82. Disturbances 92, 93, An. Hist. xiii. 629, 630. Brunswick. Sept. 9. plosion; and the French Revolution was too ed on intelligence being received of the events important an event not at once to induce it. in Brussels; but they assumed the 84. The train took fire first in the great commer- most formidable aspect in Leipsic, In Dresden, cial and manufacturing towns, the Dresden, Brunswick, and Hesse-Cas- Leipsic, and centres, in all ages and countries, sel. In the first of these cities, exin Aix-la-Cha- of independent thought and united tensive mercantile transactions, a great spread pelle and Co- action. No sooner did the disturb- of knowledge, and the vast concourse of stranlogne. ances, accordingly, break out in gers during the fair, had greatly strengthened August 30. Brussels, than they extended to the desire for popular institutions. In the secAix-la-Chapelle and Cologne, in both of which ond, in addition to the general desire for freecities the workmen assembled in tumultuous dom, there was united the discontent of a popucrowds, and began to pillage shops, break ma-lation generally Protestant at a royal family still chines, attack manufactories, and deliver prison- Catholic. In Leipsic, the disturbances, which ers from jail in order to swell the ranks of the originated with the students of the unidisaffected. These disorders excited the utmost versity, were repressed without any seSept. 7. alarm all along the Rhine, in all the principal rious consequences at the end of two days; but cities on which river symptoms of agitation ap- at Dresden the populace for a time gained the peared; and it was only by the general turning ascendant. The Hôtel de Ville and the Hôtel out and firm countenance of the burgher mili- de la Police were both burned, and the tia that they were prevented from breaking out King was obliged to fly from his capital, into open insurrection. Greatly alarmed, the and take refuge in the impregnable fortress of Prussian government in haste moved forward Königstein, so celebrated in the wars of Fredseveral veteran regiments of Old Prussia into the erick the Great and Napoleon. At Hesse-CasRhenish provinces; and Prince William of Prussel-where the people, in addition to the other sia, on September 9th, addressed a letter to the causes of German discontent, were irritated by authorities there, expressing his resolution not the absence of the Elector, who lived, apart from to interfere with the internal affairs of France, the Electress, a scandalous life at his palace or the form of its government, but to of Wilhelmshohe, in which his presence was 1 Cap. iii. defend the Prussian dominions from signalized only by arbitrary decrees or acts of attack, and maintain the provinces on oppression against his subjects-the disorders the Rhine to the last extremity.1* were not less serious, and were only put down From the banks of the Rhine the agitation by four thousand of the Burgher 1 Ann. Hist. was communicated like an electric Guard and four hundred regular xiii. 634, 640; Cap. iii. 96. Convulsions shock through all the cities of the troops.1 north of Germany, though the sucnorth of cess which attended the attempts Germany. at insurrection was very various, according to the vigilance and strength of the Government in different places, and the fidelity which the troops evinced when brought into contact with the people. Enough, however, appeared to indicate what the events of 1848 so fully confirmed, that the stability of existing institutions in Germany rested entirely upon the strength and fidelity of the armed force; that in the midst of feudal manners, institutions, and traditions, though repressed by an enormous military establishment, there existed a deep and widespread spirit of discontent in the industrious and highly-educated middle classes; and that, if the time should come when the regular troops were no longer, as in France, to be relied on in a conflict with the people, or were openly to espouse the popular side, society would be shaken to its centre, and the most dreadful convulsions might be anticipated." In all the cities where the Teutonic race was predominant, even the military capital of Bavaria, and the distant metropolis of Denmark, disturbances or symptoms of disorder appear*"Le roi m'a chargé de témoigner à ses sujets des provinces Rhénanes combien il regrettait de ne pouvoir se 83. in all the 3 Cap. iii. 93, 95; An. Hist. xiii. 626, 629. rendre au milieu d'eux. Les événemens survenus en France nécessitent sa présence dans sa capitale. Cepen ent nos frontières, alors le roi rassemblerait toutes ses 85. Still more alarming were the disturbances in Brunswick. On the 6th the populace rose, and, disregarding six- And in Brunsteen pieces of cannon placed around wick, Sept. 6. the palace of the reigning sovereign, but which were never discharged, surrounded the ducal residence, which was soon committed to the flames. The whole pictures and furniture were broken to pieces or thrown out of the windows, and the superb pile reduced to ashes. The Duke fled in disguise during the darkness of the night, and escaped to London, where he was coldly received by the English government, which was aware of the indiscretions and faults on his part which had occasioned so violent an explosion. Meanwhile, the Estates of the duchy conferred the government, provisionally, on his brother Prince William, in the character of regent, and as a matter of necessity he was recognized by the courts of London, Berlin, and Vienna. Even the distant capital of Vienna felt the shock. Assemblages were formed in the streets which defied the whole power of the police, and were dispersed only by the appearance of 2 Ann. Hist. the cuirassiers; and the dawn of xiii. 631, that spirit already appeared, des- 634, 637; tined at no distant period to threat- Cap. iii. 96; en with dissolution the whole Aus- Sept. 12, trian monarchy.2 Moniteur, 1830. 86. SWITZERLAND did not escape the general condant le roi est fermement résolu de ne s'immiscer en rien tagion; and though the shepherds dans les affaires de ce pays, et de laisser le volcan se con- of the valleys, in possession of full Political consumer dans son intérieur. Mais si les Français attaquai- democratic privileges, remained tests in Switzforces pour les combattre. Les travaux qui ont été exé- tranquil, the burghers of its cities, erland. cutés à Coblentz et qui en font un boulevard puissant de who were not equally endowed, were violently la monarchie, prouvent l'importance que sa majesté attache agitated. The Federal Diet was sitting at Berne à la possession des provinces Rhénanes, et sa ferme ré-in perfect tranquillity when the news arrived Coblentz, 9 Septembre, 1830."—Ann. Hist., xiii. 93, note. of the revolution of July in Paris; and the ex solution de les défendre à toute extrémité.-GUILLAUME. Nov. 27. was succeeded by Cardinal Capellari, elected to the pontifical chair on February 2d, who took the title of Gregory XVI. citement immediately became so violent that it was evident the demand for more popular institutions could no longer be withstood. Wisely resolving to yield to a storm which they could But these events, important and startling as not resist, the cantons in which aristocratic in- they were, yielded in ultimate im- 88. stitutions still existed, themselves took the lead portance to an event which took place Change in in making the changes which were demanded. in this year in Spain, and proved the the order of Zurich was the first which did so. On source of unnumbered calamities to succession in Spain. the 27th November the local Legisla- both the kingdoms of the Peninsula. ture of that city passed a resolution fixing the This was the CHANGE in the order oF SUCCESSION representation of the Council at 212 members, to the Spanish crown, as it had now been estab of whom a third were to be returned by the lished for a hundred and twenty years, with city, and two-thirds by the landward part of the concurrence of all the powers of Europe. the canton, fixing the qualification for repre- This order, which strictly excluded females sentatives at twenty-nine years of age, and a from the crown, was an innovation on the old fortune of 5000 francs (£200). This Council law of Spain, which admitted them; but it had was to appoint a smaller body, which was to been established by a decree or pragmatic saneform a constitution, the basis of which was to be tion on 10th September, 1713, on occasion of the popular sovereignty, and an equal division of accession of Philip V. to the throne, and subsethe public burdens. Similar organic changes, in quently ratified by all the powers of Europe, effect, like the Reform Bill in England, amount- and in particular by France and England, by ing to revolution, were brought about in Lu- the Treaty of Utrecht in 1714. It had ever cerne, Soleure, Argovia, St. Gall, and Turgovia, since regulated the succession to the Spanish not without, in some, serious popular disorders crown, and was regarded as a fundamental which disgraced the land and cause of freedom. point in the public law and fixed policy of EuBerne itself, the most aristocratic of all the can- rope. The object of it was not so much any tons, underwent its revolution. The petitions peculiar necessity for the male succession in the praying for reform and an extension of popular Spanish monarchy beyond other states, but conrights, presented to its Council of State, were siderations of the highest moment for the genso numerous that at length they could no longer eral balance of power. The bequest of the be resisted, and in the beginning of December crown of "Spain and the Indies" to the Duke a meeting of the great Council, which consisted of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., in 1700, by of 217 members, was held, at which it was unan- the King of Spain, had lighted up the flames of imously resolved to put the whole militia of the the War of the Succession in Europe, which country on a war footing, and to appoint a com- burnt fiercely for thirteen years, and were very mittee of eleven to revise the constitution. So imperfectly laid by the Peace of Utrecht in great, however, was the public agitation, that 1714. This treaty was thought by the Tories these measures would not suffice, and the cen- to have averted the danger of a union of the tral committee of government accordingly con- crowns of France and Spain on the same head, voked a general assembly of the representatives by entailing the crown of the latter kingdom of all the cantons to meet at Berne on the 23d on the male line. Bolingbroke and Harley, December. It decreed the levy of sixty who made that treaty, did not perceive, what Dec. 23. thousand men, to cause the external in- the event ere long demonstrated, that it was not dependence of the confederation to be respect the union of the crowns, but the alliance of the ed; but wisely abstained from interfering with kingdoms, which was the real object of danger; the internal constitutions of the can- that a "family compact" founded on family conxiii. 674,678. tons, which were left to their sepa- nection might prove as formidable as a union rate Legislatures.1 of kingdoms; and that, if the English fleets were outnumbered, and blockaded in their harbors, as they often were in the course of the 1 See Life century, by those of France and Spain of Marltogether, it were of little moment borough, whether it was in virtue of a united c. xii. p. government or a family alliance.* 1 Ann. Hist. 87. 474, 524. 89. An opportunity now occurred which enabled the Liberals of Spain to lay the foundation for a revival of their hopes, Its motives which had been so signally blasted and politicby the universal burst of indignational objects. against their rule that appeared on the invasion of the Duke d'Angoulême in 1823. The King, now advanced in years, had married in ITALY also felt the shock, and, from the more ardent temperament of its inhabitConvulsions ants, and the circumstance of their in Italy. having so long been unaccustomed to the exercise of any of the rights of freemen, with more violence than in the colder latitudes of the Alps. In Lombardy and Piedmont the extreme vigilance of the police, and the presence of an immense Austrian force, the fidelity of which could perfectly be relied on, prevented any open convulsions; but the impression was not the less decided, and the public passions, long and rigorously repressed, only acquired the greater strength from being brooded over in silence. The fermentation was extreme in Bologna and Modena, the two cities of the pen insula most warmly attached to the new institutions; but it was repressed with rigor, and in Florence overawed by the influence of Austria. In Rome the effect was very great at first, but it was ere long superseded by the election of a new Pope, in consequence of the one sail, in Plymouth; while, at the outset of the latter, 2 Ann. Hist. death of Pius VIII., which took their combined fleets outnumbered those of Great Britain by forty-four line-of-battle ships.-See ALISON's lafe of place on the 30th November. He Marlborough, vol. ii. p. 474, 3d edit. xiii. 684, 688. in the course of the eighteenth century, subsequent to 1714, the Spanish government took part with the French, and their united navies always considerably outnumbered the English. This was particularly the case in the Amercan War and the war of the Revolution, in the former of which the French and Spanish fleets, numbering fortyseven sail of the line, blockaded the English, of twenty * In every one of the wars of England against France, 1 Ann. Hist. xiii. 688, 690. 90. 1 Ann. Hist. xiii. 690, 691. Revolution rope. the close of the preceding year CHRISTINA, daugh-lowed this circumstance, what mournful trageter of the King of the Two Sicilies; and the dies it occasioned in all parts of the Peninsula, fêtes consequent on the marriage, which was and how completely, in the end, it has had the graced by the presence of the royal parents of effect of nullifying Spain in the the bride, had been of so magnificent a charac- general balance of power in Euter as to have recalled the pristine days of the rope.1 monarchy, and in some degree reconciled even Thus, within less than six months after the the Liberals to the sway of "El Rey Assoluto." Revolution of 1830 broke out, and 91. In the spring of this year the Queen was dis- Charles X. had been dethroned, was Resumé of covered to be with child; and as the sex of the the whole face of affairs in Europe the influinfant was of course uncertain, and DON CARLOS, changed. Disgust had every where ence of the the King's immediate younger brother, was, succeeded to confidence, apprehen- in France failing male issue of the marriage, the heir-ap- sion to security, convulsion to stabil- over Euparent of the monarchy, and the avowed head ity. In vain had Louis Philippe asof the despotic party, the Liberals resolved sured the Continental sovereigns, and with sinupon a device, which was attended with en- cerity, that he was inclined to abide by existtire success, for altering the order of the suc- ing treaties, to check the spirit of revolution, to cession, and establishing it in favor of the King's stand between them and the plague. Events issue, whether male or female. By this means had proved that, whatever his intentions were, they hoped to ingraft a war of succession on a his power to carry them into effect was exwar of principles, and gain for themselves an tremely circumscribed. It was evident that ostensible and visible head—a matter of import- there were two governments in Paris, one in ance in all civil wars, but especially in one in the Tuileries and one in the clubs, and that the Spain, where the people were much latter was more powerful for evil than the formore inclined to attach themselves mer was for good. The spirit of propagandism, to persons than to things.1 nursed in France, and quadrupled in strength By the united influence of the young Queen by its victory there, was now spreading over and the old father-confessor, the King the adjoining states, and had already achieved Promulga- was won over in his old age to this in- the most signal triumphs in foreign nations. tion of the trigue, and the decree accordingly ap- The Conservative administration had been overpeared calling females as well as males turned in England, and a party installed in to the succession of the throne. To power, based on popular support, and pledged render the device the more plausible, to organic changes, with a democratic tendency it was stated in the decree that it was no new or in the constitution; the Kingdom of the Nethder of succession which was thereby established, erlands had been revolutionized, the King debut that it was a mere transcript of a former de- throned at Brussels, and Belgium to all appearcree made by the late king, Charles IV., in 1789, ance irrevocably severed from Holland; the on the requisition of the Cortes. Neither the al- barrier of Europe against France had been conleged old decree, however, nor the requisition verted into the outwork of France against Euof the Cortes, were ever produced to give au- rope; Germany had been convulsed, and a thority to the innovation, and it was done with- reigning sovereign dethroned; Switzerland subout the privity or concurrence of any of the jected to democratic change, and brought unpowers in Europe which had been parties to der the influence of the clubs in Paris; and in the Treaty of Utrecht, by which the crown Spain the order of succession changed, and a had been entailed on the male line. This, how- visible head given to the democratic party in ever, soon came to be of little moment; for in the Peninsula, in the person of the heiress to due time the Queen gave birth to a daughter, the throne! A conflict of three days' duration ISABELLA, the present sovereign of Spain; and in the streets of Paris had obliterated the whole although the irregularities of the mother's con- effect of the victories of Marlborough and Welduct gave rise to serious doubts as to the in- lington, overturned the barrier in Flanders to fant's legitimacy, yet she was immediately adopt-revolutionary power, and annihilated in Spain ed as the head of the Liberals, and the dependants of the crown united with the partisans of free institutions in making THE QUEEN the warery of their united party. It will appear in the sequel what important consequences folVOL IL-D D decree. March 29, 1830. the last remnant of security against French influence becoming predominant in the Peninsula! To all appearance the prophecy of Lafayette, forty years before, was about to be realized; the tricolor flag was to make the tour of the globe. CHAPTER XXV. FRANCE FROM THE OVERTHROW OF THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS IN OCTOBER, 1830, TO THE ABOLITION OF THE HEREDITARY PEERAGE IN SEPTEMBER, 1831. 1. attitude of France in reference to the Continental 1 Ante, c. derwent the fate of all administrations formed by a combination of interests, not a union of principles. Dissensions of the most violent kind speedily appeared; the debates and recriminations were as tumultuous at the council-board as at the tribune; and it soon became evident that the differences of opinion were so great that every thing like united action was impossible. In truth, each of these sections of the Cabinet was the representative of a party in the State, the passions or apprehensions of which had become so violent that they could no longer be restrained. The Republicans in the clubs, the press, and the streets, loudly proclaimed the necessity of instantly establishing the sovereignty of the people, installing the cit izens in possession of real power by a great reduction of the suffrage qualification, receiving with open arms the friends of freedom in other countries, and regaining the frontier of the Rhine, and all that had been lost by the treaty of Vienna, by accepting the proffered amalgamation of Belgium with France. The burghers, whose strength, always great, had been doubled by their forming the greater proportion of the National Guard, both in the metropolis and the provincial towns, were mainly set on the maintenance of order and the preservation of general peace, and dreaded alike any foreign demonstration which might revive the hostile alliance of 1815, and any domestic innovation which might restore the internal sway of the Jacobins in the State. And the Doctrinaires, to whose enlarged and philosophic ideas the sagacious and experienced mind of the sovereign was most inclined, earnestly inculcated the principles that the government, to be stable, must be one of progress and of order; that measures must be taken to coerce the extravagance and restrain the influence of the clubs; and that the only lasting security 1 Cap. iii. 336, for internal freedom was to be 341; Louis found in the maintenance of ex- Blanc, ii. 157, THE events which have been recounted in the end of the last chapter entirely alChange in the tered the position of France and Louis Philippe with reference to the European powers, and had an important effect, both externally powers. and internally, on its future history. The Government of July was now placed in a state of antagonism with Europe. The cordial feelings with which the envoys of Louis Philippe had been received by the northern powers on his first accession to the throne, as a fortunate necessity and valuable barrier against evil, had given place to an alarming anxiety and entire distrust. Without doubting the sincerity of his professions of an ardent desire to coerce revolution and restrain propagandism, they had seen enough to have the most serious apprehensions of his ability to do either the one or the other. The English government evinced, not without reason, great disquietude at the events in Flanders, and the extension of revolutionary influence to the mouth of the Scheldt. The speech from the throne at the opening of Parliament openly expressed that feelxxiing. The Prussian cabinet was equally alarmed at the revolutionary movements in Northern Germany, and the obvious danger to which their Rhenish provinces were exposed, from the vicinity of the Flemish states in which the government had been overthrown. The cabinet of Vienna, under the cautious guidance of Prince Metternich, was still more apprehensive at the democratic fervor in Switzerland and the excitement in Northern Italy, which their huge army and vigilant police had the utmost difficulty in repressing. Even the distant court of St. Petersburg took the alarm, and, well aware of the sympathy of feeling between Paris and Warsaw, began to direct forces, to be prepared for any event, in great numbers, to the banks of the Vistula. The Prussians sent troops as rapidly as possible to their Rhenish provinces, and Austria did the same to North-ternal peace.1 ern Italy. Every where on the Continent were With such discordant opinions agitating both to be seen armaments and heard the sound of the Cabinet, the Chamber, and the 3. marching men. England alone, secure in her people, it was impossible that the Commencesea-girt isle, and entirely engrossed with do- Government could long hold togeth- ment of the mestic questions, made no warlike prepara- er; but an event which strongly trial of the tions, and regarded the distant din on the Con-roused and agitated the nation, in- late Ministinent as the precursor of a conflict duced its dissolution even earlier Cap. iii. with which she had no immediate con- than might have been anticipated. This was the trial of Prince Polignac and the other minThis great change of necessity induced a cor-isters of Charles X., who, by the officious zeal responding alteration in the French of inferior functionaries rather than the real Cabinet divi- cabinet. The original government, wishes of the Government, had been arrested sions, and fall formed by a coalition of the three in various places and brought to Vincennes, of the Minis- parties-the Doctrinaires, headed where they awaited the determination of the by the Duke de Broglie and M. cabinet and Legislature on their fate. Had it Guizot; the burgher interest, by Count Molé been practicable, Louis Philippe and the majorand M. Casimir Périer; and the Republicans,ity of his cabinet would gladly have avoided so represented by M. Dupont de l'Eure-soon un- embarrassing a proceeding as the trial of these 275, 279. try. 2. cern.2 159. ters. 120, 121. 4. 5. fore this. state prisoners; but their alleged delinquence | lieved that the acknowledged irresponsibility and real infraction of the laws had been too of the King must, by a legal fiction, be extended recent, the passions of the people too strongly to his Ministers. "When am I to be set at libexcited, the risk of any thing like a compromise erty?" he often said to the commissioners. to the new Government too great, to admit of During the progress of these examinations, such a course being thought of. Reluctantly, however, the state of Paris became therefore, they were compelled to authorize the such as dreadfully alarmed the court, Disturbed institution of proceedings against them. On and fearfully endangered the accused. state of September 23d the Chamber of Depu- The Republicans were indefatigable in Paris beSept. 23. ties, after long debates on the form to their endeavors to excite the people, be adopted in the prosecution, had invested and awaken the savage thirst for blood which three commissioners with the power of con- had forever disgraced France during the Reign ducting it on the part of the popular branch of of Terror. The continued and increasing disthe Legislature, and the trial was to take place tress which existed among the working classes, before the Chamber of Peers. That body forth- and which the agitators contrived to impute with held an extraordinary meeting to solely to the acts of the late ministers, which Oct. 4. commence the cognizance of the affair; originated the convulsion, added immensely to and according to the form of the French law, the success with which their efforts were atwhen the court takes so large a share in the tended. On the 18th October, in par- Oct. 18. preliminary steps of the trial, three peers were ticular, an émeute of so serious a kind appointed, and conjoined with the commission- took place in the Faubourg St. Antoine, that it ers of the Deputies to conduct it. The judicial assumed almost the character of an insurrection. examinations commenced, and were conducted A furious band then surrounded Vincennes, and with great strictness and ability, though in an were making preparations for storming the cas1 Ann. Hist. equitable spirit, by the government tle, in order to execute justice on the state prisxiii. 325, 359, commissioners; and the result was oners with their own hands. They were only 423; Louis communicated to the Chamber of repelled by General Daumenil, the governor, Blanc, ii. 119, Peers in a detailed and very impar- threatening, if they did not desist, to blow up tial report on the 29th November.1 the building. Repulsed from thence, the waves The conduct of the accused during the pro- of insurrection rolled to the westward, and longed interrogations was calm and broke on the Palais Royal, where it was only Conduct of dignified, but at the same time strong- averted by the firm countenance of the National the accused ly characterized by that political in- Guard. The King and his Ministers were all before the fatuation and insensibility to the real-assembled. "Hark!" said Odillon Barrot, "I trial. ities of their situation by which their conduct when in power had been distinguished. When they approached the gloomy towers of Vincennes, there was enough to quell the most undaunted spirit. In its fosse the Duke d'Enghien had fallen a victim to the jealousy and anger of Napoleon; within its walls Prince Polignac had undergone the weary hours of a nine years' captivity, for having conspired against that sovereign power which he was now accused of having abused. The carriage which bore them to the gloomy fortress was surrounded by an immense crowd, which never ceased to exclaim, "La mort, la mort ! la mort aux Ministres !" So savage was their demeanor, so fierce and unrelenting their cries for vengeance, that the prisoners were relieved, and felt as if the worst of their dangers were over, when the draw-bridge was passed, the gates entered, and the doors of the fortress closed upon their pursuers. During the examinations, the prisoners, who were kept apart and in close confinement, exhibited a very different demeanor. M. de At length, on the 15th of December, the trial Chantelauze, on seeing the commissioners, with commenced in the hall of the Peers, some of whom he had formerly been intimate, in the palace of the Luxembourg. Commenceenter his apartment, burst into tears; M. de Every thing had been done which ment of the Peyronnet evinced more resolution, admitted could give dignity and solemnity to Dec. 15. his accession to the ordinances, and justified the august spectacle. Seats were them by the necessities of his situation, and the provided for all the foreign embassadors and kindness of the King toward him. M. Guernon their families, as well as the principal dignitade Ranville was equally resolute. But although ries of the kingdom; and a guard of two thouthe pale countenance, prominent forehead, and sand men, with several guns, was provided for emaciated figure of Prince Polignac evinced the daily service around the hall, besides powerful 2 Louis Blanc, wearing influence of anxiety and reserves in all the barracks of the capital, ready meditation, yet the smile on his lips to turn out at a moment's notice. No less than and the serenity of his manner re- one hundred and sixty-three of the Peers anvealed a mind at ease with itself swered to their names when the roll was calland the world. He constantly be-ed; twenty sent excuses, which were sustained. ii. 120, 121; Cap. iii. 388, 389; An. Hist, xiii. 425, 428. hear the cry Vive Barrot!'" "And I," said 1 Ann. Hist. 120, 128. trial. 6. |