IX. 1820. 60. on this sul Experience has confirmed the assertion here made, that CHAP. no government has ever been established in France, since the Revolution, which has been able to stand for any length of time against the unrestricted assaults of the Reflections public press. Whether it is from the vehemence and ject. proneness to change in the French character, or from the absence of that regulating mass of fixed interests, which, like the fly-wheel in the machine, steadies its movements, and restrains the actions of the moving power, the fact is certain. No dynasty or administration has ever existed for any length of time, which had not contrived somehow or other to restrain the violence of the periodical press. There is more here than a peculiarity of national temperament, to which, on this side of the Channel, we are so apt to ascribe it. It points to a great truth, of general application and lasting importance to mankind-that is, that the public press is only to be relied on as the bulwark either of freedom or good government, where classes exist in society, and interests in the State, which render the support of truth a matter of immediate profit to many engaged in the great, work of enlightening or directing the public mind. Individuals of a noble and lofty character will, indeed, often be found who will sacrifice interest to the assertion of truth, but they are few in number; and though they may direct the thinking few, they cannot be expected, in the first instance at least, to have much influence on the unthinking many. The ability of those engaged in the public press is in general very great; but it is like the ability of the bar-it is employed to support the views which suit the interests of its clients, and more occupied with objects of present interest than with those of ultimate importance. Those who live by the people must please the people. There is no security so complete alike for stable government and public freedom as a free press, when great interests on both sides exist in society, and the national talent is equally divided in pleading their cause respectively. But where, either from the violence of pre IX. 1820. CHAP. vious convulsions, or any other cause, only one prevailing interest is left in society, the greater part of the public press at once ranges itself on its side: the other is never heard; or, if heard, never attended to. The chains are thrown over the minds of men, and a free press becomes, as in republican America, the organ of the mandates of a tyrant majority; or, as in imperial France, the instrument of a military despotism. 61. Government soon found that the decree directed against Alarming the periodical press had neither extinguished the freedom of thought nor taken away the arms of faction. state of the country, and defensive measures of Government. The journals, being fettered by the censorship, took refuge in pamphlets, which were not subjected to it, and Paris soon was overrun with brochures which assailed Government with the utmost fury, and, on the plea that it had departed from the constitutional regime, indulged in the most uncontrolled violence of language. Not the Ministry merely, the dynasty was openly attacked; and then, for the first time, there appeared decisive evidence of the great conspiracy which had been organised in France against the Bourbons. As long as the electoral system was established on such a footing as gave them a near prospect of dispossessing the Crown by legislative means, this conspiracy was kept in abeyance; but now that a quasi-Royalist Ministry was in power, and there was a chance of a change in the Electoral Law which might defeat their projects, they became entirely undisguised in their measures, and openly menaced the throne. In these arduous circumstances the conduct of Government was firm, and yet temperate. Prosecutions were instituted against the press, which, in some instances, were successful, and in some degree tended to check its licentiousness. The army, moreover, was firm, and could be relied on for the discharge of its duty;1 which was the more fortunate 1,7,12; and meritorious on its part, that a great portion of its officers were veterans of Napoleon's army, and that the 1 Cap. vii. Lac. ii. 403, 405. greatest efforts had been made by the Liberal party to IX. 1820. seduce both them and those on half-pay into the treason- CHAP. able designs which were in contemplation. Aware of the approach of danger, the Minister of War drew the Royal Guard nearer to Paris, and arranged its station so that in six hours two-thirds of its force might be concentrated at any point in the capital which might be menaced. 62. tion of the An untoward circumstance occurred at this juncture, which, although trivial in ordinary times, now considerably Denunciaaugmented the difficulties of Government. A magistrate secret goat Nîmes, M. Madier, a respectable, but injudicious and vernment. credulous man, presented a petition to the Chamber of Deputies, in which he stated that, some days after the death of the Duke de Berri, two circulars had been sent to Nîmes, not from the Minister of the Interior, but from the Royalist committee, denouncing M. Decazes, and directing the Royalists to organise themselves as for ulterior events.* It was evident from the tenor of these circulars, which without doubt had emanated from the Royalist committee at Paris, that they related only to electioneering preparations, in the event of a dissolution of the Chambers taking place in consequence of the change of Ministry; and that when the retreat of M. Decazes was secured, nothing more was intended to be done. But this petition and the revelation of the Royalist circulars served as an admirable handle to the Liberal party, who pointed to it as a proof of a secret government, which counteracted all the measures of the responsible one, and was preparing the entire ruin of the public liberties. Vehement debates followed on the subject in the Chamber of Deputies, in the course of which the "factious person * “ Ne soyez ni surpris ni effrayés quoique l'attentat du 13 Février n'ait pas amené sur-le-champ la chute du Favori; agissez comme s'il était déjà renvoyé. Nous l'arracherons de ce poste si on ne consent pas à l'en bannir: en attendant, organisez-vous; les avis, les ordres, l'argent ne vous manqueront pas." Another "Nous vous demandions il y a peu de jours une attitude imposante, nous vous recommandons aujourd'hui le calme, nous venons de remporter un avantage décisif en faisant chasser Decazes: de grands services peuvent vous être rendus par le nouveau ministère : il faut bien vous garder de lui montrer des sentiments hostiles."-CAPEFIGUE, v. 11. IX. 1820. CHAP. age" near the throne, from whom they all emanated, was openly denounced, and a motion was even brought forward for an address to the Crown to dismiss the new Ministers. The proposal was negatived, but the object was gained; 1 Ann. Hist. the public mind was agitated, and the people were preCap. vii. 15, pared to embrace the idea that the continuance of the Ministry was inconsistent with the preservation of the public liberties.1 iii. 217,219; 21; Lac. ii. 403, 407. 63. project of a new electoral law. It was in this agitated state of the public mind that Ministerial Ministers were charged with the arduous duty of bringing forward their new law of election-the most dangerous and exciting topic which it was possible for them to broach, but which was made an indispensable condition of the Royalist alliance with the Centre in support of the Government. No small difficulty was experienced, however, in effecting a compromise on the subject, and adjusting a project in which the coalescing parties might agree; but at length, by the indefatigable efforts of M. Siméon, M. Pasquier and M. Mounier, the terms were agreed to on both sides, and were as follows: Two classes of colleges of electors-one of the departments, the other of the arrondissements. The electoral college of each department was to consist of a fifth part of the whole electors paying the highest taxes; the electoral colleges of the arrondissements were to consist of the whole remainder of the electors having their domicile within their limits. The electoral colleges of the arrondissements named by a simple majority as many candidates as the department was entitled to elect; and the college of the department chose from among them the deputies to send to the Chamber. This project was imperfect in its details, and drawn up in haste; but it tended to remove the grand evil of the existing system-the election of the whole Chamber by one uniform class of electors; and as such it was promised the support of the Doctrinaires and a large part of the Centre of the Assembly.2 2 Cap. 26, 27. vii. The discussion was brilliant and animated in both IX. 1820. 64. against it position. Chambers, and called forth the very highest abilities on CHAP. either side. On the side of the Opposition it was contended by M. Royer-Collard, M. Lafayette, and General Foy : "The Charter has consecrated the Revolution by Argument subjecting it to compromise; it is it which has given us all by the Opour liberties—the liberty of conscience, which is expressly guaranteed by it; and equality, which is guaranteed by representative institutions. The Chamber of Deputies is the guarantee of the Charter. That is a proposition which no one will be so bold as to dispute. Take away the Elective Chamber, and power resides alone in the Executive and the Chamber of Peers; the nation becomes retrograde it becomes a domain, and is possessed as such. Take away the guarantees promised by the Charter, and you turn that instrument against itself; or, what is even worse, you render it an object of derision, alike against the sovereign who granted and the people who received it. If the Government had persisted in its intention of revising the Charter, it would have experienced less opposition than in this attempt, which is pretending to uphold the Charter, to undermine it most. important provisions. It is not because the Charter has given this one the title of Baron, another that of Bishop, that it is the idol of the nation; it is because it has secured liberty of conscience and personal freedom that it has become so, and that we have sworn fidelity to it. Now we are virtually absolved from our oaths-the aristocracy is secretly undermining both the nation and the throne. Can you doubt it, when you recollect the contempt and derision it has cast on that glorious standard with which such recollections are associated that standard which, we do not hesitate to repeat, is that of public freedom? 65. "In vain may the proposed law be passed, and even for a time carried into execution; the public feeling will Continued. extinguish it, wear it out, destroy it by resistance; it never will become the law of France. Representative government will not be wrested from you; it is stronger |