Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/685

Rh M A Z M A Z 653 Frondes. It was while in exile at Briihl that Mazarin saw the mistake he had made in isolating himself and the queen, and that his policy of balancing every party in the state against each other had made every party distrust him. So by his counsel the queen, while nominally in league with De Retz and the parliamentary Fronde, laboured to form a purely royal party, wearied by civil dissensions, who should act for her and her son s interest alone, under the leadership of Mathieu Mole&quot;, the famous premier president of the parlement of Paris. The new party grew in strength, and in January 1652, after exactly a year s absence, Mazarin returned to the court. Turenne had now become the royal general, and out-manoeuvred Conde, while the royal party at last grew to such strength in Paris that Conde&quot; had to leave the capital and France. In order to promote a reconciliation with the parlement of Paris, Mazarin had again retired from court, this time to Sedan, in August 1652, but he returned finally in February 1653. Long had been the trial, and greatly had Mazarin been to blame in allowing the Frondes to come into existence, but he had retrieved his position by founding that great royal party which steadily grew until Louis XIV. could fairly have said &quot;L Etat, c est moi.&quot; As the war had progressed, Mazarin had steadily followed Richelieu s policy of weakening the nobles on their country estates. Whenever he hid an opportunity he destroyed a feudal castle, and by destroying the towers which commanded nearly every town in France, he freed such towns as Bourges, for instance, from their long practical subjection to the neighbouring great lord. The Fronde over, Mazarin had to build up afresh the power of France at home and abroad. It is to his shame that he did so little at home. Beyond destroying the brick and mortar remains of feudalism, he did nothing for the people. But abroad his policy was everywhere success ful, and opened the way for the policy of Louis XIV. He at first, by means of an alliance with Cromwell, recovered the north-western cities of France, though at the price of yielding Dunkirk to the Protector. On the Baltic, France guaranteed the treaty of Oliva between her old allies Sweden, Poland, and Brandenburg, which preserved her influence in that quarter. In Germany he, through Lionne, formed the leagueVof the Rhine, by which the states along the Rhine bound themselves under the head ship of France to be on their guard against the house of Austria. By such measures Spain was induced to sue for peace, which was finally signed in the Isle of Pheasants on the Bidassoa, and which is known as the treaty of the Pyrenees. By it Spain recovered Franche Comt, but ceded to France Roussillon, and much of French Flanders; and, what was of greater ultimate importance to Europe, Louis XEV. was to marry a Spanish princess, who was to renounce her claims to the Spanish succession if her dowry was paid, which Mazarin knew could not happen at present from the emptiness of the Spanish exchequer. He returned to Paris in declining health, and did not long survive the unhealthy sojourn on the Bidassoa; after some political instruction to his young master, he passed away at Yincennes on March 9, 1661, leaving a fortune estimated at from 18, to 40 million livres behind him, and his nieces married into the greatest families of France and Italy. The man who could have had such success, who could have made the treaties of Westphalia and the Pyrenees, who could have weathered the storm of the Fronde, and left France at peace with itself and with Europe to Louis XIV., must have been a great man ; and historians, relying too much on the brilliant memoirs of his adversaries, like De Retz, are apt to rank him too low. That he had many a petty fault there can be no doubt ; that he was avaricious and double-dealing was also undoubted; and his camels show to what unworthy means he had recourse to maintain his influence over the queen. What that influence was will be always debated, but both his carncte and the Briihl letters show that a real personal affection, amounting to passion on the queen s part, existed. Whether they were ever married may be doubted; but that hypo thesis is made more possible by M. Cheruel s having been able to prove from Mazarin s letters that the cardinal himself had never taken more than the minor orders, which could always be thrown off. With regard to France he played a more patriotic part than Conde or Turenne, for he never treated with the Spaniards, and his letters show that in the midst of his difficulties ho followed with intense eagerness every movement on the frontiers. It is that immense mass of letters, now in course of publication, that prove the real greatness of the statesman, and disprove De lietz s portrait, which is carefully arranged to show oil his enemy against the might of Richelieu. To concede that the master was the greater man and the greater statesman does not imply that Mazarin was but a foil to his predecessor. It is true that we find none of those deep plans for the internal prosperity of France which shine through Richelieu s policy. Mazarin was not a Frenchman, but a citizen of the world, and always paid most attention to foreign affairs; in his letters all that could teach a diplomatist, is to be found, broad general views of policy, minute details carefully elaborated, keen in sight into men s characters, cunning directions when to dissimulate or when to be frank. From first to last the diplomatist peeps forth, and gives the key to his character, and to the causes of his success. Italian though he was by birth, education, and nature, France owed him a great debt for his skilful management during the early years of Louis XIV. , and the king owed him yet more, for he had not only transmitted to him a nation at peace, but had educated for him his great servants Le Tellier, Lionne, and Colbert, Literary men owed him also much; not only did he throw his famous library open to them, but he pensioned all their leaders, including Descartes, Voiture, Balzac, and Pierre Corneille. The last-named, the greatest of them all, did not care for Mazarin as a paymaster only, but as a statesman ; he was a profound royalist, believing that absolutism alone could save France from the horrors of religious wars, or the selfish turbulence of a Fronde, and to Mazarin he applied, with an adroit allusion to his birthplace, in tho dedication of his Pompec, the line of Virgil &quot; Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento.&quot; All the earlier works on Mazarin, and early accounts of his ad ministration, of which the best were Baziu s Histoire de France sous Louis XIII. ct sous le Cardinal Mazarin, 4 vols., 1846, and Saint- Aulaire s Histoire de la Fronde, have been superseded by M. Cheruel s admirable Histoire de France pendant la minorite dc Louis XIV., 4 vols., 1879-80, which covers from 1643-51, and its sequel Histoire de France sous le Ministere de.Cardinal Mazarin, 2 vols., 1881-82, which is the first account of the period written by one able to sift the statements of De Retz and the memoir writers, and rest upon such documents as Mazarin s letters and carnets. To M. Cheruel the Government of France has entrusted the task of editing Mazarin s Letters, of which two volumes have at present appeared, which must be carefully studied by any student of the history of France. For his &quot;carnets &quot; reference must be made to M. Cousin s articles in the Journal dcs Savants ; for his early life to Cousin s Jeunessc de Mazarin, 1865, and for the careers of his nieces to Renee s Les Nieces de Mazarin, 1856. For the Mazarinades or squibs written against him in Paris during the Fronde, see Moreau s Bibliographic dcs Mazarinades, 1850, containing an account of 4082 Mazarinades. On the Fronde, also, consult Gaillardin s Histoire de Louis XIV., 6 vols., 1876-78, and Feillet s interesting Misereau temps de la Fronde. For his foreign policy, besides his Letters, see Valfrey s Hugues de Lionne, and Miguet s Histoire dcs Negotiations relatives a la Succession d Espagne. (H. M. S.) MAZATLAN, a city and seaport of Mexico, in the state of Cinaloa, on the coast of the Pacific, near the mouth of the Gulf of California, in 23 18 N. lat. and 106 56 W. long. It occupies an &quot;&quot;attractive situation, but, as the houses are for the most part low, has not an imposing appearance. The port is often visited by English and American vessels, and is consequently the seat of several consular agents. A large smuggling trade was formerly carried on in much the same lines as the present legitimate traffic export of bullion, dye-stuffs, and pearls, and import of manufactured goods from Europe and fruits and vegetables from San Francisco. In 1878 the value of the imports was about 600,000, that of the exports about 500,000. The population, which contains a large float ing element, was stated at 12,706 in 1871. MAZEPPA, IVAN STEPHANOVITCH (1644-1709), a Cossack chief, best known as the hero of one of Lord Byron s poems, was born in 1644, of a poor but noble