"Gods! how her diamonds flock On each unpowder'd lock! On every membrane see a topaz clings! Behold, her joints are fewer than her rings! The Munny Begum's spoils appear! O Pitt! with awe behold that precious throat, Her reception at court was most gracious; nor could such a circumstance justly excite surprize, since his majesty made no secret of declaring the high opinion that he entertained of Hastings's public services. I did not witness Mrs. Hastings's presentation at the drawing-room, having quitted England for Paris, where I made a stay of some weeks, a few days previous to the prorogation of parliament. The court of France still exhibited at that time a majestic and imposing appearance. No man, if wholly unacquainted with the secret causes of approaching convulsion, when surveying the aspect of the capital in September 1784, could have foreseen that within five years, the monarchy would be swallowed up in the abyss of a sanguinary and ferocious revolution. Still less, while assisting at the superb spectacle of Versailles, and its water-works, on a day of gala, when the king and queen dined in public, environed by all the pomp of majesty, could it have been supposed that they would so soon be prisoners in the hands of their revolted subjects. It was, nevertheless, already apparent to those acquainted with the interior frame of the government, and the embarrassed state of the finances, that the materials of disorder and confusion were accumulating rapidly from various quarters. The people, inflamed, as well as perverted, by the writings of the French philosophers, aspired to freedom; wholly unconscious or ignorant that liberty cannot be preserved without public morals, and the severe restraints of law, under the strong control of an executive power. The nation, after contributing so successfully to emancipate America, began to demand its own emancipation, and the formation of a constitution. Unfortunately for the crown, the victories obtained in the Chesapeake, and the conquests made in the West Indies, when Necker was at the head of the finances, had eventually produced a deficit in the revenue; while Calonne, who presided over that department, since 1781, as controller-general, however eminent were his faculties, yet neither possessed the frugality, political steadiness, nor moral reputation, requisite for his arduous position. The united operation of these causes might nevertheless have been unquestionably obviated or dissipated, if the throne of France had been filled by a sovereign of any energy, decision, and determination. But, Louis the Sixteenth seemed to be raised up by Provi dence in its inscrutable dispensations, not less for the subversion of the French monarchy in our time, than his ancestor Henry the Fourth, two centuries earlier, appeared to be preserved by Heaven for the purpose of its extrication and restoration. The king, at the time of which I speak, was thirty years of age, had reigned above ten since the death of his grandfather, and unquestionably possessed the affection and esteem of his subjects. During the first four years after his accession, while France remained at peace, from 1774 to 1778, every circumstance combined to diffuse a popularity round his person and government. Instead of a prince sinking into the grave amidst excesses of the worst description, surrounded by a haram, over which Madame du Barry presided; Versailles exhibited to the French nation and to Europe, a splendid court regulated by decorum, at the head of which a young, elegant, and accomplished queen, attracted universal admiration. Louis's correct manners, his conjugal attachment, his acknowledged rectitude of intention, and application to public business; these features of his character and conduct formed a striking contrast with the enervate and dissolute state of degradation, in which Louis the Fifteenth terminated his long career. The recall of the parliaments, which assemblies had been exiled by his predecessor, was a measure calculated to excite general satisfaction. His dismission of the Abbé Terrai, one of the most unpopular ministers of the late reign, whom Louis the Fifteenth had placed at the head of the finances; and the nomination of Turgot to that office, a man possessing an elevated mind, as well as expanded and beneficent views for the amelioration of the revenue; endeared the young king to his people. The chancellor, Maupeou, whose shameless submissions to the Countess du Barry, some of which, too well authenticated, were at once so indecent and so licentious as hardly to obtain belief, or to be commemorated without degrading the dignity of history, was deprived of the functions of his office. Miromesnil, a lawyer of more decorous manners, if not of superior legal talents, became keeper of the great seal. Maurepas, placed at the head of the royal councils, superseded the Duke d'Aiguillon, whose name and administration had long been deservedly unpopular: while Vergennes, recalled for the express purpose from his embassy in Sweden, occupied the post of secretary of state for the foreign department. These salutary and judicious changes, made by a prince who had then scarcely attained to manhood, seemed to promise a fortunate reign, when his judgment, matured by experience, should enable him to assume a more active part in the administration of state affairs. The four or five years that elapsed between 1778 and the beginning of 1783, during the whole of which period Louis was engaged in war with this country; contributed to raise him in the estimation of his own people, and of foreign nations, by the success that generally accompanied his arms. For, though the last of those years, 1782, was attended with two great reverses; namely, the naval defeat sustained by De Grasse, and the destruction of the Spanish batteries under the walls of Gibraltar; yet every leading object for which the French government undertook the contest, was ultimately accomplished. The American colonies, under the protection of Louis, became a free and sovereign power. All the disasters experienced by France during the war of 1756, disappeared at York Town, where a British army surrendered to Washington and Rochambeau. In the East Indies, Suffrein contended, down to the last moment of hostilities, for the empire of the sea; and though France restored to us, by the treaty of peace, most of the islands that she had reduced under her dominion in the West Indies, she retained Tobago, and resumed possession of St. Lucia: while Spain, fighting under the French banner, recovered Minorca and both the Floridas, which had been dissevered from her crown. Such were the brilliant occurrences of the first eight or nine years of a reign destined to so fatal a termination; and which seemed strikingly to exemplify the picture drawn VOL. I. N |