CHAP. 1830. XXV. 1831. 53. in reference affairs. The present session has resolved some questions of the highest political importance; the Chamber which is to succeed it will determine those which remain. It is from it, and it alone, that France awaits the bringing to perfection its institutions. Till it meets, the Government has but one duty to perform-to maintain order, to execute the laws, to cause power to be respected. It is legal order and established power which society requires; for it is the want of power and order which has spread distrust, and engendered the whole embarrassments and dangers with which we are surrounded. "Armed to defend its own rights, France knows how Continued, to respect those of others; its conduct is not regulated to foreign by its passions. We wish the peace so necessary to our liberties; but we would not shrink from war, if the honour or security of France were menaced, and we would then appeal with the utmost confidence to the patriotism of the nation. At the first signal France will be found ready; and the King has not forgot that it was in the camp that he first learned to serve his country. The principle of non-intervention has been appealed to; we adopt it, and it is on that ground that we maintain that foreign powers have no right to intermeddle in our internal affairs. We ourselves practise that principle on every occasion, and we incessantly appeal to it in our intercourse with foreign nations. Is that to say that we are to carry our arms abroad whenever that principle is not respected? That would be an intervention of another kind; that would be to renew the principles of the Holy Alliance, and to fall into the chimerical ideas of those who would subject Europe to a single idea, and realise the visions of universal empire. Thus understood, the principle of nonintervention could serve only as a mark to the spirit of 1 Moniteur, conquest.1 We will, under all circumstances, support the 1831; Ann. principle of non-intervention; but we do not recognise in 162, 165. any people the right to compel us to combat for their interests the blood of France is due to France alone. March 19, Hist. xiv. XXV. We feel confidence in the fortune of France; but that it CHAP. should have confidence in itself, it is necessary that we should respond to its dearest interests; that we should say aloud what has long been said in secret, Truth should be told to nations as well as kings." 1831. 54. Philippe's conciliate How true soever these principles might be, and well calculated to calm the apprehensions of foreign powers Louis as to the ability or disposition of the government of Louis efforts to Philippe to curb the revolutionary spirit in France, there the electors. could be no doubt that, for the time at least, they augmented the difficulties of his Government. It was very difficult to foretell how the majority would incline at the next election; for although the number of electors had been nearly doubled by lowering the qualification to two hundred francs, yet it was known that the revolutionary law of succession, by constantly leading to the division of properties, was daily lessening the number of those who paid that amount of direct taxes; and at least a fourth of the whole electors, including those who held the largest amount of property, belonged to the Legitimist party. If they were to coalesce with the Republicans, whose numbers had been considerably increased by the lowering of the suffrage, the Government might be thrown into a minority. Impressed with these ideas, and deeming the establishment of his throne, not without reason, mainly dependent on getting a majority in the new Chambers, the King exerted himself to the utmost to secure it. The Chamber of Deputies was prorogued by the King in person, with great pomp, on the 28th April. With regret the monarch took leave of a legislature which had given him a throne. Soon after a royal proclamation dissolved the Chamber, and appointed the electoral colleges to assemble on the 5th July, and the next one to assemble Ann. Hist. on the 9th August, the anniversary of the King's acces- 209; Louis sion. The interval was assiduously employed in every 360, 364. possible effort to gain a majority in the new legislature.1 It was not without reason that the King was so solici 1 xiv. 208, Blanc, ii. XXV. 1831. 55. Disturbances in Paris. May 9. CHAP. tous to obtain a Chamber which might support his Government, for the appearances in Paris were very threatening. The people were in that excitable, irritable state, when every little thing occasions a crowd, and every crowd becomes the cradle of a sedition. The trial of some young men, among others M. CAVAIGNAC, destined for celebrity in future times, for their conduct on occasion of the trial of the ex-ministers in December, and April 16. their acquittal by the jury amidst thunders of apApril 17. plause, gave rise to disturbances which continued several days, and were not put down till a large military force had been called out. The restoration of the colossal statue of Napoleon on the summit of the column in the Place Vendôme, by order of the King, next violently excited the Napoleonists, and gave rise to alarming demonstrations of enthusiasm by crowds surrounding the column, and putting garlands of immortelles on its pedestal. At length these crowds in the Place Vendôme became so serious that Government, with great good sense, stationed a company of Pompiers with fire-engines in the Place, who cooled the ardour of the Napoleonists by copious effusions of water, which at length dispersed the assemblages. A more serious source of discord was found in a dispute relative to the decorations which were to be given by the King to the heroes of the barricades, which were objected to as inscribed with the words, Donné par le Roi des Français," and accompanied by an oath of fidelity by the recipient to the reigning sovereign. The anniversary of the taking of the Bastile, on July 14, was made the pretext for large assemblages in Paris and several towns in the departments, which termi2 Moniteur, nated in bloodshed. The humiliating condition of the King was evinced by his being obliged, a fortnight after, to sanction magnificent rejoicings in Paris, on occasion of the anniversary of the corresponding insurrection of the preceding year, which led to his own elevation to the throne.1 May 13. July 14. July 30. May 24, July 15, July 31, 1831; Ann. Hist. xiv. 204, 207, 247, 250. XXV. 1831. progresses mandy and pagne. Distrustful from these appearances of the capital, the CHAP. King resolved to throw himself on the departments, and for this purpose he made two royal progresses-one into 56. Normandy, one into Champagne. In the course of the The King's first, he visited Rouen, Havre, Abbeville, and Amiens; into Norof the second, Meaux, Château-Thierry, Chalons, Metz, ChamVerdun, Luneville, Colmar, Strasbourg, Besançon, and May 18. Troyes. These, being the most revolutionary departments of France, were selected for the display of the popularity of the Citizen-King, and, upon the whole, he had no reason to complain of the reception which he met with. In some places, however, the sturdy republican spirit evinced itself without control, and the King was reminded, like his ancestor Clovis at Soissons, even by a private soldier, of the precarious tenure by which he held his authority. At Metz, a leading member of the municipality, in the course of his address to the King, insisted on the unanimity of the country on the abolition of the hereditary peerage, and the ardent wishes everywhere formed for the independence of the Poles. The King cut him short. "You speak to me of what you say all the municipal councils in France have proclaimed: you are mistaken; they have proclaimed nothing. It is no part of their duty to do so, nor to take any part in the deliberations on subjects of state policy; that duty belongs to the Chambers alone." M. Voirhaye, a commander of the National Guard at the same place, expressed similar sentiments. "The National Guard," said the King, "should not occupy itself with political questions." "Sire," 1 Cap. v. replied M. Voirhaye, "it is not an advice which it gives, it is a wish which it expresses." "The National Guard," answered the King, "should form no wishes; the armed force never deliberates: you are not its organ. I will 133, 135; hear no more." These words, repeated in the columns of Blanc, the Moniteur, were soon known over all France, and 365. made an immense sensation.1 But the King soon found that it is easier to raise up Louis ii. 364, 1831. 57. able issue tions for CHAP. than put down a revolution, and that the armed force XXV. which has overturned one government may think of overthrowing another. Notwithstanding the utmost pains Unfavour- taken by the Government, by circular letters to the preof the elec- fects, and in every other imaginable way, to secure a the Crown. majority for the government candidates, they generally experienced defeat. The lowering of the qualification to two hundred francs told with decisive effect upon the returns. The Royalists, who were very powerful in some departments, especially in the south and west, generally kept aloof and took no part in the elections, following an opinion, very common in such circumstances, that things must be worse before they are better, and that the only way to damp the ardour for revolutions is to let the people experience their effects. A great number of new deputies were elected; no less than two hundred and three members of the former Chamber were not found in the new. Nevertheless the majority of the new deputies were not absolute Republicans, but strong and ardent Liberals, thirsting for wealth, power, and distinction, and impressed with the idea that they could be obtained only by falling in with, and even anticipating, the public wishes. Among them were several celebrated menM. Arago, M. Duvergier de Hauranne, M. Thiers, and M. Garnier Pagès. The Opposition had no acknowledged leader, but M. Odillon Barrot was the most ready orator and influential man among them. To follow out the Revolution of July, and establish a government in harmony with its spirit, was the prevailing feeling of the electoral 140, 141; colleges; and the first triumph which they desired over the Legitimists was the abolition of the hereditary peerSo general was the feeling on this subject that it was made the subject of a distinct pledge to the electors from the great majority of the representatives.1 1 Cap. V. Louis 367, 368; Ann. Hist. xiv. 219, 220. age. The Chambers met on the 23d July. "Gentlemen," said the King, in a speech dictated by Casimir Périer, and read from his manuscript, "I am happy to find |