mercy of the enemy. But a number of small vessels, some fitted out by congress, others provided with letters of marque, did great damage to British traders. So great was the terror which they struck that the rate of insurance, even for voyages between England and Holland, rose considerably. The most noteworthy commander was Captain Paul Jones, an Englishman by birth, but in the service of the American government, who carried terror along the English coast, and even went so far as to burn the shipping in the harbor of Whitehaven.

CONCLUSION OF PEACE.

The

Beside Cornwallis's defeat there were other things to make England eager for peace. The country was now engaged in war with France, Spain, and Holland, an allied fleet had been in the English Channel, and had threatened the Irish coast. news of the surrender at Yorktown reached England on the 25th of November, and two days later, at the opening of parliament, the king announced the evil tidings and called on the nation for "vigorous, animated, and united exertions." This was the signal for an attack on the government, led in the Upper House by Shelburne, in the Lower by Burke. The latter scoffed at the folly of attempting to assert England's rights in America, and likened it to the conduct of a man who should

insist on shearing a wolf. Evil tidings from other quarters kept pouring in. Minorca, a British station and the best harbor in the Mediterranean, was in February surrendered to the French. There was little to hinder the settlement of terms. America only wanted independence; England sincerely wished for peace; and each side was ready to grant what the other asked for. There were only two points on which there seemed likely to be any difficulty. The British government was unwilling to give the Americans the right of using the Newfoundland fisheries, and also required that the American government should compensate the loyalists for their losses during the war. On both these points the British government finally gave way. A demand made by the Americans for the cession of Canada was quietly abandoned. All the British territory, however, between Georgia and the Mississippi was ceded, while, by a treaty made with Spain at the same time, England gave up the Mississippi and the province of Florida. The treaty was arranged, though not formally signed, without consulting the French government. The treaty between France and America provided that neither should make a separate peace with England. On September 3, 1783, peace was signed, and the United States of America became an independent power.

ATALAY

VERY one felt that change must come with the new reign, for the whole country was in a state of ruin and bankruptcy, the nobles corrupt, the people wretched. No one felt it more deeply than the new king, Louis XVI., 1774, but he was not the man who could save his country. Though no coward, all his courage was passion. He was industrious, tenderhearted, and religious, but there never lived a man less capable of taking the lead in troublous times. His wife, Marie Antoinette, had all the charms and ali the fire and spirit which he needed, but her gifts did but add to the evil. The long wars between France and the House of Austria had made the marriage unpopular, and Mary Antoinette, as a lively girl, bred in a court where easy, simple manners prevailed, shocked the nobility by her mirthful scorn of the cumbersome etiquette of the court of Louis XVI. She had, too, a young queen's natural love of dress and gaiety, and, in the frightful state of the court, no wish of hers could be indulged without monstrous expenditure. Peasants were living in windowless, chimneyless hovels, feeding on buckwheat bread, clad in rags, and paying away all the produce they reared. They were told that it was for the king and queen. The old loyalty died out, and the queen was hated with ever-increasing virulence for everything she did, or did not do. Necker, a banker of Geneva, was made comptrollergeneral of the finances, and as the public debt had increased, and as every financial misfortune was attributed to the queen, she was nicknamed "Madame Deficit."

The longing for change was fed by the sight of what was going on in America, where the endeavor of England to enforce taxes and duties had led to armed resistance on the part of the colonists. The Marquis Gilbert de la Fayette, an ardent young man, fled from home to fight in the ranks of the Americans, in whose valor and simplicity the French enthusiasts beheld a return to the heroism of ancient Greece and Rome. The government, after some hesitation, concluded an alliance with the Americans, and thus became engaged in a war with England, in which France was joined by Spain and the United Provinces. Off the Isle of Ushant a doubtful naval engagement was claimed as a victory by France; but at St. Lucie, in the West Indies, Count de la Grasse's fleet was broken by Lord Rodney, and in the East Indies Pondicherry, the chief French factory, was taken. But the steady resistance of the Americans made the English at length decide on acknowleding their independence, and on the 20th of January, 1783, a general peace was signed. Benjamin Franklin, the American printer, a Quaker, and a man of much science as well as plain sturdy wisdom, came to France as ambassador, and the Parisians, perfectly sick of their unnatural life of display and etiquette, were crazy with enthusiasm for his plain garb, and grave, simple manners.

Louis called together the Assembly of Notables, with a view to further taxation to meet expenses, and in 1789 summoned The States-General. These states consisted of representatives of the nobility, clergy, and Tiers Etat, or commons. The Third Estate presently took the name of the National As

sembly. The king meant to appear among them, and the great hall of the Third Estate was being prepared when its members tried to enter. Finding it closed, they thought violence was intended, and, repairing to a tennis court near at hand, swore to stand by one another till they should have framed a constitution. The king insisted on the three orders keeping apart, but the Third Estate remained, and the king sent a message bidding them withdraw. The answer came from the Count of Mirabeau, "Tell your master that we are sent here by the people, and that his bayonets alone can drive us from our post." The king yielded, and the nobles and clergy joined the Third Estate in the assembly. Changes were promulgated. The most extreme of the democrats held that all men are naturally equal, that hereditary rights were an usurpation, and that kings, priests and nobles were alike tyrants over the will, the conscience, and the person. These were afterwards called "Jacobins," from a club which met at the old convent of the Jacobin friars. had much power over the mob of Paris, and worked them up to a fury of impatience to see the changes which they fancied would bring plenty and freedom to all. In July the king, in alarm, drew the army nearer and dismissed Necker, and it was at once reported that he was going to put down the National Assembly by force of arms. This made the respectable men of the city enrol themselves in a force which took the name of the National Guard; they wore red-blue-and-white scarfs and cockades, choosing for their captain La Fayette, who was enthusiastic in the cause of liberty.

They

On July 14th, on a report that the cannon of the Bastille had been turned towards the city, the mob, in a fury, rushed on the old prison, and tore down the whole building, but without finding a single state-prisoner. Necker was presently restored, but it was felt that a revolution had begun, for the mob had learnt their power. On the smallest excitement they rose and hunted down those whom they thought their foes, sometimes hanging them to the iron bars on which the lamps were placed over the street, sometimes tearing them to pieces, the fisherwomen being the foremost in all these violences. In the country the peasants and townspeople were attacking the houses of the nobles, plundering and sometimes killing the inhabitants, but more often dragging them off to prison. The army, where no

merit made up for lack of birth, was of course anxious to carry on the changes; but the guards, being all men of rank, were devoted to the king, and on the 2d of October, 1789, at a dinner at Versailles, there was an outburst of loyalty, and the song, "O Richard, O mon roi," was rapturously applauded. This was so reported at Paris as to make the people imagine that the queen was sending for troops to massacre them. There was besides a great scarcity of provisions, and the people, in the wildest rage, rushed out to Versailles, and while some burst into the National Assembly and insisted on Mirabeau's speaking, others clamored round the palace. Louis would neither fight nor fly; he was resolved to shed no blood, he would not let his Swiss guard defend him, and trusted to La Fayette and the National Guard; but in the night the mob were seized with a fresh fit of frenzy, and broke into the palace, screaming for the life of the queen. A lady and a Swiss guard gained a moment for her by barring the door of her bed-room, while she fled to the king's rooms, and La Fayette cleared the palace of the mob, but in the morning they were all howling for "the Austrian." She came out on the balcony with her son and daughter. "No children," was the cry, and she sent them back and stood alone, expecting the death-shot, but no one durst give it.

The National Assembly, called the Constitutional Assembly from its work of drawing up a constitution, swept away all the titles and privileges of nobility. It decreed that church property belonged to the nation, and that the endowments of all the bishoprics, abbeys, chapters and parishes would be sufficient to provide for all the needs of the state, giving a small allowance to feed the priests and keep up the churches. The huge amount of church property could not at once be disposed of, and government issued promissory notes, which were called assignats, but which in the great scarcity of coin were not worth nearly so much as the sums they were supposed to represent. The clergy were required to bind themselves to strict obedience to the state, and, as this was contrary to canonical obedience to the pope, most of them refused, and were expelled from their preferments.

Other radical changes were made. The king consented to everything in a sort of helpless despair. The queen hoped to come to terms and save some