In contemplating the long reign of Louis XV,—­whom I present as a necessary link in the political history of the eighteenth century, rather than as one of the Beacon Lights of civilization,—­we first naturally turn our eyes to the leading external events by which it is marked in history; and we have to observe, in reference to these, that they were generally unpropitious to the greatness and glory of France, Nearly all those which emanated from the government had an unfortunate or disgraceful issue.  No success attended the French arms in any quarter of the world, with the exception of the victories of Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy (1745); and the French lost the reputation they had previously acquired under Henry IV., Conde, Turenne, and Luxembourg.  Disgrace attended the generals who were sent against Frederic II., in the Seven Years’ War, even greater than what had previously resulted from the contests with the English and the Dutch, and which were brought to a close by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748.  But it was not on the fields of Germany that the greatest disasters happened; the French were rifled of their possessions both in America and in India.  Louisbourg yielded to the bravery of New England troops, and finally Canada itself was lost.  All dreams of establishing a new empire on the Mississippi and the Gulf of St. Lawrence vanished for ever, while Madras and Calcutta fell into the hands of the English, with all the riches of Mahometan and Mogul empires.  During the regency of the Duke of Orleans,—­for Louis XV. was an infant five years of age when his great-grandfather died in 1715,—­we notice the disgraceful speculations which followed the schemes of Law, and which resulted in the ruin of thousands, and the still greater derangement of the national finances.  The most respectable part of the reign of Louis XV. were those seventeen years when the administration was hi the hands of Cardinal Fleury, who succeeded the Duke of Bourbon, to whom the reins of government had been intrusted after the death of the Duke of Orleans, two years before the young King had attained his majority.  Though the cardinal was a man of peace, was irreproachable in morals, patriotic in his intentions, and succeeded in restoring for a time the credit of the country, still even he only warded off difficulties,—­like Sir Robert Walpole,—­instead of bravely meeting them before it should be too late.  His timid rule was a negative rather than a positive blessing.  But with his death ended all prosperity, and the reign of mistresses and infamous favorites began,—­the great feature of the times, on which I shall presently speak more fully, as one of the indirect causes of subsequent revolution.