true political cohesion, civil equality, the right to choose its own government and the liberty which seems to be now firmly established. It is unnecessary here to recall the horrible massacres caused by religious strife, the disturbance occasioned by the rivalry of political factions and by various struggles for the possession of power. The history of France contains many glorious pages as well as some most deplorable ones. She has undergone many trials, great suffering and humiliations; yet she has always risen from her ashes, preserving intact her supremacy in letters, arts, and sciences.
For more than eighteen centuries absolute monarchy prevailed in France. The authority of the monarch was boundless, in him were vested all the functions now allotted almost universally to different people; he possessed at the same time all executive, legislative and judiciary power. His Ministers were as so many irresponsible clerks. His decrees and ordinances were laws and he levied taxes according to his will. By his orders (lettres de cachet) he could cause to be imprisoned for life or for an indefinite time any one who gained his displeasure. In 1789 this despotism received its first blow; but a series of revolutions was necessary in order to free the country of it and to obtain political freedom. During the whole of the nineteenth century France strove to secure the form of government most suited to her requirements. The crisis began with the fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), and for ten years thereafter the country was in a constant state of convulsion, each party plotting the downfall of the other. There was safety for no one; the guillotine perpetually at work threatened all alike. From the 14th of July, 1789, the most violent passions were unbridled, causing the most refined people in the world to become guilty of all manner of atrocities; scores of persons were put to death and their heads paraded through the streets, these ghastly sights exciting the people to fresh carnage.
In 1791 strenuous efforts were made to do away with the doctrine of the divine right of kings in favor of that
