there received instructions from Louis XVI. By the terrorists he was treated with incredible barbarity, and placed under charge of citizen cobbler Antoine Simon. Simon, however, found his place dull and resigned his office. The poor child was then condemned to utter solitude; for six months he was literally alone, supplied with some coarse food, which became the prey of the rats and other vermin that infested his dread abode. He never complained, and at last scarcely ever spoke, moved, or gave evidence of being—passing whole nights on a chair, with his elbows on the table. In the spring of 1795 his constitution had completely failed. The world faded, and another and better opened to this child of sorrow. He heard voices, or seemed to hear them, chaunting heavenly music; and then, without a struggle, he passed to the realm where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.—P. E. D.
Louis XVIII., brother of Louis XVI., and grandson of Louis XV., was born in 1755, and received the names of Louis Stanislas Xavier, with the title of Count of Provence. He displayed in his youth greater talents and courage than his brothers, and made respectable progress in his studies. In May, 1771, he married Louisa Marie Josephine of Savoy, by whom he had no issue. When the French revolution broke out Louis showed himself favourable to moderate and reasonable reforms; but the violence of the jacobins compelled him to leave the country in 1791. In 1793 he and his brother Charles entered France along with the Prussians; but their defeat at Valmy compelled him again to withdraw. He retired first to Westphalia and afterwards to Verona, which he was obliged to quit on the approach of the French troops under Bonaparte in 1796. After residing successively in various parts of Germany, he took up his residence in Mittau in Courland, whence he was hastily expelled in the depth of winter by the Czar Paul, in one of his mad freaks. He took refuge at Warsaw, but on the death of Paul returned to Mittau, where he continued to reside till the peace of Tilsit in 1807, when he was compelled to leave the continent and retire to England, the only country in Europe which could then afford him an asylum. He resided for the most part at Hanwell in Buckinghamshire, until the downfall of Napoleon in 1814 opened the way for his return to the throne of his ancestors. He entered Paris on the 3rd of May, amidst a concourse of spectators composed of all the nations of Europe. On the previous day he had issued a proclamation promising a representative government, a responsible ministry, and total oblivion of the past, and declaring the sale of national property to be irrevocable. On the 4th of June he laid before the senate and legislative body a charter securing the civil and religious rights of the people, and regulating the form of government and the powers of the legislature, which was unanimously accepted and became the fundamental law of the kingdom. The position of Louis at this juncture was exceedingly difficult and delicate, and it was no easy task to calm the passions of the multitude, to pacify the exasperated and humiliated Bonapartists and to satisfy the unreasonable expectations of the royalists. He was sincerely desirous to act with moderation and justice; but the violent and imprudent conduct of the extreme Bourbonists excited the hostility of the people. A conspiracy was hatched against Louis by the partisans of the exiled family, and on the return of Napoleon from Elba the Bourbons once more fled the country. Louis retired to Ghent, where he remained till the crowning victory of Waterloo and the march of the allies to Paris restored him to his throne. He was still disposed to govern with clemency and moderation; but the ultra-royalist party were now in the ascendant, and were bent on treating their fallen enemies with unsparing severity. All who had voted in the convention for the death of Louis XVI. or accepted office under Napoleon during the Hundred Days were banished, and Marshal Ney and some other officers were condemned to death. The Huguenots in the south of France were disgracefully ill-treated, and many of them murdered by a furious and fanatical rabble of Roman catholics and ultra-royalists, and no attempt was made for some months to repress these excesses or to bring the offenders to judgment. The press was placed under a censorship, the polytechnic school was dissolved, and prevotal courts were instituted, which in many cases shocked by their severity, and excited indignation by their injustice. Louis' first ministry, of which Talleyrand and Fouche' were leading members, was soon obliged to resign, and a new cabinet was formed, of which the duke of Richelieu was named head. The chamber of deputies, which had affected to be more royalist than the king himself, was dissolved in 1816, and the new elections were decidedly in favour of the moderate constitutional party. Liberal principles made a slow but steady advance, and in 1818 the duke of Richelieu retired from office, and was succeeded by Decazes, the personal favourite of the king, who relied for support on the liberals and moderate royalists. But his ministry was obnoxious to both the extreme parties. The assassination of the duke de Berry, the nephew of Louis, in February, 1820, alarmed the court; and the Count d'Artois and the Duchess d'Angoulême having demanded the dismissal of Decazes, his ministry was overthrown, and the duke of Richelieu returned to his former office. The law of election was altered, the censorship of the press was made more rigid, the power and privileges of the clergy were increased, and various other retrograde measures were adopted. In 1821 the premier once more resigned, and was succeeded by M. de Villèle with a complete ultra-royalist cabinet, almost avowedly nominated by the Count d'Artois. Louis, who had become frail and feeble, now considered his reign as almost terminated—"Now that M. Villèle triumphs," he said, "I regard myself as annihilated. Hitherto I have preserved the crown and defended the charter; if my brother imperils both, it is his affair." From this date, indeed, the Count d'Artois was the real king of France. At his instigation the restrictions on the liberty of the press were made more severe than ever, and a French army under the Duke d'Angoulême was sent into Spain in concert with the northern powers, to overthrow the constitution and to restore Ferdinand to the absolute power which he had agreed to lay aside. The expedition was successful in its object, but the ultimate results of this unwarrantable interference with the rights of the Spanish people were disastrous to all parties. The health of Louis, which had for some time been infirm, now completely gave way; suffering from a complication of disorders, he became quite lethargic and unable to walk. He expired on the 16th of September, 1824, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, with his dying breath bequeathing the charter to his brother as his best inheritance, and exhorting him to preserve it for his subjects and himself. "Do as I have done," he added, "and your reign will end in peace." Louis was possessed of considerable abilities, a well-cultivated mind, and a pleasing address. Considering his origin and training, his opinions must be pronounced both enlightened and liberal; and his success in steering between extreme hostile parties during one of the most critical periods of French history, proves that he was a man of sound judgment, great observation, and exquisite tact and discretion. He was on the whole a humane and benevolent, as well as judicious and prudent sovereign. His private character, however, was not blameless, and he was alleged, with apparent reason, to have been not free from dissimulation and self-seeking. Both in exile and on the throne he acted the part of a monarch with great dramatic effect. His well-known replies to the doge of Venice, when he was compelled to leave Verona; to Bonaparte, offering a liberal grant of territory if he would renounce his regal rights; and to the corporation of London, when invited to attend their banquet on the occasion of the French disasters in Russia—exhibited evidence pf no mean histrionic talent mingled with considerable real dignity.—J. T.
Louis Philippe, King of the French, was the eldest son of Philippe, duke of Orleans, the jacobin prince of the blood, and notorious "Egalité" of the first French revolution. Born at Paris on the 6th of October, 1773, he was styled Duke de Valois until 1785, and Duke de Chartres up to the date of his father's death by the guillotine, when he became Duke of Orleans. At the age of eleven he was placed under the care of Madame de Genlis, already charged with the education of his sister, the Princess Adelaide. The training of Madame de Genlis was based upon the system developed in Rousseau's Emile. It was practical, linguistic, physically invigorating, but deficient in the ethical element so much needed in the case of a clever and spirited boy, with a father of Philippe Egalité's shameless profligacy. With an education à l'Emile, and the example of his father, the young prince was naturally fascinated by the French revolution, and even enrolled himself in the jacobin club. Fortunately for him military duties called him away from the capital. In June, 1791, he became colonel of the 14th regiment of dragoons, and was sent to Vendôme to command his regiment. There he gave proofs of intrepidity, moral as well as physical, saving recalcitrant priests from the fury of a revolu-
