sives and the penetralia of that inner shrine, of which so many were the devout worshipers, but so few the initiated priesthood. Meanwhile its attractions were magnified, as is always the case, by the imaginations of those who were shut out from the magic circle; and discontent and jealousy spread widely through society from the injustice thought to have been committed upon many of its members. The important political effects of this feeling will abundantly appear in the sequel of this history.

99.

er ranks.

During the fifteen years which immediately followed the peace, the tendency beIncreasing came very apparent in young men of liberalism rank to adopt Liberal opinions, and of the high range themselves in politics in opposition to the side which their fathers had adopted. So far did this tendency spread, that although during the war fully two thirds of the House of Peers had been of the Conservative party, before the Reform Bill was carried it had become doubtful whether they had a majority. This important change arose doubtless in part from the natural tendency to reaction in the human mind, against the strong bias to monarchical opinions which had been induced in Great Britain by the horrors of the Revolution in the neighboring kingdom. Opinion had been bent so far one way, that now, in the next generation, it inclined equally far the other. But it was in a great degree, also, owing to the influence of the foreign traveling which at that period prevailed so widely among the young men of this country. Long shut out from it by the war, the youth of Great Britain rushed in crowds to the Continent on the return of peace; and, being in great part recently escaped from college, or emancipated from parental control, they were just at the age when new ideas most easily find an entrance into the mind, and foreign influences are most powerful. Wherever they went, except in Vienna, they found Liberal opinions in a large portion of the higher ranks in the ascendant, and the most agreeable houses and charming society deeply imbued with them. These influences, with young men of ardent minds and generous dispositions, often proved irresistible; the new opinions only appeared the more attractive because they were new; and the sons of many sturdy peers, whose fathers had spent their lives in combating the democratic principle, gave way to its sway under the influence of French Liberalism or the smiles of Italian beauty.

100.

Influence in

houses.

rising or eminent in their department the flattery which, of all others, is the most seductive to talent less favored by birth or fortune-a momentary equality with those to whom, in both respects, she had been most propitious. It was very difficult for young men, whose genius had raised them much above the position in society in which they had been born, to resist the attraction of a society in which Lady Holland and Sir James Mackintosh, Macaulay and Landseer, Jeffrey and Chantrey, were to be met at dinner; where Moore sang his bewitching melodies with still more bewitching right honorables in the evening, and the lustre of the most splendid assemblies or balls closed the scene of enchantment. Incessant were the efforts made by the Whig party, in the interval between the close of the war and the passing of the Reform Bill, to recruit their ranks with the most rising young men, of whatever side, by their attractions; and to the success with which they were attended, the progressive rise in the strength of the Liberal party in both Houses of Parliament, during that period, is in no slight degree to be ascribed. There are Armidas in the political as well as the military world; and the charms of genius, the smiles of beauty, by withdrawing the most stalwart knights from their own side in the conflict, have prolonged or decided many other contests besides those around the walls of Troy or the ramparts of Jerusalem.

101.

the Conserva

The Tories at that period had no corresponding attraction on the other side to present; and to the want of this Which was the decline in their numbers, and wanting on desertion of many of their adher- tive side: ents in Parliament, is in some de- causes of the gree to be ascribed. The same difference, has long been observed in English society; for nearly a century, the principal houses where the aristocracy of rank and talent were united had been those of the great Whig nobility. The reverse has only begun to take place since the Tories were excluded from power by the effects of the Reform Bill, and they have been driven by necessity to the alliance with talent, from which their opponents had derived so much benefit. The reason is founded in the nature of things; and the relative position of the two parties will be found, in similar circumstances, to be of permanent influence. The Tories being the dominant party, which had been long in power, and rested on the support of the great bulk of the property in the kingdom, which at that period influenced the House of Commons through the nomination boroughs, they not only did not require the aid of genius, but they were averse to it. They dreaded the influence of a rival power, which they feared might one day wrest from them their exclusive domain. They desired the aid of talent, but it was of talent entirely subservient to their views and devoted to their purposes-that is, of talent emasculated and rendered incapable of permanently directing or influencing mankind.

This tendency in so many of the younger part of the English aristocracy, at this period, was much increased by the society of the extraordinary attractions presented great Whig by the society in several of the leading Whig houses. Holland House, Devonshire House, Lansdowne House, Woburn Abbey, and several other mansions of the Whig nobility, both in the provinces and the metropolis, collected a circle and exhibited attractions such as never before had been seen in English society. Intimate, from their rank and connections, with the highest aristocratic fam- The Whigs had no such jealousy or appreilies, they did not, like the exclusives, confine hensions. Out of power, they had 102. their attentions to their members alone. They no fears of being compromised by and advantsought out and encouraged talent in every de- the imprudence of their support- age of the partment, whether at the bar, the senate, in lit-ers; in a minority in Parliament, Whigs in this erature, science, or art. They bestowed on the they were fain to obtain the aid of

respect.

any power which could aid them in gaining a [lowed the general bent, and flattered the ruling inajority. Thence a long-continued alliance be- multitude as much as its sycophantish followers tween the powers of intellect and the principles then did, or courtiers had done kings in former of liberalism, of which the effects will amply be days. But, in that crisis, Mind remained true unfolded in the sequel of this work. Both par- to itself, and reasserted its original destiny as ties felt the benefit of a union into which both the leader of mankind. Intellect ranged itself had been driven by necessity, and each was under its real standard-that of the human race. likely to experience the advantage. But the al- Genius, long a stranger to the cause of order, liance was not destined to be perpetual; it resumed her place by its side; she gave to a ceased with the victory which their united suffering what she had refused to a ruling power. strength had achieved. The revolution in It is this reaction of independence against opFrance of 1830, in England of 1832, dissolved it | pression-the power of mind against the tyranin both countries. The reaction of the strength ny of strength-the force of intellect against of mind against the despotism of numbers then the domination of numbers, which steadies the began on both sides of the Channel; it was dis- march of human events, and renders the miscovered that the tyranny of numbers is even fortunes of one age the means at once of inmore oppressive than that of a monarch or an structing the wisdom, correcting the errors, and aristocracy. The cause of humanity and free- mitigating the sufferings of those which sucdom was lost, if the powers of thought had fol- ceed it,

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORY OF FRANCE FROM THE COUP D'ETAT OF SEPTEMBER 5, 1816, TO THE CREATION OF PEERS IN 1819.

1.

THE coup d'état of 5th February, 1816, which ests of others. The risk was not that they would dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, support measures subversive of property, but Effects of the and changed the electoral system, that they would pursue a system which would coup d'état of is generally considered as the com- be dangerous to the throne, and gratify their 5th Septemmencement of constitutional gov-own ambition by establishing a republican form ber, 1816. ernment in France, because it al- of government, in which they might divide the tered the franchise, and remodeled the popular offices and emoluments among themselves. This branch of the legislature, in conformity with the accordingly was the result which actually took wish of the popular party, and gave them the place; and the history of France during the next means, by the annual retirement of a fifth of its year is nothing but that of a continual strugmembers, and election of others in their stead, gle of the Crown with the Legislature which, of permanently bringing the legislature into by a violent stretch of the royal prerogative, harmony with the majority of the electors. As itself had called into existence.

en to secure

such, it has received the most unqualified eulo- Louis XVIII. had given a cordial assent to gium from the whole Liberal party of France. the ordinances of September 5, 3. It is true, the number of electors, compared | 1816.* He was more apprehen- The elections with the population, was small; it did not sive at that period of the Ultra- of 1815, and amount to 100,000, out of 30,000,000. But Royalists than of the Democrats; measures takthis was immaterial. It is the class from which he dreaded the Count d'Artois and them. the electors who return an assembly vested with the Pavillon Marsan more than supreme power which is the decisive circum-either the Jacobins or the Napoleonists. Every stance. A democratic oligarchy of electors can thing, however, depended on the elections: return an assembly which will work out the pur-for, as the Government had now unreservedly poses of Republicanism as effectually as the thrown itself upon the Liberal party, and enmost numerous body of constituents: sixty thou-tirely broken with the Royalists, if a Jacobin sand Liberals, intrusted with the election of the Chamber was returned it might at once lead to majority of the legislature, can mould the meas- the overthrow of the monarchy. The greatest ures of its government to their will just as effectually as six millions. Nay, they are likely to do so more effectually, because, being a smaller body, they are more compact, more docile to the directions of their chiefs, and more likely to be swayed by personal ambition or class interests, than a larger and more heterogeneous multitude.

2. Democratic basis on

which the

chise was

founded.

pains, accordingly, were taken to secure returns which might meet the views of the Government; and the King, both in circulars to the prefects, and in verbal audiences given to the heads of the electoral colleges, did his utmost to impress his views upon them, and, by their means, upon the electors. Concord and unanimity was the prevailing idea in the royal mind; he The suffrage in France being founded on one thought that the passions of the Revolution basis only-viz., the payment of might be expected to subside when its convul300 francs direct taxes to Govern- sions had ceased, as the waves of the ocean ment-the direction of the legisla-subside after the storm has ceased to blow. elective fran- ture fell necessarily into the hands France," said he, to one of the electoral presof a majority of that single class of so- idents, M. Raviz, "has unhappily undergone too ciety. This majority, it was known many convulsions; it has need of repose. To from the tax-office returns, was to be found in per- enjoy it, what is required is a body of representsons paying from 300 to 500 francs a year of taxes atives attached to my person, to the cause of (from £12 to £20), and they formed, perhaps, legitimacy, and to the charter; but, above all, the most dangerous class in the community, if moderate and prudent. The department of the lasting measures were looked to. They were Gironde, to which you belong, has already given not so likely to adopt violent measures, in the me many proofs of its attachment and fidelity: outset, as a body of electors embracing the in-I expect fresh ones in the elections about to ferior classes of society; but they were more take place. Tell them that it is a good old likely to follow them out to the end: they were man who only asks them to make his last days less hasty, but more persevering. The income happy for the felicity of his child- 1 Cap. v. 2, 7. of persons paying direct taxes to this amount ren.' was from £100 to £150 a year; and this class was invested with the entire direction of the state. They formed sixty out of the eighty or ninety thousand electors in France. A legisla- "Un des momens les plus heureux de ma vie a été ture the majority of which was composed of celui qui a suivi la visite de l'Empereur de Russie en 1816. Non seulement il était entré dans toutes mes penpersons elected by such a body of small proprie-sées, mais il me les avait dites avant que j'eusse eu le tors, was not so likely to be threatening to prop-temps de les émettre. Il avait hautement approuvé le erty as to power; there was no danger of their systéme de gouvernement et la ligne de conduite que je suis, depuis que je me suis determiné à rendre l'ordonnot attending to their own interests, but great nance du 5 Septembre."--MS. de Louis XVIII.; CAPE risk that they would be regardless of the inter- FIGUE, iv. 369.

The Royalists, sensible of the danger which impended over the monarchy, and that every

4.

thing depended on the result of the elections, | tained a majority in the new Chamber, though made the greatest efforts to secure not so considerable as they had expected. Those Efforts of the a majority in their favor. They of the old Chamber re-elected were 174: 86 Royalists and formed at that period a very power- were new members, and 115 of the former legisLiberals. ful body; and acting, as they did, ture were thrown out, either by being defeated under the directions of a central committee of at the poll, or from having not attained the direction in Paris, their efforts were the more legal age of 40 years. Among the 1 Lac. ii. 89, likely to be attended with success. In the south latter was M. Decazes, whom the 90; Cap. v. 16, and west of France they were all-powerful, both king in consequence determined to 17; Lam. vi from the feeling of the people, which was there raise to the peerage.1 140, 141. monarchical to excess, and from nearly the whole official appointments having fallen into their hands during the period when the Count d'Artois, on the suggestion of the local Royalist committees, filled them up with the most determined men of their party. Secret societies were formed, which powerfully contributed to aid the same cause, and which government in vain endeavored to suppress. So strongly did general opinion, even in the towns, at this period run in favor of the Royalist party, that the Democratic party every where took refuge under the wings of the ministerialists; and the strange spectacle was exhibited of the Government functionaries generally supporting candidates who were avowedly banded together to overturn the throne ! So true it is that the greatest and most durable popular revolutions receive their first impulse, in many cases, from the efforts of the executive. The reason is not apparent at first sight, but when once stated, its force becomes very apparent. The government for a time allies itself with the democrats, because, 1 Lac. ii. 89; for a brief season, this relieves it Cap. v. 10, 12 of its opponents, and adjourns the Lam. vi. 140, inevitable conflict to a future time.1

141.

5.

After the coup d'état of 5th September, the cabinet was completely united. The 6. greatest efforts were made to sus- Internal gov tain the revenue; and, by incredi- ernment after the coup d'état ble exertions, all the stipulated of5th Septempayments to the allied sovereigns ber. and the public creditors were made good; but it was done by such sacrifices as demonstrated the extreme financial embarrassment of the country. The Five per Cents were at 57 and 58; the exchequer bills were still negotiable, but at a very heavy discount. It was by means of loans, however, that the Treasury obligations could alone be made good, and the capitalists of Paris declared themselves unequal to the relief of the necessities of Government. In this extremity, recourse was had to foreign assistance; and, after great difficulties, a large loan was concluded with Messrs. Hope and Baring, by which the immediate necessities of Government were relieved, though at a heavy rate of interest. The cabinet unanimously agreed on the necessity of maintaining the laws restraining the liberty of the press, and establishing the Prévôtal Courts; but instructions were sent to the presidents and prefects to diminish the prosecutions, and lessen the severity of punishments. At the same time, a more liberal system was established in the army. The Duke de Feltre received instructions to be more indulgent in the granting of commissions: several were bestowed on the relatives of Liberal lead

jects of so much jealousy, were cautiously readmitted to the ranks. The princes of the blood vied with each other in endeavors to conciliate this important branch of the public service; and frequent reviews, and periodical visits to the barracks and hospitals of the troops, revealed their anxious desire to conciliate the affections of the men. A general order from the minister at war directed that each legion in succession should be called to the service of the capital; while the utmost pains were bestowed on the composition, both in officers and men, of the Guards. Every thing indicated that the Government was preparing for the time when the allied troops, which occupied the frontier fortresses, were to be withdrawn, and the Government was to be left to rest alone on 1 Lac. ii. 90, the loyalty of the people, and fidel- 91; Cap. v. 23, ity of the army.1

The ordinance of 5th September, which divided the electoral colleges into two Result of the parts-the colleges of arrondisseelections. ment, and the colleges of department-gave great advantages to the ministerial party. It was difficult to suppose that the Gov-ers; and the half-pay officers, recently the obernment would not obtain one or two names in each list of candidates, and that they should not have sufficient influence to get their candidates nominated for the colleges of department; and this accordingly, in a great many instances, took place. Nevertheless, so strong was the Royalist feeling in the majority of the rural districts, and so well organized and ably conducted their system of opposition, that in a great many instances they succeeded in throwing out the ministerial candidate. Nearly the whole leaders of the Royalist party re-entered the Chamber by the result of the elections, many of whom the ministers would have gladly dispensed with; and even in Paris and the great towns, where the ministerial action was the most powerful and most strongly exerted, several Royalists were returned. If the Chamber had been retained at its former number of 394, the majority would still have been Royalist, and it was turned the other way only by the great reduction of its members labors, a new difficulty arose, which 7. to 260. So skillfully had this reduction been ef- was the more hard to guard against Great distress fected. and so weil-founded the local information that it arose not from the act of in France in on which it was rested, that the disfranchised man, but the direct dispensation of the winter of places and classes of electors were for the most the Almighty. The summer and part those which were likely to return the most autumn of 1816, beyond all precedent cold and determined Royalists; and those on the Liberal rainy in all the northern parts of Europe, were side were, comparatively speaking, left untouch-in an especial manner unpropitious in France. ed. The result was, that the ministerialists ob- Nearly incessant rains during the whole of July,

24.

But in the midst of these useful and honorable

1816-17.

1

August, and September, entirely flooded the low the measures which were most likely to insure grounds adjoining the rivers, and almost de- their popularity, even with the opponents of their stroyed the crops on their banks; and, even in general system of government. Their leaders dry situations, the harvest was essentially in- in the Assembly were M. de Villèle and M. de jured by the long continued wet. But for the Corbière, and none could be more skillful in the potato crop, which fortunately in that year was lead of such an opposition; but it was not there very abundant, famine with all its horrors would that their real strength was to be found. The have been superadded to the other ills of France. real strength of the party was the press; its efAs it was, prices rose rapidly; and the holders fective leaders the great writers. M. de Chaof grain, anticipating a still greater advance of teaubriand and M. de Frioce, powerfully supprices, kept up their stocks, and supplies in very ported their side by the united powers of genius insufficient quantities were brought to market. and eloquence; and so powerful are M. Lainé, upon whom, as minister of the in- these weapons, and so overjoyed the Cap. v. 34. terior, the duty of facing this dreadful calamity people to see them ever ranged on their side principally fell, did his utmost to assuage the against the Government, that they very soon public distress, and granaries were established acquired great popularity, and an influence in in the most distressed parts of the kingdom, the Assembly altogether disproportioned to their where corn was sold by Government to the most numerical strength. destitute of the people at a reduced price. But, in spite of every thing that could be done, the suffering was extreme: prices rose to more than double their average level, and in many parts of the kingdom numbers perished of actual want. In these distressing circumstances the beneficence of the king and the royal family shone forth with the brightest lustre their names were to be seen at the head of all subscriptions in every part of the country; and such was their unwearied benevolence that it might have softened down many asperities, and extinguished many animosities, if, in a country heated by the 1 Cap. v. 25, fervor of a revolution, any thing 26, Lac. ii. 95, could have this effect but the gratification of its passions.1

96.

8.

Chambers.

The Chamber met on the 5th October, and the opening speech of the king was Opening of the deeply tinged by the disastrous circumstances in which the country Oct. 5. was placed. "Painfully affected," said he, "by the privations which the people are suffering in consequence of the inclemency of the season, the king feels still greater regret at being unable to hold out any prospect of an alleviation of the public burdens. He feels that the first necessity of the people is economy, and he has endeavored to introduce it into every branch of the public service. My family and myself will make the same sacrifices as last year; and to enable me to conduct the government, I rely on your attachment to my person and to our common country." He concluded by expressing his firm determination to uphold the charter, and never permit the smallest infringement of its fundamental provisions. Oct. 6, 1816. My ordinance of 5th September, 1816, says it sufficiently."

2 Moniteur,

8.

State of par

ties in the Chamber of

66

10.

The Centre, as it is called in French parliamentary language, was the most numerous and important body in the As- Centre and sembly, because, by its inclining to Left. the side of Ministers or the Opposition, it at once determined the measures of government and the fate of administration. It was divided into the Centre Droit and the Centre Gauche, according as its members inclined to the extreme royalist or democratic opinions; but, in general, it supported the measures of Government, partly from patriotic feelings, partly from an instinctive dread of any decisive measures which might be attended with important changes. M. Lainé was the most distinguished man of this party; and to insure its support, the chief members of Administration, among whom may be reckoned MM. Pasquier and Bignon, besides M. Lainé himself, were taken from it. The Centre Gauche was chiefly distinguished by M. Camille Jourdan, and M. de Courvoisier, whose abilities and eloquence caused them always to be listened to in the Assembly, though their practical acquaintance with business was not such as to cause their being taken into the Administration. In the extreme Left, which mustered about sixty votes, M. LAFITTE, a great banker in Paris, who afterward became celebrated, and M. Royer d'Argenson, were the acknowledged leaders; but such was now the strange confusion of parties in the Assembly, that they were much more frequently acting in support of Ministers than in alliance with the Royalist opposition. The dif ferent parties came to a trial of strength on the choice of a president. MM. de Serres and Pasquier, who were supported by the Ministers and Centre, had respectively 112 and 102 votes; while the Royalist candidate, M. de 2 Cap. v. 36, Corbière, had only 76.2

43, 45.

1817.

When the Chamber was constituted and proceeded to business, the vast change The first important legislative measure of the made in the representation, effected session was an act brought forward 11. by the ordinance of 5th September, by Ministers to legalize the preced- Law of elec was at once apparent. The Roy- ing election, and obtain the sanc- tions of 5th Deputies. alists, who composed so large a tion of all the branches of the legis- February, majority in the former Chamber, were now re- lature to the royal ordinance of 5th duced to a minority of eighty members, who, September, 1816. There was an obvious abhowever, were formidable, as all similarly con- surdity in an assembly, elected by a royal ordistituted bodies are in a deliberative assembly, nance, proceeding, as its first act, to pass a law from their unanimity of opinion, their perfect legalizing its own appointment, and declaring it discipline, and docile obedience to the voice of to be the law in future; but so accustomed were their chief. Having lost the command of the the French to coups d'état that they saw nothing Chamber, and the direction of the Government, incongruous in this proceeding-and perhaps, in they had recourse to the people, and on every the circumstances, when a stretch on the part occasion advanced the opinions and supported of the Crown had been committed, there was no