CHAP. VIII.

TIMES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND EMPIRE.

State of Europe.

LITERATURE now exerted a much more powerful influence over the public mind than it had done at any preceding period. A set of men, many of them of talents of the first order, arrogating to themselves the exclusive title of philosophers, and actuated at first, perhaps, by a zeal for truth, carried on an incessant warfare against all that they were pleased to designate as superstition and vulgar prejudice. But theirs was not that philosophy which, elevated above all low and groveling passions, and, irradiated by light from heaven, views with pity rather than contempt the aberrations of man, and seeks by mild and gentle methods to lead him into the way of truth. It was heartless, cold, and cheerless; its summum bonum was sensual indulgence or literary fame, and few of its professors displayed any real dignity of soul: its favourite weapon was ridicule; it attacked not alone the absurdities of the popular faith, but it levelled its shafts at the sublimest truths of religion; it shook the firmest bases of social order, and sought to rob man of all lofty hopes and aspirations. Every mode of composition, from the highest science and most serious history down to the lightest tale, was made the vehicle of this philosophy, with which was often joined a sickly, affected sensibility, calculated to gain it admittance even into the female bosom. The consequence was, as might be expected, a general laxity of principle.

The chief seat of this philosophy was France, where a court, corrupt and profligate beyond, perhaps, any which Europe had yet witnessed, had utterly degraded the minds of the upper classes of society. The efforts of the virtuous Louis XVI. to stem this torrent were un

availing: national vice was not to escape its merited chastisement. The middle orders were disgusted and galled by the privileges of the noblesse, and their excessive pride and insolence; the writings of the philosophers, and the scandalous lives of many of the clergy, had shaken their reverence for religion; the abuses and oppression of arbitrary and extravagant government were keenly felt; the glorious struggle of the English for liberty in the last century, and the dignity and prosperity consequent on it, awaked the aspirations of the better disposed; the achievement of American independence filled the minds of many enthusiasts with vague ideas of freedom and happiness, beneath republican institutions; and the lower orders in general looked forward to any change as a benefit.

A. D.

It was a time of innovation, turmoil, and violent change. The English colonies had thrown off the bridle of the mother country, whom she curbed too straitly. The kingdom of Poland had been most nefariously dismembered. Gustavus III. of Sweden had overthrown the aristocracy, and made himself absolute. A contest arose 1772. in the United Provinces, between the party of the stadthouder and those who wished to make the government of a more republican form, which drew the attention of all the principal powers: the respective parties appealed to arms, and by Prussian aid the republicans were crushed. 1787. All these were but preludes to the storm which was soon to burst over Europe.

The East of Europe was meantime precipitated into 1787. war. The Turkish sultan, apprehensive of the designs of the tsarina and the emperor Joseph, declared war against Russia. The Turks commenced by the bombardment of Kilburn, on the Dneiper; but, while forming the trenches, they were attacked by Suvaroff, and nearly their whole force destroyed. Joseph now took part in the war, and opened it by a treacherous attempt on Belgrade: he entered the Turkish dominions at the head of a considerable force; but he reaped little military fame, and could only boast of the reduction of Choczim. 1788. The king of Sweden now entered into the war at the

A. D. 1789.

instigation of the king of Prussia and the Porte, and severe naval conflicts took place in the Baltic; but several of Gustavus's officers refused obedience to him, and the Danes prepared to attack him on the side of Norway. A Russian flotilla, under the prince of Nassau Siegen, defeated Hassan, the capudan-pasha, off Oczakoff. In three other conflicts he was equally unfortunate. The siege of Oczakoff was formed by prince Potemkin: the town was taken by assault, and the inhabitants butchered and pillaged by the soldiery.

Abd-ul-hamed, dying suddenly, was succeeded by his nephew Selim III.; but success did not revisit the Ottoman arms. On the plains of Rimnik they failed before the Austrians and Russians, and Belgrade surrendered to the Austrian general Laudohn. But disease and chagrin at the resistance offered to his innovations in the Netherlands, and the discontents in Hungary, 1790. terminated the existence of Joseph; and his brother Leopold, grand duke of Tuscany, who succeeded him, after some unsuccessful efforts, concluded an armistice with Selim.

On the part of the Russians, Ismael, a strong town in Bessarabia, was taken by assault by Suvaroff, during the very middle of winter. The ferocious warriors massacred in this assault fifty thousand Turks: their own loss was, according to their veracious commander, four thousand three hundred; according to others, fifteen thousand. In the Baltic, the Russian fleet was completely defeated by that of the Swedes, commanded by Gustavus in person; and preliminaries for a peace were soon afterwards agreed on. The war was carried on with vigour in Turkey: the Moslems were defeated at Maczin, and Bahada and the tsarina at length agreed that a congress should be held at Yassy to arrange the terms 1791. of a peace, which was concluded in the following year.

An attempt made by the patriotic portion of the Polish nation to regain their independence was crushed by the arms of the Russian despot, and the nation fell back into its former state of degradation.

Catherine

Frederic II. of Prussia had died in 1786. survived him ten years, and lived to witness the horrors of the French revolution.

The French Revolution.

A. D.

The disordered state of the French finances induced 1787. the court, displeased with the parliament of Paris, to assemble the Notables, that is, persons selected from the privileged orders. This measure produced no advantage, and all classes called for a meeting of the statesgeneral. This national council was at length convoked, 1789. and met at Versailles; but the commons were thought to assume so much power, and to encroach so on the other orders, that the king dismissed Necker, his minister of finance, and ordered some regiments to advance towards the capital. The populace, excited by the democrats, committed several outrages, and they took and demolished the fortress named the Bastile. The privileges of the nobility and clergy were soon abolished. The king was obliged to recall Necker, and to transfer the assembly to Paris, where the mob was at the devotion of the democrats. The property of the church was now transferred to the nation; the kingdom was divided into departments; change followed change without intermission; the king, for peace sake, assented to every thing; but commotion and bloodshed prevailed in different parts of the kingdom.

The power of the democrats still increased, and the 1790. famous Jacobin club was formed by them. Several of the nobility and of the royal family quitted France. A project being formed for the emperor and other powers to assist the king in the recovery of his authority, of which he was now nearly deprived, he and the royal 1791. family endeavoured to escape out of France; but they were stopped at Varennes, and forced to return to Paris. The Jacobin and Cordelier factions loudly demanded his death, and a violent riot took place in the Champ de Mars. A constitutional code was at this time completed. Brissot, the leader of the Jacobins, procured a de- 1792.

claration of war against Austria, and La Fayette invaded the Netherlands, but he was unsuccessful. A Prussian army, under the duke of Brunswick, approached the French frontier; but the violent and silly manifesto he put forth served only to injure the cause it advocated. The Jacobins, urged on by their atrocious leaders, excited the populace; the king and royal family were put into confinement. Numbers of the nobility and others were murdered to prevent their joining the Prussians. Royalty was abolished. The Jacobins split into the Girondists, headed by Brissot and Roland, and the Jacobins, led by Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, three daring men whose bosoms knew not remorse. Disease and want of supplies forcing the Prussians and Austrians, who had nearly reached Paris, to retire, Dumouriez invaded the Netherlands, and, as the people were in his favour, speedily reduced them. Savoy was conquered, Germany invaded. The measure of Jacobin guilt was now nearly filled up: A. D. they brought their amiable and unhappy king to trial, 1793. and judicially murdered him. This iniquitous act was followed by a declaration of war against the kings of England and Spain and the stadthouder of Holland.

Dumouriez invaded Holland, and reduced several towns; but he was defeated by the Austrians at NeerWinden. The French arms were unfortunate also in Germany. Dumouriez formed a plan for restoring a king and constitutional government to France; but it being detected, he was forced to take refuge with the Austrians. An English army, under the duke of York, was now in Holland. Dampierre, Dumouriez's successor, was defeated and slain. The French lost almost all their conquests; their raw levies were cut to pieces; yet, under Hoche, they were again successful. The English failed in an attack on Dunkirk: the Austrians were driven within-their own boundaries.

The French and Spaniards fought with various success at the Pyrenees. A savage civil war now broke out in the island of St. Domingo. At home, the Brissotine party was overthrown, and all the heads of it