In 1755 hostilities were begun by the English against the French in America, in consequence of disputes concerning the boundary-line between Canada and the English settlemeuts. lu the following year war was formally declared between the two powers. This war con nected itself with the war in Europe called the Seven Years' War. The English were the allies of Frederick of Prussia, whilst the Frenoh joined the Empress Maria Theresa. This war proved most unfortunate to France. The French were beaten at Rosbach by Frederick hi 1757, and were again defeated at Minden by the Duke Ferdinand of Bruns wick, with the loss of 8000 men, canuou, baggage, military chest, &e. In America they lost Canada. A project of invasion of England by means of 6000 flat-bottomed boats, by which landings were to be effected on various points of the coast, was revealed to the English ministry by an Irishman called Macallieter, and was abandoned. At last by the peace of Paris, February 1763, France formally ceded Canada, Nova Scotia, and its other North American colonies, besides Grenada, Dominica, and Tobago in the West Indies ; its navy never after recovered from its losses, its finances were exhausted, and its commerce destroyed. This was the last war of Louis XV., a war which was undertaken rashly, and terminated iu a disastrous and humiliating manner. The feeling of disgrace resulting from it sunk deeply into the heart of a people so vain and sensitive as the French, and it completely did away with the former popularity of Louis, which had once obtained him the title of Bienaime,' or Beloved. The king had now abandoned himself to gross licentiousness, and had become careless of state affairs. The mad attempt of Damiens made him still more alienated from his people. [DatilieNe, It. F.] After the death
of his mistress, the Marchioness of Pompadour, an ambitious intriguing woman, but who had still some elevation of mind, he became attached to more vulgar women [BARRY, MARIE JEANNE], and at last formed regular harem after the fashion of the eastern sultans, but more odious from its contrast with European manners, which was called the Parc aux Cerfs, and upon which vast sums were squandered. The minister of foreign affairs, Choiseul, who had remonstrated with the king upon hie degradation, was dismissed in 1770. He was the last man of some merit who served Louis XV. [CHOISEUL, ETIENNE FRANcOLS, Duo DE.) The state of the finances was the moat obvious difficulty of ministers, to whose remonstrances, urged sometimes in a tone of appalling and ominous seriousness, Louis used to answer, "Try to make things go on as long as I am to live; after my death it will be as it may." Louis died at Versailles, on the 10th of May 1774, sixty-four years I of age. Two sons whom he had had by his wife were both dead : the eldest, the dauphin, died in 1765, and left by his wife, a Saxon princess, three sons, who have been in succession kings of France, namely, Louis XVI., Louis XVIII., and Charles X. Louis XV. had also by his wife several daughters, besides illegitimate children.
It was under Louis XV. that the corruption of morals and principles spread in France to an alarming extent among all classes, being encouraged by the materialism and sensual philosophy which were taught by several men of letters. Both these causes, added to the general poverty, national humiliation, and ruined finauces, prepared the way for the explosion which took place under his unfortunate successor.
(Lacretelle ; Fantin des Odoards ; Voltaire, Vie Privee de Louis XV.)