CHAP. pected, and Moses, Christ, and Mahomet, to be acknowledged as great prophets!

XIV.

1726. In less than a month after Ripperda was disgraced in Spain, France became the scene of another ministerial revolution. The Duke de Bourbon had sunk lower and lower in the public esteem, from his incapacity in business, and his absolute dependence on Madame de Prie and her creature Paris Duverney. There was also gradually growing up by his side the authority destined to overshadow and supplant him-a man more than threescore and ten years old, but of skill and judgment unimpaired, and an ambition the more powerful, because able to restrain itself and to bide its time. This was no other than the Bishop of Frejus, afterwards Cardinal Fleury, the King's preceptor. "If ever," says Voltaire, "there was

any one happy on earth, it was Fleury. He was "considered one of the most amiable and social "of men till seventy-three, and at that usual age "of retirement, came to be respected as one of "the wisest. From 1726 to 1742 every thing "throve in his hands, and till almost a nonagen"arian, his mind continued clear, discerning, and "fit for business." He had received the bishoprick of Frejus from Louis the Fourteenth, but looked upon it as only a banishment, and even signed a jesting letter to Cardinal Quirini, as "Fleury, Bishop "of Frejus, by divine indignation." His conduct

* Siècle de Louis XV. ch. iii.

XIV.

in his diocese was, however, so benevolent, regular, CHAP. and exemplary, as to attract universal love and respect; and he was pointed out by public opinion, 1726. as much as by some Court cabals, to the dying monarch, as the preceptor for his infant great grandson and successor. During the regency, Fleury behaved with so much prudence and circumspection, as not to offend either Orleans or Dubois : he never thrust himself into state or Court intrigues, and only zealously discharged the duties of his trust. Gradually he gained an absolute control over the mind of his pupil, and when Bourbon came to the helm, was desired always to assist at the conferences of the monarch and the minister. Nor was his ascendency weakened by his pupil's marriage; for the young Queen, of timid and shrinking temper, and zealous only in her devotions *, took no great part in politics. Fleury would probably have found no difficulty in removing the Duke de Bourbon at an earlier period, but thought it better to let circumstances work for him, and be carried down the propitious current of events. "Time "and I against any two others," was a favourite saying of the crafty Mazarin.

Fleury, therefore, allowed the attack to come from the opposite quarter. Bourbon contrived

"This Queen makes no more of a dozen masses in a morn"ing than Hotspur did of as many Lowland Scotsmen for his "breakfast!" Mr. Robinson to Mr. Delafaye, Sept. 16. 1725. Hardwicke State Papers, vol. ii.

1726.

CHAP. to draw the young Queen to his party, and made a XIV. joint application to his Majesty, that he might transact business without the intervention of Fleury. On learning this cabal, Fleury, sure of his ground, but affecting great meekness, took leave of the King by letter, and retired to his country house at Issy. There he remained for one day in apparent disgrace. But it was only for one day. Louis, in the utmost concern at his loss, gave positive orders to Bourbon to invite him back to Court, which the Minister did accordingly, with many expressions of friendship and of wonder at his sudden retirement.* Yet in June, 1726, he was again combining an attack upon this valued friend, when Fleury discovered and crushed him, and obtained without difficulty, his dismissal from office and banishment to Chantilly. From this period, then, begins the justly famous administration of Fleury,

a new era of peace and prosperity to France. Its monument was every where seen inscribed, not on brass or marble, but on the smiling and happy faces of the people. An accomplished traveller writes from Dijon in 1739, "France is so much improved, it would not be known to be the "same country we passed through twenty years 66 ago. Every thing I see speaks in praise of Cardinal Fleury. The roads are all mended, "and such good care taken against robbers, that

66

* Horace Walpole to Lord Townshend, December 24. 1725. and Duclos, Mem. vol. ii. p. 364.

XIV.

you may cross the country with your purse in CHAP. your hand.... The French are more changed than "their roads; instead of pale yellow faces wrapped 1726. “up in blankets, as we saw them, the villages are "all filled with fresh-coloured lusty peasants, in

66

good clothes and clean linen. It is incredible “what an air of plenty and content is over the "whole country."* During his whole government, Fleury sought no riches, and displayed no splendour; but lived in the same plain and unostentatious manner as when in a private station. In knowledge of foreign affairs he was second only to Dubois. His abilities were not, perhaps, of the highest order; had they been so, they would probably have worn out earlier in his life. The flame of genius which dazzles the beholder is almost equally certain to burn and consume its tenement. Nor was Fleury wholly free from the common defects of age; he was too fond of expedients and delays, and on many occasions carried his caution to timidity, his economy to avarice. Yet the latter was exerted in the public expenses as much as in his own; and if he was afraid of war, his predecessors for the most part had a far worse fault they were ambitious of it.

At this time the ambassador from England was Horace Walpole -a man who played through life a considerable part, but chiefly because he was brother to Sir Robert. His own nephew assures

* Lady Mary W. Montagu to Mr. Wortley, August 18. 1739.

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CHAP. us, that so far from being a support he was "a 'dead-weight" to Sir Robert's Ministry.* Ac1726. cording to the same affectionate relation, "he "knew something of every thing, but how to hold “his tongue, or how to apply his knowledge..... "Whatever the subject was, he never lost sight of "the Norwich manufactures, but his language and "oratory were only adapted to manufacturers." But intelligent manufacturers would surely have been disgusted at his slovenly persont, his awkward manner, and his boisterous buffoonery. What his French may have been we can only conjecture; of his English it is admitted that he never lost a strong provincial accent. But, on the other hand, he had unwearied industry, practical knowledge, and constant readiness. As brother to so great a minister, he enjoyed more respect and confidence abroad than a far abler diplomatist might have attained. So little did he understand characters that, soon after he came to Paris, he paints Fleury in his despatches, as "not very able in foreign affairs, "but a mighty bigot, insomuch that the French

Memoirs of George the Second, vol. i. p. 122.

+ He once alluded himself, strangely enough, to his dress in a Parliamentary Speech:-" If I may be allowed to use a low "simile, the Members opposite treat the Ministry in the same "way as I am treated by some gentlemen of my acquaintance "with respect to my dress: if I am in plain clothes, they say I "am a slovenly dirty fellow; and if, by chance, I have a suit of "clothes with some lace upon them, they cry, What! shall such "an awkward fellow wear fine clothes?' So that no dress I "appear in can possibly please them!" (Parl. Hist. vol. ix. p. 223.)