JAMES'S LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS THE FOUR-

TEENTH—CONCLUDED.

WHEN we noticed the first and second volumes of this work, we remarked, that they embraced but a small portion of the subject ; that, at the close of the second volume, Louts was left in his twentieth year ; and that, as his eventful reign endured for more than seventy years, Mr. JAMES apparently contemplated a book of very considerable magnitude. He has, however, completed his task in two volumes more ; and it does not seem, after all, that the parts of the work are out of proportion. The first two volumes embraced a portion of the reign of Louts the Thirteenth, and the regency of his widow ANNE of Austria ; when the violent disturb- ances which agitated the kingdom,and the rude and half-civilized state of society, gave a wild and even romantic interest to the occur- rences of the time. As society grows more and more civilized and settled, its history grows less and less striking. The people occupy a smaller and smaller space in the picture ; and the his- tory of empires becomes a record of the intrigues, disputes, quar- rels, and combinations, of princes and rulers ; a detail of the endless mazes of crooked diplomacy ; and a narrative of bloody wars, fought to gratify the ambition, cupidity, or personal animo- sity of sovereigns and statesmen. " Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi."

The accession of' LOUIS the Fourteenth was followed by a long period of internal tranquillity and rapidly-advancing civilization. The nobles, drawn from their feudal fastnesses, w here from the middle ages downwards they had ruled their vassals in fierce and solitary grandeur, and assembled round the brilliant court of the sovereign, gained smoothness from mutual contact, and acquired a taste for gallantry, literature, and the arts ; while the people, undisturbed by civil broils, and freed from the iron rule of petty tyrants, rapidly advanced in commerce, agriculture, and every other peaceful pursuit. Such was the progress of society during the reign of Louts; a progress incomparably more rapid than in any other period of similar duration in the history of France. But it was a progress which, though full of matter for the econo- mist and the philosophical inquirer, has hitherto been looked upon as little connected with the province of history, and still less with that lightest species of history which (like the present work) as- sumes the form of biography. Such being the case, Mr. JAMES has been able to comprise in his two latter volumes every thing of remarkable moment that belongs to " the life and times" of Louts the Fourteenth during his sixty years of independent sovereignty. Much of the history of the period has irrecoverably lost its interest for the general reader. Nothing but great ardour in the study of history or poli- tics would now induce anybody to gain a knowledge of the com- plicated and ever-changing relations among the powers of Europe, and the endless negotiations, controversies, and treaties, to which these relations gave rise. All partiality or predilection for any of the contending parties is long ago extinct : we care not now who lost or who won ; and no feeling is excited but that of disgust awl indignation when we read of provinces laid waste, cities sacked, and thousands of brave men placed against each other in bloody strife, to gratify the passions of an ambitious or profligate monarch, a rapacious minister, or a titled courtezan.

We shall not say that Mr. JAMES has bestowed too much time upon the political tracasseries and military transactions of the Grand Monarque's reign, because they form a large portion of his personal as well as public history, and the work would have been incomplete without them. Mr. JAMES has made his account of these matters as succinct as is consistent with clearness : but still, there are parts of his book in which most readers will not have much scruple in turtling over two leaves at a time. The fault lies in the subject in we than in the w iter ; though we thiuk that he might have imparted some graphic interest to the exploits Of TURENNE, MONTECUCULI, VI LLER01, and MARLBOROUGH, in- stead of chronicling petty movements, affairs, and sieges, fre- quently with the dryness of' a gazette. As these chronicles, how- ever, seem to be careful and accurate, they may be useful in the way of reference. A large portion of the work, however, consists of matter much more attractive. Mr. JAMES'S account of Louis's governtwort, and the effects of his policy, alternately salutary and pernicious, upon the condition of France, is valuable and instructive, and affords materials for testing the author's estimate (somewhat too favourable) of the monarch's character. Louts, moreover, was not only a great king, but a very remarkable man ; and his per- sonal biography is much more striking than is usually the case with men placed so far beyond the reach of the vicissitudes of fortune. Louts was gifted by nature with good and noble qua- lities, which, though impaired by the possession of absolute power, and habits of indulgence, were never destroyed ; and their influ- ence on his conduct, both public and private, during the whole

of his lifemnake him a more interesting object than se".""„„„ have been even if he bad been a wiser and better man le JAMES'S book is a full-length portrait of the individeno. what flattered, as portraits generally are, but well drawn, coloured, and, on the whole, a good likeness. The principal 6,72 too, is advantageously placed in the centre of a group c0,141,''' of the memorable personages—the wise, the brave, the gay, the fair—who composed the brilliant and dissolute court of 14/--,, and the whole forins a picture, happy in its subject, and skilfully' treated by the artist.

It was LOUIS the Fourteenth who first established despotism cessor, the people enjoyed consiehb. in France. Before his time, and even in the reign of his ma; stittmonal privileges ; and were 1:11,:e and turbulent in opposition practical freedom and 00. to the throne when these privileges were iuvaded. One of the similar to our Habeas Corpus Act, gave to every French subject' imprisoned on a criminal charge, the right of demanding to 1); breught to trial within a certain number of days : but this, with every thing which interposed an obstacle to his own absolute power, was swept away by Louts. Mr. JAMES describes very well the manner in which, under the influence of the young king, the despotic principle assumed that sentimental character, thla air of absolute devotion to the Grand NIouroque, which continued to distinguish French loyalty down to the time of the Revolution. After the death of alaarin, we have seen that Louis burst forth upon the French people in a new character. Ilk. energy and the determination which he displayed, the great abilities of his mind, the grace and dignity of his peon th change from poverty and want to prosperity and abundance, the introdumia; the weariness which the whole French nation felt of civil contentionr, and improvement of refined arts, the extension of luxurious habits, the pinion for gaining, and the consequent necessity of frequent pecuniary supplies; nit general conviction throughout the country of the selfishness of the higher classes, and their real want of that patriotism togs:I:Litt:141i the civil war, gave to every thing in France a ithewnyd ehnai hail ptroeAt.eaarddeal the establishment of the most despotic authority, but of is light anti cheerful hint The people submitted, and were contented ; the nobles turned courtiers, and skit with each other in flattery and sulnuis•don ; and devotion to the King he. came as much firshion under Louis the Foorteenth, as opposition to the court had been in the times of the Fronde. But Laois, with greater opparta• nities and greater skill than the factious leaders of his mother's ticys, contrived to impress upon that, which had been at first but a finhiou, the character ofa sentiment he taught the court and the people to believe that their glory we involved in his—that his success and his tiggrauulizetneitr were intimately united with chow of France. In effecting this object, his talents, his courage, his grim, hisiligtiity, his pride, his ambition, his selfishness, each played a part. Thegrest and grasping projects which dazzled his own imagination dazzled still more easily the imagination of his people ; he led them, in short, in the way they were most willing to follow ; and while he did so, he kept up his own dignity with so powerful a hand, that the nation felt its dignity increased by that clits n watch.

Louts, however, though a despot, was no tyrant. He was mild in his nature ; and, when et uelties were committed in his name or under his authority, it was when this part of his character was overpowered by ambition or religious bigotry. The persecution of the Protestants forms perhaps the greatest blot on his memory: but this measure, equally barbarous and impolitic, which gave a deathblow to the manufactures of France, was the work of design- ing Churchmen, who taught him to make it a matter of con- science. To this act the King was impelled by the counsels of Louvots, notwithstanding the earnest remonstrances or COL- BERT,—two men who stood, like familiar damsons, at each carol the monarch, the one prompting him to good and the other to evil. While COLBERT hail the ascendancy, the government was wise, beneficial, and prosperous ; the taxes were reduced, and every en- couragement given to commerce, agriculture, and the arts. When

Louvots, by his rival's death, acquired unbounded influence over the King, the government became ambitious, arbitrary, oppressive, and unfortunate. In truth, notwithstanding all that Mr. JAmsa has said of the personal energy of Louts, his government was of cameleon character, varying in its hue according as N1AZARI4, COLBERT, and Louvois were successively in the ascendant. Still, however, the mildness of Louts's personal character never forsook him, and showed itself in his worst days as well as in his best. Of this disposition in his earlier years, Mr. JAMES gives the fol- lowing pleasing instances.

Aeveral anecdotes of Louis during the war in Holland remtin well authenti eated, anti east greater lustre upon him than any of his military movements la th .t campaign. The original clemency of his nature shone out on many oces• was obliged occasionally to make, he contrived to reconcile military.seventa

nil the

sire's, and still marked distinctly the difference between the ile:pot a tyrant. Notwithstanding the strictness of his discipline and the eximples.he not only with substantial justice but even wi;11 mercy itself. In hrst com- mencing his march, and especially in passing throo,,h the Spanish Netherlands, an order had been given for no man, on paiu of death, to stray from his curls, and on the third or thurth day's march, two men were hung in sight of the army for disobedience of this command. It was studiow•ly emicealed, however, by Louis's older, that they had been caught in the commission oh plunder. sad rape; and by affecting to punish the minor offence, when in reality he punished the greater, he produced the beneficial effects of stopping such crimes in the To another offence, with which Louis would have found it more difficult tO deal, namely, treason, lie shut his eyes, where it was not dangerous to do se. In a number of the places taken front the Dutch, considerable portions of the garrisons were faund to be French : these places in general surrendere.d at dis• cretion, and Louis therefore was justified by law and custom in dealing with the garrisons as he thought fit. Hail he acted with any degree of severity, the slaughter would have beeu dreadful ; but in all instances he shut his eyes, and would not even see the garrisons, lest he should be obliged to recoginze his ova subjects.

Of the same disposition'in his latter days, even wh!.n exerted ill opposition to his powerful minister, the tbllorving passage a(fords a very remarkable instance.

The ravages committed in the Palatinate have cast a deep stain upon Loa* i nil (loess aod humanity • nor were these ravages confined to one mo es 4to .or

b s nes of horror which were pet petrated by the army under

ete°: tie eriegiletgien compared with those afterwards enacted by

rTun:ePnnigen w;

the forces of Duras. . 1 That stain must remain upon the memory of Louis; for thengh thrse tend) e ttansaitions took place solely byrder of beLouvoibs, yetti, hi hefore remarked, the kihg who suffers his authority to so a use ,

sbe',".4em;s'-veehatgeable with no slight Portion of the crime. But in making this

Khotowledgment, we must not omit to show, by the last at of the tragedy, (which pieceded only a shott time the death of Louvois,) that Louis was poeughout opposed to the cruelty of his minister, and only submitted um willingly to the instigations tit one in whom he bad been aecustomed to place the ninst unbounded cmfidence. It was rontrary both to his wishes and his segment that these acts were co lllll lined. if we may believe the account of aIntest every contemporary histot Lan ; and every fresh instance of cruelty to w bich be was called upon to consent, increased the indignaot opposition of the

monarch.

At length, after 31anhehn and Heidelberg bad been token, and all the beauti- fulAenontry lying uuder the Bergstrasse had been ravaged from end to end ; after three or hiur comiderable towns, more than fifty costks. and an i llll nense num- ber of villages and bin oughs had been burnt to the ground, LOI1V01/3 proposed to the King that the large awl important city of 'Ft eve. should also be de- troyed. Louis refused his consent, and Louvois argued with him and urged him in eAn ; but the minister, though fearful of pres.ing the matter blither at the thee, on account of the signs of indignation which the Kittg displa)ed, knew that by imuortunity and argument he could frequently overecme the King's resolutions ; nod returning after a few d Is, he told the monarch, that having day perctiird that molting but conscu 'ohms scruples Mid pievented him from taking a step so neces-aty as the burning of Treves, he hail determined to bring the moral and religious tevonsibility upon himself, and had con. lequeatly sent off a courier on his own authot ity with an order to destroy that

chy. The King's rage was now so fearfully excited, that, forgetting all his usual

dignity of detneanotit , he stal tell up and would have knoiled down the mini, ter with the lire-bons, if Madame He Miintenon had not cast herself in the way while Louvois hastened to est:we by the door. " Send off another courier ii itantly," shouted the K ing, as he made his esear. " If he arrive not in t me and they but ti a single I at, your head shall answer for it."

Louvois, it would seem, had told his master a falsehood. No courier had rcauy been sent ; but he was non. compelled to go tilt ough the form of des- patching another courier, apparently charged with a counter order, fur the pur- pose of satisfying the King.

In private life, Louts exhibited warm affections, and a generous sad magnanimous spirit: in all which partieulars be forms a com- plete contrast to the heartless voluptuary CHARLES the Second, to whom he has been often and too hastily compared. They were both licentious, and both by their example heightened the licen- tiousness of their courts. There was an external resemblance, too, in the course of their irregular amours. But Louts was sus- ceptible of deep and enduring passion. and of all those feelings which, in an humble sphere, might have made him happv and exemplary in domestic life; while CHARLES was as incapable of love as of friendship, generosity, or gratitude. That Louts was capable of inspiring love, too, as well as of feeling it, appears from the history of the unhappy LA VALLIERE, whose passion for him was as ardent as it was disinterested and sincere. Louis's first irregularities appear to have originated in blighted affection and a marriage of state. He was passionately enamoured Of MARIE DE MANCINI, the captivating niece of Cardinal MAZARIN; whom he would have married, had he not been forced, by political intrigues, into his marriage with the Infanta of Spain. This young lady, too, seems to have really loved her royal admirer ; and the pair were nearly heart-broken at parting. MAZARIN supported the Queen-mother in her opposition to the King's mar- riage with his niece. and determined to prevent it.

Jo pursuance of his determination, Mazatin gave orders that his niece should be immediately tetnovell from the court zind placed with her sister at a convent in Brouage; and on the night before her departure, the Queen withdraw her aon from the court and spoke with him long alone. When they returned, it was evident that they had both been weeping; but the mind of Louis was now made up: he was determined to yield to reason rather than to passion; and though he continued to the last to show the same tenderness towards Marie De Mancini, he suffered her to depart on the 22d of 31 rte. He conducted her him- self to the carriage prepared to bear her away without at all attempting to con- ceal the tears he shed. She made one i Iron to al m passion against reason at the very last moment : " You weep," she suit, "and yet you might command." Louis, however, resisted both IIB OWII passion and him s. and having seen her depart, he net out for Chantilly to bury his grief in solitude.

Louts could not love the wife so forced upan him : he neglected her, and sought happisess elsewhere. His intercourse with LA VALLIERE soon tsllowed. Mr. LIMES'S history Of this lady is interesting, and feelingly told : we suspect, however, that 3Asiss, like other writers, colours his heroine's character a little too highly. She was, it is said, a prey tosretuorse during the whole period of her intercourse with the King : but, if there was re- morse, there was no repentance. There was no indication of the only test of repentance, the resolution to sin no more : for it was not till she had lost every hope of keeping her hold of the King's affection, that she slowly awl reluctaotly made up her mind to retire to the convent of the Carmelites. Her fall was the rise of the haughty and imperious Madame DE NIONTESPAN; and she in her turn, though after a low period of power, was forced to give way to the artful and hypocritical MAINTENON; who exercised a despotic sway over the mind of Louts to the last day of his life. Louis died on the 1st September 1715 : and "the people of iiPreece," says Mr. JAMES, " so far from weeping for his death, gave signs of rejoicing, which were at least indecent." We sus- pect this is not the proper commentary on the rejoicings of the Le of France. In a great political event, in which the people ars deeply interested either for good or evil, they will naturally feel strongly, and as naturally give strong expression to their feelings. Had Louts, long before, followed to the grave his illus- trious minister COLBERT, arrested in the course of a beneficent and enlightened administration, his death would have been sin- cerely mourned by the people. But the sovereign who, guided by

evil counsellors, had driven the artisans from the towns, and torn the peasants from the fields—who had ruined the finances, the commerce, and the agriculture of France—who ha I loaded the industrious classes with heavy burdens, from which the privileged orders were free—and, bitterest of all, who had humbled the" great nation" in the eyes of all Europe—must necessarily have become an object of hatred ; and hence it was that his death was hailed with general joy, as the removal of an intolerable grievance.