Beacon Lights of History, Volume 09 | Page 2

John Lord
outbreak of the revolution Character of the Greeks Ypsilanti His successes Atrocities of the Turks Universal rising of the Greeks Siege of Tripolitza Reverses of the Greeks Prince Mavrokordatos Ali Pasha The massacres at Chios Admiral Miaulis Marco Bozzaris Chourchid Pasha Deliverance of the Mona Greeks take Napoli di Romania Great losses of the Greeks Renewed efforts of the Sultan Dissensions of the Greek leaders Arrival of Lord Byron Interest kindled for the Greek cause in England London loans Siege and fall of Missolonghi Interference of Great Powers Ibraham Pasha Battle of Navarino Greek independence Capo d'Istrias Otho, King of Greece Results of the Greek Revolution
LOUIS PHILIPPE.
THE CITIZEN KING. Elevation of Louis Philippe His character Lafayette Lafitte Casimir P��rier Disordered state of France Suppression of disorders Consolidation of royal power Marshal Soult Fortification of Paris Siege of Antwerp Public improvements First ministry of Thiers First ministry of Count Mol�� Abd-el-Kader Storming of Constantine Railway mania Death of Talleyrand Villemain Russian and Turkish wars Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi Lamartine Second administration of Thiers Removal of Napoleon's remains Guizot, Prime Minister Guizot as historian Conquest of Algeria Death of the Due d'Orl��ans The Spanish marriages Progress of corruption General discontents Dethronement of Louis Philippe His inglorious flight
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME IX.
Napoleon Insists that Pope Pius VII. Shall Crown Him After the painting by Jean Paul Laurens.
Louis XVI. _After the painting by P. Dum��nil, Gallery of Versailles_.
Murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday _After the painting by J. Weerts_.
Edmund Burke _After the painting by J. Barry, Dublin National Gallery_.
Napoleon After the painting by Paul Delaroche.
"1807," Napoleon at Friedland _After the painting by E. Meissonier_.
Napoleon Informs Empress Josephine of His Intention to Divorce Her After the painting by Eleuterio Pagliano.
George IV. of England _After the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, Rome_.
The Congress of Vienna After the drawing by Jean Baptiste Isabey.
Daniel O'Connell _After the painting by Doyle, National Gallery, Dublin_.
Marco Bozzaris _After the painting by J.L. Gerome_.

BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY.
MIRABEAU.
A.D. 1749-1791.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
Three events of pre-eminent importance have occurred in our modern times; these are the Protestant Reformation, the American War of Independence, and the French Revolution.
The most complicated and varied of these great movements is the French Revolution, on which thousands of volumes have been written, so that it is impossible even to classify the leading events and the ever-changing features of that rapid and exciting movement. The first act of that great drama was the attempt of reformers and patriots to destroy feudalism,--with its privileges and distinctions and injustices,--by unscrupulous and wild legislation, and to give a new constitution to the State.
The best representative of this movement was Mirabeau, and I accordingly select him as the subject of this lecture. I cannot describe the violence and anarchy which succeeded the Reign of Terror, ending in a Directory, and the usurpation of Napoleon. The subject is so vast that I must confine myself to a single point, in which, however, I would unfold the principles of the reformers and the logical results to which their principles led.
The remote causes of the French Revolution I have already glanced at, in a previous lecture. The most obvious of these, doubtless, was the misgovernment which began with Louis XIV. and continued so disgracefully under Louis XV.; which destroyed all reverence for the throne, even loyalty itself, the chief support of the monarchy. The next most powerful influence that created revolution was feudalism, which ground down the people by unequal laws, and irritated them by the haughtiness, insolence, and heartlessness of the aristocracy, and thus destroyed all respect for them, ending in bitter animosities. Closely connected with these two gigantic evils was the excessive taxation, which oppressed the nation and made it discontented and rebellious. The fourth most prominent cause of agitation was the writings of infidel philosophers and economists, whose unsound and sophistical theories held out fallacious hopes, and undermined those sentiments by which all governments and institutions are preserved. These will be incidentally presented, as thereby we shall be able to trace the career of the remarkable man who controlled the National Assembly, and who applied the torch to the edifice whose horrid and fearful fires he would afterwards have suppressed. It is easy to destroy; it is difficult to reconstruct. Nor is there any human force which can arrest a national conflagration when once it is kindled: only on its ashes can a new structure arise, and this only after long and laborious efforts and humiliating disappointments.
It might have been possible for the Government to contend successfully with the various elements of discontent among the people, intoxicated with those abstract theories of rights which Rousseau had so eloquently defended, if it had possessed a strong head and the sinews of war. But Louis XVI., a modest, timid, temperate, moral young man of twenty-three, by the death of
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