F. was at that moment ripe for a revolution. Although the nobility was exceedingly numerous (as not only did the children of a noble belong to this class, but its numberS were constantly being increased by creation), there were great differences in the rank and dignity attached to the order; thus, in 1789, there were only 44 secular peers, inde pendently of the princes of the blood, and the six originally created ecclesiastic peers; but the lower grades of nobility were so numerous that their numbers stood in the ratio of 1 to 250 of the entire population. Nevertheless, every grade of nobility exempted its holder from the payment of the ordinary land-tax, or taille, from the charge of main taining the public roads (corvee), from military conscription, from receiving billets of soldiers, etc. The nobles paid the capitation tax, hut in a very unequal proportion, although the landed property was vested almost entirely in their hands. They, in fact (together with the clergy), monopolized the principal share of the national revenues, and left to the lolver classes the burden of labor and of paying the taxes. At the outbreak of the revolution, the French nobility were sunk in profligacy, and fallen to the lowest stage of demoralization. The clergy kept pace with the nobles in general depravity, and while their aggregate revenues amounted,•according to Necker, to 130,000,000 of livres, and their landed property stood in the relation of 1 to 51 of that of all other pro prietors, their contributions towards the maintenance of the state were inadequate and irregular. The open profligacy and excesses of many of the higher members of the hierarchy, moreover, brought the whole order into disrepute. Francis I. had wrung from the church a tithe, known as the decime paschaline, and every five years the clergy were expected to present their. so-called dons gratuits ordinaircs, of from 15 to 18 million of livres; while on occasions of need they from time to time made extraordinary dons gratuits, which, however, were usually paid at long intervals. The tiers etat were crushed by the weight of an unjust taxation, which was rendered more obnoxious by the system of farming out some of the taxes. The most tyrannical of these was the tax on salt. The municipal institutions which bad been permitted to flourish under some of the Valois princes in the middle ages, were almost entirely abolished, and the offices of towns, like those of the state and the courts of justice, were either hereditary or open to purchases. The tiers etat, which included professional men, and all who were not either members of the noble or the clerical orders, saw themselves utterly excluded from all participation in the privileges and duties of free citizens, at the very time when the extensive circulation of the writings of the philosophers of the 18th c., as Voltaire, Malesherbes, Rousseau, and Montesquieu, had habituated men's minds to tke discussion of questions of political independence, equal rights, and universal freedom: The resistance made by Louis and his advisers to the reasonable demands of the deputies on the 17th June, 1789, led to the constitution of .the national assembly—a measure which was followed, on the 23d of June, by a declaration of the inviolability of the members. The king retaliated by ordering a large body of troops under arms, dis solved his ministry, and banished Necker, whom he had shortly before recalled under the pressure of public opinion. The consequence was the outbreak of insurrectionary movements at Paris, where blood was shed on the 12th July. On the following day, the national guard was convoked; and on the 14th, the people took possession of the Bastile, The provinces repeated the acts of Paris, and everywhere national guards and . revolutionary municipal councils were called together. On the 4th of Aug., feudal and manorial rights were abrogated by the national assembly, which gave expression to a solemn declaration of the equality of human rights. The royal princes and all the nobles who could escape sought safety in flight. The royal family having attempted in vain to follow their example, tried to conciliate the people by the feigned assumption of republican sentiments; but on the 5th Oct., the rabble, followed by numbers of the national guard, attacked Versailles, and compelled the king and his family to remove to Paris, whither the assembly also moved. The next two years witnessed the solemn inauguration and the subsequent retraction of various constitutional schemes; the princes of the blood and the ancient noblesse raised corps of emigres in different parts of the country, but their efforts could not arrest the spread of republicanism. The king alternately made concessions to the republicans, and cherished schemes for escaping from their surveillance, but each month added to his humiliations and to the audacity of those surrounding him. A war with Austria was begun in April, 1792; and the defeat of the French was visited on Louis, who was confined in Aug. with his family in the temple. The advance of the Prussians into Champagne threw Paris into the wildest excitement. The national assembly dissolved itself in Sept. In Dec., the king was brought to trial, and called upon to answer for repeated acts of treason against the republic. On the 20th Jan., 1793, sentence of death was passed upon him; and on the following day he was beheaded. Revolts burst out in every part of France. England, Holland, Spain, Naples, and the German states combined together against the republic. Christianity was now formally deposed, and the sacredness of the republic and the worship of Reason solemnized. Marie Antoinette, the widowed queen, was guillotined; the dauphin and his surviving relatives suffered every indignity that malignity could devise. A reign of blood and terror succeeded. Danton and Robespierre, after having condemned countless numbers to the guillotine, suffered each in torn a similar fate. After the destruction of the terrorists, a reaction was gradually established; the people were wearied of bloodshed, and anxious for peace and order at any cost. The brilliant exploits of the young gen., Napoleon Bonaparte, in Italy, turned men's thoughts to other channels. In 1795, a general amnesty was declared, peace was concluded with Prussia and Spain, and the war was carried on with redoubled vigor against Austria. The revolution had reached a turning-point. A directory was formed to administer the government, which was now conducted in a spirit of order and conciliation. In 1797, Bonaparte and his brother-commanders were omnipotent in Italy. Austria was compelled to give up Belgium, accede to peace on any terms, and recognize the Cisalpine republic. The glory of the French arms was re-established abroad, but at home the nation were still suffering from the shock of the revolution. The directory repudiated two thirds of the national debt, and thus almost ruined the commerce and credit of France. Under the pretext of attacking England, a fleet of 400 ships and an army of 36,000 picked men were equipped; their destination proved, however, to be Egypt, whither the directory sent Bonaparte; but the young, gen., resigning the com mand to filcher, landed in F. in 1799, and at once succeeded in supplanting the direct ory, and securing his own nomination as consul, conjointly with Sieyes and Roger Ducos. In 1800, a new constitution was promulgated, which, although in appearance purely constitutional, in reality vested the sole executive power in Bonaparte, who showed consummate skill in reorganizing the government, to which lie imparted a systematic efficiency and a spirit of centralization, that secured a thoroughly practical administration. Having resumed his military duties, lie marched an army over the Alps, attacked„the Austrians .unaware.s, and decided the fate of Italy by his victory at Marengo. In 1801, the peace of •Luntiville was concluded, and the boundaries of F.
were extended to the Rhine. England was the only country which 'refused to recog nize the legality of the various Italian and German conquests of F.; and with the excep tion of a brief period of peace, this country remained the implacable foe of Bonaparte from the days of the consulate to his defeat at Waterloo. Every period of respite from war was employed by the first consul in reinstating trade and industry, and in obliterating both in private and public life the stains left by the reign of terror. In 1804, on an appeal by universal suffrage to the nation, Bonaparte was proclaimed emperor. The pope came to Paris to crown him and his wife Josephine; a new nobil ity was rapidly created, and the relatives and favorites of the emperor received van quished kingdoms and principalities at his hands. For a time, Napoleon's influence with the weakened powers of the continent succeeded in maintaining an injurious sys tem of blockades against England; and, except in the peninsula, his arms were every where victorious. By his marriage with the archduchess Maria Louisa, daughter of the emperor of Germany, Napoleon seemed to have given to his throne the prestige of birth, which alone it had lacked. He now availed himself of the freedom afforded by the peace with Austria to expand the material prosperity of the country, by encouraging trade, constructing roads, bridges, and canals in every part of the empire, and by con solidating his government, and organizing a complete code of laws and a systematic mode of administering them. But this period was the poorest in respect to the literary and scientific development of the nation, who were too much trammeled by police supervision and military discipline to exercise freedom of thought and intellect, and this interval of comparative repose was soon interrupted by the ambitious designs of Napoleon on Germany, which led to a dedication of war against Russia in 1812. From this time to his final defeat in 1815, the emperor rapidly receded from the lofty sta tion he had won for himself. The disastrous Russian campaign, in which his noble -army was lost amid the rigors of a northern winter, was soon followed by the falling away of his allies and feudatories. Napoleon himself was still victorious wherever he appeared in person, but his generals were beaten in numerous engagements; and the great defeat of Leipsic compelled the French to retreat beyond the Rhine. The Swedes brought reinforcements to swell the ranks of hiS enemies on. the e. frontier,
while the English pressed on from the w.; the senate and his ministry betrayed his cause, and the allies threw themselves on Paris, which, in the absence of the emperor, capitulated after a short resistance, Mar. 80, 1814. Napoleon now abdicated in favor of his young son, and retired to the island of Elba, the sovereignty of which had been granted to him. His wife and son removed to Vienna; his family were declared to have forfeited the throne; F. was reduced to her former limits, and the provinces she had acquired were restored to their national rulers. On the ad May, Louis XVIII. (the brother of Louis XVI.) made his entry into Paris. The conduct of the Bourbons did not conciliate the nation; they returned loaded with debts, and surrounded by the old nobility and clergy, who had not renounced their former privileges, and who looked the generation of Frenchmen who had arisen during their absence as their natural enemies. A narrow spirit influenced the weak policy of the king, which 'led to the establishment of a strict censorship, the extension of the powers of the police, and the persecution of all the adherents of the empire; while the lower classes and the army, who were alike sensible of the humiliating reaction which had followed the for mer excitement of war and conquest, were treated with an indifference, and even con tempt, by the returned emigres, to which they were wholly unaccustomed. On the 1st Mar., 1815, Napoleon left Elba, and landed in France. Crowds followed him; the sol diers flocked around his standard; the Bourbons fled, and he took possession of their lately deserted palaces. The news of his landing spread terror through Europe; and on the 25th Mar., a treaty of alliance was signed at Vienna between Austria, Russia, Prus sia, and England, and preparations at once made to put down the movement in his favor, and restore the Bourbon dynasty. At first, the old prestige of success seemed to attend Napoleon; but on the 18th June, he was thoroughly defeated at Waterloo; and having placed himself under the safeguard of the English, he was sent to the island of St. Helena, in conformity with the generally acknowledged sentiment, that it was neces sary to the peace of Europe to remove- him finally and definitely from the scene of his former power. The second restoration gave occasion to many pledges of a more liberal policy on the part of Louis, but few of them were fulfilled, and a general and sullen discontent reigned among the people, who were again deprived of all voice in the admin istration, or in the election to offices, and were harassed by the petty tyranny of the priests, who were the favorite advisers of the crown. In 1821, Napoleon breathed his last at St. Helena; and in 1824, Louis XVIII. died' ithout direct heirs, and his brother, the due d'Artois, succeeded as Charles X. The same ministerial incapacity, want of good faith, general discontent, and excessive priestly influence characterized this reign. which was abruptly brought to a close by the revolution of 1830, and the election to the throne of Louis Pirl;ppe, duke of Orleans, as king, by the will of the people. Legitimist insurrections disturbed the nation; one emeute succeeded another; .attempts upon the king's life were frequent; but the progress in material prosperity made the government popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle classes, and for a time it held its ground. The warlike propensities of time nation found an outlet in the war in Algeria (q.v.) with Abd-el-Kade , But the determined resistance of the king to the growing desire for electoral reform, led at last to open insurrection in Paris; and. Louis Philippe having abdicated (Feb. 24, 1848), a republic was proclaimed, under a pro visional government. An insurrection of the red republicans in Paris (June, 1848), was, only put down after great slaughter. Louis Napoleon (q.v.) was elected president of the republic in Dec., 1848; but by the famous coup-d'etat of Dec. 2, 1851, he violently set aside the constitution, and assumed dictatorial powers; and a year after (2d Dec., 1852), was raised, by the almost unanimous voice of the nation, •to the dignity of emperor as Napoleon III. His rule was one of complete absolutism, under which, however, F. made great advances in the development of her natural resources,. and in manufactures. Assuming the character of an adjuster of the wrongs of nations, Napoleon proclaimed himself a mediator in the Danish and Austro-Prussian wars, and the defender of the Italians against Austria, of the pope against the people of Italy, and of the Mexicans against the government of the United States of America. By his help the Italians were relieved from the Austrian yoke, and the pope was left mas ter of Rome; but in Mexico his intervention only led to greater bloodshed, and ended ignominiously for the glory of F., and fatally for the and life of his protege, the Austrian prince Maximilian (q.v.). Attempts to gain a Prussian alliance ended in' humiliating repulses. Although the brilliant success of the Paris exhibition of 1867 seemed to afford evidence of the personal and national consideration in which the emperor was held, his political credit had already then lost its importance. At home,, the great financial embarrassments of his government were arousing the discontent of the people; and to avert the growing disaffection, Napoleon offered (1869) to adopt a. constitutional form of government, and to make some concessions in regard to free dom of the press. It was soon found that the responsibility of the ministry was fic titious, and that the emperor availed himself of its protection to cloak his own acts of personal government. The result of the appeal made to the nation in 1870, on the plea of securing their sanction for his policy, was not what he had anticipated; and the 50,000 dissentient votes given by the troops in this plebiscite, revealed a hitherto unsuspected source of danger. Confident in the efficiency of the army, and anxious, to rekindle its ardor, he availed himself of a pretext to declare war against Prussia.. The course of events in the short but terrible Franco-German conflict of 1870-71 electrified Europe by its unexpected character, revealing at once the solidity of Prussian:, strength, and the hollowness of imperial power in France. Within a fortnight of the emperor's appearance at the head of his troops at Metz, July 28, 1870, the strength, of the French army was annihilated, Alsace and Lorraine were occupied by Germans, and the chamber of deputies in Paris was clamoring for his abdication. On Sept. 2, Napoleon, with his army of 90,000 men, surrendered at Sedan, and on the 4th, Paris, was in rebellion, the senate dissolved, the empress regent a fugitive on her way to Eng land, and F. proclaimed a republic amid tumultuous excitement. Before the close of Sept., Strasburg, one of the last hopes of F., had capitulated, and Paris was com pletely invested by German troops; and on 5th Oct., the Prussian king had taken his head-quarters at Versailles. The fall of Metz, with 200,000 men, completed the dis asters of the year. In Jan., 1871, the united efforts of the different branches of " the• provisional government of defense," respectively installed at Paris and Tours, suc ceeded in bringing about an armistice, after the besieged Parisians had for four months been hourly exposed to the fire of the enemy, cut off from all communication with, the outer world except by balloons and carrier-pigeons, and finally threatened by famine.. With the concurrence of Prussia, the French nation now proceeded, by a general elec tion of representatives, to provide for the exigencies of the country. The first national assembly of the French republic met at Bordeaux in February. After receiving from the provisional government of defense the resignation of the powers confided to them in Sept., 1870, the assembly undertook to organize the republican government, and nominated M. Thiers chief of the executive power of the state, with the title of pres ident of the French republic, but with the condition of responsibility to the national. assembly. On the let of Mar. the preliminaries of peace were finally ratified at Bor deaux, the chief conditions being that the province of Alsace (except Belfort) and part, of Lorraine, including Metz, should be ceded to the German empire, and that F. should. pay a war indemnity of 5,000 millions of francs, and continue to be occupied by Ger man troops till the money was all paid. This enormous obligation was discharged in: Sept., 1873, and during the same month, F., after an occupation of three years, was finally relieved from the presence of foreign troops. In the spring of 1871, the peace of F. was seriously threatened by a successful outbreak at Paris on the part of the com munists (q.v.), who, after great bloodshed and grievous damage to public and private property, were quelled by the regular army, which had sided with the government, and on 20th of May order was restored in Paris. Since then, F. has been successfully try ing to obliterate some of the numerous misfortunes resulting from the war, and com merce and national prosperity are beginning to revive. The ex-emperor Napoleon died in 1872, at Chiselhurst, where he had resided with his family since his liberation in Mar., 1871. In 1873, M. Thiers resigned the office of president of the French republic, and was succeeded by marshal MacMalion, who soon had his presidential powers con firmed to him for a period of seven years, generally known as the septonnate. The president's sympathies were conservative, and especially in 1877 suspected of reactionary designs. But the republican form of government was greatly consoli dated, during MacMahon's tenure of office, and continued to secure more and more the confidence of the nation. On the resignation of MacMahon (q.v.), M. Gravy (q.v.) was appointed his successor. • FRANCESCFIrNI, BALDASSARE, 1611-89; a painter of the Tuscan school. He was more successful in fresco than in oil painting. His pictures were not unfrequently left unfinished, but many perfected specimens remain, the smaller ones being marked by much originality of conception. The best known of his large oil paintings is " St. John the Evangelist," in a church atVolaterra. One of his latest undertakings was the fresco of the cupola of the Annunziata, a production of much labor and energy.