Page:The Royal Family of France (Henry).djvu/65

 union of France and the Papacy from facts and custom. One excuse only may be granted Henri IV. for his dull and bigoted policy in issuing the silly Edict of Nantes (1598). Henri IV. thought it right that legislators must respect the fears and resentments of the people, and his bigotry agreed too well with the religious hatred and political distrust which prevailed among the bulk of the French people. The King's dragonnades, fruitful only in atrocious violences, caused to France the irreparable loss of a hundred thousand families, who, after living peaceably and obedient to the Government and distinguishing themselves by the purity of their morals and their active industry, escaped from France, and transferred their industry to England, Germany, and Holland. This dark hour of French History in justice must most indisputably be laid at Henri IV.'s door.

Throughout the lapse of centuries extending from Clovis to Louis XVI. we find age by age proofs of this triple alliance I have referred to between the Church, the King and the Nation. This Covenant was at one time set aside by the Revolution. Hatred to God fostered hatred to King and nation: King and people perished on the scaffold, and with them perished the old French liberty. A corrupt society gave birth to Voltaire and the false Philosophers. This liberty, a daughter of heaven, the watchful guardian of the nation's Covenant, should not be forsaken and allowed to be swept away in the whirlwind of French Revolutions. Some day she will arise and, though not in our lifetime perhaps, save France, disgraced by the memorable Revolution, which began on July 14th, 1789, that day when the of the nineteenth century was uttered.