was his premier, he called to his councils the wise and philosophic Turgot, and the virtuous and patriotic Malesherbes. As controller-general Turgot grappled manfully with the financial difficulties of France, but his proposal to tax the privileged classes provoked a clamour from the courtiers, to which Louis yielded. "Il n'y a que vous et moi qui aimions le peuple"—it was thus that Louis addressed Turgot a few weeks before he consented to his dismissal, which was preceded by the withdrawal of Malesherbes. After a brief interval Turgot was succeeded by the inferior but the honest and well-meaning Necker (q.v.), who for five years continued the struggle, begun by Turgot, with extravagance in high places. His plans bore too strong a resemblance to those of Turgot, and in 1781 Louis was persuaded to dismiss him. Meanwhile the king, rather unwillingly, had been induced by the liberal public opinion, already powerful, to lend the aid of France to the insurgent Americans in their contest with England. The success of the American revolution reacted tellingly on France, and the honours paid to Lafayette were a sign of the growing strength of the democratic feeling under the "despotism tempered by epigrams." Necker's most notable successor in the management of the finances, was Calonne (appointed controller-general, November, 1783), who by a policy, one of extensive borrowing, the very reverse of Turgot's and Necker's, continued to keep up appearances for a time, and only a time. When with Calonne's system national bankruptcy was imminent, the French revolution was preluded by his convocation of the notables (February, 1787). The true state of affairs could not be concealed from this assembly, and Calonne was forced to resign. He was succeeded by Cardinal Loménie de Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse, with the title of prime minister. He involved the crown in a serious and damaging conflict with the parliaments, legal bodies, possessed of some prescriptive claim to register the financial edicts of the government—a claim which, supported as they now were by the nation, they asserted with a show of spirit. In despair Loménie advised the convocation of states-general, and withdrew, succeeded by the popular Necker, 24th August, 1788. On Monday the 4th of May, 1789, the states-general, for the first time since 1614, met at Versailles, and France at last had something that resembled a national parliament. Next day the king addressed the representatives of the three estates, the noblesse, the clergy, and the commons. It was the wish of the noblesse and the clergy that each of the estates should deliberate and vote separately, so that, by combining, they two could always outvote the third estate. The tiers-état refused to assent, and were joined by a number of the representatives of the clergy. The king now interfered in person. He announced a royal sitting for the 22nd of June, suspended till then the deliberations of the states-general, and sent troops to prevent the entry of the members into their hall of meeting. Thus obstructed, the representatives of the tiers-état assembled in a tenuis court of Versailles, and took the celebrated oath, 20th June, 1789, by which they bound themselves to continue their meetings until they had made a constitution for their country. At the royal sitting Louis appeared, commanded the separate meeting of the three orders, and after withdrawing, sent an usher to bid the assembly disperse. It was now that Mirabeau made his memorable protest, and the tiers-etat transformed itself into a national assembly. The king gave way in appearance, advising the noblesse to join the representatives of the other orders, and the national assembly was recognized. But troops were collected, arrangements made for a coup-d'état, and Necker was dismissed. On the 12th of July Paris rose in insurrection: on the 14th the Bastile was taken. Next day the king gave way, Necker was recalled, and the first emigration commenced. Embittered by the scarcity and dearness of provisions through the autumn, and indignant at the report of an imprudent banquet of military officers at Versailles on the 1st of October at which the queen was present and the national cockade trampled on, the populace of Paris rose again on the 5th October, and marched upon Versailles. Next day the palace was attacked, and the king and queen had to consent to be conducted by the mob back to Paris, where they took up their residence in the long-deserted Tuileries. From this ignominious return to his capital onwards, the public part played by Louis XVI. became a secondary one. France was revolutionized and transformed into a virtual republic, of which the king little better than a prisoner in his palace, was only the nominal head. With his courtiers he meditated plans of escape from Paris but had not resolution enough to realize them. As a last resource Mirabeau, who saw now whither things were tending, was taken secretly into the royal councils. But the execution of Mirabeau's daring schemes of counter-revolution was cut short by his death, on 31st March, 1791. "I carry in my heart," he said in his dying moments, "the death-dirge of the French monarchy." On the 20th of June following, the carefully planned but clumsily executed flight of the king and queen to join Beaillé at Metz was arrested at Varennes, whence they were reconducted to Paris, and kept in a captivity, though still nominal, even stricter than before. The deposition of the king now began to be talked of. He acquired a brief popularity by accepting the new constitution, after framing which the constituent assembly made way for the legislative assembly, 1st October, 1791. By an imprudent "self-denying ordinance" the members of the constituent assembly debarred themselves from entering the legislative, which accordingly swarmed with violent anti-monarchists. The king chose a "patriot" ministry, which included Roland, and continued his relations with such men as Barnave, who following the example of Mirabeau, and seeing whither the French revolution was tending, sought to strengthen the throne. But the courtiers looked askance at this connection with former revolutionists, and the irresolute Louis, swaying now this way now that, was left without a party in the country; for the mass of the loyal aristocracy had emigrated. The new constitution had bestowed on him a veto, and in accordance with the advice of his courtiers he vetoed the severe laws against refractory priests and emigrants, passed by the legislative assembly, and thus of course he incurred great unpopularity. The crisis evidently impending was hastened by the attitude of Europe. The assembly quarreled with the great powers of the continent, and on the 20th of April, 1792, Louis was forced to declare war. France was preparing to defend herself against the invader, when the king put the finishing stroke to his unpopularity by vetoing a decree for the establishment of a camp of twenty thousand men. The ultra-democratic party now resolved on insurrection. During the July of 1792, volunteers from all parts of the country, notably from Marseilles, marched towards Paris, carrying with them petitions for the deposition of the king; and on the 25th of the month, Brunswick, with the allied army of invasion, broke up from Coblentz and began his march. The mob of Paris had already, on the 20th of June, forced its way into the Tuileries, and menaced the king. A more formidable insurrection broke out on the famous 10th of August, when the Tuileries were attacked by the Marseillaise, and bravely defended by the king's Swiss body-guard. In the morning the king had taken refuge in the hall of the legislative assembly; and when the success of the insurrection was assured, that body in the afternoon pronounced his deposition, and summoned a national convention. A prisoner in reality, the king was now lodged in the Temple, and the frightful massacres of September were perpetrated. On the 20th of September the national convention met and pronounced the abolition of royalty. Soon afterwards the trial of the king was resolved on, and on the 11th of December he appeared at the bar of the convention. The charges of treason brought against him were of a very miscellaneous kind, and were met by him f or the most part with simple negatives. Malesherbes and De Sèze were allowed him for counsel; their speeches on the 20th of December were followed by a few and simple words from the king himself. The Girondins, or more moderate party, succumbed to the feeling of the moment, and joined in the vote of the 16th January, by which sentence of death was passed on the unfortunate Louis. On the 21st January, 1793, he was guillotined in the Place de la Révolution. The accounts of his demeanour on the occasion vary. He attempted to address the people, but his voice was drowned by the drums of the soldiery; the executioners seized him, and bound him struggling to the plank, on which the fatal axe at once descended. "The allied kings threaten us," Danton had said; "as battle-gage we hurl at their feet the head of a king." In this sentence lies the motive for the execution of Louis XVI.—F. E.
Louis XVII. (Louis Charles de France, in the Bourbon dynasty reckoned as) was the third of the four children born by Marie Antoinette to Louis XVI. He was born at Versailles on the 27th March, 1785, and died on the 8th June, 1795, in the Temple at Paris. He was baptized on the day of his birth and received the title of the Duke of Normandy. At the death of his brother he became dauphin. On the 13th of August, 1792, he was imprisoned with the royal family in the Temple, and
