iii.    p.   315,    London,  conmovio    el    vulgo     de   todas 

1 809,     and     Godoy's    Memoirs,  clases  ;  y  que  tuvo  varias  autori- 

London,    1836,   vol.  ii.  p.   157.  dados  a  su  favor  la  extrana  doc- 

Godoy,    speaking  of    the   three  trina  de  que  los  vapores  mefiti- 

colleges   of  surgery  at  Madrid,  cos  eran  un  correctivo  saludablo 

Barcelona,  and   Cadiz,  says  that  de  la  rigidez  del  clima  ? '     But 

until  his  administration  in  1793,  the  fullest  details  will  be  found 

'  In  the  capital,  even  that  of  San  in  tho  recently  published  and 
mm2 


532       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM    THE    FIFTH 


While  such  notions  prevailed  respecting  the  preser- 
vation of  health,227  it  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  the 
treatment  of  disease  should  be  very  successful.  To 
bleed  and  to  purge,  were  the  only  remedies  prescribed 
by  the  Spanish  physicians.228     Their  ignorance  of  the 


very  elaborate  History  of  Charles 
III.  by  M.  Rio,  from  which  I 
•will  give  one  or  two  extracts. 
'Para  la  limpieza  de  las  calles 
poseia  mayores  6  menores  fondos 
el  ayuntamiento,  y  cuando  el  Rey 
quiso  poner  la  mano  en  este 
ramo  de  policia,  le  presentaron 
dictamenes  de  medicos  en  que  se 
defendia  el  absurdo  de  ser  ele- 
mento  de  salubridad  la  basura.' 
Rio,  Historia  del  Reinado  de 
Carlos  III,  Madrid,  1856,  vol. 
iv.  p.  54.  See  also  vol.  i.  pp. 
267,  268,  where  it  is  mentioned, 
that  when  the  minister,  Esqui- 
lacho,  persevered  in  his  attempts 
to  have  the  streets  of  Madrid 
cleaned,  the  opponents  of  the 
scheme  made  inquiries  into  the 
opinions  of  their  fathers  on  that 
subject;  and  the  result  was, 
'  que  le  presentaron  cierta  origi- 
nalisima  consulta  hecha  por  los 
medicos  bajo  el  reinado  de  uno 
de  los  Eelipes  de  Austria,  y  re- 
ducida  a  demostrar  que,  siendo 
eumamente  sutil  el  aire  de  la 
poblacion  a  causa  de  estar  pro- 
xima  la  sierra  de  Guadarrama, 
ocasionaria  los  mayores  estragos 
si  no  se  impregnara  en  los  va- 
pores  de  las  inmundicias  des- 
parramadas  por  las  calles.'  That 
this  idea  had  long  been  enter- 
tained by  the  physicians  of  Ma- 
drid, we  also  know  from  another 
testimony,  with  which  none  of 
the  Spanish  historians  are  ac- 
quainted. Sir  Richard  Wynne, 
who  visited  that  capital  in  1623, 
describes  a  disgusting  practice 


of  the  inhabitants,  and  adds, 
'  Being  desirous  to  know  why  so 
beastly  a  custom  is  suffered,  they 
say  it's  a  thing  prescribed  by 
their  physicians ;  for  they  hold 
the  air  to  be  so  piercing  and 
subtle,  that  this  kind  of  corrupt- 
ing it  with  these  ill  vapours 
keeps  it  in  good  temper.'  The 
Autobiography  and  Correspon- 
dence of  Sir  Simonds  I/Ewes, 
edited  by  J.  0.  Halliwell,  Lon- 
don, 1845,  vol.  ii.  p.  446. 

227  Even  thirty  years  later,  it 
was  said,  with  good  reason,  that 
'  es  menester  deshacer  todo  lo  que 
se  ha  hecho,'  and  '  confiar  exclu- 
sivamente  el  precioso  deposito 
de  la  sanidad  piiblica  a.  las  ma- 
nos  capaces  de  conservarlo  y  me- 
jorarlo.'  Cartas  por  el  Conde  de 
Cabarrus,  Madrid,  1813,  p.  280. 
These  letters,  which,  though 
little  known,  contain  some  inte- 
resting statements,  were  written 
in  1792  and  1793.  See  p.  34, 
and  Prologo,  p.  i. 

223  Bleeding,  however,  had  the 
preference.  See  the  curious  evi- 
dence in  TownsendJs  Journey 
through  Spain  in  1786  and  1787, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  37-39.  Townsend, 
who  had  some  knowledge  of 
medicine,  was  amazed  at  the 
ignorance  and  recklessness  of 
the  Spanish  physicians.  He 
says,  'The  science  and  practice 
of  medicine  are  at  the  lowest 
ebb  in  Spain,  but  more  especially 
in  the  Asturias.'  Compare 
Sprcngel,  Histoire  de  la  Medecine, 
vol.  iii.  p.  217,  Paris,  1815,  with 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


533 


commonest  functions  of  the  human  body  was  altogether 
surprising,  and  can  only  be  explained  on  the  supposi- 
tion, that  in  medicine,  as  in  other  departments,  the 
Spaniards  of  the  eighteenth  century  knew  no  more  than 
their  progenitors  of  the  sixteenth.  Indeed,  in  some  re- 
spects, they  appeared  to  know  less.  For,  their  treatment 
was  so  violent,  that  it  was  almost  certain  death  to  sub- 
mit to  it  for  any  length  of  time.229  Their  own  king, 
Philip  V.,  did  not  dare  to  trust  himself  in  their  hands, 
but  preferred  having  an  Irishman  for  his  physician.230 
Though  the  Irish  had  no  great  medical  reputation,  any- 
thing was  better  than  a  Spanish  doctor.231     The  arts 


Winwood's  Memorials,  London, 
1725,  folio,  vol.  ii.  p.  219.  The 
last  reference  shows  the  terrible 
'purging  and  letting  blood,'  to 
which  the  unfortunate  Spaniards 
were  exposed  in  the  reign  of 
Philip  III.  Another  observer, 
much  later,  states  that  '  La  sai- 
gnee  leur  est  assez  familiere.  Us 
se  la  font  faire  hors  du  lit  tant 
que  leurs  forces  le  permettent,  et 
lorsqu'Us  en  usent  par  precaution, 
Us  se  font  tirer  du  sang  deux 
jours  de  suite  du  bras  droit  et  du 
gauche,  disant  qu'il  faut  egaliser 
le  sang.  On  peut  juger  de  la,  si 
la  circulation  leur  est  connue.' 
Voyages  faits  en  Espagne,  par 
Monsieur  M****,  Amsterdam, 
1 700,  p.  1 1 2.  See  further  Clarice's 
Letters  concerning  the  Spanish 
Nation,  London,  4to.  1763,  p.  55, 
and  Spain  by  an  American,  Lon- 
don, 1831,  Tolii.  p.  321. 

*•  In  1790,  poor  Cumberland, 
when  in  Madrid,  was  as  nearly 
as  possible  murdered  by  three  of 
their  surgeons  in  a  very  few 
days ;  the  most  dangerous  of  his 
assailants  being  no  less  a  man 
than  the  '  chief  surgeon  of  the 
Gardes  de  Corps,'  who,  says 
the    unfortunate    sufferer,  was 


'  sent  to  me  by  authority.'  See 
Memoirs  ofBichard  Cumberland, 
written  by  himself,  London,  1807, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  67,  68. 

230  Duclos  says  of  Philip  V., 
'II  etoit  fort  attentif  sur  sa 
sante  ;  son  medecin,  s'il  eut  ete 
intriguant,  auroit  pu  jouer  un 
grand  r61e.  Hyghens,  Irlandois, 
qui  occupoit  cette  premiere  place, 
fort  eloigne  de  l'intrigue  et  de  la 
cupidity  instruit  dans  son  art, 
s'en  occupoit  uniquement.  Apres 
sa  mort,  la  reine  fit  donner  la 
place  a  Servi,  son  medecin  par- 
ticulier,  Memoires  par  Duclos, 
2«edit.  Paris,  1791,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
200,  201.  '  Hyghens,  premier 
medecin,  etait  Irlandais.'  Me- 
moires  du  Duo  de  Saint  Simon, 
vol.  xxxvi.  p.  215,  ed.  Paris, 
1841. 

431  In  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  Spaniards,  generally,  began 
to  admit  this  ;  since  they  could 
not  shut  their  eyes  to  the  fact 
that  their  friends  and  relations 
succumbed  so  rapidly  under  pro- 
fessional treatment,  that  sickness 
and  death  were  almost  synony- 
mous. Hence,  notwithstanding 
their  hatred  of  the  French  na- 
tion, they  availed  themselves  of 


534      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

incidental  to  medicine  and  surgery,  were  equally  back- 
ward. The  instruments  were  rudely  made,  and  the 
drugs  badly  prepared.  Pharmacy  being  unknown,  the 
apothecaries'  shops,  in  the  largest  towns,  were  entirely 
supplied  from  abroad  ;  while,  in  the  smaller  towns,  and 
in  districts  remote  from  the  capital,  the  medicines  were 
of  such  a  quality,  that  the  best  which  could  be  hoped  of 
them  was,  that  they  might  be  innocuous.  For,  in  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Spain  did  not  possess 
one  practical  chemist.  Indeed,  we  are  assured  by 
Campomanes  himself,  that,  so  late  as  the  year  1776, 
there  was  not  to  be  found  in  the  whole  country  a  single 
man  who  knew  how  to  make  the  commonest  drugs, 
such  as  magnesia,  Glauber's  salts,  and  the  ordinary 
preparations  of  mercury  and  antimony.  This  eminent 
statesman  adds,  however,  that  a  chemical  laboratory 
was  about  to  be  established  in  Madrid ;  and  although 
the  enterprise,  being  without  a  precedent,  would  surely 
be  regarded  as  a  portentous  novelty,  he  expresses  a 
confident  expectation,  that,  by  its  aid,  the  universal 
ignorance  of  his  countrymen  would  in  time  be  reme- 
died.^ 

Whatever  was  useful  in  practice,  or  whatever  sub- 


tle services  of  French  physicians  2K  Campomanes  {Apendice  a 
and  French  surgeons,  whenever  la  Education  Popular,  Madrid, 
they  had  an  opportunity  of  doing  1776,  vol.  iii.  pp.  74,  75),  speak- 
so.  In  1707,  the  Princess  des  ing  of  a  work  on  distillation, 
Ursins  writes  frem  Madrid  to  says,  •  La  tercera  (parte)  de- 
Madame  de  Maintenon,  'Les  scribe  la  preparacion  de  los 
chirurgiens  espagnols  sont  mes-  productos  quimicos  solidos :  esto 
estimes  meme  de  ceux  de  leur  es  la  preparacion  de  varias  sus- 
nation  ;'  and,  in  another  letter,  tancias  terreas,  como  argamasa, 
'  Les  Espagnols  conviennent  que  magnesia  blanca,  ojos  de  cangre- 
les  mddecins  franejais  sont  beau-  jo,  etc.,  la  de  varios  sales,  como 
coup  plus  savants  que  les  leurs ;  sal  de  glaubero,  amoniaco,  cristal 
ils  s'en  servent  meme  tres-volon-  mineral,  borax  refinado,  etc.,  y  la 
tiers,  mais  ils  sont  persuades  que  del  antimonio,  mercurio,  plomo, 
ceux  de  la  faculte  de  Montpel-  litargirio,  etc.,  comunicando  sobre 
lier  l'emportent  sur  les  autres.'  todo  lo  expresado  varias  noticias, 
Lettrcs  inediles  de  Madame  de  que  demuestran  lo  mucho  que 
Maintenon  et  de  la  Princesse  des  conducen  a,  los  progresos  del  arte, 
Ursins,  vol.  iii.  p.  412,  vol.  iv.  las  observaciones  del  fisico  re- 
p.  90.  flexivo :  unidas  a  la  practica  de 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUEY. 


535 


served  the  purposes  of  knowledge,  had  to  come  from 
abroad.  Ensenada,  the  ■well-known  minister  of  Ferdi- 
nand VI.,  was  appalled  by  the  darkness  and  apathy  of 
the  nation,  which  he  tried,  bnt  tried  in  vain,  to  remove. 
When  he  was  at  the  head  of  affairs,  in  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  he  publicly  declared  that  in 
Spain  there  was  no  professorship  of  public  law,  or  of 
physics,  or  >of  anatomy,  or  of  botany.  He  further  added, 
that  there  were  no  good  maps  of  Spain,  and  that  there 
was  no  person  who  knew  how  to  construct  them.  All 
the  maps  which  they  had,  came  from  Prance  and  Hol- 
land. They  were,  he  said,  very  inaccurate;  but  the 
Spaniards,  being  unable  to  make  any,  had  nothing  else 
to  rely  on.  Such  a  state  of  things  he  pronounced  to  be 
shameful.  For,  as  he  bitterly  complained,  if  it  were 
not  for  the  exertions  of  Frenchmen  and  Dutchmen,  it 
would  be  impossible  for  any  Spaniard  to  know  either 
the  position  of  his  own  town,  or  the  distance  from  one 
place  to  another.233 


un  profesor  experimentado.  Este 
arte  en  todasu  extension  falta  en 
Espafia.  Solo  le  tenemos  para 
aguardientes,  rosolis,  y  mistelas. 
La  salud  publica  es  demasiado 
importante,  para  depender  de  los 
estranos  en  cosas  esenciales; 
quando  no  estimulase  nuestra 
industria  la  manutencion  de  mu- 
chas  familias.'  .  .  .  '  Gran  parte 
de  estas  cosas  se  introducen  de 
fuera,  por  no  conocerse  bien  las 
qperaciones  quimicas.  No  son 
dificultosas  en  la  execution ;  pero 
es  necesario  ensenarlas,  y  conoccr 
los  instrumentos  que  son  apro- 
posito.  Un  laboratorio  quimico, 
que  se  va  a  estableccr  en  Madrid, 
produtira  maestro  s  para  las  ca- 
pitales  del  reyno.' 

-ss  '  Su  ministro  el  celebre  En- 
senada, que  tenia  grandes  miras 
en  todoslos  ramos  de  la  adminis- 
tration publica,  deseaba  ardien- 
temente  mejorar  la   ensenanza, 


lamentandose  del  atraso  en  que 
esta  se  hallaba.  "  Es  menester, 
decia  hablando  de  las  universi- 
dades,  reglar  sus  catedras,  re- 
formar  las  superfluas  y  establecer 
las  que  faltan  con  nuevas  orde- 
nanzas  para  asegurar  el  mejor 
metodo  de  estudios.  No  se  que 
haya  catedra  alguna  de  derecho 
publico,  de  fisica  esperimental, 
de  anatomia  y  botanica.  No 
hay  puntuales  cartas  geograficas 
del  reino  y  de  sus  provincias,  ni 
quien  las  sepa  grabar,  ni  tenemos 
otras  que  las  imperfectas  que  vie- 
nen  de  Francia  y  Holanda.  De 
esto  proviene  que  ignoramos  la 
verdadera  situacion  de  los  pue- 
blos y  sus  distancias,  que  es  una 
vergiienza." '  Tapia,  Civilization 
Espanola,  Madrid,  1840,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  268,  269.  See  also  Biografia 
de  Ensenada,  in  Navarrcte,  Co- 
lection  de  Opusculos,  Madrid, 
1848,  vol.  ii.  pp.  21,  22.     «Le 


536       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FBOM    THE    FIFTH 

The  only  remedy  for  all  this,  seemed  to  be  foreign 
aid  ;  and  Spain  being  now  ruled  by  a  foreign  dynasty, 
that  aid  was  called  in.  Cervi  established  the  Medical 
Societies  of  Madrid  and  of  Seville  ;  Virgili  founded  the 
College  of  Surgery  at  Cadiz  ;  and  Bowles  endeavoured 
to  promote  among  the  Spaniards  the  study  of  mine- 
ralogy.234 Professors  were  sought  for,  far  and  wide ; 
and  application  was  made  to  Linnseus  to  send  a  person 
from  Sweden  who  could  impart  some  idea  of  botany  to 
physiological  students.235  Many  other  and  similar  steps 
were  taken  by  the  government,  whose  indefatigable 
exertions  would  deserve  our  warmest  praise,  if  we  did 
not  know  how  impossible  it  is  for  any  government  to 
enlighten  a  nation,  and  how  absolutely  essential  it  is 
that  the  desire  for  improvement  should,  in  the  first 
place,  proceed  from  the  people  themselves.  No  pro- 
gress is  real,  unless  it  is  spontaneous.  The  movement, 
to  be  effective,  must  emanate  from  within,  and  not 
from  without ;  it  must  be  due  to  general  causes  acting 
on  the  whole  country,  and  not  to  the  mere  will  of  a  few 
powerful  individuals.  During  the  eighteenth  century, 
all  the  means  of  improvement  were  lavishly  supplied  to 

parecia  vergonzoso  que  para  co-  of  the  Peninsula  does  not  exist.' 

nocer  la  situacion  y  distancias  234  M.  Rio  {Historia  del  Rei- 

respectivas  de  nuestros  mismos  nado  de   Carlos  III.,  vol.   i.  p. 

pueblos   y  lugares,  dependiese-  185)  mentions  this   in   a  very 

mos  de  los  franceses  y   holan-  characteristic  manner.     '  Varios 

deses,  quienes    por    sus   mapas  extranjeros  distinguidos  hallaron 

imperfecta^  do  la  peninsula  ex-  fraternidad  entre  los  espanoles,  y 

traian   de  ella    sumas   conside-  correspondieron  hidalgamente  at 

rabies.'     Eighty  years  after  this  hospedaje :  Cervi  dio  vida  a  las 

complaint   was. made  by  Ense-  sociedades  medicas   de   Madrid 

nada,   we    find    a   traveller  in  y  Sevilla ;  Virgili   al  colegio  de 

Spain  stating  that  '  a  decent  map  Cirugia  de  Cadiz ;  Quer  trabajo 

of  any  part,  even  of  the  country  sin  descanso  para  que  el  Jardin 

round  the  gates  of  the  capital,  Botanico  no  fuera  im  simple  lu- 

cannot  be  'found.'     Cook's  Spain  gar  de  recreo,  sino  principalmente 

from    1829    to    1832,    London,  de    estudio ;    Bowles    comunico 

1834,  vol.  i.  p.   322.     Compare  grande  impulso  a  la  mineralogia,' 

Notices  of  Geological  Memoirs,  &c. 

p.  1,  at  the  end  of  the   Quar-  23s  I  have  mislaid  the  evidence 

ttrly  Journal  of  the  Geological  of  this  fact ;  but  the  reader  may 

Society,  vol.  vi.,  London,  1850  ;  rely  on  its  accuracy. 
*even  a  good  geographical  map 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUET.  537 

the  Spaniards ;  but  the  Spaniards  did  not  want  to  im- 
prove. They  were  satisfied  with  themselves  ;  they  were 
sure  of  the  accuracy  of  their  own  opinions ;  they  were 
proud  of  the  notions  which  they  inherited,  and  which 
they  did  not  wish  either  to  increase  or  to  diminish. 
Being  unable  to  doubt,  they  were,  therefore,  unwilling 
to  inquire.  New  and  beautiful  truths,  conveyed  in  the 
clearest  and  most  attractive  language,  could  produce 
no  effect  upon  men  whose  minds  were  thus  hardened 
and  enslaved.236  An  unhappy  combination  of  events, 
working  without  interruption  since  the  fifth  century, 
had  predetermined  the  national  character  in  a  particular 
direction,  and  neither  statesmen,  nor  kings,  nor  legis- 
lators, could  effect  aught  against  it.  The  seventeenth 
century  was,  however,  the  climax  of  all.  In  that  age, 
the  Spanish  nation  fell  into  a  sleep,  from  which,  as  a 
nation,  it  has  never  since  awakened.  It  was  a  sleep, 
not  of  repose,  but  of  death.  It  was  a  sleep,  in  which 
the  faculties,  instead  of  being  rested,  were  paralyzed, 
and  in  which  a  cold  and  universal  torpor  succeeded  that 
glorious,  though  partial,  activity,  which,  while  it  made 
the  name  of  Spain  terrible  in  the  world,  had  insured 
the  respect  even  of  her  bitterest  enemies. 

Even  the  fine  arts,  in  which  the  Spaniards  had 
formerly  excelled,  partook  of  the  general  degeneracy, 
and,  according  to  the  confession  of  their  own  writers, 
had,  by  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  fallen 
into  complete  decay.237     The  arts  which  secure  national 


239  Townsend  (Journey  through  gusto,  que  a  principios  del  xviii. 
Spain  in  1786  and  1787,  vol.  ii.  las  artes  se  hallaban  en  la  mas 
p.  275)  says,  '  Don  Antonio  So-  lastimosa  decadencia.'  Tapia, 
lano,  professor  of  experimental  Civilization  Espanola,  Madrid, 
philosophy,  merits  attention  for  1840,  vol.  iv.  p.  346.  See  also, 
the  clearness  and  precision  of  his  on  this  decline,  or  rather  de- 
demonstrations  :  but,  unfortu-  struction,  of  taste,  Valasquez, 
nateby,  although  his  lectures  are  Origines  de  la  Poesia  Castellana, 
delivered  gratis,  such  is  the  want  Malaga,  1754,  4to.  'Un  siglo, 
of  taste  for  science  in  Madrid,  corrompido,  en  que  las  letras  es- 
that  nobody  attends  them.'  taban  abandonadas,   y  el   buen 

-Z1  '  La  ignorancia  reinante  en  gusto  casi  destorrado  de  toda  la 

los  ultimos  anos  del  siglo  xvii.  nacion.'  p.  70.    •  Al  passo  que  la 

depravo  en  tal  manera  el  buen  nacion  perdia  el  buen  gusto,  y 


538      SPANISH    INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

safety,  were  in  the  same  predicament  as  those  which 
minister  to  national  pleasure.  There  was  no  one  in 
Spain  who  could  build  a  ship ;  there  was  no  one  who 
knew  how  to  rig  it,  after  it  was  built.  The  consequence 
was,  that,  by  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
few  ships  which  Spain  possessed,  were  so  rotten,  that, 
says  an  historian,  they  could  hardly  support  the  fire  of 
their  own  guns.238  In  1752,  the  government,  being 
determined  to  restore  the  navy,  found  it  necessary  to 
send  to  England  for  shipwrights ;  and  they  were  also 
obliged  to  apply  to  the  same  quarter  for  persons  who 
could  make  ropes  and  canvass  ;  the  skill  of  the  natives 
being  unequal  to  such  arduous  achievements.239  In 
this  way,  the  ministers  of  the  Crown,  whose  ability  and 
vigour,  considering  the  difficult  circumstances  in  which 
the  incapacity  of  the  people  placed  them,  were  ex- 
tremely remarkable,  contrived  to  raise  a  fleet  superior 
to  any  which  had  been  seen  in  Spain  for  more  than  a 
century.240  They  also  took  many  other  steps  towards 
putting  the  national  defences  into  a  satisfactory  con- 
dition ;  though  in  every  instance,  they  were  forced  to 
rely  on  the  aid  of  foreigners.  Both  the  military  and 
the  naval  service  were  in  utter  confusion,  and  had  to 
be  organized  afresh.     The  discipline  of  the  infantry 


las  letras  iban  caminando  a  su  maestros   para   las   fabricas   de 

total  decadencia.'  p.  107.     '  Los  jarcia,  lona  y  otras.'      Biografia 

caminos  por  dondo  nuestros  poe-  de  Ensenada,  in  Navarrete,  Colec- 

tas  en  el  siglo  pasado  se  apar-  cion  de  Opusculos,  Madrid,  1848, 

taron    del   buen  gusto   en  esta  vol.  ii.  p.  18.     M.  Rio,  taking  all 

parte.'  p.  170.  this  as  a  matter  of  course,  quietly 

238  '  Solo  cuatro  navios  de  says,  '  D.  Jorge  Juan  fue  a  Lon- 
linea  y  seis  de  poco  porte  dejaron  dres  para  estudiar  la  construc- 
los  reyes  de  origen  austriaco,  y  cion  da  navios.'  Historia  del 
todos  tan  podridos  que  apenas  Beinado  de  Carlos  III.,  Madrid, 
podian  aguantar  el  fuego  de  sus  1856,  vol.  iv.  p.  485. 

propias  baterias.'     Bio,  Historia  240  M.  Lafuente  says  that  En- 

del  Beinado  de  Carlos  III.,  Ma-  senada  was  the  restorer,  and  al- 

drid,  1856,  vol.  i.  p.  184.  most  the  creator,  of  the  Spanish 

239  '  Se  mandaron  construir  12  navy;  'delacualfue  el  restau- 
navios  a  la  vez,  y  se  contrataron  rador,  y  casi  pudiera  decirse  el 
otros.  Por  medio  de  D.  Jorge  creador.'  Lafuente,  Historia  de 
Juan  se  trajeron  de  Inglaterra  Espaiia,  vol.  xix.  p.  344,  Madrid, 
los  mas  habiles  constructors  y  1857. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  539 

was  remodelled  by  O'Reilly,  an  Irishman,  to  whose 
superintendence  the  military  schools  of  Spain  were  in- 
trusted.241 At  Cadiz,  a  great  naval  academy  was 
formed,  but  the  head  of  it  was  Colonel  Godin,  a  French 
officer.242  The  artillery,  which  like  everything  else, 
had  become  almost  useless,  ■  was  improved  by  Maritz, 
the  Frenchman ;  while  the  same  service  was  rendered 
to  the  arsenals  by  Grazola,  the  Italian.243 

The  mines,  which  form  one  of  the  greatest  natural 
sources  of  the  wealth  of  Spain,  had  likewise  suffered 
from  that  ignorance  and  apathy  into  which  the  force 
of  circumstances  had  plunged  the  country.  They 
were  either  completely  neglected,  or  if  worked,  they 
were  worked  by  other  nations.  The  celebrated  cobalt- 
mine,  situated  in  the  valley  of  Gistau,  in  Aragon,  was 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Germans,  who,  during  the 
first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  derived  immense 
profit  from  it.244  In  the  same  way,  the  silver-mines  of 
Guadalcanal,  the  richest  in  Spain,  were  undertaken, 
not  by  natives,  but  by  foreigners.  Though  they  had 
been  discovered  in  the  sixteenth  century,  they,  as  well 
as  other  matters  of  importance,  had  been  forgotten  in 

241  'C'est  par  un  Irlandais  in  Bourgoing,  Tableau  de  VEs- 
aussi,  Oreilly,  que  la  discipline  pagne  Moderne,  Paris,  1808,  vol. 
de  l'infanterie  est  r^formee.'  ii.  pp.  96,  142.  With  good  rea- 
Bourgoing,  Tableau  de  FEspagne  son,  therefore,  was  it  stated,  some 
Moderne,  Paris,  1 808,  vol.  ii.  p.  years  afterwards,  that  '  c'est  a 
142.  '  Las  escuelas  militares  des  etrangers  que  l'Espagne  doit 
del  puerto  de  Sta.  Maria  para  la  presque  tous  les  plans,  les  re- 
infanteria,  que  dirigio  con  tanto  formes  utiles,  et  les  connoissances 
acierto  el  general  Ofarrilbajo  las  dont  elle  a  eu  besoin.'  Voyage 
ordenes  del  conde  de  O'Reilly.'  en  Espagne  par  le  Marquis  de 
Tapia,  Civilization  Espanola,  vol.  Langle,  1785,  vol.  ii.  p.  169. 

iv.  p.  128.  2it  '  Como  los  del  pais  enten- 

242  «  vino  a  dirigir  la  acade-  dian  poco  de  trabajar  minas,  vi- 
mia    de    guardias    marinas    de  nieron  de  Alemania  algunos  prac- 

Cadiz.'     Tapia,  Civilization  Es-  ticos  para  ensenarlos.' 

panola,  vol.  iv.  p.  79.      '  Godin  '  Los  Alemanes  sacaron  de  dicha 

figur6  como  director  del  colegio  mina  por  largo  tiempo  cosa  de 

do  Guardias  marinas.'    Rio,  His-  600  a  600  quintales  de  cobalto  al 

toria  de  Carlos  HI.,  vpl-i.p.  186.  afio.'     Bowles,  Historia  Natural 

Compare  Biographic  UnivcrseUe,  de  Espatia,  Madrid,   1789,   4to. 

vol.  xvii.  p.  564,  Paris,  1816.  pp.  418,  419.     See  also  Billon's 

243  See  the  interesting  remarks  4>am,  Dublin,  17  81,  pp.  227-229 


540      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM    THE   FIFTH 

the  seventeenth,  and  were  reopened,  in  1728,  by 
English  adventurers ;  the  enterprise,  the  tools,  the 
capital,  and  even  the  miners,  all  coming  from  Eng- 
land.245 Another,  and  still  more  famous,  mine  is  that 
of  Almaden  in  La  Mancha,  -which  produces  mercury  of 
the  finest  quality,  and  in  great  profusion.  This  metal, 
besides  being  indispensable  for  many  of  the  commonest 
arts,  was  of  peculiar  value  to  Spain,  because  without 
it  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  ISTew  World  could  not  be 
extracted  from  their  ores.  From  Almaden,  where 
every  natural  facility  exists  for  collecting  it,  and  where 
the  cinnibar  in  which  it  is  found  is  unusually  rich,  vast 
supplies  had  formerly  been  drawn  ;  but  they  had  for 
some  time  been  diminishing,  although  the  demand, 
especially  from  foreign  countries,  was  on  the  increase. 
Under  these  circumstances,  the  Spanish  government, 
fearing  that  so  important  a  source  of  wealth  might 
altogether  perish,  determined  to  institute  an  inquiry 
into  the  manner  in  which  the  mine  was  worked.  As, 
however,  no  Spaniard  possessed  the  knowledge  requi- 
site for  such  an  investigation,  the  advisers  of  the 
Crown  were  obliged  to  call  on  foreigners  to  help  them. 
In  1752,  an  Irish  naturalist,  named  Bowles,  was  com- 
missioned to  visit  Almaden,  and  ascertain  the  cause  of 
the  failure.  He  found  that  the  miners  had  acquired  a 
habit  of  sinking  their  shafts  perpendicularly,  instead 
of  following  the  direction  of  the  vein.246     So  absurd  a 


245  'In    1728,  a  new  adven-  cious Metals,  London,  1831,  vol. 

turer    undertook    the  work    of  i.  pp.  278,  279. 

opening  the    mines  of  Guadal-  24fi  '  Los  mineros  de  Almaden 

canal.      This  was   Lady    Mary  nunca  hicieron  los  socavones  si- 

Herbe'rt,  daughter  of  the   Mar-  guiendo  la    inclinacion   de    las 

quis    of  Powis.' '  Lady  betas,   sino    perpendiculares,    y 

Mary  departed  from  Madrid  for  baxaban  a  ellos  puestos  en  una 

Guadalcanal,  to  which  miners  and  especie   de   cubos  atados   desde 

engines  had  been  sent  from  Eng-  arriba  con  cuerdas.     De  este  mal 

land  at  her  expense,  and  at  that  metodo  se  origino  todo  al  desor- 

of  her  relation,  Mr.  Gage,  who  den  de  la  mina,  porque  al  paso 

accompanied  her,  and  of  her  fa-  que  los  operarios  penetraban  den- 

ther,  the  marquis.'     Jacob's  His-  tro  de  tierra,  era  forzoso  que  se 

torical  Inquiry  into  the  Produc-  apartasen  de  las  betas  y  las  per- 

Hon  and  Consumption  of  the  Pre-  diesen.'      Bowles,  Historia  Natu- 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUET.  541 

process  was  quite  sufficient  to  acoount  for  their  want  of 
success ;  and  Bowles  reported  to  the  government,  that 
if  a  shaft  were  to  be  sunk  obliquely,  the  mine  would, 
no  doubt,  again  be  productive.  The  government  ap- 
proved of  the  suggestion,  and  ordered  it  to  be  carried 
into  effect.  But  the  Spanish  miners  were  too  tena- 
cious of  their  old  customs  to  give  way.  They  sank 
their  shafts  in  the  same  manner  as  their  fathers  had 
done  ;  and  what  their  fathers  had  done  must  be  right. 
The  result  was,  that  the  mine  had  to  be  taken  out 
of  their  hands ;  but  as  Spain  could  supply  no  other 
labourers,  it  was  necessary  to  send  to  Germany  for 
fresh  ones.247  After  their  arrival,  matters  rapidly  im- 
proved. The  mine,  being  superintended  by  an  Irishman, 
and  worked  by  Germans,  assumed  quite  a  different 
appearance ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  disadvantages 
with  which  new  comers  always  have  to  contend,  the 
immediate  consequence  of  the  change  was,  that  the 
yield  of  mercury  was  doubled,  and  its  cost  to  the  con- 
sumer correspondingly  lowered.248 

Such  ignorance,  pervading  the  whole  nation,  and 
extending  to  every  department  of  life,  is  hardly  con- 
ceivable, considering  the  immense  advantages  which 
the  Spaniards  had  formerly  enjoyed.  It  is  particularly 
striking,  when  contrasted  with  the  ability  of  the 
government,  which,  for  more  than  eighty  years,  con- 
stantly laboured    to    improve    the  condition    of    the 

raldeEspana,  Madrid,  1789,  4to.  terests  of  truth,  and  the  exigen- 

p.  14.  cies  of  a  book  printed  at   the 

247  '  Fue  mi  proyecto  bien  re-  Royal    Press    of   Madrid,    and 

cibido  del  Ministerio,  y  habiendo  licensed  by  the  Spanish  autho- 

hecho  venir  mineros  Alemanes,  le  rities. 

han  executado  en  gran  parte  con  248  'Encargado  por  el  gobierno 

mucha  habilidad.     Los  mineros  el  laborioso  extrangero  Bowles  de 

EspaSoles  de  Almaden  son  atre-  proponer  los  medios  convenientes 

vidos  y  tienen  robustez,  mana  y  para  beneficiar  con  mas  acierto 

penetracion  quanta  es  menester,  las  famosas  minas  de  azogue  del 

de  suerte  que  con  el  tiempo  scran  Almaden,  descubrio  algunos  nue- 

excelentes  mineros,  pues  no   les  vos  procedimientos  por  medio  de 

falta  otra  cosa  que  la  verdadera  los  cuales  casi  se  duplicaron  los 

dencia  de  las  minas.' HistoriaNa-  productos    de  aquellas,   y  bajo 

tural  de  Espana,  p.  16.      The  una  mitad  el  precio  de  los  azo- 

latter  part  of  this  sentence  is  an  gues.'       Tapia,  Civilizacion  Es- 

evident  struggle  between  the  in-  paftola,  vol.  iv.  p.  117. 


542      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

country.  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  Bipperda, 
in  the  hopes  of  stimulating  Spanish  industry,  esta- 
blished a  large  woollen  manufactory  at  Segovia,  which 
had  once  been  a  busy  and  prosperous  city.  But  the 
commonest  processes  had  now  been  forgotten ;  and  he 
was  obliged  to  import  manufacturers  from  Holland,  to 
teach  the  Spaniards  how  to  make  up  the  wool,  though 
that  was  an  art  for  which  in  better  days  they  had  been 
especially  famous.249  In  1757,  Wall,  who  was  then 
minister,  constructed,  upon  a  still  larger  scale,  a 
similar  manufactory  at  Guadalajara  in  New  Castile. 
Soon,  however,  something  went  wrong  with  the  ma- 
chinery ;  and  as  the  Spaniards  neither  knew  nor  cared 
anything  about  these  matters,  it  was  necessary  to 
send  to  England  for  a  workman  to  put  it  right.250 
At  length  the  advisers  of  Charles  HI.,  despairing  of 
rousing  the  people  by  ordinary  means,  devised  a  more 
comprehensive  scheme,  and  invited  thousands  of 
foreign  artisans  to  settle  in  Spain  ;  trusting  that  their 
example,  and  the  suddenness  of  their  influx,  might 
invigorate  this  jaded  nation.251  All  was  in  vain. 
The  spirit  of  the  country  was  broken,  and  nothing 
could  retrieve  it.  Among  other  attempts  which  were 
made,  the  formation  of  a  National  Bank  was  a 
favourite  idea  of  politicians,  who  expected  great  things 
from  an  institution  which  was  to  extend  credit,  and 

149  Memoirs  of  Ripperda,   2d  chinery   and  matters  to  rights.' 

ed.,  London,  1740,  pp.   23,  62,  Ford's  Spain,  London,    1847,  p. 

91,    104.      'A  ship  arrived  at  525. 

Cadiz  with  fifty  manufacturers  2M  '  Ademas  de  la  invitacion 

on  board,  whom  the  Baron  de  que  se  hizo  a  millares  de  opera- 

Pdpperda  had  drawn  together  in  rios    extrangeros    para  venir  a 

Holland.' 'The  new  establecerse    en    Espafia,'     &c. 

manufactures  at  Segovia,  which,  Tapia,      Civilization     Espanola, 

though  at  this  time  wholly  ma-  vol.  iv.  pp.   112,  113.     In  1768, 

naged  by  foreigners,  he  wished,  Harris,  who  travelled  from  Pam- 

in  the  next  age,  might  be  carried  peluna  to  Madrid,  'writes,  ■  I  did 

on  by  the  Spaniards  themselves,  not  observe  a  dozen  men  either 

and  by  them  only.'  at  plough  or  any  other  kind  of 

250  i  rpjje   minister,   "Wall,    an  labour,  on   the  road.'      Diaries 

Irishman,  contrived  to  decoy  over  and    Correspondence    of    James 

one  Thomas  Bevan,  from  Melks-  Harris,    Earl    of   Malmesbury, 

ham,  in  Wiltshire,  to  set  the  ma-  London,  1844,  vol.  i.  p.  38. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUEY. 


543 


make  advances  to  persons  engaged  in  business.  But, 
though  the  design  was  executed,  it  entirely  failed  in 
effecting  its  purpose.  When  the  people  are  not  enter- 
prising, no  effort  of  government  can  make  them  so. 
In  a  country  like  Spain,  a  great  bank  was  an  exotic, 
which  might  live  with  art,  but  could  never  thrive  by 
nature.  Indeed,  both  in  its  origin  and  in  its  comple- 
tion, it  was  altogether  foreign,  having  been  first 
proposed  by  the  Dutchman  Bipperda,252  and  owing  its 
final  organization  to  the  Frenchman  Cabarrus.253 

In  everything,  the  same  law  prevailed.  In  diplo- 
macy, the  ablest  men  were  not  Spaniards,  but  foreign- 
ers ;  and  during  the  eighteenth  century  the  strange 
spectacle  was  frequently  exhibited,  of  Spain  being 
represented  by  French,  Italian,  and  even  Irish  ambas- 
sadors.254     Nothing     was  indigenous;    nothing    was 


232  'A  national  bank,  a  design 
originally  suggested  by  Ripperda.' 
Coze's  Bourbon  Kings  of  Spain, 
toI.  v.  p.  202. 

233  Bourgoing,  not  aware  of 
Ripperda' s  priority,  says  {Ta- 
bleau de  VEspagne  Moderne,  vol. 
ii.  p.  49),  '  L'idee  de  la  banque 
nationale  fut  donnee  au  gouver- 
nement  par  un  banquier  fran9ais, 
M.  Cabarrus.'  Compare  Bio,  His- 
toric, del  Beinado  de  Carlos  III., 
vol.  iv.  pp.  122,  123  :  'Banco  na- 
cional  de  San  Carlos ;  propusolo 
Cabarrus,  apoyolo  Floridablanca, 
y  sancion61o  el  Soberano  por 
Real  cedula  de  2  de  junio  de 
1782.'  This  sounds  well;  but 
the  inevitable  catastrophe  soon 
came.  '  Charles  IV.,'  says  the 
Prince  of  the  Peace,  'had  just 
ascended  the  throne ;  the  bank  of 
St.  Carlos  was  rapidly  falling, 
and  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.' 
Godoy's  Memoirs,  London,  1836, 
vol.  i.  p.  124. 

234  'A  Londres,  a  Stockholm, 
a,  Paris,  a  Vienne  et  a,  Venise,  le 
souverain  est  represent  par  des 


etrangers.  Le  prince  de  Masse - 
rano,  Italien,  ambassadeur  en 
Angleterre;  le  comte  de  Lacy 
Irlandais,  ministre  a  Stockholm ; 
le  marquis  de  Grimaldi,  ambas- 
sadeur en  France,  avant  de  par- 
venir  au  ministere ;  le  comte  de 
Mahoni,  Irlandais,  ambassadeur 
a,  Vienne;  le  marquis  de  Squi- 
laci,  ambassadeur  a  Venise,  apres 
sa  retraite  du  ministere.'  Bour- 
going, Tableau  de  VEspagne, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  142,  143.  To  this,  I 
may  add  that,  in  the  reign  of 
Philip  V.,  an  Italian,  the  Mar- 
quis de  Beretti  Landi,  was  the 
representative  of  Spain  in  Swit- 
zerland, and  afterwards  at  the 
Hague  (Bipperda's  Memoirs, 
1740,  pp.  37,  38) ;  and  that  in, 
or  just  before,  1779,  Lacy  filled 
the  same  post  at  St.  Petersburg. 
Malmesbury's  Diaries  and  Corre- 
spondence, 1844,  vol.  i.  p.  261. 
So,  too,  M.  Rio  (Historia  de  Car- 
los III.,  vol.  i.  pp.  288,  289)  says 
of  the  important  negotiations 
which  took  place  in  1761,  between 
Spain,  England,  and  France,  'Y 


544       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FKOM    THE    FIFTH 


done  by  Spain  herself.  Philip  V.,  who  reigned  from 
1700  to  1746,  and  possessed  immense  power,  always 
clnng  to  the  ideas  of  his  own  conntry,  and  was  a 
Frenchman  to  the  last.  For  thirty  years  after  his 
death,  the  three  most  prominent  names  in  Spanish 
politics  were,  "Wall,  who  was  born  in  France,  of  Irish 
parents  ;255  Grimaldi,  who  was  a  native  of  Genoa  ;  25C 
and  Esquilache,  who  was  a  native  of  Sicily.257 
Esquilache  administered  the  finances  for  several  years ; 
and,  after  enjoying  the  confidence  of  Charles  III.  to  an 
extent  rarely  possessed  by  any  minister,  was  only 
dismissed,  in  1766,  in  consequence  of  the  discontents 
of  the  people  at  the  innovations  introduced  by  this 
bold    foreigner.258      Wall,   a  much   more  remarkable 


asi  de  las  negociaciones  en  que 
Luis  XV.  trataba  de  enredar  a 
Carlos  III.  quedaron  absoluta- 
mente  excluidos  los  espanoles, 
como  que  por  una  parte  las  iban 
a  seguir  el  duque  de  Cboiseul  y 
el  marques  de  Ossun,  franceses, 
y  por  otra  el  irland^s  D.  Ricardo 
"Wall,  y  el  genoves  marques  de 
Grimaldi.'  About  the  same  time, 
Clarke  writes  (in  his  Letters  con- 
cerning the  Spanish  Nation, 
London,  1763,  4to.  p.  331), 
1  Spain  has,  for  many  years  past, 
been  under  the  direction  .  of 
foreign  ministers.  Whether  mis 
hath  been  owing  to  want  of  capa- 
city in  the  natives,  or  disinclina- 
tion in  the  sovereign,  I  will  not 
take  upon  me  to  say ;  such  as  it 
is,  the  native  nobility  lament  it 
as  a  great  calamity.' 

255  Lord  Stanhope,  generally 
well  informed  on  Spanish  affairs, 
says  that  Wall  was  '  a  native  of 
Ireland.'  Mahon's  History  of 
England,  vol.  iv.  p.  182,  3d 
edit.,  London,  1853;  but  in  Me- 
moires  de  Noaittes,  vol.  iv.  p.  47, 
edit.  Paris,  1829,  he  is  called 
1  irlandais  d'origine,  ne  en  France.' 


See  also  Biogrqfia  de  Ensenada, 
in  Navarrete,  Opusculos,  Madrid, 
1848,  vol.  ii.  p.  26,  'D.  Eicardo 
Wall,  irlandes  de  origen,  nacido 
en  Francia.'  Swinburne,  who 
knew  him  personally,  and  has 
given  some  account  of  him,  does 
not  mention  where  he  was  born. 
Swinburne's  Travels  through 
Spain,  second  edition,  London, 
1787,  voL  i.  pp.  314-318. 

256  '  A  Genoese,  and  a  creature 
of  France.'  Dunham's  History 
of  Spain,  vol.  v.  p.  170. 

257  '  Era  sieiliano.'  Bio,  His- 
toria  del  Beinado  de  Carlos  III., 
vol.  i.p.  244. 

258  The  fullest  account  of  his 
dismissal  is  given  by  M.  Rio,  in 
the  first  chapter  of  the  second 
volume  of  his  Historia  del  Bei- 
nado de  Carlos  III.,  which  should, 
however,  be  compared  with  Coxe's 
Bourbon  Kings  of  Spain,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  340-346.  Coxe  terms  him 
Squikci ;  but  I  follow  the  ortho- 
graphy of  the  Spanish  writers, 
who  always  call  him  Esquilache. 
Such  was  his  influence  over  the 
King,  that,  according  to  Coxe 
(voL   iv.  p.   347),   Charles  IIL 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  545 

man,  was,  in  the  absence  of  any  good  Spanish,  diplo- 
matist, sent  envoy  to  London  in  1747  ;  and  after 
exercising  great  influence  in  matters  of  state,  he  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  1754,  and  remained 
supreme  till  1763.259  When  this  eminent  Irishman  re- 
linquished office,  he  was  succeeded  by  the  Genoese, 
Grimaldi,  who  ruled  Spain  from  1763  to  1777,  and 
was  entirely  devoted  to  the  French  views  of  policy.260 
His  principal  patron  was  Choiseul,  who  had  imbued 
him  with  his  own  notions,  and  by  whose  advice  he  was 
chiefly  guided.261  Indeed,  Choiseul,  who  was  then  the 
first  minister  in  Prance,  used  to  boast,  with  exaggera- 
tion, but  not  without  a  considerable  amount  of  truth, 
that  his  influence  in  Madrid  was  even  greater  than  it 
was  in  Versailles.262 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  four  years 
after  Grimaldi  took  office,  the  ascendency  of  Franco 
was  exhibited  in  a  remarkable  way.  Choiseul,  who 
hated  the  Jesuits,  and  had  just  expelled  them  from 
France,  endeavoured  also  to  expel  them  from  Spain.263 


'  publicly  said  that,  "  if  he  was  burg's   Diaries  and  Correspond' 

reduced  to  a  morsel  of  bread,  he  ence,  vbl.  i.  p.  56,  London,  1844. 

would  divide  it  with  Squilaci." '  261  '  Guided  in  his  operations 

**'  Coxe's  Kings  of  Spain,  vol.  by   the    counsels   of    Choiseul.' 

iv.  pp.  15,  135.     Bio,  Historiade  Coxe's  Bourbon  Kings  of  Spain, 

Carlos  III.,  vol.  i.  pp.  246,  247,  vol.  iv.  p.  339.      '  The  prosecu- 

400,  401.     Navarrde,  Biografia  tion  of  the  schemes  which  he  had 

de  Ensmada,  pp.  26-28.  concerted  with  Choiseul.'  p.  373. 

280  He  resigned  in   1776,  but  '  His  friend  and  patron.'   p.  391, 

held  office  till  the  arrival  of  his  and  vol.  v.  p.  6. 

successor,     Florida    Blanca,    in  282  '  Personne     n'ignoroit     le 

1777.     Bio,  Historia  de   Carlos  credit  prodigieux  que  M.  de  Choi- 

///.,  vol.  iii.  pp.   171,  174.     In  seul  avoit  sur  le  roi  d'Espagne, 

reference  to  his  appointment,  in  dont  il  se  vantoit  lui-meme,  au 

1763,  M.  Rio  observes  (vol.  i.  p.  point  que  je  lui  ai  oui"  dire,  qu'il 

402),  '  De  que  Grimaldi  creciera  etoit  plus  sur  de    sa  preponde- 

en  fortuna    se   pudo    congratu-  ranee  dans  le  cabinet  de  Madrid, 

lar  no  Roma,  sino  Francia.'     In  que    dans    celui    do  Versailles.' 

1770,  Harris,  the  diplomatist,  who  Memoires  du  Baron  de  Besenval, 

was  then  in  Spain,  writes,  'His  ecrits  par  lui-meme,  vol.  ii.  pp. 

doctrine  is    absolutely  French;  14,  15,  Paris,  1805. 

guided    in     everything    by    the  '-'",  M.   Muriel  (Gobierno    del 

French   closet,'    &c.      Malmes-  Bey   Don   Carlos    III,  Madrid, 

VOL.  II.                                    N  X 


546       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FEOM    THE    FIFTH 

The  execution  of  the  plan  was  confided  to  Aranda, 
who,  though  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  derived  his  intel- 
lectual culture  from  France,  and  had  contracted,  in  the 
society  of  Paris,  an  intense  hatred  of  every  form  of 
ecclesiastical  power.26  The  scheme,  secretly  pre- 
pared, was  skilfully  accomplished.266  In  1767,  the 
Spanish  government,  without  hearing  what  the  Jesuits 
had  to  say  in  their  defence,  and  indeed,  without  giving 
them  the  least  notice,  suddenly  ordered  their  expul- 
sion ;  and  with  such  animosity  were  they  driven  from 
the  country,  in  which  they  sprung  up,  and  had  long  been 
cherished,  that  not  only  was  their  wealth  confiscated, 
and  they  themselves  reduced  to  a  wretched  pittance, 
but  even  that  was  directed  to  be  taken  from  them,  if 
they  published  anything  in  their  own  vindication ; 
while  it  was  also  declared  that  whoever  ventured  to 
write  respecting  them,  should,  if  we  were  a  subject 


1839,  pp.  44,  45)  terms  their  ex- 
pulsion from  Spain  '  este  acto  de 
violencia  hecho  meramente  por 
complacer  al  duque  de  Choiseul, 
ministro  de  Franeia  y  protector 
del  partido  filosofico.'  See  also 
Cretineau-Joly,  Histoire  de  la 
Compagnie  de  Jesus,  vol.  v.  p. 
291,  Paris,  1845  ;  and  Gem-gel, 
Memoirespour  servir  a  FHistoire 
des  J^venemens  depuis  1760,  vol. 
ii.p.  95,  Paris,  1817. 

264  Archdeacon  Coxe,  in  a  some- 
what professional  tone,  says  of 
Aranda,  'In  France  he  had  ac- 
quired the  graces  of  polished  so- 
ciety, and  imbibed  that  freedom  of 
sentiment  which  then  began  to 
be  fashionable,  and  has  since 
been  carried  to  such  a  dangerous 
excess.'  Coxe's  Bourbon  Kings 
of  Spain,  vol.  iv.  p.  402.  His 
great  enemy,  the  Prince  of  the 
Peace,  wishing  to  be  severe,  un- 
intentionally praises  him;    and 


observes,  that  he  was  '  connected 
with  the  most  distinguished  lite- 
rary Frenchmen  of  the  middle  of 
the  last  century,'  and  that  he  was 
'  divested  of  religious  prejudices, 
though  swayed  by  philosophical 
enthusiasm.'  Godm/s  Memoirs, 
London,  1836,  vol.  i.  p.  319. 
The  hostility  of  some  men  is  ex- 
tremely valuable.  The  Prince 
further  adds,  that  Aranda '  could 
only  lay  claim  to  the  inferior 
merit  of  a  sectarian  attachment,' 
forgetting  that,  in  a  country  like 
Spain,  every  enlightened  person 
must  belong  to  a  miserably  small 
sect. 

265  Cabarrus  (Elogio  de  Carlos 
III.,  Madrid,  1789,  4to.  p.  xxiv.) 
says,  rather  magniloquently,  'El 
acierto  de  la  execucion  que  cor- 
respondio  alpulsoyprudenciacon 
que  se  habia  deliberado  esta  pro- 
videncia  importante,  pasara  a  la 
ultima  posteridad.' 


TO   THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUEY. 


547 


of  Spain,  be    put    to    death,    as  one  guilty  of  high 
treason.266 

Such  boldness  on  the  part  of  the  government267 
caused  even  the  Inquisition  to  tremble.  That  once 
omnipotent  tribunal,  threatened  and  suspected  by  the 
civil  authorities,  became  more  wary  in  its  proceedings, 
and  more  tender  in  its  treatment  of  heretics.  Instead 
of  extirpating  unbelievers  by  hundreds  or  by  thousands, 
it  was  reduced  to  such  pitiful  straits,  that  between  1746 
and  1759,  it  was  only  able  to  burn  ten  persons ;  and 
between  1759  and  1788,  only  four  persons.268  The 
extraordinary  diminution  during  the  latter  period,  was 
partly  owing  to  the  great  authority  wielded  by  Aranda, 
the  friend  of  the  encyclopedists  and  of  other  French 
sceptics.  This  remarkable  man  was  President  of 
Castile  till  1773,269  and  he  issued  an  order  forbidding 


266  Coxe's  Bourbon  Kings  of 
Spain,  vol.  iv.  p.  362.  M.  Rio, 
in  the  second  volume  of  his  His- 
tory of  Charles  III.,  Madrid, 
1856,  has  given  a  long,  but  not 
very  philosophical,  nor  very  ac- 
curate, account  of  the  expulsion 
of  the  Jesuits,  which  he  considers 
solely  from  the  Spanish  point  of 
view;  overlooking  the  fact,  that 
it  was  part  of  an  European  move- 
ment headed  by  France.  He 
denies  the  influence  of  Choiseul, 
p.  125;  censures  the  perfectly 
correct  statement  of  Coxe,  p.  123  ; 
and  finally  ascribes  this  great 
event  to  the  operation  of  causes 
confined  to  the  Peninsula.  '  De 
ser  los  jesuitas  adversarios  del 
regalismo  emano  su  ruina  en 
Espafia,  cuando  triunfaban  las 
opiniones  sostenidas  con  heroico 
teson  desde  mucho  antes  por  doc- 
tisimos  jurisconsultos.'  p.  519. 

2U7  One  of  the  most  recent 
historians  of  the  Jesuits  indig- 
nantly observes,  'Depuis  deux 
cent  vingt  ans  les  J&suites  vivent 
et  prechent    en    Espagne.     lis 


sont  combles  de  bienfaits  par  des 
monarques  dont  ils  £tendent  la 
souverainet^.  Le  clerge  et  les 
masses  acceptent  avec  bonheur 
leur  intervention.  Tout  a  coup 
l'Ordre  se  voit  declare^  coupable 
d'un  crime  de  lese-majeste,  d'un 
attentat  public  que  personne  ne 
peut  specifier.  La  sentence  pro- 
nonce  la  peine  sans  6noncer  le 
delit.'  Cretineau-Joly,  Histoire 
de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus,  vol.  v. 
p.  295.  Paris,  1845. 

268  Dunham's  History  of  Spain, 
vol.  v.  p.  285,  where  the  facts  are 
well  brought  together.  The 
valuable  History  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion, by  Llorente,  is  not  quite 
precise  enough  in  these  matters ; 
though  it  is  a  very  accuratp,  and, 
what  is  still  more  surprising,  a 
very  honest  book. 

289  Bio,  Historia  de  Carlos 
III,  vol.  iii.  pp.  103-107,  which 
must  be  compared  with  the  ac- 
count of  Coxo,  who  derived  some 
of  his  information  from  a  friend 
of  Aranda's.  Coxe's  Bourlxm 
Kings  of  Spain,  vol.  iv.  pp.  401- 
N2 


548       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FEOM    THE    FIFTH 


the  Inquisition  to  interfere  with  the  civil  courts.270  He 
also  formed  a  scheme  for  entirely  abolishing  it ;  but 
his  plan  was  frustrated,  owing  to  its  premature 
announcement  by  his  friends  in  Paris,  to  whom  it  had 
been  confided.271  His  views,  however,  were  so  far  suc- 
cessful, that  after  1781,  there  is  no  instance  in  Spam 
of  a  heretic  being  burned ;  the  Inquisition  being  too 
terrified  by  the  proceedings  of  government  to  do  any- 
thing which  might  compromise  the  safety  of  the  Holy 
Institution.272 

In   1777,  Grimaldi,  one  of  the  chief  supporters  of 

that   anti-theological  policy  which  France  introduced 

into  Spain,  ceased  to  be  Minister  ;  but  he  was  succeeded 

by  Florida  Blanca,  who  was  his  creature,  and  to  whom 

•  he  transmitted  his  policy  as  well  as  his  power.273      The 


415.  A  good  life  of  Aranda 
would  be  very  interesting.  That 
contained  in  the  Biographie 
Universelle  is  extremely  meagre, 
and  carelessly  written. 

270  Coxe's  Bourbon   Kings  of 
Spain,  vol.  iv.  p.  407. 

271  '  When  at  Paris,  in  1786,  I 
received  the  following  anecdote 
from  a  person  connected  with  the 
encyclopaedists.  During  his  resi- 
dence in  that  capital,  D' Aranda 
had  frequently  testified  to  the 
literati  with  whom  he  associated, 
his  resolution  to  obtain  the  abo- 
lition of  the  Inquisition,  should 
he  ever  be  called  to  power.  His 
appointment  was,  therefore,  ex- 
ultingly  hailed  by  the  party,  par- 
ticularly by  D'Alembert ;  and  he 
had  scarcely  begun  his  reforms 
before  an  article  was  inserted  in 
tho  Encyclopaedia,  then  printing, 
in  which  this  event  was  confi- 
dently anticipated,  from  the 
liberal  principles  of  the  minister. 
D' Aranda  was  struck  on  reading 
this  article,  and  said,  "  This  im- 
prudent disclosure  will  raise  such 
a  ferment  against  me,  that  my 


plans  will  be  foiled."  He  was 
not  mistaken  in  his  conjecture.' 
Coxe's  Bourbon  Kings  of  Spain, 
vol.  iv.  p.  408. 

272  Even  the  case  in  1781  ap- 
pears to  have  Deen  for  witchcraft 
rather  than  for  heresy.  'La 
derniere  victime  qui  perit  dans 
les  flammes  fut  une  beate :  on  la 
brula  a  Seville,  le  7  novembre 
1781,  comme  ayant  fait  un  pacte, 
et  entretenu  un  commerce  charnel 
avec  le  Demon,  et  pour  avoir  ete 
impenitente  negative.  Elle  exit 
pu  eviter  la  mort  en  s'avouant 
coupable  du  crime  dont  on  l'ac- 
cusait.'  Llorente,  Histoire  de 
I 'Inquisition  cTEspagne,  Paris, 
1818,  vol.  iv.  p.  270.  About 
this  time,  torture  began  to  be 
disused  in  Spain.  See  an  in 
teresting  note  in  Johnston's  In- 
stitutes of  the  Civil  Law  of  Spain, 
London,  1825,  p.  263. 

278  <  Menester  es  decir  que  el 
marques  de  Grimaldi  cayo  ven- 
ciendo  a  sus  enemigos,  pues, 
lejos  de  legarles  el  poder,  a  que 
aspiraban  con  anhelo,  trasmitiolo 
a  una  de  sus  mas  lejritimas  he- 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUET.  549 

progress,  therefore,  of  political  affairs  continued  in  the 
same  direction.  Under  the  new  minister,  as  under  his 
immediate  predecessors,  a  determination  was  shown  to 
abridge  the  authority  of  the  Church,  and  to  vindicate 
the  rights  of  laymen.  In  everything,  the  ecclesiastical 
interests  were  treated  as  subordinate  to  the  secular.  Of 
this,  many  instances  might  be  given  ;  but  one  is  too 
important  to  be  omitted.  We  have  seen,  that  early  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  Alberoni,  when  at  the  head  of 
affairs,  was  guilty  of  what  in  Spain  was  deemed  the 
enormous  offence  of  contracting  an  alliance  with 
Mohammedans ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this 
was  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  his  fall,  since  it  was  held, 
that  no  prospect  of  mere  temporal  advantages  could 
justify  an  union,  or  even  a  peace,  between  a  Christian 
nation  and  a  nation  of  unbelievers.274  But  the  Spanish 
government,  which,  owing  to  the  causes  I  have  related, 
was  far  in  advance  of  Spain  itself,  was  gradually 
becoming  bolder,  and  growing  more  and  more  disposed 
to  force  upon  the  country,  views,  which,  abstractedly 
considered,  where  extremely  enlightened,  but  which  the 
popular  mind  was  unable  to  receive.  The  result  was, 
that,  in  1782,  *  Florida  Blanca  concluded  a  treaty  with 
Turkey,  which  put  an  end  to  the  war  of  religious 
opinions ;  to  the  astonishment,  as  we  are  told,  of  the 
other  European  powers,  who  could  hardly  believe  that 
the  Spaniards  would  thus  abandon  their  long-continued 
efforts  to   destroy   the   infidels.275     Before,    however, 


churas ;  que  tal  era  y  por  tal  se  the  redemption  of  prisoners,  and 
reconocia  el  conde  de  Florida-  certainly  without  the  remotest 
blanca.'  Bio,  Historia  del  liei-  intention  of  concluding  a  peace. 
nado  de  Carlos  III.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  275  'The  other  European  courts, 
151,  152.  with  surprise  and  regret^  wit- 
274  In  1690,  it  was  stated  that  nessed  the  conclusion  of  a  treaty 
'since  the  expulsion  of  the  which  terminated  the  political 
Moors,'  there  was  no  precedent  and  religious  rivalry  so  long  sub- 
tor  the  King  of  Spain  ever  send-  si  sting  between  Spain  and  the 
ing  an  envoy  to  a  Mohammedan  Porte.'  Coxes  Bourbon  Kings  of 
prince.  See  Mahon's  Spain  under  Spain,  vol.  v.  pp.  152,  153. 
Charles  II.,  p.  5.  In  that  year  '  Une  des  maximes  delapolitique 
an  envoy  was  sent  to  Morocco  ;  espaguole  avait  ete  celle  de  main- 
but  this  was  merely  concerning  tenir     une    guerre    perpetuelle 


550       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM    THE    FIFTH 

Europe  had  time  to  recover  from  its  amazement,  other 
and  similar  events  occurred  equally  startling.  In  1784, 
Spain  signed  a  peace  with  Tripoli ;  and  in  1785,  one 
with  Algiers.276  And  scarcely  had  these  been  ratified, 
when,  in  1786,  a  treaty  was  also  concluded  with 
Tunis.277  So  that  the  Spanish  people  to  their  no  small 
surprise,  found  themselves  on  terms  of  amity  with 
nations,  whom  for  more  than  ten  centuries  they  had 
been  taught  to  abhor,  and  whom,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Spanish  Church,  it  was  the  first  duty  of  a  Christian 
government  to  make  war  upon,  and,  if  possible,  to 
extirpate. 

Putting  aside,  for  a  moment,  the  remote  and  intel- 
lectual consequences  of  these  transactions,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  immediate  and  material  consequences 
were  very  salutary  ;  though,  as  we  shall  presently  see, 
they  produced  no  lasting  benefit,  because  they  were 
opposed  by  the  unfavourable  operation  of  more  powerful 
and  more  general  causes.  Still,  it  must  be  confessed 
that  the  direct  results  were  extremely  advantageous ; 
and  to  those  who  take  only  a  short  view  of  human 
affairs,  it  might  well  appear  that  the  advantages  would 
be  permanent.  The  immense  line  of  coast  from  the 
kingdoms  of  Fez  and  Morocco  to  the  furthest  extremity 
of  the  Turkish  empire  was  no  longer  allowed  to  pour 
forth  those  innumerable  pirates  who,  heretofore,  swept 
the  seas,  captured  Spanish  ships,  and  made  slaves  of 
Spanish  subjects.  Formerly,  vast  sums  of  money  were 
annually  consumed  in  ransoming  these  unhappy  pri- 


contre    les   mahometans,   meme  la  paix  avec  les  empereurs   de 

apres  la  conquete  de  Grenade.  Turquie    et    d'autres   potentats 

Ni  les    pertes   incalculables   e-  mahometans ;  delivra  ses  sujets 

prouvees  par  suite  de  ce  systeme,  de     la     terrible    piraterie     des 

ni   l'exemple  de  la    France  et  corsaires,  et  ouvrit  a  leur  com- 

d'autres    puissances  catholiques  merce  de  nouvelles  voies    pour 

qui  ne  se  faisaient  point  scrupule  speculer   avec    de    plus   grands 

d'etre  en  paix  avec  les   Turcs,  avantages.'  Sempere,  La  Monar- 

n'avaient  suffi  pour    detromper  chie  Espagnole,  vol.  ii.  p.  160. 

l'Espagne     sur     l'inconvenance  276  Bio,  Historia  del  Beinado 

dune  telle  politique.     Le  genie  de  Carlos  III.,  vol.  iv.  pp.  11-13. 

eclaire  de  Charles   III  corrigea  277  Ibid.  vol.  iv.  pp.  16,  17. 
un  prejugeaussi  dangereux ;  dicta 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  551 

soners  ;278  but  now  all  such  evils  were  ended.  At  the 
same  time,  great  impetus  was  given  to  the  commerce  of 
Spain ;  a  new  trade  was  thrown  open,  and  her  ships 
could  safely  appear  in  the  rich  countries  of  the  Levant. 
This  increased  her  wealth  ;  which  was  moreover  aided 
by  another  circumstance  growing  out  of  these  events. 
For,  the  most  fertile  parts  of  Spain  are  those  which  are 
washed  by  the  Mediterranean,  and  which  had  for 
centuries  been  the  prey  of  Mohammedan  corsairs,  who 
frequently  landing  by  surprise,  had  at  length  caused 
such  constant  fear,  that  the  inhabitants  gradually 
retired  towards  the  interior,  and  abstained  from  cultiva- 
ting the  richest  soil  in  their  country.  But,  by  the 
treaties  just  concluded,  such  dangers  were  at  once 
removed ;  the  people  returned  to  their  former  abodes  ; 
the  earth  again  gave  forth  its  fruits  ;  regular  industry 
reappeared ;  villages  sprung  up  ;  even  manufactures 
were  established  ;  and  the  foundation  seemed  to  be 
laid  for  a  prosperity,  the  like  of  which  had  not  been 
known  since  the  Mohammedans  were  driven  out  of 
Granada.279 

278  '  Ha  sido  notable  el  niimero  be  kept  along  the  Mediterranean 
de  cautivos,  que  los  piratas  de  coast  of  Spain, '  in  order  to  gire 
Berberiahanhechosobrenuestras  the  alarm  upon  the  appearance 
costas  por  tres  centurias.  En  el  of  the  enemy.'  See  A  Tour 
siglo  pasado  se  solian  calcular  through  Spain  by  TJdal  op  lihys, 
existentes  a  la  vez  en  Argel,  2d  edit.,  London,  1760,  p.  170. 
treinta  mil  personas  espanolas.  As  to  the  state  of  things  in  the 
Su  rescate  a  razon  de  mil  pesos  seventeenth  century,  see  Janer, 
por  cada  persona  a  lo  menos,  Condition  de  los  Moriscos,  Ma- 
ascendiaa  30millonesde  pesos.'  drid,  1857,  p.  63. 
Campomanes,  Apendice  &  la  Edu-  279  '  De  esta  suerte  quedaron 
cation  Popular,  vol.  i.  p.  373,  los  mares  limpios  de  piratas 
Madrid,  1775.  On  the  precau-  desde  los  reinos  de  Fez  y  Mar- 
tions  which  had  to  be  used  to  ruecos  hasta  los  ultimos  do- 
guard  the  coasts  of  Spain  against  minios  del  emperador  Turco,  por 
the  Mohammedan  corsairs,  seo  el  Mediterraneo  todo  ;  viose  a 
Uztariz,  Thcorica  y  Practica  de  menudo  la  bandera  espanola  en 
Comertio,  Madrid,  1757,  folio,  Levante,  y  las  mismas  naciones 
pp.  172,  173,  222-226;  and  mercantiles  que  la  persiguieron 
Lafuente,  Historia  de  Espana,  indirectamente,preferianlaahora, 
vol.  xv.  p.  476,  Madrid,  1855.  resultando  elaumento  delcomer- 
In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cio  y  do  la  Real  marina,  y  la 
century,  a  regular  watch  had  to  pericia  de   sus  tripulaciones,  y 


552       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FKOM    THE    FIFTH 


I  have  now  laid  before  the  reader  a  view  of  the  most 
important  steps  which  were  taken  by  those  able  and 
vigorous  politicians,  who  ruled  Spain  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  consider- 
ing how  these  reforms  were  effected,  we  must  not 
forget  the  personal  character  of  Charles  III.,  who 
occupied  the  throne  from  1759  to  1788.280  He  was  a 
man  of  great  energy,  and  though  born  in  Spain,  had 
little  in  common  with  it.  "When  he  became  king,  he  had 
been  long  absent  from  his  native  country,  and  had  con- 
tracted a  taste  for  customs,  and,  above  all,  for  opinions, 
totally  dissimilar  to  those  natural  to  the  Spaniards.281 


ol  mayor  brillo  de  Espana  y  de 
su  augusto  Soberano :  termino 
hubo  la  esclavitud  de  tantos 
millares  de  infelices  con  aban- 
dono  de  sus  familias  e  indelebles 
perjuicios  de  la  religion  y  el 
Estado,  cesando  tambien  la  con- 
tinua  extraccion  de  enormes 
sumas  para  los  rescates  qiie,  al 
paso  que  nos  empobrecian,  pasa- 
ban  a  enriqueeer  a  nuestros  con- 
trarios,  y  a  faeilitar  sus  arma- 
mentos  para  ofendernos ;  y  se 
empezaban  a  cultivar  rapida- 
monte  en  las  costas  del  Medi- 
terraneo  leguas  de  terrenos  los 
mas  fertiles  del  mundo,  desam- 
parados  y  eriales  basta  entonces 
por  miedo  a  los  piratas,  y  donde 
se  formaban  ya  pueblos  enteros 
para  dar  salida  a  los  frutos  y  las 
manufactures.'  Bio,  Historia  del 
Iieinado  de  Carlos  III.,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  17,  18. 

280  M.  Eio,  whose  voluminous 
'  History  of  the  reign  of  Charles 
III.  is,  notwithstanding  its  nu- 
merous omissions,  a  work  of  con- 
siderable value,  has  appreciated 
the  personal  influence  6f  the 
king  more  justly  than  any  pre- 
vious writer;  he  having  had 
access  to  unpublished  papers, 
which  show  the  great  energy  and 


activity  of  Charles.  '  Entre  sus 
mas  notables  figuras  ninguna 
aventaja  a  la  de  Carlos  III.;  y  no 
por  el  lugar  jerarqui.coque  ocupa, 
si  no  por  el  brillante  papel  que 
representa,  oratome  lainiciativa, 
ora  el  consejo,  para  efectuar  las 
innumerables  reformas  que  le 
valieron  inextinguible  fama.  Ya 
se  que  algunos  tachan  a  este 
Monarca  de  cortedad  de  luces  y 
de  estrechez  de  miras ;  y  que 
algunos  otros  suponen  que  sus 
ministros  le  enganaron  6  sor- 
prendieron  para  dictar  ciertas 
providencias.  Cuarenta  y  ocho 
tomos  de  cartas  semanales  y 
escritas  de  su  puno  desde  octubre 
de  1759  hasta  marzo  de  1783  al 
marques  de  Tanucci,  existentes 
en  el  archivo  de  Simancas,  por 
mi  leidas  hoja  tras  hqja,  sacando 
de  ellas  largos  apuntes,  sirven  a 
maravilla  para  pintarle  tal  como 
era,  y  penetrar  hasta  sus  mas 
reconditos  pensamientos,  y  con- 
tradecir  a  los  que  le  juzgan  a 
bulto.'  Bio,  Historia  del  Beinado 
de  Carlos  III,  Madrid,  1856,  vol. 
i.  pp.  xxii.  xxiii. 

281  'Although  born  and  edu- 
cated in  Spain,  Charles  had 
quitted  the  country  at  too  early 
an  age  to  retain  a  partiality  to 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  §00 

Comparing  him  with  his  subjects,  he  was  enlightened 
indeed.  They  cherished  in  their  hearts,  the  most 
complete,  and  therefore  the  worst,  form  of  spiritual 
power  which  has  ever  been  exhibited  in  Europe.  That 
very  power,  he  made  it  his  business  to  restrain.  In 
this,  as  in  other  respects,  he  far  surpassed  Ferdinand 
VI.  and  Philip  V.,  though  they,  under  the  influence  of 
French  ideas,  had  proceeded  to  what  was  deemed  a 
dangerous  length.282  The  clergy,  indignant  at  such 
proceedings,  murmured,  and  even  threatened.283  They 
declared  that  Charles  was  despoiling  the  Church, 
taking  away  her  rights,  insulting  her  ministers,  and 
thus  ruining  Spain  beyond  human  remedy.284  The 
king,  however,  whose  disposition  was  firm,  and  some- 
what obstinate,  persevered  in  his  policy ;  and  as  he  and 
his  ministers  were  men  of  undoubted  ability,  they, 
notwithstanding  the  opposition  tbey  encountered,  suc- 
ceeded in  accomplishing  most  of  their  plans.  Mistaken 
and  short-sighted  though  they  were,  it  is  impossible 
to  refrain  from  admiring  the  honesty,  the  courage,  and 
the  disinterestedness,  which  they  displayed  in  en- 
deavouring to  alter  the  destiny  of  that  superstitious 
and   half  barbarous    country  over   which  they  ruled. 


its  customs,  laws,  manners,  and        294  A  popular  charge  against 

language;  while,  from  his  resi-  the    government  was,    'que    se 

:lence  abroad,  and  his  intercourse  despojara  a   la  Iglesia  de    bus  . 

with    France,    he    had  formed  inmunidades.'     Bio,  Historia  del 

a   natural  predilection   for  the  Reinado  de    Carlos  III.,  vol.   ii. 

French    character    and  institu-  p.    54.    See    also   at    pp.    201, 

tions.'  Coxe's  Bourbon  Kings  of  202,  a  letter,  in  1766,  from  tlio 

Spain,  vol.  iv.  p.  337.  Bishop  of  Cuencato  the  Kind's 

!P  He  '  far  surpassed  his  two  confessor,  in    which    that  pre- 

predecessors  in  his  exertions  to  late  stated, '  que  Espana  corriaa 

reform  the  morals,  and  restrain  su  ruina  que  ya  no  corria,  sino 

the  power  of    the  clergy.'  Ibid,  que  volaba,   y    que   ya    estaba 

vol.  v.  p.  215.  perdida   sin   remedio  humano  ;' 

183  His  measures  '  alarmaron  and  that  the  cause  of  this  was 

al  clero  en  general,  que  empezo  the     persecution    of    the    poor 

a  murmurar  con  impaciencia,  y  Church,    which   was   '  saqueada 

aun  algunos  de  sus  individuos  se  en  sus  bienes,  ultrajada   en  sus 

propasaron    a  violentos    actos.'  ministros,  y  atropellada   en    su 

Tapia,     Civilization,    Espaiiola,  inmunidad. 
vol.  iv.  p.  98. 


554      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

We  must  not,  however,  conceal  from  ourselves,  that  in 
this,  as  in  all  similar  cases,  they,  by  attacking  evils 
which  the  people  were  resolved  to  love,  increased  the 
affection  which  the  evils  inspired.  To  seek  to  change 
opinions  by  laws  is  worse  than  futile.  It  not  only 
fails,  but  it  causes  a  reaction,  which  leaves  the  opi- 
nions stronger  than  ever.  First  alter  the  opinion,  and 
then  you  may  alter  the  law.  As  soon  as  you  have  con- 
vinced men  that  superstition  is  mischievous,  you  may 
with  advantage  take  active  steps  against  those  classes 
who  promote  superstition  and  live  by  it.  But,  how- 
ever pernicious  any  interest  or  any  great  body  may  be, 
beware  of  using  force  against  it,  unless  the  progress 
of  knowledge  has  previously  sapped  it  at  its  base,  and 
loosened  its  hold  over  the  national  mind.  This  has 
always  been  the  error  of  the  most  ardent  reformers, 
who,  in  their  eagerness  to  effect  their  purpose,  let  the 
political  movement  outstrip  the  intellectual  one,  and, 
thus  inverting  the  natural  order,  secure  misery  either 
to  themselves  or  to  their  descendants.  They  touch  the 
altar,  and  fire  springs  forth  to  consume  them.  Then 
comes  another  period  of  superstition  and  of  despotism  ; 
another  dark  epoch  in  the  annals  of  the  human  race. 
And  this  happens  merely  because  men  will  not  bide 
their  time,  but  will  insist  on  precipitating  the  march  of 
affairs.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  France  and  Germany,  it 
is  the  friends  of  freedom  who  have  strengthened 
tyranny;  it  is  the  enemies  of  superstition  who  have 
made  superstition  more  permanent.  In  those  countries, 
it  is  still  believed  that  government  can  regenerate 
society  ;  and  therefore,  directly  they  who  hold  liberal 
opinions  get  possession  of  the  government,  they  use 
their  power  too  lavishly,  thinking  that  by  doing  so, 
they  will  best  secure  the  end  at  which  they  aim.  In 
England,  the  same  delusion,  though  less  general,  is  far 
too  prevalent ;  but  as,  with  us,  public  opinion  controls 
politicians,  we  escape  from  evils  which  have  happened 
abroad,  because  we  will  not  allow  any  government  to 
enact  laws  which  the  nation  disapproves.  In  Spain, 
however,  the  habits  of  the  people  were  so  slavish,  and 
their  necks  had  so  long  been  bowed  under  the  yoke, 


TO   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  555 

that  though,  the  government,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
opposed  their  dearest  prejudices,  they  rarely  ventured 
to  resist,  and  they  had  no  legal  means  of  making  their 
voice  heard.  But  not  the  less  did  they  feel.  The 
materials  for  reaction  were  silently  accumulating  ;  and 
before  that  century  had  passed  away  the  reaction  itself 
was  manifest.  As  long  as  Charles  DDL  lived,  it  was 
kept  under ;  and  this  was  owing  partly  to  the  fear 
which  his  active  and  vigorous  government  inspired, 
and  partly  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  reforms  which 
he  introduced  were  so  obviously  beneficial  as  to  shed  a 
lustre  on  his  reign,  which  all  classes  could  perceive. 
Besides  the  exemption  which  his  policy  insured  from 
the  incessant  ravages  of  pirates,  he  also  succeeded  in 
obtaining  for  Spain  the  most  honourable  peace  which 
any  Spanish  government  had  signed  for  two  centuries ; 
thus  recalling  to  the  popular  mind  the  brightest  and 
most  glorious  days  of  Philip  II.285  When  Charles 
came  to  the  throne,  Spain  was  hardly  a  third-rate 
power ;  when  he  died,  she  might  fairly  claim  to  be  a 
first-rate  one,  since  she  had  for  some  years  negotiated 
on  equal  terms  with  France,  England,  and  Austria, 
and  had  taken  a  leading  part  in  the  councils  of  Europe. 
To  this,  the  personal  character  of  Charles  greatly 
contributed  ;  he  being  respected  for  his  honesty,  as  well 
as  feared  for  his  vigour.286  Merely  as  a  man,  he 
bore  high  repute ;  while,  as  a  sovereign,  none  of  his 
contemporaries  were  in  any  way  equal  to  him,    except 

284  Coxe  {Bourbon   Kings   of  *•  Towards  the  close  of  his 

Spain,  vol.  v.  p.  144)  calls  the  reign,  -we  find  a  contemporary 

peace  of  1783  '  the  most  honour-  observer,  who  was  anything  but 

able  and  advantageous  ever  con-  prejudiced  in  his  favour,  bearing 

eluded  by  the   crown   of  Spain  testimony   to    'the   honest    and 

since  the  peace  of  St.  Quintin.'  obstinate  adherence  of  his  pre- 

Similarly,  M.  Rio  (Historia  del  sent  Catholic  Majesty  to  all  his 

lieinado  de  Carlos  HI.,  vol.  iii.  treaties,  principles,  and  engage- 

p.  397),  'Siglos  habian  pasado  ments,'  Letter  by  an  English  Offi- 

para  Espana  de  continuas  y  por-  cer,    London,    1788,   vol.   ii.  p. 

iiadas     contiendas,    sin     llegar  329.    Compare  Muriel  ( Gobierno 

nunca,  desde  la  famosa  Jornada  del  Bey  Don  Carlos  III.,  Madrid, 

de  San  Quintin  y  al  alborear  el  1839,  p.  34), 'Tan  conocido llego 

reinado  de  Felipe  II.,  tan  glorio-  a  ser  Carlos  III.  en  los   reinos 

samente  al  reposo.'  estranos  por  la   recti  tud  de   su 


556       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FEOM    THE    FIFTH 

Frederick  of  Prussia,  whose  vast  abilities,  were, 
however,  tarnished  by  a  base  rapacity,  and  by  an  in- 
cessant desire  to  overreach  his  neighbours.  Charles 
III.  had  nothing  of  this ;  but  he  carefully  increased 
the  defences  of  Spain,  and,  raising  her  establishments 
to  a  war-footing,  he  made  her  more  formidable  than 
she  had  been  since  the  sixteenth  century.  Instead  of 
being  liable  to  insult  from  every  petty  potentate  who 
chose  to  triumph  over  her  weakness,  the  country  had 
now  the  means  of  resisting,  and  if  need  be,  of  attack- 
ing. While  the  army  was  greatly  improved  in  the 
quality  of  the  troops,  in  their  discipline,  and  in  the 
attention  paid  to  their  comforts,  the  navy  was  nearly 
doubled  in  number,  and  more  than  doubled  in  effi- 
ciency.287 And  this  was  done  without  imposing  fresh 
burdens  on  the  people.  Indeed,  the  national  resources 
were  becoming  so  developed,  that,  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  III.,  a  large  amount  of  taxation  could  have 
been  easier  paid  than  a  small  one  under  his  predeces- 
sors. A  regularity,  hitherto  unknown,  was  introduced 
into  the  method  both  of  assessing  imposts,  and  of 
collecting  them.288  The  laws  of  mortmain  were 
relaxed,  and  steps  were  taken  towards  diminishing  the 
rigidity  of  entails.289  The  industry  of  the  country 
was  liberated  from  many  of  the  trammels  which  had 
long  been  imposed  upon  it,  and  the  principles  of  free 
trade  were  so  far  recognized,   that,  in   1765,  the  old 


caracter,  que  en  las  desavenencias  Carlos  III.,  voL  iv.  pp.  41-43, 

que  ocurrian  entre  los  gobiernos,  253. 

todos  consentian  en  tomarle  por  M7  On  the  increase  of  the  navy, 

arbitro,  y  so  sometian  a  sus  de-  compare  Tapia,  Civilization  Es- 

cisiones ,  and  Cabarrus  {Elogio  panola,    vol.    iv.    p.    127,   with 

de   Carlos   III.,   Madrid,    1789,  Muriel,  Gobierno  del  Bey  Carlos 

4to.  p.  xl.),  '  Esta  probidad  llega  III,  pp.  73,  82. 

a  ser  el  resorte   politico  de  la  288  These    financial  improve- 

Europa ;  todas  las  cortes  pene-  ments    were   due,    in    a    great 

tradas  de  respeto  a  sus  virtudes  measure,     to    the    Frenchman, 

lebuscan  por  arbitro  ymediador.'  Cabarrus.     See  Bio,  Historia  det 

Evidence  of   the   great   respect  Beinado  de  Carlos  III.,  vol.  iv. 

paid  to  Charles  III.  by  foreign  pp.  122,  123. 

powers,   will  also  be   found   in  2W  Rio,  ibid.  vol.  iv.  pp.  164- 

BiOj    Historia    de  Beinado    de  166,     and    Tapia,    Civilisation 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  557 

laws  respecting  corn  were  repealed ;  its  exportation 
was  allowed,  and  also  its  transit  from  one  part  of 
Spain  to  another,  uninterrupted  by  those  absurd  pre- 
cautions, which  preceding  governments  had  thought  it 
advisable  to  invent.290 

It  was  also  in  the  reign  of  Charles  III.  that  the 
American  Colonies  were,  for  the  first  time,  treated  ac- 
cording to  the  maxims  of  a  wise  and  liberal  policy. 
The  behaviour  of  the  Spanish  government  in  this 
respect,  contrasts  most  favourably  with  the  conduct 
pursued  at  the  same  time  towards  our  great  Colonies 
by  that  narrow  and  incompetent  man  who  then  filled 
the  English  throne.  While  the  violence  of  George  III. 
was  fomenting  rebellion  in  the  British  Colonies, 
Charles  HL  was  busily  engaged  in  conciliating  the 
Spanish  ones.  Towards  this  end,  and  with  the  object 
of  giving  fair  play  to  the  growth  of  their  wealth,  he 
did  everything  which  the  knowledge  and  resources  of 
that  age  allowed  him  to  do.  In  1764,  he  accomplished, 
what  was  then  considered  the  great  feat  of  establish- 
ing every  month  a  regular  communication  with 
America,  in  order  that  the  reforms  which  he  projected 
might  be  more  easily  introduced,  and  the  grievances  of 
the  Colonies  attended  to.291     In  the  very  next  year, 


Espanola,  vol.  iv.  pp.  96,  97.  document,  which  is  important  for 

■i*>  <  La  providencia  mas  acer-  the  history  of  political  economy, 

tada  para  el  fomento  de  nuestra  is  printed  in  the  Appendix  to 

ogricultura  fu6  sin  duda  la  real  Campomanes,  Edticacion  Popular, 

pragmatica  de    11   de  julio  de  vol.  ii.  pp.  16,  17,  Madrid,  1775. 

1765,  por  la  cual  se  abolio  la  291  'Pronto    se   establecieron 

tasa  de  los  granos,  y  se  permitio  los  correos  maritimos  y  se  eomu- 

el  libre  comercio  de  ellos.'  Tapia,  nicaron  con  regularidad  y  fre- 

Civilizacion  Espanola,  vol.  iv.  p.  cuencia  no  vistas  basta  entonces 

105.     See  also  Dillon's  Spain,  p.  la  metropoli  y  las  colonias.    Por 

69,  and  TownsencFs  Spain,  vol.  efecto  del  importante  decreto  de 

ii.  p.  230.     The   first  step  to-  24  de  agosto  de  1764,  salia  el 

wards    this    great   reform    was  primero  de  cada  mes  un  paque- 

taken  in    1752.     See  the  edict  bot  de   la    Corufia   con  toda  la 

issued  in  that  year,    'Libertase  correspondencia  de  las   Indias; 

de    Derechos  el    trigo,    cebada,  desembareabala  en  la  Habana,  y 

centeno  y  maiz  que  por  mar  se  desde  alii  se  distribuia  en  balan- 

transportare  de  unas  provincias  dras  y  otros  bajeles  a  proposito 

a  otras  de  estos  dominios.'    This  para  puntear  los  vientos,'escasos, 


o58      SPANISH   INTELLECT    FEOM   THE    FIFTH 


free  trade  was  conceded  to  the  West  Indian  Islands, 
whose  abundant  commodities  were  now,  for  the  first 
time,  allowed  to  circulate,  to  their  own  benefit,  as  well 
as  to  the  benefit  of  their  neighbours.292  Into  the 
Colonies  generally,  vast  improvements  were  introduced, 
many  oppressions  were  removed,  the  tyranny  of 
officials  was  checked,  and  the  burdens  of  the  people 
were  lightened.'293  Finally,  in  1778,  the  principles  of 
free  trade  having  been  successfully  tried  in  the 
American  Islands,  were  now  extended  to  the  American 
Continent ;  the  ports  of  Peru  and  of  New  Spain  were 
thrown  open  ;  and  by  this  means  an  immense  impetus 
was  given  to  the  prosperity  of  those  magnificent 
colonies,  which  nature  intended  to  be  rich,  but  which 
the  meddling  folly  of  man  had  forced  to  be  poor.294 

All  this  reacted  upon  the  mother  country  with  such 
rapidity,  that  scarcely  was  the  old  system  of  monopoly 
broken  up,  when  the  trade  of  Spain  began  to  advance, 
and   continued  to    improve,    until    the    exports    and 


a  Veracruz,  Portobelo,  Cartagena, 
islas  de  Barlovento  y  provincias 
de  la  Plata  ;  y  aquellos  ligeros 
buques  volvian  a  la  Habana,  de 
donde  zarpaba  mensualmente  y 
en  dia  fijo  otro  paquebot  para  la 
Coruna.'  Bio,  Historia  del  Bei- 
nado  de  Carlos  III.,  voL  i.  p. 
452.  That  part  of  the  plan, 
however,  which  aimed  at  making 
Coruna  a  rival  of  Cadiz,  appears 
to  have  been  unsuccessful.  See 
a  letter  from  Coruna,  written  in 
1774,  in  Dalrymple's  Travels 
through  Spain,  London,  1777, 
4to.  p.  99. 

292  See  the  edicts  in  Campo- 
manes,  Apendice,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
37-47,  Madrid,  1775.  They  are 
both  dated  October  16th,  1765. 

293  It  was  said,  with  reason, 
by  Alaman,  '  que  el  gobierno  de 
America  llego  al  colmo  de  su 
perfection  en  tiempo  de  Carlos 
III.'     Rio,  Historia  del  Beinado 


de  Carlos  III.,  vol.  iv.  p.  151. 
And  Humboldt  observes  (Essai 
Politique  sur  le  Eoyaume  de  la 
Nouvelle-Espagne,  Paris,  1811, 
4to.  vol.  i.  p.  102),  '  C'est  le  roi 
Charles  III  surtout  qui,  par 
des  mesures  aussi  sages  qu'ener- 
giques,  est  devenu  le  bienfaiteur 
des  indigenes ;  il  a  annule  les 
Encomiendas ;  il  a  defendu  les 
Bepartimientos,  par  lesquels  les 
corregidors  se  constituoient  arbi- 
trairement  les  creanciers,  et  par 
consequent  les  maitres  du  travail 
des  natifs,  en  les  pourvoyant,  a 
des  prix  exageres,  de  chevaux,  de 
mulets  et  de  vetemens  (ropa)' 

294  Cabarrus,  Elogio  de  Carlos 
III,  Madrid,  1789,  p.  xlii.,  and 
Canga's  note  in  Martinez  de  la 
Mata,  Bos  Discursos,  Madrid, 
1794,  p.  31.  But  these  writers 
were  not  sufficiently  familiar 
•with  political  economy,  really  to 
appreciate  this  measure. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  559 

imports  had  reached  a  height  that  even  the  authors  of 
the  reform  could  hardly  have  expected ;  it  being  said 
that  the  export  of  foreign  commodities  was  tripled, 
that  the  export  of  home-produce  was  multiplied  five- 
fold, and  the  returns  from  America  ninefold.295 

Many  of  the  taxes,  which  bore  heavily  on  the  lower 
ranks,  were  repealed,  and  the  industrious  classes,  being 
relieved  of  their  principal  burdens,  it  was  hoped  that 
their  condition  would  speedily  improve.296  And  to 
benefit  them  still  more,  such  alterations  were  effected 
in  the  administration  of  the  law,  as  might  enable  them 
to  receive  justice  from  the  public  tribunals,  when  they 
had  occasion  to  complain  of  their  superiors.  Hitherto, 
a  poor  man  had  not  the  least  chance  of  succeeding 
against  a  rich  one;  but  in  the  reign  of  Charles  III., 
government  introduced  various  regulations,  by  which 
labourers  and  mechanics  could  obtain  redress,  if  their 
masters  defrauded  them  of  their  wages,  or  broke  the 
contracts  made  with  them.297 

Not  only  the  labouring  classes,  but  also  the  literary 
and  scientific  classes,  were  encouraged  and  protected. 
One  source  of  danger,  to  which  they  had  long  been 
exposed,  was  considerably  lessened  by  the  steps  which 
Charles  took  to  curtail  the  power  of  the  Inquisition. 
The  king,  was,  moreover,  always  ready  to  reward 
them ;  he   was  a  man  of  cultivated  tastes,  and  he  de- 


195  '  Early   in    the    reign    of  Clarke's  Examination  of  the  In- 
Charles,  steps    had   been  taken  ternal  State  of  Spain,  London, 
towards  the   adoption    of  more  1818,  p.  72. 
liberal  principles  in  the  commerce  iM  Coxe's    Bourbon  Kings  of 
with  America;  but,  in  the  year  Spain, vol.  v.  pp.  197,  317,  318. 
1778,  a  complete    and    radical  ■•  See  Florida  Blanca's  state- 
change  was  introduced.     The  es-  ment  in  Coxe's  Bourbon  Kings  of 
tablishment  of  a  free  trade  rapidly  Spain,  vol.  v.  p.  331 ;  'to  facili- 
produced  the  most  beneficial  con-  tate  to  artisans  and  journeymen 
sequences.    The  export  of  foreign  the    scanty    payment   of    their 
goods  was  tripled,  of  home-pro-  labours,  in  spite  of  the  privileges 
(luce  quintupled ;  and  the  returns  and  interest  of  the  powerful.' 
from  America  augmented  in  the  '*•"  Rio,  Historia  del  Reinado 
astonishing  proportion  of  nine  to  de  Carlos  III.,  vol.  iv.  pp.  317, 
one.     The  produce  of  the  customs  318,  and  elsewhere, 
increased  with  equal  rapidity.' 


560       SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM    THE    FIFTH 

lighted  in  being  thought  the  patron  of  learning.298 
Soon  after  his  accession,  he  issued  an  order,  exempting 
from  military  service  all  printers,  and  all  persons  imme- 
diately connected  with  printing,  such  as  casters  of 
type,  and  the  like.299  He,  also,  as  far  as  he  was  able, 
infused  new  life  into  the  old  universities,  and  did  all 
that  was  possible  towards  restoring  their  discipline  and 
reputation.300  He  founded  schools,  endowed  colleges, 
rewarded  professors,  and  granted  pensions.  In  these 
matters  his  munificence  seemed  inexhaustible,  and  is  of 
itself  sufficient  to  account  for  the  veneration  with  which 
literary  Spaniards  regard  his  memory.  They  have 
reason  to  regret  that,  instead  of  living  now,  they  had 
not  lived  when  he  was  king.  In  his  reign,  it  was 
supposed  that  their  interests  must  be  identical  with  the 
interests  of  knowledge ;  and  these  last  were  rated  so 
highly,  that,  in  1771,  it  was  laid  down  as  a  settled 
principle  of  government,  that  of  all  the  branches  of 
public  policy,  the  care  of  education  is  the  most  impor- 
tant.301 

But  this  is  not  all.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  that 
in  the  reign  of  Charles  in.,  the  face  of  Spain  underwent 
greater  changes  than  it  had  done  during  the  hundred 
and  fifty  years  which  had  elapsed  since  the  final  expul- 
sion of  the  Mohammedans.  At  his  accession,  in  1759, 
the  wise  and  pacific  policy  of  his  predecessor,  Ferdinand 
VI. ,  had  enabled  that  prince  not  only  to  pay  many  of 
the  debts  owed  by  the  crown,  but  also  to  accumulate  and 


299  '"Desde  mi  feliz  adveni-  III.,  vol.  iii.  p.  213. 

miento  al  trono"  (dijo  el  Key  en  300  On  the  steps  taken  to  reform 

la  ordenanza  de  reemplazos)  "  ha  the    universities    between  1768 

merecido  mi  Real  proteccion  el  and  1774,  see  Bio,  Historia  del 

arte  de  la  imprenta,  y,  para  que  Beinaclo  de   Carlos  III,  vol.  iii. 

pueda  arraigarse  solidamente  en  pp.  185-210.      Compare  vol.  iv. 

estos'reinos,  vengo  en  declararla  pp.  296-299. 

exencion    del    sorteo    y  servicio  SP1  'La   educacion   de  la   ju- 

militar,  no  solo  a  los  impresores,  ventud  por  los  maestros  de  pri- 

sino  tambien   a   los    fundidores  meras  letras  es  uno  y  aun  el  mas 

que  se  empleen  de  continuo  en  principal  ramo  de  la  policia  y 

este  ejercicio,  y  a  los  abridores  de  buen  gobierno  del  Estado.'     Beal 

punzones    y    matrices."'      Bio,  Provision  de  11  de  Julio  de  177 '1, 

Hisioria  dtl  Beinado  de  Carlos  printed  in  Rio,  vol.  iii.  p.  182. 


TO   THE    NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  561 

leave  behind  him  a  considerable  treasure.30*  Of  this 
-Charles  availed  himself,  to  begin  those  works  of  public 
splendour,  which,  more  than  any  other  part  of  his  ad- 
ministration, was  sure  to  strike  the  senses,  and  to  give 
popularity  to  his  reign.  And  when,  by  the  increase  of 
wealth,  rather  than  by  the  imposition  of  fresh  burdens, 
still  larger  resources  were  placed  at  his  command,  he 
devoted  a  considerable  part  of  them  to  completing  his 
designs.  He  so  beautified  Madrid,  that  forty  years  after 
his  death,  it  was  stated,  that,  as  it  then  stood,  all  its 
magnificence  was  owing  to  him.  The  public  buildings 
and  the  public  gardens,  the  beautiful  walks  round  the 
capital,  its  noble  gates,  its  institutions,  and  the  very 
roads  leading  from  it  to  the  adjacent  country,  are  all 
the  work  of  Charles  III.,  and  are  among  the  most  con- 
spicuous trophies  which  attest  his  genius  and  the  sump- 
tuousness  of  his  taste.303 

In  other  parts  of  the  country,  roads  were  laid  down, 
and  canals  were  dug,  with  the  view  of  increasing  trade 
by  opening  up  communications  through  tracts  previously 
impassable.     At  the  accession  of  Charles  III.,  the  whole 

302  M.  Lafuente,  who  has  justly  prudente  politica  de  neutralidad 

praised  the  love  of   peace  dis-  y  de  paz.' 

played  by  Ferdinand  VI.  (Histo-  303  '  But  it  is  to  Charles  III. 
ria  de  Espana,  vol.  i.  p.  202,  vol.  that  Madrid  owes  all  its  present 
xix.  pp.  286,  378),  adds  (vol.  magnificence.  Under  his  care, 
xix.  p.  384),  '  De  modo  que  con  the  royal  palace  was  finished,  the 
razon  se  admira,  y  es  el  testimo-  noble  gates  of  Alcala  and  San 
nio  mas  honroso  de  la  buena  Vincente  were  raised;  the  cus- 
administracion  economica  de  este  tom-house,  the  post-office,  tha 
reinado,  que  al  morir  este  buon  museum,  and  royal  printing- 
monarca  dejara,  no  diremos  nos-  office,  were  constructed ;  the  aca- 
otros  repletas  y  apuntaladas  las  demy  of  the  three  noble  arts 
areas  publicas,  como  hiperbolica-  improved ;  the  cabinet  of  natural 
mente  suele  decirse,  pero  si  con  history,  the  botanic  garden,  the 
el  considerable  sobrante  de  tres-  national  bank  of  San  Carlos,  and 
cientos  millones  de  reales,  des-  many  gratuitous  schools  esta- 
pues  de  cubiertas  todas  las  blished ;  while  convenient  roads 
atenciones  del  Estado  :  fenomeno  leading  from  the  city,  and  de- 
que puede  decirse  so  veia  por  lightful  walks  planted  within  and 
primera  vez  en  Espana,  y  resul-  without  it,  and  adorned  by  statues 
tado  satisfactorio,  que  aun  su-  and  fountains,  combine  to  an- 
puesta  una  buena  administration,  nounce  the  solicitude  of  this 
eolo  pudo  obtenerse  a  favor  de  su  paternal    king.'     Spain    by    an 

VOL.  II.                                   0  0 


562      SPANISH    INTELLECT    PEOM   THE    FIFTH 

of  the  Sierra  Morena  was  unoccupied,  except  by  wild 
beasts  and  banditti,  who  took  refuge  there.304  No  peace- 
ful traveller  would  venture  into  such  a  place ;  and  com- 
merce was  thus  excluded  from  what  nature  had  marked 
as  one  of  the  greatest  highways  in  Spain,  standing 
as  it  does  between  the  basins  of  the  Guadiana  and 
Guadalquivir,  and  in  the  direct  course  between  the 
ports  on  the  Mediterranean  and  those  on  the  Atlantic. 
The  active  government  of  Charles  HI.  determined  to 
remedy  this  evil ;  but  the  Spanish  people  not  having 
the  energy  to  do  what  was  required,  six  thousand  Dutch 
and  Flemish  were,  in  1767,  invited  to  settle  in  the 
Sierra  Morena.  On  their  arrival,  lands  were  allotted  to 
them,  roads  were  cut  through  the  whole  of  the  district, 
villages  were  built ;  and  that  which  had  just  been  an 
impervious  desert,  was  suddenly  turned  into  a  smiling 
and  fruitful  territory.305 

Nearly  all  over  Spain,  the  roads  were  repaired ;  a 
fund  having  been,  so  early  as  1760,  specially  set  apart 
for  that  purpose.306     Many  new  works  were  begun ; 


American,  London,  1831,  vol.  i.  las  Navas.'     Bio,    Historia   dd 

p.  206 ;  see  also  p.  297.  Beinado  de  Carlos  III.,  vol.  iii.  p. 

304  The  following  passage  de-  9.     On    the    condition    of   the 

scribes  its  state  so  late  as  the  Sierra  Morena  a  hundred  jears 

year   1766:  'Por   temor   6   por  before  this,  see  Boisel,  Journal  dm 

'  connivencia    de    los     venteros,  Voyage  d'Espagne,  Paris,  1 669, 

dentro  de  sus  casas  concertaban  4to.   pp.  62,    296 ;  where    it    is 

frecuentemente  los  ladrones  sus  termed '  le  lieu  le  plus  desert,  et 

robos,  y  los  ejecutaban  a  man-  ou  il  n'y  a  que  quelques  ventas 

salva,  ocultandose  en  guaridas  de  sans  villages.' 
que  ahuyentaban    a   las    fieras.         30S  Bio,  Historia  del  Beinado 

Acaso  a  muy  largas  distancias  se  de  Carlos  III.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  9-1 1, 

descubrian  entre  contados  case-  35.     By  1771,  '  sin  auxilio  de  la 

rios  algunos   pastores  como  los  Eeal  hacienda  pudieron  mante- 

que  alii  hizo  encontrar  el  ilustre  nerse  al  fin  los  colonos.'      p.  42. 

manco  de  Lepanto  al  ingenioso  See  also  vol.  iv.  pp.  114,  115. 

hidalgo  de  la  Mancha.    Parte  de  On  the  subsequent  history  of  this 

la     Sierra    estuvo    poblada    en  settlement,  see  Inglis'  Spain,  voL 

tiempo  de  moros;    actualmente  ii.  pp.  29-31,  London,  1831. 
ya  no   habia    mas    que  espesos         306  'En   1760  se  destino  por 

matorrales  hasta  en  torno  de  la  primera  vez  un  fondo   especial 

ermita  de  Santa    Elena,    dondo  para  la  construccion  de  caminos.' 

resonaron  canticos  de  gracias  al  Tapia,     Civilizacion     Espanola, 

Cielo  por  el  magnifico  triunfo  de  vol.  iv.  p.  123. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTUET.  56^ 

and  such  improvements  were  introduced,  while  at  the 
same  time,  such  vigilance  was  employed  to  prevent 
peculation  on  the  part  of  officials,  that  in  a  very  few 
years  the  cost  of  making  public  highways  was  reduced 
to  less  than  half  of  what  it  used  to  be.307  Of  the  under- 
takings which  were  brought  to  a  successful  issue,  the 
most  important  were,  a  road  now  first  constructed  from 
Malaga  to  Antequera,308  and  another  from  Aquilas  to 
Lorca.309  In  this  way,  means  of  intercourse  were  sup- 
plied between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  interior  of 
Andalusia  and  of  Mercia.  "While  these  communications 
were  established  in  the  south  and  south-east  of  Spain, 
others  were  opened  up  in  the  north  and  north-west.  In 
1769,  a  road  was  begun  between  Bilbao  and  Osma;  3ia 
and  soon  after,  one  was  completed  between  Galicia  and 
Astorga.311  These  and  similar  works  were  so  skilfully 
executed,  that  the  Spanish  highways,  formerly  among 
the  worst  in  Europe,  were  now  classed  among  the  best. 
Indeed,  a  competent,  and  by  no  means  over-friendly, 
judge  gives  it  as  his  opinion,  that  at  the  death  of  Charles 


807  Indeed,  M.  Eio  says,  that  pp.  115,  116. 

the  expense  was  reduced  by  two-  310  In  1769,  Baretti  writes,  in 

thirds,  and,   in  some  parts,  by  great  surprise,    '  the  Biscayans 

three-fourths.     'Antes  se  regu-  are'actually  making  a  noble  road, 

laba  en  un  millon  de  reales  la  which  is  to  go  from  Bilbao  to 

construction  de  cada  legua ;  ahora  Osma.'  Baretti 's  Journey  through 

solo  ascendia  a  la  tercera  6  cuarta  England,  Portugal,    Spain,  and 

parte  de  esta  suma.'     Bio,  His-  France,  London,  1770,  vol.  iv.  p. 

toria  del  Beinado  de  Carlos  III.,  311. 

vol.  iv.  p.  117.  3U  'Otras     diferentes    carre- 

308  A  note  in  Bowles,  Historia  teras,    construidas  de    nuevo   6 

Natural    de    Espana,    Madrid,  rehabilitadas,   multiplicaron  las 

1789,  4to.  p.  158,  terms  this  'un  comunicaciones      durante       los 

camino  alineado  y   solido.'     In  nueve  primeros  anos  de  estar  a 

CooTis  Spain,  London,  1834,  vol.  cargo  de  Floridablanca  la  super- 

i.  p.  209,  it  is  called  '  a  magnifi-  intendencia  general  de  caminos, 

cent  road.'  haciendose   de    facil   y  comodo 

3os  <  paj.a    ,jar    galida    i    los  transito  puntos  escabrosos  como 

frutos,  que  regaban  los  pantanos  el  del  Puerto  de  la  Cadena  y  los 

de    Lorca,   ejecutose    una   bien  que    m&lian    entre    Astorga    y 

trazada    via    al    puerto    de  las  Galicia,  y  Malaga  y  Antequera.' 

Aguilas.'       Bio,    Historia    del  Bio,  Historia    del    Beinado    do 

Beinado  de  Carlos  III.,  vol.  iv.  Carlos  III.,  vol.  iv.  p.  115. 
oo  2 


-564      SPANISH   INTELLECT    FROM   THE    FIFTH 

HE.  better  roads  were  to  be  found  in  Spain  than  in  any 
other  country.312 

In  the  interior,  rivers  "were  made  navigable,  and 
canals  were  formed  to  connect  them  with  each  other. 
The  Ebro  runs  through  the  heart  of  Aragon  and  part 
of  Old  Castile,  and  is  available  for  purposes  of  traffic  as 
high  up  as  Logrofio,  and  from  thence  down  to  Tudela. 
But  between  Tudela  and  Saragossa,  the  navigation  is 
interrupted  by  its  great  speed,  and  by  the  rocks  in  its 
bed.  Consequently,  Navarre  is  deprived  of  its  natural 
communication  with  the  Mediterranean.  In  the  enter- 
prising reign  of  Charles  V.,  an  attempt  was  made  to 
remedy  this  evil ;  but  the  plan  failed,  was  laid  aside, 
and  was  forgotten,  until  it  was  revived,  more  than  two 
hundred  years  later,  by  Charles  HI.  Under  his  auspices, 
the  great  canal  of  Aragon  was  projected,  with  the  mag- 
nificent idea  of  uniting  the  Mediterranean  and  the 
Atlantic.  This,  however,  was  one  of  many  instances  in 
which  the  government  of  Spain  was  too  far  in  advance 
of  Spain  itself;  and  it  was  necessary  to  abandon  a 
scheme,  to  which  the  resources  of  the  country  were  un- 
equal. But  what  was  really  effected,  was  of  immense 
value.  A  canal  was  actually  carried  to  Saragossa,  and 
-the  waters  of  the  Ebro  were  made  available  not  only 
for  transport,  but  also  for  irrigating  the  soil.  The 
means  of  a  safe  and  profitable  trade  were  now  supplied 
even  to  the  western  extremity  of  Aragon.  The  old  land, 
"becoming  more  productive,  rose  in  value,  and  new  land 
was  brought  under  the  plough.  From  this,  other  parts 
of  Spain  also  benefited.  Castile,  for  example,  had  in 
seasons  of  scarcity  always  depended  for  supplies  on 
Aragon,  though  that  province  could,  under  the  former 
system,  only  produce  enough  for  its  own  consumption. 
But  by  this  great  canal,  to  which,  about  the  same  time, 


312  'The  reigns  of  Ferdinand  present  time  in   Spain  several 

the  Sixth  and  Charles  the  Third  superb  roads,  such  as  may  vie 

produced    the    most    beneficial  with  the  finest  in  Europe ;   in- 

«hanges  in  this  important  branch  deed,  they  have  been  made  with 

of  political  economy.    New  roads  superior  judgment,  and  upon  a 

were  opened,  which  were  care-  grander  scale.'     Laborde's  Spain, 

fully  levelled,    and    constructed  edit.  London,  1809,  vol.  iv.  p.  427. 
with  solidity.     There  are  at  the 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY,  565 

that  of  Tauste  was  also  added,313  the  soil  of  Aragon  be- 
came far  more  productive  than  it  had  ever  yet  been ;  and 
the  rich  plains  of  the  Ebro  yielded  so  abundantly,  that 
they  were  able  to  supply  wheat  and  other  food  to  the 
Castilians,  as  well  as  to  the  Aragonese.314 

The  government  of  Charles  III.,  moreover,  con- 
structed a  canal  between  Amposta  and  Alfaques,315 
which  irrigated  the  southern  extremity  of  Catalonia, 
and  brought  into  cultivation  a  large  district,  which, 
from  the  constant  lack  of  rain,  had  hitherto  been 
untilled.  Another  and  still  greater  enterprise  belonging 
to  the  same  reign,  was  an  attempt,  only  partly  successful, 
to  establish  a  water-communication  between  the  capital 
and  the  Atlantic,  by  running  a  canal  from  Madrid  to 
Toledo,  whence  the  Tagus  would  have  conveyed  goods 
to  Lisbon,  and  all  the  trade  of  the  west  would  have 
been  opened  up.316  But  this  and  many  other  noblo 
projects  were  nipped  in  the  bud  by  the  death  of  Charles 
III.,  with  whom  every  thing  vanished.  When  he 
passed  away,  the  country  relapsed  into  its  former  inac- 
tivity, and  it  was  clearly  seen  that  these  great  works 
were  not  national,  but  political ;  in  other  words  that 
they  were  due  merely  to  individuals,  whose  most 
strenuous  exertions  always  come  to  naught,  if  they 
are  opposed  by  the  operation  of  those  general  causes, 


*"  Coxe's  Bourbon  Kings  of  Spain,  p.   587 ;  a  book  which, 

Spain,  vol.  v.  p.  287.  notwithstanding  the  praise  that 

n*  Ibid.  vol.  v.  pp.  198,  199,  has  been  conferred  upon  it,  is 

286,    287.     Townsend's    Spain,  carelessly  composed,  and  is  sure 

vol.   i.  pp.  212-216.     Laborde's  to  mislead  readers  who  have  not 

Spain,  vol.  ii.  p.  271.  This  canal,  the  means  of  comparing  it  with 

which  was  intended  to  establish  other     authorities.      M.    Eio's 

a  free  communication  between  History  of  Charles  III.  contains 

the  Bay  of  Biscay  and  the  Medi-  some  interesting  information  on 

terranean,  is  slightly  noticed  in  the  subject ;  but,  unfortunately, 

Macpherson's   Annals  of    Com-  I  omitted  to  mark  the  passages. 

merce,   vol.  iv.   pp.    95,   96 :    a  ,ls  Coxe's  Botirbon  Kings  of 

learned  and  valuable  work,  but  Spain,  vol.  v.  pp.  288,  289,  on 

very  imperfect  as  regards  Spain,  the  authority  of  Florida  Blanca 

The  economical  value   of   this  himself. 

great  enterprise,  and  the  extent  ,le  Coxe's  Bourbon  Kings  of 

to  which  it  succeeded,  are  seri-  Spain,  vol.  v.  p.  199.  Townsend's 

ously  under-estimated  in  Ford's  Spain,  vol.  i.  p.  304. 


566      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE   FIFTH 

which  are  often  undiscerned,  but  to  which  even  the 
strongest  of  us,  do,  in  our  own  despite,  pay  implicit 
obedience. 

Still  for  a  time  much  was  done ;  and  Charles,  reason- 
ing according  to  the  ordinary  maxims  of  politicians, 
might  well  indulge  the  hope,  that  what  he  had  effected 
would  permanently  change  the  destiny  of  Spain.  For 
these  and  other  works  which  he  not  only  planned  but 
.executed,317  were  not  paid  for,  as  is  too  often  the  case, 
by  taxes  which  oppressed  the  people,  and  trammelled 
their  industry.  At  his  side,  and  constantly  advising 
him,  there  were  men  who  really  aimed  at  the  public 
good,  and  who  never  would  have  committed  so  fatal  an 
error.  Under  his  rule  the  wealth  of  the  country  greatly 
increased,  and  the  comforts  of  the  lower  classes,  instead 
of  being  abridged,  were  multiplied.  The  imposts  were 
more  fairly  assessed  than  they  had  ever  been  before. 
Taxes,  which,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  all  the  power 
of  the  executive  could  not  wring  from  the  people,  were 
now  regularly  paid,  and,  owing  to  the  development  of 
the  national  resources,  they  became  at  once  more  pro- 

317  See  Florida  Blanca's  state-  rated    lands,    producing    every 

ment  in   Coxe's  Bourbon  Kings  species    of     grain    and    fruits, 

of  Spain,   voL  v.  p.  289.     '  In  which    border     the    road,    and 

many  other  parts  similar  works  banish  the  danger  of   robbers 

have  been  promoted,  for  canals  and  banditti.'     See  also  Muriel, 

of  irrigation,  and  for  encouraging  Gobierno  del  Rey  Don  Carlos  III., 

agriculture    and    traffic.       The  p.  5.     *  Habiendo  sido  el  reinado 

canals  of  Manzanares  and  Guad-  de  Carlos  III.  una  serie  continua 

arrama  are  continued  by  means  de  mejoras  entodosramos;'  and 

of  the  national  bank,  which  has  the     striking     picture   (p.    15), 

appropriated  one-half  of  the  pro-  '  Agricultura,    artes    mecanicas, 

fits  derived  from  the  export  of  comercio,     ensenanza,     milicia, 

silver  to  this  end.'  ....  'The  navegacion,  ciencias,  letras,  legis- 

town  of  Almuradiel,  formed  in  lacion,    en    una    palabra,    todo 

the  .middle  of  the  campo  nuevo  cuanto  puede  influir  en  la  pros- 

of   Andalusia,  for    the  rugged  peridad  del  Estado,  todo  Uamo 

pass     of    Despena    Perros,    is  la  atencion  de  los  ministros,  y 

another  example  of  agriculture  en  todo  hicieron  las  mejoras  que 

for    the    neighbouring     places ;  permitian     las     circunstancias.' 

since,    instead    of    woods    and  On  the  improvements  in  internal 

frightful  deserts,  we  have  seen  communications,   see   the    same 

in  a  few  years  public  buildings,  valuable  work,  pp.  187-192. 
houses,  plantations,  and   cutti- 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUEY.  567 

ductive  and  less  onerous.  In  the  management  of  the 
public  finances,  an  economy  was  practised,  the  first 
example  of  which  had  been  set  in  the  preceding  reign, 
when  the  cautious  and  pacific  policy  of  Ferdinand  VI. 
laid  a  foundation  for  many  of  the  improvements  just 
narrated.  Ferdinand  bequeathed  to  Charles  III.  a 
treasure  which  he  had  not  extorted,  but  saved.  Among 
the  reforms  which  he  introduced,  and  which  an  unwil- 
lingness to  accumulate  details  has  compelled  me  to 
omit,  there  is  one  very  important,  and  also  very  cha- 
racteristic of  his  policy.  Before  his  reign,  Spain  had 
annually  been  drained  of  an  immense  amount  of  money, 
on  account  of  the  right  which  the  Pope  claimed  of 
presenting  to  certain  rich  benefices,  and  of  receiving 
part  of  their  produce  ;  probably  as  a  recompense  for  the 
trouble  he  had  taken.  Of  this  duty  the  Pope  was 
relieved  by  Ferdinand  VI.,  who  secured  to  the  Spanish 
crown  the  right  of  conferring  such  preferment,  and 
thus  saved  to  the  country  those  enormous  sums  on 
which  the  Roman  Court  had  been  wont  to  revel.318 
This  was  just  the  sort  of  measure  which  would  be 
hailed  with  delight  by  Charles  III.,  as  harmonizing 
with  his  own  views  ;  and  we  accordingly  find,  that,  in 
his  reign,  it  was  not  only  acted  upon,  but  extended  still 
further.  For,  perceiving  that,  in  spite  of  his  efforts, 
the  feeling  of  the  Spaniards  on  these  matters  was  so 
strong  as  to  impel  them  to  make  offerings  to  him  whom 
they  venerated  as  the  Head  of  the  Church,  the  king 


818  Respecting  this  step,  which  toriador  Cabrera,  en  el  espacio 

was  effected  in  1754,  see  Tapia,  de  30  anos  el  solo  renglon  de  las 

Civilization  Espanola,    Madrid,  coadjutorias  y  dispensas   habia 

1840,  vol.  iv.  pp.   81,  82.     ' Fui  hecho  pasar  a  Romade lacorona 

este  tratado    utilisimo  para  la  de  Castilla  millon  y  medio  de 

Espafia,  pues  por  61  se  libert6  ducados  romanos.     Y  anade  el 

del  pago  de  enormes  sumas  que  mismo  Jover  que  a  principios  del 

hasta  entonces  habian  pasado  a  siglo  xviii.  subia  aun  esta  con- 

los  estados    pontificos.      En  el  tribucion  cada  afio  en  todos  los 

informe  canonico-legal  escrito  a  estados  de  la  monarquia  espanola 

virtud  de  real  6rden  en  1746  por  a  500,000  escudos  romanos,  que 

el  fiscal  de  la  camara  de  Castilla  era  tin  tertio  poco  mas  6  menos 

Don  Bias  de  Jover,  ee  decia ;  de  lo  que  Soma  pcrcibia  de  toda 

que  segun  el  testimonio  del  his-  la  cristiandadJ 


568      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

determined  to  exercise  control  over  even  these  volun- 
tary gifts.  To  accomplish  this  end,  various  devices 
were  suggested;'  and  at  length  one  was  hit  upon, 
which  was  thought  sure  to  be  effectual  A  royal  order 
was  issued,  directing  that  no  person  should  send  money 
to  Borne,  but  that  if  he  had  occasion  to  make  remit- 
tances there,  they  should  pass  not  through  the  ordinary 
channels,  but  through  the  ambassadors,  ministers,  or 
other  agents  of  the  Spanish  crown.319 

If  we  now  review  the  transactions  which  I  have  nar- 
rated,  and   consider  them  as  a  whole,  extendingfrom 
the  accession  of  Philip  V.  to  the  death  of  Charles  III.,, 
over  a  period  of  nearly  ninety  years,  we  shall  be  struck 
with  wonder  at  their  unity,  at  the  regularity  of  them 
march,  and  at  their  apparent  success.     Looking  at  their 
merely  in  a  political  point  of  view,  it  may  be  doubted  if 
such  vast  and  uninterrupted  progress  has  ever  been  seen 
in  any  country  either    before    or    since.      For  three 
generations,  there  was  no  pause  on  the  part  of  the 
government ;  not  one  reaction,  not  one  sign  of  halting. 
Improvement  upon    improvement,    and :  reform    upon 
reform,  followed  each  other  in  swift  succession.     The 
power   of  the    Church,   which   has  always  been  the 
crying  evil  of  Spain,  and  which  hitherto  none  of  the 
boldest  politicians  had  dared  to  touch,  was  restricted  in 
every  possible  way,  by  a  series  of  statesmen,  from  Orry 
to  Florida  Blanca,  whose  efforts  were  latterly,  and  for 
nearly  thirty  years,  zealously  aided  by  Charles  III.,  the 
ablest  monarch  who  has  sat  on  the  throne  since  the 
death  of  Philip  II.     Even  the  Inquisition  was  taught 
to  tremble,  and  made  to  loosen  its  hold  over  its  victims. 
The  burning  of  heretics  was   stopped.     Torture  was 
disused.     Prosecutions  for  heresy  were  discouraged. 
Instead  of  punishing   men   for  imaginary   offences,  a 
disposition  was  shown  to  attend  to  their  real  interests, 
to  alleviate  their  burdens,   to  increase  their  comforts, 
and  to  check  the  tyranny  of  those  who  were  set  over 
them.     Attempts  were  made  to  restrain  the  cupidity  of 

*19  See  Appendix  I.  to  Coxe's  Bourbon  Kinqs  of  Spain,  vol.  t» 
p.  334. 


TO  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.      569 

the  clergy,  and  prevent  them  from  preying  at  will  npon 
the  national  wealth.  With  this  view,  the  laws  of 
mortmain  were  revised,  and  various  measures  taken  to 
interpose  obstacles  in  the  way  of  persons  who  desired 
to  waste  their  property  by  bequeathing  it  for  ecclesi- 
astical purposes.  In  this,  as  in  other  matters,  the  true 
interests  of  society  were  preferred  to  the  fictitious  ones. 
To  raise  the  secular  classes  above  the  spiritual;  to 
discountenance  the  exclusive  attention  hitherto  paid  to 
questions  respecting  which  nothing  is  known,  and 
which  it  is  impossible  to  solve ;  to  do  this,  and,  in  the 
place  of  such  barren  speculations,  to  substitute  a  taste 
for  science,  or  for  literature,  became  the  object  of  the 
Spanish  government  for  the  first  time  since  Spain  had 
possessed  a  government  at  all.  As  part  of  the  same 
scheme,  the  Jesuits  were  expelled,  the  right  of  sanctuary 
was  infringed,  and  the  whole  hierarchy,  from  the 
highest  bishop  down  to  the  lowest  monk,  were  taught 
to  fear  the  law,  to  curb  their  passions,  and  to  restrain 
the  insolence  with  which  they  had  formerly  treated 
every  rank  except  their  own.  These  would  have  been 
great  deeds  in  any  country  ;  in  such  a  country  as  Spain, 
they  were  marvellous.  Of  them  I  have  given  an 
abridged,  and  therefore  an  imperfect,  account,  but  still 
sufficient  to  show  how  the  government  laboured  to 
diminish  superstition,  to  check  bigotry,  to  stimulate 
intellect,  to  promote  industry,  and  to  rouse  the  people 
from  their  death-like  slumber.  I  have  omitted  many 
measures  of  considerable  interest,  and  which  tended  in 
the  same  direction  ;  because,  here,  as  elsewhere,  I  seek 
to  confine  myself  to  those  salient  points  which  most 
distinctly  mark  the  general  movement.  Whoever  will 
minutely  study  the  history  of  Spain  during  this  period, 
will  find  additional  proof  of  the  skill  and  vigour  of 
those  who  were  at  the  head  of  affairs,  and  who  devoted 
their  best  energies  to  regenerating  the  country  which 
they  ruled.  But,  for  these  special  studies,  special  men 
are  required ;  and  I  shall  be  satisfied,  if  I  have  firmly 
grasped  the  great  march  and  outline  of  the  whole.  It 
is  enough  for  my  purpose,  if  I  have  substantiated  the 
general  proposition,  and  have  convinced  the  reader  of 


570      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FKOM   THE    FIFTH 

the  clearness  with  which  the  statesmen  of  Spain 
discerned  the  evils  nnder  which  their  country  was 
groaning,  and  of  the  zeal  with  which  they  set  themselves 
to  remedy  the  mischief,  and  to  resuscitate  the  fortunes 
of  what  had  once  not  only  been  the  chief  of  European 
monarchies,  but  had  borne  sway  over  the  most  splendid 
and  extensive  territory  that  had  been  united  under  a 
single  rule  since  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

They  who  believe  that  a  government  can  civilize  a 
natiol,  and  that  legislators  are  the  cause  of  social  pro- 
gress, will  naturally  expect  that  Spain  reaped  permanent 
benefit  from  those  liberal  maxims,  which  now,  for  the 
first  time,  were  put  into  execution.  The  fact,  however, 
is,  that  such  a  policy,  wise  as  it  appeared,  was  of  no 
avail,  simply  because  it  ran  counter  to  the  whole  train 
of  preceding  circumstances.  It  was  opposed  to  the 
habits  of  the  national  mind,  and  was  introduced  into  a 
state  of  society  not  yet  ripe  for  it.  No  reform  can 
produce  real  good,  unless  it  is  the  work  of  public 
opinion,  and  unless  the  people  themselves  take  the 
initiative.  In  Spain,  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
foreign  influence,  and  the  complications  of  foreign 
politics,  bestowed  enlightened  rulers  upon  an  unen- 
lightened country.320  The  consequence  was,  that,  for  a 
time,  great  things  were  done.  Evils  were  removed, 
grievances  were  redressed,  many  important  improve- 
ments were  introduced ;  and  a  spirit  of  toleration  was 
exhibited,  such  as  had  never  before  been  seen  in  that 
priest-ridden  and  superstitious  land.  But  the  mind  of 
Spain  was  untouched.  While  the  surface,  and  as  it 
were  the  symptoms,  of  affairs  were  ameliorated,  affairs 
themselves  remained  unchanged.     Below  that  surface, 


820  It  is  important  to  observe,  siecle,  et  plutot  encore  comme 

that  the  Cortes,  where  alone  the  des  solennites  formulaires  pour 

voice  of  the  people  had  a  chance  la    prestation  du  serment  aux 

of  being  heard,  was  assembled  princes  heritiers  de  la  couronne, 

but  three  times  during  the  whole  que  comme  4tant  n^cessaires  pour 

of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  de  nouvelles  lois  etdes  contribu- 

then  merely  for  the  sake  of  form,  tions.'       Sempere,    Histoire  des 

'  Les  Cortes  ne  se  reunirent  que  Cortes     d'Espagne,     Bordeaux, 

trois  fois  pendant  le  dix-huitieme  1815,  p.  270. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  571 

and  far  out  of  reach  of  any  political  remedy,  large 
general  causes  were  at  work,  which,  had  been  operating 
for  many  centuries,  and  which  were  sure,  sooner  or 
later,  to  force  politicians  to  retrace  their  steps,  and 
compel  them  to  inaugurate  a  policy  which  would 
suit  the  traditions  of  the  country,  and  harmonize  with 
the  circumstances  under  which  those  traditions  had 
been  formed. 

At  length  the  reaction  came.  In  1788,  Charles  HE. 
died ;  and  was  succeeded  by  Charles  IV.,  a  king  of  the 
true  Spanish  breed,  devout,  orthodox,  and  ignorant.321 
It  was  now  seen  how  insecure  everything  was,  and  how 
little  reliance  can  be  placed  on  reforms,  which,  instead 
of  being  suggested  by  the  people,  are  bestowed  on  them 
by  the  political  classes.  Charles  IV.,  though  a  weak 
and  contemptible  prince,322  was  so  supported  in  his 
general  views  by  the  feelings  of  the  Spanish  nation, 
that,  in  less  than  five  years,  he  was  able  completely  to 
reverse  that  liberal  policy  which  it  had  taken  three 
generations  of  statesmen  to  build  up.  In  less  than  five 
years  everything  was  changed.  The  power  of  the 
Church  was  restored  ;  the  slightest  approach  towards 
free  discussion  was  forbidden ;  old  and  arbitrary  prin- 
ciples, which  had  not  been  heard  of  since  the  seventeenth 
century,  were  revived;  the  priests  re-assumed  their 
former  importance ;  literary  men  were  intimidated,  and 
literature  was  discouraged ;  while  the  Inquisition,  sud- 
•denly  starting  up  afresh,  displayed  an  energy,  which 
caused  its  enemies  to  tremble,  and  proved  that  all  the 
attempts  which  had  been  made  to  weaken  it,  had  been 
unable  to  impair  its  vigour,  or  to  daunt  its  ancient 
spirit. 

321  By  combining  these  three  Borras,  Barcelona,  1857,  p.  80. 
qualities,  he  has   deserved  and        s22  Even  in  Alison's  History  of 

received  the  cordial  approbation  Europe,  where  men  of  his  cha- 

of  the  present  Bishop  of  Barce-  racter  are  usually  made  much  of, 

lona,  who,  in  his  recent  work  on  he  is  treated  with  moderate  dis- 

the  Spanish  Church,  styles  him  dain.      '  Charles    IV.   was    not 

*  un  monarca  tan  piadoso.'     06-  destitute  of  good  qualities,  but 

servaciones  sobre  El  Presents  y  he  was  a  weak,  incapable  prince.' 

El   Porvenir    de  la  Iglesia    en  Vol.viii.p.  382,  Edinburgh,  1849. 
Espana,  por  Domingo  Costa  y 


572      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 

The  ministers  of  Charles  III.,  and  the  authors  of 
those  great  reforms  which  signalized  his  reign,  were 
dismissed,  to  make  way  for  other  advisers,  better  suited 
to  this  new  state  of  things.  Charles  IV.  loved  the 
Church  too  well  to  tolerate  the  presence  of  enlightened 
statesmen.  Aranda  and  Florida  Blanca  were  both  re- 
moved from  office,  and  both  were  placed  in  confine- 
ment.323 Jovellanos  was  banished  from  court,  and 
Cabarrus  was  thrown  into  prison.324  For,  now,  work 
had  to  be  done,  to  which  these  eminent  men  would  not 
put  their  hands.  A  policy  which  had  been  followed 
with  undeviating  consistency  for  nearly  ninety  years, 
was  about  to  be  rescinded,  in  order  that  the  old  empire 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  which  was  the  empire  of 
ignorance,  of  tyranny,  and  of  superstition,  might  be 
resuscitated,  and,  if  possible,  restored  to  its  pristine 
vigour. 

Once  more  was  Spain  covered  with  darkness ;  once 
more  did  the  shadows  of  night  overtake  that  wretched 
land.  The  worst  forms  of  oppression,  says  a  distinguished 
writer,  seemed  to  be  settling  on  the  country  with  a  new 
and  portentous  weight.325  At  the  same  time,  and  indeed 
as  a  natural  part  of  the  scheme,  every  investigation 
likely  to  stimulate  the  mind,  was  prohibited,  and  an 
order  was  actually  sent  to  all  the  universities,  forbidding 
the  study  of  moral  philosophy ;  the  minister,  who  issued 
the  order,  justly  observing,  that  the  king  did  not  want 
to  have  philosophers.326    There  was,  however,  little  fear 


323  Sempere,  Monarchie  Espag-  325  '  In  all   its   worst  forms, 

nole,    vol.  ii.  p.    167.     I    need  therefore,  oppression,  civil,    po- 

hardly  say,  that  not  the  filightest  litical,  and  religious,   appeared 

credit  is  to  be  attached  to  the  to  be  settling  down,  with  a  new 

account  given   in   Godoy's  Me-  and  portentous  weight,  on    the 

moirs.       Every    one    tolerably  whole  country.'      Tic/cnor's  His- 

acquainted  with  Spanish  history,  tory  of  Spanish  Literature,  voL 

will  see  that  his  book  is  an  at-  iii.  p.  318. 

tempt  to  raise  his  own  reputation,  326  '  Caballero,  fearing  the  pro- 

by  defaming  the   character    of  gress    of'    all    learning,    which 

some  of  the  ablest  and  most  high-  might  disturb  the  peace  of  the 

minded  of  his  contemporaries.  Court,  sent,  not  long  since,  a  cir- 

*M  Tkknor's  History  of  Spanish  cular  order  to  the  universities, 

Ziterafare, vol. iii.  pp.  277,  278.  forbidding  the  study  of  moral 


TO   THE   NI2TETEENTH   CENTURY.  573 

of  Spain  producing  anything  so  dangerous.  The  nation 
not  daring,  and,  what  was  still  worse,  not  wishing, 
to  resist,  gave  way,  and  let  the  king  do  as  he  liked. 
Within  a  very  few  years,  he  neutralized  the  most  valu- 
able reforms  which  his  predecessors  had  introduced. 
Having  discarded  the  able  advisers  of  his  father,  he 
•conferred  the  highest  posts  upon  men  as  narrow  and 
incompetent  as  himself;  he  reduced  the  country  to  the 
verge  of  bankruptcy ;  and,  according  to  the  remark  of 
a  Spanish  historian,  he  exhausted  all  the  resources  of 
the  state.327 

Such  was  the  condition  of  Spain,  late  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  The  French  invasion  quickly  followed; 
and  that  unhappy  country  underwent  every  form  of 
calamity  and  of  degradation.  Herein,  however,  lies  a  dif- 
ference. Calamities  may  be  inflicted  by  others ;  but  no 
people  can  be  degraded  except  by  their  own  acts.  The 
foreign  spoiler  works  mischief;  he  cannot  cause  shame. 
With  nations,  as  with  individuals,  none  are  dishonoured 
if  they  are  true  to  themselves.  Spain,  during  the  pre- 
sent century,  has  been  plundered  and  oppressed,  and 
the  opprobrium  lights  on  the  robbers,  not  on  the  robbed. 
She  has  been  overrun  by  a  brutal  and  licentious  soldiery ; 
her  fields  laid  waste,  her  towns  sacked,  her  villages 
burned.  It  is  to  the  criminal,  rather  than  to  the  vic- 
tim, that  the  ignominy  of  these  acts  must  belong.  And, 
«ven  in  a  material  point  of  view,  such  losses  are  sure  to 
be  retrieved,  if  the  people  who  incur  them  are  inured  to 
those  habits  of  self-government,  and  to  that  feeling  of 
self-reliance,  which  are  the  spring  and  the  source  of  all 
real  greatness.  With  the  aid  of  these,  every  damage 
may  be  repaired,  and  every  evil  remedied.  Without 
them,  the  slightest  blow  may  be  fatal.  Tn  Spain,  they 
are  unknown ;  and  it  seems  impossible  to  establish 
them.     In  that  country,  men  have  so  long  been  aocus- 

philosophy.      "  His  Majesty,"  it  827  '  Le      gouvernement      de 

was  said  in  the  order,  "  -was  not  Charles  IV  avait  ipuise  toutes  les 

in  want  of  philosophers,  but  of  ressources  de  l'^tat.'     Semperc, 

good   and    obedient    subjects."'  Hisfoire    dcs    Cortes  cCEspagnc, 

Doblado's  Letters  from    Spain,  p.  323. 
p.  358. 


574      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

tomed  to  pay  implicit  deference  to  the  Crown  and  the 
Church,  that  loyalty  and  superstition  have  usurped  the 
place  of  those  nobler  emotions,  to  which  all  freedom  is 
owing,  and  in  the  absence  of  which,  the  true  idea  of 
independence  can  never  be  attained. 

More  than  once,  indeed,  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, a  spirit  has  appeared,  from  which  better  things 
might  have  been  augured.  In  1812,  in  1820,  and  in 
1836,  a  few  ardent  and.  enthusiastic  reformers  attempted 
to  secure  liberty  to  the  Spanish  people,  by  endowing 
Spain  with  a  free  constitution.  They  succeeded  for  a 
moment,  and  that  was  all.  The  forms  of  constitutional 
government  they  could  bestow ;  but  they  could  not  find 
the  traditions  and  the  habits,  by  which  the  forms  are 
worked.  They  mimicked  the  voice  of  liberty;  they 
copied  her  institutions ;  they  aped  her  very  gestures. 
And  what  then  ?  At  the  first  stroke  of  adverse  fortune, 
their  idol  fell  to  pieces.  Their  constitutions  were  broken 
up,  their  assemblies  dissolved,  their  enactments  rescinded. 
The  inevitable  reaction  quickly  followed.  After  each 
disturbance,  the  hands  of  the  government  were  strength- 
ened, the  principles  of  despotism  were  confirmed,  and 
the  Spanish  liberals  were  taught  to  rue  the  day,  in  which 
they  vainly  endeavoured  to  impart  freedom  to  their 
unhappy  and  ill-starred  country.328 

888  In  Spain,  the  voice  of  the  King  passed,  the  multitude,  ex- 
people  has  always  been  opposed  cited  by  the  friars  and  clergy, 
to  the  liberal  party,  as  many  overturned  the  constitutional 
writers  have  observed,  without  stone,  and  uttered  the  most  atro- 
being  aware  of  the  reason.  Mr.  cious  insults  against  the  Consti- 
Walton  {Revolutions  of  Spain,  tution,  the  Cortes,  and  the  Libe- 
London,  1837,  vol.  i.  pp.  322,  rals.'  Compare  Sempere,  Histoire 
323)  says  of  the  Cortes,  '  Public  des  Cortes,  p.  335,  and  Bacon's 
indignation  hurled  them  from  Six  Years  in  Biscay,  p.  40.  In- 
their  seats  in  1814;  and  in  1823  deed,  a  very  intelligent  writer  on 
they  were  overpowered,  not  by  Spanish  affairs  in  1855,  asserts, 
the  arms  of  France,  but  by  the  with,  I  believe,  perfect  truth, 
displeasure  of  their  own  country-  that  Spain  is 'un  pays  ou  les 
men,'  &c.  See  also  p.  290  ;  and  populations  sont  toujours  a,  coup 
Quirt s  Memoirs  of  Ferdinand  the  sur  moins  liberales  que  les  gou- 
Seventh,  London,  1824,  p.  121,  vernemens.  Annuaire  des  Seux 
where  it  is  mentioned,  that  'in  Mondes,  1854,  1855,  Paris,  1855, 
all  the  towns  through  which  the  p.  266. 


TO  THEi  NINETEENTH   CENTUET.  575 

What  makes  these  failures  the  more  -worthy  of  ob- 
servation is,  that  the  Spaniards  did  possess,  at  a  very- 
early  period,  municipal  privileges  and  franchises,  similar 
to  those  which  we  had  in  England,  and  to  which  our 
greatness  is  often  ascribed.  But  such  institutions,  though 
they  preserve  freedom,  can  never  create  it.  Spain  had 
the  form  of  liberty  without  its  spirit ;  hence  the  form, 
promising  as  it  was,  soon  died  away.  In  England,  the 
spirit  preceded  the  form,  and  therefore  the  form  was 
durable.  Thus  it  is,  that  though  the  Spaniards  could 
boast  of  free  institutions  a  century  before  ourselves, 
they  were  unable  to  retain  them,  simply  because  they 
had  the  institutions  and  nothing  more.  We  had  no 
popular  representation  till  1264 ; 329  but  in  Castile  they 
had  it  in  1169,330  and  in  Aragon  in  1133.331  So,  too, 
while  the  earliest  charter  was  granted  to  an  English 
town  in  the  twelfth  century,332  we  find,  in  Spain,  a 
charter  conferred  on  Leon  as  early  as  1020  ;  and  in  the 
course  of  the  eleventh  century  the  enfranchisement  of 
towns  was  as  secure  as  laws  could  make  it.333 

The  fact,  however,  is,  that  in  Spain  these  institutions, 
instead  of  growing  out  of  the  wants  of  the  people 
originated  in  a  stroke  of  policy  on  the  part  of  their 
rulers.  They  were  conceded  to  the  citizens,  rather 
than  desired  by  them.  For,  during  the  war  with  the 
Mohammedans,  the  Christian  kings  of  Spain,  as  they 
advanced  southwards,  were  naturally  anxious  to  induce 
their  subjects  to  settle  in  the  frontier  towns,  where  they 
might  face  and  repel  the  enemy.  With  this  object  they 
granted  charters  to  the  towns,  and  privileges  to  the 
inhabitants.334  And  as  the  Mohammedans  were  gra- 
dually beaten  back  from  the  Asturias  to  Granada,  the 
frontiers  changed,  and  the  franchises  were  extended  to 


*"  Suckle1 s  History  of  Civili-  153-157,  which  must  be  com- 

zation,  vol.  ii.  p.  117.  pared    -with    Hallam's    Supple- 

330  Prescott's  History  of  Ferdi-  mental  Notes,  London,  1848,  pp. 

dtnand  and  Isabella,   vol.   i.   p.  323-327. 

xlviii.  »»  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  373.    Pres- 

3,1  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  xcvi.  cotfs    Ferdinand    and   Isabella, 

m  Hallam's  Middle  Affes,mnth  vol.  i.  pp.  xlv.  xlvi. 

edition,  London,  1846,  vol.  ii.pp.  ***  '  Ce  fut  alors  que  les  sue- 


576      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE   FIFTH 

the  new  conquests,  in  order  that  what  was  the  post  of 
danger,  might  also  be  the  place  of  reward.  But,  mean- 
while, those  general  causes,  which  I  have  indicated, 
were  predetermining  the  nation  to  habits  of  loyalty  and 
of  superstition,  which  grew  to  a  height  fatal  to  the 
spirit  of  liberty.  That  being  the  case  the  institutions 
were  of  no  avail.  They  took  no  root ;  and  as  they  were 
originated  by  one  political  combination,  they  were  de- 
stroyed by  another.  Before  the  close  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  the  Spaniards  were  so  firmly  seated  in  the  ter- 
ritories they  had  lately  acquired  that  there  was  little 
danger  of  their  being  again  expelled  335  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  was  no  immediate  prospect  of  their 
being  able  to  push  their  conquests  further,  and  drive 
the  Mohammedans  from  the  strongholds  of  Granada. 
The  circumstances,  therefore,  which  gave  rise  to  the 
municipal  privileges  had  changed ;  and  as  soon  as  this 
was  apparent,  the  privileges  began  to  perish.  Being 
unsuited  to  the  habits  of  the  people,  they  were  sure  to 
fall,  on  the  first  opportunity.336  Late  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  their  decline  was  perceptible ;  by  the  close  of 
the  fifteenth  century,   they  were  almost  extinct ;  and, 


cesseurs  de  Pelage  descendirent  215.  See  also  Sempere,  Monarchic 
de  leurs  montagnes  dans  les  Espagnole,  vol.  ii.  pp.  256,  257. 
plaines,  de  leurs  forteresses  per-  S35  On  the  increasing  confi- 
chees  sur  des  rocs  inaccessibles  dence  of  the  Spaniards  in  the 
dans  les  villes  populeuses,  le  long  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
des  fleuves,  dans  de  fertiles  val-  see  an  interesting  passage  in 
lees  et  sur  les  cotes  de  la  mer ;  Mariana,  Historia  de  Espana, 
ce  fut  alors  que  la  ville  d'Astor-  vol.  iv.  pp.  172, 173. 
gue  revint  du  pouvoir  des  Arabes  386  The  deputies  of  the  towns 
a  ceiui  des  Asturiens  et  chassa  did,  in  fact,  eventually  overthrow 
toute  la  partie  musulmane  de  ces  their  own  liberties,  as  a  Spanish 
habitants ;  ce  fut  alors,  enfin,  que  historian  truly  remarks.  'II 
commencerent  en  Espagne  ces  n'est  pas  etonnant  que  les  mo- 
concessions  de  franchises  muni-  narques  espagnols  t&chassent 
cipales  par  lesquelles  les  rois  et  d'affermir  leur  autorite  autant 
les  seigneurs  Chretiens  cherche-  que  possible,  et  encore  moins  que 
rent  a  attirer  des  populations  leurs  conseillers  et  leurs  ministres 
chretiennes  dans  les  lieux  d'ou  cooperassent  a,  leurs  desseins. 
ilsavaientchasselesMusulmans.'  L'histoire  de  toutes  les  nations 
Fauriel,  Histoire  de  la  Gaule  Me-  nous  offre  de  nombreux  exemples 
fidionale,  Paris,  1836,  vol.  hi.  p.  de  cette  politique;  mais  ceqiCil 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


577 


early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  they  were  finally  over- 
thrown.337 

It  is  thus  that  general  causes  eventually  triumph 
over  every  obstacle.  In  the  average  of  affairs,  and  on 
a  comparison  of  long  periods,  they  are  irresistible. 
Their  operation  is  often  attacked,  and  occasionally,  for 
a  little  time,  stopped  by  politicians,  who  are  always 
ready  with  their  empirical  and  short-sighted  remedies. 
But  when  the  spirit  of  the  age  is  against  those 
remedies,  they  can  at  best  only  succeed  for  a  moment ; 
and  after  that  moment  has  passed,  a  reaction  sets  in, 
and  the  penalty  for  violence  has  to  be  paid.  Evidence 
of  this  will  be  found  in  the  annals  of  every  civilized 
country,  by  whoever  will  confront  the  history  of  legis- 
lation with  the  history  of  opinion.  The  fate  of  the 
Spanish  towns  has  afforded  us  one  good  proof;  the 
fate  of  the  Spanish  Church  will  supply  us  with 
another.  For  more  than  eighty  years  after  the  death  of 


y  a  de  plus  remarquable  dans 
cette  aVEspagne,  c'est  que  les  de- 
putes des  villes  qui  auraient  du 
etre  les  plus  zkles  defenseurs  de 
leurs  droits,  conspirerent  ouverte- 
ment  contre  le  tiers-etat,  et  ten- 
terent  d'aneantir  les  restes  de 
l'ancienne  representation  natio- 
nale.'  Sempere,  Histoire  des 
Cortks  oVEspagne,  p.  213.  It 
strikes  one  as  singular,  that  M. 
Sempere  should  never  have  in- 
quired, why  this  happened  in 
Spain,  and  not  elsewhere.  A 
later  writer,  reflecting  on  the  de- 
struction of  the  municipal  ele- . 
meut  by  the  royal  authority, 
gives  a  solution,  which,  like 
many  other  so-called  solutions, 
is  merely  a  statement  of  the  same 
fact  in  different  words.  '  Al  fin 
la  autoridad  real  logro  alcanzar 
un  gran  predominio  en  el  gobi- 
erno  municipal  de  los  pueblos, 
porque  los  corregidores  y  alcaldes 
mayores  llegaron  a  eclipsar  la  in- 
YOL.  II.  P 


fluencia  de  los  adelantados  y  al- 
caldes elegidos  por  los  pueblos.' 
Antequera,  Historia  de  la  Legis- 
lation Espanola,  Madrid,  1849, 
p.  287.  This,  instead  of  explain- 
ing the  event,  is  simply  narrating 
it  afresh. 

837  The  final  destruction  of  po- 
pular liberty  is  ascribed  by  many 
writers  to  the  battle  of  Villalar, 
in  1521  ;  though  it  is  quite  cer- 
tain that,  if  the  royalists  had  lost 
that  battle,  instead  of  gaining  it, 
the  ultimate  result  would  have 
been  the  same.  At  one  time,  I  had 
purposed  tracing  the  history  of  the 
municipal  and  representative  ele- 
ments during  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury ;  and  the  materials  which  I 
then  collected,  convinced  me  that 
the  spirit  of  freedom  never 
really  existed  in  Spain,  and  that 
therefore  the  marks  and  forms  of 
freedom  were  sure,  sooner  or  later, 
to  be  effaced. 


578       SPANISH   INTELLECT    FKOM    THE    FIFTH 

Charles  II.  the  rulers  of  Spain  attempted  to  weaken 
the  ecclesiastical  power ;  and  the  end  of  all  their  efforts 
was,  that  even  such  an  insignificant  and  incompetent 
king  as  Charles  IV.  was  able,  with  the  greatest  ease, 
rapidly  to  undo  what  they  had  done.  This  is  because, 
during  the  eighteenth  century,  while  the  clergy  were 
assailed  by  law,  they  were  favoured  by  opinion.  The 
opinions  of  a  people  invariably  depend  on  large 
general  causes,  which  influence  the  whole  country; 
but  their  laws  are  too  often  the  work  of  a  few  powerful 
individuals,  in  opposition  to  the  national  will.  When 
the  legislators  die,  or  lose  office,  there  is  always  a 
chance  of  their  successors  holding  opposite  views,  and 
subverting  their  plans.  In  the  midst,  however,  of  this 
play  and  fluctuation  of  political  life,  the  general  causes 
remain  steady,  though  they  are  often  kept  out  of 
sight,  and  do  not  become  visible,  until  politicians,  in- 
clining to  their  side,  bring  them  to  the  surface,  and 
invest  them  with  open  and  public  authority. 

This  is  what  Charles  IV.  did  in  Spain ;  and  when 
he  took  measures  to  favour  the  Church,  and  to  dis- 
courage free  inquiry,  he  merely  sanctioned  those 
national  habits  which  his  predecessors  had  disregarded. 
The  hold  which  the  hierarchy  of  that  country  possess 
over  public  opinion  has  always  been  proverbial ;  but  it 
is  even  greater  than  is  commonly  supposed.  What  it 
was  in  the  seventeenth  century,  we  have  already  seen ; 
and  in  the  eighteenth  century,  there  were  no  signs  of 
its  diminution,  except  among  a  few  bold  men,  who 
could  effect  nothing,  while  the  popular  voice  was  so 
strong  against  them.  Early  in  the  reign  of  Philip  V., 
Labat,  who  travelled  in  Spain,  informs  us,  that  when 
a  priest  performed  mass,  nobles  of  the  highest  rank 
deemed  it  an  honour  to  help  him  to  dress,  and  that  they 
would  go  down  on  their  knees  to  him,  and  kiss  his 
hands.338     When  this  was  done  by  the  proudest  aris- 

*S8  '  Ceux  qui  servent  la  Messe  Les  plus  grands  Seigneurs  s'en 

en  Espagne,  soit  Religieux,  ou  font  nonneur,  et  a  mesure  qu'ils 

Seculiers,  ne  manquent   jamais  presentent    au    Pretre    quelque 

d'aider  le  Pretre  a  s'habiller,  et  partie    des     ornemens,    ils    lui 

le  font  avec  beaucoup  de  respect,  baisent  la  main.     On  se  met  a 


TO  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUET.  579 

fcocracy  in  Europe,  we  may  suppose  what  the  general 
feeling  must  have  been.  Indeed,  Lahat  assures  us, 
that  a  Spaniard  would  hardly  be  considered  of 
sound  faith,  if  he  did  not  leave  some  portion  of  his 
property  to  the  Church  ;  so  completely  had  respect  for 
the  hierarchy  become  an  essential  part  of  the  national 
character.339 

A  still  more  curious  instance  was  exhibited  on  the 
occasion  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits.  That  once 
useful,  but  now  troublesome,  body  was,  during  the 
eighteenth  century,  what  it  is  in  the  nineteenth — the 
obstinate  enemy  of  progress  and  of  toleration.  The 
rulers  of  Spain,  observing  that  it  opposed  all  their 
schemes  of  reform,  resolved  to  get  rid  of  an  obstacle, 
which  met  them  at  every  turn.  In  France,  the  Jesuits 
had  just  been  treated  as  a  public  nuisance,  and  sup- 
pressed at  a  blow,  and  without  difficulty.  The 
advisers  of  Charles  III.  saw  no  reason  why  so  salutary 
a  measure  should  not  be  imitated  in  their  country  ;  and, 
in  1767,  they,  following  the  example  which  had  been 
set  by  the  French  in  1764,  abolished  this  great  main- 
stay of  the  Church.340  Having  done  this,  the  govern- 
ment supposed  that  it  had  taken  a  decisive  step 
towards  weakening  ecclesiastical  power,  particularly  as 
the  sovereign  cordially  approved  of  the  proceeding. 
The  year  after  this  occurred,  Charles  III.,  according  to 
his  custom,  appeared  in  the  balcony  of  the  palace,  on 

genoux  pour  donner  a  laver  au  douter  de   sa  foi,  et  passer  au 

Pretre  pendant  la  Messe,  et  apres  moins  pour  Maran,  ou  Chretien 

qu'il  a  essuye  ses  doigts,  celui  nouveau,  si  on  ne  laissoit  pas  le 

qui  lui  a  donne  l'eau  demeurant  tiers  de   ses  biens  mobiliers  a 

a  genoux  lui  presente  le  bassin  l'Eglise.'       Labat,     Voyages    en 

retourne,    sur    lequel   le  Pretre  Espagne,  vol.  i.  p.  268. 

met  sa  main  pour  la  lui  laisser  ii0  It  was  the  opinion  of  the 

baiser.     Au  retour  a  la  Sacristie,  Pope,  that  Charles,  by  this  act, 

il  ne  manque  pas  d'aider  le  Pretre  had   endangered   his  own  soul. 

a  se  deshabiller,  apres  quoi  il  se  '  Dans  un  bref  adresse  a  Charles 

met  a  genoux  pour  recevoir  sa  III,  il  declara :  "  Que  les  actea 

benediction   et  baiser  sa  main.'  du  Koi  contre  les  Jesuites  met- 

Labat,  Voyages  en  Espagne  et  en  taient  evidemment  son  salut  en 

Italie,  Paris,  1730,  vol.i.  p.  36.  danger."  '      Qretineau-Joly,  His- 

»»t  <  Teue  est  ia  costume  du  toire  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jisus, 

Pais,   on   s'exposeroit  a   laisser  Paris,  1845,  vol.  v.  p.  302. 

r  p  2 


580      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM    THE    FIFTH 


the  festival  of  St.  Charles,  ready  to  grant  any  request 
which  the  people  might  make  to  him,  and  which 
usually  consisted  of  a  prayer  for  the  dismissal  of  a 
minister,  or  for  the  repeal  of  a  tax.  On  this  occasion, 
however,  the  citizens  of  Madrid,  instead  of  occupying 
themselves  with  such  worldly  matters,  felt  that  still 
dearer  interests  were  in  peril ;  and,  to  the  surprise  and 
terror  of  the  court,  they  demanded,  with  one  voice, 
that  the  Jesuits  should  be  allowed  to  return,  and  wear 
their  usual  dress,  in  order  that  Spain  might  be  glad- 
dened by  the  sight  of  these  holy  men.341 

What  can  you  do  with  a  nation  like  this  ?     What  is 
the  use  of  laws  when  the   current  of  public  opinion 


341  As  this  circumstance,  which 
is  noticed  by  Cretineau-Joly 
(Histoire  de  la  Compagnie  de 
Jesus,  vol.  v.  p.  311)  and  other 
■writers  (Dunham's  History  of 
Spain,  vol.  v.  p.  180),  has  been 
much  misrepresented,  and  has 
even  been  doubted  by  one  author, 
I  "will  transcribe  the  statement 
of  Coxe,  whose  information  re- 
specting the  reign  of  Charles  III. 
was  derived  from  eye-witnesses. 
'A  remarkable  and  alarming 
proof  of  their  influence  was  given 
tit  Madrid,  the  year  after  their 
expulsion.  At  the  festival  of 
St.  Charles,  when  the  monarch 
showed  himself  to  the  people 
from  the  balcony  of  the  palace, 
and  was  accustomed  to  grant  their 
general  request ;  to  the  surprise 
and  confusion  of  the  whole  court, 
the  voice  of  the  immense  multi- 
tude, with  one  accord,  demanded 
the  return  of  the  Jesuits,  and 
the  permission  for  them  to  wear 
the  habit  of  the  secular  clergy. 
This  unexpected  incident  alarmed 
and  mortified  the  King ;  and, 
after  a  vigilant  inquiry,  he 
thought  proper  to  banish  the 
Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Toledo, 


and  his  Grand  Vicar,  as  the 
secret  instigators  of  this  tumul- 
tuary petition.'  Coxe's  Bourbon 
Kings  of  Spain,  2nd  edit.,  Lon- 
don, 1815,  vol.  iv.  pp.  368,  369. 
The  remarks  made  on  this  event 
by  M.  Rio  (Historia  del  Eeinado 
de  Carlos  III,  Madrid,  1856, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  197-199)  are  notvery 
creditable,  either  to  his  criticism 
or  to  his  candour.  It  is  uncri- 
tical to  doubt  the  statement  of  a 
contemporary,  when  that  state- 
ment relates  what  is  probable  in 
itself,  and  what  those  who  lived 
nearest  to  the  period  never 
denied.  Indeed,  so  far  from 
denying  it,  M.  Muriel,  the  learned 
translator  of  Coxe's  work  into 
Spanish,  gave  it  the  sanction  of 
his  name.  And,  it  is  surely,  to 
say  the  least,  very  uncandid  on 
the  part  of  M.  Rio  to  impute  to 
Coxe  the  error  of  placing  this 
occurrence  in  1767,  and  then 
proving  that,  owing  to  circum- 
stances connected  with  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Toledo,  it  could  not 
have  happened  in  that  year.  For, 
Coxe  distinctly  asserts,  that  it 
was  in  1768 ;  *  the  year  after 
their  expulsion.' 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  581 

thus  sets  in  against  them  ?  In  the  face  of  such 
obstacles,  the  government  of  Charles  III.,  notwith- 
standing its  good  intentions,  was  powerless.  Indeed, 
it  was  worse  than  powerless:  it  did  harm;  for,  by 
rousing  popular  sympathy  in  favour  of  the  Church,  it 
strengthened  what  it  sought  to  weaken.  On  that 
cruel  and  persecuting  Church,  stained  as  it  was  with 
every  sort  of  crime,  the  Spanish  nation  continued  to 
bestow  marks  of  affection,  which,  instead  of  being 
diminished,  were  increased.  Gifts  and  legacies  flowed 
in  freely  and  from  every  side  ;  men  being  willing  to 
beggar  themselves  and  their  families,  in  order  to  swell 
the  general  contribution.  And  to  such  a  height  was 
this  carried,  that,  in  1788,  Florida  Blanca,  minister  of 
the  crown,  stated  that,  within  the  last  fifty  years,  the 
ecclesiastical  revenues  had  increased  so  rapidly,  that 
many  of  them  had  doubled  in  value.342 

Even  the  Inquisition,  the  most  barbarous  institution 
which  the  wit  of  man  has  ever  devised,  was  upheld  by 
public  opinion  against  the  attacks  of  the  crown.  The 
Spanish  government  wished  to  overthrow  it,  and  did 
everything  to  weaken  it ;  but  the  Spanish  people  loved 
it  as  of  old,  and  cherished  it  as  their  best  protection 
against  the  inroads  of  heresy.343     An  illustration   of 


842  See  the  statement  of  Florida  escritaspor  el  Conde  de  Cabarrus, 
Blanca,  in  Appendix  I.  to  Coxe's  Madrid,  1813,  p.  133. 
Bourbon  Kings  of  Spain,  vol.  v.  34S  Of  it,  a  celebrated  writer 
p.  282.  Another  Spaniard,  the  in  the  reign  of  Philip  V.  boast- 
Prince  of  the  Peace,  says,  that  at  fully  says,  '  Su  exacta  vigilancia 
the  accession  of  Charles  IV.,  in  comprehende  igualmente  a  Na- 
1788,  'the  cloisters  were  en-  turales  y  Estrangeros.'  Uztariz, 
cumbered  with  an  ever-increasing  Theorica  y  Practica  de  Comercio, 
number  of  monks  of  all  orders  tercera  impression,  Madrid,  1 757, 
and  of  all  ages.'  Godoy's  Me-  folio,  p.  27.  When  such  a  man 
moirs,  edit.  London,  1836,  vol.  i.  as  Uztariz  could  pen  a  sentence 
p.  1 26.  See  also,  on  the  state  like  this,  we  may  imagine  what 
of  ecclesiastical  establishments  was  felt  by  the  people,  who  were 
in  the  same  year,  some  interest-  far  more  ignorant  than  he,  and 
ing  remarks  in  the  Letters  of  far  more  orthodox.  M.  Tapia, 
Cabarrus ;  '  con  que  horrible  in  a  remarkable  and  unusually 
desproporcion  superabundan  los  bold  passage,  frankly  admits  that 
individuos  esteriles  a  los  opera-  it  was  the  pressure  of  public 
rios  utiles  y  preciosos.'      Cartas  opinion  which  prevented  Charles 


582      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FKOM   THE    FIFTH 

this  was  exhibited  in  1778,  when,  on  occasion  of  a 
heretic  being  sentenced  by  the  Inquisition,  several  of 
the  leading  nobles  attended  as  servants,  being  glad  to 
have  an  opportunity  of  publicly  displaying  their  obe- 
dience and  docility  to  the  Church.344 

AH  these  things  were  natural,  and  in  order.  They 
were  the  result  of  a  long  train  of  causes,  the  operation 
of  which  I  have  endeavoured  to  trace,  during  thirteen 
centuries,  since  the  outbreak  of  the  Arian  war.  Those 
causes  forced  the  Spaniards  to  be  superstitious,  and  it 
was  idle  mockery  to  seek  to  change  their  nature  by 
legislation.  The  only  remedy  for  superstition  is  know- 
ledge. Nothing  else  can  wipe  out  that  plague-spot  of 
the  human  mind.  Without  it,  the  leper  remains  un- 
washed, and  the  slave  unfreed.  It  is  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  laws  and  relations  of  things,  that  European  civi- 
lization is  owing ;  but  it  is  precisely  this  in  which  Spain 
has  always  been  deficient.  And  until  that  deficiency 
is  remedied,  until  science,  with  her  bold  and  inquisitive 
spirit,  has  established  her  right  to  investigate  all  sub- 


Ill,  from  abolishing  the  Inqui-  can  be    no  doubt.     '  L'lnquisi- 

sition.      'Estrano  pareceria  que  tion    si    reveree     en    Espagne.' 

habiendose  hecho  tanto  en  aquel  Memoires    de  Louville,    vol.    i. 

reinado  para    limitar  el  poder  p.    36.      And    Geddes    (Tracts, 

escesivo  del  clero,  y  acabar  con  London,  1730,  vol.   i.    p.   400) 

absurdas  preocupaciones,   no  se  tells  us  that  '  the  Inquisition  is 

suprimiese   el   monstruoso    tri-  not  only  established  by  law,  but 

bunal  de  la  inquisicion  ;  pero  es  by  a  wonderful  fascination  is  so 

necesario  tener  presente   que  el  fixed  in  the  hearts  and  affections 

rey  despues  del  motin  de  Madrid  of   the  people,  that    one   that 

procedia    con    timidez  en   toda  should  offer  the  least  affront  to 

providencia    que   pudiese    con-  another,  for  having  been  an  in- 

trariar  la  opinion  publica ;  y  el  former  or    witness   in   the   In- 

creia  que  los  espanoles  querian  quisition,  wordd  be  torn    in    a 

la  inquisicion,  como  se  lo  mani-  thousand  pieces.' 

fest6  al  ministro  Rada  y  alconde  s"  '  The  familiars  of  the  In- 

de  Aranda,  anadiendo    que   en  quisition,  Abrantes,  Mora,   and 

nada    coartaba     su    autoridad.'  others,   grandees  of  Spain,   at- 

Tapix,  Civilization  Espanola,  vol.  tended  as  servants,  without  hats 

iv.  p.  98,  Madrid,  1840.     To  us,  or  swords.'  Coxe's  Bourbon  Kings 

the  Inquisition   seems  rather  a  of  Spain,    vol.  iv.  pp.  418,  419. 

singular  object  for  men  to  set  This  was  in  the   great    case  of 

their   affections  on;  but  of  the  Ola  vide, 
existence  of  the  passion    there 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  583 

jects,  after  her  own  fashion,  and  according  to  her  own 
method,  we  may  he  assured  that,  in  Spain,  neither 
literature,  nor  universities,  nor  legislators,  nor  re- 
formers of  any  kind,  will  ever  be  able  to  rescue  the 
people  from  that  helpless  and  benighted  condition  into 
which  the  course  of  affairs  has  plunged  them. 

That  no  great  political  improvement,  however  plausi- 
ble or  attractive  it  may  appear,  can  be  productive  of 
lasting  benefit,  unless  it  is  preceded  by  a  change  in  pub- 
lic opinion,  and  that  every  change  of  public  opinion  is 
preceded  by  changes  in  knowledge,  are  propositions 
which  all  history  verifies,  but  which  are  particularly 
obvious  in  the  history  of  Spain.  The  Spaniards  have 
had  everything  except  knowledge.  They  have  had 
immense  wealth,  and  fertile  and  well-peopled  territo- 
ries, in  all  parts  of  the  globe.  Their  own  country, 
washed  by  the  Atlantic  and  the  Mediterranean,  and 
possessed  of  excellent  harbours,  is  admirably  situated 
for  the  purposes  of  trade  between  Europe  and  America, 
being  so  placed  as  to  command  the  commerce  of  both 
hemispheres.345  They  had,  at  a  very  early  period, 
ample  municipal  privileges ;  they  had  independent 
parliaments  ;  they  had  the  right  of  choosing  their  own 
magistrates,  and  managing  their  own  cities.  They 
have  had  rich  and  flourishing  towns,  abundant  manu- 
factures, and  skilful  artizans,  whose  choice  productions 
could  secure  a  ready  sale  in  every  market  in  the  world. 
They  have  cultivated  the  fine  arts  with  eminent  suc- 
cess ;  their  noble  and  exquisite  paintings,  and  their 
magnificent  churches,  being  justly  ranked  among  the 
most  wonderful  efforts  of  the  human  hand.  They 
speak  a  beautiful,  sonorous,  and  flexible  language,  and 
their  literature  is  not  unworthy  of  their  language. 
Their  soil  yields  treasures  of  every  kind.     It  overflows 


145  An  accomplished  modern  mercial  advantages  than  any 
geographer  says :  '  From  the  other  country  of  Europe.'  John- 
extent  of  its  coast-line,  its  nu-  ston's  Dictionary  of  Physical, 
merous  ports,  its  geographical  Statistical,  and  Historical  Geo- 
position,  and  natural  products,  graphy,  London,  1850,  p.  1218. 
Spain    possesses    greater    com- 


584      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 


with  wine  and  oil,  and  produces  the  choicest  fruits  in 
an  almost  tropical  exuberance.346  It  contains  the  most 
valuable  minerals,  in  a  profuse  variety  unexampled  in 
any  other  part  of  Europe.  !Nb  where  else  do  we  find 
such  rare  and  costly  marbles,  so  easily  accessible,  and 
in  such  close  communication  with  the  sea,  where  they 
might  safely  be  shipped,  and  sent  to  countries  which 
require  them.347  As  to  the  metals,  there  is  hardly  one 
which  Spain  does  not  possess  in  large  quantities.  Her 
mines  of  silver  and  of  quicksilver  are  well  known. 
She  abounds  in  copper,348  and  her  supply  of  lead  is 
enormous.349     Iron  and  coal,  the  two  most  useful  of  all 


348  •  No  quiero  hablar  de  los 
frutos  de  Espana,  no  obstante 
que  los  produzca  tan  exquisitos 
de  todas  especies.  Solo  dire  que 
sus  naranjas  dulces  las  traxeron 
de  la  China  los  Portugueses,  y 
que  de  Portugal  se  ha  difundido 
su  planta  por  lo  restante  de 
Europa.  En  fin,  Espana  es 
celebrada  entro  otras  cosas  por 
sus  limones,  por  la  fragrancia  de 
sus  cidras,  por  sus  limas  dulces, 
por  sus  granadas,  por  sus  azeytu- 
nas,  que  merecieron  ser  alabadas 
hasta  del  gran  Ciceron,  y  sus 
almendras,  sus  higos,  sus  uvas, 
etc.'  Bowles,  Historic.  Natural  de 
Espana,  Madrid,  1789,  4to.  p. 
236. 

347    .rphe    mar^leg  0f   gpa;n  aj-Q 

in  greater  variety  and  beauty 
than  those  of  any  country  in 
Europe,  and  most  valuable  kinds 
of  them  are  in  situations  of  easy 
access  and  communication  -with 
the  sea  ;  but  they  have  long 
been  entirely  neglected,  the 
greater  part  being  unknown,  even 
to  the  more  intelligent  of  the 
natives.'  Cook's  Spain,  London, 
1834,  vol.  ii.p.  51.  In  the  Ca- 
binet    of  Natural    History    at 


Madrid, '  the  specimens  of  marbles 
are  splendid,  and  show  what 
treasures  yet  remain  buried  in 
the  Peninsula.'  Ford's  Spain, 
London,  1847,  p.  413. 

348  'Hay  infinitas  minas  de 
cobre  en  Espana  las  quales  nunca 
se  han  tocado.'  Bowles,  Historia 
Natural  de  Espana,  Discurso 
Preliminar,  p.  34. 

349  In  1832,  Cook  writes,  '  The 
lead-mines  of  the  Sierra  de  Gador 
are  in  a  state  of  repletion  at 
present  from  the  enormous  quan- 
tity -of  the  mineral,  and  the 
facility  of  raising  it.'  .... 
'  Lead  abounds  in  other  parts  of 
the  same  chain,  nearer  to  Al- 
meria.'  Cook's  Spain,  vol.  ii.  p. 
75.  '  The  most  valuable  of  the 
existing  Spanish  mines  are  those 
of  lead  in  Granada ;  and  the 
supplies  obtained  from  them 
during  the  last  twenty  years  have 
been  so  large,  that  they  have 
occasioned  the  abandonment  of 
several  less  productive  mines  in 
other  countries,  and  a  consider- 
able fall  in'  the  price  of  lead.' 
M'Culloch's  Geographical  and 
Statistical  Dictionary,  London, 
1849,  vol.  ii.  p.  705. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUBY.  585 

the  productions  of  the  inorganic  world,350  are  also 
abundant  in  that  highly  favoured  country.  Iron  is 
said  to  exist  in  every  part  of  Spain,  and  to  be  of  the 
best  quality;351  while  the  coal-mines  of  Asturias  are 
described  as  inexhaustible.352  In  short,  nature  has 
been  so  prodigal  of  her  bounty,  that  it  has  been 
observed,  with  hardly  an  hyperbole,  that  the  Spanish 
nation  possesses  within  itself  nearly  every  natural  pro- 
duction which  can  satisfy  either  the  necessity  or  the 
curiosity  of  mankind.353 

These  are  splendid  gifts ;  it  is  for  the  historian  to 
tell  how  they  have  been  used.  Certainly,  the  people 
who  possess  them  have  never  been  deficient  in  natural 
endowments.  They  have  had  their  full  share  of  great 
statesmen,  great  kings,  great  magistrates,  and  great 
legislators.  They  have  had  many  able  and  vigorous 
rulers  ;  and  their  history  is  ennobled  by  the  frequent 
appearance  of  courageous  and  disinterested  patriots, 
who  have  sacrificed  their  all,  that  they  might  help  their 
country.  The  bravery  of  the  people  has  never  been 
disputed  ;  while,  as  to  the  upper  classes,  the  punctilious 
honour  of  a  Spanish  gentleman  has  passed  into  a  bye- 
word,  and  circulated  through  the  world.  Of  the  nation 
generally,  the  best  observers  pronounce  them  to  be 
high-minded,  generous,  truthful,  full  of  integrity,  warm 

350  I  use  the  popular  language  munication  -with  the  sea ;  yet  they 

in  referring  coal  to  the  inorganic  are  practically  useless,  and  afford 

world,  despite  its  cellular  tissue  only  a  miserable  existence  to  a  few 

and  vegetable  origin.  labourers  and  mules  used  in  con- 

3il  '  The  most  valuable  of  the  veying  the  mineral    to    Gijon.' 

whole  mineral  riches   of  Spain  Cooks  Spain,  vol.  ii.  pp.  79,  80. 

will  be,  in  all  probability,  in  a  'In  the  immediate  neighbourhood 

few  years,  tho   iron,   which    is  of  Oviedo  are  some  of  the  largest 

found  every  where,  and  of  the  coal-fields  in  Europe.'      Ford's 

best  qualities.'  Cook's  Spain,  vol.  Spain,  p.  381;  compare  pp.  392, 

ii.  p.  78.     See  also   Bowles,  His-  606. 

toria  Natural  de  Esparia,  pp.  56,  ,M  '  La  nacion  espanola  posee 

67,    106,    273,    346,    415,   and  casi   quantas    producciones   na- 

Ford's  Spain,  pp.  565,  618.  turales  puede  apetecerla  necesi- 

342  'The  quantity  is  inexhaus-  dad,  6  curiosidad.  de  los  hombres.' 

tible,  the  quality  excellent,  the  Campomanes,  Apendice  &  la  Edu- 

working  of  extraordinary  facility,  cacion    Popular,  vol.  iv.   p.  vi. 

and   they  possess  an  easy  com-  Madrid,  1777. 


586      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM    THE    FIFTH 

and  zealous  friends,  affectionate  in  all  the  private  rela- 
tions of  life,  frank,  charitable,  and  humane.364     Their 


SM  'lis  sont  fort  charitables, 
tent  a  cause  du  merite  que  Ton 
s'acquiert  par  les  aumones,  que  par 
l'inclination  naturelle  qu'ils  ont 
a  donner,et  la  peine  effective  qu'ils 
souffrent  lorsqu'ils  sont  obliges, 
soit  par  leur  pauvreti,  soit  par 
quelqu'autre  raison,  de  refuser  ce 
qu'on  leur  demande.  lis  ont 
encore  la  bonne  qualite  de  ne 
point  abandonner  leurs  amis 
pendant  qu'ils  sont  malades.'  .  .  . 
'  De  maniere  que  des  personnes 
qui  ne  se  voyent  point  quatre 
fois  en  un  an,  se  voyent  tous  les 
jours  deux  ou  trois  fois,  des  qu'ils 
souffrent.'  JJAulnoy,  Relation 
du  Voyage  oVEspagne,  Lyon, 
]  693,  vol.  ii.  p.  374.  '  They  are 
grave,  temperate,  and  sober  ; 
firm  and  warm  in  their  friend- 
ships, though  cautious  and  slow 
in  contracting  them.'  A  Tour 
through  Spain  by  Vdal  ap  Rhys, 
second  edition,  London,  1760,  p. 
3.  'When  they  have  once  professed 
it,  none  are  more  faithful  friends.' 
.  .  .  '  They  have  great  probity  and 
integrity  of  principle.'  Clarke's 
Letters  concerning  the  Spanish 
Nation,  London,  1763, 4to.  p.  334. 
'  To  express  all  that  I  feel,  on  the 
recollection  of  their  goodness, 
would  appear  like  adulation ; 
but  I  may  venture  at  least  to  say, 
that  simplicity,  sincerity,  gene- 
rosity, a  high  sense  of  dignity, 
and  strong  principles  of  honour, 
are  the  most  prominent  and 
striking  features  of  the  Spanish 
character.'  TownsenoVs  Journey 
through  Spain,  second  edition, 
London,  1792,  vol.  iii.  p.  353. 
•The  Spaniards,  though  naturally 


deep  and  artful  politicians,  have 
still  something  so  nobly  frank 
and  honest  in  their  disposition.' 
Letters  from  Spain  by  an  English 
Officer,  London,  1788,  vol.  ii.  p. 
171.  '  The  Spaniards  have  fewer 
bad  qualities  than  any  other 
people  that  I  have  had  the  op- 
portunity to  know.'  Croke?s 
Travels  through  Spain,  London, 
1799,  pp.  237,  238.  '  Spanish 
probity  is  proverbial,  and  it  con- 
spicuously shines  in  commercial 
relations.'  Laborde's  Spain,hon- 
don,  1809,  vol.  iv.  p.  423. 
'  Certainly,  if  it  be  taken  in  the 
mass,  no  people  are  more  hu- 
mane than  the  Spaniards,  or 
more  compassionate  and  kind 
in  their  feelings  to  others.  They 
probably  excel  other  nations, 
rather  than  fall  below  them,  in 
this  respect.'  Cook's  Spain,  Lon- 
don, 1834,  vol.  i.  p.  189.  '  The 
Spaniards  are  kind-hearted  in  all 
the  relations  of  life.'  Hoskins' 
Spain,  London,  1851,  vol.  ii.  p. 
68.  Finally,  I  will  adduce  the 
testimony  of  two  professional 
politicians,  both  of  whom  were 
well  acquainted  with  the  Spani- 
ards. In  1770  Mr.  Harris,  after- 
wards Lord  Malmesbury,  writes, 
•They  are  brave,  honest,  and 
generous.'  Diaries  and  Corre- 
spondence of  the  Earl  of  Malmes- 
bury, London,  1844,  vol.  i.  p. 
48.  And  Lord  Holland,  accord- 
ing to  Moore,  deemed  '  that  the 
Spaniards  altogether  are  amongst 
the  best  people  of  Europe.' 
Moore's  Memoirs,  edited  by  Lord 
John  Russell,  vol.  iii.  p.  253, 
London,  1853. 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


587 


sincerity  in  religions  matters  is  nnqnestionable  ;385  they 
are,  moreover,  eminently  temperate  and  frugal.386  Tet, 
all  these  great  qualities  have  availed  them  nothing,  and 
will  avail  them  nothing,  so  long  as  they  remain  ignorant. 
What  the  end  of  all  this  wall  be,  and  whether  in  their 
unhappy  country  the  right  path  will  ever  be  taken,  is 
impossible  for  any  one  to  say.387  But  if  it  is  not  taken, 
no  amelioration  which  can  possibly  be  effected  will 
penetrate  below  the  surface.     The  sole  course  is,  to 


855  This  their  whole  history 
decisively  proves ;  and  as  to  their 
more  recent  state,  the  author  of 
Bevdations  of  Spain  in  1845, 
vol.  i.  p.  340,  says :  '  But  religion 
is  so  deeply  rooted  in  the  national 
character,  that  the  most  furious 
political  storms,  which  prostrate 
everything  else,  blow  over  this 
and  leave  it  unscathed.  It  is 
only  amongst  the  educated  male 
population  that  any  lack  of  fer- 
vour is  witnessed.' 

ssa  «The  habitual  temperance 
of  these  people  is  really  astonish- 
ing: I  never  saw  a  Spaniard 
drink  a  second  glass  of  wine. 
With  the  lower  order  of  people, 
a  peace  of  bread  with  an  apple, 
an  onion,  or  pomegranate,  is 
their  usual  repast.'  Croker's 
Travels  in  Spain,  London,  1799, 
p.  116.  'They are  temperate,  or 
rather  abstemious,  in  their  living 
to  a  great  degree :  borracho  is  the 
highest  term  of  reproach  ;  and  it 
is  rare  to  see  a  drunken  man, 
except  it  be  among  the  carriers 
or  muleteers.'  Balrymple's  Travels 
through  Spain,  London,  1777, 
4  to.  p.  174.  'Drunkenness  is  a 
vice  almost  unknown  in  Spain 
among  people  of  a  respectable 
class,  and  very  uncommon  even 
among  the  lower  orders.'  Esme- 
nard's  note  in  Godoy's  Memoirs, 
London,  1836,  vol.  ii.  p.  321. 


SS7  '  This  is  the  most  wonder- 
ful country  under  the  sun ;  for 
here,  intellect  wields  no  power.' 
Inglis'  Spain,  London,  1831,  vol. 
i.  p.  101.  'Tandisque  l'activite 
publique,  en  Espagne,  se  porte 
depuis  quelques  ann6es  dans  la 
sphere  des  inter^ts  pratiques  et 
materiels,  il  semble,  au  contraire, 
qu'ily  aitunesorte  de  ralentisse- 
ment  dans  la  vie  intellectuelle.' 
Annuaire  des  Deux  Mondes  for 
1850,  p.  410.  'La  vie  intellec- 
tuelle n'est  point,  malheureuse- 
ment,  la  sphere  ou  se  manifesto 
le  plus  d'activite  en  Espagne.' 
Ibid,  for  1856-1857,  p.  356. 
Now,  listen  to  the  practical  con- 
sequences of  not  giving  free  and 
fearless  scope  to  the  intellect. 
'  It  is  singular,  upon  landing  in 
the  Peninsula,  and  making  a 
short  excursion  for  a  few  miles  in 
any  direction,  to  see  reproduced 
the  manners  of  England  five 
centuries  back, — to  find  yourself 
thrown  into  the  midst  of  a 
society  which  is  a  close  counter- 
part of  that  extinct  semi-civiliza- 
tion of  which  no  trace  is  to  be 
found  in  our  history  later  than 
the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century 
and  the  reign  of  Richard  the 
Second.'  Revelations  of  Spain  in 
1845  by  an  English  Resident,  vol. 
ii.  p.  1. 


588      SPANISH    INTELLECT    FROM   THE    FIFTH 


weaken  the  superstition  of  the  people ;  and  this  can 
only  be  done  by  that  march  of  physical  science,  which, 
familiarizing  men  with  conceptions  of  order  and  of  regu- 
larity, gradually  encroaches  on  the  old  notions  of  per- 
turbation, of  prodigy,  and  of  miracle,  and  by  this  means 
accustoms  the  mind  to  explain  the  vicissitudes  of  affairs 
by  natural  considerations,  instead  of,  as  heretofore,  by 
those  which  are  purely  supernatural. 

To  this,  in  the  most  advanced  countries  of  Europe, 
every  thing  has  been  tending  for  nearly  three  centuries. 
But  in  Spain,  unfortunately,  education  has  always  re- 
mained, and  still  remains,  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy, 
who  steadily  oppose  that  progress  of  knowledge,  which 
they  are  well  aware  would  be  fatal  to  their  own 
power.358     The  people,  therefore,  resting  ignorant,  and 


858  '  That  the  Spaniards,  as  a 
people,  are  ignorant,  supremely 
ignorant,  it  is  impossible  to  dis- 
semble ;  but  this  comes  from  the 
control  of  education  being  al- 
together in  the  hands  of  the 
clergy,  who  exert  themselves  to 
maintain  that  ignorance  to  which 
they  are  indebted  for  their  power.' 
Spain  by  an  American,  vol.  ii.  p. 
360.  'The  schools  in  Madrid 
are  all  conducted  by  Jesuits  ;  and 
the  education  received  in  them, 
is  such  as  might  be  expected 
from  their  heads.'  Inglii  Spain, 
vol.  i.  p.  156.  '  Private  educa- 
tion here,  is  almost  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  the  clergy.'  'Revela- 
tions of  Spain  in  1845,  vol.  ii.  p. 
27.  In  Spain,  as  in  all  countries, 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  the  clergy, 
considered  as  a  body,  inculcate 
belief  instead  of  inquiry,  and,  by 
a  sort  of  conservative  instinct, 
discourage  that  boldness  of  in- 
vestigation without  which  there 
can  be  no  real  knowledge,  al- 
though there  may  be  much  erudi- 
tion and  mere  book-learning.  In 
Spain,  the   clergy   are  stronger 


than  in  any  other  country ; 
therefore  in  Spain  they  display 
this  tendency  more  fearlessly.  A 
good  instance  of  this  may  be 
seen  in  a  work  lately  published 
by  the  Bishop  of  Barcelona,  in 
which  a  violent  attack  upon  all 
physical  and  philosophical  know- 
ledge is  concluded  in  the  follow- 
ing terms  :  'No  intento  recrimi- 
nar  a  ningun  catolieo  de  los  que 
se  asocian  al  nuevo  sistema  do 
filosofar  y  de  extender  indefini- 
damente  el  imperio  de  esta 
ciencia,  pero  deseo  que  fijen  toda 
su  atencion  en  los  puntos  que  no 
hare  sino  indicar.  Primero,  que 
las  escuelas  de  Holanda,  Ale- 
mania,  Inglaterra  y  Francia  des- 
afectas  al  Catolicismo,  han  ini- 
ciado  y  promovido  con  el  mayor 
empefio  ciertas  discusiones  filo- 
soficas,  presentandolas  como  un 
triunfo  de  la  razon  sobre  la 
Beligion,  de  la  filosofia  sobre 
la  teologia,  del  materialismo 
sobre  el  espiritualismo.  Segundo, 
que  sus  maximas  no  son,  en 
gran  parte,  ma3  que  reproduc- 
ciones  6  nuevas  evoluciones  de 


TO   THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  589 

the  causes  which  kept  them  in  ignorance  continuing, 
it  avails  the  country  nothing,  that,  from  time  to  time, 
enlightened  rulers  have  come  forward,  and  liberal 
measures  been  adopted.  The  Spanish  reformers  have, 
with  rare  exceptions,  eagerly  attacked  the  Church, 
whose  authority  they  clearly  saw  ought  to  be  diminished. 
But  what  they  did  not  see  is,  that  such  diminution  can 
be  of  no  real  use  unless  it  is  the  result  of  public  opinion 
urging  on  politicians  to  the  work.  In  Spain,  politicians 
took  the  initiative,  and  the  people  lagged  behind.  Hence, 
in  Spain,  what  was  done  at  one  time  was  sure  to  be  un- 
done at  another.  When  the  liberals  were  in  power,  they 
suppressed  the  Inquisition ;  but  Ferdinand  VII.  easily 
restored  it,  because,  though  it  had  been  destroyed  by 
Spanish  legislators,  its  existence  was  suited  to  the 
habits  and  traditions  of  the  Spanish  nation.359  Fresh 
changes  occurring,  this  odious  tribunal  was,  in  1820, 
again  abolished.  Still,  though  its  form  is  gone,  its  spirit 
lives.360  The  name,  the  body,  and  the  visible  appearance 
of  the  Inquisition,  are  no  more  ;  but  the  .spirit  which 
generated  the  Inquisition  is  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people,  and,  on  slight  provocation,  would  burst 
forth,  and  reinstate  an  institution  which  is  the  effect, 
far  more  than  the  cause,  of  the  intolerant  bigotry  of  the 
Spanish  nation. 

errores  mil  veces  refutados  y  similar  acts  gave  such  delight  to 
condenados  por  la  sana  filosofia  the  Church  as  well  as  to  the 
y  por  la  Iglesia ;  bajo  cuyo  con-  people,  that,  according  to  a 
cepto  no  tienen  por  que  felici-  great  divine,  the  return  of  Fer- 
tarse  en  razon  de  su  progreso,  dinand  to  Spain  is  to  be  deemed 
sino  mas  bien  avergonzarse  por  the  immediate  act  of  Divine 
su  retroceso.'  Costa  y  Borras,  Providence,  watching  over  the 
Iglesia  en  Espana,  Barcelona,  interests  of  Spain.  '  La  divina 
1857,  p.  150.  Providencia  abrevio  los  dias  de 
■*  '  Immediately  after  his  prueba,  y  la  catolica  Espana  res- 
arrival  in  Madrid,  Ferdinand  re-  piro  cefiida  con  los  laurele*  del 
established  the  Inquisition ;  and  triunfo,  recobrando  luego  a  su 
his  decree  for  that  purpose  ■was  tan  deseado  monarca,  el  senor 
hailed  throughout  all  Spain  with  rey  don  Fernando  VII.'  Costa 
illuminations,  thanksgivings,  and  y  Borras,  Observaciones  sobre  la 
other  rejoicings.'  Quin's  Memoirs  Iglesia  en  Espana,  Barcelona, 
of  Ferdinand  VII.,  London,  1857,  p.  91. 
1824,  pp.  189,  190.      This  and  38°  'The  spirit  of  the  Inqui- 


590      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FROM   THE    FIFTH 


In  the  same  way,  other  and  more  systematic  attacks 
•which  were  made  on  the  Church,  during  the  present 
century,  succeeded  at  first,  hut  were  sure  to  be  even- 
tually baffled.301  Under  Joseph,  in  1809,  the  monastic 
orders  were  suppressed,  and  their  property  was  con- 
fiscated.362 Little,  however,  did  Spain  gain  by  this. 
The  nation  was  on  their  side ; 363  and  as  soon  as  the 
storm  passed  away,  they  were  restored.  In  1836,  there 
was  another  political  movement,  and  the  liberals  being 
at  the  head  of  affairs,  Mendizabal  secularized  all  the 
Church  property,  and  deprived  the  clergy  of  nearly  the 
Whole  of  their  enormous  and  ill-gotten  wealth.364     He 


sition  is  still  alive ;  for  no  king, 
cortes,  or  constitution,  ever  per- 
mits in  Spain  any  approach  to 
any  religious  toleration.'  Ford's 
Spain,  London,  1847,  p.  60. 
'Les  cortes  auraient  beau  per- 
mettre  l'exercice  du  culte  protes- 
tant  ou  juif,  il  n'est  point  certain 
que  cela  ne  suscitat  de  perilleux 
conflits.'  Annuaire  des  Deux 
Mondes,  ou  Histoire  Generate  des 
Divers  Mats,  1854-1855,  vol.  v. 
p.  272,  Paris,  1855  ;  a  work  of 
considerable  ability,  planned  on 
the  same  scheme  as  the  Annual 
Register,  but  far  superior  to  it. 
Respecting  the  chance  of  the  In- 
quisition being  again  restored, 
compare  two  interesting  pas- 
sages in  Spain  by  an  American, 
1831,  vol.  ii.  p.  330,  and  Inglis' 
Spain,  1831,  vol.  i.  p.  85.  Since 
then,  the  balance  of  affairs  has, 
on  the  whole,  been  in  favour  of 
the  Church,  which  received  a 
further  accession  of  strength  by 
the  success  of  the  essentially 
religious  war  recently  waged 
against  the  Moors.  Hence,  if 
any  fresh  political  catastrophe 
were  to  occur  in  Spain,  I  should 
not  be  at  all  surprised  to  hear 
that  the  Inquisition  was  re-esta- 
blished. 


361  Compare  some  very  sensible 
remarks  in  Bacon's  Six  Years 
in  Biscay,  London,  1838,  pp.  40, 
41,  50,  with  Quin's  Memoirs  of 
Ferdinand  the  Seventh,  pp.  192, 
193. 

362  Walton's  Revolutions  of 
Spain,  London,  1837,  vol.  ii.  p. 
343. 

S63  yery  shortly  before  the  sup- 
pression of  the  monastic  orders, 
'  Le  respect  pour  le  froc  en 
general  est  pousse  si  loin,  qu'on 
lui  attribue  une  vertu  preserva- 
tive, meme  au-dela,  de  la  vie, 
quelque  peu  reguliere  qu'elle  ait 
ete.  Aussi  n'y  a-t-il  rien  de  si 
commun  que  de  voir  les  morts 
ensevelis  en  robe  de  moines,  et 
conduits  ainsi  a  leur  derniere  de- 
meure  a  visage  decouvert.'  .... 
De  meme  que  le  froc  accompagne 
les  Espagnols  au  tombeau,  de 
meme  il  en  saisit  quelques-uns 
au  sortir  du  berceau.  II  n'est 
pas  rare  de  rencontrer  de  petits 
moines  de  quatre  a  cinq  ans 
polissonnant  dans  la  rue.'  Bour- 
going,  Tableau  de  I'Espagne, 
Paris,  1808,  vol.  ii.  pp.  330,  331. 

364  The  confiscation  took  place 
at  different  periods  between  1835 
and  1841.  Compare  Ford's  Spain, 
p.  48.    Revelations  of  Spain  by 


TO    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


591 


did  not  know  how  foolish  it  is  to  attack  an  institution, 
unless  you  can  first  lessen  its  influence.  Overrating  the 
power  of  legislation,  he  underrated  the  power  of  opinion. 
This,  the  result  clearly  showed.  Within  a  very  few 
years,  the  reaction  began.  In  1845,  was  enacted  what 
was  called  the  law  of  devolution,  by  which  the  first  step 
was  taken  towards  the  re-endowment  of  the  clergy.365 
In  1851,  their  position  was  still  further  improved  by  the 
celebrated  Concordat,  in  which  the  right  of  acquiring, 
as  well  as  of  possessing,  was  solemnly  confirmed  to 
them.366  With  all  this,  the  nation  heartily  concurred.367 
Such,  however,  was  the  madness  of  the  liberal  party, 
that,  only  four  years  afterwards,  when  they  for  a  moment 
obtained  power,  they  forcibly  annulled  these  arrange- 
ments, and  revoked  concessions  which  had  been  made 
to  the  Church,  and  which,  unhappily  for  Spain,  public 


an  English  Besident,  vol.  i.  p. 
366.  Costa  y  Borras,  Iglesia  en 
Espana,  p.  95.  Annuaire  des 
Deux  Mondes  for  1850,  Paris, 
1 851,  p.  369.  I  have  sought  in 
vain  for  any  detailed  history  of 
these  transactions. 

365  '  Des  1845,  une  loi  dite  de 
devolution,  en  attendant  un  regle- 
ment  definitif,  applique  a  la  do- 
tation du  clerge  une  portion  des 
biens  ecclesiastiques  non  vendus.' 
Annuaire  des  Deux  Mondes, 
1851-2,  Paris,  1852,  p.  318. 

368  'II  y  a  ici  un  reglement 
solennel,  sous  la  forme  d'un 
traite,  de  toutes  les  affaires  re- 
latives a  l'eglise;  c'est  le  con- 
cordat de  1851.  Le  concordat 
reconnait  a  l'eglise  le  droit 
d'acquerir  et  de  posseder.'  Ibid. 
1854,  1855,  p.  273,  Paris,  1855. 

387  The  very  year  in  which 
the  Concordat  became  law,  Mr. 
Hoskins,  the  well-known  travel- 
ler in  Africa,  a  gentleman  evi- 
dently of  considerable  intelli- 
gence, published,  on  his  return 


from  Spain,  an  account  of  that 
country.  His  work  is  valuable, 
as  showing  the  state  of  public 
feeling  just  before  the  Concordat, 
and  while  the  Spanish  clergy 
were  still  suffering  from  the  well- 
intentioned,  but  grossly  inju- 
dicious acts  of  the  liberal  party. 
1  We  visited  these  churches  on  a 
Sunday,  and  were  surprised  to 
find  them  all  crowded  to  excess. 
The  incomes  of  the  clergy  are 
greatly  reduced,  but  their  for- 
tunes are  gradually  reviving.' 
Hoskins'  Spain,  London,  1851, 
vol.  i.  p.  25.  '  The  priests  are 
slowly  re-establishing  their  power 
in  Spain,'  vol.  ii.  p.  201.  '  The 
crowded  churches,  and,  notwith- 
standing the  appropriation  of 
their  revenues,  the  absence  of 
all  appearance  of  anything  like 
poverty  in  the  chapels  and  ser- 
vices, prove  that  the  Spaniards 
are  now  as  devout  worshippers, 
and  as  zealous  friends  of  the 
Church,  as  they  were  in  her 
palmy  days,'  vol.  ii.  p.  281. 


592       SPANISH   INTELLECT   FEOM   THE    FIFTH 

opinion  had  ratified.368  The  results  might  have  been 
easily  foreseen.  In  Aragon  and  in  other  parts  of  Spain, 
the  people  flew  to  arms  ;  a  Carlist  insurrection  broke 
out,  and  a  cry  ran  through  the  country,  that  religion 
•was  in  danger.369  It  is  impossible  to  benefit  such  a 
nation  as  this.  The  reformers  were,  of  course,  over- 
thrown, and  by  the  autumn  of  1856  their  party  was 
broken  up.  The  political  reaction  now  began,  and  ad- 
vanced so  rapidly,  that,  by  the  spring  of  1857,  the  policy 
of  the  two  preceding  years  was  completely  reversed. 
Those  who  idly  thought  that  they  could  regenerate  their 
country  by  laws,  saw  all  their  hopes  confounded.  A 
ministry  was  formed,  whose  measures  were  more  in 
accordance  with  the  national  mind.  In  May  1857, 
Cortes  assembled.  The  representatives  of  the  people 
sanctioned  the  proceedings  of  the  executive  government, 
and,  by  their  united  authority,  the  worst  provisions  of 
the  Concordat  of  1851  were  amply  confirmed,  the  sale 
of  Church  property  was  forbidden,  and  all  the  limita- 
tions which  had  been  set  to  the  power  of  the  bishops 
were  at  once  removed.370 

The  reader  will  now  be  able  to  understand  the  real 
nature  of  Spanish  civilization.  He  will  see  how, 
under  the  high-sounding  names  of  loyalty  and  religion, 
lurk  the  deadly  evils  which  those  names  have  always 
concealed,  but  which  it  is  the  business  of  the  histo- 
rian to  drag  to  light  and  expose.  A  blind  spirit  of 
reverence,  taking  the  form  of  an  unworthy  and  igno- 
minious submission  to  the  Crown  and  the  Church,  is  the 

368  'La  loi   de  ddsamortisse-  vacionessobrelalglesiaenEspana, 

ment-  promulguee    le    ler    mai,  Barcelona,  1857,  pp.  119,  286, 

1855,  ordonne,  commeon  sait,  la  292;  and  respecting  the  law  of 

mise  en  vente  de  tous  les  biens  the  1st  of  May,  seep.  247. 

de  main-morte,  et  en  particulier  S69 '  Aussi  le  premier  mot  d'or- 

des  biens  qui  restent   encore  a  dre   de    l'insurrection   a   ete  la 

l'eglise.'      Annuaire    des    Deux  defense  de  la  religion.'  Annuaire 

Mondes,  1855,  1856,  p.  310.  See  des  Deux  Mondes,  1854,  1855,  p. 

also  Annuaire,    1854,   1855,    p.  275. 

274.      For  an  account  of  other  87ffl  Annuaire  des  Deux  Mondes, 

steps  taken  against  the  Church  1856,  1857,  pp.  315-317,  324- 

in  the   spring  and  summer  of  331,336. 
1855,  see  Costa  y  Borras,  Obser- 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTTJET.  593 

capital  and  essential  vice  of  the  Spanish  people.     It  is 
their  sole  national  vice,  and  it  has   sufficed  to  ruin 
them.     From  it  all  nations  have  grievously  suffered, 
and  many  still  suffer.  But  nowhere  in  Europe,  has  this 
principle  been  so  long  supreme  as  in  Spain.      There- 
fore, nowhere  else  in  Europe  are  the  consequences  so 
manifest  and  so  fatal.     The  idea  of  liberty  is  extinct, 
if,  indeed,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  it  ever  can  be 
said  to  have  existed.      Outbreaks,  no  doubt,  there  have 
been,  and  will  be ;  but  they  are  bursts  of  lawlessness, 
rather  than  of  liberty.     In  the  most  civilized  countries, 
the  tendency  always  is,  to  obey  even  unjust  laws,  but 
while  obeying  them,  to  insist  on  their  repeal.     This  is 
because  we    perceive    that    it    is    better  to   remove 
grievances  than  to  resist  them.      While  we  submit  to 
the  particular  hardship,  we  assail  the   system  from 
which  the  hardship  flows.      For  a  nation  to  take  this 
view,  requires  a  certain  reach  of  mind,  which,  in  the 
darker  periods  of  European  history,  was  unattainable. 
Hence   we  find,   that,   in  the  middle    ages,    though 
tumults  were  incessant,   rebellions  were  rare.     But, 
since  the  sixteenth  century,    local   insurrections,    pro- 
voked by  immediate  injustice,  are  diminishing,  and  arc 
being  superseded  by  revolutions,  which  strike  at  once 
at  the   source  from    whence    the  injustice  proceeds. 
There   can  be  no  doubt  that  this  change  is  beneficial ; 
partly  because  it  is  always  good  to  rise  from  effects  to 
causes,  and  partly  because  revolutions  being  less  fre- 
quent than  insurrections,  the  peace  of  society  would  be 
more    rarely  disturbed,  if    men   confined  themselves 
entirely  to  the  larger  remedy.      At  the   same  time,  in- 
surrections   are    generally     wrong ;    revolutions    are 
always  right.     An  insurrection  is  too  often  the  mad 
and  passionate  effort  of  ignorant  persons,  who  are  im- 
patient under  some  immediate  injury,  and  never  stop 
to  investigate  its  remote  and  general  causes.     But  a 
revolution,  when  it  is  the  work  of  the  nation  itself,  is 
a    splendid    and    imposing   spectacle,  because  .to  the 
moral  quality  of  indignation  produced  by  the  presence  , 
of  evil,  it  adds  the  intellectual   qualities  of  foresight 
and  combination ;  and,  uniting  in  the  same  act  some  of 
VOL.  II.  <j  Q 


594       SPANISH   INTELLECT    FROM    THE    FIFTH 

the  highest  properties  of  our  nature,  it  achieves  a 
double  purpose,  not  only  punishing  the  oppressor,  but 
also  relieving  the  oppressed. 

In  Spain,  however,  there  never  has  been  a  revolu- 
tion, properly  so  called ;  there  never  has  even  been  one 
grand  national  rebellion.  The  people,  though  often 
lawless,  are  never  free.  Among  them,  we  find  still 
preserved  that  peculiar  taint  of  barbarism,  which  makes 
men  prefer  occasional  disobedience  to  systematic 
liberty.  Certain  feelings  there  are  of  our  common 
nature,  which  even  their  slavish  loyalty  cannot  eradi- 
cate, and  which,  from  time  to  time,  urge  them  to  resist 
injustice.  Such  instincts  are  happily  the  inalienable 
lot  of  humanity,  which  we  cannot  forfeit,  if  we  would, 
and  which  are  too  often  the  last  resource  against  the 
extravagances  of  tyranny.  And  this  is  all  that  Spain 
now  possesses.  The  Spaniards,  therefore,  resist,  not 
because  they  are  Spaniards,  but  because  they  are  men. 
Still,  even  while  they  resist,  they  revere.  While  they 
will  rise  up  against  -a  vexatious  impost,  they  crouch 
before  a  system,  of  which  the  impost  is  the  smallest 
evil.  They  smite  the  tax-gatherer,  but  fall  prostrate  at 
the  feet  of  the  contemptible  prince  for  whom  the  tax- 
gatherer  plies  his  craft.  They  will  even  revile  the 
troublesome  and  importunate  monk,  or  sometimes  they 
will  scoff  at  the  sleek  and  arrogant  priest ;  while  such 
is  their  infatuation,  that  they  would  risk  their  lives  in 
defence  of  that  cruel  Church,  which  has  inflicted  on 
them  hideous  calamities,  but  to  which  they  still  cling, 
as  if  it  were  the  dearest  object  of  their  affections. 

Connected  with  these  habits  of  mind,  and  in  sooth 
forming  part  of  them,  we  find  a  reverence  for  antiquity, 
and  an  inordinate  tenacity  of  old  opinions,  old  beliefs, 
and  old  habits,  which  remind  us  of  those  tropical 
civilizations  which  formerly  flourished.  Such  preju- 
dices were  once  universal  even  in  Europe  ;  but  they 
began  to  die  out  in  the  sixteenth  eentury,  and  are 
now,  comparatively  speaking,  extinct,  except  in  Spain, 
where  they  have  always  been  welcomed.  In  that 
country,  they  retain  their  original  force,  and  produce 
their  natural  results.     By  encouraging  the  notion,  that 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  595 

all  the  truths  most  important  to  know  are  already 
known,  they  repress  those  aspirations,  and  dull  that 
generous  confidence  in  the  future,  without  which 
nothing  really  great  can  he  achieved.  A  people  who 
regard  the  past  with  too  wistful  an  eye,  will  never 
bestir  themselves  to  help  the  onward  progress  ;  they 
will  hardly  believe  that  progress  is  possible.  To  them, 
antiquity  is  synonymous  with  wisdom,  and  every  im- 
provement is  a  dangerous  innovation.  In  this  state, 
Europe  lingered  for  many  centuries ;  in  this  state, 
Spain  still  lingers.  Hence  the  Spaniards  are  remark- 
able for  an  inertness,  a  want  of  buoyancy,  and  an 
absence  of  hope,  which,  in  our  busy  and  enterprizing 
age,  isolate  them  from  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world. 
Believing  that  little  can  be  done,  they  are  in  no  hurry 
to  do  it.  Believing  that  the  knowledge  they  have 
inherited,  is  far  greater  than  any  they  can  obtain,  they 
wish  to  preserve  their  intellectual  possessions  whole 
and  unimpaired ;  inasmuch  as  the  least  alteration  in 
them  might  lessen  their  value.  Content  with  what 
has  been  already  bequeathed,  they  are  excluded  from 
that  great  European  movement,  which,  first  clearly 
perceptible  in  the  sixteenth  century,  has  ever  since 
been  steadily  advancing,  unsettling  old  opinions, 
destroying  old  follies,  reforming  and  improving  on 
every  side,  influencing  even  such  barbarous  countries 
as  Russia  and  Turkey ;  but  leaving  Spain  unscathed 
While  the  human  intellect  has  been  making  the  most 
prodigious  and  unheard-of  strides,  while  discoveries  in 
every  quarter  are  simultaneously  pressing  upon  us,  and 
coming  in  such  rapid  and  bewildering  succession,  that 
the  strongest  sight,  dazzled  by  the  glare  of  their 
splendour,  is  unable  to  contemplate  them  as  a  whole  ; 
while  other  discoveries  still  more  important,  and  still 
more  remote  from  ordinary  experience,  are  manifestly 
approaching,  and  may  be  seen  looming  in  the  distance, 
whence  they  are  now  obscurely  working  on  the  ad- 
vanced thinkers  who  are  nearest  to  them,  filling  their 
minds  with  those  ill-defined,  restless,  and  almost 
uneasy,  feelings,  which  are  the  invariable  harbingers 
of  future  triumph ;  while  the  veil  is  being  rudely 
qq  2 


596      SPANISH   INTELLECT   FKOM   THE    FIFTH 

torn,  and  nature,  violated  at  all  points,  is  forced  to  dis- 
close her  secrets,  and  reveal  her  structure,  her  economy, 
and  her  laws,  to  the  indomitable  energy  of  man ;  while 
Europe  is  ringing  with  the  noise  of  intellectual  achieve- 
ments, with  which  even  despotic  governments  affect  to 
sympathize,  in  order  that  they  may  divert  them  from 
their  natural  course,  and  use  them  as  new  instruments 
whereby  to  oppress  yet  more  the  liberties  of  the 
people  ;  while,  amidst  this  general  din  and  excitement, 
the  public  mind,  swayed  to  and  fro,  is  tossed  and 
agitated, — Spain  sleeps  on,  untroubled,  unheeding, 
impassive,  receiving  no  impressions  from  the  rest  of 
the  world,  and  making  no  impressions  upon  it.  There 
she  lies,  at  the  further  extremity  of  the  Continent,  a 
huge  and  torpid  mass,  the  sole  representative  now  re- 
maining of  the  feelings  and  knowledge  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  And,  what  is  the  worst  symptom  of  all,  she  is 
satisfied  with  her  own  condition.  Though  she  is  the 
most  backward  country  in  Europe,  she  believes  herself 
to  be  the  foremost.  She  is  proud  of  every  thing  of 
which  she  should  be  ashamed.  She  is  proud  of  the 
antiquity  of  her  opinions ;  proud  of  her  orthodoxy ; 
proud  of  the  strength  of  her  faith;  proud  of  her 
immeasurable  and  childish  credulity;  proud  of  her 
unwillingness  to  amend  either  her  creed  or  her 
customs ;  proud  of  her  hatred  of  heretics,  and  proud  of 
the  undying  vigilance  with  which  she  has  baffled  their 
efforts  to  obtain  a  full  and  legal  establishment  on  her 
soil. 

All  these  things  conspiring  together,  produce,  in 
their  aggregate,  that  melancholy  exhibition  to  which 
we  give  the  collective  name  of  Spain.  The  history 
of  that  single  word  is  the  history  of  nearly  every 
vicissitude  of  which  the  human  species  is  capable.  It 
comprises  the  extremes  of  strength  and  of  weakness, 
of  unbounded  wealth  and  of  abject  poverty.  It  is  the 
history  of  the  mixture  of  different  races,  languages, 
and  bloods.  It  includes  almost  every  political  combi- 
nation which  the  wit  of  man  can  devise  ;  laws  infinite 
in  variety,  as  well  as  in  number  ;  constitutions  of  all 
kinds,  from  the   most    stringent  to  the  most  liberal. 


TO   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUEY.  597 

Democracy,  monarchy,  government  by  priests,  govern- 
ment by  municipalities,  government  by  nobles,  govern- 
ment by  representative  bodies,  government  by  natives, 
government  by  foreigners,  have  been  tried,  and  tried 
in  vain.  Material  appliances  have  been  lavishly  used ; 
arts,  inventions,  and  machines  introduced  from  abroad, 
manufactures  set  up,  communications  opened,  roads 
made,  canals  dug,  mines  worked,  harbours  formed. 
In  a  word,  there  has  been  every  sort  of  alteration, 
except  alterations  of  opinion;  there  has  been  every 
possible  change,  except  changes  in  knowledge.  And 
the  result  is,  that  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  successive 
governments,  in  spite  of  the  influence  of  foreign  cus- 
toms, and  in  spite  of  those  physical  ameliorations,  which 
just  touch  the  surface  of  society,  but  are  unable 
to  penetrate  beneath,  there  are  no  signs  of  national 
progress ;  the  priests  are  rather  gaining  ground  than 
losing  it ;  the  slightest  attack  on  the  Church  rouses  the 
people;  while,  even  the  dissoluteness  of  the  clergy, 
and  the  odious  vices  which,  in  the  present  century, 
have  stained  the  throne,  can  do  naught  to  lessen  either 
the  superstition  or  the  loyalty  which  the  accumulated 
force  of  many  centuries  has  graven  on  the  minds,  and 
eaten  into  the  hearts  of  the  Spanish  nation. 


KND   OF  THE    SECOND   VOLUME. 


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