CHAPTER XXV. FRANCE FROM THE OVERTHROW OF THE KINGDOM OF THE XXV. 1830. 1. Change in the attitude in reference tinental powers. THE events which have been recounted in the end of CHAP. the last chapter entirely altered the position of France and Louis Philippe with reference to the European powers, and had an important effect, both externally and internally, on its future history. The Government of France of July was now placed in a state of antagonism with to the Con- 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 xxii. § 71. openly expressed that feeling. 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 1 Ante, c. XXV. 1830. of the Flemish states in which the government had been CHAP. overthrown. The cabinet of Vienna, under the cautious guidance of Prince Metternich, was still more apprehensive at the democratic fervour 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 Northern Italy. Everywhere on the Continent were to be seen armaments and heard the sound of marching men. England alone, secure in her sea-girt isle, and entirely engrossed with domestic questions, made no warlike preparations, and regarded the distant din on the 1 Cap. iii. Continent as the precursor of a conflict with which she 275, 279. had no immediate concern.1 2. divisions, of the This great change of necessity induced a corresponding alteration in the French cabinet. The original govern- Cabinet ment, formed by a coalition of the three parties-the and fall Doctrinaires, headed by the Duke de Broglie and M. Ministry. Guizot; the burgher interest, by Count Molé and M. Casimir Périer; and the Republicans, represented by M. Dupont de l'Eure-soon underwent 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 everything 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 XXV. CHAP. necessity of instantly establishing the sovereignty of the people, installing the citizens in possession of real power 1830. 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 for internal freedom was to be found in the maintenance of external peace.1 1 Cap. iii. 336, 341; Louis Blanc, ii. 157, 159. 3. With such discordant opinions agitating both the Commence- Cabinet, the Chamber, and the people, it was impossible trial of the that the Government could long hold together; but an late Minis- event which strongly roused and agitated the nation, ment of the ters. induced its dissolution even earlier than might have been anticipated. This was the trial of Prince Polignac and the other ministers of Charles X., who, by the officious zeal of inferior functionaries rather than the real wishes of the Government, had been arrested in various places and brought to Vincennes, where they awaited the determination of the cabinet and legislature on their fate. Had it been practicable, Louis Philippe and the majority of his cabinet would gladly have avoided so embarrassing XXV. 1830. a procceding as the trial of these state prisoners; but CHAP. their alleged delinquence and real infraction of the laws had been too recent, the passions of the people too strongly excited, the risk of anything like a compromise to the new Government too great, to admit of such a course being thought of. Reluctantly, therefore, they were compelled to authorise the institution of proceedings against them. On September 23d the Chamber of Deputies, after long debates on the form to be adopted Sept. 23. in the prosecution, had invested three commissioners with the power of conducting it on the part of the popular branch of the legislature, and the trial was to take place before the Chamber of Peers. That body forthwith held an extraordinary meeting to commence the cognisance of the affair; and according to the form Oct. 4. of the French law, when the court takes so large a share in the preliminary steps of the trial, three peers were appointed, and conjoined with the commissioners of the Deputies to conduct it. The judicial examinations commenced, and were conducted with great strictness and Ann. Hist. ability, though in an equitable spirit, by the government 359, 423; commissioners; and the result was communicated to the Blanc, ii. Chamber of Peers in a detailed and very impartial 121. report on the 29th November.1 1 xiii. 325, Louis 119, 120, the accused trial. The conduct of the accused during the prolonged 4. interrogations was calm and dignified, but at the same Conduct of time strongly characterised by that political infatuation before the and insensibility to the realities 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 XXV. 1830. CHAP. surrounded by an immense crowd, which never ceased to exclaim, "La mort, la mort! la mort aux Ministres !" So savage was their demeanour, 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 drawbridge 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 demeanour. M. de Chantelauze, on seeing the commissioners, with some of whom he had formerly been intimate, enter his apartment, burst into tears; M. de Peyronnet evinced more resolution, admitted his accession to the ordinances, and justified them by the necessities of his situation, and the kindness of the king towards him. M. Guernon de Ranville was equally resolute. But although the pale countenance, prominent forehead, and emaciated figure of Prince Polignac evinced the wearing influence of anxiety and meditation, yet the smile on his lips and the serenity of his manner revealed a mind at ease with Blanc, ii. itself and the world. He constantly believed that the acknowledged irresponsibility of the King must, by a Ann. Hist. legal fiction, be extended to his Ministers. "When am 1 Louis 120, 121; Cap. iii. 388, 389; xiii. 425, 428. 5. I to be set at liberty?" he often said to the commissioners.1 During the progress of these examinations, however, Disturbed the state of Paris became such as dreadfully alarmed Paris before the court, and fearfully endangered the accused. state of this. Oct. 18. The Republicans were indefatigable in their endeavours to excite the people, and awaken the savage thirst for blood which had for ever disgraced France during the Reign of Terror. The continued and increasing distress which existed among the working classes, and which the agitators contrived to impute solely to the acts of the late ministers, which originated the convulsion, added immensely to the success with which their efforts were attended. On the 18th October, in particular, an emeute |