XXV. CHAP. Doctrinaires were animated with the generous desire to save the lives of the ex-ministers; the Democrats and Republicans thirsted after their blood. 1830. 10. the trial of the exministers. The progress of the trial ere long brought them into Progress of violent collision, under circumstances so alarming as to threaten the destruction of the infant monarchy. The public, violently excited, suffering under most serious real evils, and incessantly stimulated by a licentious press, demanded in a voice of thunder a holocaust of victims to appease its indignation. The trial lasted long, and the public excitement seemed to increase with every day that it continued. The accused were defended with talent and energy; and some noble minds came forward, in the moment of peril, to defend their former political opponents at the hazard of their own lives. Among the rest was M. de Martignac, whose ministry had been supplanted by that of Prince Polignac, but who now appeared as counsel for M. de Peyronnet, his old school and college companion. "At school," said he, "at college, we have followed the same cause. Well, after having passed the ordeal of human grandeur, we find ourselves again here; I, as of old, lending to an accused party the aid of my voice; he, a captive accused, obliged to defend his life and good name, alike menaced. That long brotherhood, which had continued undisturbed through so many events, was interrupted for a moment by the sad effects of political disBlanc, ii. sension. The hall in which we are met has sometimes 196, 197; Ann. Hist. resounded with our debates, not unmingled with bitterness; but of all recollections, that of ancient friendship is alone retained in the castle of Vincennes.1" 1 Louis xiii. 443, 445. 11. of M. Sau zet for the accused. The general argument in favour of the accused was Arguments thus ably stated by M. Sauzet, who appeared for M. de Chantelauze: "The royal dynasty was in danger at the time of the ordinances, not in consequence of a general conspiracy, which I will not impute to the French nation. It is not I who will accuse the people of being treacherous to their King; but had not other and irretrievable XXV. 1830. causes of discord arisen at that time in society? Who CHAP. can doubt the dangers of the crown in presence of a new throne, when there were floating on all sides the standards of another house, and the colours of another epoch? The Revolution of July has furnished the best argument in favour of the ordinances, and of the necessity, in the eyes of Charles X., I will not say of what was actually done, but of some extraordinary measure to meet extraordinary dangers, to which the dynasty, in order to preserve its existence, was forced to have recourse. Let us figure to our minds what would have occurred if such a revolution as we have witnessed had broken out, prepared, not by conspiracy, but by the ancient and ineradicable bent of the public mind. We constantly confound the cause and the occasion. Three days have sufficed, indeed, to make the Revolution, but fifteen years had been employed in preparing it; and if I do not deceive myself by confining the Revolution within trifling limits, it is not destined to have a long futurity. It was a revolution which is due only to hazard, and which has only succeeded by a fortunate accident in breaking up the throne of our ancient kings; a revolution which probably would not have taken place the day before, and assuredly would not have been suc- 452. cessful the day after."1 1 1Ann. Hist. xiii. 451, tion and of the ac These, however, were political considerations, calcu- 12. lated perhaps to go far in justifying the memory of the Condemnaaccused in the eyes of posterity, for having introduced punishment the ordinances as a measure of state necessity; but they ensed. afforded no vindication of them, in a legal point of view, from the crime of a deliberate infraction of the constitution, of which they were accused. Their condemnation, therefore, was a matter of necessity; and it is highly to the credit of the Government that they had the courage to propose, and of the Peers that they had the firmness to adopt, punishments short of death. So much had their number been reduced by the exclusion, at the Revolution, of all those who had been elevated to the peerage XXV. 1830. Dec. 21. CHAP. during the reign of Charles X., that only 156 peers appeared to vote on the guilt and punishment of the accused. They were all found guilty by a majority of 132 to 24. This was expected, and was, in fact, unavoidable; but the material point, upon which public expectation was so violently excited, was, what punishment should be inflicted on them? The whole weight of Government had been thrown, and happily with success, to the side of mercy. M. de Polignac was sentenced, by a majority of 128, to transportation for life; M. de Peyronnet, by 87 to 68, to perpetual imprisonment; M. de Chantelauze, by 138 to 14, to perpetual imprisonment; and M. de Guernon Ranville to the same punishment, by 140 to 16. Considering how violently the people were excited on the subject, and the efforts which had been made to rouse them, these sentences must be regarded as an act of mercy; and it must always 1 Moniteur, be considered as an honour to the government of Louis 1830; Ann. Philippe that it first gave the example, on a memorable occasion, of the abolition of the punishment of death for purely political offences.1 Dec. 22, Hist. xiii. 455, 455. 13. But though the lives of the accused were spared by The accused the court, it was by no means equally clear they would conveyed to be respected by the people; and the utmost danger Vincennes, awaited them in the course of the passage from the to Ham. palace of the Luxembourg to the castle of Vincennes. The mob which surrounded the court amounted to above fifty thousand persons, and exhibited the most savage and unrelenting disposition. Had they once tasted of blood, the whole horrors of the first Revolution might have been renewed. Happily, in this crisis, the admirable dispositions of the military and police authorities prevented such a catastrophe. Twenty-four thousand troops of the line and national guards, with cannons loaded and matches lighted, were formed in dense array around the building when the sentence was determined on; and without its being promulgated, the prisoners were hurried away, the moment 66 XXV. 1830. it was signed by the president of the court, to the carriages CHAP. which were to convey them to Vincennes, which immediately set off at a rapid pace. M. Montalivet, the Minister of the Interior, rode on the right of the carriage which conveyed Prince Polignac-the post of honour as the post of danger. So quickly was the whole got over that they were safely lodged at Vincennes, under the charge of the firm General Daumenil, before the mob around the Luxembourg were well aware of their conviction.* The sentences were then read to them in their separate apartments, which they heard with constancy; and some days afterwards they were quietly removed to Ham, the place of their final destination. Some distur- Moniteur, bances took place in Paris, which was violently agitated 1830; Louis on that and the following day; but they were suppressed 223; Ann. by the firm countenance. of the troops of the line and 456, 459; national guards, who were publicly thanked by Louis 163. Philippe for their conduct on the occasion.1 1 Dec, 24, Blanc, ii. Hist. xiii. Cap. iv. 14. tion of the Guard, and tal. The violent excitement consequent on the trial of the ex-ministers led Government to appreciate the necessity Disaffecof doing something decisive to terminate the anarchy National which prevailed in the capital, and put a period to the the misery military dictatorship which, as Commander-in-chief of the of the capiNational Guard, M. de Lafayette exercised in the capital. Great part of the National Guard had evinced a very bad spirit on occasion of the trial, and the artillery, in particular, had been so mutinous that a conflict had all but taken place between the gunners of the National Guard and the troops of the line, in the Place de Carrousel, under the very eyes of the King. On the 22d December, when the decision of the Peers on the punishment of the accused was known in the capital, things wore the most menacing aspect. A black flag was dis * When they passed the Barrier du Trône, M. Montalivet wrote to the King: Sire, nous avons franchi la moitié de l'espace; encore quelque minutes de danger et nous sommes à Vincennes et tout est sauvé."-CAPEFIGUE, vol. iv. p. 163. 1830. CHAP. played from the Pantheon; crowds began to assemble XXV. in the streets, muttering threats, no longer against the ex-ministers, but the Government which had shielded them. So great was the distress which prevailed among the workmen of the metropolis, that crowds of ten or twelve thousand persons were seen in all directions, loudly demanding bread or employment, and openly threatening insurrection if it were any longer withheld. Against them, and alongside of the best portion of the National Guard, appeared the scholars of the Polytechnic School, clad in that magic uniform which five months. before had thrilled every heart with emotion. Indeed, the peril to the new dynasty was as great as that which had overturned the last; and it was the bitter lessons learned by experience which alone in this crisis preserved Paris from a second convulsion. The shopkeepers had suffered so dreadfully by the stagnation of trade induced 1 Cap. iv. by the first, that they were resolved not again to incur a similar risk; and to all the dreams of the enthusiasts it was a sufficient answer, "Le commerce ne va pas. Beyond all doubt, it was the steadiness of the National Guard from the best parts of the city which at this crisis saved the throne.1 167, 169; Louis Blanc, ii. 224, 226; Moniteur, Dec. 23, 1830. 13. But this very circumstance of the immense importance Demands of of the service rendered by the National Guard on this Lafayette. occasion opened the eyes of the Government to the extreme danger of their position in regard to that formidable body. M. de Lafayette, taking advantage of his influence, and of the almost unbounded sway which these circumstances gave him, made certain demands on the Government which were tantamount to a revolution. These were 1st, The immediate dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, the majority of which was not in harmony with the ideas of the Republicans, with whom he was surrounded; 2d, The placing of the electoral franchise on a new footing, which should admit all the persons paying direct taxes to the suffrage; 3d, The reconstruction of the peerage on a different basis, for life only, |