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LOUIS

LOUIS XVI.

THE particulars of the life of this accomplished, but unfortunate monarch, and the circumstances attending his deplorable fate, have been already so minutely detailed, as to render it less a subject of regret, that the limits of our publication will permit us only to give a brief and rapid sketch of the events of a reign, which gave birth to a revolution, the most important in its consequences recorded in the history of civilized nations.

Louis the sixteenth of the name, was born at Versailles, on the 23d of August, 1754. He was the second son of Louis, dauphin, who died in 1765, and ascended the throne in the year 1774, upon the death of his grandfather, Louis XV. He had not attained the age of 21, when he assumed the reins of government, having previously married the daughter of Marie-Therese, MarieAntoinette, of Austria, then the object of the idolatry of the French.

Louis XV. left behind him ministers who were hated and despised. He had suppressed the parliaments, and exiled the members: the finances were in a deplorable state, and the public discontented in the extreme: added to which, an indifference in matters of religion had succeeded the quarrels of the Jansenists and the Molinists, and opinions of the most dangerous tendency, on all sides, manifested themselves. The spirit of reform and liberty, which fermented in every head, and developed itself in.

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all works that issued from the press, seduced even the monarch, whose authority it condemned. The young prince called into administration Malesherbes and Turgot, two virtuous and enlightened men, but devoted to new opinions. Dazzled, like themselves, by a specious theory, he judged the hearts of his subjects after his own, and that of his two ministers, and made it a prínciple of his conduct to sacrifice every thing for the welfare of his people. He remitted the tax, known by the name of joyeux avénement, abolished personal servitude in his dominions, and statute labour throughout his kingdom. He opened the state prisons, and recalled the parHaments. This last proceeding, which seemed to convey a tacit reproach on the act of Louis XV, encouraged in this formidable body a dangerous spirit of opposition. Louis XVI. solely occupied with the prospect of re-establishing order in the finances, lessened the number of pensions, diminished considerably the national debt, and consented to the suppression of a great part of the military establishment of his houshold. He also abolished preparatory torture in all criminal proceedings, and set on foot the establishment of Monts de Piété in France.

While he was thus employed in restoring order in his finances, the English colonies of America, then in a state of revolt against the mother country, implored the assistance of France. Louis XVI. sacrificing his private opinion to that of his council, acknowledged their independence: a formidable marine was, in an instant, created to support that proceeding. The war which followed, was not, at times, inglorious to the French army, but the finances were exhausted. It rivetted the long-existing animosity between the two nations of France and England; and the French officers, who had been engaged

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in the war of the United States, brought from thence the principles of republicanism, incompatible with a despotic government.

Previous to this epocha, Louis XVI. had bestowed particular attention to the commerce and the navy of France. He adopted the project of establishing a port and a bason at Cherburgh, to which place he repaired to visit the works. It was on this occasion, that, penetrated to the bottom of his heart with the testimonies of affection and respect received from his subjects, in a letter he wrote to the queen he declared he was the happiest monarch in the universe." But the emotions of felicity he experienced, were of short duration.

The treaty of commerce which had been concluded with England, on the peace of 1783, had long excited general discontent; this was increased by the knowledge of the disordered state of the finances. The loans had multiplied to an alarming extent; new methods were necessary to raise the supplies; a national bankruptcy was even apprehended, when the king, at the representations of M. de Calonne, convoked an assembly of the nobles to remedy the evil, who rejected the plans proposed. The Cardinal de Brienne, who directed the finances, thought to be able to carry by force, what his predecessor, Calonne, had attempted in vain by persuasion. The parliament refused to enregister his pecuniary edicts, and demanded the calling of the states general. Louis acceding to the popular opinion, immediately ordered their convocation. Believing himself beloved, because he deserved to be so, he disregarded all personal sacrifices, desirous of establishing his power on the basis of public good. The impolicy of this measure, not at first fore→

seen, was greatly aggravated by the imprudence of Necker, who had been recalled into administration, in granting to the third estate a number of representatives, equal to that of the two other orders. It was at this epoch that some deputies of the third state of Brittany, admitted to an audience, having thrown themselves on their knees before the king, he hastily raised them, addressing to them these words, worthy of Titus, Levez vous: ce n'est point à mes pieds qu'est la place de mes enfans. The states opened on the 5th of May, 1789, and on the 17th of June following, the third estate constituted itself into a national assembly. Louis XVI. after having exerted himself, without effect, to oppose this measure, required that the clergy and the nobility should unite with that assembly. "Je ne veux pas," said he upon that occasion, "qu'un seul homme périsse pour ma querelle." This last expression may be considered as forming the basis of his conduct, of his generous weakness, and of all his misfortunes. Become daring now with impunity, Mirabeau and others excited the populace of Paris to insurrection. They possessed themselves of the bastile on the 14th of July, and three days after the king went to the Hotel de Ville, to announce the recal of M. Necker, and the dismissal of the troops, whose approach to the capital had given umbrage to the deputies. All the kingdom was now in arms, after the example of the capital. On the 5th of October, under a vain pretext, the populace, armed with pikes and other weapons, went to Versailles, and besieged the palace. A scene the most shocking to humanity then ensued. The king, faithful to his principles, preserving his usual serenity of mind, ordered his body guards to retire, and delivering himself and his family to their protection, was conducted to Paris. Before his carriage, by way of trophy, they bore

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the bleeding heads of several of his guards. From that moment the palace of the Tuileries, where his residence was appointed, might be considered as a prison, in which the royal family, guarded by the Parisian troops, and deprived gradually of all those who venerated their persons, daily experienced new indignities. Sensible, at length, that it was no longer possible for him to govern a state so extensive as France, by the feeble means 'which had been left at his disposal; foreseeing new persecutions, and anxious to preserve his family from outrage, Louis resolved, on the night of the 20th June, 1791, to quit the kingdom but this enterprise failed. He was recognized at Varennes, and brought back to Paris as a criminal.

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The result of this event was his acceptance of the constitution; and, although it was evidently by constraint, he still proposed to himself scrupulously to observe every thing which had been imposed upon him. ordinances, it submitted all the laws to his sanction. On the 19th of June, 1792, however, upon the decree for the transportation of the clergy, he renounced the oaths he had taken. The following day the Tuileries was again invested by an enraged and sanguinary populace. The king opened the gates to them, and with a serene aspect exclaimed, "Je ne crois pas avoir rien à craindre des François. His composure disarmed his assassins, who, after subjecting the monarch to every species of menace and insult, in the end retired, without doing him any personal injury.

The occurrences of this day gave the king a presage of his approaching fate. From that moment he expected his destruction, and prepared his family for the endurancé of new misfortunes. A fresh storm was soon excited,

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