“The fate of the East depends upon yon petty town,” was the exclamation of Bonaparte to Murat, as he pointed towards Acre, which even his military genius was unable to subdue. Repeated and desperate assaults proved that the consequence which he attached to the taking of it was as great as the words expressed. The imagination reverts from the position of the army of Egypt before that oriental city, and rapidly traversing the events of succeeding history, runs down to the position of the army of the successor of Bonaparte, and of his English and Turkish allies, who, on nearly the precise parallel of longitude, are unitedly engaged in besieging one of the first strongholds of Europe. In recounting some of the great events of the times which have filled the world with their grandeur, and whose present and future place in history overshadows the preceding ages, a rapid _resumé_ of the situation of Europe, just previous to and at the commencement of the great drama, may be useful, and serve to recall facts and events which may to the general reader have been known but forgotten. One who stands amid the gardens and grounds of Versailles, and contemplates the enormous luxury and expenditure of its builder, while he recalls his vast wars, his policy, and his intrigues, can better understand the declaration of Louis XIV. to his assembled parliament. “The State! I am the State!” And such an observer can also discover the truth of that statement, that it was that builder who laid the foundations of the French Revolution with the stones of Versailles. The keen sagacity of the polite Chesterfield could detect that approaching revolution a quarter of a century before it took place; and his remarkable prediction shows how rapidly the signs of the gathering storm must have accumulated in the years succeeding the Augustan age of France. The energies of the nation had been devoted to the service and pleasure of the monarch; they now began to be directed to their proper end, the examination of their own interests. From the theatre and the pulpit the genius of the French people hurried precipitately into morals and politics, a sudden revolution took place in the minds of all, and the conflict it produced lasted during a whole century. The exclusive privileges of the aristocracy, who monopolised every official position, and who alone were eligible to rank in the army, choked the development of the great body of the people; and while they consumed the revenues of the State they were in a great measure exempt from taxation. Cradled in the luxury of courts, the aristocracy were sunk in vice and effeminacy. And they looked upon the great body of the people as only a necessary appendage to a government in which they had neither right nor control.