rials for a bath of human blood to the monarch, in order to invigorate his frame wasted by excesses. The last days of this degraded being were haunted by the fears of death. He would not allow the name of that king of terrors to be mentioned in his presence. He avoided the sight of churchyards, funeral monuments, and whatever could recall to mind the thought of the termination of life. During his reign, and that of his more immediate predecessors, the enormous sum of twenty millions sterling was expended in supplying the court with the materials of extravagance and criminal pleasure. Of Louis xv. it may truly be said, in the language of Scripture, "He did evil in the sight of the Lord." The alienation of his subjects' affections, which followed his selfish career, reads to all monarchs the important lesson, that the indulgence of sin is the greatest enemy to their prosperity, and confirms the emphatic declaration of the inspired penman— himself a monarch-" It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness," Prov. xvi. 12.

While such was the degenerate state of the French monarchy previously to the revolution, the condition of the nobility weakened, instead

of strengthening the bulwarks of the throne. Many of the worst privileges of the feudal system still existed in this body. Its members, in common with the clergy, were exempted from the payment of the principal taxes. They engrossed almost all offices under government; and even in the army, no one was allowed to hold a commission, unless he could produce a certificate of noble birth. About eighty thousand families in France were entitled to these unjust privileges. As might have been expected from the numbers of the aristocratic order, it was far from being a united body. There was first the distinction of old and new noblesse. The latter were composed of men who had, in many cases, obtained their rank by purchase, or by the accumulation of wealth, in mean and sordid pursuits. The old noblesse were made up of those families whose ancestors had distinguished themselves in the early period of French history; but out of one thousand families forming this division, not more than three hundred had the means of properly supporting their station. As it was opposed to the spirit of their order that they should engage in commercial pursuits, a large portion of the old nobility had no alternative but to depend for support on the offices

under government; while it too frequently happened, that, driven by indigence, members of this body had recourse to loose and dishonest practices, which attached a stigma to the whole of their order. There was a second distinction of the French aristocracy, into town and country noblesse. The former spent almost the whole of their time at court, immersed in political intrigues or frivolous pursuits. The country noblesse, on the other hand, resided generally on their own property, and were despised by the court noblesse on account of their rusticity. The French nobles were, therefore, split into factions. Their morals also deeply partook of the general taint; whilst, except in a few in ́stances, there was a want of that kindly attention to the interests of their dependants, which Providence has graciously designed as a means of softening the necessary inequalities of the social system. In all countries an aristocracyof wealth, or talent, or title-has existed; and the duties of those who have been called to fill such a position, are clear and unequivocal. They are intended to act as stewards for the promotion of the spiritual and temporal happiness of those orders of the community to whom God has given less of opulence, leisure, or ability. They

can lend their powerful aid to schemes of piety, benevolence, and public usefulness; and thus become not only the ornament, but the solid support of a throne. Where, however, privileges are misapplied, where wealth and power are employed, not for the promotion of the glory of the Supreme Giver, but wasted in frivolous and irreligious pursuits-where, in a word, "the nobles put not their necks willingly to the work of the Lord," history, inspired and uninspired, alike concur to threaten a day of retribution.

While such was the miserable condition of the monarchy, nobility, and lower orders of France, there was a total absence of that religious spirit which might have infused fresh vigour and revived the decaying energies of the country. The Roman Catholic religion was that established by law, and its absurd and extravagant doctrines were but ill calculated to meet the inquiring spirit of the age. "She could," says an able writer on the French revolution, when speaking of popery in France, "explain nothing, scften nothing, renounce nothing consistently with her assertion of infallibility. The whole trash which had accumulated for ages of darkness and ignorance,

whether consisting of extravagant pretensions, incredible assertions, absurd doctrines which confounded the understanding, or puerile ceremonies which revolted the taste, were alike incapable of being explained away or abandoned." The church was filled also with men of immoral lives, who cherished the doctrines of infidelity; while, so late as the reign of Louis XVI., a most impolitic principle had been adopted, of excluding all clergy, not of noble birth, from those benefices which were of a higher order. Although the lower class of the French clergy were frequently men of moral lives, yet, as a body, they were unhappily destitute of vital religion. The great fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone, was wanting in their system; while its place was supplied by a weary and unprofitable round of vain penances and superstitious practices, which oppressed the unhappy devotee who performed them, without communicating relief to the troubled conscience.

In the district of La Vendée the lower orders of the clergy were in general free from the corruptions of infidelity and gross immorality; but even in that quarter it was no uncommon thing for the curate of the parish to bring his