89. of the session. Though conscious that he could no longer carry on the Government, M. de State of the Martignac, like a good soldier, reLegislature mained at his post, resolved as long at the close as possible to avert the collision of the Crown and the Legislature. The remainder of the session, however, was almost dumb show; all were aware that the decisive stroke had been struck, that the days of the compromise Ministry were numbered, and that it was merely a question of time when they should give place either to a decided Royalist administration, appointed by the King, or a decided Liberal one forced on him by the Chamber of Deputies. The budget, as a matter of necessity, was voted, under a tacit compromise between the parties, almost without discussion. A slight change took place in the Ministry, by the appointment of M. Portalis as Minister of Foreign Affairs ad interim, in the room of M. de la Ferronais, whose health was permanently broken; but it was generally understood that this was a temporary arrangement only, and that the place was really reserved for Prince Polignac. The approaching 1 Lam. viii. downfall of the Ministry was so uni158, 159; versally presaged that they had beLac. iv. 383, come an object of derision to the very 384. 90. 91. and Prince 1 Moniteur, averted. The ultra-Royalists alone, preoccupied | de-chambre's apartments in ordinary dresses; with one idea, and blind to the signs of the times, and Prince Polignac, who had returned to Lonevinced an undisguised and almost ominous joy don after his speech at the tribune, was reat their approach. called by a holograph letter of the King himself. Profoundly skilled in dissimulation, the monarch concealed all these secret movements from his Ministers, and M. de Change of Martiguac was slumbering on in fan- Ministry, cied security, in the belief that he had Polignac recovered his confidence, and that he Premer. might yet weather the storm, when, Aug. 8. on the 6th August, M. Portalis, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was suddenly called to St. Cloud, and informed by the King himself of the dissolution of the Ministry. "Concessions," said he, "have weakened me, without satisfying my enemies;" an observation which may be applied with equal justice to all conciliatory measures, yielded to intimidation instead of a sense of justice. The whole Ministers immediately repaired to St. Cloud, and surrendered their portfolios to the King; M. Roy, the Minister of Finance, alone was requested to remain, which he declined. M. Hyde de Neuville could scarcely be brought to believe in his disgrace. In the evening, the list of the new Ministry, which was all prepared, appeared in the Moniteur, and as it was composed entirely of persons known to entertain the most extreme Royalist opinions, it sounded like the toesin of revolu tion throughout France. Prince Polignae, though ostensibly Minister of Foreign Affairs, was the real Premier; M. de la Bourdonnaye was Minister of the Interior; M. de Bourmont, of War; M. de Montbel, of Public Instruction; M. de Courvoisin, of Justice; M. de Chabrol, of Finance; and M. d'Haussey, of Aug. 8, the Marine. The Ministry of Ecclesias- 1829; Lam. tical Affairs was suppressed. M. de Rig. viii. 12, , the hero of Navarino, had declined 163; Lae. the office accepted by M. d'Haussey.' Thus was accomplished, for the first time since the Restoration, an entire change of government in France. Power Importwas now placed in the hands of men ance of the able indeed, and zealous, and devoted change. to the monarchy, but destitute of practical experience, and guided by a fanaticism which refused to take counsel from the signs of the times. It was a singular combination of circumstances which brought about such a result in a country possessing representative institutions, and so strongly imbued in the middle class, in which power was vested, with democratic opinions. But little eventual good could be anticipated from a change which, in an age of intelligence and intellectual activity, placed a Government in power whose principles, however much in harmony with the opinions of the majority of the rural population, were utterly at variance with those of the urban inhabitants, in whom political power was exclu sively vested; and who yet were so sincerely impressed with the danger of yielding to their antagonists' opinions, that they were prepared to hazard the monarchy itself in striving to overturn them. Nothing but combined wisdom and energy, vast previous preparation, and decisive rapidity in action, could bring the Govern ment through such a crisis; and these were precisely the qualities in which, with all their abili bel, were conducted by the valet-ty, the new Administration were most deficient. courtiers and pages of the palace.' One evening, after a prolonged and bitter discussion on the expenses of the Conferences army, M. de Caux, the Minister at of the King War, entered the King's Cabinet. and the ex- "Well, M. de Caux," said the montreme Roy- arch, "what do you say to this asalists. sembly?"-" Abominable, sire," re plied the minister. "You agree with me, then, figue, Hist. 157, 159. ny, iv. 388, 389. 92. 1. CHAPTER XVII. FRANCE FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE POLIGNAC MINISTRY TO THE FALL OF CHARLES X. PRINCE POLIGNAC, who was the real head of comparatively impartial opinion of his merits this Administration, and played so and demerits. His countenance-which inherPrince Po- important a part in the eventful ited from nature the beauty of his mother, and lignac: his drama which so soon succeeded, was the aristocratic cast of his father-had been biography. a man possessed of several brilliant, imprinted with melancholy from his early missome noble qualities. Born under the shadow fortunes, and the long imprisonment he had of the court in the brilliant days of the mon- undergone in consequence of his fidelity to his archy; the son of the princess whose beauty opinions. His manners were refined and graand tenderness had fascinated the heart of the cious; and when he did apply to business, it romantic and confiding Marie-Antoinette; god- was with vigor and effect. During his lengthson to that princess; bred up on the knees of ened confinement, which had endured nine the Count d'Artois; driven into exile early in years, he had read and meditated much. Unlife, from the effects of a Revolution to which fortunately he was, by that very circumstance, the attachment of the Queen to his mother had debarred from intercourse with men, or collisin some degree contributed; held up to the ion with the world, during his long solitude, maledictions of the people, in consequence of and led to form his opinions, not from what he the sincerity of his devotion to the royal family, saw to be practicable, but from what he thought he was bound to the throne by the strongest to be right. These external influences, comof all ties, to a generous mind-early associa-bining with an intrepidity which nothing could tions, gratitude for prosperity, fidelity in misfortune. He was, before he had passed adolescence, actively engaged in the attempts made to restore the fallen fortunes of royalty, and was implicated in the plot of Georges at Paris, in 1801, to overturn the First Consul. In consequence of this he was arrested, brought to trial, and condemned to death; and he then evinced the generosity of his disposition by a heroic contest with his brother, who also was condemned, each striving to devolve upon the other a pardon, which, on account of their extreme youth, Napoleon had accorded to one of the two. His life was spared; but as a dangerous state criminal, he was imprisoned for several years in the castle of Vincennes, during which, as is generally the case with an ardent and intrepid mind, he was hardened in resolution, and confirmed in opinion, from the severity of the suffering which he was enduring for its sake. He was at length liberated by the Emperor, and joined the Count d'Artois in exile, with whom he re-entered France in 1814. He retired with that prince to Ghent in 1815, and headed an insurrection in Savoy against the Emperor. After the second restoration, he distinguished himself by the intrepidity with which, almost alone, he maintained his opinions in church and state against a hostile majority. He was sent as embassador to London by Charles X., soon after his accession, chiefly in order to prepare him, by intercourse with public men, for the important place in the councils of the state for which he was designed by Lam. viii. that monarch; and he still held that Cap. x. 164, embassy, when he was called to the 165 Bog. perilous task of guiding the monarchy (Polignac.) in an open contest with the majority in the country.1 165, 166; Univ.lxxx., shake, and a loyalty which nothing could 1 Lam. viii. naye. M. DE LA BOURDONNAYE, the new Minister of the Interior, was a man of vigor and reso- 3. lution, who imparted to the Royal Character ist side the ardor and determination of M. de la which had so often proved successful Bourdonon the popular. A Vendean representative of 1815, and deeply imbued with the passions of that period, he became a minister in 1829 with a resolution to carry those principles into effect. He was a sort of Royalist Terrorist; he retorted upon the Revolutionists their own principles, and made the Liberals turn as pale now with the extreme measures which he was understood to have in contemplation, as he had done the Bonapartists with the lists of proscription he had demanded. His violence, however, was in words rather than action; his fire evaporated at the tribune; and he was satisfied if his burning expressions, circulated from one end of France to the other, threw his opponents into continual alarm. He Chabrol. menaced more than struck; he desired renown | though all men of talent, did not stand promirather than power; and rejoiced more in the nently forward like those who have 5. thunder of his eloquence than the wounds he been mentioned. M. de Montbel, M. de Montmight inflict upon his enemies. The King had new to public life, had been known bel, M. de been misled as to his real character and quali- only as able in the administration Courvoisin, ties by his sonorous declamations at the tribune. of affairs at Toulouse, of which he and M. de He expected to find in him a sort of monarchical had been mayor. He was an elève Mirabeau, and discovered to his cost, when the of M. de Villèle, and was obviously placed in hour of trial came, that he had introduced into the Cabinet to facilitate his return to power. his Cabinet a man of words rather than deeds, M. de Courvoisin was in a peculiar manner the whose vigor evaporated in terse expression, orator of the Cabinet, and as he had defended and who made no preparation in action for with vigor and eloquence the system of M. Lam. viii. the support of the changes which he Decazes, he was regarded with less jealousy by 168; Cap. had so strenuously recommended in the Liberals than the rest of the Ministry. M. x. 127, 129. council.1 de Chabrol and M. d'Haussey, who hitherto had been unknown in power, though distinguished in subordinate branches of the Govern ment, were men capable of discharging with success their respective departments of Minister of Marine and of the Finances; but as they were not master-spirits, and characterized chiefly by their loyalty and fidelity to the King, they might be expected to concur, without difficulty, in any measure which the 137, 139; ruling powers in the Cabinet might Lam. viii. propose.1 4. M. DE BOURMONT redeemed an unhappy circumstance, which cast a shade on M. de Bour- his life, by the highest military and mont. civil talents. He embodied in his single person the whole spirit of La Vendée; his name recalled the heroic courage, the glorious victories, the tragic reverses, of its immortal contest. Unhappily, it recalled also the dishonorable defection on the eve of the battle of Waterloo, and the envenomed testimony which he had borne against Marshal Ney, which had gone so far to seal the fate of that unfortunate man. He had borne a distinguished part in the war of La Vendée, and, after its pacification, in those of the Empire, when his former antagonists had become his comrades. The penetrating eye of Napoleon had distinguished him among the many whom that eventful period trained to the profession of arms; and it was the confidence with which he had been treated, and the value of the information which he possessed, which caused his defection on the eve of the battle of Waterloo to be so severely felt. His military abilities were of the very highest cast, his powers of administration great, his foresight and arrangement, so far as they depended on him, perfect. It is the general opinion, that if he had been at Paris instead of Algiers when the Revolution of 1830 broke out, the issue of the convulsion would have been different from what it was. He possessed great civil as well as military talents; he was sagacious in council, eloquent in debate, and gifted with the rare quality of fascinating the minds of his hearers by the fire of extempore oratory. His high forehead and pensive eye bespoke the ascendant of intellect; his fascinating smile and gracious manners, the polished courtier; his firm and confident step, the consciousness of superiority, and power to rule mankind. The brevity and force of his expressions revealed the force of a mind which made itself felt, like that of Burke, in the shortest conversation. Fascinated by these solid as well as brilliant qualities, and regarding it only as a proof of his devotion to the royal cause, Charles felicitated himself upon his choice of such a man as War Minister, and overlooked entirely his defection at Waterloo. But France had not forgotten it, and considering, with reason, fidelity to his colors as the first duty of a soldier, regarded with undis2 Lam. viii. guised dismay his appointment to so important a situation, and trembled at it, as the herald of Royalist reaction and civil war.2 170; Cap. x. 129, 134; Lac. iv. 391. The other members of the Royalist Cabinet, 1 Cap. X. 171, 172. the Liber Deeming the mask now thrown off, and that open war was proclaimed between 6. the Government and the country, the Extreme Liberal press broke out, the very day violence of after the Ministry was announced in the Liberal the Moniteur, into the most violent press at the Ministry, invectives against them. Nothing and prepabefore had ever equaled since the rations of Restoration, nothing since has ever als. surpassed, the fury with which they assailed the new Cabinet. 'Coblentz, Waterloo, 1815," exclaimed the Journal des Debats, after giving the names of the Ministers; "the emigration in M. de Polignac; desertion to the enemy in M. de Bourmont: the fury of proscription in M. de la Bourdonnaye: such are the three principles in the three leading persons of the Administration. Press upon it; nothing but humiliation, misfortune, and danger will drive it from power. Unhappy France! unhappy King!" M. Guizot and M. Thiers, the one in the journal of Le Temps, the other in that of the National, launched with more ability and argument the thunders of their eloquence against the madness of the King. Other writ ers, less eminent, and more declamatory, con gratulated the country upon the vail being at length torn aside, which had hitherto imperfectly concealed the conspiracy which had been going on for six years against the liberties and constitution of the country. The Directing Committee, under the guidance of M. de Lafayette, which gave the law to all the other democratic bodies in France; the society "Aideztoi et le Ciel t'aidera," under the rule of M. Guizot and M. de Broglie, began seriously to organize the means of rebellion. Corresponding committees were established in all the principal towns of the country, to organize a general system of resist- 20: ance to taxes, and subscriptions opened Lam. viii. to defray the necessary expenses of a 172, 173; universal moral and physical warfare against the Government. 279, 280; Lac. iv. 392, 393. To take advantage of the universal ferment, General Lafayette made a journey to the 7. south, where he was received with such enthusiasm that it resembled rather Lafayette's the progress of a popular and adored triumphant sovereign, than the honors bestowed on a subject, how eminent soever. At the south. Grenoble, he was escorted into the Journey in 8. Retreat of M. naye. town by a numerous body of cavaliers; at Vizille, the mayor of the town presented him with a silver crown, in imitation of oak leaves. At Lyons his reception was still more enthusiastic, and he made his entry in an open chariot, drawn by four white horses, like a sovereign prince. His speech to the inhabitants and functionaries, who received him at the gate, was remarkable. "To-day," said he, with the aristocratic grace which he knew so well to assume, "after a long diversion of brilliant despotism and constitutional hopes, I find myself in the midst of you in a moment which I would call critical, if I had not perceived every where on my journey, and if I did not see in this great and powerful city, the calm and even disdainful firmness of a great people which knows its rights, feels its strength, and will be faithful to its duties; and it is above all, at this very moment, that I love to express to you a devotion to which your appeal will never, to my latest hour, be made in vain." To counteract the effect of this move1 An. Hist. xii. ment, a progress of the King into 269, 271: Cap. Normandy was projected by the x. 281, 283; Ministers, but abandoned, on conLam. viii. 174. sideration, as too hazardous.1 It soon appeared, when they took their seats at the Council, that Prince Polignac and M. de la Bourdonnaye de la Bourdon- were not likely long to draw together. Both aspired to the dignity October 29. of President of the Council, corresponding to the premiership in England, and neither was inclined to wave his pretensions in favor of the other. Their feelings and motives of action also were different, though both were equally sincere Royalists. Polignac was the representative of the ultra-Romish party, which, regarding the contest in which they were engaged as an affair of conscience, never stopped to calculate the chance of success, but was equally prepared to accept the crown of martyrdom or the chaplet of victory from its results. La Bourdonnaye, a statesman trained in the contests and desirous of the triumphs of the tribune, was more worldly in his ideas, and was strongly impressed with the idea that the one thing needful was, to secure a parliamentary majority, and that any strong measures would be hazardous and misplaced till this object was secured. In this state of matters their co-operation in the same Cabinet was impossible. The complaint made against M. de la Bourdonnaye by the Pope's nuncio and the Parti-prêtre was, that he was not a man of action, however skillful in debate-an ominous expression, indicating that he was not prepared to second the desperate measures which were in contemplation. Sensible that he was misplaced in a Cabinet where such designs were in contemplation, M. de la Bourdonnaye volun1177, tarily resigned before the diverg. 285, 287; Lac. ence of his opinions with those of his colleagues had been manifested by any overt acts; he was raised to the Peerage, and was not heard 178; Cap. x. jv. 392, 394; Ann. Hist. xii. 278, 279. of again in public life. He was succeeded as Minister of the Interior by M. Guernon de Ranville, an able and eloquent man, who had courage enough, in critical times, like Strafford, to accept a ministry which presaged the possibility of a scaffold. Two men appeared at this juncture in the legislature, and entered on the 9. career of public life, destined to M. Guizot: his the highest celebrity in future biography. times, M. GUIZOT and M. BERRYER. M. Guizot had been employed in the Administration at intervals since he accompanied the King to Ghent, in 1815; and from his known talents for business, as well as powers of oratory, he had already acquired a great reputation. He belonged to that small section of very eminent men who, like the Economists in former days, have acquired the soubriquet of the "Doctrinaires," and whose object was to combine the institutions of the ancient monarchy with the wants and requirements of modern society. M. de Barante, M. Vilmain, M. Broglie, and M. de Staël belonged to this school, which was cordially supported by M. Decazes, that statesman being in a manner the acting representative of it. With his colleagues of the same political creed, M. Guizot retired on the fall of that able minister, and betook himself to the composition of the lectures on history, in the University of Paris, which have since been published under the name of Civilization in Europe, and Civilization in France, and have laid the foundation of his great reputation. He is a Protestant in creed, and has none of the lustre of nobility in his descent; but some men are made noble by the patent of nature, and no man ever stood forth as a more zealous and intrepid defender of an enlightened Christian 178, 179. faith.1 1 Lam. viii. M. Guizot, as a philosophic historian, is one of the very greatest men that the 10. world has ever produced. Less His character terse in his style than Montes- as a writer and quieu, less discursive than Robert- statesman. son, he is more just and philosophic than either. He has drawn his conclusions from a wider induction, and rested his views on a more thorough acquaintance with the progressive changes in the social system. He exhibits that combination of antiquarian research and accuracy in detail, with luminous views and a thorough appreciation of the growing wants of the age, which is so rare in philosophical writers, but which, like the union of minuteness of finishing with generality of effect in Claude Lorraine, is essential to the highest eminence in the sister arts of history and painting, and never appears without leading to lasting fame. A laborious antiquarian, an eloquent professor, an indefatigable journalist, his eyes were fixed alike upon the past and the present, and from the combination of the two he drew his inferences as to the future. His countenance bespeaks his character. He has neither the fire of genius nor the ardor of enthusiasm in his expression, but the sober steadiness of deliberate thought, and the calm eye of steadfast resolution. He was invaluable as a political partisan, for he gave to party views the air of philosophic conclusions, and, perhaps unconsciously to himself, advanced the interest of a faction when he seemed en 1 grossed only with those of humanity. A liberal | THIERS, like M. Guizot, had none of the advantRoyalist during the government of the Resto- ages of aristocratic birth or connec- 12. ration, he took an active part in the journalist tion: what he gained and became he M. Thiers. hostility and open rebellion which at length owed to himself, and himself alone. overturned it; and, borne forward to power on He raised himself to eminence, in the first inthe gales of popularity, under its successor he stance, by his History of the French Revolution, again reverted to his loyal impressions, and, as written in early youth-a party work, often Minister of Louis Philippe, stood forth the elo- inaccurate in facts and erroneous in principle, quent and courageous supporter of conservative but powerfully written, unscrupulous in poliprinciples. But he did so only to share his fall; tics, and only the more likely to be, in the first and he was precipitated from power in 1848, instance, popular, from its inculcating the docand the liberties of France destroyed, by the trine, convenient to statesmen, but dangerous influence of the very doctrines which in 1830 to nations, that the horrors of the Revolution he had done so much to promote, and which all were owing to a fatality unavoidable in such his subsequent efforts had not been able to ar- circumstances, not the faults or crimes of the rest-a memorable example to future times of persons engaged in it. The early celebrity of the extreme danger, for factious or party pur- this work led to his being actively engaged on poses, of subverting established authority, and the Liberal side in the public press, which, with of the awful responsibility which attaches to the lead which he took in the Revolution of those who, gifted with the power of launching July, early raised him to power under the gov. forth the "winged words" which bear thought ernment of Louis Philippe. His talents proved on their pinions, become in the end the rulers equal to any situation however great, any duof their country's destinies. ties however onerous; and he was alternately prime minister with Guizot of the quasi-legitimate monarchy. It is the strongest proof of his ability, that it has proved equal not only to the highest and most varied functions, but has increased in the most remarkable manner in the line in which he originally became distinguished. His History of the Consulate and the Empire is so superior to that of the Revolution, that it is difficult to believe they proceeded from the same hand. The one is the production of a vigorous inexperienced youth, the other of a matured and reflecting statesman. Gifted with a ready elocution and uncommon powers of oratory, he soon acquired a lead in, and in the end almost the mastery of, the Chamber of Deputies. It is to be regretted only that his consistency and candor are not equal to his genius; that he has too often sacrificed public principle to private ambition; and that, in the anxiety to make his own fortune, he has not escaped the imputation of having unduly made use of his influence and peculiar means of information as a minister to augment it. M. Berryer has not obtained the same niche in the temple of fame as M. Guizot, M. Berryer. chiefly because he was more consistent; for, unfortunately, all history tells us that the men who rise, even for a time, to greatness, are often those who, like Cæsar or Marlborough, can accommodate their principles to the varying circumstances of the times; not those who, like Cato or Aristides, preserve them unchanged through all the mutations of fortune. Connected by birth with the highest society, he had been admitted into its saloons, and imbued with its principles and its graces. His talents for conversation, and the charm of his manners, had acquired for him a great reputatation in those elevated circles; and though bred to the bar, and known as a public speaker only in its courts, he was selected for public life by Prince Polignac, after his accession to power, with the highest expectations of his value as a political supporter. In this he was not disappointed, although the time of his entrance into public life was unfortunate, and he became the ornament of a party only in time to share its fall. His handsome countenance prepossessed all who approached him in his favor; his piercing eye bespoke the internal fire of genius; his lofty forehead the power of intellect; his open expression the benignity of a magnanimous disposition. His courage was equal to any trial; and he possessed that chivalrous disposition, the sure mark of a noble mind, which led him to embrace without hesitation the cause which honor dictated, and attached him only the more strongly to the throne, from its obvious inability to bestow temporal rewards on its supporters. But his information was not equal to his eloquence: his reflection was inferior to his energy; he often spoke before he had thought; his name is attached to no great work either in legislation or literature; and, like many other persons similarly gifted, his biography leaves only a feeling of regret that dispositions so noble and talents so brilliant should not have realized them179, 180. selves in a form permanently beneficial to humanity.' Another man destined to future greatness began to rise into eminence at this period. M. 1 Lam. viii. 13. Memoir. A very able Memoir on the state of the kingdom was prepared in Prince Polignac's office, and laid before the King at Prince Pothis juncture, which contains a clear lignac's exposition of the state of the country, the difficulties with which the Government was beset, and the grounds on which the coup d'état which followed was rested by its authors. "An alarming agitation," it was said, “undoubtedly prevails in the public mind, but its origin is to be found exclusively in the disposition of those who are habitually occupied with public affairs. As to the mass of the people, they are entire strangers to it, and remain in that state of im passibility which excludes alike applause or murmurs. Every where in the country, as in the town, the masses are occupied only with their material prosperity; all interests find a sufficient guarantee in the institutions accorded by the Crown; they connect with them speculations for the present, and projects for the future; the overthrow of the order of things established by the Restoration would overturn all means of existence to the great majority; and, despite the declamations of the journals, no one seriously regards as pos |