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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,