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London

Prices of Grain-Meteorological Diary.-Bill of Mortality.

AVERAGE PRICES of CORN, from May 9, to May 14, 1774.

Wheat Rye Bar. Oats Bear
s. d.fs. ́d.fs. d.fs. d.js. d.
5 103 13 42 2/3

COUNTIES INLAND.

COUNTIES upon the COAST.

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Cambridge 6

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Huntingoon 6 210

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Northumberland

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Northampton

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North Wales

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WALES.

6 24 103 71 114 1
2/4 7/1
5 114 113 41

A Meteorological DIARY of the Weather for JUNE, 1773

Weather.

813 O

an exceeding fine bright day, very hot.
a violent ftorm of thund. & lightn. in the night,
with hail & rain, cold black moin. fine aft,
a very churlish cold day

chiefly cloudy, but fair

a coarse day

chiefly cloudy

ditto

a very fine warm day

chiefly cloudy

a very fine pleasant day

cloudy morning, wet afternoon

cloudy day, wet evening

bright fummer's day, wet evening
ditto

very wet night and morning, fine bright aftern.
ftrong fog all night till 11 A.M. fine afternoon
bright and cloudy at intervals, feveral showers
chiefly cloudy, with fome rain

many flying clouds, a few fhowers
many flying clouds

mifling rain most part of the day

cloudy morning, fine bright afternoon
an exceeding fine bright day

fine bright morning, wet afternoon
many black flying clouds

bright morning, wet afternoon

27

SW to NW

ditto

29 4

56

a very wet day

28

W

little

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THE

Gentleman's Magazine;

For

MAY,

MEMOIRS of the LIFE of the late KING OF FRANCE.

EWIS XV. late K. of France, &c. was born at Verfail es, Feb. 15, 1710, and was foon after created Duke of Anjou. His gr-father Lew. is, Dauphin of France (only fon of Lewis XIV.), died of the fmall-pox, at the age of 5o, in 1711; as did his father, the Duke of Burgundy, and his elder brother, the Duke of Bretagne, in 1712: fo that, on the death of Lewis XIV. Sept. 1, 1715, the Duke of Anjou was his only legitimate defendant, and as fuch fuc ceeded to the crown. His great grandfather having, by his will, appointed a council of regency, of which the Duke of Orleans was at the head, the Duke of Maine being alfo made guardian, and Marthal Villeroy Governor to the infant King; as the Duke of Orleans, an enterprifing man, thought the Duke of Maine's powers in the council too great, he, by fair promises, prevailed on the parliament of Paris to annul the will, and to declare him, who was next heir to the crown, fole Regent. For the tranfactions of his regency, his arbitrary proceedings with regard to the coin, the difputes between the Jef.its and Janfenifts, the Miffiffippi bubble, &c. not being perfonal to the late monarch, we fhall refer to the hiftories of the times, and proceed to the first marriage of the King, in 1721, to Maria Therefa, Infanta of Spain, a child of three years of age. On Oct. 25, 1722, he was confecrated, and crowned at Rheims; and, in the fpring of 1724, was declared, by the parlia ment, to be of full age: but, notwithstanding this, he was, in fact, ftill confidered and treated as a minor.

Cardinal Du Bois, a monster of wic

1774.

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kedness, whom the Regent had declared prime minifter, dying Aug. 10, the Regent thought it molt fafe to act as minifter himself; but he died Dec. 2 following. The Duke of Bourbon, a prince of the blood, fucceeded him; and, as all ranks of people lamented the infancy of their Queen, this minifter advised the King to fend back the Infanta, and to marry Maria Leczinski, daughter of K. Stanislaus of Poland, a princefs diftinguished for her piety and virtue. This marriage was folemnized at Fontainebleau, Sept. 5, 1725. The counfel given her on that occation, by her excellent father, was published at that time, and is ftill well known. Soon after, the hardships of the people ftill continuing, by the reduction of the coin, many acts of violence were committed; and the religious perfecutions, arifing from the repeal of the bull Unigenitus, alfo raged, the court determining to enforce the acceptance of it. In 1726, the King augmented his army, and, by the influence of the Spanish party, difmiffed the Duke of Bourbon, and appointed Cardinal Fleu ry prime minilter. He had been preceptor to the King, and, by his smooth addrefs, had gained an entire afcendancy over him. The chara&eristic of this prelate was moderation; peace, as Pope fays, was his dear delight; and "all his meafures," fays Voltaire,

from 1726 to 1742, proved fuccefsful." On Aug. 17, 1727, Te Deum was fung at Paris for the birth of two princeffes, which was a great difappointment to the nation. The fame disappointment happened the next year by the birth of another Princess; when the Queen underwent a folemn but ridiculous proceffion to the church of Notre Dame, to pray that he might be impregnated with a fon. About this time the King was fuppofed to have the fmall-pox; but there is now no doubt that it was the chicken-pox. At length, in 1729, the Queen was deli

196

Memoirs of the Life of the late King of France.

vered of a Dauphin. The feveral
treaties and negotiations of this reign
we shall avoid difcuffing, and also the
wars in which this prince was engaged,
any farther than he had a perfonal con-
cern in them, oblerving only, that the
re union of Lorrain to the crown, which
was the confequence of the war of 1733,
was fuccessfully negotiated by Cardinal
Fleury. In 1740, the King published
an edict for raising the tenth pony on
lands, which, notwithstanding their
remonftrances, and even tears, he ob-
liged his parliament to regifter. This,
however, he was at length reduced to
fupprefs, and, inflead of it, to fubfti-
tute the twentieth penny.
A fecond

and a third twentieth have fince been added to the first, which make pretty near the eighth penny. A fourth twentieth would be equal to our 4 fillings in the pound land-tax. Cardinal Fleury died in 1742, aged 90. The King was prefent at his lan moments, and wept over him. In 1744, the young Pretender had a private audience of Lewis, in which, it is fuppofed, an invafion of England was projected, which was afterwards unfuccesfully attempted, by Count Saxe, from Dunkirk. That fummer, the King in perfon made the campaign in Flanders, where, after taking Courtray, Menin, Ypres, &c. all barrier towns, ill defended by the Dutch, he made a triumphant entry into Dunkirk, June 29, attended by all the Ladies of his court. But the course of his conquefts (or rather thofe of his great general, Marfal Saxe,) was interrupted by the advice which he there received of the paffage of the Rhine, and the invafion of Allace, by Prince Charles of Lorain. Upon this, he drew off his troops from the Netherlands, and he himself, then in the height of his glory, refolved to take the command of them. The fufferings and complaints of his fubje&ts were then for a time abforbed in the praifes of Lewis the Well beloved, a title which French adulation had long bestowed on this Prince, though, indeed, it was given him carly in life, when his natural difponition feemed to promife more amiable effects; and,

ad he been untainted by courts, and unfeduced by thole who were interested in corrupting him, he might, perhaps, have preferved his integrity, and been justly beloved in any station less than oyal. As it was, he tell a prey to the fnares which too easily belet him, and, in the joys of fenfuality, too often for

་་

got the King, the man, and the huf band. But, to return-No fooner was he arrived at Metz, in his way to Alface, than he was feized (Aug. 8.) with a malignant fever, which threatened his life; the confequence, it is faid, of his having expofed himself, in his march, to the fcorching heat of the fun. His Queen and family immediately haftened from Veifailles, to pay him their laft duties. He appeared fo penitent, that he difmiffed his ladies, and seriously prepared for death; when his diftemper taking a new tuin, he recovered, to the extreme joy of his fubjects, which Voltaire, in his War of 1741, has painted as extravagantly as it was felt. Among other inftances of his fortitude and fenfibility, he fays, that the King ordered Count d'Argenson to tell Marfhal Noailles (who oppofed Prince Charles on the Rhine), that," while Lewis XIII. was carrying to the grave, the Prince of Condè gained a victory:" and that, on his recovery, hearing of the tranfports of joy that had fucceeded to the emotions of forrow, he raised himself up in his bed, and faid, "Oh! what a pleasure it is to be thus beloved, and what have I done to deferve it ?" But the devil was fick, &c. The King recovered, and his ladies returned. He clofed the campaign with the hege of Friburg, in Rigau, which held out tili Nov. 6, dilregarding the advice of his phyficians not to hazard his health again in that wet feafon and unwholefome climate. The Prince of Soubife being wounded at the fiege, the King vifited him often, and faw his wounds dreffed. Lewis, at his return, remained three days at Paris, to fhew himself to his people, and dined in the town-houfe, where he was ferved at table, as ufual, by the provoft of the merchants, as was the Dauphin by the firit echevin, or theriff.

In the next campaign, the King again took the field, and, with the Dauphin (who had been married in February to the fecond Infanta of Spain),

his great fon, by love of glory led, For tented fields forfakes the nuptial bed. VOLTAIRE.

This amiable Princefs, Maria Therefa, dying in child-bed, in 1746, a few days after her father Philip II. the Dauphin married, fecondly, the Princefs Maria Jofepha of Poland (fince alfo dead), by whom he had ifiue the refent King, Lewis XVI. (bori. 1754), the Counts of Provence and Artois, and two daughters. All thefe young princes are married, but have yet no illue.

Memoirs of the Life of the late King of France.

joined his army a few days before the battle of Fontenoy: for, receiving a courier at Douay, from Marshal Saxe, with advice that the enemy's army was approaching, "Gentlemen," faid the King to his aides de camp and officers, "there fhall be no time loft; I fet out to-morrow morning at five; but do not disturb the Dauphin." And, though he was certainly ftationed at a fafe di ftance during the engagement, M. de Voltaire has related fome instances of his prowess, which we fhall give without a comment. Difcourfing, the evening before, on the battles at which the Kings of France had been present, the King faid, that "fince the battle of Poitiers, there had not been any King of France, who had had his fon with him in an engagement; that none of them had ever gained a fignal victory over the English, and that he hoped to be the firft." On the day of the battle, he waked the first, and awakened his fecretary at war, Count d'Argenfon. He and the Dauphin paffed the bridge of Calonne, and took poft beyond the place called the Justice of our Lady in the Wood. Being covered with dirt from the rebounding of a ball, "Send thefe balls," faid he, "back to the enemy, I will have nothing belonging to them." At one time, fuch was the impreffion made by the English, that Marshal Saxe intreated the King to repaís the bridge. But, at length, the day was won, and, in confequence, Tournay, with all the Auftrian Netherlands, and Dutch Brabant, fell into the hands of the French. M. de Voltaire blew his epic trumpet on this occafion, in a poem dedicated to the King, flyling it the most glorious battle that had been fought since that of Bouvines." Lewis took the field also in the campaign of 1747; and, after the battle of Val, in which Sir John Ligonier was taken prifoner, concerted, it is faid, with that General, the plan of the fucceeding peace, which was concluded, in 1748, at Aix-la-Chapelle.

The difputes between the parliament and clergy, particularly the Archbishop of Paris, then breaking out afresh, on the fubject of the bull Unigenitus, the King, joining with the later, banished the parliament of Paris to Pontoife, fix Jeagues diftant; and afterwards, to hold the balance even, he banished the Archbishop, and the Bithops of Orleans and Troyes to their country-feats, for perfifting in their fchifm. About the fame time he founded the military,

197

fchool, the nobleft monument of his
reign, which the Emprefs-Queen has
fince imitated. Amidst thefe commo-
tions at home and abroad, another
burthenfome war having just broken
out with England, after the King had
fuppreffed two chambers of the par-
liament, and most of the members had
refigned their places, all France was
involved in a general confternation, by
a horrid attempt on the King's life, by
Robert Francis Damiens, a religious
enthusiast, Jan. 5, 1757, as his Ma-
jefty was going to his coach at Ver-
failles, in prefence of his fon, and fur-
rounded by his guards. The pen-knife
entered under the fifth rib. The King,
finding himself wounded, turned round,
and feeing a ftranger ftanding close by
him, with his hat on, and staring wild-
ly, cried out, "That is the man who
has wounded me, fecure him, but do
him no hurt." The wound, however,
was but flight. It appeared, oh the
criminal's examination, that the refu-
fal of the facraments, and the bani
ing of the parliament, had turned his
brain, and, indeed, rendered him rather
an object of compaffion and imprison-
ment, than tortures, which, howe-
ver, were most diabolically inflicted
upon this wretched madman, as they
had been on Clement and Ravaillac
in France, and were, foon after, on
affaffins of much higher rank in Porta-
gal. Lewis, on his recovery, again
barifhed and recalled Archbishop Beau-
mont; and, while the war continued,
internal peace feemed, for a time, re-
ftored. The difgraces and loffes fuf-
tained by the French monarchy, during
that war, are too recent to be men-
tioned. So reduced, in fhort, were
her finances, that the King retrenched
his expences to thofe of a private gen-
tleman, by converting his plate into
money, and urged all his fubjects to

do the fame.

In December, 1764, the parliament of Paris registered an edict, by which the King diffolved the fociety of Jefuits for ever. Ilis only fon, Lewis, Dauphin of France, died at Fontainebleau, Dec. 20, 1765, aged 36; as did the Queen, in June, 1768, aged 65. The regular fucceffion, and intrigues of his prime ministers, viz. Marshal Belleifle, Cardinal de Bernis, the Dukes de Choifeul and Aiguillon, &c. come not within our plan, any more than those of his mittreffes, of whom we fhall only fay, that Madame de Pompadour (afterwards Marchiontfs), and Madame

de

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