and elective, like the American Senate. Thus the dicta- CHAP. XXV. 1830. tor, the head of the National, which might now be called the Prætorian Guard, demanded what in France, where there were 4,000,000 persons paying direct taxes, was equivalent to universal suffrage, and the abolition of the peerage, whether hereditary or for life, and the substitution of an elective senate in its room. This was certainly the realisation of his favourite dream of a monarchy surrounded with republican institutions." Whether they could coexist in the same community was a very different question, upon which the Government required to come to an immediate decision. The 1 Cap. iv. sway of Lafayette, as at the head of the armed force of 170, 171; the capital, appeared in foreign countries completely to Blanc, ii. overshadow the throne, and the utmost alarm was mani- Ann. Hist. fested regarding it, not in the journals of St Petersburg 484. and Vienna, but in the Whig papers of London.1 Louis 228, 229; xiii. 483, 16. of M. de La the command of the National The conduct of the French government on this crisis was marked by the vigour and decision which, in civil dissensions, Dismissal when supported by strength, is the sure precursor of suc-fayette from cess. Already the exorbitant power assumed by M. de Lafayette had excited a general jealousy even among his own Guard. adherents, who, although quite willing to use him for a Dec. 24. tool, were by no means inclined to have him for a master. The press, both Republican and Legitimist, daily declaimed against him; and the epithet of " Le Polignac populaire,” applied to him by M. Capefigue in the Conservateur, like other felicitous sobriquets which wound those of whom we are jealous, was received with general applause. Encouraged by this support, Ministers, on the 24th December, amidst the most fulsome expressions of gratitude and adulation for the "hero of the two worlds," quietly deprived him of his command of the National Guards, cloaking the dismissal under the pretext of appointing him "Honorary Commander of the Guard." "Since the 30th July," said M. Charles Dupin on the part of the Government, "General Lafayette has been the living law of the National Guard; he has acquired unbounded XXV. 1830. CHAP. glory by the manner in which he has exercised that august mission; but the friend, the companion, the emulator of Washington, knows that a man cannot remain a living law all his life, if the written law is not to become extinct. That illustrious friend of liberty, if he were within these walls, would be the first to say, ' My wish is that the law should live, and that I should again become what I am, the citizen of the two worlds." The 1 Moniteur, decree dismissing Lafayette with these high-sounding 1830; Ann. flowers of panegyric was passed by the Chambers without a division; and the General had the patriotism or the good sense to submit to it without resistance, after declining the title of "honorary" commander offered to him, with the most flattering expressions of regard, by the King,1* Dec. 22, Hist. xiii. 486, 489; Cap. iv. 177, 179; Louis Blanc, ii. 228, 229. 17. This decisive step was immediately followed by some Changes in changes in the Cabinet. M. Dupont de l'Eure resigned the Cabinet. his situation as Minister of Justice; it was gladly accepted, and he was succeeded by M. Merilhou, then Minister of Public Instruction, a man of ability and of moderation, though a decided Liberal. M. Merilhou was succeeded in the portfolio of Public Instruction by M. Barthe, a man of eloquence and power, and, like him, distinguished as a Liberal under the Government of the Restoration. M. Treilhard, the Prefect of Police, also resigned, and was succeeded by M. Baudé, one of the most active chiefs on * "Le grand pouvoir," said Lafayette, "dont j'étais investi, donnait quelque ombrage. Vous en aviez bien entendu parler, Messieurs. Cet ombrage s'était surtout étendu dans les cercles diplomatiques. Aujourd'hui, ce pouvoir est brisé, je n'ai plus que l'honneur d'étre entre des collégues. Cette démission, reçue par le roi avec les témoignages de sa bonté ordinaire pour moi, je ne l'aurais pas donnée avant la crise que nous venons de traverser. Aujourd'hui, ma conscience de l'ordre publique est pleinement satisfaite. J'avoue qu'il n'en est pas de même de ma conscience de liberté. Nous connaissons tous ce Programme de l'Hôtel de Ville, 'un trône populaire, entouré d'institutions républicaines.' Il a été accepté, mais nous ne l'entendons pas tous de même. Il ne l'a pas toujours été par les conseils du roi, comme par moi, qui suis plus impatient que d'autres de le voir réalisé. Et quelle qu'ait toujours été mon indépendance personnelle dans toutes les situations, je me sens dans ma situation actuelle plus à l'aise pour discuter mon opinion avec vous.”—Ann. Hist., vol. xiv. p. 490. XXV. 1830. occasion of the Revolution of July, and a man of CHAP. vigour and courage. M. Odillon Barrot also tendered. his resignation as Prefect of the Department of the Seine; but he was prevailed on to withdraw, and continue the discharge of his functions, on condition of their being considered judicial or administrative only, and altogether detached from politics. M. Taschereau, his Blanc, ii. sous-prefect, was also retained. "Odillon Barrot," said Cap. iv. 191, 196; Louis Philippe," will be no longer to be feared when he Ann. Hist. has no longer M. de Lafayette above him, and none 508. under him but M. de Taschereau."1 1 Louis 234, 235; xiii. 505, 18. accounts The Government was considerably strengthened by these changes, both from the greater unity given to the Favourable Cabinet, and the increased consideration it acquired in from the public estimation and in the eyes of foreign powers. Algiers. It derived additional support from the news that arrived in the latter months of the year from Algeria. Marshal Bourmont, upon receiving on the 11th August the intelligence of the dethronement of Charles X., published an address announcing it to the army, and at the same time resigning the command to General Clausel, who had been appointed his successor. He soon after embarked for France," carrying with him," as he himself said, "nothing of the hundred millions which the conquest of Algiers had brought to France, and bringing but the embalmed heart of his son." General Clausel resolved to signalise the advent of the republican party to power at Paris, by forming a chain of fortified posts through the Algerine territory in order to protect the colonists, who were presenting themselves in considerable numbers for the acquisition and cultivation of land. The expedition set out in the middle of November, and after defeating several bodies of Arabs which presented themselves, succeeded and 26. in reducing the two towns of Melideah and Medeah, Ann. Hist. with a considerable adjacent territory, under the French 511. dominion.2 These were considerable advantages; but they yielded Nov. 25 xiii. 510, XXV. 1830. 19. tional ex penditure for the army and its forces. CHAP. in importance to the vast armaments which the new Government was compelled to make, and the great addition to the public expenses with which they were attended. Great addi- The deficit of 86,000,000 francs in the revenue, which, as has been already mentioned, appeared soon after the Revolution, rapidly and alarmingly increased. Many causes contributed to bring it about. The funds had fallen fully 20 per cent between July 1830 and January 1831,* and the public misery and stagnation of commerce had become such in the latter months of the year that the suffering produced by the invasions of 1814 and 1815 had been less in comparison. It was absolutely indispensable to increase largely the government expenditure in order to counterbalance this woeful stagnation, and the clothing, arming, and equipping of 600,000 national guards, which were called out over all France, had this effect in a considerable degree. The hostile attitude of foreign powers, especially Prussia and Austria, since the revolution in Belgium, also rendered necessary a great increase of the regular army. That force, in the time of the fall of Charles X., had consisted of 131,000 infantry and 34,595 cavalry, of whom 12,000 were Swiss who were all disbanded and sent home after the Revolution of July. Their place was supplied, however, by 148,000 new French conscripts, which raised the infantry to 243,000 men, and the cavalry to 45,000, making a total of 288,000 men, a large force, doubtless, but by no means disproportioned to what France was entitled to 1 Feb. 1831; have on foot, considering the strength of the nation and xiii. 521. the doubtful ground on which it stood in its relations to foreign powers.1 1 Rapport du MarechalGérard, Ann. Hist. The circumstance beyond all others which rendered this great armament on the part of France necessary, *Five per cents, 2d January 1830, 109 | Five per cents, 31st December 1830, 93 84 Three per cents, 62 -Ann. Hist., vol. xvi. p. 520. XXV.. 1831. 20. tion for the Belgium, separation was the jealousies which had arisen on all sides in CHAP. regard to the candidates for the crown of Belgium, now vacant by the results of the revolution in Flanders, and its definitive separation from Holland. Two candidates, Competi and two only, presented themselves, in the first instance, crown of for the crown-the Duke de Leuchtenberg, son of Prince and its final Eugène Beauharnais, the far-famed Viceroy of Italy from Hol under Napoleon, and the Duke de Nemours, second son land. of Louis Philippe. The separation of Belgium from Holland had been finally determined on by a congress of the ambassadors of France, England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, on the 20th December 1830, on reasons which, under existing circumstances, appeared too well founded. The throne being then vacant, its disposal was nominally in the hands of the Estates of Flanders ; but it was evident that the European powers would all feel the deepest interest in the question involved in it, for its territory, interposed between France and Germany, bristling with strong and newly-erected fortresses, and adjoining the recent acquisitions of Prussia on the Rhine, was too important not to be of the utmost moment in the future balance of power in Europe, and its possession might have a decisive effect on the first general war * * "En formant par les traités de Vienne en 1815, l'union de la Belgique avec la Hollande, les puissances signataires de ces traités, et dont les plénipotentiaires sont assemblés dans ce moment, avaient eu pour but, de fonder un juste équilibre en Europe, et d'assurer le maintien de la paix générale. Les évènemens des quatre derniers mois ont malheureusement démontré que cet amalgame parfait et complet, que les puissances voulaient opérer entre ces deux pays, n'avait pas obtenu ce qu'il serait désormais impossible d'effectuer; qu'ainsi l'objet même de l'union de la Belgique avec la Hollande se trouvait détruit, et que des lors il devienait indispensable de recourir à d'autres arrangemens pour accomplir les intentions, à l'exécution desquelles cette union devait servir de moyen. Unie à la Hollande, et faisant partie intégrale du royaume des Pays Bas, la Belgique avait à remplir sa part des devoirs Européens de ce royaume, et des obligations que les traités lui avaient fait contracter envers les autres puissances. La rupture avec la Hollande ne saurait la libérer de cette part de ses devoirs et de ses obligations. La conférence s'occupera conséquemment de discuter et de concerter les nouveaux arrangemens les plus propres à combiner l'indépendance future de la Belgique avec les stipulations des traités, avec les intérêts et la sécurité des autres puissances, et avec la conservation de l'équilibre Européen."-Protocole, 20 Décembre 1830. Ann. Hist., xiii. 244, 245. |