ment, shrank from war which would raise up
stronger men around him. Fleuri, reasonably secure as to the throne
and his own power, wished like Walpole the peaceful development of his
country, and shrank from war with the love of repose natural to old
age; for he was seventy-three when he took office, and ninety when he
laid it down in death. Under his mild administration the prosperity of
France revived; the passing traveller could note the change in the
face of the country and of the people; yet it may be doubted whether
this change was due to the government of the quiet old man, or merely
to the natural elasticity of the people, no longer drained by war nor
isolated from the rest of the world. French authorities say that
agriculture did not revive throughout the country. It is certain,
however, that the maritime prosperity of France advanced wonderfully,
owing mainly to the removal of commercial restrictions in the years
immediately following the death of Louis XIV. The West India islands
in particular throve greatly, and their welfare was naturally shared
by the home ports that traded with them. The tropical climate of
Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Louisiana, and cultivation by slaves, lent
themselves readily to the paternal, semi-military government which
marks all French colonies, but which produced less happy results in
the bitter weather of Canada. In the West Indies, France at this time
obtained a decided preponderance over England; the value of the French
half of Hayti was alone equal to that of all the English West Indies,
and French coffee and sugar were driving those of England out of
European markets. A like advantage over England in the Mediterranean
and Levant trade is asserted by French historians. At the same time
the East India Company was revived, and its French depot, whose name
tells its association with the East, the Breton town of L'Orient,
quickly became a splendid city. Pondicherry on the Coromandel coast,
and Chandernagore on the Ganges, the chief seats of French power and
commerce in India, grew rapidly; the Isle of Bourbon and the Isle of
France, now the Mauritius, whose position is so well suited for the
control of the Indian Ocean, became, the one a rich agricultural
colony, the other a powerful naval station. The monopoly of the great
company was confined to the trade between home and the chief Indian
stations; the traffic throughout the Indian seas was open to private
enterprise and grew more