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and less of panegyric. Whether we consider him as the conqueror of France, or whether we contemplate him in the more amiable light of the legislator and benefactor of his people, he equally excites our admiration. All the great qualities, which, during many years of adversity, were exhibited by the king of Navarre, acquired new lustre, and attained to full maturity on the throne of France. It may be reasonably doubted whether, in any age of the world, a prince has appeared among men, who united in himself more endowments of every kind. We must necessarily regret, but we cannot deny, that they were obscured by material faults and weaknesses. His licentious amours subverted his private felicity, produced public calamity, and were equally contrary to decency, morality, and religion. Nor was his passion for play less violent, though its effects, as confined to himself, were less injurious. may see in Sully, and in Bassompierre, how much the rage of gaming, encouraged by his example, pervaded the capital and the court. His desire of amassing treasures, though it did not originate in avarice, yet induced him to encourage his ministers, particularly Sully, in exacting from his subjects contributions beyond their strength. The institution of the 'Paulette,' which was a tax on the vacancy or resignation of all legal employments, excited general murmurs, and was productive of the most scandalous venality in the department of the law.

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It excites astonishment to reflect that, in the space of only nine years, from the peace with Savoy to his death, he was able to extinguish almost all the domestic and foreign encumbrances

of the crown, which were immense; and to lay up in the Bastile above a million sterling. So large a sum in specie could not have been taken out of the national circulation, without great injury to commercial transactions. He was accused, probably with reason, of yielding from his facility, to importunity, the rewards which only ought to have extended to merit, talents, and virtue. Like all princes who have been extricated by the efforts of a party, from a state of adversity and depression, the imputation of ingratitude was laid to his charge. It was said that he forgot and neglected his ancient adherents, in order to enrich and elevate his enemies. But it must be remembered, that he was compelled to purchase the submission of the heads of the league; and we may doubt whether either his courage, his clemency, or his abjuration of the reformed religion, would have extinguished that powerful faction without the aid of money. Those who severely scrutinized his actions asserted that he winked and connived at acts of injustice in the tribunals of law; where the judges found complete impunity, provided that in return they manifested a blind and implicit obedience to his edicts. There is, nevertheless, at least as much malignity as truth in the accusation.

If from his defects we turn our eyes to his virtues, we shall love and venerate his memory. His very name is almost become proverbial, to express the union of all that is elevated, amiable, and good in human nature. Such was his disdain of injuries, that it reached to heroism. The duke of Mayenne became his friend; and the

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young duke of Guise professed, and felt for him, the warmest degree of affectionate devotion. We know that he expressly ordered Vetry to receive into the company of body-guards, the soldier who had wounded him with a ball at the combat of Aumale. Henry pointed him out to Marshal D'Estrées, as the man mounted guard at the door of his coach. In the single instance of Biron, he remained inexorable; but it ought not to be forgotten that Biron was at once guilty and obdurate. Henry neither put him to death from personal resentment, nor from mere considerations of state policy. The last necessity alone induced him to refuse pardon to a man who aspired to independence, and whose projects were levelled at the succession in the house of Bourbon, as well as at the safety of the monarchy of France itself. Nothing can more strongly attest the fact, nor prove the repugnance with which he abandoned Biron to the sword of the law, than his answer to the noblemen who sued for the forgiveness of that criminal.

His affection towards the inferior classes of his subjects, and in particular towards the peasants, whom he cherished and protected, as the most necessary, but the most oppressed and injured description of his people, drew upon him the benedictions of the age in which he lived, and endeared him to posterity. He was neither ignorant, nor did he affect to be so, that he merited universal esteem. The sentiment involuntarily burst from him on various occasions. Only a few hours before he was assassinated, upon the morning of that day, as if by a secret

warning of his destiny, he said to the duke of Guise and to Bassompierre-"You do not know me now, but I shall die one of these days; and when you have lost me you will know my worth, and the difference between me and other men." "The kings, my predecessors," said he on another occasion, addressing himself to the deputies of the clergy, "have given you splendid words; but I, with my gray jacket, will give you effects. I am all gray without, but all gold within."

Educated in the field, and accustomed to fatigue, he delighted little in pursuits of literature; but he was neither unacquainted with polite letters, nor deficient in extending a liberal protection to men of genius. Du Perron, Matthieu, Scaliger, Casaubon, Sponde, and a number of other eminent writers, received pensions from the treasury, or were raised by Henry to eminent honours and dignities. The love of glory, and the desire of honourable fame, as distinct from, and as opposed to that passion which we commonly denominate ambition, was the predominant feature of his character. Louis XIV. was perpetually and systematically occupied, during his long reign, in acts of wanton and unjust rapacity, in order to extend the frontiers of his dominions. Henry, on the contrary, proposed to become the arbiter of Europe, by his magnanimous moderation. We see in the memoirs of Sully, that he did not reserve a foot of land to augment France, from the conquests to be made by the vast confederacy, which he was on the point of putting into action when assassinated. Artois and French Flanders were to have been distributed in fiefs

to various individuals. Alsace, and the county of Burgundy, were destined for the Switzers, Roussillon and Cerdagne were left to Spain. All these provinces were gained by Richelieu or by Louis XIV. It is true that he projected to acquire Lorraine and the duchy of Savoy; but the former was in virtue of the marriage of the dauphin to a princess of Lorraine: the latter was only contingent, and in the event of Charles Emanuel remaining peaceable possessor of the Milanese.

If we would behold the portrait of Henry, drawn by himself, we may see it in one of his letters to the same minister Sully. It cannot be perused without emotions of pleasure. "When

ever," writes he, "the occasion shall present itself for executing those glorious designs which you well know that I have long projected, you shall find that I will rather quit my mistresses, hounds, gaming, buildings, banquets, and every other recreation, than let pass the opportunity of acquiring honour; the principal sources of which, after my duty to God, my wife, and my children, are to attain the reputation of a prince tenacious of his faith and word; and to perform actions at the end of my days, which shall immortalize and crown them with glory and honour." It is, nevertheless, an incontrovertible, though a melancholy fact, that he was neither known nor beloved during his life as he deserved. The intimate acquaintance which his contemporaries had with his infirmities and defects, together with the implacable animosity of the inveterate adherents of Spain and of the "league," tra

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