rch might well have quailed. How the
storm broke upon him, and began its sweep over the kingdom
which he was set to rule, is told by Hazlitt without the
rhetorical flourishes indulged by many writers on this
subject, but with clear narration and philosophic judgment
of the facts recounted.

Louis XVI succeeded to the throne of France in 1774, and soon after
married Marie Antoinette, a daughter of the house of Austria. She was
young, beautiful, and thoughtless. In her the pride of birth was
strengthened and rendered impatient of the least restraint by the pride
of sex and beauty; and all three together were instrumental in hastening
the downfall of the monarchy. Devoted to the licentious pleasures of a
court, she looked both from education and habit on the homely comforts
of the people with disgust or indifference, and regarded the distress
and poverty which stood in the way of her dissipation with incredulity
or loathing.[33] Louis XVI himself, though a man of good intentions, and
free, in a remarkable degree, from the common vices of his situation,
had not firmness of mind to resist the passions and importunity of
others, and, in addition to the extravagance, petulance, and extreme
counsels of the Queen, fell a victim to the intrigues and officious
interference of those about him, who had neither the wisdom nor spirit
to avert those dangers and calamities which they had provoked by their
rashness, presumption, and obstinacy.

The want of economy in the court, or a maladministration of the
finances, first occasioned pecuniary difficulties to the Government, for
which a remedy was in vain sought by a succession of ministers, Necker,
Calonne, Maupeou, and by the Parliament. Considerable embarrassment and
uneasiness began to be felt throughout the kingdom when in 1787 the
King undertook to convoke the States-General, as alone competent to meet
the emergency, and to confer on other topics of the highest consequence,
which were at this time agitated with general anxiety and interest. The
necessity of raising the supplies to defray the expenses of government
was indeed only made the handle to introduce and enforce other more
important and widely extended plans of reform.

For some time past the public mind had been growing critical and
fastidious with the progress of civilization and letters; the monarchy,
as it existed at the period "with all its imperfections on its head,"
had been weighed in t