CHAP. "We are always told we must await the decisions of a congress, the decisions of the Conference. Why a congress, why a conference? What is the need of a con- 81. 1831. ference after the insurrection at Brussels-of a congress Concluded. after the revolution at Warsaw? Had you at once recognised the nationality of Poland, what effect would it have produced on the banks of the Vistula? Lithuania, Podolia, Volhynia would immediately have been in arms; Gallicia and Hungary would have responded to the cry; a word would have disarmed Russia and Austria, reestablished the balance of power, and restored France to its proper rank and lead in Europe. What could the Continental powers have done in presence of such a decided policy? Austria would have found its Poland in Italy, Prussia in the Rhenish provinces, England in Ireland. Driven back into their deserts by the heroic armies of the Sarmatians, the Muscovites would have ceased to be any longer formidable to the liberties of Europe—the independence of nations. Whereas the result of your timorous policy has been, that England has disposed of 1 Moniteur, the crown of Belgium, which was laid at your feet; Austria has established her supremacy in Italy; Russia has found in the treacherous neutrality of Austria, Louis the open support of Prussia, the means of extinguishing 428, 430. the last remnants of Polish nationality.” 1 that Aug 7-10, and Hist. xiv. 1831; Ann. 219, 253; Blanc, ii. Ministers. Strong as these arguments were, and powerfully as 82. they spoke to the national and patriotic feelings which Answer of are ever springing up in the breasts of the French people, they were met on the part of Government by others, if not equally heart-stirring to the feelings, perhaps more convincing to the reason. What," said M. Casimir Périer, M. Guizot, M. Thiers, and General Sébastiani, "are the grievances of which the Opposition complain? Born of a tempest calculated to drive nations into chaos, the French government has sought to appease everything around itself and in itself. Is there nothing grand in that lofty moderation? Was it blamable, because to the XXV. 1831. CHAP. savage pleasure of overturning the world it preferred the glorious title of saving it at once from the double scourge of democracy and conquest? We are reproached for having abandoned Belgium to the English, Italy to the Austrians, Poland to the Russians. Vain and declamatory reproaches! We have done all in Italy which could reasonably be expected. The ministry of the 13th March (Casimir Périer), on arriving at the helm, found the Austrian army in the Roman States, the sad bequest of the weakness of the preceding cabinet. It demanded, it obtained their evacuation by the Austrian troops. What more could be expected of it? If our frontiers have not been advanced to the Rhine-if Flanders has not been incorporated with our dominionsif the King, doing violence to his family affections, has refused the crown proffered to his son,-it was because considerations of the highest political gravity were opposed to such projects of national or family aggrandisement. Was it expedient, for no other object but aggrandisement, to light up in Europe the flames of an immense conflagration? Was it advisable, in the hope of a doubtful conquest, to arm against us the English people, that powerful ally which has done so much to establish the throne of the Revolution ? Would it have been wise to threaten the European nations with the revival of our ambition, which for fifteen long years kept them in agony and humiliation? Was France degraded 83. because she showed herself at once formidable and disinterested? "No one can admire more than we do the heroic Continued. valour of the Poles, and be filled with a warmer commiseration for their undeserved fate; but the question is not what all must feel, but what any could have done? Separated from us by a breadth of four hundred leagues, inhabited by neutral and powerful nations, our geographical position condemned us to a mournful and sterile sympathy. To have marched to their succour would have XXV. 1831. been to have resumed, at the point where they began to CHAP. become fatal, the gigantic enterprises of Napoleon. And what would be the object gained, supposing it successful? To force Austria and Prussia, in their own defence, to conclude a close alliance with Russia, that our troops, on arriving at Warsaw, might find nothing but a desert and ashes. Napoleon himself at Tilsit was unequal to the task of restoring Poland, though he was at the head of five hundred thousand invincible soldiers. Could the ministers of 1831 have undertaken with impunity that which Napoleon, with his gigantic forces, failed in accomplishing, possessing as they did a much inferior army, for the most part composed of mere conscripts ? To have recognised the independence of Poland when we could not support it, would have been an idle rodomontade, alike evincing the weakness of the one country and the impotence of the other. 84. "Let us not deceive ourselves, therefore, or be led away by vain declamation. Government has done all Concluded. that was in its power to do for the Poles, when it offered its own mediation, and invited that of the other powers. It is time now for the Opposition to explain themselves. What do they really desire; what would they be at? Is a universal war-a war for life or death-the object of their desires? If so, they had better announce at once that the question is no longer between war and peace, but between war and liberty, for no one supposes that freedom can take root or flourish amidst the dire crash of war. Combats and battles abroad induce at home silence and repose despotism is the counterpart of victory. Napoleon proved it; and before his time the Convention had proved it by deeds which will never be effaced from 1 Louis the memory of man. 'Have you concluded an agreement Blanc, ii. 424, 426; with victory?' was once asked in that terrible assembly. Moniteur, No,' was the reply of Bazire, but we have made a 1831; Ann. compact with death.' Death soon came to claim per- 237, 250. formance of the promise: a year had not elapsed when the Aug. 14, Hist. xiv. XXV. CHAP. head of Bazire fell from the scaffold. If the Opposition does not grow pale at the employment of such resources, and the mere memory of these terrible examples, let them at least have the courage to avow it." 1831, 85. Violent scene in the Cham ber on the debate on Poland. Matters were brought to a perfect climax in the Chamber by a proposition of M. Bignon to insert in the address the words-" In the touching words of your Majesty regarding the misfortunes of Poland, the Chamber fondly hopes to find a 'certainty' that the nationality of Poland shall not expire." M. Bodin, on the part of Ministers, contended that the words "firm hope” should be used instead. Such was the enthusiasm excited by this interesting topic, that at the words of General Lamarque," Let us save Poland!" the whole Assembly rose like one man, and was proceeding, amidst loud acclamations, to adopt M. Bignon's motion, when Casimir Périer, foaming with rage, and quivering with emotion, rushed into the tribune, and insisted to be heard. The cry of "Spoke, spoke! order, order!" arose on all sides, and he could not make himself heard. Still standing in the tribune, and making frantic gesticulations, amidst a din which rendered any voice inaudible, the minister contended for the privilege of being heard. Upon this a frightful tumult arose, some contending that he should be heard, others that he should not,—all with equal violence. Soon the whole Assembly, galleries and 1 Moniteur, all, were on their feet, shouting and gesticulating in the 1831; Louis most tumultuous manner; and at length the President, Blanc, ii. after in vain trying to restore order by ringing his bell, covered himself, and the Chamber broke up in an indescribable state of agitation.1* Aug. 16, 453, 454; Cap. v. 306, 307. Great as was the excitement which these debates in the Chambers on the subject of Poland occasioned, it was * In one of these violent debates, General Sébastiani, addressing General Lamarque, said, "C'est faux; vous en avez menti." These words led to a hostile meeting between the two generals, which happily terminated in no serious result. It is remarkable how often military and naval men, so cool in the field of battle or the quarterdeck, lose their temper, and become ungovern "Po XXV. 1831. 86. excitement the fall of as nothing to that which took place when the intelligence CHAP. of the fall of Warsaw, to be recounted in the next chapter, arrived. It was on the 15th September that the mournful intelligence arrived in Paris, and the grief and Vehement excitement was so intense that it seemed a question in Paris on whether it would not prove fatal to the new-born dynasty. Warsaw. It exceeded even that felt at the taking of Paris in 1814, Sept. 15. or the battle of Waterloo in the year after; for national humiliation was then softened by a sense of delivery from evil, but here it was aggravated by the extinction of hope. The public excitement was wound up to the highest point by an imprudent and ill-timed expression of General Sébastiani, in announcing the mournful intelligence on the 16th in the Chamber of Deputies-"Order reigns in Warsaw;" and again, on the 19th, when he said, land will never rise from its ashes if France is wise." Such was the excitement produced by these words, that Casimir Périer and General Sébastiani were assailed by a furious mob when entering the hotel of the minister-ofwar in the Place Vendôme, and narrowly escaped with their lives. So universal was the grief, so passionate its expression, that the theatres were all closed,-a thing which had not occurred in the worst days of Robespierre or the Convention. For four days Paris continued in a state of stupor and prostration, to which nothing had been seen comparable in any former period of its history; and the public sorrow, as that of an individual, at length 1 Louis wore itself out by excessive indulgence.1 The intensity 473, 484; of emotion evinced by the people on this occasion proved 339, 346; that it was not mere sympathy with a foreign state which Ann. Hist. agitated them, but an interest nearer home which was 277; Monithe cause of the excitement, and that the republican his- 17, 1831. torian spoke the voice of millions when he said, "The able in debate. It is that weakness which makes them in general incapable of ruling pacific assemblies. Accustomed to command, they cannot brook contradiction or resistance; and they too often forget that, in civil conflicts, the influence exercised is in general in the inverse ratio of the temper displayed.— See Ann. Hist., vol. xiv. p. 249; Chron. p. 257; CapeFigue, vol. v. p. 343. Blanc, ii. Cap. v. xiv. 272, teur, Sept. |