IX. 1820. CHAP. Besides, in the present state of things, the existence of a revolutionary faction amongst us-of a faction irreligious, immoral, the enemy of restraint, the friend of usurpation— has been demonstrated beyond the possibility of a doubt. It speaks in the journals, it sits in the directing committees this conviction is forced upon all the Ministers, not merely by their reason, but their official information. I predict to the honourable members who are now the allies of that faction, that they will in the end sink under its attacks, and that they will disappear from the Chamber the moment they venture to resist it. Public opinion has already repudiated both the faction and the Electoral Law which supports it. Horror-struck at the spectacle of a regicide returned to the Chamber, real public opinion has become alarmed alike at the principle of that law and its consequences. 72. "It has become indispensable to alter the mode of Concluded, election, since we see faction straining to support it, from a conviction that it throws the greatest influence into the lowest class of proprietors-to the very class which has the least interest in the soil. The law proposed, by restoring to the larger proprietors a portion of that influence of which the existing law has deprived them, gives a share in the choice of deputies to those who are most interested in upholding it. The law will never be complete and safe till the electoral power is made to rest on the entire class of proprietors, and is intrusted by them to a smaller body, chosen from among those who pay the greatest amount of assessments; and whose list, accessible to all, and from its very nature shifting and changeable, can never constitute a privileged class, since those who fall within it to-day may be excluded from it to-morrow. In the political system pursued since the Restoration is to be found the seat of the evil which is devouring France. Under the existing law a constant system of attack against the existing dynasty is carried on. Lofty ambitions arrested in their course, great IX. 1820. hopes blasted, fanaticism ever rampant, have coalesced CHAP. together the conspiracy was at first turned-it has now sapped the foundations of the throne-it will soon overturn it. At Lyons, as at Grenoble, cast down but not destroyed, it ever rises again more audacious than ever, and menaces its conquerors. Intrenched in the law of elections as its last citadel, it threatens its con- 1 Moniteur, querors. It is determined to conquer or die. It is no 1820; Ann. longer a matter of opinion which it agitates, to be or Hist. iii. not to be, that is the question.' The uniform suffrage Lac. ii. 420, has placed the monarchy at the mercy of a pure demo- vii. 35, 37. cracy." 1 June 1-19, 102, 125; 423; Cap. Jourdan's So sensible were the Liberal chiefs of the weight of 73. these arguments, and of the large proportion of enlight- Camilleened opinion which adhered to them, that they did not amendment venture to meet them by a direct negative, but endeav- carried. oured to elude their force by an amendment. It was proposed by Camille-Jourdan, and was to this effect, "That each department shall be divided into as many electoral arrondissements as there are deputies to elect for the Chamber; that each of these arrondissements shall have an electoral college, which shall be composed of the persons liable to taxes, having their political domicile in the arrondissement, and paying three hundred francs of direct contribution; that every electoral college shall nominate its deputy directly." Though this was represented by him as a compromise, it in reality was not so; for, by perpetuating the uniform suffrage and direct representation, it continued political power exclusively in the hands of the most democratic portion of the community, the small proprietors. It received, accordingly, the immediate and enthusiastic support of the whole Liberal party; the democratic press was unanimous in its praise; and so nearly were parties balanced in the Chamber, that the amendment was carried against Government by a majority of one, the numbers being a hundred and twentyeight to a hundred and twenty-seven. The balance was IX. 1820. CHAP. cast by M. de Chauvelin, who, though grievously ill, was carried into the Chamber, and decided the question by his vote. He was conveyed home in triumph by a vociferous mob, and became for a brief period the object of popular idolatry. The revolutionists were in transports, 37,38; Ann. and every where anticipated the immediate realisation of their hopes, by the defeat of the Government on so vital a question.1 1 Cap. vii. Hist. iii. 139. 74. ment of M. vernment. In this extremity, Ministers made secret overtures to The amend the chiefs of the Doctrinaires, whose numbers, though Boin is car- small, were yet sufficient to cast the balance either way ried by Go in the equally divided assembly. This overture proved entirely successful. A fresh amendment was proposed by M. Boin and M. Courvoisier on their part, and supported by the whole strength of the Government, the Right, and their adherents in the Centre. It was to this effect, that the Chamber of Deputies was to consist" of two hundred and fifty-eight members chosen by the arrondissements; and a hundred and seventy-two by the departments; the latter being chosen, not by the whole electors, but by a fourth of their number, composed of those who paid the highest amount of taxes." This was an immense change to the advantage of the aristocracy; for not only did it add a hundred and seventy members to this Chamber, but it added them of persons chosen by a fourth of the electors for each department paying the highest assessment in other words, by the richest proprietors. Nevertheless, so gratified were the Doctrinaires by getting quit of the much-dreaded double mode of election, or so sensible had they in secret become of its dangerous tendency, that they agreed to the compromise; and M. de Boin's amendment was carried by a majority of five, the numbers being a hundred and thirty to a hun2 Moniteur, dred and twenty-five. Only five members were absent 1820; Ann. from the entire Chamber-an extraordinary circumstance, 128, 153. proving the unparalleled interest the question had ex June 13, Hist. iii. cited. This victory was decisive; the waverers came IX. round after it was gained; and the final division on CHAP. the question showed a majority of ninety-five for Govern ment. 1820. 75. ances in June 5. It soon appeared that this vehement strife in the Chamber was connected with still more important de- Disturb signs out of doors-that it was linked with the revo- Paris. lutions in progress in Spain, Portugal, and Italy; and that it was not without an ulterior object that Lafayette had invoked the tricolor flag, and thrown down the gauntlet, as it were, to the monarchy. No sooner was the news of the decisive vote in favour of the principle of the new law known in the capital than the most violent agitation commenced. M. Manuel and M. Benjamin Constant published an inflammatory address to the young men at the university and colleges; and the sinister omen of crowds collecting in the streets indicated the secret orders and menacing preparations of the central democratic committee. Seditious cries were heard; and so threatening did affairs soon appear, that the military were obliged to disperse them by force; and in the tumult a young student of law, named Lallemand, was shot, and died soon after. This unhappy event augmented the general excitement; the mobs assembled in still greater force, and the Government took serious precautions. The posts were everywhere doubled; the guards were drawn into Paris; large bodies of infantry and cavalry were Moniteur, stationed on the bridges in the Place Carrousel, and 1820; Ann. around the Chamber of Deputies; and proclamations were placarded in all directions, forbidding all assem- 323, 324. blages of persons even to the number of three.1 1 June 6, Hist. iii. 130, 136, Lam. vi. 76. come se This proclamation was met by a counter one from the democratic committee, which was affixed to the gates of Which beall the colleges and schools, calling on the young men to rious. meet and avenge their comrade who had been slain. June 6. They did so accordingly; and, marching two and two, so as to avoid the literal infringement of the order of the police, formed a column of above five thousand persons, IX. 1820. CHAP. armed with large sticks and sword-canes, which debouched upon the Place Louis XV., directly in front of the palace of the legislative body. The gates of the Tuileries and gardens were immediately closed, and the huge mass was driven, by repeated charges of cavalry, who behaved with the most exemplary forbearance, out of the Place. They immediately marched along the Boulevards towards the Faubourg St Antoine, where the immense masses of workmen, so well known in the worst days of the Revolution, were already prepared to receive them; and, returning from thence with numbers now swelled, by the idle and excited from every coffeehouse, to between thirty and forty thousand men, moved towards the Place de Grève 1 Moniteur, and Hôtel de Ville. The head of the column, however, 1820; Ann. was met on the way by a strong body of the gendarmerieà-cheval, which charged and dispersed it, upon which the whole body took to flight. Thirty or forty were made prisoners, and immediately lodged in custody.1 June 7, 8, Hist. iii. 133, 135; Lam. vi. 324. 77. mation on in the It may be readily imagined what use was made of Loud decla- these untoward events by the unscrupulous and impasthe subject sioned leaders of the Liberal party in the Chamber of Chamber Deputies. The loudest and most vehement complaints of Deputies. were made against all concerned in the repression of the riots, the Ministers, for having ordered the measures which led to their suppression; the military, gendarmerie, and police, for having executed them. Although the conduct of all the three had been prudent, forbearing, and exemplary in the highest degree, yet they were all overwhelmed by the most unmeasured obloquy. Not a whisper was breathed against the leaders or followers of the seditious assemblages, which had not only for days together kept the metropolis in alarm, but seriously menaced the monarchy. Still less was it observed by these impassioned declaimers, that a revolt of so serious a kind had been stifled with the loss of a single life. Blood," exclaimed M. Lafitte, "has never ceased, during eight days, to flow in Paris; a hundred thousand of its peaceable citizens 66 |