XII. 1823. CHAP. 100,000,000 francs (£4,000,000) for carrying on the war, to be put at the disposal of the minister. The state of the revenue this year was very flattering, and demonstrated how rapidly the national resources were augmenting under the influence of the peace, freedom, and security vi. 39, 40. of property which France was enjoying under the mild rule of the Bourbon princes.1* 1 Ann. Hist. 56. Manuel, in ber of De speech. In the course of the debate on this grant, an incident Affair of M. occurred, which, in a more unfavourable state of the public the Cham- mind, might have overturned the monarchy. M. Manuel puties: his was put forward by the Opposition to answer the speech of M. Chateaubriand, he being the orator on the Liberal side whose close and logical reasoning, as well as powers of eloquence, were deemed most capable of deadening the sensation produced by the splendid oration of the Foreign Minister. He said, in the course of his speech-" The Spaniards, it is said, are mutually cutting each other's throats, and we must intervene to prevent one party from destroying the other. It is without doubt a singular mode of diminishing the horrors of civil war, to superinduce to them those of foreign hostilities. But But suppose you are successful. The insurrection is crushed in Spain; it is annihilated; the friends of freedom have laid down their arms. What can you do? You cannot for ever remain in the Peninsula; you must retire; and when you do so, a new explosion, more dangerous than the former, will break forth. Consult history has ever a revolution in favour of civil liberty been finally subdued? Crushed it may be for the moment; but the genius which has produced it is imperishable. Like Antæus, the giant regains his strength every time he touches the earth. 57. "The civil war which recently raged in Spain was Continued. mainly your own work; the soldiers "of the faith" only took up arms in the belief they would be supported by * It exhibited a surplus of 42,945,907 francs (£1,680,000), so that the extraordinary credit only required to be operated upon to the extent of 57,054,093 francs (£2,340,000).—Budget, 1823; Annuaire Historique, vi. 39, 40. XII. 1823. you. How, then, can you find in the consequences of CHAP, your own acts a justification of your intervention? Can you justify deeds of violence by perfidy? You say you wish to save Ferdinand and his family. If you do, beware of repeating the same circumstances which, in a former age, conducted to the scaffold victims for whom you daily evince so warm and legitimate an interest. Have you forgotten that the Stuarts were only overturned because they sought support from the stranger; that it was in consequence of the invasion of the hostile armies that Louis XVI. was precipitated from the throne? Are you ignorant that it was the protection accorded by France to the Stuarts which caused the ruin of that race of princes? That succour was clandestine, it is true; but it was sufficient to encourage the Stuarts in their resistance to public opinion; thence the resistance to that opinion, and the misfortunes of that family-misfortunes which it would have avoided if it had sought its support in the nation. Need I remind you that the dangers of the royal family have been fearfully aggravated when the stranger invaded our territory, and that revolutionary vi. 72, 73; France, feeling the necessity of defending itself by new 161, 163. forces and a fresh energy- "1 1 Ann. Hist. Lam. vii. the Cham At these words a perfect storm arose in the Chamber. 58. "Order, order!" was shouted on the Right; "this is Storm in regicide, justified and provoked." " Expulsion, expulsion!" bers. "Let us chase the monster from our benches!" exclaimed a hundred voices. The president, M. Ravez, seeing the speaker had been interrupted in the midst of a sentence, and that the offence taken arose from a presumed meaning of words which were to follow, not of what had actually been used, hesitated with reason to act upon such speculative views, and contented himself with calling M. Manuel to order. So far were the Royalists from being satisfied with this moderate concession, that they instantly rose up in a body, surrounded the president's chair with loud cries and threats, demanding that the apologist of XII. 1823. CHAP. regicide should be instantly expelled from the Chamber; while one of them, more audacious than the rest, actually pulled M. Manuel from the tribune, and, mounting in his stead, demanded in a stentorian voice the vengeance of France on the advocate of assassins. Meanwhile M. Manuel, conscious that the sentence which had been interrupted, if allowed to be completed, would at once dispel the storm, was calm and impassible in the midst of the 1 Ann. Hist. uproar; but that only made matters worse with the infuMoniteur, riated majority; and at length the president, finding all 1823; Lam. his efforts to appease the tumult fruitless, gave the wellknown signal of distress by covering his head, and broke up the meeting.1 vi. 70, 73; Feb. 27, vii. 162, 165. 59. M. Manuel. This scene had already been sufficiently violent, and Expulsion of indicative of the risks which the representative system ran in France from the excitable temper of the people ; but it was as nothing to that which soon after ensued. The Royalists, when the meeting was dissolved, rushed in a body out of the Chamber, and broke into separate knots, to concert ulterior operations; while the Liberals remained on their benches, in the midst of which M. Manuel wrote a letter to the president, in which he stated how the sentence which had been interrupted was to have been concluded, and contended for his right to finish the sentence, and then let its import be judged of by the Chamber.* The sitting was resumed, to consider this explanation; but a heated Royalist from the south, M. Forbin des Essarts, instantly ascended the tribune, and demanded the expulsion of the orator "who had pro "Je demandais si on avait oublié qu'en France la mort de l'infortuné Louis XVI. avait été précédée par l'intervention armée des Prussiens et des Autrichiens, et je rappelais comme un fait connu de tout le monde que c'est alors que la France révolutionnaire, sentant le besoin de se défendre par des forces et une énergie nouvelles." C'est içi que j'ai été interrompu. Si je ne l'eusse pas été, ma phrase eût été prononcée ainsi—“ Alors la France révolutionnaire, sentant le besoin de se défendre par des forces et une énergie nouvelles, mit en mouvement toutes les masses, exalta toutes les passions populaires, et amena ainsi de terribles excès et une déplorable catastrophe au milieu d'une généreuse résistance."- M. MANUEL au Président, 26 Feb. 1823; Annuaire Historique, vi. 168. Moniteur, 27th Feb. XII. 1823. nounced such infamous expressions, seeing no rules of CHAP. procedure could condemn an assembly to the punishment of hearing a man whose maxims and speech recommended or justified regicide." M. Manuel attempted to justify himself; but he was again interrupted by the cries of the Royalists, and the president, hoping to gain time for the passions to cool, adjourned the sitting to the following day. But in this hope he was disappointed, as is generally the case when consideration succeeds after the feelings have been thoroughly roused. What is called reflection is then only listening to the re-echo of passion; one only voice is heard, one only key is touched, one only sentiment felt. A lover, who is contending with himself, rises from his sleepless couch confirmed, not shaken, in his prepossessions. During the night, a formal motion for the expulsion of the supposed delinquent, for the remainder of the session, was prepared by M. de la Bourdonnaye, the acknowledged leader of the extreme Royalists; and although the justice or shame of the Chamber permitted M. Manuel to be heard in his defence, and the debate was more than once adjourned, to enable the numerous speakers, who inscribed their names on the tribune, to be heard on the question, the torrent was irresistible. The determination of the Royalists only increased with the effervescence of the public mind; and, amidst agitated crowds which surrounded the Assembly on all sides, and under the protection of squadrons of cavalry, the expulsion of M. Manuel, during the remain- March 4. der of the session, was voted, on the evening of 4th Ann. Hist. March, by a majority of fully two to one, the whole Moniteur, Centre coalescing with the Right. The agitation which 1823; Lam. prevailed rendered it impossible to take the vote other- 181. wise than by acclamation.1 The exclusion of a single member, during the remainder of a single session, was no very serious injury to a party, or blow levelled at the public liberties; but the passions on both sides were so strongly excited by this 1 vi. 90, 106; March 5, vii. 169, XII. 1823. 60. scene at his CHAP. imprudent abuse of power by the Royalist majority, that the Liberals resolved to resist it to the very uttermost. It was determined to compel the majority to use force for his expulsion; and the recollection of the risk which enexpulsion. sued to the throne from the dragging of M. d'Espréménil from the Parliament of Paris, at the commencement of 1 Hist. of the first Revolution, was of sinister augury as to the Europe, c. 107, effects of enforcing the present decree by similar means. 108. The Government, however, was firm, and resolved, at 1 |