The WORKS of VOLTAIRE
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The WORKS of VOLTAIRE ~‘Betwecntwo servants of Humanity, who apjeared eighteen hundred years apart, tlrere is a mysterious reZation. * * * * Let us say it waZh a sentiment of profound resject: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED. Of that divine tear ana’ of that human smile is composed the sweetness of the present civzhkatzbn.‘ VICTOR HUGO. h I @E HVNDREO&MXM-EIGHT DESICNS, COMPRISING REPROWCTIONS OF RARE OLD ENGRAVINGS, SEELPLRTES, PH@ TOGRAVURE5 & CURIOUS FAC-SlMlLE& COPYRIGHT,1901, BY E. R. DUMONT ifWNeD BY THEST. HUBERTGUILD NB-wY3RK VOLTAIRE SHORT STUDIES IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SUBJECTS VOL. XIX - PARTI1 Voltaire recorded his views upon the English people and government in a series of ‘‘ Philosophic Letters,” which were published in France and in England in 1733. Accord- ing to Parton, Lafayette declared that it was his reading of these letters that made him a republican at nine years of age, and to them Rousseau “attributed in great measure the awakening of his late-maturing intelligence.” The author had to tone the letters down to get them passed by the censor. His praise of English liberty of thought and speech even then proved too irritating to the authorities. The book was denounced as heretical, in May, 1734. Every known copy was confiscated. The publisher was sent to the Bas- tille; a lettre de cachet was issued against the author; his house was searched, and the Parliament of Paris had the book publicly burned by the executioner. A few later pieces have been included here. CONTENTS PAGE THEENGLISH PARLIAMENT . 5 THEENGLISH CONSTITUTION 9 ENGLISHCOMMERCE . 16 INOCULATION. 19 CHANCELLORBACON . 27 LOCKE . .... 33 SUICIDE. .. *. 39 ENGLISHTRAGEDY . 44 ENGLISHCOMEDY . .. 52 LEARNEDCOURTIERS . 75 ROCHESTERAND WALLER . 17 PRIOR, BUTLER,AND SWIFT . 82 POPE . .. 93 THELEARNED SOCIETIES . 96 CROMWELL . 103 THE MISFORTUNESOF CHARLES I. 111 ENGLANDUNDER CHARLES11. 114 THEENGLISH THEATRE . 122 HAMLET . 124 THEORPHAN .... 140 REVOLUTIONSIN THE TRAGICART 151 iv Contents. ON TRAGEDY . ... 174 THERELIGION OF THE QUAKERS. 192 THECHURCH OF ENGLAND. , 212 THEPRESBYTERIANS . .. 2x6 THE ANTI-TRINITARIANS. 2x9 THEPEOPLING OF AMERICA. 222 THECONQUEST OF PERU . .. 234 THENEGRO . ... 240 THEFRENCH IN AMERICA . .. 242 THEFRENCH ISLANDS . .. 251 THEENGLISH AND DUTCHPOSSESSIONS . 260 PARAGUAY . ... 269 THECHANGES IN OUR GLOBE . 279 LIST OF PLATES PART I1 ?AOE THALIA. , . Frontispiece WILLIAMPENN , . , . 210 SHORT STUDIES ON ENGLISH TOPICS. WITH NOTES ON THE PEOPLING OF AMERICA THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. THE MEMBERS of the English Parliament are fond of comparing themselves, on all occasions, to the old Romans. Not long since, Mr. Shippen opened a speech in the house of commons with these words : “The maj- esty of the people of England would be wounded.” The singularity of this expression occasioned a loud laugh; but this gentleman, far from being discon- certed, repeated the statement with a resolute tone of voice, and the laugh ceased. I must own, I see no resemblance between the majesty of the people of England and that of the Romans, and still less between the two governments. There is in London a senate, some of the members whereof are accused doubtless very unjustly-af selling their votes, on certain occasions, as was done at Rome ; and herein lies the whole resemblance. In other respects, the two nations appear to be quite opposite in character, with regard both to good and to evil. The Romans never knew the terrible madness of religious wars. This abomination was reserved for devout preachers 5 6 Short Studies. of patience and humility. Marius and Sulla, Casar and Pompey, Antony and Augustus, did not draw their swords against one another to determine whether the flamen should wear his shirt over his robe, or his robe over his shirt; or whether the sacred chickens should both eat and drink, or eat only, in order to take the augury. The English have formerly destroyed one another, by sword or halter, for disputes of as trifling a nature. The Episcopalians and the Presbyterians quite turned the heads of these gloomy people for a time ; but I be- lieve they will hardly be so silly again, as they seem to have grown wiser at their own expense; and I , do not perceive the least inclination in them to mur- der one another any more for mere syllogisms. But who can answer for the follies and prejudices of mankind ? Here follows a more essential difference between Rome and England, which throws the advantage en- tirely on the side of the latter; namely, that the civil wars of Rome ended in slavery, and those of the English in liberty. The English are the only people on earth who have been able to prescribe limits to the power of kings by resisting them, and who, by a series of struggles, have at length estab- lished that wise and happy form of government where the prince is all-powerful to do good, and at the same time is restrained from committing evil; where the nobles are great without insolence or lordly power, and the people share in the govern- ment without confusion. The English Parliament. 7 The house of lords and the house of commons divide the legislative power under the king; but the Romans had no such balance. Their patricians and plebeians were continually at variance, without any intermediate power to reconcile them. The Roman senate, who were so unjustly, so criminally, formed as to exclude the plebeians from having any share in the affairs of government, could find no other artifice to effect their design than to employ them in foreign wars. They considered the people as wild beasts, whom they were to let loose upon their neighbors, for fear they should turn upon their mas- ters. Thus the greatest defect in the government of the Romans was the means of making them con- querors ; and, by being unhappy at home, they be- came masters of the world, till in the end their divi- sions sank them into slavery. The government of England, from its nature, can never attain to so exalted a pitch, nor can it ever have so fatal an end. It has not in view the splen- did folly of making conquests, but only the pre- vention of their neighbors from conquering. The English are jealous not only of their own liberty, but even of that of other nations. The only reason of their quarrels with Louis XIV. was on account of his ambition. It has not been without some difficulty that lib- erty has been established in England, and the idol of arbitrary power has been drowned in seas of blood ; nevertheless, the English do not think they have purchased their laws at too high a price. Other 8 Short Studies. nations have shed as much blood; but then the blood they spilled in defence of their liberty served only to enslave them the more. That which rises to a revolution in England is no more than a sedition in other countries. A city in Spain, in Barbary, or in Turkey takes up arms in defence of its privileges, when immediately it is stormed by mercenary troops, it is punished by ex- ecutioners, and the rest of the nation kiss their chains. The French think that the government of this island is more tempestuous than the seas which surround it; in which, indeed, they are not mis- taken: but then this happens only when the king raises the storm by attempting to seize the ship, of which he is only the pilot. The civil wars of France lasted longer, were more cruel, and productive of greater evils, than those of England: but none of these civil wars had a wise and becoming liberty for their object. In the detestable times of Charles IX. and Henry 111. the whole affair was only, whether the people should be slaves to the Guises. As to the last war , of Paris, it deserves only to be hooted at. It makes us think we see a crowd of schoolboys rising up in arms against their master, and afterward being whipped for it. Cardinal de Retz, who was witty and brave, but employed those talents badly; who was rebellious without cause, factious without de- sign, and the head of a defenceless party, caballed % for the sake of caballing, and seemed to foment the civil war for his own amusement and pastime. The parliament did not know what he aimed at, nor what The English Constitution. 9 he did not aim at. He levied troops, and the next instant cashiered them ; he threatened ; he begged pardon ; he set a price on Cardinal Mazarin's head, and afterward congratulated him in a public man- ner. Our civil wars under Charles VI. were bloody and crue1,'those of the League execrable, and that of the Frondeurs ridiculous. s That for which the French chiefly reproach the English nation is the murder of King Charles I., a prince who merited a better fate, and whom his sub- jects treated just as he would have treated them, had he been powerful and at ease. After all, con- sider, on one side, Charles I. defeated in a pitched battle, imprisoned, tried, sentenced to die in West- minster Hall, and then beheaded ; and, on.the other, the emperor Henry VII. poisoned by his chaplain in receiving the sacrament; Henry 111. of France stabbed by a monk; thirty different plots contrived to assassinate Henry IV., several of them put into execution, and the last depriving that great monarch of his life. Weigh, I say, all these wicked attempts, and then judge. - THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. THISmixture of different departments in the government of England ; this harmony between the king, lords, and commons has not always subsisted. England was for a long time in a state of slavery, having, at different periods, worn the yoke of the Romans, Saxons, Danes, and, last of all, the Nor- mans.