arrayed in its defence; and the govern- | knowledge of the British Government; ment is maintained solely by seventy thousand French troops, more than double the number of the English soldiers who ever clustered round the standards of Great Britain on the boundless plains of Hindostan, prior to the great revolt in 1857. 49. This important expedition, which was likely to have so material an effect on the destinies of France and of the world, was not undertaken by the French Government without extensive projects for the future, and the promise of powerful support for the present. It was the first of a series of measures in tended to revive the military spirit of the nation, to restore its confidence in itself, to bind anew the people to the sovereign by the strong ties of national glory, and to turn their passions from social struggles to national objects. It was intended to follow it up by the advancing the frontier to the Rhine-a project which Chateaubriand confesses in his Memoirs he had long cherished, and would ere this time have carried out if he had remained in power, and which had remained a secret but sacred deposit in the archives of the Cabinet. But as both the attack on Algiers and the appropriation of Belgium and the Prussian provinces on the Rhine would necessarily bring them into collision with Great Britain and Prussia, the French Government had secured to themselves a powerful ally to support them in their advances. The determination to assert the prerogative in France, and shake off the dependence on the Chambers, had, as a matter of course, been cordially approved by the Cabinet of St Petersburg, with which that of the Tuileries had been brought into close and confidential communication. The result was a secret agreement that Russia should support France in the eventual extension of its frontier to the Rhine, and France Russia in the advancing its standards to Constantinople. Prussia was to be indemnified for the loss of its Rhenish provinces by the half of Hanover-Holland, for the sacrifice of Belgium, by the other half. But this agreement, how carefully soever veiled in secrecy, came to the and it was the information they had obtained in regard to it which led to the warm remonstrances against the occupation of Algiers, and to the immediate recognition of Louis Philippe by the Duke of Wellington's Administration. 50. While these successes, glorious to the French arms, were in progress on the African shores, and which alone, of all the conquests since the Revolution, remained a lasting acquisition to France, the Government at home was advancing in the infatuated career on which they had resolved. Great hesitation for some time prevailed in the Cabinet as to the course to be pursued with regard to the Chamber of Deputies. But at length the favourable intelligence brought by the Duke d'Angoulême, as to the disposition of the army which had embarked at Toulon, decided the majority of the Ministry, and a dissolution was resolved on. The ordonnance, accordingly, appeared, appointing the colleges of departments to meet on the 23d June, those of arrondissements on the 3d July, and the Chamber on the 3d August. This determination, however, was not taken without great difference of opinion in the Cabinet, which led to the resignation of M. de Courvoisin, the Keeper of the Seals, who was succeeded by M. Chantelauze, President of the Royal Court at Grenoble, and of M. de Chabrol, the Minister of Finance, whose place was given to M. de Montbel, the Minister of the Interior, who again was succeeded by M. de Peyronnet, a man of known capacity and vigour. The dissolution was accompanied by a touching proclamation of the King to the electors, in which he charged the former Chamber with having mistaken his intention, and called on the electors to rally round the throne.* 51. So confident were the Liberals | destroy, their hopes of overturning the that their cause would be promoted by Government. this dissolution, that they offered no 52. The King and Ministers, howcomplaints on the subject. They set ever, were noways deterred by the unthemselves with their wonted vigour toward result of the general election. to improve the advantage thus put in It was evident from the returns that their way; the electoral committees it was hopeless to look for a majority, soon were everywhere in activity; the or even an equality, of voices in the press resounded with the most vehe- Chamber; and as the Opposition was ment denunciations against the Minis- so determined that a refusal of supters, and the coup d'état against the plies might be looked for, no resource public liberties which was supposed to remained but a COUP D'ETAT, and be in contemplation; and before the forcible change of the Constitution. elections began, it had become evident Long and earnest debates went on in that the Liberal majority, so far from the Cabinet on the course which should being diminished, would be material- be pursued, and an able and interestly augmented by their result. When ing memorial was addressed to the they commenced, every successive post King by his Ministers. After much brought a fresh defeat to Ministers. and anxious deliberation, it was agreed Out of the 221 members who had voted that M. Royer-Collard should be conwith M. Agier in favour of the address sulted as to the temper and probable by the former Chamber, 202 were re- course of action of the new Chambers, turned; it was soon ascertained that and Charles X. accordingly asked him, the Opposition numbered 270 votes, "Do you believe that, if the budget the Ministry only 145, in which last were presented to the Chamber, it was included 13 who were dubious, would reject it?" "Possibly it might having voted for the amendment of not," answered the President; "" but Lorgerit in the former Chainber. Even in any event, the discussions to which the departmental colleges had gone the law on the finances would lead, against Government; a third of the would shake the monarchy to its Opposition came from their ranks. En- foundation." This answer strongly couraged by this success, the Liberal influenced the King's mind, and he leaders in Paris proceeded vigorously openly expressed the opinion that a and systematically in their opposition; coup d'état had become unavoidable. orders to organise a general opposition "Gentlemen," said he to his Minto taxes were sent down to all the de- isters, "I will inform you in a few partments, and every preparation was words of the course which I mean to made, though still in a legal way, to pursue, and which I have already freoverthrow the influence and nullify quently explained. My firm resoluthe action of Government. So strongly tion is to maintain the Charter. were the feelings of the people excited will not depart from it on any point, by the thoughts of the coming struggle, but I will not permit others to do so. that the intelligence of the conquest of I hope the new Chamber will be comAlgiers, which was received in the mid-posed of wise men, who will respond dle of the election, awakened no other to my intentions. Should it unhapfeelings but those of consternation and pily prove otherwise, I shall know, spite on the part of the majority. The without departing from the course passions of party got the better of the marked out by the constitution, to love of country, and the Liberals, as cause my rights to be respected, which the Royalists had done before them, I regard as the only guarantee for the instead of rejoicing, deplored a success public tranquillity and happiness of which threatened to postpone, perhaps France. Such are my intentions; it is for you to second them in the part of the Administration intrusted to each of you in particular.' qui vous le demande, c'est un père qui vous appelle. Remplissez votre devoir; je saurai remplir le mien. CHARLES."-Moniteur, 17th May 1830. I 53. It was on the 29th June that the coup d'état was first seriously dis- | occurred in 1789. The first step which cussed in the Cabinet; and on July my unhappy brother made in retreat 7th the subject was resumed, and it before them was the signal of his ruin. was finally agreed to, though under They too made protestations of their the strongest resolution of secrecy ere fidelity to the Crown; they too limited it was adopted. This determination their open demand to the dismissal of proceeded on a speech of M. de Chan- its ministers. He yielded, and all was telauze, who placed the following al- lost. They pretend now to aim at noternatives before the Council: "Either thing but your dismissal. Their lanto suspend entirely the constitutional guage to me is, Dismiss your Minisrégime, and govern in an arbitrary ters, and we shall soon come to an manner on strong principles; or to understanding.' Gentlemen, I will not declare null the whole elections of dismiss you, in the first place, because those who had voted with the 221; or I am attached to, and have confidence to dissolve the new Chamber as soon in you; in the next, because, if I disas the new elections were terminated, missed you, they would end by treating and convoke a new one on an electoral you as they have done my son and my system established on an ordonnance self, and us all, and as they have treated framed on such principles as might my brother. No! Let them conduct secure a majority to the Crown-and us, if they please, to the scaffold; but in either case to precede the declara- let us fight for our rights, and if we are tion by a vast display of civil and to fall, fall sword in hand. I would military force, by placing twenty or rather be led to execution on horseback thirty thousand men in each of the than in a cart." towns of Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux, and 54. On the 24th July, M. de ChanRouen, and declaring these cities in a telauze presented to the King an elastate of siege." After a long discussion, borate and eloquent report, which may it was agreed to recur to the 14th ar- be regarded as the preamble of the orticle of the Charter, which seemed to donnances, and the statement of the confer, in extreme cases, a dictatorial grounds on which they were rested for power on the King,* and, 1st, To sus- all future times. "Sire!" said he, pend the liberty of the press; 2d, Dis- "your Ministers would be unworthy solve the new Chamber of Deputies; of the confidence with which your Maand, 3d, Establish a new electoral sys-jesty honours them, if they hesitated tem which might be in harmony with the rights of the Crown. The project met with the cordial approbation of the King, who said, "It is not the Ministry, be assured; it is the Crown itself which is attacked; it is the cause of the throne against revolution which is now at issue. One or other must succumb. I have lived longer than you, gentlemen; your age does not permit you to recollect, as I do, how revolutions and the revolutionists proceed. I have over you the unenvied advantage of years. I recollect what *The 14th article of the Charter was in these terms:-"Le Roi est le chef suprême mer, déclare la guerre; fait les traités de paix, d'alliance, et de commerce; nomme à tous les emplois d'administration publique, et fait les reglemens et les ordonnances nécessaires pour de l'état, commande les forces de terre et de l'éxécution des lois et la sûreté de l'état."Charte, art. 14. any longer to place before your eyes a picture of our internal circumstances, and to point out, for the consideration of your wisdom, the perils which menace us. At no period, during the last fifteen years, have the dangers presented themselves under an aspect more grave and afflicting. Despite an amount of material prosperity to which our annals can offer no parallel, signs of disorganisation and symptoms of anarchy manifest themselves in all points of the kingdom. A malevolence, active, ardent, and indefatigable, labours to sap the foundations of order, and to ravish from France all the happiness it has enjoyed under the sceptre of its king. Skilful in working out all discontents, and in exciting all hatreds, it foments among the people a spirit of distrust and hostility towards power, and seeks to sow everywhere the seeds of trouble and of civil war. It is by the violent | selves have had so much cause to laand ceaseless action of the press that ment. These alarms are too real not can be alone explained the frequent to be attended to, too legitimate not changes and interior violence of the to command attention. We must not country. It has not permitted France deceive ourselves: we are no longer in to establish a regular or stable govern- the ordinary circumstances of a reprement, nor to turn its attention to the sentative government. The foundanumerous reforms called for in its in- tions on which it is rested have been ternal administration. Every ministry destroyed. A turbulent democracy, formed since 1814 has been the object, which has penetrated into the sancand soon has become the victim, of tuary of the laws, strives to substitute these incessant and often groundless itself in place of the legitimate powers. attacks. The press has thus succeeded It disposes of the majority of elections in sowing the seeds of disorder in the by means of journals and election comstrongest minds, shaking the firmest mittees. It has paralysed so far as it convictions, and producing, in the could the exercise of legitimate aumidst of a prosperous society, a con- thority, by denying it the prerogative fusion of principles which has render- of dissolving the Chamber. By that ed it ready for the most desperate at- very attempt the constitution has been tempts. It is by anarchy in opinions shaken, by the next it will be overthat the way is prepared for anarchy turned. Your Majesty has alone the in the State. power to prevent such a catastrophe, and place authority on its legal and just foundations. 55. "It is impossible to qualify in too strong terms the conduct of Opposition in recent circumstances. After having themselves provoked an address derogatory to the honour and destructive of the rights of the Crown, they have not scrupled to proclaim it as a sacred principle, that the 221 who voted that address should be re-elected, and their offensive principles forced upon the Crown. When your Majesty repelled that address as offensive, and declared your resolution to maintain the just rights of the Crown, so openly compromised, the periodical press has not only made no attempt to soften, but it has renewed and aggravated the offence. With a not less envenomed spirit it has persecuted alike religion and its ministers. It would, were it possible, extirpate to the last drop the religious sentiments of the people. Can it be doubted that, in attacking the foundations of the faith, in drying up the fountains of public morality, and turning into ridicule the ministers at the altars, the object is to overturn the throne? Listen, Sire! to the cry of indignation and terror which arises from all parts of the kingdom, from all persons of property, intelligence, and wisdom. All implore you to preserve them from a return to the calamities which their fathers or them 56. "The Charter has provided the only remedy against such calamities. The 14th article has invested your Majesty with the power, not, without doubt, to change our institutions, but to consolidate and render them immovable. Imperious necessity forbids any further delay in the exercise of that supreme power. The moment has arrived in which it is necessary to have recourse to the measures which may restore the spirit of the Charter, but which are beyond the reach of all ordinary resources, and in the vain pursuit of which they have all been exhausted. These measures, Sire! your Ministers do not hesitate to recommend to you, deeply convinced that they are those which power owes to justice." 66 57. It must be admitted," says an eloquent historian of the Liberal school, "that the grievances recounted in this eloquent preamble were too well founded in truth. The abuses of the press and the violence of public opinion were real evils. The new impulse which the press and freedom of discussion had given to thought and liberty, had often led it astray, as it will often do before it assumes the regularity and equilibrium of the divine mind and the power of self-direction, like all other passions abandoned to themselves, under the guidance only of morality." There can be no doubt that this observation of Lamartine is well founded. In truth, matters had come to such a pass that royalty and the democracy could not coexist in France: no aristocracy, as in England, existed to preserve a balance between them; they stood face to face, each armed for the strife, ready in the lists, and one or other of them must be destroyed. | powers with which they had been invested prior to the act of 1828. Neither the intervention of third parties, nor an appeal to the ordinary courts of law, were permitted to interfere with the prefects in the preparation of the elec. toral lists. 59. The King and Ministers met at St Cloud on the morning of the 25th July to sign the ordonnances. The vast interests at stake, the crown of France about to be put in peril, its liberties, which seemed to be menaced, had caused many to pass a sleepless night, and impressed all with the so 58. The famous ordonnances, which were the immediate cause of the overthrow of the Crown, and the ruin of the elder branch of the house of Bour-lemnity of the occasion. The Baron bon, were six in number, but the three de Vitrolles, who, albeit not in the sefirst only were of material importance. crets of the Cabinet, had a suspicion of The first suspended the liberty of the what was going forward, had entreated periodical press, and prohibited the the Minister of Public Instruction the publication but of such journals as were day before to pause before it was too authorised by Government. The li- late, for Paris was in a state of extreme cence was to be in force only for three agitation. The prefect of the police, months, and might be recalled at any however, gave the most satisfactory astime. It applied to all pamphlets be- surances on the state of the capital, low twenty leaves. The second dis- concluding with the words, "Advance solved the new Chamber, on the alle- boldly: I will answer with my head gation of the arts which had been used for the immobility of Paris." Notto deceive the electors as to the real withstanding these statements, howintentions of the Government. The ever, the Ministers were deeply imthird, on the preamble of the necessity pressed with the step which was about of reforming the Electoral Law accord- to be taken; every countenance was ing to the principles of the constitu- grave and serious; reflection had added tion, and to remedy the evils which to their anxiety, but not taken away experience had brought to light, and from their courage. Prince Polignac, of the powers applicable to such cases after reading the preamble and the orvested in the King by the 14th article donnances, presented them to the King of the Charter, reduced the number of to sign. Charles turned pale: he deputies to 258, being the number fixed hesitated some time before taking the by the 36th article of the Charter; irrevocable step; and at length, after the colleges of departments were to casting his eyes to heaven, he exclaimelect an equal number of representa-ed, "The more I think of it, the more tives with those of arrondissements; I am convinced that it is impossible and the electoral franchise was reduced to do otherwise than I do ;" and with to the possession of property paying these words he signed the ordonnances. the requisite amount of direct taxes by The Ministers all countersigned them the exclusion of the suffrage founded in silence; despair was painted on every on patents; the duration of the Cham- visage; none really hoped anything ber of Deputies was fixed at five years; from the step, but all felt it was a duty and the colleges of departments, com- to take it. They did so with the reposed of the fourth of the electors pay-signation of martyrs, not the spirit of ing the highest amount of direct taxes, were to choose at least a half in the general list of candidates proposed for the colleges of arrondissements. The prefects were re-invested with all the conquerors. 60. Whatever opinion may be formed of these ordonnances which were the death-warrant of the French monarchy-one thing is perfectly clear, |