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The Daguerreotype is published semi-monthly, for the Proprietors, by Tappan, Whittemore & Mason, Booksellers and Publishers, No. 114 Washington street, Boston, to whom orders for the work may be sent, and by whom they will receive prompt attention.

To agents who will interest themselves in extending the circulation of the work, liberal commissions will be given.

Translated for the Daguerreotype.

HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XV.

Histoire philosophique du règne de Louis
XV. Par le COMTE DE TOCQUEVILLE.
Paris.

[Philosophical History of the reign of Louis
XV. By COUNT DE TOCQUEVILLE.
Two volumes.]

to do homage to truth and thus to instruct mankind."

The work is especially distinguished by its masterly sketches of conspicuous characters; by its fund of anecdotes, which, when carefully selected, form the most expressive feature of historical pictures; and by that tone of sad earnestness which is so well adapted to the description of a period in which the spirit was sowing storms, and the lust of pleasure the seeds of fearful woe. We extract the following passage, which describes the last hours of Cardinal Dubois.

This work, according to the unanimous opinion of all persons capable of forming a judgment, is one of the most valuable which has issued from the press of France for a long time. A brief but copious narrative of the political events which occurred during the reign of Louis XV. serves as frame-work for a picture of the moral "God is patient, because he is eternal. He and social condition of France during the period had permitted the elevation of the impudent fabetween the death of Louis XIV. and that of his tion. But no sooner had the ambitious man vorite, the shameless type of an era of degenerasuccessor. The author has neglected no single reached the highest pinnacle of power, than his element of that confused state of affairs which heart became a prey to the tortures of hell. The then existed; he describes events and judges burden of public business which he had undermen, but always with the avowed design of ex- taken exhausted his strength; those who envied plaining the great revolution which brought the him, and foremost among them the ministers who eighteenth century to a close. Mr. de Tocque-lation, to the difficulties of his position. Weariwere under his orders, added, with crafty calcuville is a fitting person to undertake this task, ness and disquiet seized upon him, dread of the since he was himself an eye-witness of some remfuture gnawed at his heart. Writings which nants of the system which was overturned in were found after his death, testify of the excited 1789. For it is a mistaken idea which has been state of his mind and of the dark visions which circulated in several journals, that the author is disturbed his spirit. The thought that he should the same Count de Tocqueville who has gained a soon be compelled to resign the greatness for reputation by his work upon North America. which he had sacrificed all, filled him with inexpressible agony. With terror he felt the apThe latter is the son of the author of the History proach of death. Dubois was afflicted with an of Louis XV. In the month of December, 1793, internal tumor; he insisted upon mounting on the same prison contained Mr. de Malesherbes, horseback that he might be present at a review, his daughter and son-in-law, the President Ro- and enjoy the distinctions and honors with which, sanbo, his son, his two daughters and his two its prime minister, he would be received. The sons-in-law, Mr. de Tocqueville and Mr. de Cha- gratification of his childish vanity aggravated his teaubriand. The guillotine spared only Mr. de complaints; symptoms of a cancer ensued, and an operation was considered necessary. When Tocqueville and his wife. he was informed of this, he broke into the most violent passion, but was persuaded by the Duke of Orleans to submit to the operation, which, however, had no good result, but rather hastened his end. When a bystander observed that it was time that he should reconcile himself to God, exhausted his strength, and before the arrival of his rage knew no bounds. This burst of passion the priest who was sent for, he expired."

Mr. de Tocqueville very justly remarks, that "in order to comprehend the new state of things thoroughly, it is useful, nay almost necessary, to have seen something of the ancien régime. Af ter a revolution which shook so many foundations, which excited so many passions, old age offers many advantages to an author who desires to draw the picture of a period of time not very remote from his own. With the number of his years increases also his knowledge of the human heart. Become a stranger to the things which are agitating the world, he contemplates them with impartiality. His prejudices have disappeared under the mighty influence of ever.ts; and in seizing the pen he has no other aim but

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pened letters; coarse and unmannered, the least | tained the germs. The condition of the duraopposition made him furious, and at such moments he tore about his office like a madman. "Keep another clerk to do your swearing and cursing for you," replied his secretary, to whom he complained for want of time. The want of confidence which was caused by his dishonesty, and the contempt with which he was regarded, did most injury to his administration. After his death, France rejoiced to be liberated from the dishonorable yoke which had been laid upon her. The Duke of Orleans made use of, but did not love him; when a storm arose on the day of the operation, he exclaimed aloud, "this weather may play the deuce with my rascal;" and when soon afterwards he recalled those who had been banished, he wrote to Nocé, "reviens, mon ami, morte la bête, mort le venin."

Mr. de Tocqueville sketches the Regent in the following words: "We have done justice to the brilliant qualities of the Duke of Orleans; but there is a merited reproach which will for ever rest upon his memory; he corrupted the nation, and lowered it in the opinion of foreign countries. The French could not pardon his selfish submission to the will of England and the injury which he did to Spain. He was indebted to the firmness of Cardinal Dubois and to the habits of subordination introduced by Louis XIV. for the obedience and the peace of France. His friends lamented him on account of his easy good-nature, but the people received the tidings of his death with indifference. They thought that in his sudden death they saw the hand of God, who would not give to the guilty man any time for repentance. The two parties which divided the Church accused him, the one of indifference, the other of tyranny. The army was discontented because he was too weak to be able to reward merit. Many citizens reproached him with the loss of their savings, the ruin of their property. Sorrow for his death vanished at the recollection of the morality which he had corrupted and the vice of which he had made a show. Succeeding generations, which were to reap the fruits of the seeds sown by the Duke of Orleans, judged him no less severely In corrupting the higher classes of the state, this prince was undermining their authority and preparing their downfall.”

The state, such as Louis XIV. had formed it by his internal policy, was no longer the individual; but still he was a king, supported against his people by a brilliant nobility, and a wealthy and subservient church. This was the constitution which he left to France; a constitution which was, at least, a skilful work, since it survived its creator by nearly a century, although from the very first hour of its existence it was exposed to all the infirmities of which it con

tion of such a state of things was the approval of public opinion; for public opinion was the source of all its greatness. King, nobility, and church derived their power from a purely moral influence. As soon as royalty sinned against itself, and the nobility exercised its privileges in gross abuses, and the clergy by the immorality of her dignitaries polluted the altar, the system was doomed, and the building no longer any thing but a tottering framework. This three-fold calamity happened under Louis XV. It had certainly been prepared by the preceding government, but the dignity which Louis XIV. displayed, even in his extravagances, opposed a barrier, though it was but an artificial one, to a general corruption of morals. It was under the Regent and his minister, Dubois, that vice was first paraded at the foot of the throne, and even upon the throne itself.

The work of M. de Tocqueville contains a striking description of the corrupt manners which had extended their influence over all the higher grades of society. The author has done well to strip the details which he has laid before us of those charms with which French writers know but too well how to adorn vice. With a vigorous pen he draws a picture of the revolting immorality of the epoch. It is most melancholy to see how corruption gained the mastery over the young king, and stifled the few noble sentiments which the culpable mismanagement of his early education had left yet remaining. The whole responsibility of the failure of this royal life falls upon the egotistical skill of Cardinal Fleury, who might have saved the youthful sovereign. One half of the pains which the Duke of Beauvilliers bestowed upon his father, would have made of him a great prince. A striking anecdote is related by a Turk, Mehemed Effendi. The ambassador of the Sublime Porte had been presented to the young king; "As soon as be saw me he hastened to meet me, and a few assurances of friendship passed between us; he was delighted with our dress and our daggers. The Marshal Villeroi asked me, What do you think of the beauty of our king? He is only eleven years and a half old. What do you think of his figure? see, this is his own hair.' At these words he turned the king round, and I took notice of his hair, which descended to his waist. 'He has also a very good carriage,' added the Marshal; 'walk a few steps,' he said to the king. And the king walked across the room with the strut of a bantam cock. Now a little faster,' ordered the marshal, 'in order to show how gracefully you run.' And the king began to run through the room."

The clergy plunged, without a blush, into the

whirlpool of immorality. It seemed as if they had resolved to draw down hatred and contempt upon the church, and the court offered them every opportunity for the purpose. The rich benefices were bestowed without the least regard to merit, and the most shameless demoralization prevailed among Episcopal ranks, which, even under Louis XIV. had included many who were the ornaments of their station. "An immoral clergy is always intolerant; it thinks to conceal the looseness of its morals by the strictness of its doctrine; it is severe because it is not Christian." No epoch proves the truth of these words more clearly than the eighteenth century. The persecutions of the Jansenists and Protestants are well known.

The author has not neglected to inquire in what manner these causes of the destruction of the monarchical state of society wrought upon public opinion, and he has explained from them the violent character and the fertile influence of the literature of that age. He shows us how that literature was easily enabled to draw hatred and contempt upon institutions which were dishonored by the vices of those very classes and persons whose mission it was to defend them, by making them venerable in the eyes of the people. But this explanation does not induce him to look with favor upon the philosophers of the eighteenth century. He brings a twofold accusation against them. They lowered, he says, in their writings the nation in its own eyes, and thus the French ceased to respect themselves; and, instead of enlightening, they demoralized the people. It was, in his opinion, for this reason that the revolution failed to accomplish its original purpose of improving the human race. As to the first part of this accusation, we are disposed to undertake the defence of the philosophy, when we read in the book of the author himself into what a depth of moral degradation France had fallen, and how impossible it was that it could heal its own wounds. But it is unjust to charge the philosophers with the bad education of the Frenchmen of the eighteenth century. Upon whom falls the responsibility of the education of a people, and from whom had the philosophers themselves received their education? M. de Tocqueville has answered this question, with equal impartiality and ability, in denouncing the bad spirit which governed the clergy, and the immorality of the prelates of the church. And yet the author, not contented with these causes, which are more than sufficient to account for the facility with which unbelief and irreligion spread their poison through society, does not scruple to charge the reformation with the skepticism which seized upon the people:"So long as the reformation was militant, it con

firmed rather than shook the religious principle; both parties clung fast to the convictions for which they risked their lives. But when peace had followed upon the din of arms, the reformation divided into a number of sects, each of which professed to be the organ of heaven, and the expression of truth. Out of this chaos doubt could not but arise, and out of doubt unbelief."

It is not our intention to refute this catholic argumentation; we would only observe that if de Tocqueville is right, the most irreligious writers of the eighteenth century ought to have issued from the reformed church. This however was not the case; for those numerous enemies, who with Voltaire at their head, made war upon Christianity, had for the most part forged the weapons with which they fought in the college of Jesuits; while almost all the writers who protested against the infidel doctrines of the age, belonged to the party of the reformation. Rousseau himself was indebted to Calvin for that spiritualism with which he contended so vehemently against the materialism of his enemies; Euler, Haller, Abauzit, Charles Bonnet, were not born within the pale of the Catholic church. We regret that even Mr. de Tocqueville has not been able to divest himself of this often refuted error respecting the consequences of the reformation.

We regret, likewise, that Mr. de Tocqueville has adopted another erroneous opinion; namely, that Voltaire is indebted to Bayle for his scepticism, and that Bayle derived it from the refor mation. This question ought to be more narrowly examined, and Mr. de Tocqueville is fully equal to the task; but this is the weak point of his book, that, with regard to the influence of the literature of the age, he has not formed an independent judgment, but has relied too much upon the opinions of his predecessors.

That we do regret that the author has not given us on this subject the result of his own views and inquiries, in preference to that of the writers, however distinguished they may be, from whom he quotes, is a sufficient evidence of the high esteem in which we hold the soundness of his judginent. We cannot forbear to transcribe the admirable remarks with which he concludes:

"Thus advanced the movement which so many different causes had provoked. The philosophers, by dint of crying down the nation in their writings had made Frenchmen ashamed of themselves. All the various parties in the nation appeared to be agreed upon the destruction of the old social order. It was very clear that important changes would take place at an uncertant; and it was at the approach of a storm tain period, but which would not be very diswhich would shake the very foundations of the state, that philosophical pride sought to exalt itself in attacking heaven. In this manner the

bridle of conscience was broken, and the great
name of God, which would have moderated the
violence of the passions which every revolution
excites, was blotted out. Hence it came that the
legitimate conquests of liberty were soon fol-
lowed by the deadly combats of empty ideas, in
which those of the greater number, which gained
the victory, were polluted by the blood of the
conquered. Other nations will make political
changes similar to ours, but they will be pre-
served from the same violences, because they
will have retained religious sentiments.
"Louis XV. leaves royalty sullied. At his

death the people rejoices, the enlightened congratulate each other. The vices of the sovereign had made an incurable wound in the heart of the people. Neither the virtues of Louis XVI., nor the glory acquired in the American war, nor France raised into the first rank of nations, nor the love which the king bears to his people, nor the liberal institutions which he grants to them, can heal that wound; and the stains upon the crown will only be washed out in the blood of the just, ascending to heaven by the steps of the scaffold.'- Blätter für Literarische Unterhaltung.

CHARTISM.

Chartist one who is insolent, turbulent, and discontented by nature, and a leveller on principle- he finds from experience to be the worst class of man he has to deal with. With such a man he can have no relations, no sympathy. He employs him as a matter of justice, but he dreads his evil influence, and not the least because he is a frequenter of the gin-shop.

A newspaper reporter's idea of a Chartist is, that every pickpocket, and every drunken man, who is taken up immediately before or after a public meeting of the working classes, is a Chartist, and he puts it in his paper accordingly.

The events of the past month have brought | justice, in bad times, or during a strike. A bad prominently into notice a principle concerning which it is not too much to say that, up to the 10th of April last, few persons not immediately pledged to its support entertained any distinct idea. If you asked my Lord Verisoft or the Duke of Bidborough what he supposed Chartism to be, he would stare in your face and reply that really he had never given the subject a thought. Put the same question to any of our younger and busier nobles, and he would express his extreme regret that such a wild project had ever been started, because nothing was so likely to impede him in his efforts to better the condition of the laboring classes. Vary your question a little, and beg the London tradesman to inform you on the subject of a Chartist, his position and wishes, and you would be told that he was a vagabond, | who loved to attend public meetings in Trafalgar Square, and to get drunk and break windows when the farce was ended. The manufacturer, to be sure, knows more about the class, and takes a fairer estimate. He has over and over again met Chartism face to face, and is aware that of the persons whom he employs four fifths profess to believe in it. Perhaps he has some lurking consciousness too, that in his next great struggle with the aristocracy he may have to call in the aid of this new political influence, and therefore, although if he reason upon it he must regard it with much dread, yet in the meantime he cannot help treating it with a sort of respect.

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As for the Chartists themselves, he has a divided opinion regarding them. A good Chartist one who has not forgotten that he desires to be a citizen, who believes that he has certain rights, and who wishes to advance peaceably and lawfully to their attainment-such a man he respects, because he knows his value. He finds in him a good workman in ordinary times, and a fast friend, though a sturdy stickler for

A newspaper editor knows nothing of Chartism, because he has to deal with the actual and not with the abstract. As the Historian of the Day, he is compelled to know something about Chartists; but as he believes them to be a class of persons who cannot afford to pay five pence for a newspaper, he either affects contempt for them, or abuses them heartily for the amusement of those who can.

If you put the question, What is Chaitism? to a French journalist, or a German republican, you will get a view of it altogether different from any of the foregoing. Penetrated to saturation with democratic feeling, such persons ascribe to the working classes of England the same sentiments which possess themselves.

They, therefore, look upon the Charter as the new code of English liberty; and not understanding the English practice of slow and steady progress, they imagine that this new order of things has only to be announced in order to be adopted. For this reason, they cannot understand why there was not a complete revolution in England early in the last month. They expected that there would be an universal rising of the working millions against those whom they would t rm their tyrants; and they look upon the English Chartists as a set of spirit

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