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BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

NO. CCCLXXIII. NOVEMBER, 1846. VOL. LX.


CONTENTS.

    MARLBOROUGH'S DISPATCHES. 1710-1711,            517

    MOHAN LAL IN AFGHANISTAN,                       539

    ON THE OPERATION OF THE ENGLISH POOR-LAWS,      555

    PRUSSIAN MILITARY MEMOIRS,                      572

    ADVICE TO AN INTENDING SERIALIST,               590

    A NEW SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY,                      606

    HONOUR TO THE PLOUGH,                           613

    LUIGIA DE' MEDICI,                              614

    THINGS IN GENERAL,                              625


EDINBURGH:

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW,
LONDON.

_To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._

SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.




BLACKWOOD'S

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

No. CCCLXXIII. NOVEMBER, 1846. VOL. LX.




MARLBOROUGH'S DISPATCHES.

1710-1711.

Louis XIV. was one of the most remarkable sovereigns who ever sat upon
the throne of France. Yet there is none of whose character, even at this
comparatively remote period, it is more difficult to form a just
estimate. Beyond measure eulogised by the poets, orators, and annalists
of his own age, who lived on his bounty, or were flattered by his
address, he has been proportionally vilified by the historians, both
foreign and national, of subsequent times. The Roman Catholic writers,
with some truth, represent him as the champion of their faith, the
sovereign who extirpated the demon of heresy in his dominions, and
restored to the church in undivided unity the realm of France. The
Protestant authors, with not less reason, regard him as the deadliest
enemy of their religion, and the cruellest foe of those who had embraced
it; as a faithless tyrant, who scrupled not, at the bidding of bigoted
priests, to violate the national faith plighted by the Edict of Nantes,
and persecute, with unrelenting severity, the unhappy people who, from
conscientious motives, had broken off from the Church of Rome. One set
of writers paint him as a magnanimous monarch, whose mind, set on great
things, and swayed by lofty desires, foreshadowed those vast designs
which Napoleon, armed with the forces of the Revolution, afterwards for
a brief space realised. Another set dwell on the foibles or the vices of
his private character--depict him as alternately swayed by priests, or
influenced by women; selfish in his desires, relentless in his hatred;
and sacrificing the peace of Europe, and endangering the independence of
France, for the gratification of personal vanity, or from the thirst of
unbounded ambition.

It is the fate of all men who have made a great and durable impression
on human affairs, and powerfully affected the interests, or thwarted the
opinion of large bodies of men, to be represented in these opposite
colours to future times. The party, whether in church or state, which
they have elevated, the nation whose power or glory they have augmented,
praise, as much as those whom they have oppressed and injured, whether
at home or abroad, strive to vilify their memory. But in the case of
Louis XIV., this general propensity has been greatly increased by the
opposite, and, at first sight, inconsistent features of his character.
There is almost equal truth in the magniloquent eulogies of his
admirers, as in the impassioned invectives of his enemies. He was not
less great and magnanimous than he is represented by the elegant
flattery of Racine or Corneille, nor less cruel and hard-hearted than he
is painted by the austere justice of Sismondi or D'Aubigne. Like many
other men, but more than most, he was made up of lofty and elevated, and
selfish and frivolous qualities. He could alternately boast, with truth,
that there were no longer any Pyrenees, and rival his youngest
courtiers in frivolous and often heartless gallantry. In his younger
years he was equally assiduous in his application to business, and
engrossed with personal vanity. When he ascended the throne, his first
words were: "I intend that every paper, from a diplomatic dispatch to a
private petition, shall be submitted to me;" and his vast powers of
application enabled him to compass the task. Yet, at the same time, he
deserted his queen for Madame la Valliere, and soon after broke La
Valliere's heart by his desertion of her for Madame de Montespan. In
mature life, his ambition to extend the bounds and enhance the glory of
France, was equalled by his desire to win the admiration or gain the
favour of the fair sex. In his later days, he alternately engaged in
devout austerities with Madame de Maintenon, and, with mournful
resolution, asserted the independence of France against Europe in arms.
Never was evinced a more striking exemplification of the saying, so well
known among men of the world, that no one is a hero to his
valet-de-chambre; nor a more remarkable confirmation of the truth, so
often proclaimed by divines, that characters of imperfect goodness
constitute the great majority of mankind.

That he was a great man, as well as a successful sovereign, is
decisively demonstrated by the mighty changes which he effected in his
own realm, as well as in the neighbouring states of Europe. When he
ascended the throne, France, though it contained the elements of
greatness, had never yet become great. It had been alternately wasted by
the ravages of the English, and torn by the fury of the religious wars.
The insurrection of the Fronde had shortly before involved the capital
in all the horrors of civil conflict;--barricades had been erected in
its streets; alternate victory and defeat had by turns elevated and
depressed the rival faction. Turenne and Conde had displayed their
consummate talents in miniature warfare within sight of Notre-Dame.
Never had the monarchy been depressed to a greater pitch of weakness
than during the reign of Louis XIII. and the minority of Louis XIV. But
from the time the latter sovereign ascended the throne, order seemed to
arise out of chaos. The ascendancy of a great mind made itself felt in
every department. Civil war ceased; the rival faction disappeared; even
the bitterness of religious hatred seemed for a time to be stilled by
the influence of patriotic feeling. The energies of France, drawn forth
during the agonies of civil conflict, were turned to public objects and
the career of national aggrandisement--as those of England had been
after the conclusion of the Great Rebellion, by the firm hand and
magnanimous mind of Cromwell. From a pitiable state of anarchy, France
at once appeared on the theatre of Europe, great, powerful, and united.
It is no common capacity which can thus seize the helm and right the
ship when it is reeling most violently, and the fury of contending
elements has all but torn it in pieces. It is the highest proof of
political capacity to discern the bent of the public mind, when most
violently exerted, and, by falling in with the prevailing desire of the
majority, convert the desolating vehemence of social conflict into the
steady passion for national advancement. Napoleon did this with the
political aspirations of the eighteenth, Louis XIV. with the religious
fervour of the seventeenth century.

It was because his character and turn of mind coincided with the
national desires at the moment of his ascending the throne, that this
great monarch was enabled to achieve this marvellous transformation. If
Napoleon was the incarnation of the Revolution, with not less truth it
may be said that Louis XIV. was the incarnation of the monarchy. The
feudal spirit, modified but not destroyed by the changes of time,
appeared to be concentrated, with its highest lustre, in