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 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 THE 
 
 FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. 
 

 
THE FRENCH 
 REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH: 
 
 BEING 
 
 A HISTORY OF FRANCE, 
 
 From the Beginning of the First French Revolution tothe 
 End of the Second Empire. a 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRI VAN LAUN. 
 
 
 
 hV Goi aae LI 
 
 
 
 CASSELL PETTER « GALPIN: 
 
 LONDON, PARIS §& NEW YORK. 
 
 
 
 [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. | 
 

 
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 Book VY. 
 Deen a Pa RB. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 §1.—TxHEr Brainnina oF A New Dywnasty.—WNapoleon proclaimed 
 
 Emperor—He is acknowledged by nearly all the Crowned Heads 
 of Europe—Their Simulated Friendship—Behaviour of Spain, Prussia, 
 Austria, Russia, and Sweden—Conduct of England—Its Attack on 
 Spain—Declaration of War of the latter Country—Preparations of 
 France to invade England—Grand Naval Review at Boulogne—Voyage 
 of the Emperor and Empress through Four cf the Rhine Departments 
 —Coronation of Napoleon by Pope Pius VII.—Its Influence on the 
 People—Napoleon gathers around him some of the ancient Nobles and 
 Emiyrés—He desires Peace—He sends a Letter to George III.—A 
 Coalition of England, Russia, Austria, and Sweden formed against 
 him—Alteration of the Constitution of the Batavian Republic— 
 Napoleon crowned King of Italy—Eugéne Beauharnais appointed 
 Viceroy—The Ligurian Republic incorporated with France—Piombino 
 and Lucca erected into Principalities—Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla 
 also Incorporated—Preparations and Plan for an Invasion of England 
 —Foresight of the English Admiralty—Villeneuve’s Advance prevented 
 by Sir Robert Calder—The French Fleet blockaded—Napoleon aban- 
 dons his Attempt to Invade England—Engagements of England and 
 Russia—Austria throws off the Mask—Treaty between France and 
 Bavaria—The French Army marching into Germany—Defeat of the 
 Austrians—Capitulation of Ulm—Prussia joins the Coalition—Defeat 
 of ‘the Russians—Battle of Diirrenstein—The French pass through 
 Vienna—Artifice of the French to make themselves Masters of the 
 Bridge over the Danube—The greater part of the Russian Army 
 Escapes by means of a Pretended Armistice—The Archduke Charles 
 leaves Italy and Crosses the Julian Alps—The Archduke John joins 
 the Archduke Charles at Cilly—A War Contribution levied on Austria 
 —Battle of Austerlitz—Armistice between the Austrian and French 
 Emperors—Results of that Armistice—The King of Naples is 
 dethroned—Napoleon’s Brother, Joseph, appointed King of the Two 
 Sicilies—Battle of Trafalgar ‘ Z : : : . “ ree | 
 
 8740590 
 
vi 
 
 § 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1.—THE PrRocREsS OF IMPERIALISM. — Creation of a System of 
 
 Federal States—Dissatisfaction of the French People and of the 
 Despoiled Nations—The Law of Entail—Forest Property ceded to 
 the Emigrés—Ancient Monopolies re-established—Increase of Taxa- 
 tion and of Arbitrary Measures—The Abbey of St. Denis becomes the 
 Burial-place of the Napoleonic Dynasty—The Court is governed by 
 a Code of Etiquette—Promulgation of many Beneficial Measures— 
 Embellishment of Paris—Formation of the Confederation of the Rhine 
 —Formation of a New Coalition against Napoleon—Invasion of Saxony 
 by Prussian Troops—The Army of the Allies—The French Army— 
 Death of Prince Louis of Prussia—The Battle of Jena—The Battle of 
 Auerstadt—Entrance of the French into Berlin—Heavy War Contribu- 
 tion to be paid by Prussia—Surrender of Two Prussian Army Corps— 
 
 Capitulation of the Fortresses on the Oder—General Blucher sur- 
 
 renders—Fall of Magdeburg—Publication of the Berlin Decree by 
 Napoleon—Entrance of Russian Troops in Turkish Territory—The 
 French enter Poland—Napoleon refuses to aid the Russian and the 
 Gallician Poles—Conflict between the Russian and French Troops at 
 Pultusk—The French go into Winter Quarters at Warsaw—Battle of 
 Eylau—Surrender of several of the Fortresses in Silesia—Battle of 
 Friedland—Interview between the Russian and French Emperors at 
 Tilsit—Conclusion of the Treaty of Tilsit—Its Stipulations . 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 § 1—TuHeE Decay or ImpERIALISM.—Condition of the French Empire— 
 
 Changes in the Constitution—Increase of Despotism in the Creations 
 of that Period—Bombardment of Copenhagen and Seizure of the 
 Danish Fleet by the English—Publication of the Decree of Milan— 
 Refusal of the Russians to evacuate Moldavia and Wallachia— 
 Entrance of the French Troops into Rome—Annexation of the Papal 
 Provinces to the Kingdom of Italy—Resolution of the French Emperor 
 to annex the Spanish Provinces—Junot marches into Portugal—The 
 Spanish King, Charles IV., and his Son Ferdinand, ask Napoleon to 
 Interfere in their Quarrels—French Troops sent into Spain—Abdi- 
 cation of Charles IV. and of his Son—Joseph Bonaparte becomes King 
 of Spain—Revolt of the Spanish People—Defeat of the French at 
 Baylen—Joseph Bonaparte leaves Madrid—Revolt of the Portuguese 
 —Defeat of Junot—Signature of the Convention of Cintra—The Czar 
 and the Emperor meet at Erfurth—The Two Emperors sign a Secret 
 Convention—Napoleon and a large French Army enter Spain—Defeat 
 of the Spaniards—Death of Sir John Moore at Corunna—Siege and 
 Capitulation of Saragossa—The Austrian Coalition—Napoleon enters 
 
 PAGE 
 
 40 
 
CONTENTS. vil 
 
 PAGE 
 Germany—Battle of Eckmtihl—Entrance of the French into Vienna— 
 
 Battles of Aspern and Essling—Death of Marshal Lannes—Annexation 
 of the Roman States to the French Empire—Battle of Wagram— 
 Unfortunate Ending of the English Expedition to Walcheren—Retreat 
 of Soult—Battle of Talavera—Sir Arthur Wellesley created Viscount 
 Wellington—Peace Negotiations concluded at Vienna—Conditions of 
 the Treaty . ; é > 56 
 § 2.—Tue Last YEARS OF THE page aerate. in fea of 
 Napoleon’s desire for Peace—Social Condition of France—Divoree of 
 the French Emperor from Josephine—He marries again, Maria Louisa, 
 a Daughter of the Emperor of Austria—Birth of the King of Rome— 
 Attempt at Independence on the part of the Royal Creatures of 
 Napoleon—Annexation of Holland and the bulk of the Kingdom of 
 Westphalia to France—Refusal of Napoleon to accept Joseph’s Ab- 
 dication—Movements of Soult and Joseph in Andalusia—Defeat of 
 Massena at Busaco—Wellington establishes himself in the Lines of 
 Torres Vedras—Retreat of Massena—His Defeat at Fuentes de Onoro— 
 Battle of Albuera—Taking of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz by Welling- 
 ton—Success of Suchet in the East of Spain—Condition of England— 
 Dissension between the Czar and the French Emperor—Allies of France 
 and Russia—War between these two Countries—Napoleon’s Reception 
 at Dresden—The French Army crosses the Niemen—Evacuation of 
 Wilna by the Russians—Offer of the Czar to treat for Terms— 
 Napoleon’s Advance towards Moscow—Retreat of the Russians, and 
 Devastation of the Country—Attack and Capture of Smolensko by the 
 French—Sanguinary Battle of Borodino—Entry of the Grand Army 
 into Moscow—Conflagration of Moscow—Retreat of the French— 
 Horrors of that Retreat—Arrival of the French at Smolensko—Their 
 Further Retreat—Severe Losses of the French—Crossing of the 
 Beresina—Resolution of Napoleon to return alone to France—Murat 
 appointed Commander of the Forces—The Remains of the French Army 
 march to Wilna—Opinion of Michelet on Napoleon’s Conduct — 
 Loss of nearly Half a Million of Frenchmen during the Russian Cam- 
 paign—The Prussian Troops sign a Convention with Russia—Murat 
 hands over the Command of the Army to Eugéne Beauharnais—The 
 Austrian Allies evacuate the Russian Territory—Valiant Conduct of 
 Prince Eugéne—The French Legislative Assembly grants a Forced Sale 
 of Heritable Property—The Senate orders a Levy of Three Hundred 
 and Fifty Thousand Men—Failure of the Emperor’s Attempt at Recon- 
 ciliation with the Pope ‘ iG 
 § 3._THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE. Becoliion of Peete Hnglace Drdaees 
 and Sweden against France—Enthusiasm of the German People at the 
 intended Rupture—Dresden taken by the Prussians—Hamburg sur- 
 rendered to the Russians—Battle of Liitzen—Occupation of Dresden 
 by the French—Battle of Bautzen—Armistice of Pleswitz—Wellington 
 crosses the Douro—Battle of Vittoria—Interview between Metternich 
 and Napoleon—England negotiates with the Continental Powers— 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 Treaties of Reichenbach and Trachenberg—Congress at Prague—End 
 
 of the Armistice—Austria openly joins the Coalition—Plan of the 
 Campaign of the Allies and of Napoleon—Battle of Dresden—Defeat 
 of Vandamme—Defeat of Macdonald—Defeat of Oudinot—Defeat of 
 Ney—Battle of Leipzic—Retreat of Napoleon—Blowing up of the 
 Bridge at Lindenau—Consequences of the Battle of Leipzic—Battle of 
 Hanau—The French cross the Rhine—Capitulation of the Fortresses 
 in Central Europe and the Rhenish Provinces—Holland and Denmark 
 enter the Coalition—Napoleon’s Return to Paris—Ordering of New 
 Levies—The Representative Chamber protests against the New Levies 
 —Dissolution of the Legisiature—The Allies cross the Rhine—Blucher’s 
 Proclamation—Five Foreign Armies on the soil of France—Murat 
 joins the Allies—Allies of the Foreign Monarchs within the Nation— 
 Napoleon calls out the National Guard—Blucher falls back—Defeat of 
 the Emperor at La Rothi¢re—Severe Defeats of the Prussians— 
 Defence of Antwerp by Carnot—Offer of Napoleon to treat with the 
 Allies—Blucher in a Precarious Position—Capitulation of Soissons— 
 Heavy Losses of Napoleon at Laon—Inactivity of Augereau at Lyons 
 —Defeat of Soult by Wellington—Proclamation of Louis XVIII. at 
 Bordeaux—Schwartzenberg and Blucher march upon Paris—Delay of 
 the Advance of the Allied Armies—They renew the March upon the 
 French Capital—Battle of Fére-Champenoise—Flight of the Empress, 
 the King of Rome, and the Ministers from Paris—Proclamation of 
 Joseph Bonaparte—Refusal to arm the Population of Paris—The 
 Battle around the Capital— Message of Napoleon to inform his Brothers 
 of his intended Return to Paris—Capitulation of Paris—Entrance of 
 the Allied Sovereigns into that town—The Senate appoints a Pro- 
 visional Government—The Senate decrees the dethroning of Napoleon 
 —The Emperor offers to abdicate in favour of his Son—Marmont, 
 Ney, and Berthier abandon him—Renunciation of Napoleon as Emperor 
 —The Island of Elba appointed to him as his Residence—Death of the 
 ex-Empress Josephine—Michelet’s Description of Napoleon’s Departure 
 for Elba—Battle of Toulouse ‘ , ‘ ‘ 2 ‘ ; . 106 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 THE RESTORATION. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 § 1—Tue ReTuRN oF THE Boursons.—The Provisional Government 
 decrees a Constitution, and summons the Bourbons to the Throne— 
 Behaviour of Montesquieu—Entrance of the Count d’Artois into the 
 Capital—Reception of the Senate and Legislative Body by the Count 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 PAGE 
 d’Artois—Collection of Extraordinary Imposts—Substitution of the 
 White Flag for the Tricolour—Signing of a Preliminary Agreement, 
 removing the Limits of France—Departure of Louis XVIII. from 
 England—His Entry into Paris—Declaration of Saint-Ouen—The 
 King resuscitates the Titles and Sinecures of the Ancien Régime—The 
 First Ministry of the Restoration—Ratification of the Treaty of Peace 
 —The King grants a Constitutional Charter—Dissatisfaction of the 
 Emigrés—Restrictions on the Liberty of Worship, and on the Freedom 
 of the Press—Other Causes of Discontent—Proposal of a Bill for the 
 Restitution of Portions of Estates confiscated under the Republic— 
 The Congress of Vienna—Difficulties among the Plenipotentiaries— 
 France reduced to the Limits of 1792 . : . 145 
 
 § 2.—THE RETURN oF NAPOLEON—THE Heeerad Dare Bi eicot of 
 Napoleon for the Recovery of all that he had Lost—Behaviour of the 
 Royalists—Return of the ex-Emperor—Address of Louis XVIII. to 
 the Chambers—His Journey to Ghent—Reception of Napoleon by the 
 French People—He recalls nearly the whole of his Last Ministry—He 
 expresses a hope for the continuation of Peace—Behaviour and 
 Declaration of the Sovereigns at the Congress of Vienna—Their 
 Decision to form a Large Army—Napoleon raises the Effective 
 Strength of the Army—The Nation expresses its will that he must 
 reign in future as a Constitutional Monarch—A Committee appointed 
 to consider the Amended Constitution—The Emperor’s Objections to 
 an Hereditary Peerage—He insists upon retaining the Punishment of 
 Confiscation—The Supplementary Act published on his sole Authority 
 —The Act submitted to the Popular Vote—Celebration of the Ac- 
 ceptance of that Act—Discontent of the French Nation—Departure 
 of Napoleon for the Army—His Plan of the Campaign—Want of 
 Adequate Preparations of the Emperor—M. Quinet’s attempt to 
 re-establish the Reputation of Ney—Order of Wellington to concen- 
 trate his Forces—Wellington and Blucher meet and arrange their 
 Plans—Battle of Ligny—Marshal Blucher is nearly taken Prisoner 
 —Severe Defeat of the Prussians—Their Retreat towards Wavre— 
 Battle of Quatre-Bras—Mistake of General d’Erlon — Behaviour 
 of the Belgians, ,according to M. Quinet—Death of the Duke of 
 Brunswick—Retreat of the French—Irresolution of the Emperor— 
 Grouchy receives Orders to pursue the Prussians—The English retire 
 upon Waterloo—The Battle of Waterloo—Attack and Defence of 
 La Haie Sainte—Arrival of the Prussians—Defeat of the French— 
 Retreat of Napoleon—His Arrival in Paris—His Abdication—Paris in 
 the Hands of the Allies—The French Army withdrawn behind the 
 Loire—Return of Louis XVIII.—Napoleon goes to England on the 
 Bellerophon—His Letter to the Prince Regent—He is sent to St. 
 Helena . : : . : . 158 
 
 § 3.—THE SEconD Stanton. —The Allies a are ue SO scateral to hurt 
 the Susceptibilities of the French as they were in 1814—Requisitions of 
 the Allies in Pictures, Valuables, and Money—The Government issues a 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Decree, ordering the Arrest of the Traitors against Louis XVIII.—It 
 banishes Forty Persons from Paris—Davoust resigns his Command of the 
 Army—Macdonald succeeds him—Trials of Labédoyére, Lavalette, and 
 Ney—Massacres in the South of France—The New Chambers are elected 
 —Resignation of Fouché and Talleyrand—The Duke de Richelieu forms 
 a New Cabinet—Reactionary Measures of the Government—Quarrels 
 between the Troops of Occupation and the Inhabitants—Treaties con- 
 cluded at Paris between the Allies and the Government—Exorbitant 
 Demands of the Austrians and Prussians—The Duke of Wellington 
 and Count Nesselrode oppose them—Louis XVIII.’s Address to the 
 Czar and Wellington—Reduction of the Boundaries of France—The 
 Indemnity and the Period of Occupation are fixed—Separate Treaty of 
 the Four Allied Powers—The Treaty of the Holy Alliance—Excitement 
 of the People—Introduction and Adoption by the Chambers of a Bill 
 of Amnesty—Prosecution of many Generals and Officials—Suppression 
 of several Conspiracies—Death of Murat—Comparative Liberal Feelings 
 of the King—Dissolution of the Chambers—Increase of Members of 
 Moderate Views in the New Chamber—Extension of Electoral Fran- 
 chise—Laws passed for arresting Suspected Persons, and for the 
 Publication of Newspapers—Reduction of the Army of Occupation— 
 Famine in France—Bloody Assizes at Lyons—<Accession of Liberal 
 Members in the Chamber newly elected—<Activity of the Clerical Party 
 and the Congregationists—Reorganisation of the Army—Withdrawal 
 of the Allied Troops from French Territory—Dissatisfaction of the 
 Extreme Royalists—Increase of the Liberals in the Elections of 1818 
 —The Duke de Richelieu promises to limit the Franchise—His 
 Resignation—He establishes a Charitable Institution at Bordeaux with 
 a Donation granted to him by the Chambers—The Royalist Peers 
 press the King to restrict the Franchise—Creation of Sixty New Peers 
 —Public Opinion protests against any Alteration in the Electoral Law 
 —Adoption of more Stringent Laws on the Press—Election of Thirty 
 more Liberal Deputies—The Ministry proposes to elect a Chamber for 
 a certain period—Unpopularity of the Proposal—Assassination of the 
 Duke de Berry—Passing of Two Exceptional Laws restricting the 
 Liberty of the Press and of the Individual—The Minister Decazes 
 is insulted by the Royalists—His Resignation—Open Antagonism of 
 the King and his Ministry to the Liberals—Adoption of a New Elec- 
 toral Law—Popular Outbreaks—Discovery of a Military Conspiracy 
 and many other Plots—The New Chamber chiefly composed of Royalists 
 —An Austrian Army enters Naples—Increase of Confidence of the 
 Extreme Royalists—End of the Sessions—Death of Napoleon 
 Bonaparte—Coalition in the Chamber between the Royalists and 
 Liberals—Resignation of the Duke de Richelieun—Prosecution of the 
 Press—A New Press Law passed by the Chambers—Plots and Conspi- 
 racies agitate the Country—Supremacy of the Clerical Party in 
 Education—Suppression of the Lectures of several Professors—The 
 Allied Powers contemplate Intervention in Spain—Speech of the 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 French King at the Opening of the Sessions—Refusal of the British 
 Government to interfere in Spain—Opposition to the War with Spain 
 in the Chambers—The Deputy Manuel is expelled from the Chamber 
 by Force—The Duke d’Angouléme and the French Army enter Madrid 
 —Dissolution of the Chamber—Large Majority of Ministerial Deputies 
 in the New Chamber—A Bill passed for a Septennial Chamber—With- 
 drawal of the Bills on Annuities and Sacrilege—Death of Louis XVIII. . 
 
 CHAPTER, II. 
 
 § 1—An Errretre Monarcu.—Declaration of the New King—He abolishes 
 
 Strict Censorship, and grants a Partial Amnesty—Charles X. shows 
 himself a Believer in the Divine Rights of Kings—A New Law on 
 Sacrilege—An Indemnity of One Thousand Million Francs granted— 
 Great Indignation in the Country—Behaviour of the Clerical Party— 
 Ovations of Casimir Périer, Generals Foy and Lafayette in the 
 Provinces—Funeral of General Foy—Demonstration on the Acquittal 
 of Two Newspapers—Death of the Emperor of Russia—Murder of 
 Paul Louis Courier—The King replies harshly to the New Year’s Con- 
 gratulations of the Court of Justice—Difficulties of M. de Villéle 
 M. de Polignac and his Ideas about the Law of Primogeniture—Dis- 
 cussions on the Laws for ameliorating the Position of the Clergy, and 
 on Indemnifying the Planters of St. Domingo—Reproof of the King to 
 the Chamber of Deputies—Sentence on the Journal dw Commerce— 
 Opposition against the Law on Primogeniture—The Law is virtually 
 thrown out—Rejoicings of the Parisians—The Peers censure the 
 French Officers assisting the Turks—Encroachments of the Clerical 
 Party— Religious Processions—The King encourages the Priests— 
 The Liberals attack the Clericals—Effects of the Fall of Missolonghi 
 on Civilised Europe—Cessation of Diplomatic Relations between Spain 
 and France—Remarks of Canning on the Conduct of France—Opposi- 
 tion against the newly-proposed Press Law—Passing of Two Bills on 
 Jury Laws—Discussion on the Press Law—Withdrawal of the Law— 
 Great Joy at this Withdrawal—The Disbanding of the National Guard 
 —The Re-establishment of the Censorship—The Three Great Powers 
 signify to Turkey the necessity of ceasing hostilities against Greece— 
 Death of Manuel—Journeys of the King and various Members of 
 the Royal Family—Battle of Navarino—Hlection of many of the 
 Opposition Candidates for the New Chamber—Disturbances in Paris— 
 Resignation of the Ministry—Blockade of Algiers—The Martignac 
 Ministry—The Opening of Letters discussed in the Chamber—A New 
 Press Bill is passed—Agitation about the Jesuit Colleges—Expedition 
 to the Morea—The Letter to the Duke of Orleans—Withdrawal of the 
 Bills to change the Administration of the Departments and Communes 
 —Rupture of the Negotiations between the Government and the Left— 
 The Polignac Ministry appointed—Outburst of Indignation through 
 
 
 
 x1 
 
 PAGE 
 
 203 
 
Xi 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 France—Attacks of the Newspapers—Ovation of General Lafayette in 
 the Provinces—Acquittal of Two Newspapers indicted by the Govern- 
 ment—Polignac attempts to introduce various Commercial Im- 
 provements—The New Year’s Receptions—The Voting of the Budget 
 discussed by the Newspapers—Programme of Polignac—The King 
 displays his Authority in the Chambers—Their Prorogation—Reports 
 of the Prefects—Dissolution of the Chambers—Election of a Large 
 Majority of Opposition Deputies—Successful Termination of the 
 Expedition to Algiers—Fresh Dissolution of the newly-elected Legis- 
 lative—The Censorship re-established —A New Electoral Law 
 promulgated—Protest of Newspaper Editors—Doings of the Police— 
 Delusive Security of the Authorities and the King—Beginning of the 
 Insurrection—Conduct of the People and the Troops—Behaviour of 
 the Deputies—The Editors of the National propose the Duke of 
 Orleans as the Future King—The Duke of Orleans accepts the 
 Lieutenant-Generalship—Charles X. leaves France—End of the 
 Restoration 
 
 
 
 Book DLL. 
 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 § 1.—THE BEGINNING OF THE ORLEANS Dynasty.—Convocation of the 
 
 Chambers—Modification of the Charter—The Duke of Orleans takes the 
 Oath to the Charter—He accepts the Title of King of the French—He 
 appoints his First Cabinet—Lafayette becomes Commander of all the 
 National Guards—Destitution in Paris—Arrest and Detention of Four 
 Ministers of Charles X.—Bill for the Abolition of Capital Punishment— 
 Measures passed by the Chamber of Deputies—Suicide of the Duke de 
 Bourbon—Recognition of the New French King by nearly all the 
 European Governments—The Peaceful Disposition of the King dis- 
 pleases the Majority—Rise of Bellicose Feelings—Prevention of the 
 Attempts of the Spanish Liberals—Permission to all Political Exiles 
 to enter France, save the Bonapartes—A Public Meeting demands the 
 Abolition of Capital Punishment—The various Elements of the Oppo- 
 sition—The Revolt of Belgium against Holland—The Separation of 
 these Two Kingdoms decided by the London Conference—Dissensions 
 among the Ministry—Discussions on the Bill for abolishing Capital 
 Punishment— Disturbances in Paris—Resignation of the Ministry— 
 Death of Benjamin Constant—Trial of the Ministers of Charles X.— 
 Their Condemnaticn—Excitement of Popular Feeling—Behaviour of the 
 
 PAGE 
 
CONTENTS. xii 
 
 PAGE 
 National Guard and of the Students—The Chamber proposes to divide the 
 Command of the National Guards—Resignation of Lafayette—General 
 Clausel replaces Marshal de Bourmont in Algeria—Prince Leopold of Saxe- 
 Coburg refuses the Crown of Greece—Impulse of Europe towards more 
 Liberal Institutions—Revolution in Poland—The Duke de Nemours re- 
 fuses the Throne of Belgium—Intrigues of the Legitimist and Clerical 
 Parties—Devastation of a Church and of the Palace of the Archbishop 
 by the Mob—Resignation of the Ministry—Casimir Périer forms a New 
 Ministry—His Character—Reception of the King during his Journey 
 in the Provinces—Dissolution of the Chambers—Opening of the Session 
 for 1831—Invasion of Belgium by the Dutch—Prosecution of the Count 
 de Montalembert—Abolition of the Hereditary Right of Peers—Pro- 
 scription of the Members of the Elder Bourbon Branch—Insurrection 
 at Lyons—Appearance of the Cholera—Its Victims—Attempted Insur- 
 rection in the Vendée—Arrest of the Duchess de Berry—Funeral of 
 General Lamarque—Disturbances at that Funeral—Death of Napo- 
 leon II.—Entrance of French Troops into Belgium—Capitulation of the 
 Citadel of Antwerp—Discussions about the Fate of the Duchess de 
 Berry—She is conducted to Palermo—Imprisonment of Journalists— 
 The Law on Primary Education—Abd-el-Kader emerges from Obscurity— 
 A new Spirit of Progress appears—Repressive Measures of the Govern- 
 ment—The Bill regarding Public Associations—Renewal of Disturb- 
 ances at Lyons—Disturbances in Paris and in the Provinces—The 
 Peers appointed to judge the Insurgents—Death of General Lafayette 
 —The Legitimist Candidates for the Chamber—Changes in the Cabinet 
 —Prosecution of the National—Appointment of a Governor-General of 
 Algeria —The Chamber condemns the Political Conduct of the King— 
 Discussions on the Indemnity to be paid to America—The Trial of the 
 Insurgents and of their Defenders—Attempt on the Life of the King— 
 Mutual Accusations of the Republicans and Legitimists—Promul- 
 gation of the Laws against the Press—Trial of Fieschi, the would-be 
 Murderer of Louis Philippe, and of his Accomplices—Opening of the 
 Session for 1836—Formation of a New Ministry—Another Attempt to 
 assassinate the King—Death of Armand Carrel—The King does not 
 
 hold the Annual Review of the National Guards . ‘ 4 . 287 
 § 2.—TueE END oF THE ORLEANS Dynasty.—Appointment of a war Ministry 
 —Demands to expel Political Refugees from Switzerland—Libera- 
 tion of the Ministers of Charles X.—Attempt of Louis Napoleon at 
 Strasburg—He is arrested and sent to America—Proposed Laws for 
 judging Conspirators, for Deportation, and for concealing Conspiracies 
 —Rejection of the First Law—Formation of a Cabinet of Conciliation— 
 Allowances voted for the Eldest Son and Daughter of the King—Pro- 
 mulgation of a General Amnesty—Marriage of the Duke of Orleans— 
 Marriage of Princess Marie—Coalition against the Ministry—The 
 French Government insists upon the Expulsion of Louis Napoleon 
 from Switzerland—Birth of the Count de Paris—Recall of the French 
 Troops from Ancona—Blockade of several Ports of Mexico and of 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 the Argentine Republic—Death of Princess Marie—Attempt at an 
 
 Insurrection in Paris—A new Ministry formed-—Breaking out of 
 Hostilities between the Sultan of Turkey and the Pacha of Egypt— 
 Demand for Internal Reforms—Refusal of an Allowance for the Duke 
 de Nemours—M. Thiers appointed Chief of a New Cabinet—Marriage 
 of the Duke de Nemours—Signature of the Treaty of London by the 
 Four Great Powers—Another Attempt of Louis Napoleon at Boulogne 
 —He is taken Prisoner and confined in the Castle of Ham—Louis 
 Philippe is again shot at—A new Cabinet formed with M. Guizot as 
 Prime Minister—France wishes to engage in a War for Egypt— 
 Resistance of Louis Philippe and his Ministry—A Fresh Treaty 
 signed in London—Return of the Remains of Napoleon I.—Discussions 
 about the proposed Fortifications of Paris—Death of Garnier-Pagés— 
 Disturbances in the Provinces—Treaty for the Right of searching Ships 
 —Dissatisfaction about some of its Clanses—Majority of the Conserva- 
 tive Party in the New Elections—Death of the Duke of Orleans— 
 Appointment of the Duke de Nemours as Regent—The Clericals 
 demand Freedom for Secondary Instruction—A Vote of Censure passed 
 on the Legitimist Deputies—Difficulties between France and England 
 about Otaheite and Mr. Pritchard—The French attack the Emperor 
 of Morocco—He is compelled to submit—Mr. Pritchard accepts a 
 Pecuniary Compensation—Animadversions on the Ministry by the Peers 
 and the Chamber of Deputies—M. Guizot tenders his Resignation, which 
 is refused—Various other Bills passed—Interpellation of M. Thiers 
 about the Jesuits—Alterations in the Right of Search—Disputes 
 between Masters and Men—A Barren Session in 1846—Escape of Louis 
 Napoleon from Ham—TIncrease of the Public Demand for Electoral 
 Reform—Failure of Two Successive Harvests—Want of Energy in 
 the Government—Disastrous Effects of M. Guizot’s Foreign Policy— 
 The Political Banquets—The King speaks of ‘‘ Blind and Hostile 
 Passions”” in his Opening Speech for 1848—Indifference of the 
 Majority—M. Guizot accused of Dishonesty—A Great Reform Banquet to 
 be held—Disturbances between the People and the Crowd—Resignation 
 of the Ministry—The Troops fire on the Crowd—M. Thiers, the New 
 Prime Minister, issues a Proclamation—Counter Proclamation of the 
 Insurgent Committee—Abdication of Louis Philippe in favour of the 
 Count de Paris—The King and his Family embark for England— 
 
 Appointment of a Provisional Government . ; , e s . 330 
 Book VUELIE. 
 THE SECOND REPUBLIC. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 § 1.—A Frresa ATTEMPT AT A REPUBLIC.—The Capital the Arbiter of 
 France—Fitness of the Members of the Provisional Government for 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 their Task—Proclamation of the Republic—Dissolution of the Chamber 
 of Deputies—The Peers are prohibited to assemble—The Tricolour 
 adopted as the National Standard—Opening of the National Work- 
 shops—The Pillage and Destruction of Noblemen’s Seats and Public 
 Establishments—Abolition of Capital Punishment for Political Offences 
 —Many Functionaries and other Officials adhere to the Republic— 
 Refusal of the Government to admit Louis Napoleon into France— 
 Official Proclamation of the Republic—Assurance of the Pacific In- 
 tentions of France—Frustration of a Plot against the Government 
 —A Republican Majority in the newly-elected National Assembly— 
 Different Laws passed by the Provisional Government—Dissensions in 
 the Assembly—Inyasion of the Assembly on the 15th of May—Expulsion 
 from France of the Members of the Family of Louis Philippe—Louis 
 Napoleon is elected a Member of the Assembly—His Resignation— 
 Decrees about the National Workshops—Insurrection of June—General 
 Cavaignac appointed Chief of the Executive—His Character—Re- 
 election of Louis Napoleon as Deputy—Resolution of the Assembly 
 to have a President of the Republic chosen by Universal Suffrage— 
 Election of Louis Napoleon as President—He takes the Oath to the 
 Republic and the Constitution—His Aim—The Assembly is dissolyved— 
 Victory of the Extreme Democrats and the Reactionary Party in the 
 Elections—Proposed Indictment of the President and his Ministers— 
 Paris placed in a State of Siege—The Pope brought back to Rome— 
 A New Ministry appointed—Growing Ascendency of the Clerical 
 Party—Commencement of a Moral Reign of Terror—Mutilation of 
 Universal Suffrage—Journey of the President through the Provinces— 
 Tampering with the Army—Resignation of the Ministry—A Crisis at 
 hand—The Coup @ Etat of the 2nd of December—Terrible Massacre in 
 Paris—The Nation votes for Louis Napoleon remaining President for 
 Ten Years—He crushes all Opposition—The New Constitution promul- 
 gated—The Omnipotence of the President—Another Journey of the 
 President through the Provinces—The Nation desires an Empire— 
 A Large Majority declares for the President assuming the Imperial 
 Dignity—The President ascends the Throne as Napoleon III. 
 
 - Book EX. 
 THE SECOND EMPIRE, 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 § 1—THeE RevivaL or ImpeRtatism.—The New Civil List—The New 
 
 Court—Marriage of the Emperor—The Luxury of the Court imitated 
 by all Classes War between England, France, Turkey, and Russia 
 —Siege of Sebastopol—The Battle of the Alma— The Battle of 
 
 XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
Xvi 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Balaklava—The Battle of Inkermann—Attack on the Malakhoff and the 
 Redans—The Allies enter Sebastopol—Visit of the Emperor and 
 Empress to England—Visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to 
 France—Laws passed for Substitutes in the Army and for rewarding 
 Old Soldiers—The Universal Exhibition of 1855—Peace declared 
 between Russia and the Allied Powers—A Son born to Napoleon III. 
 —Zenith of the Emperor’s Prosperity—Lowering of the Intellectual 
 Standard—Attempt on the Life of Napoleon III. and the Empress— 
 Demand of the French Cabinet to England to alter the Laws about 
 Political Exiles—The Empress appointed Regent . 
 
 § 2.— PROGRESS OF THE SECOND Empire.—Rumours about a ie fire 
 
 between France and Austria—Marriage of Prince Napoleon to a 
 Daughter of Victor Emmanuel—The French Emperor promises to 
 aid Sardinia in case of Austria’s Aggression—Ultimatum of Austria 
 to Sardinia—Hostilities begun by Austria—War declared between 
 France and Austria—The French Emperor Chief Commander of the 
 Franco-Sardinian Armies—Battle of Montebello—Battle of Palestro— 
 Austrian Defeat at Turbigo—Entrance of the French and Sardinians 
 into Milan—Battle of Malegnano—Battie of Solferino—Abdication of 
 the Dukes of Tuscany and Modena and the Duchess of Parma— 
 Meeting of the French and Austrian Emperors at Villafranca—Results 
 of that Interview—Treaty of Zurich—Allocution of the Pope—Pro- 
 longed Military Occupation of Rome—New Treaty of Commerce 
 between England and France—Opening of the Sessions for 1860—An- 
 nexation of the Duchies and of the Legations to Sardinia—Annexation 
 of Savoy and Nice to France—Quarrel between Italy and the Pope— 
 Battle of Castel-Fidardo—Sanguinary Quarrels between the Christians 
 and Turks in Syria—The French Expedition to Syria—Anglo-French 
 War with China—Expedition to Mexico—The French invade that 
 Country—Opening of the Sessions for 1862 and 1868—Attitude of the 
 Government towards Poland—Moral Success of the Opposition—A New 
 Ministry—Success of the French in Mexico—The Austrian Archduke 
 Maximilian becomes Emperor—Opening of the Sessions for 1864— 
 Speech of Napoleon III.—A Congress of Sovereigns proposed and 
 refused—Increase of the Opposition—Convention between the French 
 Emperor and the King of Italy 
 
 at the Opening of the Sessions—The 2nd of December is called a 
 Crime in the Legislature—Speech of Prince Napoleon at Ajaccio— 
 Speech of the Emperor at Auxerre—His Letter to the Minister for 
 Foreign Affairs—War between Prussia, Italy, and Austria—Battle of 
 Sadowa—Treaties of Prague and Vienna—Venetia and the Four Italian 
 Fortresses ceded to Italy—The North German Confederation formed— 
 Changes in the Constitution—Interpellations in the Legislative—The 
 King of Holland remains Grand Duke of Luxemburg—Discussions on 
 the Budget—Opening of the Paris Exhibition of Arts and Industry— 
 Death of the Emperor Maximilian—Declaration of M. Rouher in the 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 387 
 
 : . 397 
 § 3.—THE DowNWARD COURSE OF IMPERIALISM. bel Patios hes the Throne 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Legislative about Rome—Proposal of a New Press Bill—Discussions on 
 the Budget—Prosecution of several Newspapers—Speeches of the 
 Barristers—The Emperor promises more Liberal Reforms—Election of 
 Opposition Candidates in all the large Centres—A Senatus Consultus 
 proclaims several Liberal Measures—M. Emile Ollivier appointed Head 
 of the new Liberal Ministry—Murder of Victor Noir—The new Con- 
 stitutional Programme laid before the Senate—Objections raised against 
 it—The Nation approves of it by a large numerical Majority—Discus- 
 sions on Prince Hohenzollern accepting the proffered Crown of Spain 
 —Declaration of War between France and Prussia—Warlike Excite- 
 ment in France—Napoleon III. takes the Chief Command of the Army 
 —France without an Ally—The Treaty proposed by Napoleon III. to 
 Prussia after the War of 1866—Great Disorder in the Organisation and 
 Discipline of the French Army—The State of the Prussian Army—En- 
 gagement at Saarbruck—Battle of Weissenburg—Battle between 
 Worth and Fréschwiller—Battle at Forbach—State of Paris—Meeting 
 of the Legislative—Proposal of M. Jules Favre—Appointment of 
 Bazaine as Commander-in-Chief—Measures taken by the Legislative— 
 The Army at the Camp at Chalons—Battles of Borny, Gravelotte, and 
 Saint-Privat—The Army under Macmahon endeavours to join the one 
 under Bazaine at Metz—Battle of Beanumont—Battle of Sedan— 
 Capitulation of the French Emperor and his Army—Declaration of the 
 Minister of War—Great Excitement in Paris—Different Proposals in 
 the Assembly—The People invade the Legislative—Deposition of the 
 Imperial Dynasty, and Proclamation of the Republic—Appointment of 
 a Government of National Defence : : . . : . 
 
 XVil 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 413 
 

 
THE FRENCH 
 REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. 
 
 Gook Ww, 
 THE EMPIRE: 
 
 CHAPTER Lf. 
 § I.—THE BEGINNING OF A NEW DYNASTY. 
 
 (from the 18th of May, 1804, to the 26th of December, 1805.) 
 
 Tue news of the elevation of France into an Empire, 
 and the proclaiming of Napoleon as its Emperor, was 
 received by the sovereigns of HKurope with an amount 
 of complacency plainly indicating that such an event 
 had been foreseen, if not altogether expected. Despite 
 the protest of the Count de Lille, the chief of the 
 Bourbons, staying at Warsaw, and who issued a most 
 impolitical document to all the crowned heads, calculated 
 to alienate the sympathies of France rather than to 
 enlist them, these monarchs, with the exception of three, 
 acknowledged the new member of their family so 
 strangely thrust upon them. Not out of good-will to 
 Napoleon himself, as may be supposed, for they could 
 ; | 
 
2 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1804. 
 
 be no more indifferent to a change in the form of 
 ‘government of so great a nation as France than the 
 nation herself. Not unmindful of this feeling either in 
 his subjects or in the foreign Powers, Napoleon gave 
 the former reasons for assuming his new dignity, which 
 silenced and disarmed, if they did not destroy all 
 opposition. He also made a pretence of sacrificing the 
 Republic in order to allay the alarm of the absolute 
 monarchs. If he imagined that they believed in this 
 attempt at homogeneity, he was mistaken. They might 
 hold out their hands in simulated friendship, but from 
 the bottom of their hearts they knew that he was but 
 a military parvenu, whom .it was their interest to con- 
 ciliate—nay, even to support—in his usurpation, rather 
 than risk the prolonging of a state of revolution which 
 could be but a bad example to their own peoples. In 
 this way the European Courts silently watched each 
 other as to which should take the initiative in con- 
 gratulating the new Emperor. The King of Spain 
 was the first, and curiously enough, the Cardinal de 
 Bourbon, Archbishop of Toledo, added his officious 
 congratulations to those of his sovereign. The kang 
 of Prussia followed suit, and sent a most flattering 
 message to Napoleon. Austria, double-dealing as usual, 
 and in secret intelligence with the British Cabinet, 
 stood aloof for a little while. She approved of the 
 transforming of the Republic into an hereditary mon- 
 archy, but raised an objection to the title of Emperor, 
 though she assured the French Ambassador, who rather 
 haughtily responded to these expostulations, that they 
 
1804.] THH HMPIRE. 3 
 
 arose neither from ill-will against his master, nor from any 
 regard to the manifesto of the Count de Lille, of which 
 she in common with other Courts had taken no notice. 
 The difficulty was simply that the dignity of Kmperor 
 of Germany had been till now elective, and Francis II. 
 feared that, if the title departed from him or his suc- 
 cessors, they would no longer be on an equality of rank 
 with the ruler of France, unless he himself adopted 
 this title for his hereditary states. To this objection 
 Napoleon made a very gracious answer, and Francis 
 having proclaimed himself Emperor of Austria, hastened 
 to acknowledge Napoleon as Emperor of the French. 
 Russia not only refused to acknowledge the new 
 title of the house of Austria, pretending that it was a 
 plot concocted between Francis II. and Napoleon, but 
 by going in mourning for the Duke d’Enghien, and by 
 various demurrers as to the violation of the Baden 
 territory in connection with the late prince’s murder 
 and France’s interference with the kingdoms of Naples 
 and Sardinia, sought a pretext for war with Napoleon, 
 and recalled her ambassador. Of this situation Francis, 
 secretly inclining to Alexander I., and rendered somewhat 
 bold by the conciliatory attitude of Napoleon in the 
 _ late negotiations with regard to the Imperial dignity, 
 sought to take advantage. Gustavus IV., of Sweden, 
 the quixotic champion of the legitimacy of the Bour- 
 bons, imitated Russia’s example, and declared himself 
 the most stubborn enemy of France. ‘This declaration 
 Napoleon answered in the Moniteur, by saying that he 
 
 looked upon the King of Sweden as a young fool, with 
 62 | 
 
4. THH FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1804. 
 
 whom he should be sorry to confound a brave and 
 loyal nation. He assured them of the continued good- 
 will of France, promised that their merchant vessels 
 should always be well received in her ports, and that 
 Sweden’s fleet might even revictual and repair there if 
 it liked. This rendered Gustavus more enraged, and a 
 note of the Swedish Minister, in which the Emperor 
 was called Monsieur Napoleon Bonaparte, informed the 
 French chargé d'affaires at Stockholm of the cessation 
 of all relations between the two Governments. Already 
 more than half influenced by England, Gustavus now 
 signed a subsidiary and commercial treaty with the 
 Cabinet of St. James’s (7th September). 
 
 In England, the rupture of the Treaty of Amiens, 
 an event scarcely expected so soon by Napoleon, 
 had entailed the fall of the Addington Munistry, 
 pledged to peace, as it were; and Pitt and his party 
 resumed the direction of affairs, exciting the nation 
 to hostilities by pretending to show that peace was a 
 greater obstacle to her commercial prosperity than war. 
 England’s interests were supposed to be threatened by 
 Napoleon’s avowed intention to close the Continent to 
 British trade; a reprisal, as the Emperor argued, for 
 the arbitrary proceedings of Hngland in connection 
 with all maritime affairs. The whole war now took 
 an aspect of unexampled ferocity, degenerating into 
 personal calumny, as well as into the most unheard-of 
 piracy, scarcely creditable to the admirals of civilised 
 governments. English and French papers continued 
 to vilify each other's rulers; and a _ pamphlet 
 
1804. | THEH HMPIRE. 5 
 
 appeared in England, written by the Rev. Edward 
 Hankin, which openly preached the destruction of 
 France, whose existence was shown to be incom- 
 patible with the prosperity of England. More- 
 over, the English declared all French ports in a 
 state of blockade, and prevented all neutrals, from 
 Fécamp to Ostende, from entering, whilst their cruisers 
 chased every ship they could see, and took even several 
 members of the Emperor's family as prisoners to 
 England. 
 
 No state was allowed to remain outside the strife. 
 Spain, which, as we have seen, had redeemed by a sum 
 of money her obligation to furnish a contingent to 
 Napoleon, was importuned by the English Cabinet, after 
 it had acknowledged the transaction, to come over to 
 her side, and, unable to comply with the prescribed con- 
 ditions, was openly attacked at sea, notwithstanding all 
 absence of a declaration of war. Four Spanish frigates 
 coming from Rio de la Plata, and contaiming more 
 than a million pounds sterling, were summoned to 
 surrender, and upon their refusal, an engagement took 
 place, in which one of the Spanish vessels exploded, the 
 other three being taken to Portsmouth. This unjustifi- 
 able act aroused the indignation of a large number of 
 members of the English Parliament, but their protest not- 
 withstanding, the spohation continued in other places, the 
 ambassadors remaining all the while at their respective 
 courts, until Spain, feeble as she was, felt compelled 
 to declare war against England, and signed a treaty 
 with France, by which she placed thirty line-of-battle 
 
6 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1804. 
 
 ships at the latter’s disposal (12th December). Finding 
 all his efforts to prevent an outbreak of hostilities . 
 fruitless, and knowing that England was trying to estab- 
 lish a Coalition between Russia, Austria, and Prussia— 
 the last Power, however, still standing aloof,—Napoleon 
 vigorously pushed his preparations for an invasion of 
 the English coast. A hundred and twenty thousand 
 men, distributed in seven camps along the French 
 Channel, could be concentrated in thirty hours, and 
 embark in more than two thousand gunboats and 
 small vessels ready for the purpose. ‘This project, 
 though openly propagated, served mainly to hide a more 
 important naval operation, for despite the opinion of 
 many, that a landing might be attempted successfully 
 with the troops of the flotilla, Napoleon did not 
 deem it prudent to msk the flower of his army 
 or to venture upon a naval engagement with two 
 thousand ‘nutshells.” He was determined not to 
 endeavour to cross the Channel, save protected by 
 a strong fleet, composed of ships now lying for- 
 gotten in the various French ports, but which were 
 stealthily being put in commission with the utmost 
 activity. 
 
 The great enterprise, to be accomplished with the 
 co-operation of the Dutch and Spanish fleets, was to 
 be entrusted to a brave and bold sailor, Latouche- 
 Tréville, in whom Napoleon had great confidence, and 
 who was\to command the fleet of Toulon, in addition 
 to being appointed Inspector-General of the Mediter- 
 ranean coast. ‘ Give us but the mastery of the Straits 
 
1804.] THE HMPIRE. i, 
 
 for six hours, and we will be masters of the world,” 
 he wrote to the latter. 
 
 Pending these preparations, and his own coronation, 
 Napoleon made several journeys in the interior in order 
 to consolidate his new power. He started from Paris 
 on the 18th of July for Boulogne, where he passed in 
 review the troops, stimulating them by his presence, 
 and distributing several Crosses of the Legion of 
 Honour, then recently instituted. He inspected most 
 minutely every arsenal, depdt, and wharf, and was also 
 an eye-witness of an engagement, which the English 
 began, thinking to profit by a violent storm that 
 overtook the French ships, and wherein the former 
 were scarcely successful. From thence he visited 
 all the camps and ports situated on that part of the 
 coast, and returned to Paris to celebrate his birthday, 
 on which occasion there were national /éfes throughout 
 France. 
 
 Meanwhile, public institutions for the furthering of 
 arts, sciences, and literature, in accordance with the 
 Emperor's views, were founded under his protection. 
 He visited, accompanied by the Empress, the four 
 departments on the left bank of the Rhine, showing 
 himself interested in the manufactures and industries, 
 reorganising municipal and local affairs, planning high 
 roads, canals, and various improvements favourable to 
 commercial and sanitary welfare. By these means, 
 while rendering his position more secure in the interior, 
 he sought to inspire his foreign enemies with a dread 
 of his importance in the exterior. 
 
8 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1804. 
 
 However secure Napoleon might pretend to be 
 with regard to his new Imperial dignity, he wanted to 
 render it more stable still by an appeal to the people. 
 The nation sanctioned his title by an overwhelming 
 majority. ‘There was now but wanting one formality, 
 prescribed by the Senatus Consultus, which had raised 
 him to the throne: the oath to the constitution by the 
 Emperor in presence of the great bodies of the State 
 and the high dignitaries. 
 
 This ceremony Napoleon wished to convert into 
 a coronation. The most ancient chronicles were ran- 
 sacked to find examples for the pomp and splendour 
 with which the Emperor wanted to invest it. He even 
 wished it not to take place in Paris, ostensibly because 
 the Parisians had not shown themselves sufficiently 
 indignant at the late attempts upon his life, in reality 
 because he feared their ridicule and discontent at the 
 proposed splendour and consequent expenses. In re- 
 membrance of the feasts of the Federation, the Champ 
 de Mars had been proposed; but the Emperor re- 
 fused to be crowned there. Several members of the 
 Council suggested that the ceremony should be cele- 
 brated in the church of the Invalides, as this fane 
 would appeal more to the military enthusiasm, and be 
 free from all the monarchical and religious traditions 
 attached to Notre Dame, still somewhat repugnant to 
 the scarcely slumbering spirit of the Revolution. But 
 though Napoleon first selected the Invalides, in conces- 
 sion to the anti-religious tendencies of the people, he 
 finally chose the latter -for the very reason of its sacred 
 
1804. ] THE EMPIRE. 9 
 
 associations in relation to the coronation of kings. 
 This religious impression, for which he himself could 
 have cared but little, was necessary, he imagined, 
 to impose upon the peoples and Kings. He wanted 
 to be consecrated by the Pope, and consequently 
 overtures were made, almost before the Senatus 
 Consultus had proclaimed him LEmperor, to in- 
 duce Pius VII. to come to Paris to perform the 
 ceremony. 
 
 At first the Pope refused for various reasons, prin- 
 cipally because he would not consecrate the usurper 
 of a throne to which there was a legitimate pretender. 
 Yet the Pontiff’s reluctance may be more justly 
 ascribed to the wish of enhancing the price of this 
 favour, and by these means to obtain once more 
 possession of the Legations, Bologna and Avignon, 
 of which Napoleon, even before his accession, had de- 
 prived him. Nor is there any doubt that Napoleon 
 lulled him with this hope, though, while doing 
 so, he had already secretly resolved to transform 
 these same states into a Kingdom of Italy, and 
 assume himself the iron crown of the Lombardian 
 Kings.! 
 
 However, by dint of promises and threats, Pius 
 was prevailed upon to come, while Josephine, enjoying 
 but a doubtful reputation, and only civilly married to 
 Napoleon, went through the religious part of the 
 marriage ceremony, which was secretly performed by 
 the Cardinal Fesch, the Emperor’s uncle. 
 
 1 Michelet, Histoire du XIX. siécle, vol. iii., bk. ii., ch. 6. 
 
10 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1804. 
 
 About the middle of November the Pope reached 
 the end of his journey, and was met by Napoleon, 
 dressed as if he were out hunting, a few miles from 
 Fontainebleau, whence they entered a carriage and 
 arrived at the castle, being welcomed by thunders 
 of artillery and the military presenting arms. A few 
 days later, the whole Court removed to the Tuileries, 
 where the Pontiff was installed in the Pavilion of 
 Flora, and received the congratulations of the high 
 dignitaries, and notably of the Senate, in his private 
 apartments. 
 
 All this while the Pope had never doubted but 
 that he would place the crown on Napoleon’s head, 
 and that the latter would publicly partake of the 
 Holy Communion. The Emperor flatly rejected both 
 proposals, Pius being secretly rejoiced at the refusal 
 of one, knowing full well that its acceptance would 
 have been tantamount to sacrilege. 
 
 Still fostering the greatest hopes as to the result of 
 his journey, the Holy Father showed himself anxious 
 to please in every respect, going even as far as to 
 propose the canonisation of a certain Bonaventura 
 Bonaparte, a distant relative of the Emperor, and 
 who died many years ago obscurely in a cloister. 
 “Holy Father,” answered Napoleon, “spare me this 
 ridicule. As you are in my power, people would not 
 fail to say that I had compelled you to provide a saint 
 in my family.” 
 
 The preparations for the coronation being completed, 
 each performer's part in the ceremony having been 
 
1804.] _ THE HMPIRE. 11 
 
 carefully rehearsed,! the coronation took place on the 
 Ath of December, with a pomp and splendour unsur- 
 passed, and scarcely equalled, by anything in modern 
 history. 
 
 This magnificence notwithstanding, the people, 
 attracted by the novelty of the spectacle, remained 
 cold and indifferent, only condescending once to depart 
 from their stolidity at the sight of a priest on a 
 broken-down hack, in the suite of the Pope, the two 
 appearing like a comic interlude in a vastly serious 
 play. 
 
 “T, who was on the Boulevard (I was six years 
 old),” says M. Michelet, “I noticed nothing on that 
 ice-cold day, save a gloomy and dispiriting silence.’ 
 
 Nor did any of the subsequent festivities make 
 the people relax in their cool and silent indifference 
 to the new state of things. Without openly express- 
 ing their discontent, save in the isolated case of one 
 individual,® the sight of all this theatrical show, so 
 foreign to their recent Republican institutions, made 
 them feel that this was not the wished-for culmination 
 
 1 These rehearsals took place, some openly in the gallery of Diana, 
 and others secretly in the private drawing-room of the Emperor, on a large 
 table, by means of a model of Notre Dame and of wooden puppets, made by 
 the painter Isabey, and representing in full costume all the personages, 
 even the Emperor and the Pope. 
 
 2 Michelet, Histoire du XIX. siécle, vol. iii., bk. ii. ch. 6. 
 
 3 A young medical student, Faure, two days after the coronation, 
 made a fruitless attempt to reach the Emperor whilst he was distributing 
 the Orders of the Legion of Honour, in order to assassinate him. The 
 attempt was regarded as that of a madman, and he was merely sent back 
 to his parents. 
 
12 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1804. 
 
 to fifteen years of constant sacrifice of wealth and hfe. 
 They had hoped to find in Napoleon the worthy 
 military chief of a Republic, who would in no way 
 remind them of the senseless etiquette of the ancien 
 régime, so distasteful to the masses; now they saw, 
 more “in sorrow than in anger,” that he, like the 
 kings of old, would be separated from the people by 
 a crowd of dignitaries and courtiers. They regretted 
 that nearly five million francs should have been spent 
 in aping the ceremonies of courts, against which they 
 had of late so energetically protested, the more so as 
 the transition of a Republic into an Empire had 
 been signalised by several fiscal and monetary 
 changes, entirely to the disadvantage of the poorer 
 classes. 
 
 It is a question whether Napoleon, in reality 
 anxious for the welfare of the nation, in trying to 
 impose upon others, did not in the end impose upon 
 himself. Huis desire for peace led him to imagine that, 
 by imitating the trappings of legitimate sovereignty, 
 he might invest the new order of things with an aspect 
 which should prove it to be in no way hostile to ancient 
 Europe, and show at the same time an indestructible 
 stability of its own. ‘Thus he thought to pave the way 
 for an amicable settlement of all differences between his 
 enemies and himself. With the same intentions, perhaps, 
 he gathered around him many of the former nobles 
 and émigrés. It need hardly be said that personally 
 he cared little for their pretensions, but between them 
 and the rest of the European aristocracy there existed 
 
1804. | THE HMPIRE. 13 
 
 a bond which might tend to alloy the bitterness felt 
 against a usurper, and bring about a more friendly 
 feeling, which undoubtedly was wished for by Napo- 
 leon. Besides, if there was to be a court, it should be as 
 graceful and refined as possible, and with his surround- 
 ings of parvenus and swash-bucklers, this was well-nigh 
 impossible without the assistance of the ancient nobles, 
 trained to obsequious court-service, and who did not 
 disdain those offices which his generals and their wives 
 would have haughtily refused. The reason of this was 
 not far to seek; it lay in the difference of morals and 
 manners. “The old noblesse,” said the Emperor, 
 “showed much more grace and zeal in their attendance. 
 A lady of the Montmorency family would have rushed 
 to tie the strings of the Empress’ shoes; the wife 
 of Marshal Lannes would have shrunk from doing 
 this, for fear of being mistaken for a lady’s-maid; a 
 Montmorency had no such fear.’’! 
 
 The hopes of Napoleon to induce his enemies to 
 preserve peace were doomed to disappointment; and it 
 is probable that he has been unjustly accused of wishing 
 to wage war just then, for it was his interest not to do 
 so; though we do not pretend to say that he may 
 not have desired it later on. Even M. Michelet, who 
 persistently and conscientiously attacks him, is reluc- 
 tantly obliged to admit that the hatred of Pitt caused 
 the war, rather than the vain, but, perhaps, provoking 
 preparations for the invasion of England. It is certain 
 that, despite the rebuff which he had already once 
 
 1 Las Cases, Mémoires, vol. i., p. 382. 
 
14 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1805. 
 
 received, when First Consul, from George III., he wrote 
 to him a second time to put an end to the hostilities 
 already begun. It was a rather manly letter,’ from 
 which the moderate party in Hngland conceived the 
 strongest expectations of a lasting peace. But the 
 forms of a representative government did not allow 
 the King to answer, and a reply was sent (Jan. 14th) by 
 the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in which England asked 
 for time to consult the Continental Powers. This was 
 followed, three days later, by a confidential communica- 
 tion of the English Prime Minister to the Russian Ambas- 
 sador in London, and of which the contents presupposed 
 long anterior negotiations. This memorandum aimed at 
 nothing less than to make France return almost to her 
 ancient territorial limits, and to share between the con- 
 tracting Powers her conquests ; a proposal which was 
 to be the basis of the Coalition-treaty, signed on the 
 11th of April of the same year, between England, 
 ‘ Russia, and, later, by Austria, despite that State’s 
 most amicable relations with the French Empire, and 
 her recent congratulations to Napoleon. Nor were the 
 angry and indignant remonstrances of Fox of any avail. 
 Napoleon could doubt no longer the enmity of England 
 and of Russia—of Austria he had his suspicions, but 
 no certainty—while an attempt was made to inveigle 
 Prussia into the alliance by the promise of Belgium, 
 failing to comply with which demand Alexander, 
 secretly supported by the Queen of Prussia, threatened 
 
 1 Letter to the King of England, 2nd January, 1805, in the Napoleon 
 Correspondence. 
 
1805.] THE HMPIRE. 1d 
 
 to occupy Pomerania, in case the King of Sweden 
 should be attacked. Nevertheless, the Prussian Cabinet 
 resisted. 
 
 Napoleon had now no other choice left but to 
 baffle and defeat the Coalition by fresh battles, and by 
 the subjugation of the Continent. Driven, as it were, 
 to acts of usurpation against the neighbouring States, 
 in order to secure his own position, he began by altering 
 the Constitution of the Batavian Republic according to 
 a less democratic model, though probably he considered 
 this but a provisional state of things, previous to 
 annexing Holland to France, so as to be more fully 
 protected against hostile attempts from that side. For 
 this reason the supreme government of Holland was 
 entrusted to a Legislative of twenty members, and the | 
 executive to a Grand -Pensionary, elected for life. 
 Schimmelpenninck, who was chosen for this office, was 
 entirely devoted to the interests of France (May 30th). 
 
 In Italy, things were dealt with more summarily. 
 This country had borne the name of a Republic for three 
 years, durmg which time her Constitution had worked 
 smoothly; and though Napoleon, as President, disposed 
 of an almost absolute power, he did not much abuse it, 
 thanks to the sensible influence of the cool-headed Vice- 
 President Melzi. ‘T’o defy England and terrify Austria, 
 Napoleon now prepared to have himself crowned King 
 of Italy, stipulating at the same time, in deference 
 to the national susceptibilities of the Italians, that 
 after his death none of his successors should wear 
 the crown of Italy united to that of France. The 
 
16 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1805. 
 
 Emperor had offered the Italian crown to his brother 
 Joseph; but the latter, for various private and political 
 reasons, saw fit to refuse. The coronation of Napoleon | 
 took place at Milan with great splendour (26th May). 
 The Pope, who had been invited to be present, declined, 
 scarcely satisfied with the results of his journey to Paris, 
 of which he had entertained great expectations, which 
 were not realised. ‘The vice-royalty of Italy was en- 
 trusted to Hugéne Beauharnais, Napoleon’s stepson, 
 whom he intended to be his successor, an article in the 
 new Constitution giving the King of Italy such a right 
 of selection from among his male issue, legitimate, 
 illegitimate, or adopted. 
 
 The State of Genoa, lately known by the name of 
 the Ligurian Republic, had sent a deputation, headed 
 by the Doge, to the coronation of the King of Italy. 
 It was received with all honours as the embassy of an in- 
 dependent people, but no one imagined that Napoleon 
 had the intention of incorporating Genoa with the newly- 
 erected kingdom, the more so as he had always stipulated 
 for and respected its independence. Lately, however, 
 there had been signs that a secret influence was at work 
 to induce the Genoese themselves to propose this in- 
 corporation, under the pretext that as an independent 
 Republic they were not sufficiently powerful to protect 
 their coasts against English aggression; and although 
 the Austrian Ambassador, who saw through the scheme, 
 disliked it, and protested, the deputation who had come 
 to Milan beseeched Napoleon to unite to his empire 
 this “ Liguria, the first theatre of his victories, the first 
 
1805. ] THE EMPIRE. Lie 
 
 step of the throne on which he was now seated, and to 
 grant them the happiness of becoming his subjects” 
 (4th June). , 
 
 In an answer which accorded with their expressed in- 
 ability to protect themselves, the Emperor accepted, and 
 the Ligurian Republic was divided into three departments, 
 and provided with a reconstructed Constitution, based 
 as usual on the French model. About the same time, 
 he erected Piombino, ceded to France in 1801, into 
 a principality for his sister Eliza, while the Republic 
 of Lucca, re-enacting the fable of the frogs, asked 
 the Emperor for a ruler belonging to his family and 
 for a new Constitution, both of which were granted, 
 Prince Baciochi, the husband of Princess Eliza, bemg 
 selected for their ruler. Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, 
 hitherto under their own particular laws, were now also 
 provided with new Constitutions, and incorporated to 
 France, according to the new Imperial system. 
 
 During his triumphal and pacific journey through 
 Italy, on which the eyes of all Europe were now 
 turned, Napoleon had not lost sight of his chief aim, 
 the war with England. He was aware of the doubtful 
 attitude of the other powers, of Austria, arming under 
 many specious pretexts, and of the threatening symp- 
 toms of a new Coalition. While it was believed in 
 France and even in England that all these great pre- 
 parations for invasion were but so many scarecrows, 
 Napoleon, amidst the various occupations, necessitated 
 by the great reforms he was accomplishing in the in- 
 terior, found time to be in daily communication with the 
 
 c 
 
18 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1805. 
 
 Minister of Marine, Decrés, who alone possessed his 
 confidence, since the death of Latouche-Tréville at the 
 endof 1804. Far from abandoning his idea of invading 
 England, he had conceived a new strategic plan. ‘The 
 admirals of the Toulon, Rochefort, and Brest fleets, 
 Villeneuve, Missiessy, and Gantheaume, were each to 
 set sail for the West Indies, land reinforcements, and 
 then return together suddenly to Europe, while the 
 English would despatch their ships to succour their 
 threatened colonial possessions. Then, when the French 
 admirals should have come back safe, they would be 
 masters of the Channel, and might prove the truth of 
 the words Napoleon never ceased repeating, “Give us 
 but the Channel without the English fleet for six hours, 
 and England shall have ceased to exist.” 
 
 In fact, though the scheme did not succeed, it at 
 least caused one of the English admirals, Nelson, to 
 be seeking for Villeneuve in Egyptian waters, whilst 
 the latter eluded his vigilance, and arrived safely at 
 his destination. Having received information on his 
 arrival that Missiessy had already been there and re- 
 turned, and that Gantheaume could not appear because 
 he was blockaded in Brest by Admiral Cornwallis, he 
 was instructed to set sail for Martinique and afterwards 
 for Corunna, to meet there fifteen Franco-Spanish ships 
 of the line,and with these to start for Rochefort, join 
 Missiessy’s squadron, relieve Gantheaume still locked in, 
 and then to enter the Channel with the combined fleets. 
 Villeneuve was to take the supreme command, and to 
 steer for Boulogne, where Napoleon himself would await 
 
1805.] THE HMPIRE. 19 
 
 him. If they could be but masters of the Channel, 
 wrote the Hmperor, there would be no difficulty in 
 landing a hundred and sixty thousand troops on the 
 English coast. Everything had been prepared, every 
 adverse chance foreseen and guarded against. If 
 Villeneuve found it impossible to raise the blockade of 
 Brest without giving battle, he was to begin an engage- 
 ment as‘near as possible to that port, in order that 
 Gantheaume might take part in it; if insuperable 
 obstacles prevented him from entering the Channel, 
 the fleet was to repair to Cadiz, to occupy -the 
 Straits of Guibraltar, to ravage its roadstead, and to 
 revictual. 
 
 Such were the last instructions to Villeneuve, and 
 from them may be seen that Napoleon had almost 
 provided against and for everything to assure his 
 descent on the English coast. 
 
 Unfortunately, Villeneuve was not the man to 
 enter fully into the spirit of such a vast enterprise, 
 nor had he the genius to execute it. Of this 
 Napoleon became fully aware a few days after 
 Villeneuve had started, when he received a dispatch 
 from the admiral, in which the most puerile events 
 were magnified. He there and then resolved to 
 appoint Gantheaume, still lying at Brest, and wrote 
 - to dismiss Villeneuve from his command; and to let 
 the fleet, under Gantheaume, sail to her appointed 
 destination. 
 
 While Villeneuve was slowly making for Ferrol, 
 wasting time in capturing unimportant merchant 
 
 c2 
 
20 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1805. 
 
 vessels, Nelson had followed him to the West Indies, 
 where he only arrived to learn the departure of the 
 foe of which he was in search. Penetrating the 
 design of Napoleon, he cautioned the Admiralty, who 
 commanded the concentration of the different fleets, 
 the very thing which Napoleon had wanted Ville- 
 neuve to do. It is worthy of notice, that in the 
 letters to his Minister of the Navy, Napoleon, com- 
 menting on the news received from London, foretold, 
 as it were, the decisions which the situation would 
 inspire in the lords of the English Admiralty. Be 
 this as it may, Nelson was ordered, as Napoleon had 
 foreseen,’ to reinforce the squadron before Brest; and 
 the fleet cruising before Rochefort, under Admiral 
 Stirling, was to join that at Ferrol, commanded by 
 Sir Robert Calder. 
 
 The French flotilla and the army which it had 
 to transport being in readiness, and the Dutch fleet, 
 fighting along the whole of her route, having also 
 arrived at Ambleteuse, near Boulogne, Napoleon 
 himself returned from Milan. Nothing was wanting 
 now but the naval forces, whose appearance upon the 
 scene was hourly expected. Beginning to grow uneasy 
 about the fleet of Villeneuve, of whom he had no 
 tidings, and strongly preoccupied by the turn affairs 
 were now taking on the Continent, he started for 
 Boulogne, resolved to await there the arrival of the 
 fleet, without whose assistance he dared not cross the 
 
 1 There is a letter to this effect in Napoleon’s Correspondence, dated 
 20 Prairial, Milan, addressed to his Minister of the Navy, Decrés. 
 
1805.] THH HMPIRE. 21 
 
 Channel. He hoped that the report of his meditated 
 invasion would be sufficient to keep the Continent in 
 respect,—for Austria was massing her troops on the 
 Inn and the Adige,—and that the reverses of Eng- 
 land would prevent all further Coalition. In case 
 his enemies, profiting by his absence, should begin 
 hostilities on the Rhine, he calculated to have his 
 expedition terminated before then, and to be back 
 in France to oppose an invasion of the Empire. He 
 sent word to Gantheaume to hold himself prepared, 
 because Villeneuve could not fail to appear shortly. 
 In fact, he thought that the missing admiral, in- 
 formed of Nelson’s pursuit, might have steered for 
 Cadiz instead of for Ferrol, in which case every pre- 
 caution was already taken to assist him. 
 
 After waiting for three days, during which he 
 reviewed the army in sight of the English cruisers, he 
 received the news that Villeneuve, with a very superior 
 force, had fought an engagement with the united 
 fleets of Admirals Stirling and Calder, about sixty 
 miles to the westward of Cape Finisterre (July 22nd) ; 
 that both parties claimed the victory, but that two 
 Spanish line-of-battle ships had fallen into the enemy’s 
 hands. Instead of following his orders, and trying 
 to join the squadron of Rochefort, Villeneuve wasted 
 another two days, and then entered Ferrol, and with 
 thirty ships of the line allowed himself to be blockaded by 
 twenty vessels. Napoleon was indignant that one man 
 should have upset all his plans. In the midst of his anger, 
 his thoughts immediately reverted to the Continent, 
 
22 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOOH. [1805. 
 
 where he thought to strike England in her Allis, 
 and he sketched out a campaign, which subsequent 
 events proved to have been one of the masterpieces of 
 military strategy. 
 
 Nevertheless, he still hoped that Villeneuve would 
 manage to break the blockade, and sent him orders 
 to do so. He was to make for Brest, where 
 Gantheaume would attempt an engagement and join 
 him. ‘The Emperor was, indeed, loth to abandon a 
 plan which, notwithstanding its difficulties, was likely 
 to be successful, for while awaiting for further 
 news he tried the forces of his flotilla by a_ bolder 
 - movement than had hitherto been attempted. This 
 movement answered all his expectations, and made 
 the more bitter his regret at being so inefficiently 
 supported by his admirals. 
 
 According to his orders, Gantheaume left Brest 
 harbour to offer battle to the enemy, expecting 
 Villeneuve to come to his succour. The latter had, 
 indeed, left Ferrol, but instead of steermg for the 
 north, he remained in the Ferrol roads, afraid of the 
 responsibility, and then finished by running into Cadiz, 
 where he was blockaded by the united fleets of Calder 
 and Collingwood, of which Nelson had taken the 
 command. | 
 
 When the news of Villeneuve being unable to 
 appear reached Napoleon, he knew that his great pro- 
 jects against England had vanished. In less than 
 four-and-twenty hours the whole army was directed on 
 Germany, to punish Austria, which was going to pay 
 
1805. ] THE HMPIRE. 23 
 
 for England. As may be seen, Napoleon’s plan of 
 an invasion of England was far from being intended 
 as the mere scarecrow which some historians have so 
 persistently maintained it to be. 
 
 In order to understand the subsequent events, we 
 must retrace our steps for a few months to the time 
 when Napoleon left for Italy to be crowned at Milan. 
 
 On the very day of Napoleon’s departure (11th 
 April), a treaty, the result of long negotiations, 
 had been signed between England and Russia, aim- 
 ing principally at, and ostensibly compelling France 
 to restore the Huropean equilibrium, to despoil her 
 of the advantages which she had obtained by fifteen 
 years of incessant war and bloody sacrifices, and to 
 isolate her from the rest of Kurope, with which, since 
 the Revolution, and especially now, she had nothing in 
 common. 
 
 England engaged to support these demands by 
 co-operating with Russia, by furnishing her naval and 
 military forces, by subsidising every other Power which 
 should league itself with her to the annual amount of 
 £15,000 for every ten thousand men supplied in 
 return for which subsidies she was to be considered 
 the chief of this third Coalition, and to have the right 
 of establishing commercial depédts in the States of her 
 Allies. At the same time all her pretensions on the 
 sea were recognised. 
 
 Another article accorded similar monetary advan- 
 tages to the King of Sweden, who had openly joined 
 the Coalition. As for Austria, Alexander sent his 
 
24 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1805. 
 
 aide-de-camp to Vienna to discuss the plan of the 
 campaign, and despite the assurances of the French 
 Ambassador that the camp of Alessandria was dispersed, 
 that the one of Brescia would share a similar fate 
 within a fortnight, Francis continued to mass his 
 troops upon the Italian frontiers, though he was too 
 double-dealing to declare war at once, thinking that 
 the time had not yet arrived. 
 
 To give the Coalition leisure to complete its pre- 
 parations, and to assemble its forces, the farce of a 
 pretended negotiation was attempted in which Alex- 
 ander should play the part of mediator. Prussia was 
 also invited to enter the Coalition. Its King was in 
 a critical position. Scarcely confident of being able to 
 maintain his neutrality, he had hoped all along that 
 actual hostilities should be prevented. Suddenly, un- 
 deceived by the appeal of the Russian Ambassador 
 in favour of his master, he fell into his former irresolu- 
 tion, aggravated on one side by his ambition, on 
 the other by some _ political motives, which made 
 him loth to refuse the bait held out to him by 
 France in return for his alliance, namely, the cession 
 of Hanover; while at the same time he dreaded the 
 aggression of Russia, i case he should by accepting 
 this offer appear to lean to Napoleon’s side. In this 
 emergency he pursued a double-faced policy, by declar- 
 ing his wish to remain neutral, merely consenting to 
 take Hanover as a depdét, free, as he thought, to side 
 afterwards with the Power who should prove the 
 stronger. 
 
1805. THE EMPIRE. 25 
 
 Meanwhile the preparations for war on the part 
 of the Coalition continued with redoubled energy, 
 especially on the part of Austria, who on the reiterated 
 demands of Napoleon, threw off the mask at last, and . 
 clearly showed that the drift of her supposed media- 
 tion was to gain time in order to complete her plans. 
 She declared that the violation by Napoleon of the 
 Treaty of Lunéville, one of whose articles stipulated 
 and guaranteed the independence of the Italian as 
 well as of the Helvetian and Batavian republics, had led 
 her to enter the Coalition.t She still professed herself 
 willing to re-open negotiations, but this also was done 
 in order to gain time and to obtain the alliance of the 
 Electors, who of late had become important princes, and on 
 whose attitude much depended in the coming campaign. 
 In this instance Napoleon, however, had been too quick, 
 and forestalled her, especially with the Electors of 
 Bavaria and Baden, who could not possibly remain 
 neutral in the struggle, though, above all, the first 
 desired to do so. This Hlector expressed this wish to 
 the Emperor Francis, but saw it daily disregarded by 
 the invasion of his territory by Austrian troops, eager 
 to reach the Rhine before Napoleon had broken up 
 his camp near Boulogne. Napoleon had foreseen this, 
 and extracted a promise that in case such an event 
 should happen, the Bavarian army would seek refuge 
 elsewhere, and effect its junction with his army. The 
 Austrians having passed the Inn on the 9th of 
 
 1 According to some French authors this was a mere pretext, 
 sufficiently proved by the fact that Austria had entered the Coalition 
 before the changes in the existence of the Italian Republics had happened. 
 
26 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1805. 
 
 September, the Elector gave the order for his troops to 
 enter Franconia, and abandoned his capital to transfer 
 his Government and himself to Wurtzburg, where a 
 treaty with France was definitely arranged on the 23rd 
 of November, much to the disgust of Austria. | 
 
 The troops of the Boulogne camp crossed France 
 by forced marches, and in three columns, making for 
 the Rhine by parallel roads. Germany was to be the 
 theatre of the war, the French Emperor having resolved 
 to act merely on the defensive in Italy. The army in 
 Italy, only fifty thousand strong, was entrusted to 
 Masséna, supported by the troops which were evacuating 
 the Naples territory, after the King had signed a treaty 
 of neutrality, and promised to prevent the landing of 
 foreign troops. Napoleon himself having taken various 
 measures for the due government of the interior, and for 
 the levy of conscripts, joined his troops, who had already 
 passed the Rhine (24th September). 
 
 Bernadotte, commanding the first corps, had evacuated 
 Hanover, merely leaving there a garrison, and joined the 
 electoral troops at Wurtzburg; the second corps, under 
 Marmont, left Holland, and was moving on Mayence; 
 four corps under Davoust, Soult, Lannes, Ney, and a 
 reserve of cavalry under Murat, starting from Boulogne, 
 were stationed along the Rhine from Mannheim to 
 Strasburg. Another corps, under Augereau, moved from 
 Brest upon Huningen, as reserve. There were a hun- 
 dred and sixty thousand troops in all, exclusive of the 
 Bavarians. Murat and Lannes crossed the Rhine at 
 Kehl, threatened the issues of the Black Forest, and 
 
1805.] THE BMPIRE. 27 
 
 masked the movements of Ney, Soult, and Davoust 
 (25th September). The following day Ney crossed 
 near Lauterburg, Soult near Spires, and Davoust 
 near Mannheim, the three marching on the Necker, 
 to intimidate the Electors of Baden and Wurtem- 
 berg, whom they induced to sign treaties, whereby 
 they secured sixteen thousand electoral troops to 
 guard their communications. Marmont crossed at 
 Mayence, and joined Bernadotte and the Bavarians 
 at Wurtzburg, so that in two days a hundred 
 and eighty thousand men were stationed in échelon, 
 on the right flank of the Austrians, facing Lannes 
 and Murat, in the Black Forest, whose lines ex- 
 tended towards Stuttgard, where they joined those 
 of Ney. Mack, the Austrian general, in reality 
 directed and browbeaten by the Austrian princes, who 
 treated him with contempt on account of his inferior 
 birth,! understood nothing of all these complicated 
 movements. Counting upon the Russians, who were 
 expected hourly, he lost his head at the enemy’s rapid 
 marching and countermarching, and mistaking their 
 intentions, he found himself outmanceuvred, his sup- 
 ports beaten on all sides, and compelled to enter Ulm. 
 Being summoned to capitulate, he ultimately agreed to 
 surrender if he was not relieved within eight days. In 
 the meantime the news spread that a division of Austrian 
 troops who still kept the field before Mack had entered 
 Ulm, had surrendered at Trochtelfingen, with the ex- 
 ception of two thousand horsemen under the Archduke 
 1 Michelet, Histowre du XIX. siecle, vol. iii., bk. iii., ch. 4. 
 
28 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1805. 
 
 Ferdinand, who had made good their escape. <A part 
 of the French army had marched a hundred and 
 thirty-five English miles in five days, had killed or 
 made prisoners twenty-two thousand Austrians, taken 
 a hundred and thirty guns, and a large number of 
 caissons and waggons. ‘The French Emperor sent this ~ 
 news to Mack, who immediately surrendered with 
 thirty-three thousand prisoners, sixty cannon, and 
 forty standards (20th October). Well might the world 
 stand astonished at the spectacle of an army of eighty- 
 five thousand men destroyed, as it were, without one 
 great battle having been fought. Well mht the 
 French soldiers say, ‘“‘The Emperor has beaten the 
 enemy with our legs, and not with our bayonets.” 
 They were proud of their general, and not without 
 reason. Jor two days the rain had fallen in torrents, 
 the troops were drenched to the skin, they had received 
 no rations, they were up to their knees in mud, but 
 their sufferings and privations were shared by Napoleon, 
 as if he had been the meanest private. 
 
 As he was standing in their midst, a batch of 
 Austrian prisoners passed, and a colonel expressed his 
 surprise that the Emperor of the French should be 
 covered with mud and exhausted with fatigue lke the 
 humblest drummer in the army. One of his aides-de- 
 camp having explained what the Austrian said, Napo- 
 leon sent him back the following answer, ‘‘ Your master 
 has reminded me that I was once a soldier; I trust that 
 he will acknowledge this time that the purple has not 
 made me forget my previous occupation. ” 
 
1805. ] THH HMPIRE. 29 
 
 One would have thought that after the crushing 
 lesson inflicted upon Austria, Prussia would not have 
 courted the risk of a similar defeat, and, if departing at 
 all from her professed neutrality, would have sided with 
 France. She did the very opposite. In their rapid march 
 from Wurtzburg to the Danube, Marmont and Bernadotte 
 had entered the Prussian State of Anspach. The King of 
 Prussia showed himself very indignant at this, and de- 
 clared that henceforth he was free from any engagement 
 with France. This was probably a pretext, as the same 
 thing had happened before without the least notice being 
 taken; but Alexander took advantage of this. He pro- 
 posed an interview to Frederick William, and arrived 
 unexpectedly at Berlin on the 25th of October, five days 
 after the capitulation of Ulm, when the full extent of 
 the disaster was not known. He was received with the 
 greatest warmth, the two monarchs embracing each other 
 amidst the loud applause of the people. At Potsdam, 
 where the illustrious guest was entertained, there was 
 nothing but festivities, exchange of presents, and of con- 
 gratulations. From that moment France was utterly dis- 
 regarded. The French Ambassador, already recalled by 
 Napoleon, took leave of the King of Prussia on the Ist 
 of November, and on the 3rd an offensive and defensive 
 treaty was signed, by which the King entered the Coalli- 
 tion, though he still reserved the right of withdrawal, 
 in case Napoleon should consent to the evacuation of 
 Holland and Switzerland, grant an indemnity to the 
 King of Sardinia, and separate the crowns of Italy 
 and France. An ambassador was despatched with this 
 
30 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1805. 
 
 ultimatum, who took care not to arrive at the French 
 head-quarters until a month after the signing of the 
 treaty at Potsdam. 
 
 The key to the above-mentioned reservation is to be - 
 found in the tidings of the disaster at Ulm, communi- 
 - eated by the Austrian Archduke Anthony, two days 
 before the signing of the treaty, and which tempered 
 the warlike ardour of the Prussian Court and Cabinet. 
 Nevertheless, the alliance was cemented in a somewhat 
 theatrical performance arranged by the Queen. The 
 two monarchs went at night to the tomb of Frederick 
 the Great, where Alexander swore to die for the honour 
 and defence of Prussia.? 
 
 Despite Napoleon’s willingness to explain the pass- 
 ing through Anspach, the Prussian army was mobilised, 
 Hanover invaded in the name of the Hlector-King, and 
 every preparation made to enter upon a campaign. 
 
 Meanwhile Napoleon, resolved to strike terror into the 
 hearts of his enemies, was rapidly invading the Austrian 
 provinces, scarcely meeting with any resistance either 
 from the Austrians or from the Russians, who had now 
 arrived, and were retreating upon Vienna to protect the 
 capital, and to give the armies of the Tyrol and Italy 
 the opportunity of jomimg them. The French troops 
 under Ney and Augereau, who were left behind, were 
 ordered to invade the 'T'yrol, to drive out the Archduke 
 John, and to cover at the same time the night flank 
 of the army of Germany as well as the left of the 
 Italian army. The Inn, totally undefended, was passed 
 
 1 Hardenberg, Mémoires, vol. ix., pp. 14, 55, quoted by Michelet. 
 
1805. | THE HMPIREL. ol 
 
 by all the French corps; Braunau, one of the great 
 victualling depdéts of the Austrian Empire, taken with- 
 out a blow; whilst Lannes and Murat, forming the 
 -vanguard, drove the enemy successively from their 
 various positions. Kutusoff, the Russian general, find- 
 ing it impossible to effect a junction with the armies of 
 the Tyrol and Italy, abandoned the plan of defending 
 Vienna, and retreated into Moravia, where he hoped 
 to meet the second Russian army. Scarcely had he 
 reached the other side of the Danube before he was 
 attacked by Marshal Mortier, sent thither to watch 
 Bohemia, and who had but a small contingent under 
 his command, the remainder of his division being a 
 march behind. Nevertheless, the French took the 
 offensive, ignorant of the exact numbers of the enemy 
 until too late, when they found out the superiority 
 of the Russians by being completely surrounded at 
 nightfall and their retreat cut off. From assailants 
 they became defenders until the remainder of their 
 division came up, when the Russians, taken between two 
 fires, were compelled to fall back on Krems. This en- 
 gagcement is better known under the name of Direnstein, 
 the village near which it was fought (11th November). 
 The Emperor Francis and the Court had left Vienna 
 and taken refuge at Brunn, in Moravia. From there 
 they started for Olmiitz, where the Emperor of Russia, 
 with his second army, was stationed. The Austrian 
 capital was a prey to the greatest confusion. One day 
 the most confidential reports as to the ultimate success 
 of the war were circulated, the whole population being 
 
32 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1805. 
 
 called under arms to ensure this success; the next 
 the treasures, the archives, and valuables were hastily 
 packed up, and an embargo laid upon every boat to 
 remove them into Hungary. Meanwhile an envoy 
 was sent to Napoleon to propose an armistice; a 
 proposal which the latter declined, saying, that at the 
 head of two hundred thousand victorious troops, he 
 could not very well grant an armistice to a beaten 
 army. ‘The French continued their way to Vienna, 
 which city they merely passed through, and marched 
 straight to the great bridge over the Danube, which 
 led across that river to the northern provinces of the 
 Kmpire. That bridge was mined and watched from 
 the other side by fourteen thousand Austrians under 
 Count Auersberg, who had orders to blow it up on 
 the least attempt at violence. On the Vienna side 
 of the river there was only an outpost. In this 
 emergency Lannes and Murat bethought themselves 
 of a stratagem. They tried to persuade the Austrians 
 that the armistice of which there had been rumours 
 afloat for the last few days was actually signed. Two 
 French generals were the first to arrive on the bridge 
 at the head of the 10th Hussars; they demanded 
 to speak to the German commander, and were 
 allowed to pass, but alone. Some French soldiers 
 followed and halted, whilst Lannes and Murat dis- 
 mounted, and with a small detachment passed on 
 to the bridge. General lBelliard, as if taking 
 a stroll, advanced also, his hands behind his back; 
 Lannes joined him; they were gaining ground 
 
1805. ] THE EMPIRE. 33 
 
 notwithstanding the objections of the captain on duty. 
 These were seemingly unnoticed, and two or three French 
 officers engaged him in conversation and talked about 
 the armistice. He, however, was losing patience, 
 and when he saw the detachment advancing still 
 farther, he began to rally his men; but Lannes and 
 Belliard took hold of him and shouted louder than 
 he. The dispute was waxing hot, the moment critical, 
 when the French troops quickened their pace, crossed 
 the remaining distance, reached the other side, and 
 made themselves masters of those who were to fire the 
 train. Auersberg had been duped, and was summoned 
 before a council of war, deprived of his rank and dignity, 
 and condemned to a year’s confinement in a fortress. 
 The Suchet division and the grenadiers of Oudinot 
 crossed also; the light cavalry immediately continued 
 their advance, in order to impede the march of the 
 Russian general, Kutusoff, the same who had been 
 defeated by Mortier, at Diirrenstein; Soult followed ; 
 Bernadotte had passed the Danube at Mautern, while 
 Davoust occupied Vienna. SJKutusoff, knowing that 
 Bernadotte was in his rear, is said to have sent a flag 
 of truce to Murat in the name of the Czar, and to 
 have escaped by means of a pretended armistice with 
 the French general. When Murat, aware of the de- 
 ception, and severely reprimanded by the Emperor, 
 resumed his march, he found that the whole of the 
 Russian army had defiled rapidly in his rear, and that 
 only a corps of ten thousand troops had remained 
 
 stationary. A sanguinary engagement ensued, but the 
 d 
 
o4 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1805. 
 
 Russians offered a stout resistance, which gave their 
 general time to reach Brunn (18th November). 
 
 The Allies, aware that the war was assuming a 
 new aspect, ordered the Archduke Ferdinand to raise 
 an insurrection in Bohemia, while his army should 
 cover the left flank of the Russian troops and the 
 remainder of the Austrians, who had effected their 
 junction at Brunn. The Archduke Charles re-crossed 
 the Alps, entered Hungary, and was thus enabled to 
 protect the Austro-Russian contingent on the nght. 
 
 This Archduke had been scarcely more fortunate in 
 Italy than his fellow-generals in Germany. When Austria 
 first resolved to join the Coalition, she intended to carry 
 the war into Italy, while merely remaining on the defen- 
 sivein Germany. In furtherance of this plan, approved 
 of by her Alles, she had despatched thither a numerous 
 army under the Archduke, who had instructions to 
 invade the newly-created kingdom the moment the 
 Russians should appear on the Inn. We have seen 
 how this intention was frustrated by the rapid advance 
 of the French on the Rhine, but Napoleon, who 
 intended to remain on the defensive in Italy, and had 
 taken his measures accordingly, emboldened by his 
 first successes on the Rhine, also changed his tactics, 
 and ordered Masséna to take the offensive, mainly to 
 prevent the reinforcements which Charles might send into 
 Germany. Acting upon this, Masséna attacked Verona, 
 and the ¢éfe du pont at Legnago, carried them both 
 after a violent engagement (17th October), crossed the 
 Adige, and followed the Archduke, who had entrenched 
 
1805. ] THE EMPIRE. 30 
 
 himself at Caldiero. Another engagement took place, 
 in which the Austrians maintained their positions 
 for three days, though with a loss of four thousand 
 killed, whilst the French lost as many (30th October). 
 When the news of the defeat of Ulm arrived, the 
 Austrians precipitately retreated towards the Alps. 
 Masséna, still at their heels, failed for some days in 
 bringing them to a standstill to offer battle. The 
 Archduke, harassed and fatigued, wishing to give 
 his troops some rest, threw four battalions of grena- 
 diers and some field artillery into Vicenza. After a 
 fruitless summons to surrender, Masséna resolved to take 
 that town, and being unsuccessful, contemplated to resume 
 the attack the next day; but the Austrians evacuated 
 the place during the night, having accomplished their 
 aim, namely, to give time for the artillery and the 
 wings of the army to join the centre. Masséna pursued 
 them, without being able to force them to give battle, 
 until he arrived at the right bank of the Taghamento, 
 where the Archduke, after throwing a garrison into 
 Venice, made a stand in. order to cover the march of 
 his baggage-waggons on Palma-Nova. A serious en- 
 gagement took place, a repetition of which was again 
 avoided by the Archduke, who crossed the Julian Alps, 
 concentrated his troops at Laybach, and there awaited 
 the junction with the army of the Tyrol in order to 
 march to the assistance of Vienna. Masséna was not 
 in a position to follow him,.as troubles had broken out 
 afresh in the Kingdom of Naples, where the Queen, 
 
 disregarding the treaty entered into by her husband, had 
 d 2 
 
36 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1805. 
 
 invoked the aid of the Anglo-Russians, and placed an 
 army of twenty-five thousand troops at their disposal, 
 with which the Roman territory was to be invaded. 
 Without communication with the grand army, unaware 
 of the taking of Vienna, of the operations of Ney and 
 Augereau on his left, of the position of the Archduke 
 John, uneasy at the reported arrival of the Anglo- 
 Russians in Dalmatia and in Naples, Masséna deemed 
 it wiser not to venture too far, and contented himself 
 by sending out strong reconnoitring parties, and by 
 making himself master of Trieste. The corps which on 
 the conclusion of the treaty with Naples had left that 
 kingdom was employed to invest Venice. 
 
 The troops under the Archduke John, after remain- 
 ing for some time idle in the Tyrol, held in check by 
 Ney, and harassed in their retreat by a detached 
 brigade of Masséna, had managed to join the Arch- 
 duke Charles at Cilly, whence both endeavoured to 
 get to Vienna by way of Hungary and the Danube, 
 in this way to harass the flank or rear of the French, 
 and jom the Russians in Moravia. But Marmont 
 going to their encounter, compelled them to make for 
 the Raab, while Davoust, possessing himself of Presburg, 
 and forcing the Hungarian Diet to remain neutral, 
 opposed a formidable barrier in front ; Masséna, having 
 passed the Alps, harassed their rear. 
 
 Meanwhile Napoleon had moved his head-quarters 
 into Moravia, as far as Brunn, the Russians having 
 retreated to Olmiitz. At the moment when another 
 great battle was to be fought, a war contribution of forty 
 
1805. ] THE HMPIRE. 37 
 
 millions of francs was levied on Austria, Moravia, and 
 the remainder of the conquered provinces, whilst one 
 of the same amount had already been paid before. 
 The stores of the Austrian arsenals which could not be 
 used were sold, and their proceeds distributed among 
 the French army in the shape of three months’ extra 
 pay to every general, officer, and soldier who had been 
 wounded in the present war. 
 
 After several days passed in pretended negotiations, 
 tacitly encouraged by Napoleon, who wished to gain 
 time in order to discover the blunders of his enemy, 
 the Alles took the offensive on the 27th of Novem- 
 ber by driving the French outposts from Wischau, and 
 executing a movement towards Austerlitz, which be- 
 trayed their intentions of cutting off the French from 
 Vienna, whither, however, the latter had no thought 
 of retirmg. The military movements of Murat, 
 TLannes, and Soult were mistaken for retreats, and 
 the Russians continued their tactics to cut off the 
 French communications with the Danube. 
 
 Napoleon left them in their error to attract them 
 to the spot chosen by himself, which was the plateau 
 of Austerlitz. He succeeded in this; for the Russians, 
 fearing that the French army should escape them, 
 slowly left their positions, and executed a flank march 
 in column, by which they attempted to turn the nght 
 flank of the enemy. From that moment Napoleon was 
 certain of the victory. ‘‘ To-morrow, before nightfall, 
 that army will be mine,” he said. 
 
 On the 2nd of December the battle began. The 
 
38 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOOH. [1805. 
 
 Allies commenced the attack by carrying the village 
 of Sokolnitz; but the French troops, under Soult,. 
 stormed the heights of Pratzen, and after a desperate 
 conflict of two hours’ duration, the allied army was 
 pierced through the centre, and its left wing entirely 
 separated. The Russian right was also completely 
 defeated, by Bernadotte, Murat, and Lannes, with 
 the loss of nearly half their number. At last, after a 
 tremendous cavalry encounter between the Russian 
 Imperial Guard and the French Cavalry of the 
 Guard, the Russians gave way and retreated. The 
 loss of the Alhes was immense. Thirty thousand men 
 were killed, wounded, or made prisoners; a hundred 
 and eighty pieces of cannon, four hundred caissons, 
 and forty-five standards fell in the hands of the con- 
 querors. Napoleon might well say to his brave troops, 
 ‘JT am satisfied with you; you have covered your eagles 
 with immortal glory.” 
 
 The consequences of this victory were very great. 
 Two days after a personal interview between the Austrian 
 and French Emperors (December 4th), an armistice was 
 concluded, which was ratified three weeks later at Pres- 
 burg, and by which it was stipulated that the French 
 were to occupy all those portions of Upper and Lower 
 Austria, the Tyrol, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and 
 Moravia, at present in their possession ; that the Rus- 
 sians should return to their own country; that all insur- 
 rectionary movements in Hungary and Bohemia were to 
 be stopped, and no armed force of any other Power should 
 be permitted to enter Austrian territory. The Russian 
 
1805. ] THH HMPIRE. 39 
 
 Emperor was allowed to retire with his troops by 
 slow marches, but renewed the war later on, so that 
 Napoleon said of Alexander, that “he was as false as 
 a Greek of the Lower Empire.” The King of Prussia 
 sent an envoy to compliment Napoleon on his victory, 
 and signed a treaty with the latter by which he ceded to 
 France the Margravate of Anspach and the principalities 
 of Neufchatel and Cleves, for which he received in 
 return the Hlectorate of Hanover. The King of Naples, 
 who had assisted the Coalition by placing his army 
 on a war-footing, under the direction of a Russian 
 general, was to be dethroned, and Joseph, Napoleon’s 
 brother, was some time afterwards appointed King of 
 the T'wo Sicilies (March 30th, 1806). 
 
 But whilst the French were triumphant on land, 
 the English gained a naval Austerlitz. The French 
 admiral, Villeneuve, wishing to retrieve his reputation, 
 and being in command of thirty-three line-of-battle ships 
 and five frigates, attacked the English fleet, composed 
 of seven-and-twenty ships of the line and four frigates, 
 under Nelson and Collingwood, a few leagues to the 
 north-west of Cape Trafalgar (October 21st). The result 
 was that nineteen large French or Spanish vessels were 
 taken, of which five afterwards escaped to Cadiz, sixteen 
 were either wrecked, burnt, or sunk, and only four arrived 
 safe at Gibraltar, as well as three French admirals and 
 seven thousand prisoners. By this victory England 
 remained mistress of the sea, and had no longer any ma- 
 ritime rivalry to dread. It was, however, dearly bought, 
 by the death of the great English admiral, Nelson. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 § I.—THE PROGRESS OF IMPERIALISM. 
 (From the 27th of December, 1805, to the Tth of July, 1807.) 
 
 ImmepraTexy after having gained the battle of Austerlitz, 
 it seems that Napoleon intended to form three compact 
 nations of fifteen million Italians, thirty million 
 Germans, and fifteen million Spaniards, and to create 
 a system of federal States to the French Empire. We 
 have already seen that Joseph Bonaparte had been 
 appointed to fill the Neapolitan throne; another of 
 the Emperor's brothers, Louis, was named King of 
 Holland; Massa and Carrara were given to his sister 
 Eliza; and Guastalla to another sister, Pauline; Murat 
 became Grand Duke of Berg, Berthier Prince of 
 Neufchatel, Talleyrand Prince of Benevento, Bernadotte 
 Prince of Pontecorvo, Cambacérés and Lebrun Dukes 
 of Parma and Piacenza; whilst he created the Venetian 
 provinces Dalmatia, Istria, Treviso, Conegliano, Belluno, 
 Feltre, Friuh, Bassano, Vicenza, Cadore, Rovigo, and 
 Padua into duchies, which were bestowed as fiefs on 
 the principal officers of his army. 
 
 The creation of these Imperial fiefs caused great dis- 
 satisfaction, not alone amongst the nations who were 
 despoiled and partitioned without being consulted, but 
 even amongst the French people, who had shed their 
 blood for what they thought liberty, and found they 
 
1806. ] THE HMPIRE. 41 
 
 had only done so in order to create a new dynasty 
 and a military aristocracy. Since the victory of Auster- 
 litz Napoleon became more despotic, and cared more 
 for the aggrandisement of his family and partisans 
 than to benefit France. He also made a law by which 
 persons ennobled were entitled to entail a certain income, 
 under the name of majorat, in favour of their direct 
 descendants, and thus could continue an hereditary title. 
 Through similar means he endeavoured to prove to 
 Hurope that he was an enemy to anarchy and the 
 restorer of society. 
 
 All the arts of government seemed to bear the same 
 aristocratic impress. Forest property was arbitrarily 
 ceded to émzgrés who had possessed it before the Revo- 
 lution; for it was the opinion of the Emperor that it 
 was impossible to govern without the ancient families 
 receiving back their large fortunes. Many monopolies 
 of former times were re-established; the taxes on 
 salt, sugar, and the town-duties were increased, the 
 prefects became more tyrannical, arbitrary imprison- 
 ments were multiplied, letters were broken open; at the 
 Abbey of St. Denis, where until now only Kings had 
 been buried, tombs were prepared for the Napoleonic 
 dynasty, the Republican calendar was abolished, the 
 15th of August was declared to be the feast of the 
 patron saint of the Emperor, and, finally, the Imperial 
 Court was governed by a code of etiquette, consisting 
 of eight hundred and nineteen clauses. But it must 
 also be stated that the Bank of France was reorganised 
 on a better footing, that a corps of engineers, des ponts 
 
4.2 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1806. 
 
 et chaussées, was created, that schools for daughters. of 
 members of the Legion of Honour were erected, that 
 councils to arrange the quarrels between masters and 
 men were instituted, and that prizes were founded for 
 improvements in arts and sciences. Moreover, the roads 
 of Mont Cenis and of the Simplon were completed, a 
 vast network of canals was spread over France, and, 
 finally, Paris became greatly embellished, for 1t was the 
 imperor’s wish “ that that illustrious city, which had 
 become the first in the universe, should befit by its 
 splendour so glorious a destiny.” 
 
 Yet the governments of Hurope did not credit 
 Napoleon’s pacific intentions. How could they, when at 
 his instigation the Confederation of the Rhine was formed 
 (July 12th), by which the Kings of Bavaria and Wurtem- 
 berg, the Archbishop of Ratisbon, the Elector of Baden, 
 the Grand Duke of Berg, the Landgrave of Hesse- 
 Darmstadt, and ten other petty German princes, severed 
 themselves for ever from the German Empire, and 
 placed themselves under the protection of the Emperor 
 of the French? <A new Coalition was formed against 
 France, of which England, Russia, and Prussia were the 
 chief members. War was declared, and Saxony was 
 invaded by Prussian troops (loth September). The 
 army of the Alles, under the command of the Duke of 
 Brunswick, numbered about a hundred and thirty-five 
 thousand men, whilst the French had about a hundred 
 and ninety thousand troops, of which the bulk was con- 
 centrated round Coburg and Bamberg. The Duke of 
 Brunswick arrayed his army on both sides of the 
 
1806. ] THE EMPIRE. 43 
 
 Thuringian Forest, with the design of pushing on to 
 Hisenach, pierce the centre of the valley of the Maine, 
 the base of the operations of the French, and cut them 
 off from their communications. Napoleon formed his 
 army in three columns, of which the right was com- 
 -manded by Soult and Ney, the centre by Bernadotte 
 and Davoust, with Murat at the head of the cavalry, 
 and the left by Lannes and Augereau. The latter 
 column met the enemy near Saalfeld, and defeated 
 him (October 10th) with a loss of twelve hundred 
 killed, amongst whom was their general, Prince Louis 
 of Prussia. On the news of this defeat, the Duke of 
 Brunswick hastened to evacuate the Thuringian Forest 
 and to retreat towards Weimar, in order, if possible, 
 to save the stores at Naumburg, and to give time 
 for the reserve to come up. But Napoleon, with the 
 army under his command, prevented this; so that 
 the Prussians had to march to Freyburg to gain the 
 Elbe, whilst the left wing, under Prince Hohenlohe, 
 kept the pass of Jena, and was to be supported by 
 the nght wing still at Weimar. 
 
 At the approach of the French troops, Hohenlohe 
 evacuated the heights of Jena, intending to join the 
 army under the Duke. The French Emperor was 
 not slow in perceiving this, and thinking that he 
 had the whole Prussian army before him, he ordered 
 Murat to hasten from Dornburg to Jena; while Davoust 
 and Bernadotte were directed to advance from Naum- 
 burg, the first upon Apolda, in order to threaten the 
 enemy's rear, the second upon Dornburg, to cut off his 
 
AL THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1806. 
 
 retreat to Prussia. ‘‘ Soldiers,” said the Emperor, ‘ the 
 Prussian army is turned, as the Austrian was a year 
 ago at Ulm; it now only combats to secure the means 
 of retreat. The corps which should permit itself to 
 be broken would be dishonoured.” And during the 
 night he made of the Landgrafenberg, the steepest 
 hill of the mountain-ridge near Jena, a kind of fortified 
 camp, whence, on the 14th of October, the French, 
 under Lannes, Augereau, Soult, and Ney, rushed down. 
 After a battle which raged furiously for several 
 hours, the Prussians were defeated, whole regiments 
 were destroyed, whilst a German corps of twenty 
 thousand men, which came too late on the field, was 
 almost totally annihilated. The cavalry, under Murat, 
 completed the victory and bore down with loud cheers 
 on the retiring lines. Soon the rout, became general ; 
 infantry and cavalry were blended together, and fled 
 pell-mell to Weimar. 
 
 In the meanwhile the army under the Duke of 
 Brunswick and the King of Prussia had arrived at the 
 village of Auerstadt, and a division was ordered to 
 seize the defile of Koessen. But that defile had been 
 already occupied by Davoust, who was marching upon 
 Apolda, and who had only twenty-six thousand men 
 of whom four thousand were cavalry, to oppose against 
 fifty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry. One 
 of the French divisions, commanded by General Gudin, 
 had in the beginning to bear the whole brunt of the 
 attack of the enemy, because the other two divisions 
 had not yet crossed the Saal. These brave troops 
 
1806. ] THE EMPIRE. 45 
 
 formed themselves into squares, and supported by a 
 terrible artillery fire, resisted all the charges of the 
 Prussians with indomitable resolution, though they 
 lost nearly half their number. At last the two 
 other divisions of Davoust’s army appeared, and 
 the conflict became more equal. In vain did the 
 Prussians repeatedly try to break the French squares ; 
 they were always received by an uninterrupted fire and 
 by the hedge of bayonets of the kneeling front ranks. 
 At last the French became masters of the heights of the 
 Sonnenberg, from whence their guns could command the 
 field of battle and open a tremendous fire of grape 
 and canister upon the enemy’s columns. ‘Then Davoust 
 resolved to strike a decisive blow, and though the Prussian 
 reserve troops were fifteen thousand strong, posted on 
 an eminence and protected by the fire of a powerful 
 battery, they were driven from their positions with the 
 loss of twenty pieces of cannon. They retreated and 
 met the fugitives from the former army of Hohenlohe, 
 who had been defeated at Jena. Now the retreat be- 
 came a complete rout: infantry, cavalry, and artillery 
 fled in the greatest confusion, leaving their guns, 
 horses, and ammunition-waggons behind them; there 
 were no longer any generals, there was no longer any 
 order. Even the King of Prussia himself narrowly 
 escaped being made a prisoner. ‘The loss of the 
 Prussians was enormous. Nearly twenty-five thousand 
 were killed in these two battles, and more than 
 that number made prisoners; of their four principal 
 generals, General Schmettau was killed, whilst the 
 
46 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1806. 
 
 Duke of Brunswick, Marshal Moellendorf, and General 
 Ruchel were severely wounded. Besides this three hun- 
 dred pieces of cannon and sixty standards fell into the 
 hands of the French. Erfurth surrendered the day after 
 the battle, and the King fled first to Sommerda and 
 then to Magdeburg; the remaining Prussian troops, 
 under Kalkreuth, were defeated by Soult, at Nord- 
 hausen, and, after losing three thousand men and twenty 
 pieces of cannon, completely disbanded. 
 
 The French Emperor left his enemy no rest, but 
 ordered his troops to advance. Bernadotte defeated 
 the Prince of Wurtemberg, who lost many men and 
 guns; Davoust took Leipsic and Wittenberg, and his 
 corps was the first to enter Berlin (October 25th). 
 Napoleon made his triumphal entry two days later, and 
 stopped first at Potsdam, from whence he sent the 
 sword of Frederick the Great to Paris. He also 
 levied an extraordinary war contribution of one hundred 
 million francs on the Prussian States to the west of the 
 Vistula, one of twenty-four million francs on the smaller 
 States in the Prussian Confederacy, and one of twenty- 
 five million francs on the Elector of Saxony. Moreover, 
 the civil authorities were compelled to take an oath of 
 fidelity to the French Emperor; and later on the con- 
 quered territory was divided into four departments. 
 Then he addressed a proclamation to the army, in which 
 he said: “Soldiers! you are worthy defenders of my crown, 
 and of the great people. . . . Oneof the first Powers 
 in Europe, which recently had the audacity to propose 
 to us a shameful capitulation, is annihilated. 
 
1806. ] THE HMPIRE. 47 
 
 All the Prussian provinces, from the Elbe to the Oder, 
 are in our hands. Soldiers! the Russians boast that 
 they are advancing to meet us. . . . Weill spare 
 them the half of their journey; they will find an 
 Austerlitz in the heart of Prussia.” 
 
 Prince Hohenlohe, after various adventures, was 
 obliged to lay down his arms near Prentzlow, with 
 sixteen thousand men; Lannes and Murat captured 
 there sixty cannons and forty-five standards. Another 
 Prussian column, six thousand men strong, surren- 
 dered also at Passewalck. The fortresses on the 
 Oder soon capitulated. Stettin was the first, Custrin 
 followed, though both might have held out, as they 
 had enough guns and were well garrisoned. The only 
 corps of the Prussian army still remaining in the field 
 was composed of eighteen thousand infantry and six 
 thousand cavalry, under General Blucher. He was 
 compelled to throw himself into Lubeck, which he 
 defended until that town was carried by assault. 
 He finally was driven with his troops to the very 
 edge of Danish territory, and obliged to surrender, 
 having only four thousand foot-soldiers and three 
 thousand seven hundred cavalry left. That same 
 day (8th November), Magdeburg, with twenty 
 thousand men, eight hundred ,pieces of cannon, and 
 immense magazines, well stored, fell into the hands of 
 the French. The King of Prussia had fled to Koénigs- 
 berg with fifteen thousand men, the only remnant of 
 his once powerful army, and refused to ratify the 
 armistice proposed to him by the French Emperor, by 
 
48 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1806. 
 
 which he was to give up to him all the provinces 
 between the Rhine and the Elbe. 
 
 The conquest of Prussia was now ended, but a 
 hundred thousand Russians were arriving on the 
 Vistula, and the war was becoming more complicated 
 than ever. In the meanwhile Napoleon, on the 20th 
 of November, published his Berlin decree, which 
 declared :—‘‘ 1. The British Islands are placed in a 
 state of blockade. 2. Every species of commerce and 
 communication with them is prohibited; all letters 
 or packets addressed in English, or in English 
 characters, shall be seized at the post-office, and their 
 circulation interdicted. 3. Every British subject, of 
 what rank or condition whatever, who shall be found 
 in the countries occupied by our troops or those of our 
 allies, shall be made prisoner of war. 4. Every ware- 
 house, merchandise, or property of any sort, belonging 
 to a subject of Great Britain, or coming from its manu- 
 factories or colonies, 1s declared good prize. 5. Com- 
 merce of every kind in English goods is prohibited; 
 and every species of merchandise belonging to England, 
 or emanating from its workshops or colonies, is declared 
 good prize. 6. The half of the confiscated value shall 
 be devoted to indemnifying those merchants whose 
 vessels have been seized by the English cruisers, for the 
 losses which they have sustained. 7. No vessel coming 
 directly from England, or any of its colonies, or having 
 touched there since the publication of the present 
 decree, shall be received into any harbour. 8. Every 
 vessel which, by means of a false declaration, shall have 
 
1806. ] THE EMPIRE. 49 
 
 effected such entry, shall be liable to seizure, and the 
 ship and cargo shall be confiscated as if they had also 
 belonged to England.” It further provided two prize- 
 courts, one at Paris and one at Mulan, and stated 
 that this decree should be communicated to all Kings 
 and Princes allies’ of the French Emperor. It was 
 ordered to be acted upon with the utmost severity. 
 The consequences were that smuggling went on on a 
 large scale; that all colonial produce and warm clothing 
 tripled in price; ‘that women with their half-naked 
 children knelt around the piles where English goods 
 were burned, shouting, ‘ For Heaven’s sake, give them 
 rather to us!’”’ 
 
 The dismissal of the Hospodars or governors of 
 Wallachia and Moldavia by the Turkish Sultan, with- 
 out the consent of Russia, and which was against the 
 stipulations of the treaty concluded between these two 
 Powers in 1802, led to hostilities. The Russian troops 
 entered the Turkish territory under General Michelson, 
 and advanced as far as Bucharest. Servia revolted 
 against the Porte, and Turkey sent an army on the 
 Danube, whilst it concluded a close alliance with France. 
 
 In the meanwhile the French troops advanced still 
 farther into Prussian Poland, and the Poles rose up 
 in rebellion both against Prussia and Russia. When 
 Napoleon arrived at Posen he was received with great 
 applause by the people, who entreated him to assist 
 in the restoration of their country. He hesitated ; 
 he armed the Prussian Poles, and gave them a Pro- 
 visional Government; but he refused to enter upon 
 
 e 
 
50 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1806. 
 
 any engagements with the Russian Poles, and even 
 reassured Austria about Galicia. In a bulletin ad- 
 dressed to the Poles, he said: ‘‘ Is the throne of Poland 
 about to be restored, and is the nation destined to 
 resume its existence and independence? From the 
 depth of the tomb is it destined to start into life? 
 God alone, who holds in His hands the combination of 
 great events, is the Arbiter of that grand political 
 problem; but certainly never was an event more 
 memorable or worthy of interest.” The Russians had 
 not been idle, and, accompanied by fifteen thousand 
 Prussians, occupied Warsaw; but on the approach of 
 the French, they evacuated that town, and took up a 
 position towards Pultusk on the Narew. There a 
 serious conflict took place, in which the latter were 
 victorious, as well as at some other places; so that, 
 finally, the Russian general, Kamenskoi, in full retreat, 
 ordered the artillery, which impeded his march, to be 
 sacrificed. But General Benningsen disobeyed him; he 
 resolved to delay the French army at Pultusk, in order 
 to give time to the artillery and equipages to come 
 up (December 26th). The mud was ankle-deep, a 
 heavy fall of snow blinded French and Russians, who 
 both lost a large number of men, but the object of 
 the latter was attained; the advance of the French 
 troops was delayed. The frightful state of the roads 
 and the severity of the season also contributed to this, 
 and finally the French Emperor issued orders for the 
 
 troops to go into winter quarters whilst he returned 
 with the Guards to Warsaw. 
 
1807.] THE HMPIRE. 51 
 
 The Russians did not leave the French at rest. 
 Benningsen, who commanded them, crossed over into 
 Hast Prussia, but met a check at Mohrungen (Janu- 
 ary 24th). Napoleon ordered Bernadotte to retreat 
 towards Thorn, so as to draw on the enemy, whilst 
 he himself would attack their rear. His dispatches 
 were intercepted; and finally the Russians made a 
 stand at Hylau, resolved to give battle in order to 
 free Konigsberg. The French troops under Soult 
 drove them out of LEylau, and Napoleon believed 
 them in full retreat, when the next day (February 
 7th), the Russians again attacked this town. The 
 battle raged amidst a heavy fall of snow, the loss 
 on both sides was immense, but the victory was 
 undecided, though Benningsen retreated in good order 
 towards Kénigsberg. There never was a more hideous 
 field of battle fought in the depth of winter, amidst 
 ice and snow. Even Ney shrugged his shoulders 
 and said, “All this for nothing!” And Napoleon 
 himself, perceiving his own troops to be very gloomy, 
 shared in their emotion, and said, “ What a curse 
 
 9? 
 
 is war “Tt might be said that no one 
 was able to fight any more through cold, horror, 
 and inability to stir. . . : ‘Therefore the French 
 declared themselves victorious, and remained masters 
 of a field of dead bodies. On the evening after the 
 battle, Napoleon invited the officers of the artillery, 
 who had saved the army, to take supper with him. 
 In order to arrive at the Emperor's quarters they had to 
 pass between two heaps of bodies, limbs torn asunder, 
 e 2 
 
52 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1807. 
 
 arms, heads—alas! those of their friends. It can 
 easily be believed that no one had any appetite. But 
 what was still more disgusting and sickened every- 
 body was to find a bank-note in each of the table- 
 napkins. Such was the delicacy of the Emperor. 
 He paid ready cash for the death of their friends.”! 
 
 Several of the fortresses in Silesia had already been 
 taken by the French general, Vandamme, and Dantzic 
 finally surrendered on the 27th of May. 
 
 Napoleon again prepared to take the offensive. 
 The Russians had been foiled several times in their 
 attacks on Soult and Bernadotte, and as the French 
 troops had crossed the river Passarge, the former 
 were obliged to fall back on the entrenched camp at 
 Heilsberg, which was attacked by the French on 
 the 10th of June. They had to withdraw amidst 
 frightful loss on both sides, but Napoleon moved on the 
 enemys flanks and threatened his magazines, which 
 compelled the Russians to evacuate their camp, and to 
 establish themselves in front of Bartenstein. The 
 superior military tactics of the French Emperor, how- 
 ever, forced the enemy to retreat by forced marches to 
 Friedland, a town situated on the left bank of the river 
 Alle, which there flows in a northern direction towards 
 the Baltic. Benningsen crossed the river and attacked 
 Lannes at Posthenen, a village about three miles from 
 Friedland (June 14th); a fresh French corps, under 
 Mortier, arrived to support the latter, and in spite of 
 the vigour of the onset, the French held their ground. 
 
 1 Michelet, Histoire du XIX. siecle, vol. iii., bk. iii., ch. 12. 
 
1807. ] THE EMPIRE. dd 
 
 Napoleon, who soon afterwards came on the field with 
 the whole of his army, exclaimed, “This is the anni- 
 versary of Marengo; the battle could not be fought 
 on a more propitious day.” ‘The order was given to 
 advance, and amidst prodigious carnage Friedland was 
 taken, and the Russians driven to retreat. A few 
 days later Komigsberg fell also into the hands of 
 the French, but without magazines or stores of any 
 importance. 
 
 As soon as the Russian Emperor Alexander saw 
 the French on the Niemen, and threatening the Polish 
 provinces of Russia, he resolved to ask for peace. A 
 personal interview between the two Emperors, which 
 lasted two hours, took place on a raft moored in the 
 centre of the river Niemen, near Tilsit. Finally 
 Alexander and Napoleon, as well as the King and 
 Queen of Prussia, went to reside in Tilsit, and after a 
 fortnight’s conference the treaties, named after that 
 town, were formally signed, the first treaty between 
 France and Russia on the 7th, the second between 
 France and Prussia on the 9th of July. By the 
 first, the Emperor Napoleon, as a mark of his regard 
 for the Emperor of Russia, agreed to restore to the 
 King of Prussia Silesia and nearly all his German 
 dominions on the right bank of the Elbe, with the 
 fortresses on the Oder and in Pomerania. ‘The Polish 
 provinces of Prussia were erected into a Grand Duchy 
 of Warsaw, and bestowed on the King of Saxony, 
 with the exception of the province of Bialystock, 
 containing two hundred thousand souls, which was 
 
54 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1807. 
 
 ceded to Russia; Dantzic was declared a free and 
 independent city; the Dukes of Oldenburg and 
 Mecklenburg were reinstated in their dominions, 
 but their harbours were occupied by French troops to 
 prevent the introduction of English merchandise ; the 
 Prussian provinces on the left bank of the Elbe, with 
 Hesse, Brunswick, and a part of Hanover, were erected, 
 in favour of JérOme Bonaparte, the Emperor's brother, 
 into a kingdom of Westphalia, whilst Napoleon was 
 accepted as mediator between Russia and Turkey. By 
 the second treaty, the King of Prussia acceded to the 
 stipulations of the first, closed his harbours to the 
 ships and commerce of Great Britain, and consented 
 to leave the fortresses in Silesia or on the Oder in the 
 hands of France, as a security for the payment of the 
 war-contributions, which amounted to over twenty-four 
 million pounds sterling. A secret convention was also 
 concluded between the French Emperor and the Russian 
 Autocrat, by which it was agreed that France should 
 unite with Russia to wrest from Turkey all its pro- 
 vinces in Europe, except Roumelia and Constantinople ; 
 and that Russia should make common cause with 
 France against England if peace was not concluded by 
 the Ist of November, on terms stipulating that the 
 flags of every nation should enjoy a perfect and entire 
 equality on every sea, whilst all the conquests made 
 of French possessions since 1805 were to be restored. 
 The Courts of Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Lisbon 
 should also be summoned to close their harbours 
 against English vessels. It is said that the two 
 
1807.] THE HMPIRE. 55 
 
 Emperors entered upon a still more secret convention by 
 which Moldavia, Wallachia, Bulgaria, and Servia were 
 to be allotted to Russia, whilst Greece, Macedonia, 
 Dalmatia, and all the sea-coasts of the Adriatic were to 
 be given to France; princes of the family of Napoleon 
 were to be placed on the Spanish and Portuguese 
 thrones; and Russia was also to take Finland. 
 
 Thus Napoleon abandoned the principles of French 
 politics; he considered the Turks and the Poles but as 
 auxiliaries, and after having entered upon an engage- 
 ment not to restore Poland, he even promised to aid in 
 the dismembering of Turkey. All the glory and 
 splendour belonged to the French Emperor, but all the 
 profit of the interview accrued to Alexander, for the 
 acquisition of Finland, the final consecration of the par- 
 tition of Poland, and the ruin of the Turkish Empire, 
 were of immense advantage to him, whilst the pro- 
 blematical thrones of Spain and Portugal not only did 
 not give Napoleon any direct benefit, but were the first 
 causes of his ruin. He had hoped to gain over and to 
 dazzle Alexander, to bring him at any price to consent 
 to the realisation of his grand dream, the destruction 
 of England, and he had only nominally succeeded. 
 The Czar promised everything, but left it to the future 
 to decide if he should keep his promises. 
 
CHAPTER IIL. 
 
 § I.—THE DECAY OF IMPERIALISM. 
 (From the 7th of July, 1807, to the 14th of October, 1809.) 
 
 Tue Revolution had been in existence only twenty years, 
 and already the whole of Europe was overturned. ‘The 
 French Empire had a population of forty millions, and 
 the Federal States, which were grouped around it, were 
 peopled by an equal number. The Emperor seemed to 
 be firmly established on his throne, the public con- 
 fidence was unshaken; the Princes and monarchs of 
 Europe who appeared in succession at his court, dazzled 
 the eyes of the multitude; the halo of his military glory 
 prevented the view of internal misery; the grandeur 
 and supremacy of the French nation compensated for 
 the absence of liberty; and the despotic head of the 
 State governed nations, as well as potentates, with a 
 rod of iron. Napoleon’s activity did not slacken; he 
 directed all the affairs of the State, whilst giving grand 
 entertainments ; he held councils, travelled far and near, 
 and had the most magnificent court in Europe, whilst 
 he restored palaces, planned monuments, and protected 
 letters, arts, and above all sciences. New industries 
 sprung up under his reign; beet-root sugar replaced 
 cane-sugar ; madder became extensively cultivated ; 
 spinning and weaving machines were invented, and 
 large sums were spent on public works. But all this 
 
1807-8. ] THE EMPIRE. 57 
 
 grandeur was erected without sufficient foundation, 
 and, therefore, could not last. France had not a single 
 ally, whilst in the north and in the south, Russia and 
 Spain were her enemies, though disguising their feel- 
 ings of hatred under the mask of alliances. The con- 
 scription was exhausting the population, the finances 
 did no longer work regularly, the army became 
 gradually more despotic, and, in short, the whole fabric 
 of the State rested only on the life of one man. 
 
 After the battles of Jena and Friedland, Napoleon 
 suppressed the Tribunate (September 18th, 1807), which 
 was replaced by three Committees of the Legislative Body, 
 each composed of seven members ; a new nobility with 
 high-sounding titles was organised (March Ist, 1808) ; 
 the grand dignitaries of the Empire received the title of 
 Princes; the ministers, the senators, the councillors of 
 State, the President of the Legislative Body, and the arch- 
 bishops became Counts; the presidents of the different 
 courts, the bishops, and the mayors of thirty-seven large 
 towns, Barons; and the members of the Legion of 
 Honour, Knights. Those titles could be transmitted 
 upon certain conditions, whilst the Emperor reserved to 
 himself the nght of admitting into the new nobility 
 those men who, in his opinion, had deserved it. Now he 
 began to distribute dignities, titles, money, and estates, 
 not only to his victorious generals, but even to former 
 Jacobins. He thought, by acting thus, to reconcile 
 ancient to modern France, to favour the fusion of 
 the former nobility with the nation; but he was 
 mistaken. The aristocratic émigrés ridiculed the bearing 
 
58 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.  [1807-8. 
 
 and behaviour of the Imperial nobles, who strutted 
 about, flaunting the rags of the aucien régime, which 
 did not even become them. Moreover, foreign nations 
 mocked the crowned adventurer, who thought to create 
 a nobility with fortunate soldiers and renegade and 
 apostate partisans of the Revolution. 
 
 All the creations of that period, though excellent 
 in themselves, bore a despotic impress. The censure 
 of the press was made more stringent; by the final 
 organisation of the University (March 17th, 1808), the 
 freedom of instruction became entirely destroyed, and 
 education was based on “ fidelity to the Imperial 
 monarchy, the depository of the happiness of the 
 people, and to the dynasty of Napoleon, the preserver 
 of the unity of France, and of all the Liberal ideas 
 proclaimed by the Constitution.” The Penal Code and 
 the institution of the jury became entirely changed, so 
 that there were less guarantees for personal liberty. A 
 court was established to verify the income and expenses 
 of the State, and to audit the public accounts; but 
 from this auditing was excepted the private domain 
 of the Emperor, which had then already risen to four 
 hundred millions of francs. However, the splendour of 
 the Peace of Tilsit dazzled every one, and France, which 
 had formerly worshipped on the altar of liberty, now 
 prostrated itself before the altar of glory. 
 
 The Englsh Government, having become aware that 
 the French Emperor was going to seize the Danish 
 fleet, resolved to forestall him. It sent a formidable 
 armament and a large fleet to the harbour of 
 
1807-8.] | THE EMPIRE. 59 
 
 Copenhagen, and demanded every ship belonging to the 
 Danish navy, promising that at the conclusion of the 
 general peace it should be restored to Denmark. This 
 demand was refused, whereupon the British troops 
 disembarked without meeting with any resistance, and 
 the town was invested. The artillery was landed, a 
 summons to deliver up the fleet was made anew, and 
 this being again rejected, the bombardment began, and 
 was continued for nearly three days and nights. Part 
 of the city was set on fire, and the Danes had no 
 alternative left but to sign a capitulation (September 
 7th, 1807). Early in October the British fleet and 
 army returned to England, bringing with them eighteen 
 Danish ships of the line, fifteen frigates, six brigs, 
 and twenty-five gunboats. The Danish Government 
 had immediately all English subjects living on its 
 territory arrested, confiscated their property, and con- 
 cluded an alliance with France, which was broken 
 only on the downfall of Napoleon. Russia declared 
 that the seizure of the Danish fleet was ‘an act of 
 violence of which history, so fertile in wickedness, 
 does not afford a parallel example.” It broke off all 
 diplomatic relations with England until satisfaction 
 should have been given to Denmark. Prussia and 
 even Austria were obliged to act in the same manner, 
 and finally Napoleon, by a decree dated from Mulan, 
 December 17th, 1807, declared that “every vessel, 
 of whatever nation, which shall have submitted to be 
 searched by British cruisers, or paid any impost levied 
 by the British Government, shall be considered as 
 
60 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.  [1807-8. 
 
 having lost the privileges of a neutral flag, and be 
 regarded and dealt with as an English vessel !” 
 
 The Turkish Sultan Selim, having been replaced by his 
 nephew, Mustapha IV. (May 29th, 1807), the new Sultan 
 signed an armistice with the Russians, who continued 
 to occupy Moldavia and Wallachia, and even refused to 
 evacuate it on the solicitation of Napoleon; whilst at the 
 same time they invaded Finland, which, later on, was 
 ceded to Russia (September 17th, 1809). The harmony 
 between the Pope and the French Emperor was also 
 not of long duration, and at last the French troops 
 entered Rome (February 2nd, 1808). Two months 
 afterwards an Imperial decree annexed several of the 
 Papal provinces to the Kingdom of Italy, on the ground 
 “that the actual sovereign of Rome had constantly 
 declined to declare war against the English, and to 
 coalesce with the Kings of Italy and Naples for the 
 defence of the Italan peninsula.’’ The Papal troops 
 were incorporated with the French army, the cardinals 
 were sent to their respective dioceses, and the authority 
 of the Pope was confined within certain narrow bounds. 
 Public opinion declared itself generally in favour of 
 Pius VII, who showed great resignation, whilst 
 Napoleon alternated between violence and moderation. 
 
 Spain, since the reign of Louis XIV. the ally of 
 France, had remained faithful to that alliance, even 
 after the Bourbons had descended from the French 
 throne. But when Napoleon was waging war with 
 Prussia, the Prime Minister, Manuel Godoy, the Prince 
 of Peace, the favourite of the old King Charles IV., 
 
1807-8. ] THH EMPIRE. 61 
 
 and, above all, of his wife, had been informed of the 
 intended spoliation of Spain, and had published two 
 proclamations (October, 1806), “in which he invited 
 all Spaniards to unite themselves under the national 
 standards . . .. . to enable the nation to enter 
 with glory in the lists which were preparing.” After 
 the battle of Jena the Prime Minister offered some 
 excuses, and only obtained his pardon by sending a 
 contingent of fourteen thousand Spanish troops to the 
 shores of the Baltic to join Bernadotte. But by this 
 time Napoleon had clearly perceived that he could no 
 longer reckon on a Spanish alliance, and that the 
 Spaniards would attack him in his rear whilst he should 
 be engaged in a war with Germany. He, therefore, 
 resolved to make the Peninsular monarchies French, 
 either by reforming them, by giving them monarchs 
 of his own choice, or by annexing the Spanish 
 provinces north of the Ebro; and to give Portugal 
 as a compensation to Spain. After the Conven- 
 tion of Tilsit, the French Emperor summoned the 
 Court of Lisbon to shut her ports against Eng- 
 land. The British Cabinet advised compliance with 
 his demand; but Napoleon perceived that he was 
 being temporised with. He sent Junot, at the head 
 of twenty-five thousand men, to reduce the Portu- 
 guese to submission, and the approach of the French to 
 the capital had the desired effect. The Portuguese 
 Prince Regent declared war against England; but it 
 seems probable that this step also was taken with the 
 connivance of the latter country. Before Junot could 
 
62 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1808. 
 
 make his way across the mountains, the royal 
 family of Portugal, accompanied by fifteen thousand 
 Portuguese nobles and wealthy gentlemen, had quitted 
 Lisbon for Brazil, and the English had taken pos- 
 session of the fleet. 
 
 Napoleon pushed his designs against Spain with 
 great vigour, and found a ready instrument for his 
 intrigues in Ferdinand, the son of the King, and 
 Prince of the Asturias, who actually asked the French 
 Emperor to assist him in his ambitious schemes. 
 The latter could have wished for no better pretext 
 of interference, and he forthwith sent Dupont 
 with twenty-eight thousand men across the frontier. 
 These were soon followed by an equal force under 
 Moncey, by ten thousand under Duhesme, and by 
 further contingents at brief intervals, whilst a new 
 levy of eighty thousand men was ordered in France. 
 Charles IV. and Godoy could do little or nothing 
 against this display of force. The French, placed 
 under the command of Murat, seized all the strong 
 positions south of the Pyrenees, and on the north- 
 eastern coast; and on the Ist of March, Napoleon 
 plainly declared his intention to annex the provinces 
 between the mountains and the Ebro, for which he 
 offered Portugal as a compensation. Godoy seemed 
 disposed to accept this bargain; but on second thoughts 
 he advised the King and Queen to flee before the 1m- 
 pending storm. Preparations were actually being 
 made for a migration to America, when the popular 
 indignation was roused by the news. At Aranjuez, 
 
1808. ] THH HMPIRE. 63 
 
 vo 
 
 where the Court was then assembled, the party of 
 Ferdinand took advantage of the feeling to provoke 
 an outbreak. The royal residence was_ besieged, 
 Godoy’s house was attacked, and Charles IV. was 
 compelled to abandon his project, and to dismiss 
 his Minister. Ferdinand pressed his advantage, and, 
 in the end, the King abdicated in favour of his 
 son. 
 
 The accession of Ferdinand VII. was hailed by the 
 Spanish people with enthusiastic applause, and in the 
 meanwhile Murat marched upon Madrid. The populace 
 received him with open arms (March 23rd), and 
 Charles and Ferdimand both appealed to him to take 
 them under his protection. At last the aged King 
 retracted his abdication, and wrote to Napoleon accusing 
 his son of treachery. The Emperor advised his Marshal 
 to temporise, and betook himself to Bayonne, pro- 
 bably intending to continue his journey to the Spanish 
 capital. If that had been in his mind, it was rendered 
 unnecessary by the abject conduct of the two claimants 
 to the throne. First the son, and then the father, came 
 personally to sue for the Emperor’s recognition. Na- 
 poleon, without any idea of permitting the restoration of 
 the father, demanded that the son should renounce his 
 claims to the throne. This Ferdinand at first refused ; 
 and whilst Napoleon was meditating upon his next 
 step, a sanguinary revolt broke out in Madnd. It 
 was not suppressed without much bloodshed; and the 
 effect of the news at Bayonne was to make the 
 Emperor yet more sternly demand the abdication of 
 
64 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1808. 
 
 Ferdinand, who was finally obliged to comply. As a 
 matter of form, Napoleon offered to replace Charles IV. 
 upon the throne; but the King was disenchanted by 
 all that had happened. He also signed his final 
 abdication (May 5th), which was acquiesced in by his 
 two sons. Under the inspiration of Murat, the Spanish 
 Government at Madrid offered the throne to Joseph 
 Bonaparte, who was already King of Naples and Sicily, 
 a crown which was, later on, given to Murat. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that Napoleon subsequently, 
 in his exile at St. Helena, attributed the beginning 
 of his disasters to the intrigues by which he drove 
 the Bourbons from Spain. 
 
 The revolt of the Spaniards spread. The whole 
 people rose in indignation against the treachery of 
 their rulers, and the presumption of the invaders. 
 This insurrection was hailed with acclamation in 
 England, which had long been waiting for a new oppor- 
 tunity to strike a blow at Napoleon. An alliance 
 was forthwith concluded between Great Britain and the 
 Spanish juntas, and in the course of the year 1808 
 the former country provided the Spaniards with 
 three millions sterling, and two hundred thousand 
 muskets. 
 
 In the meantime the Spanish patriots themselves 
 were not idle. Murat delayed his assumption of the 
 purple in Naples in order to direct the movement of 
 the French forces. After a few minor successes ob- 
 tained by the French, the Spaniards were beaten in 
 Castile; and they made no better stand in Galicia 
 
1808. ] THE EMPIRE. 65 
 
 and Valencia. But at Baylen the French under 
 Dupont suffered a notable defeat. Fifteen thousand 
 regulars and twice as many irregulars, commanded by 
 Castafios, who had received his orders from the supreme 
 junta of Seville, managed to surround Dupont, who had 
 only twelve thousand men. The French general was 
 obliged to capitulate, including in his surrender ten 
 thousand troops under General Vedel, whom Murat had 
 sent to his assistance (July 20th). The consequence of 
 this disaster was that the scattered French forces fell 
 back upon Madrid, Duhesme was besieged in Barcelona, 
 Joseph Bonaparte fled from the capital, whilst even 
 Junot found his position in Portugal untenable. 
 
 It was now the turn of the Portuguese to rise 
 against the invader; and England at once came to 
 the aid of the insurgents. Sir Arthur Wellesley, 
 who had landed at Oporto on the 26th of July, went 
 with the expedition to Mondego Bay, where he arrived 
 four days later, and advanced, with fifteen thousand 
 men, upon Lisbon. Junot attacked the English forces, 
 now sixteen thousand strong, at Vimiera (August 21st), 
 with such ill-success as to compel him to retire upon 
 the defiles of Torres Vedras. The defeat at Baylen 
 had shut off his retreat into Spain, and he therefore 
 proposed to evacuate Portugal, on condition that his 
 army should be sent back to France by sea, with all 
 the arms, baggage, and artillery, threatening to lay 
 the capital in ruins if his terms were not complied 
 with. The English thought fit to agree to this, and 
 the Convention of Cintra, erroneously so called, was 
 
 ap 
 
66 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1808. 
 
 signed (August 30th), and carried out, greatly to the 
 dissatisfaction of public opinion in England, which 
 bitterly reproached Sir Hew Dalrymple for concluding 
 such a compact. 
 
 Napoleon would doubtless have come to the rescue 
 of his armies in the Peninsula if it had not been 
 for the disquieting news of the armaments of Austria, 
 which was busily stirring up the whole of Central 
 Europe against her enemy. Under these circum- 
 stances it became necessary for the French Emperor 
 to cultivate good relations with Russia, and to this 
 end he arranged a meeting with the Czar Alexander 
 at Erfurth (September 27th). The Czar had set his 
 heart upon gaining possession of Constantinople ; but 
 Napoleon was not prepared to pay so high a price for 
 the Russian alliance. He agreed, however, to a scheme 
 whereby the Czar was to appropriate Finland, Mol- 
 davia, and Wallachia, in return for which Alexander 
 was to guarantee an army of one hundred and fifty 
 thousand men, in the event of an Austro-French war. 
 Simultaneously with the signature of this Convention, 
 the Czar secretly assured England of his continued 
 attachment to the cause of European independence. 
 From Erfurth the two Emperors offered a termination 
 of hostilities to the Government of Great Britain; but 
 the latter power refused to negotiate on any other 
 basis than the restitution of Naples and Spain to the 
 Bourbon dynasties. 
 
 The fear of an immediate attack from Austria was 
 removed by this meeting of the Emperors; and 
 
1808-9. ] THE EMPIRE. 67 
 
 Napoleon carried his grand army from Germany across 
 the Pyrenees. On this occasion he induced the Senate 
 to grant him one hundred and sixty thousand men, 
 of the old and new levies. His brother Joseph had 
 taken up his residence at Vittoria, where a French 
 army of a hundred thousand men was assembled. 
 Hither came Napoleon with his veterans and his new 
 conscripts; and within a few weeks the Spaniards 
 were beaten and cut to pieces at Burgos, at Espinosa, 
 at Tudela, at Madrid. An English force of about 
 twenty thousand men, under Sir John Moore, was on 
 its way to aid in the defence of the Spanish capital, 
 when an intercepted despatch made the English 
 general acquainted with the fall of that town. It 
 became, therefore, necessary to save the army by a 
 rapid retreat, and Moore at once fell back towards 
 Corunna, being hard pressed by Soult, and by Napo- 
 leon himself. It was a desperate march for the 
 English. They lost most of -their artillery, and 
 much of their baggage. Many thousand men died 
 of fatigue, disease, and the severity of the winter ; 
 but the remainder escaped from their pursuers. 
 Napoleon, once more alarmed by the news from 
 Austria, resigned the direction of the pursuit to Soult, 
 and departed from Spain. The Marshal succeeded in 
 forcing a battle on the English at the moment 
 when they came in sight of Corunna (January 16th, 
 1809). Sir John Moore died in action; but his retreat 
 had been so far a triumph that it enabled the survivors 
 to take ship and embark with all the sick, wounded, 
 f2 
 
68 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1809. 
 
 artillery, stores, and even prisoners, three days before 
 the fall of the town. 
 
 Meanwhile Saragossa was being besieged by Lannes, 
 directing the corps of Mortier and Moncey.  Palafox, 
 at the head of a garrison of irregular troops and un- 
 disciplined volunteers, heroically defended the city for 
 fifty days in open trenches, and for six weeks in desperate 
 conflicts, during which first the walls, then the streets 
 and houses, were successively contested. It capitu- 
 lated on the 21st of February, and as many as sixty 
 thousand human beings are said to have fallen on 
 both sides in the course of this sanguinary siege. 
 
 The success of the French was now complete. They 
 had regained the whole country, re-entered Madrid, 
 driven the English contingents from Spanish soil, and 
 bade fair to re-establish Joseph Bonaparte more firmly 
 than ever. But in the meantime affairs had grown 
 to a head in Central Europe. Austria’s efforts were 
 bearing fruit, and Napoleon’s enemies were assuming 
 more and more boldness in his absence. England, too, 
 had sent a hundred million francs to provide sinews of 
 war for the new Coalition. Prussia, and even Russia, 
 in spite of the Erfurth meeting, made contingent 
 promises of assistance. 
 
 Leaving his brother Joseph in charge of the army 
 in Spain, with Marshal Jourdan as his major-general, 
 Napoleon returned to France and prepared to meet the 
 Austrian Coalition. He ordered Davoust from the 
 north of Germany, with forty-five thousand men, to 
 advance upon Bamberg, whilst Mass¢éna, with fifty 
 

 
 1809. ] THE EMPIRE. 69 
 
 thousand, marched from Ulm to Augsburg. SBerthier 
 was provisionally appointed to the chief command, and 
 Marmont, Poniatowski, Prince Eugéne Beauharnais, 
 and Bernadotte approached with auxihary forces from 
 various directions. . There were in all two hundred 
 thousand men at the immediate disposal of Berthier, 
 whilst about a hundred thousand more were ready to 
 cross the frontiers. The levy of the Austrians, ex masse, 
 had raised the strength of their army to three hundred 
 and ten thousand men, of whom a hundred and seventy- 
 five thousand were in Germany, under the Archduke 
 Charles; twenty-five thousand in the Tyrol, under 
 Jellachich ; fifty thousand in Italy, under the Archduke 
 John; twenty thousand in Dalmatia, under Giulay ; and 
 forty thousand in Galicia, under the Archduke Ferdinand. 
 
 The French Emperor had ordered Berthier, in case 
 of attack, to concentrate his forces on the right bank of 
 the Danube, between Augsburg and Donauworth ; but 
 he either misunderstood or neglected this order, and 
 left his divisions scattered over a great extent and on 
 both sides of the river. Davoust was virtually sur- 
 rounded at Ratisbon, and if the Archduke Charles had 
 displayed greater genius or vigour, the French would 
 probably have suffered a severe defeat. The Emperor 
 saw the danger, and hastened to place himself at the 
 head of his troops. He at once made a fresh distribu- 
 tion of the various corps, and concentrated one hundred 
 and twenty thousand men upon Abensberg, where, after 
 several days’ fighting with the Austrian general, Hiller, 
 who was driven back upon Landshut, he cut off the 
 
70 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1809. 
 
 left wing from Charles’s army. Masséna, advancing on 
 the right bank of the river, compelled Hiller to fall back 
 still farther, with a loss of ten thousand prisoners and 
 almost as many killed. Meanwhile Archduke Charles, 
 having taken Ratisbon, slowly advanced, in the expecta- 
 tion of being joined by Hiller. But encountering 
 Davoust near Eckmihl, he offered battle, and Napoleon, 
 taking him suddenly in the rear, defeated him with a 
 loss of five thousand dead, and fifteen thousand prisoners. 
 The Archduke retired to Ratisbon, whither the French 
 Emperor immediately followed him. The town was 
 attacked and taken; but Charles, cutting the bridge 
 over the river, escaped into Bohemia with the bulk of 
 his army. In the five days’ fighting between the 
 17th and the 22nd of April, the French took many 
 thousand prisoners, a hundred guns, forty standards, 
 and three thousand caissons. 
 
 Napoleon now had a march of sixty leagues before 
 him to the Austrian capital. Hiller made a desperate 
 stand at Ebersberg, in order to give the Archduke time 
 to cross to the right bank of the Danube, and after 
 a terrible massacre, in which he lost one-fourth of his 
 army of thirty thousand men, and the French about 
 the same number, he joined Charles with the remains 
 of his force at Zwettel. Meanwhile Napoleon pushed 
 on to Vienna, which he reached, with Masséna and 
 Lannes, in the second week of May. After a bombard- 
 ment of a few hours, the capital surrendered on the 
 13th of May, and Bernadotte simultaneously defeated 
 a detachment of the Archduke’s army at Lintz. 
 
1809.] THE HMPIRE. 71 
 
 The great bridge at Vienna had been burnt, and 
 it became necessary for Napoleon to cross the Danube 
 in the face of a hundred thousand men. He himself 
 had only sixty thousand; though Davoust was coming 
 up with his corps, whilst Bernadotte and Van- 
 damme held the banks of the river as far as Passau. 
 The Emperor selected for his pomt of crossing a spot 
 some few leagues from the capital, where the Danube, 
 of considerable width, is divided into four branches. A 
 bridge of boats having been constructed, forty thousand. 
 Frenchmen crossed the stream, and took up their 
 position in the villages of Aspern and Essling, on 
 the plain of the Marchfeld. Here they were suddenly 
 attacked by the Austrians, who outnumbered them by 
 more than two to one, and who concentrated upon 
 them the fire of two hundred cannon. The Danube 
 was heavily swollen by the rains, and at the commence- 
 ment of the fight the bridge was broken. Lannes 
 and Masséna defended the villages throughout the 
 day, and retained possession of them at night. By 
 the next morning Napoleon had repaired the disaster, 
 and sent over three divisions, whilst Davoust was ready 
 to follow with the artillery. The Emperor himself 
 assumed the offensive with sixty thousand men, and 
 the Austrian centre had already given way before the 
 impetuous attack, when the bridge was once more 
 swept away. ‘The ammunition of the French was all 
 but exhausted, and Napoleon was obliged to order a 
 retreat upon Hssling. Six times in the course of that 
 day the two villages were taken and retaken, the 
 
72 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1809. 
 
 French being almost restricted to the use of the 
 bayonet. After a sanguinary struggle, during which 
 Lannes was killed, the night again found the French 
 troops in possession of Aspern and Essling; but it 
 was impossible to maintain the ground under such 
 conditions. The army was taken back across the 
 Danube (May 22nd), Masséna holding the Archduke in 
 check ; and Lobau, the largest of the islands in the 
 river, was retained until an opportunity should occur 
 for a fresh attempt. 
 
 The news of this partial victory of the Austrians 
 inspired the Coalition with fresh courage. Prussia 
 ordered a levy of a hundred thousand troops; England 
 engaged to land forty thousand men in Northern 
 Germany. Meanwhile Napoleon took a rest of six 
 weeks. On the 17th of May, from the Palace of 
 Schénbrunn, he issued a decree annexing the Roman 
 States to the Empire, for which he was excommuni- 
 cated by Pius VII. on the 20th of June. By 
 Murat’s orders the Pope was taken prisoner, and 
 confined in Grenoble, from whence Napoleon had him 
 transferred to Savona. 
 
 In the meanwhile the French had fortified the 
 island of Lobau, which they had connected by four 
 bridges with the mght bank of the river; and three 
 other bridges were ready to be thrown across to 
 the northern bank, so as to take the Austrian de- 
 fences in the rear. Davoust, Eugéne Beauharnais, 
 and Marmont had joined the Emperor, whose army 
 was thus brought up to a strength of a hundred 
 
1809. ] THE EMPIRE. 73 
 
 and fifty thousand men. ‘The Austrians were re- 
 inforced to the number of a hundred and _ seventy- 
 five thousand, and rested upon the villages of Aspern, 
 Hssling, and Enzersdorf, protected by redoubts mount- 
 ing a hundred and fifty guns. Napoleon made a 
 show of his intention to cross again at the same 
 point as before, and actually threw two _ bridges 
 on the bank in front of Aspern; but on the night 
 of the 5th of July, amidst a violent artillery fire 
 against Enzersdorf, the whole army crossed from the 
 extreme east of the long island of Lobau. Napoleon 
 thus took the Austrians on the flank, turning the 
 defensive works which they had constructed with so 
 much labour; and the Archduke was compelled to 
 fall back with his troops, behind the Russbach, on 
 Wagram. The French followed them, and at nightfall 
 the two armies faced each other. 
 
 On the next day, July 6th, Napoleon began the 
 attack, with Beauharnais, Oudinot, and Marmont in 
 the centre, Masséna and Bernadotte on the left, and 
 Davoust. on the right. The Archduke’s right drove 
 back Bernadotte, and took Essling from Masséna, thus 
 threatening the bridges; but Davoust succeeded in 
 crossing the Russbach. As soon as Napoleon saw 
 these troops appear, he exclaimed, “The battle is 
 gained!” and immediately sent forward to the attack 
 twenty-one battalions and a hundred guns, supported 
 by two divisions of cavalry and the Guard. Not 
 without great loss, this column pushed back the 
 centre of the Austrians; and the Archduke, who 
 
74 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1809, 
 
 personally commanded the right, was obliged to fall 
 back from Hssling. Meanwhile Davoust advanced on 
 Wagram ; and the enemy, his line being completely 
 broken, retreated in good order, leaving twenty-five 
 thousand men upon the field. The loss of the 
 French was scarcely inferior. Napoleon pursued the 
 Austrians, and overtook them at Znaym, where, 
 instead of risking another battle, the Archduke 
 proposed an armistice. So ended the fifth Coalition 
 against the Emperor. 
 
 The remainder of the year 1809 was distinguished 
 by the unfortunate expedition of forty thousand 
 English troops to Walcheren, of which the object 
 was to destroy the French armaments at Antwerp, 
 and by desultory fighting, without great results, in the 
 Peninsula. Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had been busy 
 reorganising his army at Lisbon, compelled Soult, 
 whom Napoleon had charged with driving the English 
 out of Spain and Portugal, to fall back, in a retreat 
 no less disastrous, and no less glorious, than that of 
 Sir John Moore. Soult managed to jom Ney at Lugo 
 (May 29th), but, unable to agree with his brother 
 marshal, he soon left him again; and the latter 
 was obliged to fall back. The jealousy displayed 
 towards Soult by the other French generals produced 
 more than one unfortunate result in the Peninsular 
 campaigns. Sir Arthur Wellesley, after shaking off 
 Soult in Portugal, determined to advance into Spain, 
 and to threaten the capital; and, whilst Beresford 
 and Del Parque, with a strong force of Spaniards, 
 
 
 
1809. ] . THH HMPIRE. 73) 
 
 kept the French occupied on the Douro, he made his 
 way as far as Talavera. Joseph Bonaparte set out from 
 Madrid, and, with the army of Victor and Sébastiant, 
 went to meet Wellesley, whilst Soult was ordered 
 to join the divisions of Ney and Mortier, and to fall 
 upon the flank and rear of the English. But the two 
 last-named generals were slow to carry out this ar- 
 rangement, and the consequence was that Joseph 
 attacked the English without their assistance, and was 
 badly beaten, with a loss of ten thousand men (July 
 27th and 28th). For this victory Sir Arthur Wellesley 
 was created Baron Douro of Wellesley and Viscount 
 Wellington of Talavera. 
 
 The Spanish King retired, leaving Victor, with 
 the bulk of his forces, behind; and the English com- 
 mander, hearing of the advance of Soult with a very 
 large force, thought it prudent to recross the Tagus, 
 and make for Portugal. French military authors 
 pretend that there was a moment during this retreat 
 when the French might have had the Alles at their 
 mercy ; but Soult’s advice was not followed to march 
 with ninety thousand men at once on Coria and Lisbon, 
 and during the whole of the campaign such an oppor- 
 tunity never again occurred. These authors also believe, 
 that if Napoleon had been in Spain, he might, perhaps, 
 have subjected for a while the whole Peninsula, and 
 have driven the English temporarily out of the country. 
 He was otherwise engaged, and his marshals were 
 unequal to the task in his absence. . 
 
 It was not until the 14th of October that the peace 
 
76 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1809. 
 
 negotiations were concluded at Vienna. By this treaty 
 Austria ceded Istria, Croatia, and Carniola to France, 
 Saltzburg and the surrounding districts to Bavaria, 
 Western Galicia to the Duke of Warsaw, and a part of 
 Eastern Galicia to Russia. The Emperor Francis re- 
 cognised Joseph as King of Spain, agreed. to limit his 
 army to one hundred and fifty thousand men, and to 
 pay £3,400,000 as a war indemnity. The defences of 
 Vienna were levelled to the ground, and the resistance 
 of Central Europe was crushed for more than five years 
 to come. 
 
 § II.—-THE LAST YEARS OF THE EMPIRE. 
 (From the 15th of October, 1809, till the 9th of March, 1813.) 
 
 Bonaparte was wont to declare in the most solemn 
 manner that his great aim was to live at peace with 
 his neighbours, and to consolidate the Empire to which 
 he had attained. It has, indeed, been plausibly argued 
 by some of those who incline to the most favourable 
 view of his character, that many of the great wars in 
 which he was engaged were the results of hostile 
 Coalitions against him, rather than of new aggressive 
 schemes on his own part. For instance, he did not 
 ‘court the war against Austria, last recorded; and ex- 
 cuses have even been found for his conduct in the Spanish 
 dynastic quarrels. It has been said that he frequently 
 expressed a wish that he could devote himself to the 
 arts of peace, to the encouragement of the national 
 industries, and the development of social life in France. 
 And, in fact, the arts of peace did flourish, strange as 
 
 
 
1809-10] THE EMPIRE. -- 
 
 the paradox may seem, in the midst of the Emperor’s 
 warlike enterprises. The French Court was splendid 
 and magnificent, its example of display set a fashion 
 throughout the country, and did much to extend 
 the refinement,and polish, hitherto confined amongst 
 the wealthier classes, to all grades of Frenchmen. 
 Vast sums of money were spent on public monuments, 
 and on artistic achievements of every kind. In 1810, 
 there was appropriated to public works a sum of a 
 hundred and thirty-eight million francs; and in the 
 following year this large amount was increased by 
 sixteen millions. 
 
 In order to strengthen his dynasty, as well as to 
 add brilliance to his court, the Hmperor determined 
 to separate from his childless wife Josephine, and to 
 marry into one of the reigning families of Hurope. 
 Though the Empress was extremely popular with the 
 French people, he was divorced, first by a decree 
 of the Senate, and next by the municipal authorities 
 of Paris. On the 2nd of April, 1810, he took to 
 wife Maria Louisa, a daughter of the Emperor Francis 
 of Austria, who was received in France with effusive 
 demonstrations of enthusiasm. ‘This act was, in one 
 sense, the acme of Napoleon’s triumph. The Con- 
 tinent was virtually at peace, in spite of the con- 
 tinued disturbances in Spain. The authority of the 
 Emperor was acknowledged from the Baltic to the 
 Mediterranean. Rome, Naples, Amsterdam, and 
 Madrid had fallen into his hands. LEngland, to 
 all appearance, was being gradually ruined by her 
 
78 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1810. 
 
 exclusion from Continental trade; and Russia, though 
 less subservient than her western neighbours, was yet 
 afraid of uttering a hostile word against the mighty 
 despot. France was enabled to recover from her 
 more open and conspicuous wounds. In 1810 the 
 expenditure of so vast an Empire fell as low as 
 seven hundred and. forty million francs; and there 
 were even calm and sensible men in every country 
 of Hurope who perceived in the home government 
 and social condition of the Empire a wise and bene- 
 ficent rule. To crown the glory and the hopes of 
 Napoleon, a child was born to him on the 20th of 
 March, 1811, on whom its father, in his overweening 
 pride, bestowed the title of the King of Rome. 
 Meanwhile the royal creatures of the Emperor, his 
 brothers and his marshals—Louis, King of Holland ; 
 Jéréme, King of Westphalia; Joseph, King of Spain ; 
 Murat, King of Naples ; Bernadotte, Crown Prince and 
 
 subsequently King of Sweden—had all more or less 
 
 
 
 begun to identify themselves with the spirit of their 
 peoples, and to play an independent part which caused 
 Napoleon no little embarrassment. Especially was this 
 the case with Louis and Jérdme, and with the Swedish 
 Crown Prince. The King of Holland shared even the 
 animosity of the Dutch against the French, or per- 
 mitted its display at his court ; and he counteracted the 
 anti-English policy of his brother by not suppressing 
 the contraband trade between Holland and England, 
 whereby the former country became a kind of ware- 
 house for English goods. Napoleon called him severely 
 
1810.) THE EMPIRE. 79 
 
 to task for this conduct, and finally demanded that 
 he should come to Paris. After heaping reproaches 
 upon him, he exacted his signature to a treaty, by 
 which Holland engaged to break off all intercourse 
 with England. The whole Dutch territories on the 
 left bank of the Rhine, including the isles of Wal- 
 cheren, South Beveland, and Cadsand, were ceded 
 to France, and eighteen thousand French troops were 
 despatched to guard the coast. A few months later 
 (July 9th), on the abdication of Louis, Holland 
 was formally annexed as well as the bulk of the 
 Kingdom of Westphalia, including the towns of 
 Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck. “A new order 
 of things,’ said Napoleon himself, ‘‘ dominates the 
 universe. Fresh guarantees having become necessary 
 for me, the union of the mouths of the Scheldt, 
 Meuse, Rhine, Ems, Weser, and Elbe with the Empire 
 appeared to me to be the first and most important of 
 these.” Davoust was selected to preside over these 
 new departments, the appropriation of which excited 
 the greatest mdignation in Hurope generally, whilst 
 it was a severe blow struck against England in 
 particular. 
 
 Joseph himself, recently as he had been lifted to 
 the throne of Spain, was already meditating an alliance 
 with England; and he entered into negotiations with 
 the insurgent Spanish leaders. The Emperor replied to 
 this ingratitude, as he naturally considered it, by placing 
 many of the Spanish provinces under the control of his 
 generals, with the express intention of preparing them 
 
80 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1810. 
 
 for union with France. Joseph tendered his abdication; 
 but his brother preferred to keep him in Spain, 
 rather than increase the difficulties of the situation. 
 Soult, Ney, and Kellermann continued to gain isolated 
 and barren successes over the insurgents, whilst 
 Wellington for a long time held aloof in Portugal ; 
 and Napoleon, retained in France by his marriage, and 
 by the many cares of his Empire, began to see that a 
 more united and determined effort would be necessary 
 before the English could be expelled from the Peninsula. 
 
 The beginning of 1810 found Masséna at the head 
 of sixty thousand men marching upon the western 
 kingdom by way of Ciudad Rodrigo; whilst about 
 sixty-five thousand troops under Joseph and Soult were - 
 directed to converge with the same purpose by way of 
 Badajoz. These latter took upon themselves to neglect 
 the Emperor’s advice, and marched southwards into 
 Andalusia, where they defeated the insurgents on 
 several occasions, but did not succeed in reaching 
 Cadiz and Gibraltar. Wellington remained unmoved ° 
 on the frontier, fortifying the approaches to the capital, 
 and training his Portuguese allies. Meanwhile Masséna, 
 deprived of the assistance of Soult, occupied his three 
 divisions, under Junot, Reynier, and Ney, against 
 Astorga, the province of Hstremadura, and Ciudad 
 Rodrigo, the French being successful in each case. 
 Uniting his forces, the Marshal advanced upon Almeida, 
 captured it, and threatened the English army, which 
 fell back upon the summit of the ridge of the mountain- 
 range of Busaco, commanding the Coimbra road. The 
 
1810.] THE HMPIRE. 81 
 
 French attacked this position, and were repulsed with 
 a loss of five thousand men killed and wounded 
 (September 27th), upon which they turned the British 
 left, and reached Coimbra. Wellington at the 
 same time established himself in the lines of Torres 
 Vedras, devastating the country behind him, and 
 ordering the inhabitants to seek refuge in the capital. 
 It was now that the English commander reaped the 
 benefit of his long preparations. The lines of Torres 
 Vedras, in Portuguese Estremadura, nearly thirty miles 
 north of Lisbon, stretched between the Tagus and the 
 sea. The outer line ran from Alhandra, on the 
 Tagus, to the sea-coast; the second was about eight 
 miles in the rear of the first, and the inner one was 
 merely intended to allow the army to embark on 
 board the fleet in the Tagus, if this were necessary. 
 These lines consisted of three distinct ranges of defence, 
 protected by a hundred and fifty redoubts, with six 
 hundred guns, and held by one hundred and thirty thou- 
 sand men, of whom thirty thousand were English troops. 
 
 In the middle of October Masséna arrived in sight 
 of these lines, remained before them for nearly a 
 month, and on the 14th of November retired to 
 Santarem, which he fortified. Wellington first took up 
 a position in front of him. For nearly four months 
 the armies faced each other. Wellington drew 
 abundant supplies from Lisbon, and from the English 
 fleet, whilst Masséna had the greatest difficulty in 
 providing his troops with food, which they were 
 obliged to seek from a hostile country, within a 
 
 iN 
 
82 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1811. 
 
 circuit of fifty miles, and perpetually harassed by the 
 Portuguese. Drouet, with twelve thousand men, 
 swelled the French army to something like seventy 
 thousand; and meanwhile Soult was doing his best to 
 reach the position from the south, along the left bank 
 of the Tagus. The capture of Olivenza and Badajoz 
 detained him till the 10th of March, 1811; and then 
 a sortie on a grand scale from Gibraltar and Cadiz 
 compelled him to return to Andalusia. 
 
 Masséna found himself at the end of his resources, 
 and on the 4th of March he was obliged to com- 
 mence his retreat towards Spain. Wellington dashed 
 after him without a moment's delay, and drove 
 him to Coimbra, and thence to Almeida. ‘The dis- 
 affection of Masséna’s troops rendered it impossilbe 
 for him to hold the latter town, and he fell back 
 upon Ciudad Rodrigo. Here he found reinforcements, 
 and turning round upon Wellington, attacked him on 
 the plain of Fuentes de Onoro, where he was beaten 
 (May 5th). Seeing this, the Governor of Almeida blew 
 up his fortifications in the night, and cut his way 
 through the English lines to join the force of Masséna. 
 
 At the same time Beresford and the Portuguese 
 army assumed the offensive, re-took Olivenza and laid 
 siege to Badajoz. Soult came to the assistance of 
 the latter town with twenty thousand men, but, after 
 a doubtful battle at Albuera, was obliged to retire, 
 whilst Wellington joined his colleague and threw fresh 
 life into the investment. Marmont, replacing the un- 
 fortunate Masséna, now joined the forces of Soult, and 
 
1812] | THE EMPIRE. 83 
 
 Drouet coming up at the same moment, the English 
 were obliged to raise the siege of Badajoz, and retire 
 once more across the frontier (June 18th). 
 
 Soult now returned to Andalusia, where the garrison 
 of Gibraltar had. caused another diversion, and Mar- 
 mont, left alone, forced Wellington to raise the siege 
 of Ciudad Rodrigo, and then went into winter-quarters 
 at Salamanca. The English general thereupon sud- 
 denly attacked Ciudad Rodrigo (January 19th), and 
 Badajoz (April 6th), both which towns were taken 
 by assault. Some little time before these victories 
 of the English on the Portuguese frontier, Suchet, in 
 the east of Spain, had reaped important successes 
 over the Allies, especially in the capture of the fortress 
 of Saguntum, or Murviedro, and in the taking of 
 Valentia, where Blake and twenty thousand men were 
 made prisoners (December 26th, 1811). 
 
 During the whole of this time Napoleon’s policy 
 of closing the Continent to England had thrown this 
 country into the gravest embarrassment. English 
 trade was brought to the verge of ruin, her debt had 
 increased enormously, and her government was sur- 
 rounded by vast difficulties and dangers. In spite of 
 Wellington’s successes, and his preparations for carrying 
 the war into the heart of the Peninsula, it appeared 
 to Napoleon, and not unnaturally, that his good fortune 
 was at its very zenith, when a new and fatal disaster 
 was prepared for him at the eastern extremity of 
 the Continent. “The English aristocracy,’ as M. 
 Lavallée somewhat vaguely puts it, “aroused amidst the 
 
 Gg 2 
 
84 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1812. 
 
 frozen ice-plains of the north the great enemy of 
 France, the enemy most opposed to her in every idea, 
 principle, interest, the enemy whose hatred and an- 
 tagonism Napoleon had so blindly conceived that he 
 had disarmed by the greatest sacrifices. Russia was on 
 the point of taking up arms, never to lay them down 
 again until after the defeat of Napoleon, of France, of 
 the Revolution.” ! 
 
 Russia had never forgiven Napoleon for the aggran- 
 disement of the Duchy of Warsaw, which the Czar 
 described as thenceforth destined to become the King- 
 dom of Poland. This aggrandisement, in fact, though 
 it may have been prompted by nothing more than a 
 desire to humiliate and weaken Austria, was one of 
 the most beneficial acts of the French Emperor in the 
 plenitude of his power and authority, and no doubt 
 Napoleon would have completed the restoration of the 
 divided kingdom, if he had succeeded in reducing Russia 
 to submission. Already at the beginning of the year 
 1810, as the result of certain negotiations entered into 
 between the two monarchs, with a view to removing the 
 irritation existing between them, Napoleon consented to 
 renounce all idea of friendship for Poland. It was pro- 
 posed to sign a convention for this purpose, and the 
 Czar suggested for the first clause the following laconic 
 words: ‘The Kingdom of Poland shall never be re- 
 stored.” Napoleon substituted for this: “The Emperor 
 of the French binds himself not to favour any enter- 
 prise calculated to re-establish the Kingdom of Poland, 
 
 1 Histoire des Frangais, vol. iv., ch. iv., § 6. 
 
1812.] THE EMPIRE. 85 
 
 not to give any assistance to any Power having this 
 end in view, nor any support, direct or indirect, to 
 any insurrection of the provinces constituting that 
 kingdom.” The Czar refused to accept this alteration, 
 and continued the correspondence in a bitter tone.’ 
 Eventually he suffered it to drop; but on the annexa- 
 tion of Holland and the Duchies he threw off the mask. 
 On the last day of 1810 he abandoned the “ Continental 
 system ” directed in the main against England, and pro- 
 hibited the import of French goods. Napoleon had 
 warned him that friendship for England meant war 
 with France, and the Czar had no other idea in his 
 mind. He assembled large forces on the western 
 frontiers of his Empire, and waited the result. 
 
 Napoleon was enraged, but did not at once declare 
 war. He even offered Erfurth to the Czar as a sola- 
 tium for the Duchy of Oldenburg, the Duke of the 
 last-named state being Alexander’s — brother-in-law. 
 The Czar declined. He was constantly urged to 
 take up the cause of Europe against Napoleon by 
 England and by his own nobles, and nothing would 
 have availed to restore the good understanding of the 
 two Emperors. 
 
 Up to the spring of 1812 the time was occupied 
 by preparations for war, and by the effort to secure 
 alliances on both sides. Russia was openly promised 
 
 1 The bitterness was aggravated by Napoleon’s marriage with Maria 
 Louisa. He had previously proposed for a sister of Alexander’s, but 
 the negotiations were broken off because the Empress Dowager pretended 
 that the princess was too young. 
 
86 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1812. 
 
 assistance by the English Cabinet, and secretly by 
 other governments. The King of Prussia, choosing 
 what he held to be the lesser of two evils, hastened to 
 offer an army of twenty thousand men to Napoleon, and 
 the latter accepted this alliance for what it was worth, 
 sending Victor with thirty thousand men to insure a 
 safe passage for his troops through Berlin. Austria 
 also engaged to provide a contingent of thirty thousand 
 men. Napoleon was less successful with Sweden and 
 Turkey, which, from their position in regard to Russia, 
 would have been immensely serviceable to him. In the 
 former country the Crown Prince, Bernadotte, had 
 shown a disposition to rebel against the blockade of the 
 Continent, and did not suppress the contraband trade of 
 his merchants. As soon as he understood that his aid 
 would be valuable to France, he tried to strike a 
 bargain, and asked for the annexation of Norway. 
 Napoleon refused, and occupied Pomerania with a small] 
 force on the 27th of January. Upon this, Bernadotte 
 immediately accepted the Anglo-Russian alliance. With 
 Turkey the negotiations proceeded more slowly. The 
 Porte had been at war with Russia for some time past ; 
 but English influence and English money secured its 
 neutrality. | 
 
 At that time, during the reign of the first Napo- 
 leon, every Power of Europe had to be considered and 
 negotiated with previous to an outbreak of hostilities. 
 There was scarcely any such thing as a conflict between 
 two nations in the earlier years of the present century ; 
 and hence every war was Huropean. No one country 
 
1812.] THE HMPIRE. 87 
 
 could take up arms without anticipating that Coalitions 
 on either side might set ablaze the whole Continent. 
 When alliances were not avowed, they were entered 
 upon in secret; when assistance was not given in 
 the shape of men, it was given in money—especially 
 in the case of England. And it happened in many 
 instances, as in those of Prussia and Austria at the 
 period now in question, that open promises were made 
 to one belligerent, and secret promises to another. 
 
 Diplomacy having performed its work, Napoleon 
 felt himself in a position to enter upon a campaign 
 against Russia; and as soon as he deemed that the 
 hour had come to strike a blow, he demanded from 
 the Czar an explanation of his armaments (February 
 25th). He bade Lauriston, the French Ambassador 
 at the Russian Court, express the hope that the four 
 hundred and fifty thousand men whom he had set 
 in motion would inspire the Cabinet of St. Petersburg 
 with serious reflections, would induce it to return to 
 the system established at Tulsit, and would “reduce 
 Russia to the subordinate condition in which she 
 then stood.” The last sting drew a decisive reply 
 from the Government of the Czar. It sent Napoleon 
 an ultimatum, comprising a demand for the evacuation 
 of Prussia and Pomerania, an equivalent for Oldenburg, 
 and freedom of commerce for neutrals. The Czar at 
 the same time ordered his Ambassador to demand his 
 passports, and himself proceeded to the head-quarters 
 of his army at Wilna. 
 
 Napoleon perceived that he could accept this in no 
 
88 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1812. 
 
 other light than as a declaration of war; and early 
 in May he joined his army in Saxony. But it seems 
 evident that he entered upon this contest with Russia 
 in a less confident, and less enthusiastic mood than he 
 had been accustomed to exhibit in similar circumstances. 
 After his repudiation of Josephine, and his marriage 
 with Maria Louisa, he would perhaps gladly have 
 inaugurated a second epoch of his reign—an epoch of 
 peace—during which he might consolidate the Em- 
 pire which he had won by his sword, and firmly 
 establish the system which he had imposed upon 
 Europe. The birth of his son inspired him with 
 new prospects and a new hope. He saw in the 
 infant King of Rome the second Emperor of the 
 French, who might continue the dynasty which he had 
 founded. If he could have foreseen the days of the 
 second Empire he might at all events have felt that 
 his dream was destined to some sort of realisation ; 
 but he scarcely could be so infatuated, even in his 
 most sanguine moments, as to expect that Europe 
 would long submit to the yoke of his conquests. A 
 misgiving of this kind must have crossed his mind 
 as he set out for his campaign; but his reception at 
 Dresden, where he found the Emperor of Austria, the 
 King of Prussia, the Princes and Archdukes of the 
 German Confederation of the Rhine, eager to salute 
 him, had an exhilarating effect. 
 
 The old heroic spirit returned to him forthwith. 
 He ordered the army to advance and cross the Niemen, 
 which it accomplished at three different points on 
 
1812,] THE EMPIRE. 89 
 
 the 22nd of June, and following days. Nothing could 
 withstand the first onset of the French and their allies, 
 who believed, with their leader, that this war against 
 Russia was the natural completion of all that had pre- 
 viously been effected by the hero of the Revolution, 
 who was to vindicate the nights of civilisation and 
 progress against the representatives of oppression and 
 barbarism, and by which, as Napoleon himself said,“ the 
 Kuropean system will be confirmed, the cause of the 
 century will be won, and the Revolution accomplished.” 
 
 The French line, before crossing the Niemen, 
 stretched from Tuilsit on the left to Grodno and Galicia 
 on the right. Macdonald, Davoust, Oudinot, Ney, 
 Murat, Lefebvre, Mortier, Bessiéres, Eugéne Beauhar- 
 nais, Jérdme held the posts of honour; Victor and 
 Augereau stood a little in the rear, with reserves of 
 eighty thousand men. Between the Vistula and the 
 Niemen were close upon half a million men; and 
 facing these, with Wilna as a centre, the three 
 Russian armies, in three successive lines, were hardly 
 inferior to their enemy in point of number. 
 
 The passage of the Niemen, and the advance upon 
 Wilna, practically cut in two the first line of the 
 Russian forces; and the early days of July witnessed 
 the evacuation of that town by the Russian general 
 Barclay de Tolly, who burned his stores before aban- 
 doning it. Retirmg upon the entrenched camp at 
 Drissa, he was pressed hard by Murat and Ney, whilst 
 his right was driven back by Oudinot, and his left by 
 Eugene and Jérdbme. By these movements Bagrathion, 
 
90 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1812. 
 
 who had been stationed with fifty thousand Russians 
 between the Niemen and the Bug, and who, on the 
 evacuation of Wilna, had begun to fall back on Minsk, 
 was in imminent danger of being cut off. Davoust, 
 who with Napoleon commanded the centre of the 
 French army, anticipated Bagrathion at Minsk, and the 
 latter thereupon retreated, narrowly escaping Jérome 
 on the road,’ by way of Mohilow towards Witepsk, 
 where he hoped to join Barclay de Tolly. 
 
 The Ozar made a last effort to restore peace 
 (June 25th), and signified to Napoleon his willing- 
 ness to treat for terms; he offered, if the French army 
 were withdrawn, ‘“‘ to regard all which had taken place 
 as though it had not happened.” He was justified in 
 taking this tone; for he had made terms with Sweden 
 and ‘Turkey, and he had reason to feel tolerably con- 
 fident, notwithstanding his first misfortunes. He 
 probably knew that the French had already to struggle 
 with vast difficulties in their supply and commissariat ; 
 that affairs at Wilna, and in the various camps, were 
 in extreme disorder; that the country around them was 
 a virtual waste, from which little in the way of 
 sustenance could be obtained for the troops. At any 
 rate, he was aware that Napoleon had not been 
 able to take immediate advantage of his first success 
 in the field, and that although he had sent a haughty 
 
 1 Jérdme had received the Emperor’s orders to occupy Nesvige, on the 
 route of Bagrathion, but by the slowness of his advance he had suffered 
 the Russian general to escape him. His command of the Westphalians 
 was instantly transferred to Junot. 
 
1812. ] THE EMPIRE. 91 
 
 refusal to the Czar’s offer to treat, he continued to reside 
 at Wilna, where for upwards of a fortnight he was 
 engaged in superintending the work of contractors and 
 of the commissariat. The great difference between 
 fighting at home and fighting abroad, between drawing 
 supplies and reinforcements from the distance of a few 
 miles and having to seek them across a practically 
 hostile continent, was realised by both Emperors; and 
 the realisation was calculated to sustain the hopes of 
 Alexander and his generals. 
 
 Barclay de Tolly had expected that the invader would 
 turn northwards, along the St. Petersburg road, and 
 it was with the object of opposing such a march that 
 he had established himself in the entrenched camp of 
 Drissa. But Napoleon determined to advance in the 
 direction of the ancient capital of Russia; and on the 
 loth of July he set out on the Witepsk and Smolensko 
 road, in the direction of Moscow, thereby threatening 
 to turn the position of the Russian commander. Barclay, 
 perceiving this, left Wittgenstein to guard the camp at 
 Drissa, and made the best.of his way to Witepsk, which 
 Bagrathion also was attempting to reach, having eluded 
 Jéréme.. But Napoleon had despatched Davoust to 
 cut off the retreat of Bagrathion at Molhlow. This 
 movement was so far successful that the latter was 
 compelled to make for Smolensko instead of Witepsk ; 
 and Barclay himself, hard pressed, and hearing that the 
 French troops were already at Mohuilow, fell farther 
 back on the Moscow road, and joimed his fellow- 
 commander at Smolensko. 
 
92 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1812. 
 
 Meanwhile Oudinot, Saint Cyr, and Macdonald 
 gained successes at Polotsk, and northwards as far 
 as Riga. Everywhere the Russians fell back; but 
 their retreat was almost as disastrous to their enemy 
 as would have been their victory in a succession 
 of pitched battles. The Russian Government had 
 ordered the generals to offer the most obstinate resist- 
 ance in their power; and at the same time the stern 
 decree was issued that not the army alone, but the 
 whole nation should roll back before the invader. The 
 edict was obeyed with marvellous completeness. Where- 
 ever the French advanced they found only devastated 
 plains or smoking ruins. Houses, inhabitants, crops, 
 and herds disappeared, and the victorious army marched 
 through a desert. The effect of this strategy upon an 
 army already half-starved, and destitute of its necessary 
 supplies, may be imagined. ‘The Grand Army was not 
 many miles beyond the frontier when it was discouraged, 
 disheartened, full of gloomy apprehensions for the future. 
 
 Barclay de Tolly and Bagrathion, having united their 
 forces at Smolensko, thought the moment opportune for 
 assuming an offensive attitude. They turned round 
 upon Witepsk, and expected that their challenge would 
 be immediately accepted by the French; but Napoleon, 
 diverging by his right, and crossing the Dnieper, ordered 
 Murat, Ney, Eugene, and the Guard to join him, 
 who all obeyed the order with surprising alacrity. ‘There 
 can be little doubt that Napoleon would have entirely 
 succeeded in the stroke of genius which he had con- 
 templated, and caught the Russian armies in a trap, 
 
1812. ] THE HMPIRE, 93 
 
 if it had not been for the splendid resistance offered 
 by a force of ten thousand Russians, who had 
 been detached by Barclay in order to observe the 
 movements of Davoust. This division covered the 
 Smolensko road for many hours, sustaining charge after 
 charge of cavalry, and losing one-half of its numbers ; 
 and its obstinate courage gave time to the Russian 
 commanders to send it assistance, and to draw it back 
 upon Smolensko. Thus Napoleon was obliged to attack 
 his enemy at the latter place; and after he had unsuc- 
 cessfully attempted to take it by surprise, the French 
 army was drawn up in front of the town, to the number 
 of one hundred and forty thousand men. 
 
 The Russian Generalissimo perceived that a retreat 
 upon Moscow was inevitable. He sent Bagrathion in 
 advance, with a third of the forces at his disposal, and 
 remained with eighty thousand men in the sole hope 
 of securing a favourable retreat, and affording time for 
 the usual conflagration and wholesale devastation. In 
 this he succeeded admirably. On the 18th of August 
 he defended the suburbs, the public buildings, the 
 bridges, the gates, the walls of the town, in slow suc- 
 cession, and contrived to hold out, though with a loss 
 of twelve thousand men, until nightfall. Next morn- 
 ing the French, who had themselves suffered a loss of 
 fifteen thousand, entered a wilderness of burning ruins, 
 but found that the enemy had escaped them. 
 
 Barclay saw fit to retire by the St. Petersburg road, 
 and thence across the country to the route taken by 
 Bagrathion. It is quite possible that the French might 
 
94 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1812. 
 
 have destroyed, or at least divided, the two Russian 
 armies within the next few days, if they had followed 
 up the retreat with sufficient rapidity and determina- 
 tion. Ney did, indeed, attack the rear of the army 
 on the Moscow road; but he encountered a resistance 
 so desperate, that he was obliged to ask for reinforce- 
 ments. Napoleon did not recognise the actual signifi- 
 cance of the situation, and sent only a single division ; 
 but he subsequently ordered Junot to cross the river, 
 and attack the Russians in the rear. By some mis- 
 understanding the Marshal failed to execute this 
 movement, which might easily have been fatal to the 
 enemy, and thus the forces of Barclay and Bagra- 
 thion were once more united, though with a further 
 loss of eight thousand men. 
 
 The Russians fell gradually back upon the ancient 
 capital of their country, contesting every step, and 
 still burning remorselessly all that they left behind 
 them. Meanwhile, Barclay de Tolly was relieved of 
 the supreme command by the veteran Marshal Kutusoff, 
 then nearly seventy years old, and who had con- 
 ducted the recent war in Turkey. Kutusoff took up 
 a strong position at Borodino, in front of the river 
 Moskwa, which he strengthened by redoubts and en- 
 trenchments. His left, under Bagrathion, held the 
 village of Semenowskoi ; his right, under Barclay, held 
 a bastioned redoubt commanding the river Kolotza and 
 the Moscow road. <A hundred and thirty thousand 
 Russians awaited the onslaught of a somewhat superior 
 force of French troops, and on the 7th of September 
 
1812. ] THE EMPIRE. 95. 
 
 the battle of Borodino, one of the most sanguinary of 
 all Napoleon’s victories, was fought. Davoust and Ney, 
 after a desperate engagement, obtained possession of 
 Semenowskoi, and in the effort to retake the position, 
 Bagrathion was mortally wounded. The village of 
 Borodino was captured by Eugene, and recaptured 
 by the Russian Marshal, who was preparing to attack 
 the French lines when Napoleon ordered an assault 
 upon the great redoubt. A frghtful struggle at this 
 point ended in the defeat of the Russians, who 
 withdrew behind the ravine of Semenowskoi, leaving 
 no less than fifty thousand men upon the field of 
 battle, whilst the total loss of the French was even 
 larger. 
 
 Napoleon, unwilling to risk too much by an im- 
 mediate advance, suffered the enemy to retire upon 
 Moscow, where he expected that he would have to fight 
 another battle. But Kutusoff had received orders to 
 evacuate the city. He did so, being accompanied in 
 his retreat by one-half of the habitants, whom he as- 
 sured that the abandonment of the capital would prove 
 ‘‘a snare wherein the ruin of the enemy is certain.” 
 
 On the 15th of September, the Grand Army 
 entered Moscow, chanting the d/arsedlaise, and Napo- 
 leon took up his residence in the famous Kremlin, the 
 palace of a hundred Czars. Huis triumph was but a 
 brief one. That same night a thousand fires broke out 
 in the wooden streets of the city, and for five days 
 afterwards Moscow was the scene of a vast conflagration. 
 Acting on secret orders from the Government, the 
 
96 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1812. 
 
 governor, Rostopchin, had liberated the convicts from 
 the prisons, and given them the ghastly commission 
 of setting fire to the town, which they had only too 
 faithfully carried out. 
 
 Napoleon was exasperated by this act of barbarism, 
 as he naturally calledit. ‘This is how the Russians make 
 war!” he exclaimed. ‘‘ The civilisation of St. Peters- 
 burg has deceived us. These men are still Scythians.” 
 His generals advised him to stay at the Kremlin, 
 and make terms with Alexander, instead of marching 
 northwards and joining Oudinot and Macdonald, as he 
 had been first inclined to do. He took their advice, 
 and remained amidst the ruins, sheltermg his army as 
 well as circumstances allowed. Whilst there he heard 
 of the disasters suffered by the army in Spain, where 
 Wellington had taken Salamanca, defeated Marmont 
 (July 22nd), and entered Madrid. Soult compelled the 
 English to retire again; but the general results of the 
 campaign were decidedly adverse to the French cause. 
 
 The reason which finally determined Napoleon to 
 leave Moscow was the extreme danger with which he was 
 menaced by the designs of the Russian commanders. The 
 Czar had refused to treat with his enemy, and blamed 
 Kutusoff for so much as entering into preliminary 
 negotiations. The latter, before the middle of October, 
 had a re-organised army of one hundred and seventy 
 thousand men at his disposal, and he now resolved 
 to resume the offensive against the French, whilst 
 Tchichagoff and Wittgenstein, whose forces amounted 
 in the aggregate to a hundred thousand, were to aim 
 
1812, ] THE EMPIRE. 97 
 
 at Smolensko, in order to cut off the retreat of Na- 
 poleon. Murat, who displayed less than his usual 
 ability during the Russian campaign, was surprised 
 and beaten by Kutusoff at Winkowo, on the 18th of 
 October. The French Emperor had already commenced 
 his retreat on the 14th of the same month, and during 
 five days above eighty thousand soldiers, with as many 
 as fifty thousand non-combatants, were sent towards the 
 frontier. Large stores had been provided at Smolensko, 
 Witepsk, Minsk, and Wilna; and Napoleon hoped to 
 reach the first-named town by the road to Kalouga, 
 before the winter set in. But the snow began to fall at 
 the moment when the army commenced its retrograde 
 movement; and the winter, even before the close of the 
 year, was destined to be one of the severest on record. 
 The horrors of this long and bitter retreat of the 
 Grand Army have often been related, but it is ques- 
 tionable whether any of the accounts can give an 
 adequate idea of the terrible disaster. The whole route 
 was blocked and surrounded by an overwhelming 
 number of Russians, whose Cossack cavalry inflicted 
 the gravest loss upon the French troops, and upon the 
 miserable crowd of fugitives who accompanied them. 
 Kutusoff pressed them hard along the Kalouga road, 
 and Hugéne, to whom the vanguard had been entrusted, 
 had to take the town of Malo-Jaroslawitz seven times 
 in succession before the Russian general gave way. 
 Napoleon, perceiving that the enemy held the route 
 from Kalouga to Smolensko im great force, determined, 
 against the advice of Eugéne and the other members 
 
 h 
 
98 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. (1812. 
 
 of his staff, to diverge to the mght, through Mojaisk 
 —the same district by which they had advanced six 
 weeks before, and which was consequently devastated. 
 It may have been that by striking another blow at 
 Kutusoff, the opposition to the retreat would have been 
 virtually suppressed; and it has been maintained that 
 this decision of Napoleon’s was one of the principal 
 causes of the subsequent disaster. At all events 
 Kutusoff had expected to be attacked, and fell back 
 in haste to Tarutino, only to recover himself im- 
 mediately, and fix upon the flanks of the retreating 
 army. 
 
 The French marched in four divisions, led respec- 
 tively by Napoleon, Ney, EKugéne, and Davoust—Ney 
 subsequently releving Davoust with the rearguard. 
 _ There was but little stability in any of these divisions. 
 The cold, the Cossacks, the perpetual fighting, carried 
 off combatants and non-combatants by thousands in a 
 day. Ill clad, almost without food, the men fell by the 
 roadside, or died by the bivouac fires; and the host was 
 already grievously weakened and reduced when it reached 
 Smolensko on the 12th of November. Even here there 
 was no rest for them. The divisions which had pre- 
 viously sojourned in or passed through the town had all 
 but exhausted the provisions which had been stored 
 there ; and the famished army consumed the remainder 
 in a single day. Worse than that, the Russians held 
 the homeward route by Witepsk and Minsk, which two 
 places were taken by Wittgenstein and Tchichagoff, 
 who prepared to oppose the passage of the Beresina, 
 
1812.] THE EMPIRE. 99 
 
 whilst Kutusoff was on the road to Roslawl and Mitislav. 
 It would clearly have been impossible for the French to 
 remain in Smolensko; and there was nothing for it but 
 to continue the disastrous retreat. The fortifications 
 were levelled to the ground, and then, on the 14th of 
 November, amidst ever-increasing difficulties, and ex- 
 posed to the bitterness of a winter which was the most 
 formidable of all their enemies, the devoted host set out 
 across the trackless snows. Now the soldiers went mad 
 by hundreds and thousands at a time. They blew out 
 their brains, ran themselves through the body, or cast 
 themselves upon the bloodthirsty bands of Cossacks, 
 who kept vigilant watch for their prey. ‘More than 
 thirty thousand horses died within a few days,’ says 
 one bulletin. The cavalry marched on foot; the 
 artillery had to be abandoned continually ; and at every 
 indication of the growing calamities of the Grand 
 Army, the pursuing columns took fresh courage. 
 
 On the 16th of November Napoleon, finding himself 
 almost surrounded by Kutusoff at Krasnoi, in the 
 neighbourhood of Orcha, halted in order to give the 
 three divisions which followed him time to come up; 
 but the Russian troops had already occupied the road 
 in his rear. Hugéne, after a desperate attack against 
 Kutusoff, succeeded in escaping with his best troops 
 during the darkness of the might, and joined the 
 Emperor; and then Napoleon, leading his guard, rescued 
 Davoust from the sixty thousand Russians who stood 
 between them. He was compelled to leave Ney to 
 his fate; but the gallant Marshal, at the head of his 
 
 h 2 
 
100 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1812. 
 
 rearguard of some six thousand men, cut his way, step 
 by step, through the dense masses of the enemy. 
 Three times he had shaken them off, and three times 
 they closed in upon him. He reached Orcha at last, 
 with barely fifteen hundred men; and then the whole 
 army, now reduced to twenty-four thousand, pushed 
 on to the Beresina. Thirty-six thousand men were 
 lost in that terrible retreat between Smolensko and 
 Krasnoi. Witepsk, Minsk, Borissow, every town of 
 importance, every depot where Napoleon had collected 
 his stores for the relief of the army, was in the 
 hands of the enemy. 
 
 At the Beresina, Napoleon, joimed by the remains of 
 Oudinot’s and Victor’s corps, and yet numbering barely 
 forty thousand men in all, received a new check from 
 the cruel winter. The ice had broken up, and there 
 were no means of crossing the swollen stream. The 
 Russians, driven from Borissow by Oudinot, had burnt 
 the bridge over the Beresina; and it was necessary 
 for the French to improvise others at all hazards. 
 This was accomplished by the most heroic efforts, and 
 at an immense loss, in the face of an _ ever-active 
 enemy. On the 25th and 26th of November, the 
 army crossed the river, nearly opposite to Studienka, 
 on rafts and rough pontoon-bridges, which were per- 
 petually broken by the ice, or by the confusion and 
 strain of the fugitive multitudes. Tchichagoff and 
 Wittgenstein attacked the French simultaneously, in the 
 midst of the crossing, on both sides of the river. The 
 first was driven back to Borissow; and Wittgenstein, 
 
1812. ] THE EMPIRE. 10] 
 
 on the left bank of the Beresino, only succeeded after a 
 combat lasting a day and a night in defeating Victor, 
 who was covering the retreat with ten thousand men, 
 reduced in the conflict by one-half. The Russians 
 soon established a battery of twelve pieces, which com- 
 manded the narrow bridge, choked by a struggling 
 mass of camp-followers, women, wounded, and sick, 
 who pushed each other into the river, or fell beneath 
 the murderous fire of the Russians. Through the 
 midst of this seething crowd Victor had to force his 
 way, burning the bridge behind him. The picture is 
 one of the most ghastly which the history of war has 
 ever presented. 
 
 On the 5th of December, Napoleon, having reached 
 Smorgoni, on the way to Wilna, came to the resolution 
 of returning alone to Paris, where many affairs of the 
 greatest importance required his presence. He resigned 
 the command of the forces, which had been recruited 
 by numerous detachments, into the hands of Murat, 
 and secretly departed; and then the last misfortunes 
 of the Grand Army fell upon it. Murat was unequal 
 to the task imposed upon him; and, indeed, it may be 
 doubted whether any ability, however great, could have 
 rescued the devoted host from its miserable condition. 
 On the road to Wilna all discipline was lost. The men 
 cast down their arms, and crawled painfully along; 
 others rushed about madly until they dropped; and _ it 
 is estimated that within three days as many as twenty 
 thousand died of cold and hunger. On the 8th, many 
 thousand starving men descended upon the town, and 
 
102 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1812. 
 
 seized whatever they could lay their hands on to stay 
 the pangs of famine. The Russian generals meanwhile 
 lost no time in pursuing their advantage. ‘They ap- 
 proached Wilna from three directions; and the French 
 hastily fled to Kowno, across the Niemen, and along 
 the Konigsberg road. Once more the heroic Ney came 
 to the rescue of his compatriots. Putting himself at 
 the head of four thousand men, he covered the retreat 
 of the fugitives; and at length the pursuit was 
 stopped. 
 
 The conduct of Napoleon in thus hastily leaving the 
 army, before it had been rescued from danger, has been 
 variously estimated by his contemporaries and by his- 
 torians. Michelet, always severe on him, is especially 
 so in connection with this circumstance, and with the 
 Emperor’s callous behaviour on his return to Wilna. 
 “This vast shipwreck,” he says,! “of three hundred 
 thousand men destroyed, buried beneath the snow, was a 
 very different thing from the loss of a single army. It 
 was the loss of a world, of the remains of a levy 
 and conscription of twenty years; it was, in other 
 words, the ruin of heroic France, which had conquered 
 the world, and, drawn by its blind faith, had come 
 there to die and be buried. All that remained 
 of our Republican armies, of those of Italy, Egypt, 
 Germany, had been brought together for this common 
 catastrophe. And for this cataclysm, this ship- 
 wreck of a world, not a single tear and not a single 
 regret! Add to this picture the whole of France, 
 
 1 Histoire du XIX. Siécle, vol. iii. bk. vi. ch. 5. 
 
1812.] THE EMPIRE. 103 
 
 which will have to lament the army of Moscow for 
 so many years. . . . Thirty years later there still 
 lived in the asylums old women who continued tom 
 expect their sons, and to mutter, ‘They will return!’ 
 The Russians themselves were moved by these fatal 
 scenes, this immeasurable disaster. They remembered 
 that they were men, and thought themselves too well 
 avenged. One man there was, one alone in the whole 
 human race, of such savage pride, that in order to 
 escape the scorn so well deserved by his madness, he 
 was found only laughing, or uttering an abominable 
 irony.” 
 
 Of the half a million men who had crossed the 
 Niemen on the 22nd of June, more than four hundred 
 and fifty thousand found a grave or a prison in Russia; 
 whilst on the side of the Russians themselves the total 
 loss in men alone must have been very large. Hven 
 those who were left could not be looked upon as an 
 army. No sooner had Napoleon departed for Paris 
 than the disaffected Allies began to desert his standard. 
 The Prussian general York, attached to the com- 
 mand of Macdonald, signed a convention with the 
 Russians, leaving the French commander with about 
 nine thousand troops out of a force of eighteen 
 thousand; whilst Murat, discouraged, and unable to 
 restore the shattered army to order and discipline, made 
 some excuses about the critical condition of affairs in 
 his kingdom of Naples, and handed over his com- 
 mand to Eugene (January 16th, 1813). Meanwhile 
 the situation of the French was rendered still more 
 
104 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1813. 
 
 grave by the attitude of the Prussians. The King 
 of Prussia had expressed great indignation about the 
 convention of General York and his ten thousand men, 
 and had engaged to supply the contingent at once by 
 a fresh levy. He immediately called out the whole male 
 population of the kingdom; but the most discerning 
 men perceived that this measure was directed, not 
 against Russia, but against France. The corps sent 
 to take the place of the troops who had left lost no 
 time in following the example of its predecessor; and 
 the Austrian general Schwartzenberg, who had _ be- 
 haved very bravely with the rear of the Grand Army, 
 finally evacuated the Russian territory on the 7th of 
 January. Hugéene had done his best to restore the 
 tone of the army, and had drawn it back in good order 
 from the Vistula, where Murat left it, to the Oder and 
 the Elbe. Starting with seventeen thousand French- 
 men, whom he took in hand on the 18th of January, he 
 raised the army to a solid force of forty thousand on 
 the 9th of March, by which day he had assumed a 
 strong position, stretching from Magdeburg to Dresden. 
 At Leipzic, in the centre of his line, he awaited re- 
 inforcements, which Napoleon was exerting himself 
 to procure and send to the front. 
 
 France had been horrorstruck at the disasters suf- 
 fered by the Emperor and the Grand Army in the 
 retreat from Moscow, but she assented, with almost 
 as much enthusiasm as ever, to new sacrifices, new 
 levies, new imposts, and burdens. The Legislative 
 Assembly was convoked, and supplied pecuniary means, 
 
1813. | THE HMPIRE. 105 
 
 by the forced sale of all the heritable property belonging 
 to the municipalities, public hospitals, and Communes, 
 whilst the Senate ordered a levy of three hundred and 
 fifty thousand men. It is true that Napoleon’s conduct 
 during the retreat, and especially his sudden departure 
 from the army at Smorgoni, had been much criticised 
 in France; but it was confidently believed that he 
 would be able to restore everything in a new cam- 
 paign. His popularity was almost as great as it had 
 ever been, and Europe saw that the Russian armies, 
 and the unparalleled severities of the winter of 1812, 
 had done nothing to tame the spirit of Bonaparte. 
 
 The Emperor made a special effort to come to 
 terms with the Pope before setting out on a new 
 campaign. Pius VII. had been brought to Fontaine- 
 bleau, where he was a veritable prisoner, unable to 
 hold a Court, or even a Council. Here Napoleon visited 
 him, and induced him to sign a Concordat, by which 
 his Holiness was to reside at Avignon, with the Sacred 
 College, and was to enjoy complete liberty and authority 
 in all things—the question of the States of the Church 
 alone being reserved. Pius had signed this conven- 
 tion on the persuasion of the Emperor; but subse- 
 quent reflections, and especially the protests which he 
 encountered from the majority of the Cardinals, led 
 him to write to Napoleon repudiating the compromise, 
 “sioned without consideration, and in a moment 
 of human weakness.” However, the Concordat was 
 published, the Pope remained a prisoner at Fontaine- 
 bleau ; and thus the Emperor’s attempt to conciliate 
 
106 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1813. 
 
 the Church, and to gain the goodwill of the French 
 
 clergy, was unsuccessful. 
 
 § III.—THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 
 (From the 9th of March, 1813, to the 11th of April, 1814.) 
 
 Turovucuovr the spring of 1813 the French Govern- 
 ment was continually sending reinforcements towards 
 the Elbe. A hundred battalions, four regiments of 
 the Guards, and two of cavalry were transferred from 
 Spain. Six hundred cannon and six regiments of 
 artillery were provided within three months, in addi- 
 tion to a large force of gunners, and all the necessary 
 ammunitions of a great army. In all two hundred 
 thousand men were despatched to the front, destined 
 for various points on the new French positions, whilst 
 another hundred thousand were prepared in all haste 
 to follow them. These were independent of the 
 German contingents, and of the force which Austria, 
 who was believed to be still faithful to the alliance with 
 France, had undertaken to supply. 
 
 Meanwhile Russia, England, Prussia, and Sweden 
 were busy cementing their Coalition, and preparing 
 for the impending attack. The King of Prussia, after 
 offering to mediate between Napoleon and Alexander— 
 an offer instantly rejected by the former—had entered 
 into a secret compact with the Czar, in order to restore 
 the independence of Europe, and to re-establish Prussia 
 as 1t had been in 1806; whilst at the same time 
 he continued to carry on friendly relations with Paris. 
 
1813. ] THH HMPIRE. 107 
 
 It was not until the 17th of March that he sud- 
 denly declared war against the French; and two days 
 after this he concluded an open Convention with Alex- 
 ander at Breslau, and called upon the minor German 
 princes to rise in defence of the Fatherland, under 
 pain of deposition; the Confederation of the Rhine 
 was declared to be dissolved; the /andwehr and land- 
 sturm' were called out. This rupture between Prussia 
 and France was welcomed with enthusiasm by the whole 
 German people, or rather it was the direct outcome of 
 an enthusiasm which had long been growing up, which 
 had been fostered and spread by German poets and 
 orators, and which finds its reflection in the pages of 
 Schiller and his contemporaries. The German rulers 
 knew how to avail themselves of a force which, though 
 if assumed the form of a struggle for freedom against 
 the creature of the French Revolution, was yet in 
 reality itself the offspring of 1789. 
 
 The conduct of Austria was marked by still greater 
 duplicity than that of the Prussian Government pre- 
 vious to the Convention of Breslau. The Emperor 
 Francis renewed the most solemn promises to Napo- 
 leon, whilst secretly assenting to the pact between 
 Russia and Prussia. He had listened to the represen- 
 tations of the English emissaries, and to the despatches 
 of the British Government, which held out a hope of 
 Austrian aggrandisement in Italy ; and, whilst solemnly 
 
 1 The landwehr is a kind of militia, composed of men from the age 
 of seventeen until the age of forty-five, who in time of war are called 
 out in Germany on permanent duty; the landsturm is a levy of the 
 male population from the age of forty-five till the age of sixty. 
 
108 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. (1813. 
 
 affirming that he would for ever maintain the system 
 established in Europe by Napoleon, he privately coun- 
 selled Denmark, Bavaria, and even Naples, to abstain 
 from ‘useless armaments, which would render the 
 Emperor less capable of being brought to reason.” 
 
 Hostilities broke out immediately after the Prussian 
 declaration, and before Napoleon had had time to bring 
 the main army to the front of the French positions, 
 Hugéne was attacked by a hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand men, Dresden was taken by the Russian troops 
 (March 26th), and Hamburg surrendered to the 
 Russians, owing to an imsurrection of the citizens 
 (March 12th). Beauharnais, however, occupied the 
 enemy in a masterly manner for about a month, and fell 
 back with the utmost deliberation until he could effect 
 his junction with the vanguard of Napoleon’s army. 
 The Emperor had with him a hundred and fifteen 
 thousand men, under Oudinot, Ney, Bertrand, and 
 Marmont, whilst Soult, Mortier, and Bessiéres com- 
 manded the guard; Davoust was sent against the 
 Cossacks in Westphala; and, in addition to these 
 forces, the cavalry, scarcely yet prepared to take the 
 field, was daily expected from France. 
 
 Napoleon ordered a general advance towards 
 Dresden, and Ney with the vanguard gained a pre- 
 liminary advantage over Wittgenstein at Weissenfels, 
 on the last day of April, and at Rippach on the Ist 
 of May. On the following day, near Liitzen, the 
 
 ‘\. two armies contested a long and obstinate battle, in 
 \ahich the Prussian general, Blucher, distinguished 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
1813. ] THE EMPIRE. 109 
 
 himself by several times taking and retaking from Ney 
 the villages of Kaia and Klein Gérschen, forming 
 the centre and key of the position. The fighting 
 was of a most sanguinary character, and the casualties 
 amongst the officers, even amongst the Marshals and 
 generals, were especially high. Napoleon urged forward 
 his young troops in the midst of the battle, whilst 
 Alexander and Frederick William watched the varying 
 fortunes of the day from a neighbouring height. The 
 opportune arrival of Hugéne and Bertrand towards the 
 evening, followed by the gallant recapture of Kaia by 
 sixteen battalions of the Young Guard, decided the 
 struggle ; and thus Napoleon was able to congratulate 
 himself on a victory which restored to his army all 
 its ancient prestige. He praised his newly levied troops 
 in enthusiastic terms, declaring that he had never seen 
 more courage and devotion. 
 
 The Allies retired and crossed the Elbe, whilst 
 Napoleon, pressing them close, occupied Dresden, and 
 restored to the throne the King of Saxony, from whom 
 he received a contingent of fifteen thousand men. 
 Wittgenstein and Blucher turned towards Silesia, in 
 order not to be too far from Bohemia, and in the hope 
 of receiving decisive assistance from Austria, whom they 
 knew to be playmg fast and loose with France. At 
 this moment the Emperor Francis proposed a Congress 
 to Napoleon, in which he assured him that “ he himself 
 as an umpire would be his sincere friend.” The French 
 Emperor did not refuse it, but he none the less pressed 
 forward against the enemy, whom he attacked on the 
 
110 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. (1813. 
 
 20th of May in a strong position at Bautzen. The 
 Russians and Prussians had formed an entrenched camp 
 behind the town, which they had fortified with great 
 care. The town itself was taken by the French, after 
 hard fighting, and the Allies withdrew to their camp, 
 Blucher alone maintaining his first positions on the 
 heights of Kreckwitz. On the next day Wittgenstein 
 held his own, chiefly through a want cf judgment on 
 the part of Ney, but Blucher was almost surrounded, 
 and had to save himself by a timely retreat. His col- 
 league, of course, followed him, and the Allies withdrew 
 by way of Hochkirch, Lobau, and Weissenberg, leaving 
 eighteen thousand dead and wounded on the field, whilst 
 the French loss was at least twenty thousand. 
 
 During a long pursuit, in which the French almost 
 invariably had the best of the encounters, though at 
 a great sacrifice of men, the Allies continued to hold 
 close to the borders of Bohemia, with the same object 
 in view of securing Austrian assistance. arly in 
 June Napoleon seemed to have the enemy at his 
 mercy, and to be in a position to enforce his own 
 terms. Another sanguinary and perhaps decisive battle 
 might probably have been fought near the Oder; but at 
 this juncture the Emperor Francis proposed an immediate 
 armistice, which his son-in-law did not refuse. A Conven- 
 tion was signed at Pleswitz on the 4th of June, and the 
 armistice was to last until the 28th of July. Napoleon 
 himself saw how much he might possibly lose by this 
 cessation of hostilities at such a critical moment. ‘If 
 the Allies do not keep faith,” he said at the time, “ this 
 
1813. ] THH HMPIRE. it 
 
 armistice will be simply fatal to us.” He must have 
 implicitly believed in the sincerity and honour of the 
 Emperor of Austria, or he would never have placed 
 himself in a position of such extreme danger. It had 
 always been his custom to strike first in every quarrel ; 
 and, as he was wont to observe, his attacks were often 
 essentially defensive. Here he was leaving two open 
 enemies, whom he might have crushed, at liberty to 
 enter into a league with others whom ordinary prudence 
 should have prevented him from regarding as friends to 
 be depended on. 
 
 Meanwhile Suchet had maintained the honour of 
 the French arms in Spain. It was not until the 22nd 
 of May, that Wellington re-entered the country 
 from Portugal, at the head of fifty thousand English 
 and about seventy thousand Spaniards. This army 
 crossed the Douro, above Zamora and at Toro, whilst 
 King Joseph, with whom were generals Foy and Clausel, 
 evacuated Madrid and Valladolid (June 4th), and sub- 
 sequently Burgos, and retired to Vittoria, at the junc- 
 tion of the roads to Bilbao and Madrid. Wellington 
 attacked the French on the 2lst of June, and drove 
 them back upon Pampeluna, capturing during the re- 
 treat a hundred and fifty-one guns, and large quantities 
 of stores. The French never stopped until they had 
 crossed the Pyrenees; and thus the Anglo-Spanish 
 army stood upon the frontier of France, ready to carry 
 war into the country which had enjoyed so long an 
 immunity from invasion. Soult was immediately sent 
 
 to take the command of Joseph's troops, but before 
 
112 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1813. 
 
 he could act events of great significance were passing 
 elsewhere. 
 
 It was the end of June before the treachery of 
 Austria began to bear fruit. Francis had occupied 
 the time in negotiations, and in military preparations. 
 The English Government had refused to have anything 
 to do with the Congress, but Russia and Prussia had 
 assented, and had formulated the terms which they 
 desired to secure. On the 28th of the month the 
 Austrian Prime Minister Metternich had an interview 
 with Napoleon at Dresden, and, after a good deal 
 of hesitation, named the price which Austria set upon 
 her friendship. ‘The demands were so high, including 
 for Austria herself Illyria and the half of Ltaly, 
 and stipulating for the return of the Pope to Rome, 
 the abandonment of Holland, of the Confederation of 
 the Rhine, of Switzerland, and Spain, that Napoleon 
 rejected them with indignation. He insulted Metter- 
 nich by asking him how much he had received from 
 England for making war upon France; and from 
 that moment forward there was no more deception 
 on either side. The armistice, however, was extended 
 to the 10th of August, and preparations for the 
 holding of the Congress actually went on. 
 
 Meanwhile England was persistently negotiating 
 and intriguing with all the Continental Powers, most 
 of whom she assisted with large subventions. By the 
 treaty of Reichenbach, signed on the 14th of June, 
 she agreed to give two hundred thousand pounds 
 sterling every month, during the continuation of the 
 
1813.] THE HMPIRE. 113 
 
 war, to Russia and Prussia. At Trachenberg on the 
 27th of July, when Austria formally entered the 
 Coalition—occupying all the time the position of a 
 mediator between France and her enemies—the Eng- 
 lish Government engaged to send to Vienna a subsidy 
 of half a million sterling, and military stores and equip- 
 ments for alike sum. The plan of a new campaign 
 was carefully drawn up; arrangements were made for 
 establishing relations with the malcontents in France; 
 intrigues were set on foot in every country where the 
 French had secured a hold; and then the Congress 
 was opened. The hypocrisy of Kurope may have been 
 necessary, but it was none the less hypocrisy. The 
 negotiators met at Prague on the 29th of July; 
 and Austria, still assuming the part of mediator, used 
 all her arts to delay the proceedings until the 10th 
 of August. Napoleon insisted on hearing from Met- 
 ternich the terms which were demanded by Europe; 
 and at length the Austrian minister enunciated them. 
 The Allies required the final partition of Poland, the 
 re-establishment of Prussia, the dissolution of the Con- 
 federation of the Rhine, with a number of other points 
 more or less humihating to the French Emperor. 
 Great as the effort was, Napoleon assented; but his 
 answer did not reach Metternich until the Ilth of 
 August, and the plenipotentiaries had taken care to 
 disperse on the 10th. The armistice was at an end, 
 and Napoleon saw that his concessions had come too 
 late. Austria now for the first time avowed her 
 entrance into the Coalition; and Napoleon naturally 
 a 
 
114 THH FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1813. 
 
 enraged at her perfidy, accused her of desecrating “all 
 that is most sacred amongst men—mediation, a 
 congress, and the name of peace.” 
 
 The armies of the Alles now amounted to an 
 aggregate of more than seven hundred thousand men, 
 while about five hundred thousand were at Napoleon’s 
 disposal. The plan of the Allies was to despatch two 
 hundred thousand men—Russians, Prussians, and Aus- 
 trians, under the command of Barclay de Tolly, from 
 Bohemia to Dresden, whilst Blucher and Bernadotte 
 were to command two other armies, persistently avoiding 
 a conflict with Napoleon, and challenging his Marshals. 
 The French Emperor, on the other hand, divining the 
 intentions of his enemies, resolved to prevent the 
 junction of Barclay’s force with the Austrians, whilst at 
 the same time he purposed to send Oudinot and Davoust 
 from Wittenberg and Hamburg against Berlin. He 
 lost as little time as possible, and marched at once into 
 Bohemia; but this time the Allies had been more 
 prompt than Napoleon. Even before the Congress 
 separated they had effected their junction, and were 
 already on the road to Dresden. 
 
 After some unimportant movements against Blucher, 
 Napoleon left Macdonald to confront the Prussian 
 general, and hastened to the relief of Dresden, which 
 Saint-Cyr held against a vastly superior force of the 
 Alles. The Emperor reached the town just in time 
 to repel a desperate attack from Schwartzenberg, 
 ou the 26th of August; and on the next day he 
 sallied forth and took the offensive. Murat dis- 
 
1813. ] THH HMPIRE. 115 
 
 tinguished himself in this battle by driving in the 
 enemys left, and capturing ten thousand prisoners, 
 whilst Ney and Mortier successfully engaged the 
 right. Napoleon himself threw his force upon the 
 centre, and inflicted great loss, so that at length 
 the Allies, learning that Vandamme was approaching 
 with twenty-five thousand fresh troops, resolved to 
 retreat, leaving behind them twenty-five thousand 
 men, two hundred cannon, and a hundred and thirty 
 caissons. ‘They withdrew across the mountains in 
 ereat disorder, and might have been almost anni- 
 hilated; but Napoleon’s panegyrists say, that whilst 
 directing the pursuit, he was overcome by a sudden 
 indisposition, the effect of his long-sustained efforts 
 and anxieties, that he returned to Dresden, and left 
 the conduct of affairs to his Marshals. If this were 
 the case, then this temporary illness was an omen 
 of something infinitely worse. “The battle of Dresden 
 was fated to be the last great victory of Bonaparte. 
 
 Meanwhile Vandamme had marched from Koénig- 
 stein to Pirna, and had occupied a strong position at 
 Peterswalde. On the 28th of August he pushed on 
 to Culm, and thence towards Toplitz, in his attack 
 on which town he made sure of being assisted by 
 Napoleon. But the Emperor was at Dresden, and 
 his Marshals do not appear to have given Vandamme a 
 thought. The latter encountered an obstinate resistance 
 at Téplitz from the Russian guards who held the place ; 
 and finding himself left unprotected, he fell back upon 
 Culm. Here he was in turn attacked by sixty thousand 
 
 a2 
 
116 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1813. 
 
 of the Allies; and, attempting to resume his position at 
 Peterswalde, he was taken between two forces, a large 
 body of Prussians having in the meantime occupied 
 the heights. About half of his force cut its way 
 through, and escaped, but the remainder, with Van- 
 damme amongst them, were obliged to surrender. This 
 was on the 30th of August; and four days previously 
 Macdonald had suffered a severe defeat at the hands of 
 Blucher, on the Katzbach, losing ten thousand men, 
 and fifteen thousand prisoners, and being driven back 
 upon Goldberg. 
 
 These disasters did not happen alone. Oudinot, 
 marching upon Berlin, was attacked at Gross Beeren 
 by Bernadotte, and beaten. Davoust was compelled to 
 abandon Schwerin and Wismar, which he had just 
 occupied; and Ney, after replacing Oudinot, attacked the 
 Prince of Sweden at Dennewitz, and bemg unsupported, 
 owing to the defeat of Macdonald, suffered a loss of seven- 
 teen thousand men, of whom one-half were prisoners, 
 and thus left Saxony and Westphalia at the mercy 
 of Bernadotte. Napoleon himself began to feel dis- 
 couraged. He recognised that his only hope lay ina 
 great victory which should paralyse his enemies, as 
 Jena, Austerlitz, and Wagram had done; and he was 
 unable to create the chance. During the greater part 
 of September Napoleon hesitated between attacking 
 Schwartzenberg in Saxony and Blucher in Bohemia, 
 fearing to engage either, lest the other should take 
 advantage of his absence. 
 
 Whilst the Emperor hesitated, the Allies were 
 
 Ee 
 
1813] ’ THE EMPIRE. 117 
 
 manceuvring so as to cut him off from the frontier of 
 France, and they succeeded in forming a semi-circle 
 from Wittenberg, through Bautzen, to Toplitz. Their 
 object was almost accomplished, and Napoleon, per- 
 ceiving the critical nature of his position, resolved to 
 carry the war back into Prussia, selecting for the field 
 of his operations the plains between the Elbe and the 
 Oder. But now a new danger assailed him; Bavaria, 
 Baden, and Wurtemberg threatened to increase the 
 forces of the Alles, and the former country actually 
 sent a contingent of sixty thousand men into the field. 
 Napoleon instantly altered his plan, and massed all the 
 forces which he could bring together—that is to say, 
 barely a hundred and seventy-five thousand—at Leipzic, 
 the centre of the enemy’s line, held at the moment by 
 Schwartzenberg alone. Bernadotte and Blucher were 
 hastening to Schwartzenberg’s assistance, and Napoleon 
 sent Ney forward with forty-five thousand men to hold 
 them in check. Bertrand, with fifteen thousand troops, 
 was detached to open up the Liitzen road, and Napoleon 
 himself, with the remaining one hundred thousand, pre- 
 pared to fall upon Schwartzenberg with his one hundred 
 and thirty thousand. 
 
 The latter, however, did not wait for this. He 
 attacked Napoleon on the 16th of October, and engaged 
 in a desperate conflict, which lasted the whole day, and 
 of which the result was doubtful ; but he had given time 
 to Bernadotte and Blucher to beat Ney, and to make their 
 appearance, together with Benningsen, on the 18th. On 
 that day the Allies, to the number of three hundred 
 
118 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. (1813. 
 
 thousand, attacked less than half that number of 
 Frenchmen, who had determined to risk another 
 battle, and had drawn themselves up in front of 
 Leipzic. 
 
 A sanguinary struggle ensued, as many as sixty 
 thousand men falling on the first day of this “battle 
 of nations,” as it was afterwards called by the Germans. 
 The French fought with the utmost valour and deter- 
 mination, but they were hopelessly outnumbered. 
 The treachery of the Saxons, who, to the number of 
 twelve thousand, went over to the enemy in the midst 
 of the fight, and turned their guns upon the comrades 
 whose side they had just left, contributed to the 
 
 disaster. In the night Napoleon determined upon a 
 "retreat. Fortunately Bertrand had been able to open 
 the Liitzen road; but Napoleon’s orders for the con- 
 struction of temporary bridges over the Elster had been 
 disobeyed. ‘There was only one passage over the 
 river Hlster, namely, the great bridge at Lindenau; 
 and this the French had mined, with the intention 
 of blowing it up as soon as their rear-guard should 
 have crossed. 
 
 A terrible conflict took place in the town and its 
 suburbs on the 19th of October; every street, almost 
 every house, was attacked and defended. Napoleon and 
 the Guard, Victor, Ney, Marmont had quitted Leipzic, 
 and were already at Lindenau, on the Lutzen road. In 
 an evil moment the French sappers, deceived by appear- 
 ances, blew up the bridge, and thus thirty thousand 
 men, with a hundred and fifty guns, were left at 
 
1813. ] THH HMPIRE. 119 
 
 the mercy of the Allies. A few threw themselves into 
 the river and escaped; others swam their horses across 
 and reached safely the opposite shore (Macdonald was 
 one of these); but many, like Poniatowski, were killed 
 whilst attempting the same thing. The rest were 
 either slaughtered or taken prisoners, and the loss 
 in the three days’ battle, in killed and wounded 
 alone, is computed at one hundred and ten thousand 
 on both sides. 
 
 This defeat was in effect the death-blow of Napo- 
 leon’s power in Europe. Not only were the French 
 armies demoralsed and dispirited; not only did some 
 of the Marshals lose confidence in their chief, and 
 begin to negotiate with his enemies; not only was 
 France left virtually alone from this moment—the 
 example of treachery set by Austria and Saxony 
 being followed by other allies of the Empire;—but 
 Napoleon himself realised that the old enthusiasm and 
 dash of the soldiers of the Revolution had passed away, 
 and that he could no longer count upon France for an 
 unlimited supply of recruits. 
 
 The retreat was conducted in good order, so far as 
 it was possible for Napoleon and his generals to inspire 
 order in their defeated and decimated ranks. They 
 were pursued closely by Blucher and Schwartzenberg, 
 and were threatened by Guiulay on the Weissenfels 
 road; but avoiding a battle, and picking up the force 
 of Bertrand on their way, they pushed rapidly on to 
 Erfurth, with the intention of crossing the Rhine. In 
 order to reach Hanau, it was necessary to pass through 
 
120 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. (1813. 
 
 a densely-wooded defile. Blucher and Schwartzenberg 
 were converging upon it, and at Hrfurth they learned 
 that Hanau was already occupied by fifty thousand 
 Bavarians, under the command of Marshal Wrede. The 
 retreating army was obliged to fight its way through 
 the defile. The rearguard, under Bertrand and 
 Mortier, was delayed by an attack of the pursuers’ 
 vanguard, whilst the Emperor, with Macdonald, Sébas- 
 tiani, and Victor in the front, Marmont, Ney, and 
 Augereau in the centre, inflicted on the Bavarians a loss 
 of ten thousand men. Wrede, subsequently returning 
 to his positions, attacked the French rear, but he was 
 again defeated. On the 2nd of November the French 
 army, by this time reduced to a total of sixty thousand 
 men, crossed the Rhine, and before the year was out 
 one-half of this number had been carried off by typhus, 
 by the effects of their wounds, or some.other legacy of 
 that disastrous campaign. 
 
 The Alles did not immediately pursue Napoleon 
 across the Rhine; but the interval was industriously 
 employed in reducing the fortified places which re- 
 mained in the hands of French garrisons, in Central 
 Kurope and the Rhenish provinces. Dresden, Stettin, 
 Zamose, ‘Torgau, Dantzic, Wittenberg capitulated 
 before the middle of the following January. Holland 
 finally cast off her allegiance; and Denmark, the last 
 ally of France, shortly afterwards entered the Coalition. 
 By these capitulations an immense number of prisoners 
 
 
 
 —above thirty thousand from Dresden alone—were 
 
 sent into captivity. 
 
1813.] THE EMPIRE. 121 
 
 Meanwhile Napoleon had reached Saint-Cloud on 
 the 9th of November, and five days later he met 
 the Senate at Paris, to whom he communicated the 
 results of the campaign. The Emperor spoke the 
 truth when he.reminded them that the whole of 
 Hurope, so lately on their side, was now march- 
 ing against them. Strenuous efforts were made 
 to prepare for the campaign of 1814. The levies 
 ordered for 1814 and 1815 were drawn upon to 
 the number of three hundred and eighty thousand 
 men; whilst, before the year was at an end, the 
 new troops ordered to be raised were even more 
 numerous. 
 
 But France herself was becoming heartily weary 
 of perpetual war; and the misfortunes of the past 
 two years inspired the Representatives with sufficient 
 courage to protest against the new levies. They sent 
 to Napoleon a plainly-worded address in which the 
 sufferings and exhaustion of the country were set forth. 
 “A barbarous and aimless war,” they declared, ‘“periodi- 
 cally swallows up a rising generation, snatched from 
 education, from agriculture, from commerce and the 
 arts. Are the hearts of mothers, then, and the sweat 
 of the people, the patrimony of kings?” 
 
 It was the language of the Revolution, employed 
 against one who, himself the product and the idol 
 of that Revolution, had acquired, by the usual in- 
 fluences of unchecked power and ambition, the worst 
 vices of absolute monarchs. Napoleon was enraged 
 by this address, which he refused to receive after 
 
122 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1813. 
 
 it had been read to him. On the last day of the year 
 1813 he dissolved the Legislative Body, determined to 
 enforce his will without its assistance. . 
 
 On the 21st of December Schwartzenberg had crossed 
 the Rhine; and on the 3lst Blucher followed him. 
 Both issued proclamations to the French people, in 
 which they declared that their quarrel was with Napoleon 
 alone, and that their troops would be animated by no 
 sentiment of revenge. Blucher’s proclamation was in 
 the following terms :— 
 
 “T have ordered the army of Silesia to cross the 
 Rhine in order to restore the liberty and independence 
 of the nations, and to secure peace. The Emperor 
 Napoleon has united Holland, a part of Germany, and 
 Italy, to the French Empire, and has declared that he 
 would not give up a single village of bis conquests, even 
 if the enemy should occupy the heights commanding 
 Paris. 
 
 “It is in opposition to this declaration and these 
 principles that the armies of all the Huropean Powers 
 are marching. 
 
 “ Kvery inhabitant of the towns and country districts 
 must remain quietly at home, each official at his post, 
 and continue to discharge his functions. 
 
 “From the moment of the entry of the Allied 
 troops, all communication with the French Empire 
 must cease. All who do not conform to this order will 
 be considered guilty of treason to the Allied Powers ; 
 they will be brought before a council of war, and 
 punished with death.” 
 
1814.] THE HMPIRE. 123 
 
 Before the spring had set in there were five foreign 
 armies on the soil of France. Schwartzenberg, with 
 three hundred thousand Austrians and Russians, had 
 marched through Switzerland, accompanied by the two 
 Emperors. Blucher, with a hundred and eighty thou- 
 sand Prussians, forming the centre, had come by way 
 of Neuwied. Bernadotte had crossed the Rhine lower 
 down, at the head of two hundred thousand Swedes, 
 Russians, and Prussians; Wellington had crossed the 
 Pyrenees with a force of English and Spaniards ; whilst 
 an Anglo-Dutch army under Graham advanced by way 
 of the Scheldt. In addition to these, Murat joined 
 the Alles, in the selfish hope of retaining his crown, 
 and threatened his old friend and leader with an army 
 of thirty thousand Neapolitans, who had already 
 invaded the Roman States. Thus nearly a million 
 men stood upon the frontiers of France, and sum- 
 moned the conqueror of Europe to answer for his 
 conquests. 
 
 Napoleon, menaced by grave dangers, both from 
 within and from without, faced them all with the 
 same coolness which he had always shown in the 
 great emergencies of his career. The Declaration 
 of Frankfort, issued by the Powers (December Ist, 
 1813), in which they demanded that France should be 
 restricted to its natural limits between the Rhine, the 
 Alps, and the Pyrenees, and stated that they did not 
 wage war against France, but against Napoleon, con- 
 tained the same assurances, and appealed to the same 
 sentiments as the manifestoes of Schwartzenberg and 
 
124 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1814. 
 
 Blucher ; and a large portion of France had answered 
 the appeal. Napoleon saw how closely he was pressed 
 by his enemies, and how shrewdly the Coalition had 
 availed itself of the discontent which had arisen in 
 France. The foreign monarchs had, in fact, two power- 
 ful allies within the boundaries of the nation—the bulk 
 of the people itself, satiated with military glory, and 
 anxious to save the popular liberties before they were 
 completely extinct; and the partisans of the legitimate 
 monarchy, who hoped for a restoration which should 
 place Louis XVIII. on the throne. The first of these 
 two influences, and of course the most powerful, had 
 been stimulated by the Emperor’s injudicious acts in 
 dismissing the Legislative Body, in promulgating the 
 budget of 1814 by a personal decree, and in attempting 
 to organise the national defences, without appealing to 
 the nation for its sanction. Napoleon called out the 
 National Guard in the capital and several of the 
 ereat towns; but he hesitated to put arms in 
 their hands, and naturally failed to evoke popular 
 enthusiasm. He had armies of one hundred and fifty 
 thousand men in Italy and Spain, which he refused 
 to recall, in his overweening confidence that he should 
 soon be able to resume the offensive. Thus the defence 
 of the country against invasion was but artificial. The 
 people rose here and there, and displayed a spirit which, 
 as auxiliary to a powerful and well-disciplined army, 
 might have been invaluable. As it was, Napoleon 
 had nothing worthy of the name of a Grand Army. 
 
 On the 25th of January, Napoleon left Paris, 
 
 784 
 
1814.] THE EMPIRE. 125 
 
 and proceeded to the head-quarters of the eastern army, 
 which, under Marmont, Ney, and Victor, faced the 
 Allied armies at Vitry. Of the seventy thousand men 
 who had assembled here, Napoleon had detached a 
 force under Macdonald to cover Chalons and the Marne, 
 and another, commanded by Mortier, to protect Troyes 
 and the Seme. He himself took the direction of the 
 remaining forces into his own hands, and advanced to 
 Saint-Dizier, where he met the van-guard of Blucher’s 
 army, attempting to form a junction with the troops 
 of Schwartzenberg. Having driven back these troops, 
 he pushed on through Vassy, and found Blucher con- 
 centrated at Brienne. The town! was taken, and the 
 Prussian general fell back, but within a day or two 
 he effected his junction with Schwartzenberg on the 
 Bar-sur-Aube road. Instead of husbanding his re- 
 sources and waiting for reinforcements, Napoleon 
 continued to pursue Blucher; and at La Rothiére, 
 being almost surrounded by four times his numbers, 
 lost six thousand men, and was driven back upon 
 Troyes. Meanwhile Macdonald had been compelled 
 by Blucher’s rearguard to evacuate Chalons, and occupy 
 Epernay in its place. 
 
 The Allied armies appear to have held Napoleon 
 and his handful of men in very wholesome dread. 
 They neither attacked him nor pushed straight 
 forward on Paris, but separately followed the courses 
 
 1 After a sanguinary conflict, in the course of which Napoleon found 
 himself engaged in attacking the very military college in which he had been 
 educated for the army. 
 
126 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EHPOCH. [1814. 
 
 of the Seine and Marne towards the capital. Blucher 
 was strong enough to oblige Macdonald to quit the 
 town of Epernay; but the latter defeated a force 
 sent against him, blew up the bridge at Chateau- 
 Thierry, and retired slowly upon Meaux. Napoleon, on 
 his part, having received reinforcements, and learning 
 that Blucher had again separated from Schwartzen- 
 berg, fell upon the former, with Marmont and Ney, 
 on the Chalons road. After cutting to pieces a 
 column of five thousand Russians at Champ-Aubert, he 
 defeated the German general, Sacken, at Montmirail, 
 and subsequently Sacken and York together, in front 
 of Chateau-Thierry. The Russians burned the town 
 and fled; and a vengeful pursuit was undertaken by 
 Mortier and the armed bands of the district. Napoleon 
 then rejoined Marmont, who had been obliged to fall 
 back before Blucher; but now the latter, true to the 
 admirable strategy adopted by the Alles, avoided an 
 encounter with the French Emperor. Napoleon, how- 
 ever, was not to be denied; he overtook the Prussian 
 general at Vauchamp, and inflicted upon him a series 
 of severe defeats, between the 14th and 16th of Feb- 
 ruary, putting ten thousand men Aors de combat. 
 Meanwhile, part of the army of the Rhine, com- 
 manded by Winzingerode, had captured Avesnes, Laon, 
 and Soissons, whilst reinforcements had been sent to 
 Blucher to replace the men whom he had lost. A 
 division under Bulow, with an English contingent, also 
 attacked Antwerp, but was obliged to retreat without 
 making any impression upon that city, which was 
 
1814. | THH HMPIRE. 127 
 
 defended by Carnot, a veteran of the Revolution, who, 
 having always held aloof from Napoleon, had offered 
 him his sword as soon as the soil of France had been 
 invaded. Brussels, however, was evacuated by the 
 French, under Maison, who, nevertheless, did good 
 service in holding the Allies in check. 
 
 In the meantime General Caulaincourt had sought 
 out the representatives of the Allies, assembled at a 
 Congress at Chatillon (February 5th), at the imstance of 
 Napoleon, who had expressed himself anxious to save 
 Paris from attack, and was prepared to accept the basis 
 of the Declaration of Frankfort. | 
 
 Caulaincourt asked on what conditions the Allies 
 were prepared to treat. ‘They demanded the abandon- 
 ment even of the French conquests antecedent to the 
 Empire, the liberty of arranging the frontiers of the 
 other Huropean countries without the interference of 
 France, and the occupation of Belfort, Besancon, and 
 Huningen. The Emperor repelled these offers with 
 disdain. ‘‘ They forget,” he said, “that I am much 
 nearer to Munich than they are to Paris.” 
 
 However, the negotiations at Chatillon were con- 
 tinued, whilst Napoleon pursued his operations in the 
 field; and every success against the forces of the 
 Allies rendered the Emperor less inclined to listen to 
 their demands. 
 
 Karly in March most important operations were 
 conducted to the north of the Marne, the result of 
 which virtually decided the fate of the campaign. 
 Blucher, who had suffered much at the hands of 
 
128 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1814, 
 
 Napoleon and his Marshals, was still marching upon 
 Paris when he heard that the French Emperor was 
 starting from Troyes, by way of Sézanne and La Ferté- 
 Gaucher, and was advancing to attack him with twenty- 
 five thousandmen. ‘The Prussian general at once crossed 
 the Marne, and fell hurriedly back upon Soissons, a 
 town at that time besieged by Winzingerode and 
 Bulow. Pressed hard by Marmont, Mortier, and the 
 Emperor, he found himself in a precarious position, 
 and there seemed but small hope of his escaping, 
 when, at this juncture, Soissons, most unfortunately 
 for the French, capitulated (March 9th); and Blucher 
 found a refuge open to him. If it had not been for 
 this lucky coincidence, the army of Silesia might, 
 according to some military authors, have fallen into the 
 hands of the French. 
 
 Napoleon, enraged but not crushed by this dis- 
 appointment, at once attacked the left of the Allies, and 
 fought more than one desperate battle at Laon, losing 
 within a few days a sixth of his small army of thirty 
 thousand men. However, Blucher evacuated Soissons, 
 which was occupied by Mortier. Napoleon then turned 
 round upon Rheims, which had been surprised by a 
 Russian force, and which town he captured, with a loss 
 to the enemy of five thousand men. 
 
 Meanwhile Augereau at Lyons remained compara- 
 tively inactive, and made no effectual response to the 
 urgent commands of Napoleon to advance upon the 
 Rhine. He protested that his army was not ready 
 for the field, and Napoleon sent him a sublime reply. 
 
1814. J THE HMPIRE. 129 
 
 “ T have at this moment,” he said, “a division of four 
 thousand National Guards, in round hats and vests, 
 without pouches, armed with every kind of gun, of 
 whom I think very highly; and I only wish I had 
 thirty thousand of them.” Augereau did attempt to 
 retake Macon, and fought an unsuccessful battle 
 near Lyons, which he was obliged to evacuate. Then 
 he took up an inefficient position between Valence 
 and Pont-Saint-Esprit, under the pretext of preventing 
 the union of the Austrians with Wellington. But he 
 too had entered into negotiations with the Allies, and 
 was betraying the Emperor. 
 
 Wellington, with seventy thousand men, occupied 
 the roads from Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Saint-Jean- 
 Pied-de-Port to Bayonne, facing Soult, who stood with 
 his right on the latter town, and whose army had been 
 weakened in order to reinforce Napoleon. The British 
 general attacked him, and drove him from Bayonne and 
 the Adour to Orthez, and from thence to Aire. Mean- 
 while the Royalists, encouraged by the presence of 
 the Duke d’Angouléme, whom the English had brought 
 to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, invited Wellington to Bordeaux. 
 A detachment of the Anglo-Spanish army entered the 
 city, and there, on the 12th of March, Louis XVIII. 
 was first proclaimed. 
 
 When Schwartzenberg heard of the capitulation of 
 Soissons and of its subsequent evacuation by Blucher, 
 he crossed the Seine, and drove Macdonald upon 
 Nangis, hoping to co-operate with the Prussians; but 
 
 the approach of Napoleon, who had taken a three days’ 
 i 
 
130 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 rest at Rheims, caused him to fall back again, and to 
 give the still redoubtable Emperor as wide a berth as 
 possible. The boldness of the French, and the 
 circumspection of the Allies, show how completely the 
 terror of Napoleon’s name had been established during 
 the past twenty years, when even the disasters of 1812 
 and 1813 had not sufficed to extinguish it. But 
 now a more courageous policy was adopted by the 
 Alhes, at the instance of the Czar Alexander. It 
 was decided that Schwartzenberg and Blucher should 
 do what they might safely have done six or eight 
 weeks before—unite their whole forces and march upon 
 Paris. 
 
 The Austrian general marched upon Arcis, in order 
 to join Blucher at Vitry or Chalons, as occasion might 
 offer. Napoleon instantly challenged him, and drove 
 him back again; but as Schwartzenberg took up a strong 
 position, with a hundred thousand men the Emperor 
 was compelled to retire. He turned back upon Saint- 
 Dizier, in the hope of entering Lorraine, of collecting 
 there a large number of volunteers, and of cutting 
 the communications of the invading armies. It was a 
 last resource. Paris lay practically open to the Alles, 
 for Marmont and Mortier, with their eighteen thousand 
 men, had also been recalled from Rheims, in order to 
 join the Emperor. ‘The attempt of Napoleon was 
 so far successful that it induced Schwartzenberg to 
 return to Vitry, in order to watch his opponent’s move- 
 ments, whilst the bulk of the forces remained at Chalons. 
 
 Thus there was another delay, and another period 
 
1814.] THE EMPIRE. 131 
 
 of hesitation. The French malcontents, and the 
 Royalists in particular, who were eager to receive from 
 the invading armies that power and those privileges 
 which they could not obtain from the French people, 
 began to grow tired of waiting. They urged the Allies 
 to advance upon the capital, and assured them that 
 they could do so with perfect safety. ‘“ You can do 
 anything,” wrote Talleyrand, a member of the Senate, 
 hitherto subservient to Napoleon; “and you dare do 
 nothing. Be daring for once!” 
 
 The Czar once more urged before a council of war 
 the necessity of a resolute march on Paris. It was 
 arranged that Winzingerode, with a strong force of 
 cavalry and artillery, should occupy the attention of 
 Napoleon, and if necessary fall back before him, whilst 
 the two armies—that of Schwartzenberg by Vitry and 
 Coulommiers, and that of Blucher by Chalons and Mont- 
 mirail—should hastily advance upon the capital. At 
 the same time the Allies issued another declaration 
 from Vitry, in which they repeated their former pro- 
 testations, and expressed their desire and resolve to 
 ‘“‘reconstruct the social edifice.” 
 
 Meanwhile Marmont and Mortier, attempting to - 
 obey the directions of the Emperor, encountered the 
 advancing columns of the enemy. ‘They fell back 
 fighting upon Fére-Champenoise, losing a large number 
 of men, and took refuge in Sézanne. They were saved 
 from further destruction by a force under General 
 Pacthod, nearly wholly composed of National Guards, 
 raised from the invaded districts, and which at this 
 
 7 2 
 
132 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 moment opposed an heroic resistance, in front of 
 Fére-Champenoise, to an overwhelming number of the 
 cavalry of both the Allied armies. Seventy cannon 
 played upon these six thousand brave men for a period 
 of twelve hours, who steadfastly refusing to surrender, 
 were cut to pieces and mown down, until barely 
 a thousand contrived to escape. This brillant feat 
 enabled Marmont and Mortier to withdraw with the 
 remainder of their troops, and ultimately to reach 
 Charenton, almost simultaneously with the arrival of 
 the Allies in the environs of the capital. 
 
 The capital justified the predictions of Talleyrand 
 and the Royalists; it offered no resistance worthy of 
 the name. On the 29th of March, at the first news of 
 the approach of the Allied armies, the Empress fled to 
 Blois, accompanied by the infant King of Rome anda 
 number of the ministers. The Parisians had, for the 
 most part, believed in Napoleon to the last; and when 
 the enemy’s cannon saluted their ears on the 30th, and 
 they heard that the Emperor was at Saint-Dizier, they 
 began to think that he had really abandoned his cause. 
 Some feeble efforts were now put forth to place the 
 city in a state of defence. Joseph Bonaparte, who 
 was in Paris, issued a proclamation, inciting the people 
 to resistance. ‘‘ Let us arm ourselves,’ he said, “ to 
 defend this city, her monuments, her wealth, your 
 wives, your children, all that is dear to you. Let this 
 vast city become for a season a camp, and let the enemy 
 be defeated under the very walls which he expects to 
 _ pass in triumph. ‘The Emperor is marching to your 
 
1814.] THE EMPIRE. 133 
 
 aid. Second him by a brief resistance, and let us save 
 the honour of France!” 
 
 All this might have been true, and a check to the 
 enemy for a few weeks might have been equivalent to 
 the raismg of the siege by Napoleon, but Joseph and 
 his advisers themselves took care that their proclama- 
 tion should have no effect. They would not trust the 
 people with arms; and though half Paris was ready 
 to rise, and actually clamoured for them, none were 
 given. Joseph was assisted by Clarke, Minister of 
 War, and General Hullin ; and, whether from indecision 
 or from treachery, the triumvirate on whom the fate 
 of Paris depended, and on whom Napoleon relied for 
 his last chance of saving the capital, did nothing 
 effectual. The Allies occupied gradually the heights 
 round Paris, La Villette, La Chapelle, Pantin, Charonne, 
 and Romainville; and at Noisy, at the foot of the 
 hills which surround the capital, and in the wood of 
 the same name, Blucher took up his quarters un- 
 opposed. A hundred and forty thousand Russians, 
 Prussians, and Austrians surrounded the city ; and the 
 first show of opposition came from without, not from 
 within its walls. 
 
 Marmont and Mortier had followed in the wake of 
 the invaders, and on the 30th they made several furious 
 and sanguinary attacks upon the overwhelming forces 
 of the Allies. Around Romainville, Menilmontant, and 
 Belleville the battle raged with the utmost ardour, and 
 Schwartzenberg was at one time so hard pressed that he 
 was obliged to call upon the Prussian Guards. The . 
 
134 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 latter advanced against the heights of Belleville, which 
 Marmont had already surmounted with his artillery, 
 and which, served by the Marshal’s troops, assisted 
 by the pensioners, received them with a withering 
 fire. The Prussians broke and retreated, but presently, 
 reforming at Pantin, they charged in a similar manner 
 against the hills (6u¢tes) of Chaumont. Here the marines 
 gave them an equally warm reception, whilst the 
 National Guards, and the few citizens who had been 
 able to obtain arms, fired upon them from every pro- 
 tected point. A second time the Prussians broke and 
 withdrew ; the French cavalry pursued and cut them 
 down, recaptured Pantin, and held the seventy thousand 
 men of Schwartzenberg’s army at bay for seven hours 
 until fatigue put an end to the struggle. 
 
 The resistance of Paris depended upon Marmont 
 and Mortier alone, aided by a handful of veterans, 
 and by the pensioners, marines, and military students 
 of the capital. The few ministers and officials who had 
 not fled with the Empress, and the two incompetent 
 brothers of Napoleon, Joseph and Jéréme, had con- 
 tributed nothing to the honour of the day. The 
 Emperor, now on his way to Paris, sent General 
 Dejean to Montmartre to inform his brothers of his 
 return. ‘The messenger came too late to find the repre- 
 sentatives of the Imperial Government. A domestic 
 placed in his hand the following letter of Joseph, 
 which he had been charged to convey to the 
 Marshals :— 
 
 “ Paris, March 30th, 1814. If Marshal Mortier, 
 
1814.] THE EMPIRE. es 35 
 
 Duke of Treviso, and Marshal Marmont, Duke of 
 Ragusa, cannot continue to hold their positions, they 
 are authorised to enter into negotiations with Prince 
 Schwartzenberg and the Emperor of Russia, who are 
 opposed to them: They will afterwards withdraw upon 
 the Loire.”’ 
 
 And in fact, as soon as this letter was written, 
 the two Bonapartes, with the minister Clarke in their 
 company, precipitately fled to Versailles, having scarcely 
 taken a single effectual step for the protection or 
 assistance of the vast city which had been entrusted 
 to their care. 
 
 Dejean instantly set spurs to his horse, and over- 
 took the retreating brothers of the Emperor in the 
 Bois de Boulogne. He entreated them to return, and 
 assured them that Napoleon would reach the capital 
 on the following day. Joseph told him that it was 
 too late, and he would not listen to the arguments 
 and entreaties of his brother’s messenger. 
 
 The general, therefore, returned to Paris, where he 
 found the two gallant Marshals still hotly contesting 
 every foot of ground. But even Marmont and Mortier 
 began to recognise that further resistance was hopeless. 
 Toward nightfall they despatched an aide-de-camp to the 
 head-quarters of the Allies at La Villette, who agreed 
 upon an armistice for four hours, in order to arrange 
 a capitulation, which was concluded at midnight, under 
 the following conditions :— 
 
 “The French troops shall evacuate the capital of 
 France on the 3lst of March, at seven o’clock in the 
 
136 * THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 morning. All the arsenals, manufactories, military 
 buildings and stores, shall remain in the condition m 
 which they were before the capitulation.” 
 
 It was afterwards discovered that the city contained 
 thirty thousand new muskets, a hundred and twenty- 
 five cannon, two hundred and fifty thousand hundred- 
 weights of powder, five million cartridges, and a vast 
 quantity of military stores of all kinds, which had been 
 studiously withheld from a population anxious to defend 
 themselves. As it was, the possession of the city had 
 cost the Alles, on their own confession, eighteen 
 thousand men. How would it have been if all Paris 
 had been armed, and had held out until Napoleon 
 had seconded its efforts with his army of forty thou- 
 sand men? ‘This, indeed, is what the Emperor had, 
 at the last moment, attempted to do. As soon as he 
 learned that Winzingerode was merely covering the 
 forward march of the main armies of the Coalition, he 
 hastened towards the capital, counting upon reaching 
 it as soon as the enemy. At Troyes he received in- 
 formation which caused him to hurry on to Fontaine- 
 bleau alone; and from thence he was continuing his 
 journey when he met the troops of Marmont and 
 Mortier. 
 
 On the 31st of March, the Allied sovereigns and 
 their armies entered the French capital. They were 
 received with enthusiasm by the partisans of the 
 Bourbons, and cries of ‘‘ Long live Louis XVIIL.” 
 were alternated with ‘‘ Long live Alexander!” The 
 masses were subdued ; they felt their helplessness, and 
 
1814.] THE EMPIRE. 137 
 
 were not consoled by the project of a monarchical 
 restoration. The Czar and his allies paid apparently 
 great respect to the national will, and compelled their 
 troops to behave with the utmost moderation. Though 
 the idea of interfering forcibly in the internal affairs 
 of France was never entertained by the English Minis- 
 ters, they privately inclined to the return of the 
 Bourbons to power. Wellington had already tacitly 
 allowed their conduct at Bordeaux, and the other Allies 
 were sufficiently indifferent in the matter. It is true 
 that Alexander emphatically declared, to the Royalists 
 who assiduously paid him court, ‘“‘ The nation has only 
 to manifest its will, and we shall maintain it;” but 
 there was only one flaw in this professed deference 
 to the popular wishes, and that was that the people 
 were not consulted in the matter. Talleyrand assured 
 the Alles that the ‘ authorities” were in favour of 
 the Bourbons ; and, at length, the Czar, in the name of 
 the Sovereigns, invited the Senate to appoimt a Pro- 
 visional Government, which should draw up a Constitu- 
 tion, and provide for the administration of affairs. But 
 from beginning to end there was no thought of an 
 appeal to the people. 
 
 On the 2nd of April the Senate named the following 
 members of its body as a Provisional Government :— 
 Talleyrand, Beurnonville, Jaucourt, Dalberg, and Mon- 
 tesquiou. On the next day they decreed the downfall 
 of Napoleon and his dynasty. 
 
 —so ran this decree—‘‘that Napoleon 
 
 b) 
 
 “‘ Considering ’ 
 Bonaparte has torn up the contract which bound him to 
 
138 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 the French people by raising taxes otherwise than in 
 virtue of the law, by needlessly adjourning the Legis- 
 lative Body, by illegally issuing sundry decrees involv- 
 ing the infliction of death, by suppressing ministerial 
 responsibility, judicial independence, freedom of the 
 press, &c.; considering that Napoleon has crowned 
 the misfortunes of his country by misapplying all 
 the men and money entrusted to him for the purpose 
 of war, and by refusing to treat on conditions which 
 the national welfare required to be accepted; con- 
 sidering that the manifest wishes of all Frenchmen 
 call for a state of things whereof the first result 
 should be the re-establishment of the general peace, and 
 which should also be the epoch of a solemn reconcilia- 
 tion amongst all the States of the great Huropean 
 family—the Senate decrees: Napoleon Bonaparte is 
 dethroned; hereditary right is abolished in his family ; 
 the French people and army are absolved from their 
 oath of fidelity to him.”’ 
 
 This decree caused a great sensation; though 
 there were found many individuals ready to hail it 
 with enthusiasm, and to treat the memory of the 
 fallen Emperor with contempt. When Napoleon 
 was informed of it, and found moreover that the 
 spirit of his oldest and best generals had died or was 
 dying out, and that the troops who yet remained with 
 him revolted at the idea of engaging in a civil war, 
 he determined to submit to his fate. On the 4th of 
 April he abdicated in favour of his son, appointed 
 the Empress Regent, and sent Caulaincourt, Ney, 
 
1814. ] THH HMPIRE. 139 
 
 and Macdonald to treat with the Allied sovereigns. 
 The latter received these envoys with respect; for 
 Napoleon was still a redoubtable name, and he had 
 still an army. But at this critical moment a new and 
 remarkable desertion took place in the camp at Fon- 
 tainebleau. Marmont, the hero of a hundred well-con- 
 tested battlefields, signed a secret convention with the 
 Alles, in accordance with which he suddenly with- 
 drew with his men, arms, cannon, and baggage, to 
 Normandy. 
 
 The Allies at once rejected the propositions of the 
 Emperor. The latter, enraged and desperate, declared 
 that he would march upon Paris; but the spirit of his 
 remnant of an army was utterly broken. Hven Ney 
 and Berthier now abandoned him; and at length, one 
 week after signing his first abdication, he signed another 
 in these terms :— 
 
 “The Allied Powers having proclaimed that the 
 Emperor Napoleon is the only obstacle to the re- 
 establishment of peace in urope, the Emperor 
 Napoleon, faithful to his oaths, declares that he re- 
 nounces, for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France 
 and Italy, forasmuch as there is no personal sacrifice, 
 not even that of life itself, which he is not willing to 
 make in the interests of France.” 
 
 Immediately afterwards a convention was signed 
 between Napoleon and the Allies, whereby the former 
 stipulated for the retention of his titles and rank, as 
 well as for those of his mother, his son, his brothers, 
 sisters, nephews, and nieces; for the island of Elba as 
 
140 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 a residence, to be considered a principality and his own 
 property, with an income of £100,000; for the duchies 
 of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, for his wife and 
 son; and for an income of £40,000 for the ex-Kmpress 
 Josephine, who did not long survive the downfall of 
 her divorced husband, but died at Malmaison, on the 
 29th of May. 
 
 On the 16th of April, 1814, the deposed Emperor 
 bade farewell to his soldiers, and departed for Elba, with 
 generals Bertrand, Drouot, and Cambronne, and four 
 commissioners of the Allies, an Englishman, an Austrian, 
 a Russian, and a Prussian. 
 
 Michelet is worth quoting here, in connection with 
 the departure of the fallen monarch for his temporary 
 exile, and the attitude of the French people in the 
 provinces. 
 
 ‘Napoleon had himself requested, as a guarantee of 
 his safety, that commissioners of the five great Powers 
 should conduct him to Elba; so that what follows was 
 seen by five witnesses. If the most hostile witness, 
 the Prussian, made a point of recording these discredit- 
 able circumstances, they were also attested by the 
 
 tussian, and by the Austrian who saw in Napoleon 
 the son-in-law of his master. The Russian and the 
 Austrian, indeed, were so humane and well-disposed 
 that, in order to reassure him, they exposed themselves, 
 consenting to disguises, to changes of garment, which, 
 with a populace intoxicated by rage, might turn 
 to their own injury, and cause them to be massacred 
 themselves. 
 
1814.] THE EMPIRE. 141 
 
 “Near Valence he (the Emperor) encountered 
 Augereau, and for the first time saw how completely 
 he had fallen. Augereau did not salute him, but, as he 
 embraced him, spoke with coarse familiarity, and re- 
 proached him with the ambition which had brought him 
 to such a pass. Napoleon received all this in good 
 part, and returned his embrace. Augereau departed 
 without saluting.? 
 
 “At Avignon a thousand invectives were uttered by 
 the crowd. At Orgon they were terrified by the sinister 
 exhibition of a gallows, from which hung a figure (the 
 image of the Emperor) covered with blood. The Rus- 
 sian commissioner, who came last, endeavoured to pacify 
 the crowd, speaking of the pity due to an unfortunate 
 prisoner. Bonaparte, very pale, at the bottom of his 
 carriage, at first tried to conceal himself behind his com- 
 panion, General Bertrand. But he was not satisfied 
 with that; fear induced him to don the white cockade 
 and a courier’s dress, and he began to ride in the front. 
 
 “The carriages came on at a slower pace, which was 
 almost causing a tragedy. At Saint-Canat the people 
 tried to open the carriage, in order to assassinate 
 Bertrand, who occupied the place of the Emperor. 
 
 ‘He himself, having vainly tried to pass for an 
 Englishman, proposed to retrace his steps as far as 
 Lyons, in order to take another road. He wept, 
 
 1 Savary, Duke de Rovigo, denies this in the seventh volume of his 
 Mémoires pour servir 4 Histoire de Napoléon, and says that Augereau 
 spoke to the fallen Emperor with the same respect he had always shown 
 him. 
 
142 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [181 
 
 and looked round like a child, to see if there was any 
 escape. by the window of the small inn where they 
 stopped; but it was barred, and probably watched by a 
 hostile crowd. The landlady, coming forward, declared 
 that the people would undoubtedly assassinate or drown 
 Bonaparte. The better to dissimulate, he himself de- 
 clared that this was a very good idea. 
 
 ‘““ At times he fancied that the commissioners might 
 poison him, and would touch nothing at their meals. 
 In fine (a thing which bore witness to a brain giddy 
 with terror), occasionally, in the midst of his tears, he 
 spoke volubly, and assumed an amiable and genteel 
 manner, so that a clown would have blushed to behave 
 thus. 
 
 “At midnight they were going on, and a Rus- 
 sian, an aide-de-camp to Commissioner Schouvaloff, 
 offered, in order to reassure him, to put on the garment 
 in which he had played the part of a courier. Bonaparte 
 converted himself into an Austrian general, by assuming 
 the white uniform of the commissioner Koller, and 
 above that the cloak of the Russian Schouvaloff. 
 Koller took him in his carriage, and, in order to 
 dispense with all notion of etiquette, whistled at his 
 request, and told his coachman to smoke. 
 
 “In the end, they met two companies of Austrian 
 hussars, who served as an escort, and brought his 
 terrors to a conclusion. 
 
 “ T have given this lamentable account on behalf of 
 those who, like Montaigne, are amused to observe the 
 variations of human nature, which are strong, but by 
 
1814. ] THE HMPIRE. 143 
 
 no means capricious, and are capable of an excellent 
 physical explanation.” ! 
 
 The campaign of 1814 did not end with the capitu- 
 lation of Paris. On the 8th of April, Marshal Soult 
 concentrated an army of about forty thousand men near 
 Toulouse, the ancient capital of the southern provinces 
 of France, and well known to him, as he had been 
 born and bred in its immediate neighbourhood. The 
 Garonne flows to the west of that city, with a deep 
 curve, and on its left bank is situated the suburb of 
 St. Ciprien, defended by a strong wall, massy towers 
 and redoubts; so that to attack the town from that 
 side would have been hazardous. Wellington, who had 
 arrived at the head of nearly fifty-two thousand 
 Englishmen and Spaniards, resolved, after various at- 
 tempts made for about ten days, to cross the Garonne at 
 Grenade, fifteen miles below Toulouse. But only fifteen 
 thousand foot and three thousand horse could be carried 
 over, for the river was so swollen and tempestuous that 
 the grappling-irons and supports of the bridge were 
 swept away, so that the rest of the troops could not 
 cross. The French Marshal instead of attacking these 
 isolated soldiers, neglected the opportunity, and seems 
 to have been ignorant of the comparative small number 
 opposed to him. But five days later the whole of the 
 Anglo-Spanish army crossed, and then the English 
 general, early in the morning, commenced the battle 
 (June 10th) which was vigorously and bravely con- 
 
 1 Hist, du XIX. siecle, vol. iii., bk. vi., ch. 5. 
 
144, THH FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 tested on both sides, but which resulted in the retreat 
 of Soult with a loss of over three thousand killed. 
 Wellington, who had lost nearly five thousand men 
 occupied Toulouse on the 12th, and found in that town 
 sixteen hundred wounded, amongst whom were three 
 generals. He was received by the inhabitants with 
 great demonstrations of joy, and soon afterwards they 
 united with those of Paris in declaring in favour of 
 Louis XVIII.; and the French Marshal, after a fort- 
 night’s hesitation, tendered his submission to the Duke 
 d’Angouléme. 
 
Book WH. 
 
 SHR OAL E LOIN 
 
 Clan Der hale 
 § I.—THE RETURN OF THE BOURBONS., 
 (From the 11th of April, 1814, tll the 20th of March, 1815.) 
 
 Tur reaction against the Imperial régime, and the 
 consequent abdication of Napoleon, rendered it neces- 
 sary for France to consider how she should fill the 
 vacancy caused by the Emperor’s withdrawal. The 
 . Provisional Government lost no time in decreeing a 
 Constitution, and in summoning the Bourbons to the 
 throne. But the Senate, which had pronounced the 
 downfall of the Empire, seemed to concern itself 
 chiefly with the maintenance of its temporary dignity 
 and authority; unless, indeed, we accept the more 
 charitable construction of its apparent lethargy, and 
 ascribe it to the presence of the foreign armies on 
 the soil of France. 
 
 There were, as we have seen, a considerable number 
 of men who, perceiving that a decided course of action 
 must be entered upon by the nation, had the courage 
 to pronounce their opinion more or less openly. 
 
 k 
 
146 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 Amongst these was Montesquiou, a Legitimist, and a 
 member of the Provisional Government, who had 
 persistently advocated the cause of the Bourbons. 
 Montesquiou played in France much the same _ part 
 that Monk and his friends had played in England, 
 after the death of Cromwell had paved the way 
 for the restoration of the Stuarts. He not only ex- 
 pected his colleagues to invite Louis XVIII. to Paris, 
 but he also carried on an active correspondence with 
 the Pretender, who resided then at Hartwell, in Buck- 
 inghamshire, and prepared the way for his return. 
 
 Louis XVI. had left two brothers—the Count of 
 Provence, now Louis X VIII., and the Count d’Artois. 
 The late King’s son, a prisoner in the Temple at 
 the time of that monarch’s execution, was known as 
 Louis X VIL, or, at all events, the Legitimists had made 
 it a point of honour to speak of him under that title ; 
 and on his death, a couple of years later, his uncle, 
 Louis Stanislas Xavier, pretended to the throne of his 
 late brother, as Louis XVIII. The youngest of the 
 three brothers, the Count d’Artois, who had professed an 
 ardent devotion to his sister-in-law, Marie Antoinette, 
 but whose amours had gone much farther afield in other 
 directions, had latterly renounced the pleasures of the 
 world, and had sought consolation for the death of his 
 last mistress in a life of religious asceticism. Recalled 
 to mundane cares by the collapse of the Empire, the 
 Count, with his two sons, the Dukes d’Angouléme 
 and de Berry, now bestirred himself in the interests of 
 his brother, and, favoured by the indirect assistance of 
 
1814.] THE RESTORATION. 147 
 
 the English, had made his way through Switzerland 
 into France. 
 
 Louis XVIII. issued a manifesto to the French 
 people from his English home; but he left his brother 
 and his nephews to take the more active, more 
 dangerous, and more effectual measures which the 
 times rendered necessary. The Count began by 
 promising the abolition of the conscription, and of 
 the heavy imposts levied under Napoleon; and the 
 country, worn out by enforced military service, and 
 exhausted by taxation, soon welcomed the prospect 
 of a monarchical restoration. The King’s _procla- 
 mation had been issued early in the year; and after 
 some hesitation the Count d’Artois advanced, through 
 Vesoul, Nancy, and Troyes, to the capital, which he 
 entered amidst a display of enthusiastic welcome, 
 on the 12th of April. The National Guard, the 
 municipal authorities, a portion of the Senate, and 
 six of Napoleon’s Marshals—Ney, Oudinot, Kellermann, 
 Moncey, Marmont, and Serurier—were amongst those 
 who hastened to adhere to the Legitimist cause. 
 
 Meanwhile the Alhes had refused to lend any 
 direct countenance to the attempts of the Legitimists. 
 They had thrown their egis over the Senate, and 
 guaranteed the observance of the Constitution framed 
 and voted by the last-mentioned body, who finally 
 agreed to recall Louis XVIII. on condition that 
 he should accept the newly made Constitution. 
 It was doubtless the more resolute in demanding 
 this acceptance from a recollection of the manner in 
 
 k 2 
 
148 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 which Louis XVI. had observed the oath taken by 
 him to the Constitution of 1789. On the 13th of 
 April the Czar paid the Count d’Artois a visit, in 
 the course of which he explained to him the nature 
 of the guarantee given by the Alles to the Senate, 
 and declared that they had no disposition to break 
 their word. As soon as this interview was at an 
 end, the Count expressed his willingness to receive 
 the Senators, which he had hitherto declined to do. 
 The latter saluted him as Lieutenant-General of the 
 kingdom; and the Count thereupon declared that, 
 though he had not been authorised by his_ brother 
 to accept the Constitution, yet he knew his sentiments 
 and principles, and believed he should not be 
 disavowed if he affirmed, in the King’s name, that 
 he would admit its fundamental propositions. The 
 Legislative Body, which followed the Senate, was less 
 exacting, and, probably because it was _ satisfied 
 with the Count’s qualified adhesion to the Constitution, 
 made no demand on its own account; whereupon the 
 Lieutenant-General could not deny himself the pleasure 
 of exclaiming that here, at last, he recognised the 
 ‘ genuine representatives of the French people.” 
 
 The Count d’Artois now set himself to work to 
 reorganise the public services, and to place the power 
 in the hands of the staunch adherents of the old 
 dynasty, who came pouring back into the country. 
 This was by no means the only test of loyalty imposed 
 upon France by the first representative of the restored 
 dynasty. No sooner had the ancien régime began 
 
~ 1814.4 THE RESTORATION. 149 
 
 to re-establish itself upon the ruins of the Empire 
 than its old unscrupulousness and folly revived. The 
 first violation of the King’s word was resorted to for 
 the purpose of raising money. The coffers of the 
 State were not yet empty; but so far from steps 
 being taken to relieve the burden of taxation, the 
 Count and his advisers demanded the collection of 
 certain extraordinary imposts, decreed by Napoleon 
 just before his abdication. Perhaps a still more fatal 
 blunder was committed by the hasty substitution of 
 the white flag for the tricolour, a measure which caused 
 much unnecessary discontent in the army, and may 
 have contributed not a little to the disasters of the 
 Hundred Days. 
 
 The Allies lost no time in requiring the Count, in 
 the name of his brother, to sign an agreement, without 
 prejudice to the final terms of peace, removing the 
 limits of France to those which had existed in the 
 beginning of 1792, and directing the complete evacua- 
 tion of all places beyond this boundary. ‘Talleyrand, 
 who conducted these negotiations, has never been 
 forgiven by his fellow-countrymen for the  ap- 
 parent phability with which he thus consented to 
 abandon every advantage gained by two-and-twenty 
 years of prodigious sacrifices, and unparalleled military 
 prowess. 
 
 Louis XVIII. left England towards the end of 
 April, after an ill-judged compliment addressed to the 
 Prince Regent, in which he attributed his recall ‘to 
 the counsels of the Prince, to this glorious land, and to 
 
150 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 the confidence of its inhabitants.” The phrase was 
 naturally looked upon as humiliating for France; and it 
 was but the first of many similar displays of a spirit 
 lamentably out of harmony with the most valuable 
 results of the Revolution. 
 
 The work achieved by the French Revolution might 
 be full of contrasted good and evil, and its sequel had 
 undoubtedly assumed the form of a negation of popular 
 liberties; but it had at least laid the foundation of 
 freedom for France. The Restoration already threat- 
 ened to cast away all that was really valuable in the 
 legacy of 1789. 
 
 The King reached Compiégne on the 29th of April, 
 and was immediately besieged by crowds of officials and 
 courtiers, who wished to make the best possible terms 
 with the new monarch. The Legislative Body more 
 eager to welcome him than the Senate, hastened to 
 lay the country at his feet. They demanded no 
 guarantee, and asked for no assurance, beyond mildly 
 requesting a general acceptance of the results of the 
 past twenty years. The King’s residence in England 
 had, indeed, not been in vain. He was more liberal 
 than many of his friends, and certainly more so than his 
 brother; but he was still unprepared for Constitutional 
 government, even as it had been conceived by the 
 so-called Conservative Senate. 
 
 He entered Paris on the 3rd of May; and on the 
 previous evening he signed the following manifesto, 
 which was published and circulated throughout the 
 country. The King attached his signature to this 
 
1814.] THE RESTORATION. 151 
 
 declaration in the village of Saint Ouen, whence it 
 has taken its name :— 
 
 “Recalled by the affections of our people to the 
 throne of France, instructed by the misfortunes of the 
 nation which we are destined to govern, our first 
 thought is to invoke that mutual reliance so necessary 
 to our happiness, and to its welfare. 
 
 “ After attentively reading the scheme of a Consti- 
 tution proposed by the Senate, in its sitting of the 
 6th of April last, we acknowledge that its bases are 
 good, but that a large number of articles, bearmg the 
 impress of the haste wherewith they were drawn up, 
 cannot, as they stand, become fundamental laws of the 
 State. Resolved to accept a liberal Constitution, desiring 
 that it should be wisely put together, and unable to 
 accept one which it is indispensable to correct, we will 
 convoke the Senate and the Legislative Body, under- 
 taking to bring under their notice the work which we 
 shall have performed, with a Committee selected from 
 amongst these two bodies, and to give as a basis for this 
 Constitution the following guarantees: representative 
 government in two bodies; taxation voted by the 
 nation; public and individual hberty; freedom of the 
 press; freedom of worship; the inviolability and sacred- 
 ness of property; irrevocability of the judges, and 
 independence of the judicial power; the guarantee of 
 the public debt; the maintenance of the Legion of 
 Honour; every Frenchman admissible to all employ- 
 ments; in fine, no interference with any individual fo1 
 his opinions and his votes.” 
 
152 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 The King was a man of no forcible character, 
 and his first care seems to have been to resuscitate 
 from their quarter of a century of oblivion the empty 
 titles and sinecures of the ancien régime. Amongst 
 other instances of this, the Count d’Artois was named 
 Colonel-General of the Swiss Guards and of the Na- 
 tional Guards ; the King’s cousin, the Duke de Bourbon- 
 Condé, was appointed Colonel-General of the Infantry, 
 a rank he had held before the Revolution; the Duke 
 d’Angouléme Colonel of Cuirassiers and Dragoons, and 
 Marshal of France; the Duke de Berry Colonel-General 
 of Chasseurs and Lancers, and the Duke d’Orléans 
 Colonel - General of Hussars. At the same time 
 Oudinot and, Ney accepted the command-in-chief of the 
 erenadiers and dragoons respectively. 
 
 The first ministry of the Restoration was not ap- 
 pointed until the 13th of May, when it was constituted 
 as follows :—Chancellor and Keeper of the Seals, Dam- 
 bray; Foreign Affairs, Talleyrand; Minister of the 
 Interior, Montesquiou; of War, General Dupont; of 
 Finances, the Abbé Louis; of Marine and the Colonies, 
 Malouet; of the King’s Household, De Blacas. One of 
 the most able of these ministers was the Abbé Louis, 
 who did much to ensure the financial prosperity of the 
 country during the Restoration. The least popular 
 appointment was that of General Dupont, who had 
 been responsible for the capitulation of Baylen,' and 
 whom Napoleon had at the time accused of treason. 
 
 Meanwhile the final treaty of peace was being 
 
 1 See bk. v., ch. iii, § 1, p. 65. 
 
1814. ] THH RESTORATION. 153 
 
 prepared, and it was ratified at Paris on the 30th of 
 May. After this there was no delay in the evacuation 
 of the country by the Allied troops. France was not 
 treated as a conquered nation in 1814; and the 
 sovereigns, well satisfied to have their victory regarded 
 as one over Napoleon alone, avoided as much as possible 
 all interference with the action of the authorities, and 
 readily acquiesced in the Bourbon Restoration. The 
 Emperor of Russia left Paris on the 2nd of June, the 
 King of Prussia one day later. 
 
 On the 4th of June the Chambers were opened, and 
 the famous Constitutional Charter was signed and 
 granted by the King." 
 
 This document, containing seventy-six articles, 
 destined to be very frequently cited and appealed to in 
 subsequent years, with some notable exceptions, was 
 a fairly liberal compromise between popular freedom 
 and the privileges of a Legitimist monarch. It guaran- 
 teed equality before the law, individual lberty of 
 person, action, religion, and speech. ‘The election, 
 powers, and privileges of the Chambers were conceived 
 in a spirit which displayed a genuine desire on the part 
 of those who framed the Charter to work out a scheme 
 of constitutional monarchy. The concession was of 
 course regarded as too great by the more ardent 
 
 1 This Charter was drawn up in accordance with the declaration of 
 Saint-Ouen, by a Committee appointed on the King’s behalf, and con- 
 sisting of three royal commissioners, Montesquiou, Ferrand, and Beugnot ; 
 nine senators, including Barthélemy, Boissy-d’Anglas, Fontanes, Garnier, 
 
 Marshal Serurier; and nine deputies, including Bois-Savary, Chabaud- 
 Latour, Duhamel, Faucon, and Lainé. 
 
_ 
 
 154 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1814. 
 
 members of the reactionary party who had spent five- 
 and-twenty years in longing for a restoration of the 
 ancien régime; but Louis and his friends recognised 
 the necessity of accepting accomplished facts, and 
 dared not attempt openly to undo the work of the 
 Revolution. The Charter was welcomed by those who 
 had lamented the check to political and social develop- 
 ment caused by the Napoleonic wars. ‘They saw in it 
 an honest effort to give France similar institutions to 
 those which had been adopted by the governments of 
 England, of the United States, and of Switzerland ; 
 and they were fully justified in accepting this new form 
 of Liberal progress for their country and generation. 
 Louis le Désiré—for so he was hailed by the Cham- 
 bers on the promulgation of the Charter—soon found 
 that he had to reckon with opponents as formidable on 
 the side of reaction as on that of popular progress. 
 The émigrés as a body were enraged with the com- 
 promise entered into between the brother of Louis 
 ‘XVI. and the men who had beheaded him. This 
 extreme reactionary party found its most influential ex- 
 ponent in the Count d’Artois, who did his best to 
 gratify his friends. It soon became manifest that the 
 Government itself, without the need of any external 
 pressure, would accompany the text of the Charter with 
 commentaries of anything but a liberal tendency. Even 
 before the year was out severe police regulations were 
 issued for the stricter observance of Sunday, and other 
 days appointed for public religious services. Further 
 restrictions of a similar kind served to show that the 
 
1814-5.] THH RESTORATION. 155 
 
 re-vindication of religion was to be one of the first cares 
 of the new order of things, and that the liberty of 
 worship granted by the Charter was not to extend 
 beyond the line which might be marked out by the 
 Roman Catholic authorities. 
 
 The freedom of the press was interfered with as 
 early as the months of August and September, 1814, 
 when a law to check all abuses, and which was to 
 last until the end of the session of 1816, was passed by 
 both Chambers. By this enactment the liberty ac- 
 corded by the Charter was confined to publications of 
 “more than twenty sheets,” that is to say, to books 
 containing a minimum of 3836 pages. It was with- 
 drawn from journals and periodicals, which thence- 
 forth required an authorisation; whilst printers and 
 booksellers were subjected to a license. Public opinion 
 received this measure, as well as the regulations 
 about the religious services, with much dissatisfac- 
 tion, and it began to be perceived that the popular 
 liberties were likely to rest on no stronger basis 
 than the caprices of a Government not responsible to 
 the people. 
 
 There were many other causes of discontent, which, 
 early in the year 1815, afforded some sort of pretext 
 and encouragement for the desperate attempt of 
 Napoleon to recover his lost Empire. The King had 
 done much for the émigrés. He had restored their 
 titles; he had made generals of many who had been 
 heutenants in 1789, and had filled the army and navy 
 with officers on the same generous and dangerous 
 
156 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 principle. The Government, moreover, brought in a 
 bill to provide for the restitution to the former pro- 
 prietors of the unsold portions of estates confiscated 
 under the Republic, whilst at the same time sanc- 
 tioning the sales which had already taken place. The 
 reactionary minister Ferrand would have annulled these 
 sales, and restored the property in its entirety; but 
 public opinion would never have tolerated this. It 
 was sufficiently excited by the proposal actually made, 
 which seemed to undo a work to which the minds 
 of men had become accustomed, and of which the 
 advantage had been reaped. 
 
 It had been decided that a Congress for the general 
 settlement of the political condition of Europe should be 
 held in the capital of Austria; and at the end of Sep- 
 tember the Emperor Alexander, the Kings of Prussia, 
 Bavaria, Denmark, and Wurtemberg, and many lesser 
 princes, with Lord Castlereagh, and afterwards the Duke 
 of Wellington, on the part of England, met there. Its 
 negotiations were not finally completed until the eve 
 of the battle of Waterloo. Some difficulty arose 
 amongst the plenipotentiaries, owing to the demands of 
 Prussia and Russia. The first Power claimed for 
 itself the Kingdom of Saxony; the latter the duchies 
 of Posen and Warsaw. <A rupture was at one time 
 imminent, as England, Austria, and France objected to 
 these aggrandisements; but an understanding was 
 arrived at by the Czar pledging his word that he 
 would reconstruct a kingdom of Poland as an auto- 
 
 nomous state. It need hardly be added that this 
 
1815.] THE RESTORATION. 157 
 
 engagement was destined to be superseded by the 
 ‘progress of events.” 
 
 France was reduced by this Congress to the limits 
 of 1792, and the various European States were rewarded 
 and punished according to the attitude which they 
 had maintained during the past quarter of a century. 
 Denmark, which had clung to the fortunes of Napoleon, 
 was deprived of Norway, which was added to the 
 possessions of Sweden, as a recompense for the con- 
 duct of Bernadotte. Finland—the Bessarabia of the 
 north—was made over to Russia. Austria resumed 
 Lombardy, to which Venetia was added—thus planting 
 the seeds of the war of 1859, when the nephew of 
 Napoleon I. deprived Austria of her Italian provinces. 
 The Emperor Francis Joseph also secured the Bavarian 
 Tyrol, Istria, and Dalmatia. Central Europe was 
 formed into a German Confederation, of which Austria 
 and Prussia were the leading States; and in this 
 arrangement also it is possible to discern the seeds 
 of future war. Switzerland was enlarged by the 
 cantons of Geneva, Neufchatel, and the Valais, and her 
 independence was. guaranteed. ‘The Pope recovered 
 his states; the duchies of Tuscany, Modena, Lucca, 
 and several others were restored to their former rulers ; 
 and Maria Louisa became, as we have seen, Duchess of 
 Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla. England retained the 
 French colonies which her navy had conquered, and added 
 to her Mediterranean possession of Gibraltar the island 
 of Malta and the Ionian Islands. By her request, also, 
 the kingdom of Holland and Belgium was established. 
 
158 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 The representative of France at this Congress was 
 the Foreign Minister, Talleyrand, who was able to 
 resist the annexation of Saxony to Prussia, though 
 his protest against the confirmation of Murat on the 
 
 throne of Naples was unavailing. 
 
 § II.—THE RETURN OF NAPOLEON.—THE HUNDRED DAYS, 
 (From the 20th of March to the 8th of July, 1815.) 
 
 Napouron, in his island of Elba, must have witnessed 
 this repartition of Europe with feelings of imtense 
 bitterness; and, little as the world may have sus- 
 pected it, he was nursing, even before the results of the 
 deliberations of the Congress of Vienna were known, 
 a bold and unscrupulous project for the recovery of 
 all that he had lost. His dream was encouraged 
 by the rmsing discontent of the French Liberals, and 
 by the ever-increasing self-assertion of the Chambers. 
 Reports concerning the sentiment of the army con- 
 tinually reached him; and at last he entered into a 
 definite conspiracy with the most influential of his 
 friends still remaining in France. ‘The folly of leaving 
 such a man at liberty, close to the frontier of the 
 country in which he had attained his immense popu- 
 larity, now became conspicuous; and Europe was 
 doomed to a terrible punishment for its lack of 
 prudence and foresight. 
 
 The zeal of the Royalists was exhibited during the 
 early part of 1815 in many petty acts of spite against 
 the memory of the Revolution, and idle exultation over 
 the establishment of a new order of things. A solemn 
 
1815.] THE RESTORATION. 159 
 
 explation was appointed for the 2lst of January, the 
 day on which Louis XVI. had been executed. The 
 “victims of Quiberon ’*—the Royalists whom Hoche 
 had crushed out on the Breton coast—were officially 
 glorified, together with the leaders and soldiers of the 
 Vendean revolt. The ashes of the late King and of 
 Marie Antoinette—or what was alleged to be their ashes 
 —were gathered up from the dust of the cemetery of 
 the Madeleine, and carried with great pomp to the abbey 
 of Saint-Denis; the Charter was continually violated, and 
 the return to an Absolute Monarchy was openly advo- 
 cated by men like de Bonald and Joseph de Maistre. 
 All these things were natural enough, and they would 
 have had their counterpart in any other country under 
 similar circumstances, as they had had their counter- 
 part in England after the Restoration of the Stuarts. 
 But France was deeply excited by the danger with 
 which the popular liberties seemed to be threatened, 
 and Napoleon thought, not altogether unreasonably, 
 that this would assist him in his desperate enterprise. 
 On the 5th of March, France was electrified by 
 the news that the ex-Emperor had already disembarked 
 in the Gulf of St. Juan, near Fréjus, and that he was 
 on his way to Paris at the head of an army. The 
 Government, hard to move, even then, from its sluggish 
 incompetence, declared Napoleon a traitor and rebel, 
 and set a price on his head. The Chambers were con- 
 voked; Soult, who had obtained the Ministry of War 
 by a policy of judicious sycophancy, was made to give 
 
 1 See vol. i., bk. ii, ch. ii, § i., pp. 347 and 348. 
 
160 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 place to Clarke, now Duke de Feltre; and the latter 
 was ordered to assemble an army. 
 
 The Chambers met on the 15th, and Louis went 
 down the next day and pronounced an address. ‘I 
 come into your midst,” he said, ‘“‘to draw closer the 
 bonds which unite us together. Rae I have 
 laboured for the good of my people: I have received 
 the most touching marks of their love. . . . He who 
 has brought the torch of civil war amongst us brings 
 also the scourge of foreign warfare: he comes to 
 place our country under a yoke of iron; he comes to 
 destroy that Constitutional Charter which I have granted 
 —that Charter which will constitute my best epitaph 
 in the eyes of posterity.” The King and his Council 
 deliberated what was to be done. Some proposed to 
 make an appeal to the foreign Powers, others again 
 wished Louis XVIII. to shut himself up in a strong 
 fortress, whilst a few trusty friends advised the 
 monarch to remain and to await the course of events. 
 This last counsel tempted him, and he even expressed 
 a wish “to meet the man who pretended to fill the 
 
 b) 
 
 throne of France,” whilst he addressed a proclamation 
 to the army in which he reminded it that he was the 
 sole legitimate occupant of that throne. 
 
 Meanwhile Napoleon drew nearer and nearer to 
 the capital, absorbmg into his army all the troops 
 which were sent to oppose his progress. Ney was 
 amongst the commanders who could not restrain 
 his soldiers from donning the famous tricolour; and 
 
 his forced adherence to his old master was destined 
 
1815.] THE RESTORATION. 161 
 
 to cost him dear. The Duke de Berry quitted Paris 
 on the 17th, at the head of the garrison and a company 
 _ of volunteers. But as soon as they were fairly on the 
 road the regular troops cast away the white cockade, 
 and raised a cheer for the Emperor, leaving the Duke 
 and his volunteers to return and tell the ominous tale. 
 
 Louis XVIEL, as we have seen, displayed, at first, 
 great courage of speech and intention; but as the 
 danger approached his nerves played him false, and on 
 the 19th he retired to Lille, after closmg the Chambers, 
 and assuring his subjects that he meant to return. At 
 Lille he found Marshal Mortier, who warned him that 
 the garrison was not to be relied upon. He instantly 
 pursued his journey to Ghent, across the Belgian 
 frontier; and almost at the same moment Napoleon 
 was entering Paris amidst the enthusiastic welcome of 
 a small portion of the populace, including many of his 
 former officers. 
 
 No doubt the return of Napoleon was, to a certain 
 extent, an experiment in the first instance. He could 
 not have been thoroughly certain that the army would 
 rally to his standard, though he had every reason to 
 flatter himself that such would be the case; but if his 
 expectations had been deceived, he would have con- 
 trived to abandon his enterprise before reaching Paris. 
 Once in the capital, however, which had been deserted 
 by its natural protector, and once assured of the success 
 of his military movement, confidence immediately took 
 the place of hesitation. On touching the soil of France, 
 Napoleon encountered a battalion of infantry. He 
 
 / 
 
162 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 ordered his own men to stand at ease, and, throwing 
 open his cloak, advanced to the King’s troops, and said, 
 “Tf any of you wishes to kill his Emperor, he can do 
 so now.” The soldiers answered with a shout, and at 
 once fraternised with the invaders. The same spirit 
 had been encountered at every pause in the journey ; 
 the army received him with a hearty welcome; and 
 though the bulk of the civilians displayed little or no 
 enthusiasm, at all events, the supreme power and 
 authority fell instantly into Napoleon’s hands. 
 
 He recalled nearly all the members of his last 
 Ministry, and gave to Carnot the portfolio of the 
 Interior. The step was a most judicious one, and 
 was accepted as a guarantee by the old Republican 
 party that their aspirations would be more likely to 
 receive encouragement from a second epoch of Imperial 
 Government than from the reactionary régime of the 
 Bourbons.'.| The ex-Emperor, now again Emperor de 
 facto, expressed the hope that peace would not be 
 broken by his return to Paris, and that he would 
 be allowed to resume the direction of affairs with 
 nothing more than a protest from the fugitive King, 
 and perhaps also from the European courts. At all 
 events, he sent dispatches to, this effect, not only 
 to the Empress, but to the Sovereigns. But his mes- 
 sengers did not bear these dispatches to their desti- 
 nation. Maria Louisa had already found a consola- 
 
 * On the 24th of March Napoleon proclaimed the complete liberty 
 
 of the press, and engaged Benjamin Constant to draw up a Liberal 
 Constitution. 
 
1815.] THE RESTORATION. 163 
 
 tion for her political divorce from the man whom 
 she had probably never regarded as a_ legitimate 
 husband, and she now declared her intention of leav- 
 “ing her son under the charge of his imperial grand- 
 father, and assuming her position as Duchess of 
 Parma. 
 
 The Congress of Sovereigns, which still sat at 
 Vienna, declared on the 13th of March that ‘“‘ Napoleon 
 Bonaparte had placed himself outside the pale of 
 civil and social relations,’ and that ‘as an enemy 
 and disturber of the peace of the world, he had 
 exposed himself to public vengeance;” that, more- 
 over, “they would use their whole resources and 
 combine all their efforts to guarantee Europe against 
 any outrage which might threaten to plunge the 
 nations once again into the disorders and disasters of 
 revolutions.” On the 25th a treaty was signed, 
 pledging the Powers to maintain the Treaty of Paris, 
 ratified on the previous 30th of May, as well as the 
 decisions of the Congress. Hach Power also undertook 
 to put a hundred and fifty thousand men in the field. 
 On the last day of the month a Convention was entered 
 into, providing for the formation of three armies: the 
 first, of three hundred and forty-four thousand, under 
 Schwartzenberg; the second, of two hundred and fifty 
 thousand, under Wellington and Blucher; the third, 
 of two hundred thousand, under the Emperor Alexander. 
 
 Napoleon, at the Tuileries, was actively preparing 
 against attack. He directed the construction of de- 
 
 fensive works around Paris and Lyons, and paid every 
 12 
 
164 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 attention to raising the effective strength of the 
 army, and completing its equipments. Meanwhile he 
 had much to engage him at home, where he found a 
 very different state of things from that which he had 
 left behind him eleven months before. As soon as the 
 first excitement of his return had passed away numerous 
 deputations waited upon him, and gave him clearly to 
 understand that he must reign for the future, if he 
 was to reign at all, as a Constitutional Monarch. The 
 word Constitution met him at every turn, and weighed 
 upon him like an incubus. “I no longer recognise 
 France,” he said; “the Bourbons have spoiled it for 
 me.” He was inclined to act in his old high-handed 
 manner. He signed a decree confiscating the property 
 of thirteen prominent men, with the Ministers of 
 Louis XVIII. amongst them; but he could get no 
 one to countersign it. Even General Bertrand, who 
 had been with him in Elba, saw that the old order 
 of things had changed, and that 1814 must be ac- 
 cepted as an integral part of the situation, just as 
 the Bourbons had had to accept the Revolution. The 
 Council of State, after admitting that Napoleon was 
 still Emperor by virtue of popular election, which the 
 decree of the Senate was not competent to overrule, 
 reminded him that he had undertaken to maintain all 
 the Liberal principles established under the Republic; 
 whilst the Municipal Council of Paris expressed its 
 conviction that “a Constitution guaranteed by Napoleon 
 
 could not be violated as soon as it had been promul- 
 gated.” 
 
1815. ] THH RESTORATION. 165 
 
 Napoleon gave way before such evidences of deter- 
 mination, and a Committee was appointed to consider 
 the amended Constitution, chiefly drawn up by Benjamin 
 Constant. The Emperor himself took part in the dis- 
 cussion, and, though his arguments were for the most 
 _ part in restriction of Liberal progress, they were not 
 without considerable shrewdness. His objections to an 
 hereditary peerage are especially worth repeating. 
 “From whence,’ he asked, “would you have me take 
 the aristocratic elements which the peerage requires? 
 The old fortunes are overthrown ; some of the new ones 
 have been acquired by discreditable means ; five or six 
 historic names are not sufficient. Without traditions, 
 without historic splendour, without great possessions, 
 on what shall my peerage be founded? ‘The peerage of 
 England is quite another matter; it is above the 
 people, but it has not been against the people. It 
 was the nobles who gave liberty to England; the Great 
 Charter comes from them; they have grown with the 
 Constitution, and are one with it. But for thirty years 
 to come my mushroom peers will be only soldiers, or 
 chamberlains; the people will perceive in them but 
 men of the camp or of the ante-chamber.” 
 
 Napoleon yielded this pomt, but he successfully 
 insisted upon retainmg the punishment of confis- 
 cation in cases of high treason. The Committee 
 laboured hard to give the ‘Supplementary Act (Acte 
 additionnel) to the Constitutions of the Empire” an 
 initial and independent authority of its own; but 
 nothing would satisfy Napoleon except that it should 
 
166 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 be based upon, and professedly spring from, the former 
 imperial régime. Another struggle arose on the manner 
 in which the Supplementary Act should be sanc- 
 tioned. Several members of the Committee urged that 
 it should be voted by the Chamber of Deputies. 
 After much discussion, when the text was finally agreed 
 upon, Napoleon promised to consider this suggestion ; 
 but on the 22nd of April, the document was published 
 and promulgated on the sole authority of the Emperor. 
 Nevertheless it was decided that the Act should be 
 submitted to the popular vote, in the same manner 
 as the election of Napoleon to the First Consulship 
 and to the throne had been—that is to say, by open 
 voting in the electoral colleges. The franchise was 
 at that time possessed by five million Frenchmen, and 
 out of these one million three hundred thousand ac- 
 cepted the Supplementary Act, whilst four thousand 
 two hundred voted in the negative. Nearly three- 
 quarters of those entitled to vote had declined to 
 express their opinion. 
 
 The acceptance of this Act, and its virtual ratifi- 
 cation by Napoleon, were celebrated with great pomp in 
 the Champ de Mars on the 1st of June. The ceremony 
 had been appointed for an earlier date, and the assembly 
 had thus acquired the name of the Champ de Mai. 
 Napoleon came to the scene amidst all the splendour 
 and display of the palmiest days of the Empire, in a 
 gilded coach, in a coat of crimson silk, relieved with 
 gold, over which hung a cloak of violet velvet. Then, 
 surrounded by his ‘ mushroom ” nobility and court, 
 
1815.] THE RESTORATION. 167 
 
 the Eimperor solemnly declared his love and devotion to 
 France, and swore, with his hand upon the Bible, “ to 
 observe and cause to be observed the Constitutions of 
 the Empire.’ This was followed by a grand distri- 
 bution of imperial eagles to the various regiments, and 
 by the oath of allegiance to the Empire from the 
 assembled ranks. 
 
 But amidst the shouts and the Ze Deums of the 
 Champ de Mai there arose the murmurs of thousands of 
 discontented Frenchmen, who saw with ever-increasing 
 bitterness that the popular liberties were about to be 
 once more overwhelmed by these imperial displays, and 
 who knew that the second invasion of the country was 
 a simple question of time. In La Vendée the white 
 flag was once more raised; and it was necessary to send 
 thither a force of thirty thousand troops to hold the 
 Royalists in check, whilst the Allies were already pour- 
 ing into Belgium. 
 
 On the 12th of June Napoleon left Paris, early in 
 the morning, having entrusted the government to his 
 brothers Joseph and Lucien—to the same Joseph who, 
 little more than a year ago, had precipitately fled from 
 Montmartre. — 
 
 Napoleon had carefully considered the situation in 
 which he found himself, and resolved not to wait 
 for his enemies, but to attack them without delay, as 
 suddenly as possible, and before they had time to con- 
 centrate. Wellington was already in Belgium with 
 an army of ninety thousand men, of whom about half 
 were English, and one hundred and uiuety-six cannon, 
 
168 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 whilst sixteen thousand Hanse troops and Danes 
 arrived after the opening of the campaign. Blucher 
 was hastening to meet him with an army of one 
 hundred and twenty-four thousand men, and three 
 hundred and fifty cannon. Against these Napoleon 
 had one hundred and twenty-eight thousand troops, 
 and three hundred and forty-six cannon; whilst fifty- 
 five thousand men were extended along the eastern 
 frontier, as far south as the borders of Italy. 
 
 Avesnes was reached on the 14th, and here Napoleon 
 issued to his army a proclamation in which he reminded 
 them of the victories of Marengo, of Austerlitz, of 
 Jena and Wagram, and urged them to prove themselves 
 worthy of their fame. On the same night he crossed the 
 Sambre, and on the following day he entered Charleroi, 
 attacked the Prussians, and drove their advanced posts 
 back upon Fleurus. His plan was to prevent the junc- 
 tion of Wellington and Blucher, to interrupt their 
 communications, and to crush them one after the other, 
 by a succession of heavy blows. At Charleroi Napoleon 
 lost one of his generals by desertion—Bourmont, who 
 had already been a Vendean, an Imperialist, and a 
 Royalist again, before he accepted his second commis- 
 sion from the Emperor. He passed over to the Prussian 
 lines on the 15th, in the sight of his troops; and 
 Frenchmen have shown a disposition to suspect him 
 of having betrayed Napoleon’s plans to the enemy. 
 
 Wellington’s lines were drawn from Nivelles to 
 Mons, and thence to Ath and Oudenarde, his head- 
 quarters being at Brussels, where the sudden approach 
 
1815. ] THE REHSTORATION. 169 
 
 of Napoleon had caused the greatest surprise, not to say 
 consternation. The first attack of the French was 
 delivered before the Belgian capital knew that the 
 formidable foe was on the frontier. Blucher was 
 between Charleroi and Liége, nearer to the French 
 frontier than Napoleon; whilst Ney, with a corps 
 amounting to about forty-six thousand men, was at 
 Frasnes, a mile from Quatre-Bras, and prevented the 
 English from coming to the relief of Blucher. 
 
 The result of the attack on the Prussians on the 15th 
 of June did not entirely answer the expectations either 
 of Napoleon himself or of his enemies; and historians 
 have criticised the conduct of the Emperor and of his 
 generals alike. It must be remembered that the 
 majority of the latter were comparatively new and 
 untried men for the important posts which they 
 occupied, except Vandamme and Ney, two of Napo- 
 leon’s famous Marshals of the former campaigns, and 
 Soult, who was Major-General of the Army. Van- 
 damme himself had done much to jeopardise the success 
 of the movement against Fleurus, by his tardy crossing of 
 the Sambre, not having reached Charleroi until six in 
 the evening, at least four hours after Napoleon had 
 confidently reckoned upon him.t Marshal Grouchy 
 
 1 He was to have commenced the passage of the Sambre at half-past 
 two in the morning; but it is said that the messenger who bore the order 
 broke his leg by a fall from his horse, so that Vandamme did not learn 
 Napoleon’s plan in time to set out before half-past seven. On this and 
 all points connected with the events of the next few days I am much 
 indebted to a series of papers by M. Edgar Quinet on La Campagne de 
 1815, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, Aug. 15—Oct. 1, 1861. 
 
170 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 charged Vandamme with refusing him the necessary 
 co-operation in the attack on Fleurus; but the 
 morning’s delay is sufficient to account for the circum- 
 stances of the case. 
 
 It is difficult, on the whole, to avoid the conclusion 
 that Napoleon’s attack upon the Allies was premature, 
 or at all events ill-prepared. No doubt he considered 
 it his best policy to strike the first blow; but it was after 
 all a fortuitous circumstance that he crossed the Belgian 
 frontier at the precise moment when it was possible 
 for him to cut the communications of Wellington and 
 Blucher. One of the most striking evidences of the 
 want of adequate preparation for the attack is to be 
 found in the fact that, up to the 11th of June, Ney 
 was waiting in uncertainty at his home at Coudraux, 
 not knowing whether he was to receive a command. 
 On that day Napoleon sent for him, and it was only 
 on the 15th that he joined his chief. The corps 
 of d’Erlon and Reille were united under his orders, 
 with the light horse of Piré and the heavy cavalry 
 of Kellermann; and it was not before ten o’clock at 
 night that he succeeded in taking up his position in 
 front of the brigade of Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, 
 which held Quatre-Bras. 
 
 M. Quinet has done much to re-establish the 
 reputation of the unfortunate Ney, upon whom 
 Napoleon subsequently, at St. Helena, attempted to 
 lay the blame of his defeat at Waterloo. The accusa- 
 tion against him is, in brief, that he failed to obey 
 Napoleon’s orders to occupy Quatre-Bras on the 
 
1815.] THE RESTORATION. 171 
 
 15th, or at least early in the morning of the 16th. 
 If he had done so, or could have done so, no doubt 
 the position of the English army would have been 
 rendered precarious in the extreme, and it might 
 have been worsted in detail, as we are given to under- 
 stand that Napoleon had clearly foreseen. It is true 
 that Wellington had still, on the 15th, nearly forty 
 thousand of his reserve forces at Brussels, and that 
 his concentration upon Quatre-Bras was far from com- 
 plete when Ney first attacked the position. But it 
 has been proved, and M. Quinet offers a full con- 
 firmation of the statement, that Ney never received 
 his orders to occupy Quatre-Bras until the 16th, 
 at half-past eleven oclock in the forenoon, though 
 he had himself previously urged Napoleon to attack 
 the English on the Brussels road. Napoleon declared, 
 in his last record of the events of the campaign, that he 
 sent positive orders to Ney during the night of the 
 15th. But the Count de Flahaut, who wrote down the 
 order from Napoleon’s dictation, and who himself bore 
 it to the Marshal, affirms that he left Charleroi between 
 eight and nine in the morning of the 16th, having to 
 cover twelve miles before he could reach Ney at Frasnes. 
 The inaccuracy of Napoleon’s account must be held 
 to be clearly established, at any rate as regards the 
 disobedience of Ney. And it is to be observed that 
 Ney, if he did not actually occupy Quatre-Bras, yet 
 prevented Wellington from giving his support to 
 Blucher, and thus made it possible for his chief to 
 win the battle of Ligny. 
 
ley: THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 Meanwhile, Wellington was still at Brussels on the 
 15th, together with Picton’s division and the reserves. 
 At four in the afternoon he received from Blucher the 
 first intelligence of Napoleon’s approach. At ten a 
 second dispatch arrived, informing him that the French 
 had crossed the Sambre; and it was only then that 
 Wellington ordered his forces to concentrate, the left 
 wing, under the Prince of Orange, consisting of Cooke's, 
 Alten’s, Perponcher’s, and Chassé’s divisions, between 
 Mons and Nivelles, and the right wing extended from 
 Ath to Oudenarde; the reserves were quartered in the 
 neighbourhood of Brussels, under Hill, Clinton, and 
 Colville. Every Englishman knows how the General- 
 in-chief, cool to the last, and anxious to inspire coolness 
 in his army, went to the Duchess of Richmond’s ball as 
 though no danger were at hand. It was only at mid- 
 night that he received information which led him to 
 order an immediate concentration of the forces upon 
 Quatre-Bras, and to betake himself to the probable 
 scene of conflict. Wellington has been blamed for his 
 deliberation, or for his ostentatious coolness; and it 
 must be admitted that a little greater success on the 
 part of Napoleon and his generals would have upset 
 the calculations of the Allies. Did Bourmont really 
 give Blucher such information as, being transmitted to 
 Wellington, justified the latter in holding his enemy 
 somewhat cheap ? 
 
 It was eight o’clock on the morning of the 16th 
 before the Duke left Brussels; and at ten o’clock 
 Wellington and Blucher met on the heights, between 
 
1815] THE RESTORATION. 173 
 
 Brye and Sombref, near the old windmill of Bussy. 
 It was agreed between them that the Prussian army 
 should court a battle with the French at Ligny, 
 whilst the English, breaking through the opposition 
 of Ney, should subsequently come to their aid. “ Per- 
 
 2 
 
 haps,” as M. Quinet observes, “an immoderate desire 
 of glory, of reprisals, of vengeance, an impatience to 
 measure himself alone against Napoleon, of being the 
 first to curb him, and above all the hope of overthrowing 
 the colossus without sharing the honour with any one, 
 had their effect in the resolutions of Marshal Blucher.” 
 The Prussian army was drawn up near Fleurus, 
 with its right resting on the villages of Saint-Amand 
 and Wagnelée, its centre at Ligny, its left at Sombref 
 and Tongrenelle, commanding the road to Namur. The 
 position was a bold one to take up, having about it few 
 elements of the defensive, and affording to a general 
 of Napoleon’s experience and resources a_ splendid 
 opportunity for an irresistible attack. As soon as the 
 Emperor perceived the plan of LBlucher, it became 
 necessary for him to guard against the consequences 
 which would threaten him in case of a reverse— 
 such, for instance, as the danger of being cut off from 
 his base on the Sambre. In view of this possibility 
 he stationed Lobau’s division at Fleurus, and then 
 made his dispositions to challenge Blucher on his 
 right and centre; this choice of the point of attack 
 being determined by the fact that at this end of the 
 line he would be descending upon the enemy in his 
 assault, whereas at the other end he would have to 
 
174 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 ascend a slight eminence to Sombref. Moreover, as 
 Wellington’s force lay behind the latter town, a 
 successful attack on Ligny and Saint Amand would tend 
 to drive the Prussians farther away from their allies. 
 At the same time Napoleon could perceive that the 
 enemy intended to make his strongest attack from his 
 right, on which side Blucher had assembled forty-eight 
 squadrons of cavalry for the transparent purpose of 
 surrounding the French left, and driving it upon the 
 Sambre. Instead of opposing cavalry to cavalry, or 
 even strength to strength, the French Hmperor placed 
 his own fifty-seven squadrons on his right, opposite 
 to Sombref, and concealed his reserves altogether, thus 
 deceiving the enemy as to his plan of attack. Blucher, 
 thinking that Napoleon meant to select Sombref 
 as his principal object of attack, placed there an entire 
 army corps, under Thielmann; and the consequence 
 of the Kmperor’s ruse was that this large force was 
 comparatively useless for the greater part of the day. 
 Napoleon did not order the advance until half-past 
 two in the afternoon, although he had been able to 
 finish all his arrangements at ten in the morning.! 
 
 1M. Quinet, by way of explaining this unaccountable delay, which can 
 hardly have served any useful purpose, quotes from Napoleon’s Mémorial 
 de Sainte-Hélene a confession of a remarkable character, wherein he seems 
 to give the key to the Hmperor’s conduct in this and several other occa- 
 sions of the brief campaign of 1815. “ It is certain,” said the prisoner at 
 St. Helena, “that in these circumstances I no longer had within me a 
 feeling of eventual success. There was no longer my original confidence 
 I felt that something was wanting in me.” Presage or convie- 
 tion, cause or effect, Napoleon would appear to have lost the old spirit 
 which enabled him at once to foresee and to command a victory. 
 
1815. ] THH REHSTORATION. 175 
 
 The first assault was made by two divisions of 
 Vandamme’s corps upon the village of Saint Amand. 
 Their dash was irresistible; the Prussian division of 
 Steinmetz lost more than two thousand men within 
 the hour. General Girard, with another division, 
 penetrated the village, and long held his ground 
 against the many corps of Prussians, who were re- 
 placed as fast as they fell by a constant supply 
 of fresh troops. The French commander was killed, 
 and a third of his men were hors de combat ; 
 but the remainder held their ground amidst the 
 ruins. 
 
 Napoleon had given orders to another general, 
 Gérard, to attack the village of Ligny in the centre, 
 as this place was the key of the whole position. It 
 consisted of two long streets, with meadows between 
 the two; the houses being built of granite, and their 
 walls affording by their apertures an excellent means 
 of defence. It was necessary for Gérard to attack 
 these streets in full force, whilst from either end the 
 Prussians poured upon him a steady artillery fire. 
 The only entrance to the interior of the village was 
 through the doors and windows of the houses, or 
 through occasional openings between them; so that 
 the assault was in the nature of an attack upon a 
 strong line of stone fortifications. 
 
 The carnage was terrible. There was a despe- 
 rate hand-to-hand struggle in every courtyard and in 
 every house; whilst the scene was lighted up by a 
 ghastly glare from burning thatched roofs, and from 
 
176 THE FRENOH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 the old castle of Ligny, set on fire by the artillery. 
 Gérard attacked one street three times, both in the 
 centre and at the extremities of the long row of 
 stone houses, and at last his men occupied the 
 majority of the inclosures and rooms. A fresh Prussian 
 division came up, and, by a vehement sally, the French 
 were driven out again. The Prussians prepared to 
 follow them, but at that moment they found them- 
 selves assaulted in their rear by troops who had gained 
 the interior of the village. They retired upon the 
 second street; and the French, taking possession of a 
 cemetery in the intermediate space, instantly mounted 
 their cannon there. Another Prussian regiment was 
 brought up, and attempted, in six successive assaults, 
 to retake the half of the village which had been lost; 
 but the effort was in vain. The General in command, 
 Krafft, was obliged to send word to Gneisenau, the 
 chief of the staff, that he was being forced back from 
 Ligny, and received in reply only an earnest entreaty 
 to hold his ground for half an hour. 
 
 At Saint Amand also the Prussians had the greatest 
 difficulty in maintaining themselves ; and towards night- 
 fall Napoleon was able to put in execution the plan 
 which he had formed from the beginning. Feigning a 
 retreat, he drew after him the bulk of the Prus- 
 sian forces, and at the same moment brought up 
 his reserves from Fleurus—twelve battalions of foot 
 guards, eight regiments of cuirassiers, dragoons, and 
 grenadiers, who dashed in full force upon Ligny. In 
 a short time Milhaud, with the heavy cavalry, had 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. 177 
 
 turned the Prussian centre, and took their right in 
 flank. With immense loss the Prussians were driven 
 from the field. 
 
 It was growing dark when Blucher saw the’ full 
 effects of Napoleon’s deceptive strategy. He had 
 already advanced with his reserves from the extreme 
 right, and now led three cavalry regiments personally 
 against the enemy, in the hope of checking their 
 progress. Jt was no more than he had done many 
 times before; for old “General Forwards,” as _ his 
 soldiers were wont to call him, had all the vigour and 
 dash of a young and impetuous captain. But his 
 forlorn hope was unable to withstand the onset of 
 the heavy French horse. The ranks were broken, and 
 all was in confusion, when a bullet killed Blucher’s 
 horse under him, bringing him to the ground in the 
 very track of the enemy. ‘I am a lost man, Nostitz!” 
 he said to his aide-de-camp, as he fell. Nostitz leaped 
 from his horse, and stood by the general’s side. The 
 French swept on, so intent, in the darkness, to overtake 
 the retreating Prussians, that they did not perceive the 
 prize which was within their grasp. Presently the 
 French cavalry fell back again before a renewed charge 
 of Prussian lancers; and the old Marshal, narrowly 
 escaping the weapons of his own men, was rescued and 
 carried off the field of battle. 
 
 The defeat of the Prussians was a severe one. They 
 had lost eighteen thousand men—eight thousand of | 
 these being dispersed, whilst the remainder were killed. 
 Gneisenau, the chief of the staff, ordered a retreat 
 
 My 
 
178 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 in the direction of Wavre, for the purpose of ultimately 
 joming the English army; and Napoleon, for one 
 reason or another, did not take immediate steps to 
 pursue his victory, but left the army to sleep off its 
 fatigue. 
 
 Meanwhile Marshal Ney was engaged in his con- 
 flict with the English at Quatre-Bras. The hamlet 
 of this name, situated at the cross-roads leading to 
 Brussels, Namur, Charleroi, and Nivelles, consists of 
 a few farms, with the small village of Pyraumont in 
 the neighbourhood. The cross-roads meet on a slight 
 elevation of the bare plain which they intersect; and 
 towards this elevation, crowned by a white farm- 
 house, the English were concentrated. 
 
 As soon as Ney had received Napoleon’s orders 
 to attack Quatre-Bras, a little before noon, he ordered 
 one of his two corps, comprising about seventeen 
 thousand six hundred men, under General Reille, to 
 attack the Prince of Orange, who had less than seven 
 thousand Dutch and Belgians under his command, and 
 less than half the strength of the enemy’s artillery. At 
 the same time he ordered d’Erlon, whom he had left 
 in the rear, between Fleurus and Frasnes, to advance 
 with the remaining corps, of about twenty thousand 
 men. ‘The French general, on receiving Ney’s orders, 
 had reached the latter town in advance of his 
 troops, when he was overtaken by General Labédoyére, 
 Napoleon’s aide-de-camp, who showed him a pencilled 
 note from the Emperor to Ney. It appears that this 
 note contained directions to the effect that Ney, after 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. L792 
 
 repulsing the English at Quatre-Bras, should send 
 his first corps to complete the expected discomfiture of 
 the Prussians at Ligny. Such, at all events, seems to 
 have been Napoleon’s meaning; but both Labédoyére 
 and d’Erlon misinterpreted the message, and the 
 former took upon himself to dispatch the latter’s 
 corps to the Emperor's assistance. D’Erlon hastily 
 followed his men, and this corps was actually per- 
 ceived by Vandamme, in the course of his attack 
 on Saint-Amand, causing him some alarm before he 
 discovered that it was a friend, and not an enemy, who 
 had thus suddenly appeared on his flank. Napoleon’s 
 attention was also drawn to that corps; and here another 
 mystery presents itself in connection with the occur- 
 rences of this remarkable day. Whether the Emperor 
 did or did not know who these troops were, or, in that 
 case, whether he thought that Ney had already been 
 successful at Quatre-Bras or not, it is certain that he 
 sent no orders to d’Hrlon, who thought it his duty to 
 wait for instructions. But whilst he was waiting, a 
 second and urgent command reached him from Ney, 
 who had all this time been anxiously looking for his 
 approach, and d’Erlon, therefore, leaving a small con- 
 tingent behind him, forthwith hastened back to 
 Frasnes. 
 
 Meanwhile Reille had advanced against the Prince of 
 Orange’s division, which gradually drew back. Ney had 
 been deceived by appearances into thinking the small 
 Dutch force greater than it was, and he had therefore 
 attacked it with a certain amount of circumspection ; 
 
 m 2 
 
180 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 but he had decidedly the best of the battle up to about 
 a quarter to three. At this time Picton was observed 
 approaching with three brigades of infantry along 
 the Brussels road; and shortly afterwards the Duke 
 of Wellington arrived upon the scene, bringing with 
 him a brigade of Belgian light horse. Next came 
 the Duke of Brunswick; and before four o'clock 
 the Allied forces were more numerous than the 
 French. 
 
 “The Belgians,” says M. Quinet, “sustained the 
 first shock, and this is what eyewitnesses tell us of 
 the affair. They say that the light cavalry, as soon 
 as they opened out, fell into line for the attack. 
 A French regiment, Piré’s chasseurs, advanced slowly 
 to meet them. The French were seen to approach 
 from afar, not as if for an attack, but rather as though 
 they had been on parade. With sabres lowered or 
 hanging down, they held out their hands to the Bel- 
 gians, and as soon as they were within speaking 
 distance, they cried out to them to come into their 
 ranks, declaring that they would be well received, 
 that they were old friends, that they had served to- 
 gether in Spain, under the same generals and in the 
 same corps, and they addressed by name those whom 
 they recognised. The nearer they approached, the 
 more their urgency increased. In this way they pre- 
 sently touched each other; but instead of yielding to 
 these pressing invitations the Belgians began to use 
 the sabre. Then the French, old friends as they were, 
 became furious enemies. Each selected a foe, and, 
 
 \ 
 
1815. ] Bee THE RESTORATION. 181 
 
 being by this time almost indiscriminately mixed 
 together, they fought at close quarters. This first 
 encounter was terrible, but it did not last long. 
 Routed and cut to pieces, the Belgians fled in disorder 
 from the field of battle.” 
 
 Even after the English had been reinforced by 
 Picton and Brunswick, Ney continued to have the 
 best of the battle, especially on the right and left. 
 The Duke of Brunswick, charging with his lancers 
 against a strong body of French troops, and being 
 driven back upon the Nivelles road, was shot through 
 the body as he endeavoured to rally his men. Piré’s 
 light horse now succeeded in gaining a footing in 
 Quatre-Bras; and these being supported by a fresh 
 body of heavy cavalry under Kellermann, the English 
 had recourse to their famous method of defence of 
 forming squares, an arrangement which secured for 
 them the honours of the day. On the approach of 
 Kellermann’s horse, Picton prepared to meet them with 
 the Royals, the 28th, 42nd, 44th, and 92nd Regiments ; 
 and these were presently supported by the 32nd, 79th, 
 and 95th Regiments. Judiciously arranged, and so 
 placed as to concentrate their fire upon the enemy’s 
 horse—they themselves being partly concealed by the 
 high-standing corn—the solid masses of the English 
 troops sustained many a gallant and desperate charge 
 of the French cavalry, which perpetually broke against 
 the inflexible squares. Whatever may have been the 
 case at other points of the line, the French attack 
 could make no impression upon the centre, which re- 
 
182 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 sisted the utmost efforts of Ney. At five o'clock two 
 more brigades of infantry, as well as the remainder of 
 those of Kempt and Pack, reinforced the English; and 
 at half-past six o’clock Ney was outnumbered by ten 
 thousand men. Meanwhile continual and pressing 
 orders reached him from Napoleon—who, for all the 
 Marshal knew, was at the last extremity—and, to 
 crown his anxiety, he learned that d’ Erlon’s column, 
 the twenty thousand fresh troops which he had been 
 expecting every minute to come to his assistance, 
 had been wasting the day in a useless march to Saint- 
 Amand. 
 
 We can easily understand the discouragement with 
 which the French Marshal found himself so completely 
 baffled. He turned to those who stood near him, and 
 cried, “ You see those bullets! JI would they were 
 every one of them in my body!” Nevertheless he 
 ordered Kellermann to make a final attack upon the 
 impassable squares of English infantry. ‘“ My dear 
 general,” he said, “‘we need a grand effort; we must 
 drive in that mass of infantry. The safety of France 
 is at stake!” 
 
 Kellermann needed no second invitation. He rode 
 at the head of his cuirassiers, and charged under the 
 fire of an English battery, which wofully thinned his 
 ranks. He did, indeed, succeed in breaking the first 
 lines by this heroic charge, which resembles nothing so 
 much as Cardigan’s charge of Light Horse at Balaclava. 
 But nothing could withstand the withering fire 
 of the English batteries and squares. The cuiras- 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. 183 
 
 slers were mown down, Kellermann himself was un- 
 horsed, and only escaped by clinging to the bits of two 
 of his men’s horses. The forlorn hope was beaten ; 
 and now it was Wellington’s turn to assume the 
 offensive. 
 
 Ney reluctantly and slowly retired, resuming the 
 positions at Frasnes which he had held in the morning. 
 As regards the result of the battle, it was undecided, 
 though, if anything, to the advantage of the French. 
 Both Wellington and Ney had been prevented from 
 going to the succour of the combatants at Ligny; 
 and, as Napoleon had beaten Blucher, it may be that 
 the Alles would have profited most by being able to 
 effect the junction. 
 
 Thus, in spite of all mistakes, Napoleon had opened 
 the campaign as well as he had any reason to expect ; 
 and, except for the unfortunate blunder which led to 
 the not using of d’Erlon’s force, and for which the 
 Emperor himself was in some measure responsible, it 
 does not appear that Ney had much to answer for in 
 the ultimate failure. 
 
 The amazing facility with which the Prussians 
 were allowed to retire from the battle-field of Ligny, 
 and to rally on the following day, lost to Napoleon 
 almost the whole fruits of his victory. Incredible 
 as it may seem, no attempt whatever was made 
 to follow up the retreating army, or even to ascer- 
 tain in which direction it had retired. When Marshal 
 Grouchy went to Fleurus on the morning of the 
 17th, in order to ask the Emperor for directions, 
 
184 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 he found that Napoleon had come to no resolution 
 whatever. From nine in the morning until midday 
 the Emperor wandered about the scene of yesterday’s 
 conflict in apparent incertitude, actually entering 
 at length into conversations with his generals as 
 to the conduct of the authorities in Paris, and the 
 discussions in the Assembly. It was not until noon 
 that Grouchy received the order to pursue the Prussians 
 with thirty-three thousand men; and it is said that 
 the Marshal, perceiving the comparative hopelessness of 
 the task, entreated the Emperor to confide this difficult 
 commission to Ney; but Napoleon answered “No; 
 I must have Ney with me.” It was in vain that 
 Grouchy pointed out the circumstances which seemed 
 to render the pursuit useless from the beginning ; 
 Napoleon was obstinate in the resolution at which he 
 had so tardily arrived, and even lost his temper over 
 the Marshal’s expostulation. The fact was that the 
 French generals were fast losing their old confidence 
 in their chief; and the unhappy procrastination of the 
 past twelve or fifteen hours had done as much as 
 anything to damp their ardour. 
 
 Grouchy, with the corps of Vandamme and Gérard, 
 supported by Excelmans’ cavalry and a hundred cannon, 
 set out before three o’clock towards Gembloux, where 
 Thielmann, finding himself free from pursuit, had 
 bivouacked from seven in the morning until long after 
 noon. It was dark night before the French arrived 
 at Gembloux; and, as they found no traces of the 
 Prussians here, they pushed on to Wavre. 
 
1815.] THE RESTORATION. 185 
 
 I¢ was not until the night of the 16th of June 
 that Wellington learned what had happened at Ligny. 
 On the receipt of a dispatch from Blucher, an- 
 nouncing his retreat and his present situation, the Duke 
 thought it best, on the 17th, to fall shghtly back upon 
 Waterloo, both for the purpose of better covering the 
 Belgian capital, and in order to afford time for his ally 
 to jom him. He wrote to the German Marshal to this 
 effect, and expressing his intention to accept battle 
 on the following day, the 18th. 
 
 It was about two in the afternoon of the 17th 
 when the first columns of the French troops who 
 had fought at Ligny came in sight of Frasnes; and 
 the English had already begun to retire to Waterloo. 
 The movement was slowly made, for a heavy fall 
 of rain had reduced the country to the condition 
 of a swamp. The French cavalry pressed the 
 English hard; but every now and then the latter 
 turned, and a sharp engagement took place. At 
 Génappes in particular the rearguard, commanded by 
 Lord Uxbridge, made a resolute stand. Uxbridge, 
 immediately after passing through the long village- 
 street, deployed his cavalry, under Ponsonby and 
 Lord Edward Somerset, across the road; and thus 
 the French, emerging from Génappes, found them- 
 selves confronted by a formidable body of the enemy, 
 who &tacked and defeated them with great slaughter. 
 Frenchmen are fond of recording how, in that struggle, 
 Colonel Sourd, who had had his right arm shattered, 
 
 necessitating its amputation, mounted his horse within 
 
186 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. | [1815. 
 
 an hour of leaving the surgeon’s hands, and resumed 
 his position at the head of his column. Presently 
 the English continued their retreat, and rejoined the 
 main army. 
 
 At six o’clock in the evening the English army 
 had reached the field which the following day was 
 to render so famous, and on which Wellington had 
 previously selected his positions. During the evening 
 Blucher sent an answer to the English general, who 
 had declared that he would accept battle on the 18th, 
 and reckoned on the assistance of two Prussian corps. 
 “T will come,” Blucher wrote, “not with two corps 
 only, but with my whole army; it being understood 
 that if the French do not attack us on the 18th, 
 we shall attack them on the 19th.” This assurance 
 was sufficient for Wellington. He slept at Waterloo, 
 about a mile and a half behind the selected positions ; 
 the Prussians being at the same time at Wavre, a 
 distance of about nine miles from Waterloo. 
 
 The English general had taken up his post of 
 observation on Mont-Saint-Jean, in front of the wood 
 of Soignies. Beneath him stretched the Charleroi 
 road, along which the English army was drawn up, 
 with its right, resting on Hougoumont, its left on the 
 hamlet of La Haie, and its centre upon the farm 
 of La Haie-Sainte and the village of Mont-Saint-Jean. 
 Napoleon occupied the height of Rossomme, on the other 
 side of the plain, at the Maison-d’Heosse, near La Belle 
 Alliance, from which he commanded a good view of 
 the English positions. 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. 187 
 
 On the morning of the 18th of June, at half-past 
 eleven, the battle began on the left of the French, 
 and in the wood surrounding the chateau of Hougou- 
 mont. 
 
 The English replied vigorously to the fire, but after 
 some time, General Reille drove a Nassau and Hano- 
 verian battalion back into the grounds of the chateau, 
 and down the walks on either side. Coming to a 
 close thicket of young elm-trees, the French prepared 
 to pass through it, but were received with a murderous 
 volley from the apertures of a wall which the thicket 
 had concealed, and which the English had loopholed. 
 For some time the French were unable to make any 
 impression upon the defenders of this strong position. 
 A company of the Coldstream Guards had come up 
 to reinforce the garrison, and when the gate was 
 opened to admit them, many of the French troops 
 entered also. But the gate closed upon the last 
 of the Coldstreams, and all of the assailants who 
 had penetrated to the inside were slain. Again and 
 again did the French return to the assault of this 
 position ; they could make no impression upon it until 
 Napoleon ordered Kellermann to bombard the building: 
 This was done, and presently the place was on fire; but 
 the battle still raged fiercely amidst the ruins, every 
 point of vantage being obstinately contested. In 
 the meantime, over the heads of the combatants 
 was proceeding a vigorous artillery duel, between 
 the batteries of Jéréme, Foy, and Piré on the 
 one side, and those of Alten and Cooke on the 
 
188 THE FRENCH RE VOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 other. The two first-named were wounded, and 
 General Bauduin, with a third of his men, was 
 killed. 
 
 On the French right Ney had opened the battle by 
 directing four columns, partly composed of d’Erlon’s 
 corps, upon the farm of La Haie-Sainte, Mont-Saint- 
 Jean, and the villages of La Haie, Papelotte, and 
 Smohain, with the object of occupying the ground on 
 the English left by which Blucher’s advance-guard 
 would have to approach. ‘The columns were commanded 
 by the Generals Donzelot, Marcognet, Durutte, and 
 Quiot, and were supported by the fire of seventy-four 
 cannon. They attacked with the utmost vigour, and 
 seemed especially anxious to expiate their enforced 
 idleness of the 16th. ‘The villages were taken and 
 retaken; and in the attack on La Haie-Sainte, a 
 Belgian brigade fled at the first onset. But the 
 temerity of the French in sending these four columns 
 of infantry, first down a slope and then up heights, 
 protected by British cannon and infantry, and by strong 
 brigades of cavalry, all ready to receive them, and to 
 pour their fire on their flanks, cost them very dear. The 
 four columns recoiled in disorder, and were literally 
 cut to pieces or ridden down. The remnant re- 
 gained the height from which Ney had despatched 
 them, disorganised, demoralised, and only rescued by 
 Milhaud’s cuirassiers and Jaquinot’s lancers from 
 annihilation. 
 
 It was the cavalry of Vandeleur and Ponsonby 
 which completed the rout of the French, and which 
 
 - 
 
1815. | THE RESTORATION. 189 
 
 pursued them into the midst of d’Erlon’s batteries. 
 Here the English contrived to render some forty 
 cannon useless; but they had scarcely done so when 
 Milhaud and Jaquinot fell upon them with incredible 
 fury; and partly owing to the surprise, and partly 
 because the French horsemen had a great advantage in 
 the length of their sabres, these latter took a terrible 
 _ revenge upon the enemy. Ponsonby fell, pierced by 
 seven thrusts, together with almost the whole of one 
 of his regiments. 
 
 The French right had been greatly weakened by 
 the destruction of d’Erlon’s infantry, and it became 
 necessary for Napoleon to modify his plan of battle. 
 He now ordered Ney to take the farm of La Haie- 
 Sainte; and at this point a desperate succession of 
 conflicts ensued, in one of which Picton was killed by a 
 bullet through the temple. As many of d’Erlon’s troops 
 as possible had been re-formed in the rear of La Belle 
 Alliance, and they were now launched against the farm. 
 It was another Hougoumont; but finally this position 
 fell into Ney’s hands, and was held by him until 
 towards the close of the day. The advantage thus 
 gained by the French was very considerable, and if 
 they had been able to dispose of another ten thousand 
 or twenty thousand infantry, the fortune of the day 
 might have been very different. But it was precisely 
 in infantry that their army was weakest. The corps 
 under Reille was still engaged at Hougomont; the 
 division of Lobau was watching for—or was by this 
 time at work with—the first corps of the Prussians ; 
 
190 THE FRENOH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 and the remnants of d’Erlon’s troops were not strong 
 and steady enough for an advance such as Napoleon 
 now contemplated. For lack of infantry, the first 
 line of the cavalry, over five thousand men strong, 
 was sent into action, and Ney led them against the 
 centre and a part of the mght of the Hnglish—from 
 the Charleroi road to the enclosures of Hougou- 
 mont. | 
 
 The heavy cuirassiers and light squadrons of the 
 French mounted the slope, their helmets, cuirasses, 
 and lances glittering in the sun, whilst the fire of sixty 
 English cannon was thinning their ranks as they 
 advanced. On the other side of the plateau the French- 
 men found themselves suddenly confronted by dense 
 masses of English infantry, ranged in squares, with 
 fixed bayonets, their artillery by their side, and their 
 cavalry ready to support them. The shock of that 
 encounter was terrible. Time after time the English 
 squares were broken; but each time they closed their 
 ranks again. Wellington brought up the divisions of 
 Clinton and Chassé from the right, and sent forward 
 the Dutch and Hanoverian cavalry between the walls of 
 the squares; but the French horsemen splendidly held 
 their ground. Just then a whole regiment of Hanoverian 
 hussars, a thousand strong, refused to charge, and fled 
 precipitately upon Brussels, as the Belgians had fled 
 in the morning. If at that moment the French could 
 have brought up a corps or a division of infantry, 
 it is possible, according to some French military, 
 historians, that the victory might have been theirs. 
 
1815.] THE RESTORATION. 191 
 
 Ney sent to Napoleon entreating him thus to occupy 
 the position which he had seized. “Infantry!” 
 Napoleon answered to the aide-de-camp, “where would 
 you have me get them? Do you want me to make 
 
 - them?” 
 
 Ney was unable to maintain his position without 
 infantry, and had to order a retreat. His gallant 
 men had already partly descended the slope; but 
 every hollow, every square yard of the well-chosen 
 field was commanded by English guns. He resolved 
 to attack the Hnglish squares once more, assisted by 
 fresh brigades of cavalry, under Kellermann, whom 
 Napoleon had sent to his support. Hven one thou- 
 sand carabineers, who were held in reserve, were 
 ordered to advance, in spite of the remonstrances of 
 their commander. Seventy-seven squadrons of cavalry 
 —ten thousand heroic and picked men—rushed once 
 more upon the heights. But again the English 
 formed their solid squares, and received the enemy 
 with their concentric and terrible fire. The fighting 
 erew now more desperate than before, and the loss 
 was greater on both sides. Both armies were almost 
 exhausted. Wellington ‘had called up his last re- 
 serves, and his ranks were thinning fast, whilst Bel- 
 gian fugitives were crowding the Brussels road. Six 
 flags were captured, and taken to Napoleon in the 
 midst of the battle; and he, accepting it as an omen 
 of success, hoped every moment to witness the retreat 
 of the enemy. 
 
 What then was it which caused the French, and 
 
192 THH FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 not the English, to retire from the heights, on the 
 centre and right of the Allied positions? There can 
 be little doubt that the battle of Waterloo, as a battle 
 between French and English alone, was lost and 
 won upon these heights, though its success was ren- 
 dered complete by the arrival of the Prussians. It is 
 therefore interesting to inquire how the victory was 
 gained. 
 
 Perhaps the majority of foreigners are wont to 
 maintain that the English were beaten by Napoleon, 
 and rescued from utter defeat only by the opportune 
 arrival of Blucher, by which the French army was 
 overwhelmed. This, however, is a wrong opinion. 
 Even if Napoleon, who was aware that the Prussians 
 had arrived in the neighbourhood of Waterloo, had 
 interfered with or recalled the cavalry under Ney’s 
 command, or had withheld any forces which he might 
 otherwise have sent to Ney’s assistance, the only 
 argument which might be reasonably brought forward 
 is, that the Prussians created a divergence in favour 
 of the English defenders of the heights of Mont-Saint- 
 Jean. But the cause of the withdrawal of Ney’s gallant 
 squadrons need not be looked for outside the circum- 
 stances of the desperate duel which had been waged 
 from four to seven o’clock, and which must be regarded 
 either as a drawn battle, or as a victory for the Allied 
 troops. 
 
 “On the plateau,’ writes M. Quinet,! “the exhaus- 
 
 * La Campagne de 1815. Revue des deuw Mondes, September 15. 
 1861. 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. 193 
 
 tion of the French was equal to that of the English. 
 Seven generals were seriously wounded—Lhéritier, 
 Donop, Blancard, Picquet, Delort, Travers, Colbert. 
 No one gave the order to retreat, no one sounded the 
 recall. ‘The diminished ranks, pierced by grape-shot, 
 by musketry fire, and by the sabre, disorganised by 
 three hours of unprecedented conflict, by the failing 
 strength of the men, and yet more of the horses, 
 necessity which sets a limit to everything—all these 
 things occupied the place of orderly array.” 
 
 If this was so, what is the conclusion, except that the 
 French found it impossible to achieve what they had so 
 gallantly attempted, whilst the tenacity of the English 
 enabled them to remain glued to the ground when 
 the enemy had disappeared ? 
 
 Meanwhile Blucher had done his best to keep 
 his promise to Wellington. Early in the morning 
 of the 18th his army had left Wavre in three columns 
 —thirty thousand under Bulow, who had not fought 
 at Ligny, seventeen thousand under Pirch, and thirteen 
 thousand under Ziethen, the remaining eighteen 
 thousand being left behind in the charge of Thielmann, 
 in order to deceive Grouchy. ‘The latter, although 
 he heard the cannon of Waterloo, and had every reason 
 to believe that the Prussians would attempt a junction 
 with the English, persisted in going on to Wavre, 
 according to the orders which he had received from 
 Napoleon ; and thus it happened that Blucher’s columns 
 were allowed to march unopposed to the aid of the 
 English general. 
 
 n 
 
194, THH FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 The foremost column was that of Bulow, and by 
 four o’clock in the afternoon it had reached the woods of 
 Frichermont, on the right flank of the French army. 
 By the time these troops had come upon the skirts of 
 the field of battle, the desperate cavalry charge of Ney 
 was proceeding on the plateau to the English nght. 
 Napoleon, perceiving the Prussians, ordered Lobau, 
 with two divisions of infantry, comprising seven 
 thousand five hundred men, to arrest their advance. 
 Blucher, who accompanied Bulow, saw in an instant 
 the importance of the crisis, and he lost no time in 
 courting the attention of his Alhes by firing his 
 artillery, a sound which must have been as welcome to 
 the English as it was ominous for the French. Yet 
 it is in evidence that Napoleon himself knew of the 
 approach of this second foe at least three hours before 
 its arrival, but that he took no steps to prevent 
 Blucher’s intervention, or made any provision against 
 a flank attack, unless it was by sending Lobau and 
 his two divisions. In any case, there can be no doubt 
 that the final success of the battle was, as we have 
 already stated, rendered complete by the arrival of the 
 Prussians, and by the consequent diversion made by a 
 considerable body of fresh troops. 
 
 The conflict between the Prussians and the 
 French in the plains of Planchenoit commenced by the 
 former cannonading the cavalry of Subervie and 
 Domon, who were compelled to fall back; but Lobau 
 was able for some time to do more than hold his 
 own against the foremost division of Bulow’s corps. 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. 195 
 
 Blucher, however, had his forces deployed on the 
 Prussian left, so as to outflank his opponent; and this 
 movement at the same time threatened the Charleroi 
 road, by which it would be necessary for the French 
 to retreat. Lobau, who had been resting upon 
 Planchenoit, was supported, about six o'clock, by 
 Duhesme, with eight battalions of the Young Guard ; 
 but the superior numbers of the Prussians enabled 
 them to capture the village. Four battalions of the 
 Old Guard were brought to the rescue by General 
 Morand, and they drove the enemy back again at 
 the point of the bayonet. It was now evening; the 
 French were fully holding their own on the plain of 
 Planchenoit; the attack on the English centre at 
 Lia Haie-Sainte was still maintained, and Napoleon 
 flattered himself with the hope that it might be 
 possible to gain the victory. 
 
 At this crisis the division of Ziethen was coming 
 up to the field of Waterloo through the woods of 
 Frichermont and Ohain, without the slightest sus- 
 picion of their arrival having crossed the minds of 
 the French. But before Ziethen appeared Napoleon 
 judged that the hour had come to make a supreme 
 effort, and to send against la MHaie-Sainte five 
 battalions of the reserves of the Guard, who had 
 not yet taken part in the fight, and who were sup- 
 ported by all the remaining heavy and hght cavalry. 
 He addressed them in a few words, which roused 
 them to a high pitch of enthusiasm, and amidst a 
 general rally of the whole French line, they marched 
 
 n 2 
 
196 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 steadily forward, with bayonets fixed, against the hard- 
 pressed ranks of the English. Wellington seems to 
 have regarded the battle at this moment with the 
 utmost anxiety, though he was perfectly collected. He 
 strengthened the points of his line where the attack 
 of the French Guards seemed likely to fall, brought up 
 as many troops as he could venture to withdraw from 
 other points, and told his officers that they must hold 
 their position to the last man. 
 
 Two thousand nine hundred men of the Imperial 
 Guard—of whom the second column was headed by Ney 
 himself—pushed gallantly towards the plateau which 
 had already been so hotly contested, amidst a dense 
 shower of shot and shell. More than one French 
 general was slain or wounded in this advance, and Ney 
 lost his fifth horse in urging the men to the attack. 
 The first battalion of the Guards was staggered by the 
 English fire, and wavered. ‘Cowards!” cried Ney, 
 “are you no longer able to die ?” Again the assault 
 was renewed, and the crest of the ridge surmounted. 
 The Brunswick troops were driven in, and after them 
 two of the Nassau battalions, overwhelmed by the 
 severity of the fire, were pressed back upon the 10th 
 Hussars; but, after a little time, they returned to the 
 charge. When the Imperial Guard came up within a 
 short distance of the English Foot-Guards, Wellington 
 cried, ‘Up, Guards, and at them!” and the British 
 troops, who had been lying down in a ditch three feet 
 deep behind the summit of the ridge, answered the 
 appeal, sprung up, and poured such a deadly volley 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. 197 
 
 upon the approaching foe, that the front ranks of 
 the Old Guard were swept away. Ney ordered his 
 men to extend their line and return the fire; but 
 the English artillery rained grape and cannister upon 
 the flanks of the devoted battalions. In less than a 
 quarter of an hour more than two thousand of the | 
 Old Guard were killed or disabled in this gallant but 
 hopeless attack ; and the rest turned and fled. 
 
 Napoleon formed the last remaining five battalions of 
 reserve in more open order than their predecessors, and 
 despatched them to the front. A column of French 
 cuirassiers made a simultaneous dash upon the English 
 batteries, but they were unable to reach them; and 
 this last hope of the Emperor, the five battalions 
 of his own Guard, advanced to the plateau un- 
 supported, and under the same crushing fire as before. 
 In front, to the right and to the left of them the 
 English infantry and artillery poured their deadly 
 volleys upon the advancing troops. Nothing could 
 prevail against such a reception as this, and the 
 heroic Frenchmen were all but annihilated. 
 
 Napoleon saw the disaster, and watched the remnant 
 of his last reserves as they retreated. ‘“ C’est fini /— 
 All is over!” he muttered. As the English horse 
 pursued the Guards, he ordered his personal escort of 
 four hundred men to the rescue, and added them to 
 the holocaust. Then the victor in so many fights 
 turned his horse’s head, and galloped into the ranks 
 of a regiment of grenadiers which was at that moment 
 disengaged. 
 
198 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 Meanwhile, Ziethen had arrived on the field of 
 Waterloo; and his first exploit had been to hurl himself 
 on the extreme left of the English, and to put the 
 Nassau troops, mistaken for enemies, to flight. Dis- 
 covering his error, he turned, and engaged the French 
 right. The troops of Lobau and d’Erlon were over- 
 whelmed by the numbers of the enemy, and at last 
 a panic appears to have seized the whole French 
 line; the Charleroi road was presently crowded with 
 fugitives. 
 
 The tide of battle was turned. By half-past eight 
 in the evening Wellington had assumed the offensive, 
 and sent Vivian’s hussars to drive in the few remaining 
 battalions of the French troops who still held out. 
 This they succeeded in doing, whilst Vandeleur on 
 the right cleared the neighbourhood of Hougoumont, 
 from which General Reille, who had been hotly en- 
 gaged there throughout the day, withdrew towards 
 the French centre, in ignorance of the disaster which 
 had overtaken the army. 
 
 A few squares of the French Guard stood he- 
 roically amidst the rout of the defeated host, and 
 against the still more formidable pressure of the 
 English and Prussian columns. Other generals besides 
 Napoleon himself had taken refuge in their ranks, and 
 they held in addition a large number of French 
 standards which had been entrusted to them by fugi- 
 tives. One after another these squares were broken 
 up. Halket’s brigade swept down upon the last of 
 them and surrounded it on three sides. The English 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. 199 
 
 General called upon them to surrender; and it was 
 then, according to the account which has been often 
 denied and as often repeated, that Cambronne cried out, 
 “The Guard dies, but does not surrender ! ”’ 
 
 The battle of Waterloo was ended, and the French 
 were in full retreat. The moon rose upon the pursuit, 
 which was kept up through the night; and before all 
 was over the vanquished army had lost forty thousand 
 men, or half of the number brought in the field, in 
 killed, wounded, and prisoners. Wellington’s army had 
 not suffered so heavily, but its loss did not fall short 
 of twenty-two thousand, or about a third of the troops 
 who fought at Waterloo, whilst the Prussians, it is 
 said, lost above thirty-three thousand men in the 
 actions of the 16th and 18th. 
 
 As for Napoleon, he withdrew, escorted by a squadron 
 of cavalry, through Quatre-Bras, to Philippeville, where 
 he dictated the official record of the battle, and de- 
 spatched orders to the generals commanding in the 
 Vendée and on the eastern frontier to fall back upon 
 Paris. His first idea had been to rally and re-form 
 his own army at Laon, whither he had ordered 
 Grouchy to meet him; but he was dissuaded from this 
 course, and directed his steps to the capital. On the 
 night of the 20th of June he reached Paris, and went, 
 not to the Tuileries, but to the palace of the Elysée. 
 He was taking a bath when Davoust came to him, 
 and urged him at once to prorogue the Chambers. 
 The Emperor hesitated. On the following morning, 
 Carnot, Fouché, Lucien Bonaparte, and others ten- 
 
200 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 dered various counsels. Meanwhile the Chamber of 
 Representatives had met, declared itself to be in 
 permanent session, and menaced with the punish- 
 ment of high treason any one who should attempt to 
 dissolve it. 
 
 On the 2Ist of June the Chamber sent for the 
 Ministers; and after two urgent summonses, Lucien 
 Bonaparte and his colleagues made their appearance. 
 The boldest of the members began to apostrophise the 
 Emperor’s brother. ‘The veil is torn away,” said 
 one. “I can see but a smgle man between peace and 
 
 9? 
 
 us.” ‘Return to your brother,” cried another, 
 
 ce 
 
 and 
 tell him that by abdicating he will save France. Tell 
 him that his destiny urges him; that in a day, per- 
 haps in an hour, it will be too late.” Lucien 
 returned to the Emperor and advised him to dissolve 
 the Chambers. Napoleon hesitated for some time, 
 and, it is said, contemplated an appeal to the nation, 
 in the hope of recalling the enthusiasm of 1793. 
 But in the end he consented to abdicate. 
 
 On the 22nd of June he wrote to the Chambers 
 in these words:—‘ My political life is at an end, 
 and I proclaim my son, under the title of Napoleon 
 II., Emperor of the French. My interest in the 
 welfare of my son leads me to invite the Chambers, 
 without delay, to organise a Regency according to 
 law.” 
 
 Meanwhile, Grouchy, having repulsed the division 
 of Thielmann at Wavre, on the morning of the 19th, 
 was about to proceed to Waterloo when he received 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. 201 
 
 Napoleon’s dispatch. Falling back at once towards 
 Dinant, he escaped his pursuers, and rejoined the troops 
 collected by Reille, d’Erlon, and Vandamme. In this 
 way an army of a hundred thousand men covered the 
 capital before the end of the month. 
 
 Various minor engagements were fought around 
 Paris between the French and the Allies; but it seemed 
 to Davoust, who now commanded the army, and 
 who had replaced Grouchy, that the best he could do 
 under the circumstances was to yield without further 
 delay. On the 3rd of July Davoust signed a con- 
 vention, delivering Paris into the hands of the 
 English and Prussians; and the Chambers ratified this 
 act. 
 
 The French army, indignant at being withheld from 
 the defence of the capital, was withdrawn behind the 
 Loire; whilst the Alles, who had brought Louis X VIII. 
 back from Belgium, established themselves at the 
 Tuileries. On the 8th of July the King re-entered his 
 capital; and on the 3rd of the same month Napoleon, 
 who had quitted his house at Malmaison on the 29th of 
 June, and had made quietly for the sea-coast, took 
 refuge at Rochefort on a French frigate. But Fouché, 
 Duke of Otranto, who had risen to honour under the 
 Republic, and who was one of the first to work 
 for the second Restoration of the Bourbons, warned 
 Wellington of the projected flight of Napoleon. The 
 consequence was that the ex-Hmperor found his 
 escape cut off at Rochefort by an English vessel, the 
 Bellerophon, commanded by Captain Maitland. The 
 
202: THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 latter offered to convey Napoleon to England; and 
 the late Emperor, despairing of any better chance of 
 safety, resolved to throw himself on the generosity 
 of the English nation. 
 
 He went aboard the vessel, and addressed a letter 
 to the Prince Regent. “I place myself,” he wrote, 
 “under the protection of the laws of England, which 
 I claim from your Royal Highness as that of the most 
 powerful, the most constant, the most generous of my 
 enemies.” 
 
 The Bellerophon sailed for Plymouth; but Napoleon 
 was not allowed to land. His letter was forwarded 
 to the Prince, and taken into consideration by the 
 English Cabinet. The Alles had already decided that 
 Napoleon, if he were taken prisoner, should be confided 
 to the charge of England; but the Ministry hesitated 
 as to whether they could regard him, under the circum- 
 stances, as a prisoner. ‘They concluded to do so, and 
 informed him that St. Helena, an island in the South 
 Atlantic Ocean, had been appointed as his future 
 place of residence. Napoleon protested against what 
 he called a breach of faith and hospitality; and 
 there were many, even in England, who agreed with 
 him. But it is a question whether the ex-Emperor 
 was Justified in demanding a free residence in Eng- 
 land. He gave himself up at Rochefort under virtual 
 compulsion; he would probably have been taken 
 prisoner if he had not done so; and his escape from 
 Elba had made it impossible that he should again 
 be set at large. The alternative to banishment to 
 
1815. ] f THE RESTORATION. 203 
 
 St. Helena was, in the natural course of events, per- 
 petual incarceration or death. It was, after all, not 
 the least merciful fate which condemned him, after 
 so long disturbing the peace of Europe, to his six 
 years captivity. 
 
 Napoleon was taken to St. Helena on board the 
 Northumberland, in coramand of Admiral Cochrane, and 
 landed there on the 17th of October. General Bertrand 
 and his family, General Gourgaud, General Montholon 
 and his family, Count de Las Cases and his son, accom- 
 panied him, and he remained there until his death. 
 
 § III.—THE SECOND RESTORATION. 
 (From the 8th of July, 1815, to the 16th of September, 1824.) 
 
 Tne Allied armies were by no means so careful not to 
 wound the susceptibilities of the French in 1815 as 
 they had been the year before. The English encamped 
 in Paris in the Bois de Boulogne ; the Prussians in the 
 houses of the inhabitants. The museums were stripped 
 of their pictures and other valuables which had been 
 seized by Napoleon from various foreign towns during 
 his twenty years’ campaigns; and Blucher insisted on 
 an indemnity of a hundred million francs, afterwards 
 reduced to ten millions. One million two hundred 
 thousand foreign troops occupied the soil of France 
 up to the month of October. The whole country was 
 overrun by the Alles, who demanded requisitions from 
 the towns and the different departments. France was 
 made to feel the bitterness of the humiliation which 
 
 Napoleon’s ‘‘ Hundred Days” had brought upon her. 
 
204 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 The Prussians were especially severe in their measures 
 during this period. 
 
 On the 24th of July the Government, at the insti- 
 gation of the Allied sovereigns, issued a decree, drawn 
 up by Fouché himself, in which it ordered the arrest 
 of “those generals and officers who had betrayed the 
 King before the 23rd of March, or who had attacked 
 France and the Government with arms in their hands,” 
 including Ney, Labédoyére, d’Erlon, Lefebvre, Grouchy, 
 Cambronne, Rovigo, and several others. It also 
 banished from Paris, until such time as the Chambers 
 might decide upon their case, some forty more, amongst 
 whom were Alix, Soult, Excelmans, Thibeaudeau, 
 Carnot, Vandamme, Lobau, Piré, and Regnault. 
 
 The army of the Loire was greatly excited by 
 these proscriptions, which affected many of its 
 officers; and Davoust, after criticising them warmly, 
 resigned his command. He was succeeded by Mac- 
 donald, who was directed by the Government to dis- 
 band these troops, whilst another army was formed of 
 young men raised in the provinces. Louis XVIII. 
 and his Ministers began now to display their animosity 
 against those who had assisted in the events of the 
 Hundred Days. The first victim was General Labé- 
 doyére, who had been one of the earliest to join 
 Napoleon. He was shot on the 19th of August, 
 after a trial for high treason. Lavalette, who had 
 been postmaster-general under the Empire and the 
 Hundred Days, was condemned to death, but escaped 
 from prison by a romantic plan formed by his wife. 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. 205 
 
 The most striking of these acts of vengeance was 
 the trial and execution of Marshal Ney, who was 
 arrested on the 5th of August, and shot on the 7th of 
 December. Horrible massacres took place in the south 
 of France, and Bonapartists and Protestants were as- 
 sassinated without any effectual interference of the 
 authorities. Hven Marshal Brune was murdered by 
 an excited populace at Avignon (August Ist). 
 
 In the meantime the old Chambers had been dis- 
 solved, and new elections, with a larger representation, 
 and a franchise extended in point of age, were ordered. 
 On the 19th of August three hundred and ninety-nine 
 representatives were elected, and commissioned to revise 
 certain articles of the Charter. ‘Twenty-nine peers who 
 had continued to sit during the Hundred Days were 
 replaced by ninety new ones, whose titles were declared 
 hereditary. The new Chambers were found to be 
 thoroughly inimical to both Talleyrand and Fouché ; 
 so that the King charged the Duke de Richelieu to 
 form a new Cabinet. Richelieu, a returned émigré, a 
 man of some ability, presided over foreign affairs ; and 
 amongst his colleagues were Clarke, Duke de Feltre, for 
 War; Corvetto for Finance ; Vaublanc for the Interior; 
 and Decazes for Police. As for the two most pro- 
 minent members of the previous Cabinet, Talleyrand 
 lived a retired life until 1830, whilst Fouché, sent as 
 ambassador to the Court of Saxony, died in 1820, in 
 comparative oblivion, at Trieste. 
 
 In spite of the promised amendment of the Charter, 
 and the new oaths taken to observe it by the King 
 
206 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1815. 
 
 and his family, the Government showed no more 
 liberality than had been the case before the return of 
 Napoleon. Individual freedom was restricted, and the 
 most reactionary measures were brought forward in 
 the Chambers, which displayed little anxiety about the 
 maintenance of the popular liberties. 
 
 The Allied sovereigns and armies can hardly be 
 said to have found their sojourn in France particu- 
 larly agreeable. Quarrels and insults were of daily 
 occurrence, especially amongst the rank and file of the 
 troops of occupation, whose very lives were not safe 
 from the animosity of the inhabitants. This was 
 naturally experienced in the capital still more 
 than in the provinces; and the fact was doubtless 
 an additional reason why the great Powers wished to 
 complete the work of pacification without unnecessary 
 delay. 
 
 The treaties between the Allies and the Government 
 concluded at Paris on the 7th of October, and ratified 
 on the 20th of November, were not dictated by the 
 consideration for the French people which had marked 
 the Treaty of Vienna in the preceding year; nor was 
 it to be expected that they should be. The loss of 
 men and money caused by the Hundred Days was 
 immense, and at the same time peculiarly vexatious. 
 Napoleon was regarded by the majority of foreign 
 nations as an aggressive and dangerous disturber of the 
 peace of Hurope, whose ambition rendered him a pest to 
 society, and whose freedom of action was absolutely 
 incompatible with the welfare of his neighbours. It 
 
1815. ] THH RESTORATION. 207 
 
 is true that Napoleon was now removed to a distance, 
 and might be supposed to be in safe keeping for the 
 remainder of his life. But it was impossible to over- 
 look the fact that he had received a ready allegiance 
 and active assistance on his return from Elba; and the 
 French nation as a whole could no longer be treated 
 as free from the responsibility involved in his acts. 
 Another reason for the more stringent character of 
 the new treaties was the ill feeling of the Prussians 
 towards their ancient enemies, and the covetousness 
 of the courts of Berlin and Vienna. The latter went 
 so far as to demand Flanders for Belgium, Savoy for 
 Sardinia, Alsace, Lorraine, and part of Champagne for 
 Prussia and the Eastern German States. In addition 
 to this, the Prussians and Austrians claimed a war in- 
 demnity of six hundred millions of francs, and another 
 two hundred million francs for the construction of 
 fortifications on the frontier; and at the same time 
 the cost of supporting an army of occupation, con- 
 sisting of a hundred and fifty thousand men, for 
 seven years. The Duke of Wellington opposed these 
 demands as being too exorbitant, and his represen- 
 tations were supported by Count Nesselrode, the 
 Russian Plenipotentiary. When Prussia and Austria 
 refused to hear reason, Louis XVIII. in person sought 
 an interview with the Czar and the Duke; and 
 addressing the latter, said to him, “ My lord, when 
 I re-entered France I thought I should reign over the 
 kingdom of my fathers. It seems that I had deceived 
 myself; and yet I could only remain on this condition. 
 
208 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 Do you think, my lord, that your Government would 
 consent to receive me if I again seek a refuge from it?” 
 The argument was a telling one, on various grounds, 
 and the Czar was affected by it. ‘‘ No, no, sire,” he 
 said, “your Majesty shall not lose these provinces; I 
 will not allow it.” 
 
 The demands of the German Plenipotentiaries 
 would have been reduced even lower than they were if 
 it had not been for an unfortunate alarm, supposed to 
 have been created by Talleyrand from mistaken motives, 
 and according to which France was on the eve of a 
 general insurrection. ‘Thanks to the panic caused by 
 this rumour the Allis insisted on a partial confiscation 
 of territory. It was for this reason that the Cabinet 
 of Talleyrand was obliged to give way to that of the 
 Duke de Richelieu. 
 
 France, which had been reduced in 1814 to the 
 limits of 1793 (except as regards her colonies, which 
 were further diminished by England’s captures during 
 the war) was now brought down to the boundaries of 
 1790, losing also Philippeville, Marienburg, Bouillon, 
 Sarrelouis, Landau, Savoy, and a part of Gex, and 
 undertaking to destroy the fortifications of Huningen. 
 The indemnity was fixed at seven hundred million 
 francs, and the period of occupation at five years— 
 the foreign troops being assigned a line within the 
 northern and eastern frontiers. An additional article 
 stipulated for the union of the Allied powers to enforce 
 the abolition of the slave-trade; for amongst the many 
 crimes attributed in those days to the French Emperor, 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
1815. ] THE RESTORATION. 209 
 
 there seems to have been a vague sort of notion that 
 he was answerable for the maintenance of slavery. 
 
 To the main treaty there were added two Conven- 
 tions, by the first of which a Committee was appointed 
 to arbitrate on the claims made by various foreign 
 governments and subjects against France, whilst by the 
 second the French Government undertook in a special 
 manner to indemnify British subjects for their direct 
 losses since 1793. 
 
 The four Allied Powers at the same time concluded 
 a separate treaty amongst themselves, in which they 
 solemnly re-affirmed the treaties of Vienna and Paris, 
 and undertook to hold future meetings ‘devoted to 
 important common interests, and to the examination 
 of measures which shall be considered most salutary for 
 the repose and prosperity of the people, and for the 
 maintenance of European peace.” Meetings were 
 actually held under this stipulation—at Aix-la-Chapelle 
 (14th February to 20th November, 1818), Troppau 
 (20th October to 20th December, 1820), Laybach 
 (17th December, 1820, to 6th May, 1821), and 
 Verona (25th August to 15th December, 1822). 
 
 This sojourn in Paris was rendered famous in 
 another and less practical sense by the Treaty of the 
 Holy Alliance (September 26th), brought forward by 
 the Czar Alexander, under the influence, as is generally 
 alleged, of a certain German visionary lady, Madam 
 Krudener. This treaty recorded, in the name of 
 “the Most Holy and Indivisible Trinity,” that their 
 Majesties of Russia, Austria and Prussia, “ convinced 
 
 0 
 
210 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1815. 
 
 of the necessity of basing their progress on the sub- 
 lime truths taught by the eternal religion of the 
 Saviour,” engage themselves before the whole world 
 “to take for the sole rule of their conduct the 
 precepts of His holy religion, to maintain a fraternal 
 understanding, and to regard themselves in no other 
 light than as delegated by Providence to govern three 
 branches of one and the same family, thus confessing 
 that the Christian nation of which they and their 
 people form part has in reality no other Sovereign than 
 Him to whom alone power justly belongs, because in 
 Him alone are the treasures of love, knowledge, and 
 infinite wisdom—that is to say, God, our Sovereign 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, the Word of the Most 
 High, the Word of Life.” King Louis XVIII. 
 acceded to this treaty with the utmost complai- 
 sance; but the English Government objected that 
 it was not sufficiently practical, and declined to adhere 
 to it. 
 
 Frenchmen felt bitterly the humiliation involved 
 in the terms which Europe had forced upon them, and 
 they were greatly disposed to resent their grievances 
 on the Government. The execution of Labédoyére 
 and Ney, the trial of Lavalette, and the establish- 
 ment in every department of cours prévotales, or courts, 
 presided over by military men, to try all acts of 
 rebellion or attempts at rebellion, had excited not 
 a little indignation amongst a large section of the 
 people. The general discontent was so loudly expressed 
 that the Cabinet thought it wise to adopt a policy of 
 
1815-16. ] THE RESTORATION. 211 
 
 professed clemency. Early in December the Duke de 
 Richelieu introduced a bill of amnesty. The Count 
 de la Bourdonnaye had previously proposed to extend 
 the proscription, and had drawn up a number of cate- 
 gories of persons against whom he suggested that the 
 terrors of the law should be directed. The Chamber 
 appointed a Committee to consider this and other 
 propositions of a like nature; and the proposal of the 
 Government was referred to the same body. The 
 Committee reported generally in favour of the Govern- 
 ment’s scheme, but it incorporated the categories of 
 de la Bourdonnaye, which made amenable to the law 
 all officials, military or civil, who had gone over 
 to Bonaparte, or had caused his decrees to be 
 executed. There was much opposition against this 
 law in the Chamber and in the country; and when it 
 came to be discussed, a majority of a hundred and 
 eighty-four to a hundred and seventy-one in the 
 Legislative Body rejected the suggestion of de la 
 Bourdonnaye, thus declaring in favour of a miti- 
 gation, rather than an increase, of severity. An 
 article proposing the confiscation of the income or 
 property of all condemned persons was also rejected ; 
 and the law then passed (January 7th, 1816). Its 
 result was to grant an amnesty to all who had 
 taken part in the usurpation of Napoleon during the 
 Hundred Days, with the exception of those who had 
 been guilty of crimes against individuals, and of those 
 mentioned in the proscription. It banished the family 
 of Bonaparte for ever from France, and declared that 
 02 
 
212 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1816. 
 
 they could never possess property, income, or pensions 
 within the kingdom. 
 
 The debates on this law gave the measure of 
 liberal feeling existing for the moment in France; 
 and they showed also that the Government was already 
 confronted by a strong opposition, which might easily 
 become more troublesome still. 
 
 The jaw of amnesty turned out, as many had pre- 
 dicted, to be a virtual incitement to the prosecution of 
 a great number of persons. One article of this law 
 provided that those against whom proceedings had 
 been commenced prior to its passing should be ex- 
 cepted from its operation; and the Duke de Feltre 
 took care to authorise a large number of prosecutions 
 against individuals designated by him, whilst the am- 
 nesty was still under, discussion. In the course of 
 this year many generals and officials of every rank 
 were brought to trial, of whom several were condemned 
 to death, though the capital sentence was in some in- 
 stances commuted to imprisonment. D’Erlon, Lefebvre, 
 the two Lallemands, and others of Napoleon’s most 
 distinguished generals, were condemned in their absence. 
 Frenchmen have, not unnaturally, stigmatised this 
 period as the Zerreur Blanche, the White Terror. 
 
 The Government began to find its task more 
 and more difficult. The Liberals on the one hand, 
 and the reactionary party on the other, combined to 
 make the work of compromise and pacification all 
 but impossible for the Duke de Richelieu; and his 
 embarrassments were increased by a succession of 
 
1816. ] THE RESTORATION. 215 
 
 conspiracies, most of them framed with a view to 
 putting an end to the persecutions of the Royalists. 
 They were all easily suppressed, and had no other 
 effect than to add to the number of the miserable 
 victims of the White Terror. Napoleon’s friends and 
 servants, at that time, fully expiated their offences, 
 at the hands of their fellow-countrymen as well as 
 of the enemies of their country. Even in Italy, 
 Murat felt the force of the Bourbons’ vengeance. 
 Having attempted a landing at Pizzo, on the coast 
 of Calabria, he was taken and shot (October 13th, 
 1815), by order of Ferdinand, King of the Two Sicilies, 
 whose grand-daughter had married, two months before, 
 the Duke de Berry, nephew of Lows XVIII. 
 
 Ifthe King was less liberal than the majority of the 
 nation, he was more so than the men to whom the Reign 
 of Terror of 1816 was due. Perhaps he saw, and if he 
 did not, yet his ministers must have seen, that the 
 vengeance of the reactionary party was not calculated 
 to make the Restoration popular in France, whilst it 
 raised up enemies for the Government, full of animosity 
 and hatred, who would await their opportunity to 
 compass its overthrow. ‘Their prudence and that of 
 the King was stimulated by the warning of more than 
 one of the foreign courts, pointing out the dangers 
 which must arise from the violence of the party of 
 vengeance. The consequence was that a suggestion 
 of one of the ministers, Decazes, to the effect that the 
 Chamber should be dissolved and reconstituted, was 
 somewhat reluctantly accepted by the Duke de Riche- 
 
214 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1816. 
 
 lieu, and subsequently by the King. The latter was 
 persuaded by the advice of the Czar and of the Duke 
 of Wellington, both of whom he had good reason to 
 respect, and who dwelt on the fact that the majority of 
 the Chamber, ‘more Royalist than the King himself,” 
 were really attempting to usurp his authority. 
 
 The idea, once determined on, was carried out very 
 adroitly. On the 5th of September, 1816, a royal 
 decree was issued, in which Louis XVIILI., re-affirming 
 his intention of strictly observing the Charter of 1814, 
 declared that it was advisable to return to the number 
 of deputies fixed by that document. As this reduction 
 could only be effected by the Chamber itself, it was 
 advisable to hold new elections. ‘‘ None of the articles 
 of the Charter,” continued this decree, ‘“ shall be altered. 
 The Chamber of Deputies is dissolved.” 
 
 The partisans of a reaction received this measure 
 with intense dissatisfaction. They had been busily 
 preparing fresh schemes of vengeance; and they had 
 every reason to anticipate that, after a new election, 
 they would find themselves in a minority, at all events 
 in the Chamber of Deputies. The country at large, 
 however, hailed the royal decree as a pledge of greater 
 liberality; and out of two hundred and fifty-nine 
 deputies not more than eighty were found to hold 
 the extreme reactionary views which had prevailed in 
 the former Chamber. 
 
 Soon after the opening of the new session, the 
 Government brought forward an electoral law, of 
 which the seventh article provided that “there shall be 
 
1817.] THE RESTORATION. 215 
 
 but one electoral body in each department, composed 
 of all the electors of the department, whose deputies in 
 the chamber it directly appoints. The law was drawn 
 up by Lainé, Royer-Collard, a Royalist with Liberal 
 tendencies, and Guizot; and its discussion in the 
 Chamber of Deputies, especially in regard to direct 
 election, gave rise to a warm debate. Benjamin 
 Constant, and many other Liberals, approved of this 
 extension of the Parliamentary franchise. In the 
 House of Peers it was attacked by the ultra-Royalists, 
 such as Chateaubriand, de la Bourdonnaye, de Bonald, 
 and many others. In the end it passed the Lower 
 Chamber by a vote of one hundred and eighteen to one 
 hundred and six; whilst in the House of Peers, after 
 the personal intervention of the King, it secured a vote 
 of ninety-five against seventy-seven (January 30th). 
 
 The Government, early in the same year, also pro- 
 posed two new laws, the first of which empowered the 
 President of the Council of Ministers and the Minister 
 of Police to arrest and detain any individual who 
 was suspected of plotting against the King or his 
 family, or against the safety of the State, whilst the 
 second provided that no newspaper should be published 
 without the authorisation of the King. The operation 
 of both laws was limited to the Ist of January, 1818, 
 and they were passed by considerable majorities, the 
 opposition coming mainly from the reactionary party ; 
 Chateaubriand, in the Chamber of Peers, naturally 
 finding a congenial theme in defence of the liberty of 
 the press. 
 
216 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1817. 
 
 On the 11th of February, the Duke de Richelieu 
 had the satisfaction of informing the Chambers 
 that the Allies had consented to reduce the army 
 of occupation, and the consequent charge on the 
 national revenue, on the following Ist of August. 
 This concession was the more welcome to France because 
 she was at this time afflicted by a terrible famine, 
 added to the other evils under which she laboured. 
 The Government was compelled to buy corn abroad, 
 whilst many of the large towns assigned funds for the 
 purpose of reducing to the poor the price of the 
 necessaries of life. The general scarcity naturally 
 produced its effect in aggravating the political dis- 
 turbances of the country, which were taken advantage 
 of by the extreme reactionary party, or at least by 
 the most unscrupulous of the officials, in order to 
 gratify their rancour, or to curry favour with the 
 Government. The most notable instance occurred at 
 Lyons, where General Canuel, a bitter reactionist, had 
 been constantly reporting to his superiors that the 
 department of the Rhéne was in danger from the 
 disaffection of the multitude. In the month of 
 June he declared that a plot was in existence to 
 destroy the city. The warning was so far justified 
 that a small rising actually took place, but it does 
 not seem at any time to have possessed much sig- 
 nificance. ‘he fact, however, sufficed for the infliction 
 of a sanguinary punishment. A sort of Bloody Assize 
 was enacted in the department, during which twenty- 
 eight persons were condemned to death and executed, 
 
1817.] THE RESTORATION. 217 
 
 whilst many others were visited with minor penalties. 
 In the end the Government, suspecting that the 
 sentences pronounced were too severe, sent Marshal 
 Marmont to hold an inquiry on the spot; and the 
 consequence was that General Canuel was removed 
 from his command. 
 
 In the autumn new elections were held in seven- 
 teen departments, the result of which was to remove 
 from the Chamber eleven more of the most bigoted 
 reactionaries. Amongst the successful candidates 
 elected in the capital were Laffitte, Casimir Périer, and 
 B. Delessert, who constituted, with others, a group of 
 independent Liberals, destined to become the virtual 
 Liberal party in the French Chambers. 
 
 The unpopularity of the Restoration with the mass ~ 
 of the people was largely increased by the activity and 
 influence of the clerical party, and especially by the 
 zeal of the Congregation, a society composed chiefly of 
 laymen, but directed by ecclesiastics, and which had 
 sprung up at a time when the Roman Catholic re- 
 ligion was for the moment suppressed in France. 
 The members of this society, to which Louis XVIII. 
 and his brother belonged, received the name of lay 
 Jesuits, Jéswites de robe courte; and their principles and 
 practice are sufficiently indicated by saying that they 
 were much the same as those of the Jesuits. 
 
 The session of 1817-8 was marked by the discus- 
 sion of a very difficult question, namely, that of the 
 reorganisation of the army. A law was introduced 
 by the Government which proceeded on the principles 
 
218 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1818. 
 
 of conscription by annual drawing of lots, of advance- 
 ment by merit and seniority, and of the formation of 
 a reserve by admitting those who had served under 
 Napoleon. The conduct of the measure through the 
 Chambers, as well as the practical work of reorganisa- 
 tion, was entrusted to Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr, who 
 performed both tasks with great success. 
 
 In the summer of 1818 the army of occupation had 
 been for three years on the soil of France. The Treaty 
 of Paris provided that a hundred and thirty thousand 
 men should occupy the northern and eastern frontiers 
 for a period of five years, after which the Alles would 
 consider the question of decreasing or wholly with- 
 drawing their forces. At the close of the second year 
 thirty thousand men had been withdrawn; and when 
 the third year had elapsed, the Duke de Richelheu 
 approached the Governments of the great Powers 
 with the object of inducing them to anticipate the 
 date stipulated in the treaty. Once more it was 
 England and Russia who showed themselves the most 
 considerate towards France, and the result of the 
 negotiations was that the four Powers met at Aix- 
 la-Chapelle, and agreed, on the 2nd of October, to 
 withdraw their armies on the last day of Novem- 
 ber. Many of the extreme Royalists seemed to think 
 that there was reason to fear a revolution as soon 
 as the Allies should have left the country, and they 
 began to intrigue for the purpose of prolonging the 
 foreign occupation. The Count d’Artois went so far 
 as to employ a certain M. de Vitrolles to write a 
 
1818. ] THE RESTORATION. 219 
 
 Memoir on the subject, in the hope of frightening the 
 Alles into remaining; but Richelieu’s sound common 
 sense prevailed, and the evacuation was carried out 
 on the appointed day. Nevertheless the great Powers 
 signed a secret Convention amongst themselves, under- 
 taking to renew the military Coalition in the event of 
 another overthrow of the Government in France. 
 Meanwhile, the elections of 1818, which had 
 taken place in October, resulted in a signal defeat 
 of the Royalists and ministerialists, and in the in- 
 crease of the party of independent Liberals by twenty 
 fresh votes. Both the Royalists and their friends 
 abroad took alarm at this significant expression of 
 the popular antagonism to reactionary ideas. The 
 plenipotentiaries of the Allied Powers exacted from the 
 Duke de Richelieu a promise that he would take steps 
 to counteract this feeling; and accordingly the Duke 
 suggested the promulgation of a new electoral law, 
 which was intended to limit the franchise. He had 
 a somewhat serious disagreement on this point with 
 his colleague M. Decazes, and the result was that 
 both ministers, as_ well as all the other members of 
 the Cabinet, sent in their resignations. The King 
 charged the Duke to form another Ministry, and to 
 exclude M. Decazes; but the task was found impos- 
 sible by the conscientious statesman who, anxious to 
 keep his word towards the foreign Powers, persisted in 
 his attempt to limit the popular franchise, to increase 
 the power of the wealthier classes, and to conciliate 
 the extreme Royalists. In the end the King was 
 
220 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.  [1818-19. 
 
 obliged to accept the resignation of the Duke de 
 Richelieu, and to give his support to M. Decazes. 
 
 Decazes, keeping the Ministry of the Interior for 
 himself, appointed General Dessoles nominal President 
 of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Saint- 
 Cyr retaining the portfolio of War, and Baron Louis 
 returning to the Ministry of Fiance. The retirement 
 of Richelieu, the ‘ Liberator of the territory” as he 
 was gratefully called, suggested a national testimonial 
 to the ex-minister, who was known to be in the pos- 
 session of very moderate means. A bill was brought 
 forward in the Chambers to confer upon him an income 
 for life out of the Crown lands. The extreme Royalists 
 had the ill grace to raise a hostile debate on the 
 subject of this dotation; so that, although the vote 
 was passed by a majority of about four to three, the 
 Duke declined to accept it, and assigned the income 
 to the foundation of a charitable institution in his 
 native town of Bordeaux. 
 
 The contest on the electoral franchise had only been 
 deferred; it broke out again as soon as the question of 
 the Duke de Richelieu’s pension had been settled. On 
 the 2nd of March, 1819, the Royalists in the House of 
 Peers passed a resolution, by a majority of ninety-eight 
 against fifty-five, by which it was agreed to request the 
 King to present a project of law, causing “ such modifi- 
 cations in the electoral colleges as might seem indis- 
 pensable.” At the same time the majority in the Peers 
 rejected a financial bill sent up from the Lower House, 
 and gave other signs of an aggressive tendency. 
 
1819. ] THE RESTORATION. 221 
 
 The King and his ministers were alarmed at these 
 indications of a troublesome opposition ; and they re- 
 sorted at once to the strongest measure which it was 
 in their power to adopt. On the 4th of March a royal 
 decree nominated sixty new peers, of whom one-fourth 
 had sat in the House during the Hundred Days. 
 Public opinion had been greatly excited by the re- 
 actionary attempt of the Royalists, and more than a 
 hundred thousand petitions poured in upon the Govern- 
 ment, protesting against any alteration in the electoral 
 law. ‘The creation of the peers was justified by this 
 forcible expression of opinion, and, coupled with the 
 decisive rejection of the proposed change in the 
 franchise by the Chamber of Deputies, sufficed to calm 
 the mind of the nation. 
 
 In the same session of 1819 the law relating to 
 the press was rendered more stringent, by the 
 adoption of three measures brought forward by M. 
 de Serre, Keeper of the Seals. The principal objects 
 of these laws were to restrain violations of public 
 morality, the establishment of trial by jury for press 
 offences, and the adoption of a system by which news- 
 papers were obliged to pay to the State a certain sum 
 of money before they could be published. ‘These laws, 
 which were certainly not very remarkable for their want 
 of liberality towards the press, were voted by large 
 majorities; the chief modification being introduced 
 into the text of the first, which was rendered 
 
 applicable against outrages of “public morality and 
 religion.” 
 
222 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1819. 
 
 The annual renewal of the Chamber had up till 
 now produced a regular increase in the numbers of 
 the Liberal Opposition, which had in the first in- 
 stance been called the Independent party, and corre- 
 sponded to the modern Left and Extreme Left. The 
 year 1819 was no exception to the rule, for the election 
 of fifty-two new deputies resulted in the return of 
 thirty Liberals Gncluding General Foy), and raised the 
 group to a total of about ninety. The Royalists were 
 enraged by this result, and especially by the election 
 of Grégoire, a former member of the Convention, at 
 Grenoble, although they had themselves assisted in 
 securing his success over the ministerial candidate, in 
 order to provide an argument for their attacks on 
 the electoral law. The King and his ministry 
 were themselves frightened by the gradual strength- 
 ening of the Opposition, which threatened to be- 
 come too powerful for them, and the foreign Powers 
 began to make vigorous representations about the 
 dangers by which France and Europe were likely to be 
 menaced. The history of France was destined from 
 this time forward to become a record of a long and 
 hopeless struggle of monarchs and governments against 
 the growing power of the people. That struggle gave 
 indeed, to the rulers, not seldom a partial and inter- 
 mittent success; but each success was followed, as a 
 matter of course, by a more vigorous and definite 
 reassertion of the national liberties. 
 
 Decazes, acting in consonance with the convictions 
 
 of Louis XVIII., and of all the more influential 
 
1819-20. ] THE RESTORATION. 223 
 
 councillors who surrounded the throne, now resolved 
 upon that modification of the electoral law which he 
 had declined to entertain twelve months ago; and a 
 fresh ministerial crisis was the result. Gouvion Saint- 
 Cyr, General Dessoles, and Baron Louis refused to 
 unite in the unpopular scheme which Decazes con- 
 templated, and they sent in their resignations. They 
 were succeeded by de la Tour-Maubourg, Pasquier, and 
 Roy ; and the session of 1819-20 opened with a royal 
 speech, in which the King spoke of “protecting the 
 Chamber from the annual influence of parties by assur- 
 ing to it a duration more in conformity with the 
 interests of public order.” The idea was simply to 
 have a Chamber elected for a definite period; but 
 the change was so manifestly contemplated as a 
 counterpoise to the liberalism of the constituencies, 
 and there was clearly so much reason to fear that 
 more extreme measures would follow in due course, that 
 the Chamber of Deputies and the country took alarm, 
 and began to appeal to the Charter. Petitions from 
 the provinces, as well as from the capital, commenced 
 once more to besiege the Government, and, the 
 Opposition assumed greater force day after day. M. 
 Decazes offered an uncompromising resistance, and 
 went to the length of dissolving a “Society of Friends 
 of the Press,’ which represented some of the most 
 constant and yet moderate advocates of freedom in the 
 country. : 
 
 On the 13th of February, 1820, which happened to 
 be the eve of the day on which the new electoral law 
 
224 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1820. 
 
 was to be brought before the Chamber, the Duke de 
 Berry was assassinated as he was leaving the opera. 
 The assassin, Louvel, an old soldier, stoutly affirmed 
 that he had no accomplices, and no political motives 
 for the deed, except that he wished to save France 
 from the rule of the Bourbons, by slaying the only 
 prince who was able to perpetuate the race.’ The ultra- 
 Royalists affected to disbelieve this story, and even 
 charged the President of the Council with being the 
 instigator of Louvel’s act, and with having made 
 common cause with the Revolution. The Chamber 
 voted an address of condolence to the King, and it 
 was with difficulty that General Foy, who had already 
 acquired considerable influence and note amongst his 
 colleagues, persuaded them to speak of the death of 
 the Duke de Berry as “regretted particularly by the 
 friends of liberty, because they are persuaded that this 
 frightful outrage will be taken advantage of to destroy 
 the liberties which have already been granted, and the 
 rights which the wisdom of the monarch has acknow- 
 ledged and consecrated.” 
 
 On the 15th, in addition to the bill for amending 
 the electoral iranchise, two exceptional laws were 
 brought forward, one of which suspended the free 
 publication of journals and periodicals for a term 
 of five years, whilst the other renewed until the 
 end of the next session the law passed in 1817, by 
 
 1 On the following 29th of September, however, the Duchess was 
 delivered of a son, the Duke de Bordeaux; so that Louvel’s crime was 
 committed in vain. 
 
1820. ] THE RESTORATION. 225 
 
 which the police or the President of the Ministry could 
 arrest any suspected person. 
 
 The resentment of the Royalists was too deep, 
 however, to be appeased by these measures. It passed 
 all the limits of common sense, and M. Decazes was 
 made the victim of numberless insults, even from those 
 who had no excuse for their conduct—from news- 
 papers like the Désats and the Gazette de France, and 
 from men of refinement and learning like Chateau- 
 briand. The King, it must be admitted, did his best 
 to support his Minister, and even professed to believe 
 that the extreme Royalists were aiming at himself 
 through Decazes. He bade the latter endeavour to 
 obtain a majority in the Chambers; but this was 
 soon found to be impossible, and thereupon the 
 Minister resigned. He was raised to the peerage, and 
 sent as ambassador to London, whilst the Duke de 
 Richeheu, at the earnest wish of the King, assumed 
 the Presidency of the Council. 
 
 The new course upon which Louis XVIII. and 
 Richelieu now entered, however reluctantly, was one of 
 open antagonism to the Liberal feeling of the coun- 
 try, and of practical subserviency to the reactionary 
 party. During the next ten years a continuous 
 struggle was maintained between Louis XVIITI., his 
 successor Charles X., and the French nation, which 
 was to end only in the second exile of the latter 
 monarch, and in the second of the four revolutions which 
 have made modern France what she now is. It was 
 around the Charter in particular that a thirteen years’ 
 
 de 
 
226 -_THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1820. 
 
 struggle was waged; and it began the moment the 
 Duke de Richelieu assumed the reins of power. The 
 two exceptional laws and the new electoral law were 
 discussed with great warmth in both Chambers. 
 
 The new electoral law—not that of M. Decazes, 
 which had been rejected by a majority of the deputies, 
 but one which was proposed in its place by the 
 Duke de Richelieu—provided for an electoral college 
 in each department and in each arrondissement. The 
 college of the arrondissement was to choose candidates 
 equal in number to all the deputies of the department ; 
 and the college of the department—consisting of not 
 less than a hundred or more than six hundred in- 
 dividuals—was to choose the deputies from the lists 
 supplied by the arrondissements. The power was 
 thus virtually thrown into the hands of the men of 
 greatest weight and influence in the departments— 
 that is to say, the landowners and the holders of office 
 under Government. 
 
 The two press-laws had been passed before, and the 
 electoral law was finally adopted on the 12th of June, 
 but not until more than one riot had occurred out- 
 side the Palais Bourbon, in which the sittings of the 
 representatives were held. In one of these popular 
 outbreaks a student, named Lallemand, was shot by 
 the police; and it was with the greatest difficulty 
 that a conflict was avoided between the authorities 
 and the populace. 
 
 The same year was signalised by yet more formid- 
 able troubles. Scarcely was the session at an end 
 
1820.] THE RESTORATION. 227 
 
 when the existence of a widespread military conspiracy, 
 having for its object to expel the Bourbons, was made 
 known to the Government on the eve of the projected 
 revolution ; and amongst those who were involved in 
 it were Lafayette and other deputies. Many plots of 
 greater or less importance were discovered during the 
 next few years, and in a large number of instances 
 their concocters were visited with the extreme penalty 
 of the law. 
 
 The autumn elections of 1820 were regarded with 
 especial anxiety because they were the first held under 
 the new electoral law. Fifty-two of the former de- 
 puties had to be replaced, and a hundred and seventy- 
 two new ones to be elected, in order to make up the 
 total of four hundred and thirty decided upon for the 
 whole country. As every one had expected, the choice 
 was practically in the hands of the Royalists. Scarcely 
 a single Liberal was returned, and the followers of 
 Benjamin Constant, Foy, Royer-Collard, Manuel, and 
 Camille Jourdan could muster barely seventy-five votes 
 out of the whole Chamber. The King, apparently not 
 a little against his will, chose from the ranks of the 
 Royalists three new ministers, de Villéle, Lainé, and 
 Corbiere; and it was understood on all hands that a 
 Ministry which meant to combat had come into power. 
 The Revolution was once more attacked, in season and 
 out of season; the Liberals were loaded with insults 
 and objurgations; the tribune was made the battle- 
 field of many a bitter struggle; the ministers them- 
 selves were not free from the attacks of the bigoted 
 
 jee 
 
228 THH FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1821. 
 
 reactionary party. Words were soon translated into 
 acts, and the electoral law was once more tinkered up 
 by the abolition of a number of the most independent 
 arrondissements. 
 
 At this particular juncture Liberalism was at its 
 lowest ebb throughout Europe. At Naples the army 
 had proclaimed a Constitution, in the month of July, 
 1820; and the King had abdicated in favour of his son. 
 Similar acts had been accomplished in Spain and in 
 Portugal; and the sovereigns of Austria, Prussia, and 
 Russia met at the Congress of Laybach (December 17th, 
 1820) for the purpose of consulting on the best mode of 
 protecting the thrones of Europe against the encroach- 
 ments of popular freedom. It was resolved that an 
 Austrian army should enter Naples and suppress the 
 new Government; and the plenipotentiaries of France 
 and England concurred in the scheme. The accom- 
 plishment of this unjust and cruel work was readily 
 undertaken by the Austrian mercenaries. The effect 
 of this unjustifiable intervention in Italy was to 
 discourage the French Liberals, and to inspire the 
 extreme Royalists with the confidence that, in case 
 of need, they would be able to summon the allied 
 armies back across the frontier, in order to protect them 
 against their enemies. But, on the other hand, the 
 activity of the Piedmontese patriots emboldened the 
 party of progress to renewed struggles. 
 
 The session of 1821 ended amidst recriminations 
 and debates on the law on donations and_ pensions. 
 The Chambers consented to grant an indemnity, to 
 
1821-2. ] THE RESTORATION. 229 
 
 be cancelled at the pleasure of the King, to those 
 persons who had lost their pensions by the cession of 
 territory in 1814. The majority took advantage of this 
 grant to renew the insults which it periodically heaped 
 on all Frenchmen who had been in any manner identified 
 with the fortunes of the Empire. 
 
 The death of Napoleon Bonaparte, at St. Helena, 
 on the 5th of May, 1821, closed for many Frenchmen 
 a distinct chapter in their lives and their history. 
 Those men who had clung to the hope that, by some 
 means or other, the events of 1814 would be repeated, 
 were now compelled to abandon the prospect, whilst 
 to the Royalists, as to Europe at large, even the 
 death of the solitary prisoner brought a sense of relief 
 from a never-forgotten danger. Few people doubted 
 that the imperial epoch was definitely at an end for 
 France; and fewer still could have imagined that a 
 second Napoleon was to sway the destinies of the 
 nation more than thirty years after the death of the 
 first. | 
 
 The session of 1822 was notable chiefly for a 
 Coalition between the extreme Royalists and the ad- 
 vanced Liberals of the Chamber of Deputies, which 
 resulted in giving the direction of affairs into the 
 hands of the former. The Duke de Richelieu once 
 more retired; MM. de Villéle, Corbiére, de Pey- 
 ronnet, and the Viscount de Montmorency assumed 
 portfolios; the last-named being one of the prin- 
 cipal leaders of the Congregation, and adding, there- 
 fore, a strong religious element to the policy of the 
 
230 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1822, 
 
 new Ministry. This year was also distinguished by a 
 series of press prosecutions, one of the most remarkable 
 of which was that of Paul Louis Courier, the author 
 of a pamphlet headed 4 Simple Discourse. At the 
 close of the same year the poet Béranger was pro- 
 secuted for outrages on public morals, and incitement 
 to disobedience of the laws; and he suffered three 
 months’ imprisonment on this score. 
 
 The bargain, according to which the advanced 
 Liberals had enabled the extreme Royalists to clmb 
 to power, contained a stipulation that the demand for 
 prolonging the censorship on books, newspapers, and 
 pamphlets should be withdrawn. ‘This undertaking 
 was duly observed; but in the letter rather than in 
 the spirit. Early in the year 1822 the Government 
 introduced a new law for offences committed 
 through the press. A desperate parliamentary struggle 
 was carried on in connection with this measure, and 
 a similar one which had been previously brought 
 forward by M. de Serre. NRoyer-Collard, General Foy, 
 Casimir Périer, Manuel, and Benjamin Constant led 
 the Opposition, with the utmost ability and persistence, 
 during a long debate of seventeen days on the pro- 
 posal of M. de Serre. It is true that they only 
 mustered ninety-three votes in the division, against a 
 majority of two hundred and thirty-four; but forty 
 members of the Left abstained from voting, on the 
 ground that the bill violated the Charter, and was, 
 therefore, unconstitutional. The bill of the Govern- 
 ment, intended to fulfil the same purpose as the 
 
1822.] THE RESTORATION. © 231 
 
 prolongation of the censorship, was carried shortly 
 afterwards by an equally crushing majority. 
 
 During these struggles in the Chambers, the country 
 continued to be agitated by plots and conspiracies— 
 amongst others by associations in sympathy with the 
 Italian Carbonari, which went by the name of Ventes, 
 and amongst the members of which were several 
 deputies, such as Lafayette, Voyer-d’Argenson, and 
 Manuel, and many Liberals as worthy of mention. 
 Death or imprisonment was the lot of not a few of 
 the conspirators; but the plots did not cease for all 
 that. The military conspiracies attempted at Saumur, 
 Belfort, and La Rochelle were amongst the most for- 
 midable of those which marked this year. 
 
 It was about this time that the predominance of the 
 Church in matters of State, and especially in respect of 
 education, began to force itself upon the notice of the 
 pubhe in France, by certain significant and almost 
 incredible occurrences. In the year 1821 the course 
 of lectures given by Victor Cousin, at the Sorbonne, 
 had been suspended, without any adequate reason being 
 assigned. On the Sth of June, 1822, a royal decree 
 re-established the office of Grand Master of the Un1- 
 versity, the Abbé Frayssinous being appointed to the 
 post; and from that moment it was understood that 
 the Congregation, or the Church through the Congre- 
 gation, was supreme in all questions of education. At 
 the close of the year Guizot’s lectures on modern history 
 were stopped, the Normal School was suppressed, and 
 advantage was taken of a slight disturbance at the 
 
232 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1822. 
 
 Paris School of Medicine to close these classes also. 
 In the following year (1823) Villemain encountered the 
 same fate as Cousin and Guizot, in the suspension of 
 his lectures on literature. 
 
 This year France was brought on the threshold 
 of a new war, by the desire of the King and most 
 of the ministers to suppress the revolution in Spain. 
 The Allied Powers, who, as we have already mentioned, 
 had taken upon themselves, at Laybach, the task of 
 curbing the popular risings in Naples and Spain, and 
 who had given Austria her commission to dragoon the 
 former country, met in October, at Verona. The Congress 
 was attended for France by the Viscount, afterwards 
 Duke, de Montmorency, Chateaubriand, de la Ferron- 
 nays, and the Duke de Caraman. ‘The representatives 
 of Austria, Russia, Prussia, and France decided 
 upon recalling their ministers from Madrid, where a 
 Revolutionary Government was virtually installed; but 
 the Duke of Wellington, on behalf of the English 
 Cabinet, of which Canning was at that time Secretary 
 for Foreign Affairs, protested against the contemplated 
 intervention, and refused his signature to the protocol. 
 In France the people and the Liberal Opposition 
 were indignant at the menaces held out to the 
 Spanish revolutionary party, and at the unworthy 
 attitude which the country was made to assume 
 through these negotiations; the Viscount de Montmo- 
 rency having taken such a tone that France appeared to 
 be the chief instigator of intervention, and a mere tool 
 in the hands of the allied sovereigns. Twice did the 
 
1822-3. ] | THH RESTORATION. 233 
 
 Duke of Wellington in person dissuade the King and 
 M. de Villéle from undertaking the war, and on both 
 occasions he received assurances that France would | 
 abandon the idea; but the feeling of the Chambers 
 was too strong to be resisted. 
 
 On the 28th of January, 1823, the King opened 
 the session by a speech, wherein he spoke as follows :— 
 “The blindness with which the representations made 
 at Madrid have been repelled leaves little hope of the 
 preservation of peace. I have ordered the recall of my 
 ambassador from Spain; one hundred thousand French- 
 men, commanded by a prince of my family—by him 
 
 
 
 whom my heart rejoices to call my son—are ready to 
 march, in the name of God and Saint Louis, in order 
 to maintain the throne of Spain for a grandson of 
 Henry IV., to preserve this fine kingdom from ruin, 
 and to reconcile it with Europe.” 
 
 This speech was received more than coldly by the 
 country, whilst 1t was welcomed with an outburst of 
 indignation from the advanced Liberals, and in a like 
 spirit by the majority of Englishmen. The French 
 Ambassador in London communicated the King’s speech 
 to the English Premier, as well as an invitation to — 
 England to interfere with France, and endeavour to 
 obtain freedom of action for the Spanish King, but he 
 received a refusal couched in very forcible words. 
 
 In the French Chamber a majority of more than 
 two. to one supported the Ministry; but the debates 
 were passionate in the extreme. General Foy and 
 Manuel especially distinguished themselves by their 
 
234 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1823. 
 
 opposition to the projected war; and the latter raised 
 a storm of rage by attempting to justify the Revolu- 
 tion. “Is it necessary to remind you,” he said, “ that 
 it was because the Stuarts relied on foreigners that 
 they were driven from their throne? Need I tell you 
 that the moment when the danger of the royal family 
 in France became most grave, was when France— 
 Revolutionary France—felt the necessity of defending 
 herself by an entirely novel force and energy?’ The 
 speaker was interrupted by a passionate outbreak from 
 the Royalists, who demanded his expulsion from the 
 Chamber. The debate was adjourned, and renewed on 
 the following days. At the end of a week the expulsion 
 was voted—the advanced and moderate Liberals quit- 
 ting the hall, in place of expressing an opinion on what 
 they deemed a violation of the Charter. 
 
 Manuel would not submit to the vote, except by - 
 compulsion; and returning on the following day at the 
 head of all the members of the Opposition, he took his 
 seat as usual. The President called upon him to retire, 
 but he refused. A piquet of the National Guard was 
 then introduced, amidst the protests of Lafayette, 
 Casimir Périer, and others; and, awed by these. pro- 
 tests, the ‘sergeant and his men refused to obey the order 
 of their officer to remove the deputy. The gendarmerie 
 now appeared on the scene, and Manuel was finally 
 dragged out of the Chamber, followed by the bulk of 
 the Opposition. On the next day sixty-two deputies 
 addressed a protest to the President, which the Right 
 refused to hear, and thereupon the entire Left quitted 
 
1823. ] THH RESTORATION. 235 
 
 the hall, and refused to return during the remainder of 
 the session. The Right then voted a credit of a 
 hundred million franes, for the prosecution of the war, 
 as well as a further measure calling out the veterans. 
 
 The Duke d’Angouléme took the command of the 
 army on the 15th of March, and on the 6th of the 
 following month he crossed the Bidassoa. On the 24th 
 of May he entered Madrid, amidst the cries of ‘‘ Long 
 live the absolute King! Down with the Constitu- 
 tion! Death to the Constitutionalists!”’ Here, and in 
 every other Spanish town entered by the French, the 
 Royalists showed their joy by massacring the Consti- 
 tutionalists and sacking their houses. 
 
 The Revolutionary Cortes held the Spanish King 
 Ferdinand VII. under restraint in Cadiz; and on the 
 approach of the French they set him at liberty 
 (October Ist). Leaving behind him a force of fifty-four 
 thousand men for the protection of Ferdinand against 
 his subjects, the Duke returned to Paris, after an 
 inglorious campaign, which would have been almost 
 bloodless, 1f 1t had not been for the Royalist Terror 
 which rose up in the.track of his army, and which 
 exhausted its fury on the Constitutionalists. 
 
 M. de Villéle, pressed hard by the Opposition, and 
 having only a weak Ministry to aid him, thought that 
 the prestige of this military parade—the first, be 1t 
 remembered, since. 1815—offered a good opportunity 
 for obtaining a majority in a new general election. 
 He dissolved the Chamber on the 24th of December, 
 with the intention of passing, if possible, during the 
 
236 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. _ [1823-4. 
 
 next session, a law for septennial Chambers, without 
 partial renewals of the members. His instinct was 
 not deceived. The country had, for the time being, 
 allowed its Liberal enthusiasm to evaporate; and 
 in the new Legislative there were scarcely twenty 
 members belonging to the Opposition. 
 
 The project for a septennial Chamber nevertheless 
 encountered a strong resistance. It eventually passed 
 the House of Peers by a hundred and seventeen votes 
 to sixty-seven, and the Chamber of Deputies, after an 
 opposition led off by Royer-Collard, by two hundred 
 and ninety-two against eighty-seven. A bill on the 
 conversion of annuities was rejected by the Peers, after 
 being accepted by a comparatively small majority in the 
 Chamber of Deputies, whilst another measure, on the 
 subject. of sacrilege, was withdrawn by the Ministry. 
 During the same session, the Cabinet was remodelled 
 by the dismissal of Chateaubriand, who, as Minister 
 of Foreign Affairs, had never been able to agree with 
 de Villele, and who, moreover, had by no means dis- 
 tinguished himself by his statesmanship. 
 
 Louis XVIII. had been in failing health for some 
 time past; and on the 16th of September, 1824, he 
 died at the age of sixty-nine, being succeeded by his 
 brother, the Count d’Artois, as Charles X. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 § I—AN EFFETE MONARCH. 
 
 (From September 16th, 1824, to July 30th, 1830.) 
 
 THe new King, who had, since the Restoration, been 
 known as the leader of the extreme Royalists, began his 
 reign with moderation. At the official reception of 
 the peers and deputies he declared, ‘“ As a subject I 
 promised to maintain the Charter and the institutions 
 which we owe to the King of whom Heaven has just 
 deprived us. To-day, when by virtue of my birth, 
 power has been placed in my hands, I will employ 
 it to the utmost in consolidating, for the happiness 
 of my people, the great Act which I have promised to 
 maintain.” 
 
 Charles X. abolished, moreover, the strict law of 
 censorship of the press, and accorded an amnesty to 
 certain persons who had taken part in the conspiracies 
 of 1822. But he retained the Villéle Ministry, which, 
 however great its majority in the Chambers, was far 
 from popular with the bulk of the population. 
 And, in short, the year was hardly at an end before it 
 had become evident that Charles X. was the same as the 
 Count d’Artois had always shown himself, an obstinate 
 believer in the creed that the Bourbons were Kings by 
 divine right, and a partisan of the privileged classes 
 rather than an impartial friend of the people. In 
 
¢ 
 
 238 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.  [1824-5. 
 
 his speech from the throne, at the opening of the ses- 
 sion of 1824—5, he made no reference to the Charter; 
 and the Ministry soon showed that the spirit of 
 its past would be exaggerated, not modified, in its 
 future. 
 
 The first shock given by the Government of Charles X. 
 to the sense and judgment of the country was in again 
 bringing forward in the Chambers the law of sacrilege, 
 which had been rejected the previous year. This 
 law defined the crimes and offences included under 
 the title of sacrilege, and established a series of punish- 
 ments and penalties, amongst which were penal ser- 
 vitude for life, capital punishment, and death with 
 mutilation. ‘This time the bishops, who had previously 
 held themselves debarred from voting for the penalty 
 of death, contrived to overcome their scruples, and the 
 measure became law, after some strong opposition in 
 the House of Peers. Another bill was also passed, 
 granting the sum of one thousand millions of franes! 
 to indemnify those émigrés who had been deprived of 
 their property under the Revolution. 
 
 It is only fair to say that the law on sacrilege was 
 never put in force; but the mere fact of its passing 
 created the greatest indignation in the country. It 
 had been demanded and pressed forward by the clergy, 
 whose influence over the King and the Government grew 
 greater and greater every year. The “ clerical party,” 
 as it was called, urged their pretensions with ever- 
 increasing persistency ; and the solemn consecration 
 
 1 More precisely, 987,819,962 frances 96 centimes. 
 
1825.] THE RESTORATION. 239 
 
 at Rheims of the new monarch (May 30th)—Louis 
 XVIIT. had not undergone this ceremony—gave them 
 an encouragement which they were not slow to turn 
 to account. They outraged public opinion on many 
 occasions by refusing the sacraments, masses, Christian 
 burial, in the most capricious manner. During this 
 year the Abbé Lamennais, then at the zenith of his 
 orthodoxy, published a treatise in which he anathema- 
 tised representative Government, and heaped reproaches 
 upon almost every act and word of the authorities 
 which did not acknowledge the entire supremacy of 
 the Church. 
 
 From this time forward the Liberal sentiment in 
 France recovered its tone; the press began to speak 
 more boldly, and, as a consequence, the censorship 
 became once more severe and irritating. Two news- 
 papers, the Constitutionnel and the Courrier Frangais, 
 were prosecuted for the freedom of their criticism on 
 public affairs. 
 
 If the Government were under the impression that 
 the anti-clerical manifestations on the occasion of the 
 representation of Zartuffe and kindred plays, lending 
 themselves to such demonstrations of discontent, were 
 simply the tactics of the hired mouthpieces of the Liberal 
 Opposition, they soon had reason to be undeceived. 
 M. Casimir Périer, going to Grenoble on some family 
 business, General Foy, passing through Bordeaux on 
 his way to the Pyrenees, received perfect ovations, 
 whilst Lafayette, landing at Havre from America, was 
 almost borne in triumph on the shoulders of the people, 
 
240 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1825. 
 
 notwithstanding the efforts of the police and soldiery 
 to check these outbursts of enthusiasm. : 
 
 Nor was Paris behindhand in her expressions of 
 sympathy with the Liberal leaders, notably on the 
 occasion of the death of General Foy (November 28th), 
 who had returned from the Pyrenees to breathe 
 his last im the capital. A universal consternation 
 prevailed, and on the day of the funeral the coffin 
 was lifted from the hearse and borne all the way to 
 the cemetery by the young students of the schools of 
 art and commerce and of the University, amidst the 
 impressive silence of the multitude, who crowded the 
 route, despite the inclemency of the season. The fol- 
 lowing day a subscription was opened for the general’s 
 family, which in less than a week amounted to four 
 hundred thousand frances, every one, from the highest 
 to the lowest, contributing, and amongst these the 
 Duke d’Orléans. This act drew upon him the dis- 
 pleasure of the Court, but this elicited the noble 
 answer that his contribution of ten thousand francs 
 was the tribute of a personal friend, and not that of 
 a prince of the blood. 
 
 The second demonstration, which assumed the pro- 
 portions of a victory for the Opposition, took place on 
 the occasion of the trial of the two newspapers already 
 mentioned, and which trial had been adjourned from 
 the 20th of August to the 19th of November. On 
 the 3rd of December a verdict of acquittal was pro- 
 nounced, coupled with a recommendation that these 
 newspapers should be more careful for the future, 
 
1825. ] THH RESTORATION. 241 
 
 The news of the acquittal having spread quickly 
 through every quarter of Paris, the tacit encourage- 
 ment to the Liberal press was hailed by the public 
 with prolonged shouts of joy, for they understood 
 well enough that this favourable issue was tanta- 
 mount to a check on the part of the magistrates on 
 the encroachments of the clerical party. The Royalist 
 press and the Court were aware of the meaning of this 
 openly expressed pleasure, and without daring to give 
 vent to its discontent, attributed the decision of the 
 judges to a wish for popularity. 
 
 Scarcely had this excitement subsided before the 
 news of the death of Alexander, the Emperor of Russia, 
 reached France, and as the late monarch had always 
 shown himself a well-wisher to the French nation, his 
 decease was universally regretted. 
 
 Thus closed the year 1825, during which the science 
 of history had made rapid progress in France by the 
 publication of two important works, the //story of the 
 Norman Conquest of England, by Augustin Thierry, and 
 the History of the Italian Republics, by Sismondi, a 
 Swiss. If her literary gains had been great, she also 
 sustained a severe loss in the death of Paul-Louis 
 Courier, foully murdered by a rural constable, who, 
 acquitted for want of proof, afterwards, shielded by 
 the verdict, confessed his crime, without revealing the 
 motive. 
 
 The Court receptions which take place on the first 
 day of the new year are usually devoid of all interest 
 in their monotonous pomp and antiquated ceremonies, 
 
 7 
 
242 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1826. 
 
 but they were marked in 1826 by an incident which 
 produced a great sensation. The High Court of 
 Justice, instead of receiving the usual gracious response 
 to their congratulations, were dismissed with the harsh 
 reply, ‘“‘ Pass on, gentlemen ;” and, though the follow- 
 ing morning the Moxzteur substituted for this rebuff the 
 words, “I accept the good wishes and the homage of 
 the Court,” the typographical reparation did not 
 efface the impression from the public mind that the 
 King was nursing a grudge against these legal func- 
 tionaries on account of their lenient verdict in the 
 late press prosecutions. 
 
 A royal message had fixed the opening of Par- 
 hament for the 3lst of January, 1826, previous to 
 which two elections were to take place, one at Vervins, 
 to replace General Foy, the other at Lisieux. At the 
 latter town, M. de Neuville, the son-in-law of M. de 
 Villele, the President of the Council, was chosen ; but 
 the Liberal candidate polled a comparatively large 
 minority. At Vervins, Sébastiani, a Liberal, was elected, 
 by one hundred and seventeen out of a total of one 
 hundred and ninety-four votes. 
 
 The parliamentary position of the President of the 
 Council was becoming difficult. He had against him 
 the Left, deficient in numbers, but eloquent and well 
 organised, usually carrying with it the Left Centre, 
 as well as the Right, which was his openly declared 
 enemy, and had but one aim—his overthrow, whilst 
 his own party, though numerous, was powerless and 
 of no note. His main support was the confidence of 
 
1826.] THE RESTORATION. 243 
 
 the King, but the courtiers disliked him, and his 
 colleagues directed unceasing attacks against him, 
 which Charles X. listened to, but left unnoticed. 
 
 The most influential of the Court party was Jules 
 de Polignac, the son of Marie Antoinette’s friend, 
 the Duchess de Polignac, and who had taken part in 
 the conspiracy of Georges Cadoudal. After two years’ 
 imprisonment, and subsequent detention, he managed 
 to escape in 1813, and rejoined the Count d Artois, 
 whose aide-de-camp he became. M. de Villéle sent 
 him to England as ambassador, probably in order to 
 put a stop to his intrigues, which had nothing less for 
 their aim than to become Prime Minister. Whilst in 
 this country de Polignac became particularly impressed 
 with the organisation of the English aristocracy, and 
 without giving himself the opportunity of studying 
 its historical origin, its constitution, and its political 
 influence in the State, he admired, above all, its 
 enormous fortunes, founded on the Jaw of primogeni- 
 ture. He, therefore, thought that by introducing such 
 a law into France, he would create a powerful and 
 flourishing aristocracy. He managed to imbue the 
 King with this idea; a task the more easy as Charles's 
 leanings were entirely towards institutions of the 
 ancien régime; and he prevailed upon the monarch to 
 make an attempt at re-establishing this law in 
 France. 
 
 In the programme for the forthcoming session of 
 the Chamber of Deputies to be indicated in the speech 
 from the throne, the King and his council intended 
 
 g 2 
 
244 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1826. 
 
 to mention first of all a bill against the freedom of 
 the press, loudly clamoured for by the clergy and the 
 Royalists. M. de Villéle being opposed to it, the King 
 gave way, but insisted upon announcing the project 
 of a law intended to improve the position of the 
 clergy, and another to prevent the division of landed 
 property, and to re-establish primogeniture. Despite 
 M. de Villeéle’s objections to these laws, he was com- 
 pelled to submit to the King’s wishes. Throughout his 
 entire ministerial career, the Prime Minister had ever 
 acted thus; in the war with Spain, he had offered to 
 resign sooner than consent, and still he had consented ; 
 he was an adversary of the law on sacrilege, but had 
 presented it to the Chamber. ‘This conduct may have 
 resulted from affection to the King, but this affection 
 neither honoured its object, nor promoted the minister’s 
 own dignity. 
 
 At the opening of the session, after a few words 
 of sympathy on the death of the Emperor of Russia, 
 and some stereotyped observations with regard to 
 foreign and home politics, the King referred to the 
 bill that was to settle the indemnities of the planters 
 of St. Domingo, after which he congratulated himself 
 and France upon her financial prosperity, which enabled 
 him to bring forward a project for ameliorating the 
 condition of ministers of religion. The proposed bill to 
 check the progressive subdivision of landed property, 
 and thus to re-establish primogeniture, was also 
 touched upon; this, and an allusion regarding the 
 
 liberty of the press, in which Charles X. declared 
 
1825. ] THH RESTORATION. 245 
 
 himself strong enough to suppress all attempts against 
 public order which might degenerate into license, 
 whilst at the same time he should take care that no 
 liberty was infringed, terminated the discourse. The 
 speech satisfied no one. ‘The Royalists were dis- 
 satisfied with the decision respecting St. Domingo ; 
 and if they rejoiced at the proposed amelioration of the 
 clergy, they objected, on the contrary, to the mtended 
 immunity which the last paragraph of the speech 
 promised to the press. This paragraph, however, as 
 well as the one referring to St. Domingo, agreed 
 with the wishes of the Liberal Opposition, who found 
 a subject of discontent in the proposed privileges of the 
 clergy, and, above all, in the projected re-establishment 
 of the law of primogeniture. Under these circum- 
 stances the elections for the dureau! of the Chamber 
 proceeded peacefully, M. Ravez being named its presi- 
 dent by the King. 
 
 The address of the House of Peers, adopted without 
 discussion, was presented to the King on the 9th of 
 February, and specially agreed with the monarch’s 
 views respecting the law of primogeniture; but in the 
 Chamber of Deputies, of which the members were nearly 
 all extreme Royalists, the debates were more stormy. 
 The decision about St. Domingo and the proposed 
 comparative immunity to the press were vehemently 
 attacked, and the results of the discussion were conveyed 
 to the King in terms plainly encouraging him to take 
 
 1 The bureau of the Chamber of Deputies is composed of the president, 
 the vice-presidents, and the secretaries. 
 
246 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1826. 
 
 rigorous measures against the Liberal newspapers. M. 
 de Villéle found himself between two fires: not 
 wishing to offend the Liberals, not daring to attack the 
 clergy. In this emergency he had recourse to sub- 
 terfuge, and pointed out to Charles X. that the Chamber 
 was encroaching on his sovereign prerogative. The 
 result was a rather reproving reply of the King to 
 the address, in which he told the deputies that he felt 
 himself powerful enough to watch over the public 
 welfare without the interference of any one. 
 
 This reply was much praised by the Liberal news- 
 papers, though the ministerial adherents insinuated that 
 the King had merely blamed the form, but not the 
 substance, of the paragraph of the address. ‘The enemies 
 of the press seeking for an opportunity of revenge 
 were not long in finding one. M. de Sallaberry, an 
 extreme Royalist, succeeded in unearthing, and reading 
 in the Chamber of Deputies, several articles published 
 by the Journal du Commerce in the course of the previous 
 year, and demanded that the editor should be brought 
 to the bar of the Chamber, and condemned to the 
 maximum penalty for having insulted the Assembly. 
 In spite of the vehement opposition of Royer-Collard 
 and others, the paper was found guilty, but the 
 fine was reduced to the minimum—one month’s im- 
 prisonment for the editor, and a payment of ten 
 francs. ‘The Chamber instead of being avenged had 
 given a publicity and consequent importance to articles 
 which, otherwise, would have been forgotten, and a 
 notoriety to the editor which largely compensated 
 
1826.] ' THE RESTORATION. 247 
 
 him for his small term of confinement and nominal 
 fine. 
 
 On the same day (February 10th) on which the 
 Chamber of Deputies received the royal reproof, the 
 Ministry laid on the table of the House of Peers the 
 bill for reviving the law of primogeniture. Instead, 
 however, of making that law compulsory the Govern- 
 ment proposed that any testator might be at liberty to 
 leave his landed property to his eldest son, if he wished 
 to do so. Previous to the discussion of this bill in the 
 Chamber of Deputies the St. Domingo indemnity was 
 being debated, and much valuable time was lost, because, 
 after all, the bill was adopted as it had been presented. 
 But the bill on primogeniture met with opposition from 
 the very men whom it was intended to benefit, as the 
 equal right of children, established by the Revolution, 
 had become too deeply rooted in the habits of the new 
 generation. Hvery one knew this law to be an attempt 
 to revive the ancien régime, as well as to place a check 
 upon the democratic tendencies. ‘The Government 
 itself did not conceal or deny this, for the King, in 
 his last speech to the Chamber, had declared that 
 the equal sharing of a patrimony was “essentially 
 contrary to monarchical principles.” It was, therefore, 
 the most daring challenge which as yet had been 
 thrown to the Liberals, and as such it was regarded 
 by the whole of that party, who prepared to combat 
 the law, vigorously. 
 
 The Opposition press valiantly led the attack, 
 hundreds of pamphlets discussed the matter from every 
 
248 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1826. 
 
 point of view, and throughout the whole of France, in 
 public as well as private assemblies, nothing else was 
 spoken of. The very heart of the country seemed to 
 be touched. On the 10th of March the report on 
 the bill was laid before the House of Peers by M. de 
 Malleville. In the discussion that followed on the 
 28th of the same month, M. de Broglie, one of its 
 most strenuous adversaries, showed that the passing of 
 this bill, however important, was of less consequence 
 than the principle it upheld—namely, a manifestation 
 against the actual state of society; that it was meant 
 simply as an introduction of the thin end of the wedge, 
 as a preliminary to a score of similar laws, which, 
 if not suppressed in the germ, would make anew of 
 France what for the last forty years she had so 
 manfully struggled against. He finished by saying 
 that the Liberal party was not looking at the con- 
 sequences, but at the principle of the proposed law. 
 
 M. de Broglie had well defined the aim of the 
 Government. ‘The supporters of the measure had but 
 one objection, that it did not go far enough. Their 
 countenance was given on the condition that it should 
 be a preliminary to a more sweeping law. In spite of 
 this support and the tactics of the Government, the bill 
 was virtually thrown out (April 8th). The news spread 
 rapidly through the capital, and was received with 
 enthusiasm. The Parisians manifested their joy by 
 illuminations and peaceful gatherings in the streets. 
 The Government committed the blunder of dispersing 
 these groups by repeated charges of cavalry. Unde- 
 
1826.] THE RESTORATION. 249 
 
 terred, the illuminations were renewed until the 11th 
 of April. But on the 12th, which was the anniversary 
 of the entry into Paris of the King, and which might 
 thus be looked upon as a kind of monarchical feast, not 
 alight was to be seen. The hint was too significant 
 to be mistaken, and the Royalist newspapers vented 
 their displeasure by satirising the citizens, whom they 
 called “vendors of cloth and weighers of sugar,’ a 
 sight which was remembered in the elections of the 
 following year. 
 
 The popularity that accrued to the House of Peers 
 for their courageous rejection of the bill on primo- 
 geniture was still further increased by their sympa- 
 thetic conduct with regard to the insurrection of 
 Greece. It openly censured those French officers who 
 had sold their services to the Turks, in order to assist 
 in the subjugation of a Christian nation; and it 
 carried an amendment declaring that the transport of 
 Greek prisoners, men, women, and children, by French 
 vessels, which was then going on in the Levant and on 
 the coasts of Barbary, was contrary to law. 
 
 The remainder of the session was occupied in dis- 
 cussions of the budget, during which M. de Viulléle 
 had to bear the brunt of attacks from all sides, and 
 though he was apparently the victor, his position in 
 reality was most precarious. 
 
 The agitation prevalent throughout the whole of 
 France, during the discussion on the primogeniture 
 bill had on the settlement of this vexed question re- 
 ceived fresh fuel by the encroachments of the clerical 
 
250 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1826. 
 
 party. A jubilee prescribed by the Pope, entailing a 
 series of religious processions and ceremonies, in which 
 the judicial, military, and civil authorities took part, 
 either because they were ordered to do so, or from 
 servility, led to serious troubles in several provincial 
 towns; but when the Parisians saw the King 
 and the Court, the former dressed in violet, sup- 
 posed to be the colour of the Church, play an im- 
 portant part in those pageants, the rumour spread that 
 Charles X. had been named a bishop. This was 
 scarcely calculated to improve his waning popularity, 
 which had been ephemeral at best. No one cared 
 to inform the monarch how of late he had alienated 
 public opinion by his encouragement of the extreme 
 Royalist and clerical parties. His religious zeal led 
 him to commit blunders, in which the nation, unac- 
 quainted with the secrets of the Court, saw nothing 
 but a wish to bring France entirely under the 
 sway of the priests. The intrigues of the clerical 
 party were eagerly opposed by the Liberal newspapers, 
 and the last generally remained the victors, notwith- 
 standing the continuous prosecutions directed against 
 them. The magistrates began to get tired of these 
 never-ending lawsuits. Seeing this, the clergy resolved 
 upon an extreme measure—they clamoured for a new 
 press law, which the ministry was not altogether un- 
 willing to grant. Interpellated during the latter end 
 of the season on the re-establishment of the censorship, 
 it repled, that if it found the measure to be necessary, 
 it would not hesitate to propose it. 
 
1826. ] THE RESTORATION. 251 
 
 Meanwhile from the beginning of this year, the eyes 
 of civilised Europe had been turned to Greece, but 
 especially to the little fortress of Missolonghi. After 
 a most heroic resistance of many months, its defenders, 
 decimated by hunger and disease, were at last com- 
 pelled to yield, and its fall produced an immense 
 feeling of grief as well as of indignation throughout 
 civilised Europe. When, a few weeks later, in con- 
 sequence of the capitulation of the Acropolis of Athens, 
 the situation became more precarious still, the Greek 
 question assumed a new aspect, which, though slowly, 
 was to insure the independence of the country. Shortly 
 before the fall of Missolonghi (April 22nd), England 
 and Russia had signed a protocol, having for its object 
 mediation in favour of Greece. France joined these two 
 great Powers some time later, and the example was 
 followed by other States, so that a treaty purporting 
 to put a stop to the war of extermination by Turkey 
 was signed at London, on the 6th of July, 1827. But 
 even before this, the Sultan Mahommed had found 
 himself beset on all sides by difficulties. His greatest 
 obstacle in introducing reforms in the interior of his 
 dominions had been the arbitrary power which the 
 Janissaries exercised for so long a time; and, there- 
 fore, he resolved upon their wholesale extermination 
 (14-16 June, 1826). Though this sanguinary measure 
 had much increased the personal authority of the Sultan, 
 it did not give new strength to the tottering empire, 
 and he had been compelled to sign (October 6th, 1826) 
 
 a convention with Russia, whereby the navigation of 
 
259 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.  [1s2s. 
 
 the Black Sea was secured to the latter Power, and the 
 Danubian principalities were recognised. 
 
 Troubles arose in Portugal after the death of Kang 
 John VI. (10th of March, 1826). His eldest son, Dom 
 Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, was appointed his successor, 
 but the partisans of the second son, Dom Miguel—who 
 
 
 
 rose, and when 
 they were defeated, crossed into Spain. The Govern- 
 ment of the latter country gave them arms, ammu- 
 
 was the favourite of the clerical party 
 
 nition, and money, and assisted them in various ways ; 
 so that they continually made inroads on Portuguese 
 territory : this led to a cessation of diplomatic relations 
 between Spain and France, while Great Britain pre- 
 pared for a military intervention. In vain had France 
 and England protested, Spain continued to encourage 
 the Portuguese clerical party. 
 
 The rumours of a new press law for France had 
 aroused some curiosity as to the tenor of the inaugural 
 address for the session of 1827. After the usual obser- 
 vations with regard to the relations with the foreign 
 Powers and an allusion to the affairs of Greece, the King 
 announced his intention (December 12th) of introducing 
 a bill which should put a stop to the license of the 
 press, and thus preserve it from the consequences of its 
 own excesses. ‘The royal speech was ill-received on all 
 sides, and the Ministry did not hasten to bring forward 
 the bill, as other troubles had meanwhile arisen. 
 
 On the day following the opening of the Chambers, 
 the text of the speech of Canning, Secretary for Foreign 
 Affairs, in the House of Commons became known; and 
 
1827.] THH RESTORATION. 253 
 
 the imsinuation that, though France had done much 
 to prevent the inroad of bands of Spanish absolutists 
 into Portugal, she might have done more, as her 
 troops were occupying Spain, caused some uneasiness. 
 But the Earl of Liverpool, the English Premier, wrote 
 to M. de Villéle, that he had implicit faith in the 
 sincerity and loyalty of the French Government, in- 
 forming him at the same time, that if Canning’s words 
 had embarrassed France for the moment, it was only 
 to do her service in the future. Nevertheless the advo- 
 cates of Spanish absolutism in the French Chambers took 
 the opportunity of harassing M. de Villele, notably 
 Chateaubriand, whose opposition was inspired by personal, 
 not by political, animosity against the Prime Minister. 
 
 When the new press law came to be read, it was 
 not found to conta any clauses to check lheense, 
 but it made a clean sweep of everything in the shape of 
 printed matter, save that emanating from the clerical 
 party and vendors of religious books. from all parts 
 of the country petitions poured in, and the excitement 
 increased to such an extent that the French Academy, 
 usually holding aloof from all political opinions, took 
 2, in which 
 it pointed out the damage which such a law would 
 
 up the cause, and sent an address to the Kin 
 
 cause to literature. Charles X. refused to receive it, 
 and the three Academicians who had proposed it were 
 dismissed from the places which they occupied under 
 the Government—a proceeding that embittered public 
 opinion still more. 
 
 At the same time a bill was introduced to increase 
 
254 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1827, 
 
 the postage on newspapers, which, notwithstanding a 
 determined opposition, passed. The further discussion 
 on the press law, modified by several successive amend- 
 ments, was postponed until the 14th of February. 
 
 On the 13th of this same month the Cabinet pre- 
 sented to the Chamber of Deputies two bills respecting 
 the jury laws. One of these had previously been sent 
 to the Peers, who had entirely remodelled it. This 
 should, in the ordinary course of things, have been laid 
 before the Deputies, but the Government, which was not 
 satisfied with it, proposed a project of its own, which was 
 rejected, and the Peers’ bill was adopted in preference. 
 
 The 14th, so impatiently expected, dawned at last, 
 and the discussion on the press bill began. It 
 continued until the 12th of March, when, in spite of the 
 most eloquent protestations, and the most vehement 
 opposition, it was adopted by two hundred and thirty- 
 three votes against one hundred and _ thirty-four. 
 Seven days afterwards it was brought before the 
 Chamber of Peers, which after a most careful inquiry 
 and hearing of technival evidence, demolished its clauses 
 one by one, until the King, by a royal ordinance, saw 
 fit to withdraw it altogether on the 17th of April. 
 
 This being the first time that the ministers had, 
 however reluctantly, acted in accordance with the will 
 of the nation, the event caused an explosion of joy 
 throughout the whole of France, mingled with con- 
 gratulatory addresses to the Chamber of Peers, which 
 the authorities were sensible enough not to suppress. 
 In reality the Government was already taking measures 
 
1827. ] THH RESTORATION. 255 
 
 of avenging themselves upon the Peers, whom they 
 held guilty of Liberalism and hunting after popu- 
 larity. For this popularity was the very thing the 
 ministry lacked, having destroyed it by their fre- 
 quent and unwarrantable interference with the liberty 
 of the subject, and by their continual attempts to 
 revive the institutions of a past, directly antagonistic 
 to the spirit of the present. One of the most flagrant 
 instances of this violation occurred at the funeral of 
 the Duke de Ja Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (March 8rd), 
 and which exercised a most baneful influence on the 
 future of the Restoration. 
 
 Another event which had a graver and more im- 
 mediate tendency to arouse discontent was the royal 
 decree suddenly disbanding the National Guard (April 
 30th), the very day after that body had enthusias- 
 tically welcomed the King in its midst. This unpro- 
 voked slight caused great irritation, in which even the 
 Royalist newspapers sided to some extent with the popu- 
 lation. Some of the National Guards wanted to sell 
 their uniforms and to send the proceeds to the insurrec- 
 tionary Greeks, but they were dissuaded from doing this. 
 Consequently they kept their clothes as well as their 
 arms, which they had occasion to use three years later 
 for the final overthrow of the Bourbon dynasty. Nor 
 was the impression produced by this act confined to 
 France. In England and on the Continent, where the 
 supplement of the official newspaper, the Monzteur, 
 containing the decree arrived without being preceded 
 by the least explanation, it was believed that an 
 
256 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1827. 
 
 insurrectionary movement had suddenly burst out in 
 Paris. Another incident, consequent upon the election 
 of a professor at the Collége de France, in which 
 the Government acted agaist the wishes of the 
 students, prolonged the public excitement, and though 
 the Liberal deputies did their best to calm the effer- 
 vescence of a section of the community, ever ready 
 for revolt, one of the former, Benjamin Constant, gave 
 the students the advice to reserve their energy for 
 the future. He with many others already foresaw the 
 troubles looming in the distance. The session of 1827 
 closed as usual with the debates on, and the passing of, 
 the budget, which this year assumed a particular im- 
 portance, the Opposition taking advantage of the 
 general discussion to speak on every question of 
 home and foreign policy. M. de Villéle was attacked 
 on all sides, and could scarcely defend the tactics of 
 his administration, as the financial condition of the 
 State, hitherto satisfactory, was on the wane. 
 
 A few days after the closing of the session, General 
 Lafayette, so enthusiastically received on his return 
 from America, was elected deputy for the arrondisse- 
 ment of Meaux. M. de Villéle, who considered this 
 election as a proof of public ill-feeling against himself, 
 made it a pretext for taking a measure, legal in itself, 
 but reserved only for extraordinary circumstances; he 
 induced the King to promulgate a decree re-establishing 
 the censorship for newspapers and periodical publications 
 (June 24th). 
 
 Side by side with this long series of blunders the 
 
1827.] THE RESTORATION. 257 
 
 Government committed one act, which redounds to its 
 honour. It united with England and Russia in signi- 
 fying to the Porte that unless she consented to accept 
 within one month the mediation of the three Cabinets, 
 these latter would oppose, by force if necessary, the 
 prolongation of hostilities against Greece. 
 
 This same year saw the death of Canning, then 
 English Premier, and that of Manuel, the great 
 French orator, who had lived for the last five years 
 in seclusion, but whose funeral was accompanied by 
 demonstrations boding no good to the Government, 
 and which began to find itself seriously hampered, 
 as if was no longer unreservedly supported by the 
 Chambers. The House of Peers was decidedly hostile to 
 it, whilst in the Chamber of Deputies it had to struggle 
 with serious opposition from two sides, the majority 
 which it had commanded for so long a period gradually 
 dwindling down to unimportant numbers. In this 
 emergency there were two courses open to it—the 
 resignation of the Ministry, or the dissolution of the 
 Chambers. It was almost certain that the latter 
 course would be adopted. 
 
 While these alternatives were being debated in the 
 Councils of the Government, and nothing was decided, 
 save a new creation of peers, in order to give the 
 Royalists a majority, the electoral campaign began 
 with a deluge of publications and an increased activity 
 of the newspapers. The Ministry, apprehensive of too 
 long a delay, intended to convoke the Legislative as 
 soon as possible, so that the newspapers might not 
 
 ts 
 
258 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. 1827. 
 
 abuse their liberty, as, according to the law of 1822, 
 the censorship was suspended during the preparations 
 for a general election. 
 
 The King, who proposed to make a journey in the 
 month of September to visit the camp near St. Omer, 
 wished to be informed before starting what the Ministry 
 had decided; and at the end of August the dissolution 
 of the Chambers was resolved upon. 
 
 In addition to this journey of the King, the various 
 members of the royal family visited the provinces, a 
 measure counselled by M. de Villéle as likely to im- 
 prove the waning popularity of the Court. The result 
 was a disappointment; and though the King was 
 welcomed everywhere with acclamations, the enthusiasm 
 of the population proceeded from their love of sight- 
 seeing rather than from their attachment to the royal 
 traveller. This reception was to be ascribed to the 
 rumours that the King intended to abolish the Charter, 
 to renew the absolute monarchy, and to return to 
 Paris at the head of all the troops assembled in the 
 camp. Nothing of the kind happened. Charles X. might 
 have fostered such a plan, but he did not execute it, 
 and at his arrival in the capital, after a long conference 
 with his ministers, the dissolution of the Chambers, a 
 consequent general election, a creation of seventy-six 
 new peers, and the temporary suspension of the censor- 
 ship were proclaimed in the last days of October. 
 Among the newly-chosen peers there were five arch- 
 bishops, one Marshal of France, Soult, and _ forty 
 deputies chosen from the clerical party. The opening 
 
1827. ] THE RESTORATION. 259 
 
 of the Chambers was fixed for the 5th of February, 
 1828. 
 
 The Liberal Opposition, recruited by the majority 
 of the members of the Right, who aimed above all at 
 the fall of M. de Villéle, entered with vigour upon the 
 electoral struggle, during which the news of the batile 
 of Navarino (October 20, 1827), which led to the 
 independence of Greece, arrived. 
 
 On the other hand the Government did all in its 
 power, by means of the administrative coercion of its 
 functionaries, to turn the scales in its favour; but these 
 tactics were not successful, and many of the candi- 
 dates of the Liberal party were elected, whilst the 
 capital chose all her deputies from the ranks of the 
 Opposition. The Parisian population, as usual, received 
 the defeat of the Government with illuminations, fire- 
 works, and demonstrations of joy. In the quarters of 
 Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin, some windows were 
 smashed, and the soldiers had to interfere. 'The same 
 disturbances were repeated some days afterwards, when 
 several barricades were erected, causing an affray be- 
 tween the military and the citizens, in which there 
 were many wounded and killed. An inquiry which 
 followed plainly proved that the fault lay chiefly with 
 the military, who had provoked the citizens. This, 
 however, did not influence the elections, which resulted 
 in. a majority against M. de Villéle. The Ministry 
 could not withstand this defeat. On the 6th of De- 
 cember the King accepted its resignation, but it was 
 difficult to find a satisfactory combination to succeed 
 
 r 2 
 
260 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1827. 
 
 it, and the remainder of the month was passed in 
 negotiations more varied than efficacious. 
 
 The battle of Navarino, already mentioned, was 
 not the only point on which France found herself in 
 conflict with Mahommedan barbarism. In consequence 
 of the Algerians having captured a vessel belonging to 
 the States of the Church, but sailing under the French 
 flag, the Government demanded satisfaction for this 
 insult. The Dey of Algiers not only refused this, 
 but insulted the Consul-General charged with this 
 mission, and the French blockaded the port of Algiers. 
 This measure being found insufficient, as no man- 
 of-war ventured out of the harbour, and as Algiers 
 possessed no merchant fleet, it was decided to attack the 
 town. Though this decision met with approval, its 
 execution was postponed, M. de Villele being occupied 
 with weightier concerns, and the blockade being main- 
 tained in the meanwhile. 
 
 The year 1827 proved auspicious for the arts of 
 peace. Several literary works of great importance 
 appeared, notably Guizot’s History of the Revolution in 
 England; Victor Cousin’s fistory of Philosophy; and 
 Victor Hugo’s drama of Cromwell, a work not intended 
 for the stage, but accompanied by a preface, which 
 became as it were the manifesto and programme of 
 the romantic school, as distinguished from the classical. 
 Industry was making vast progress, and an exhibition 
 of its various branches received the approval of 
 foreigners as well as of Frenchmen. 
 
 In view of a new Ministry to be chosen, Charles X. 
 
1827-8.] THE RESTORATION. 261 
 
 consulted M. de Villéle, who dissuaded him from calling 
 the Prince de Polignac to the direction of affairs, but 
 counselled the King, however, to select his Cabinet 
 from among the Royalists. The advice was well 
 meant and monarchical, but scarcely rational, as the 
 Opposition was powerful enough to claim a seat for 
 some of its members in the Ministry. Nevertheless, the 
 counsel was followed, and the new Ministry was com- 
 posed of members chosen from among the various 
 shades of Royalist opinion. M. de Martignac was its 
 virtual chief, though not bearing the official title of 
 president, which had been abolished for the time being 
 (January 5th, 1828). 
 
 The Martignac Ministry was coldly received by the 
 press ; the Royalists did not deem its opinions sufh- 
 ciently advanced; the Opposition, notwithstanding 
 the attempts made by it to reconcile public opinion by 
 various acts of supposed liberality, boldly stated that it 
 was merely composed of new and second-rate men, 
 brought together to act as their predecessors had 
 done. Nor did the speech from the throne give 
 satisfaction ; the Liberals expected the enunciation of 
 a new programme; the Royalists hoped that though 
 the Ministry had changed the system would re- 
 main the same. ‘The latter were less mistaken than 
 the former, but both were equally dissatisfied. On 
 the verification of the credentials of the deputies, 
 some tactics of the former administration were brought 
 to light, which, strongly condemned by the chief 
 and other members of the new Ministry, compelled 
 
262 THER FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1828. 
 
 MM. de Chabrol and de Frayssinous, who belonged 
 to the late as well as to the present Government, to 
 tender their resignation, which was accepted. Royer- 
 Collard was elected President of the Chamber of De- 
 puties; M. de Villéle and two of his colleagues were 
 named peers, each with a pension of twelve thousand 
 francs. 
 
 The result of the fresh elections, which had to be 
 held because several constituencies had chosen the same 
 candidate, and because the Committee of Inquiry an- 
 nulled several elections, was that thirty-five out of the 
 forty-five newly elected deputies were Liberals. It was 
 on this occasion that the electors, instead of accepting 
 the candidates named by the newspapers, held, for the 
 first time, preparatory meetings, with which the Govern- 
 ment did not interfere, though it prohibited public 
 places being used for the purpose. In addition to the 
 electoral and jury bills being passed, the attention of 
 the Chamber of Deputies was drawn to the opening 
 of letters by officials of the Post Office (May 3rd), an 
 abuse which was instituted by the ancien réyime, and 
 re-established under the Restoration for the purpose of 
 violating the secrets of correspondence. Notwith- 
 standing the denial of the Ministry that such pro- 
 ceedings had taken place, it was proved that they had 
 existed, and that only about three months ago M. 
 de Martignac had obtained from the King the sup- 
 pression of this imiquitous and disgraceful service. 
 On the 14th of April, a new press bill was laid 
 before the Chamber of Deputies, which, after many 
 
1828, ] THE RESTORATION. 263 
 
 days’ discussion, was finally carried three months later. 
 During this interval, its most rigorous clause, relating 
 to the amount of pecuniary guarantees which the news- 
 papers had to pay to the State before they received 
 permission to appear, had been considerably modified. 
 An indictment was brought against the late Ministry, 
 and referred to a select Committee, but the Chambers, 
 after having voted the budget, broke up (2lst July) 
 without discussing it. 
 
 Previous to this, a Committee of Inquiry, which had 
 been appointed to discover if there were any Jesuit 
 colleges in France, had reported that there existed 
 three small seminaries directed by some members of 
 that brotherhood. At the same time it stated that the 
 presence of those priests was in no way contrary to law. 
 This conclusion, adopted by a majority of one, aroused 
 vehement clamours from the Liberal party. Numerous 
 petitions were sent to the Chamber to suppress this 
 monastic order in France; but the King refused to do 
 this, and based his decision on the statement of the 
 Committee. He nevertheless signed a decree, somewhat 
 circumscribing the sphere of action of these priests, 
 and which, though sufficiently lenient towards them, 
 caused them to raise the cry that they were persecuted. 
 The pulpits rang with accusations of impiety against 
 the whole of the Ministry, which would not enter 
 upon an open struggle with the religious element. It 
 asked for the interference of the Pope, who counselled 
 to the priests confidence in the King and submission 
 to the throne. They were obliged to yield; many 
 
264 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1828. 
 
 elected to leave France, but those who remained ‘ 
 ceased not to clamour for what they called “liberty 
 of instruction,” which meant simply liberty for them- 
 selves when they were no longer the masters. About 
 the middle of August a French expedition was de- 
 spatched to the Morea, with the mutual consent of 
 Russia and England, who confided to France the task 
 of forcing Turkey to evacuate Greece, a task which 
 was faithfully and honourably accomplished by the 
 end of October. 
 
 While on a journey through the east of France 
 the King had the satisfaction of finding the feelings 
 of his subjects more favourably disposed towards him ; 
 unfortunately on his return to Paris the struggle 
 between the clericals and Liberals did not cease, but 
 grew more vehement than ever. ‘This induced the 
 Ministry, when the prospects of the session of 1829 
 came to be discussed, to open negotiations with the 
 Liberal party in order to secure a stauncher support, 
 of which it stood in need. The Liberals were well 
 disposed to enter the Government, rightly deeming 
 this a beginning of sound parliamentary practice. 
 General Sebastiani and Casimir Périer were already 
 pointed out as probable ministers, while other deputies 
 had been sounded as to their willingness to assume 
 important offices in the public administration. Such 
 was the state of affairs at the opening of the Chambers. 
 
 During the progress of these negotiations, M. 
 Cauchois-Lemaire, a Liberal writer, published a pamph- 
 let, 4A Letter to the Duke of Orleans, advising this 
 
1829. ] THH RESTORATION. 265 
 
 prince to take under the constitutional monarchy a 
 kind of moral royalty, and to constitute himself the 
 chief of the Opposition, as some of the English princes 
 had done. This letter produced a great sensation, but 
 was generally disapproved. The author was prose- 
 cuted for provoking a change of dynasty, with unusual 
 severity arrested before his trial, and afterwards con- 
 demned to fifteen months’ imprisonment and a fine of 
 two thousand francs, while the publishers also under- 
 went three months’ imprisonment. ‘This blunder of the 
 Government already designated the Duke of Orleans as 
 the possible founder of a new dynasty. 
 
 With the exception of the King’s unsuccessful 
 attempt to introduce the Prince de Polignac into the 
 Ministry, nothing of importance signalised the opening 
 of the session for this year. Despite this Prince’s 
 formal declaration of attachment to the Charter, public 
 opinion had not sufficient confidence in his _protes- 
 tations to entrust him with the management of part of 
 the laws. 
 
 On the 9th of February, in accordance with the 
 promise in the speech from the throne, M. de Mar- 
 tignac laid on the table of the Chamber of Deputies 
 two bills purporting to change the administration of 
 the departments and communes. 
 
 Until now every official had been appointed by 
 royal authority, ministers, prefects, sub-prefects, and 
 mayors, as well as general, municipal and arrondisse- 
 ment councillors. It was still the imperial organisa- 
 tion in its integrity. This was now to be changed, 
 
266 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1829. 
 
 and every one had to be elected. Unfortunately the 
 electors were chosen amongst those inhabitants who 
 paid the most taxes, and their number was very 
 limited. It was certainly an improvement upon the 
 existing system, but for fear of bemg reproached with 
 favouring the spread of democracy the Ministry had not 
 gone far enough; and if the bills had passed they would 
 simply have created certain privileged minorities. 
 Nevertheless, the Right, indignant at the project, stig- 
 matised it as a concession to the revolutionary spirit, 
 while the Liberals thought it insufficient. As the 
 Ministry found it impossible to conciliate both parties, 
 the bills were withdrawn after much discussion. This 
 incident led to the rupture of negotiations between the 
 Ministry and the Left, nor could any good have come of 
 it; for even if the King should have admitted to his 
 councils the leaders of the Opposition, they would not 
 have stayed. Various circumstances showed that the 
 monarch was already resolved to entrust by a legal 
 coup d état the Prince de Polignac with the leader- 
 ship of affairs. As if prophetically cognisant of this 
 intention, General Lamarque, a Liberal deputy who 
 was destined to obtain great fame as an orator in the 
 Chamber, spoke of the danger of taking extreme 
 measures, and pointed to what had happened in 
 Kngland when the Constitution had been violated 
 there. ‘Thus, in addition to the JZetter to the Duke 
 of Orleans, at the commencement of the session, fore- 
 bodings and advice were not wanting. Unfortunately, 
 as usual, they were not listened to. The Royalist 
 
1829. ] THE RESTORATION. 267 
 
 press openly called for a conflict between the two 
 parties, by inviting the Liberals to begin the contest, 
 unless they wished to be attacked themselves. Under 
 such threatening auspices the session of 1829 terminated 
 on the 31st of July, the budget having been voted 
 amidst the usual skirmishes extending for nearly two 
 months. 
 
 On the 9th of August that which had been foreseen 
 came to pass. ‘The official newspaper, the Moniteur, 
 contained a list of the members of the new Cabinet, in 
 which the Prince de Polignac, the leader of the extreme 
 Royalists, was entrusted with the portfolio of Foreign 
 Affairs. This was an undoubted declaration of war 
 against public opinion, and it was accepted as such. 
 It caused an outburst of indignation from one end 
 of France to another. The truce, entered upon with 
 the advent of the Martignac Ministry, was broken, 
 nothing remained but war. How and when the war 
 was to be waged was not determined; whether the 
 enemy fired the first shot or not, the nation was re- 
 solved not to retreat. 
 
 The Polignae Cabinet had no intentions of com- 
 mencing hostilities. If anything, it was rather bent 
 upon defence than aggression. All that the monarch 
 wanted was to see his favourite in the Ministry ; 
 he would willingly have kept M. de Martignac, if 
 such had been possible, or any other minister who 
 would have consented to stay. Some of the members 
 of the new Government had even been chosen without 
 their knowledge, and after much deliberation. Two 
 
268 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1829. 
 
 of them were in the provinces, and learned their 
 nominations from the pages of the J/oniteur, where- 
 upon one proceeded leisurely to Paris, whilst the 
 other hastened to the capital to refuse the proffered 
 portfolio, notwithstanding the insistence of the King. 
 
 No President of the Council was appointed, though 
 the public persisted in calling the new Cabinet by the 
 name of the Polignac Ministry, not only because they 
 considered that Prince its virtual head, but because his 
 name appeared the most expressive signification of the 
 policy for which the administration had been formed. 
 Every intention of violence or coup d’ctat was repudiated 
 by the executive, as the King and his favourite still 
 believed it possible to carry on the government within 
 constitutional and legal forms. It was the force of 
 the political current that afterwards carried them 
 away. 
 
 The hostility to the Polignac Cabinet was not 
 confined to the Liberal press. Those newspapers 
 which professed the sincerest attachment for the 
 Bourbons were as bitter in their denunciations of the 
 new ministers as the Opposition, the only flagrant 
 exception to this universal discontent being the ultra- 
 Royalist journal, the Drapeau Blanc, which by a 
 cunningly executed manceuvre now appealed to the 
 lower classes, for whom, as a rule, it professed the 
 greatest contempt, against the middle classes, whom it 
 designated as being the enemies of the aristocracy as 
 well as of the people. ‘To these lower classes it pro- 
 mised everything—work, bread, a provision for the 
 
1829. ] THE RESTORATION. 269 
 
 future. ‘Twenty years before 1848 the Drapeau Blanc 
 constituted itself the champion of socialism. 
 
 Resignations of Government officials now poured 
 in from all sides, whilst General Lafayette travelling 
 through the provinces, received many ovations, because 
 his well-known Liberal politics made him the incar- 
 nation of the Opposition to the Ministry, and because 
 the people saw m him the personification of the first 
 Revolution. But the reception of the Duke d’Angou- 
 léme in Normandy was very different, and when the 
 prefect at Cherbourg wanted to organise a public 
 subscription for a ball in honour of the Duke, no 
 subscribers could be found. 
 
 The forebodings of a coup d’état caused associations | 
 to be formed having for their object the legal refusal 
 of paying taxes. The conflicting verdicts of the various 
 tribunals called upon to decide the legality of these 
 acts testified but too plainly that in some quarters 
 even the magistrates sided with the party of resistance. 
 The Journal des Débats, a newspaper noted for its 
 consistent upholding of the Bourbon interest, was 
 indicted for publishing an article against the new 
 Ministry, but the court after three hours’ delibera- 
 tion pronounced an acquittal. The Courrier Francais, 
 another newspaper prosecuted for an art criticism 
 containing an expression which was considered by 
 the clerical party as insulting to Christianity, was 
 also acquitted. All this tended to show that the 
 magistrates were determined to put a stop to 
 priestly influence. Several modifications in the new 
 
270 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1829. 
 
 Ministry brought about a still greater degree of 
 unpopularity, and this notwithstanding the attempts 
 of Polignac to introduce various commercial improve- 
 ments, which, as he thought, would lead to great 
 prosperity. He had watched the commercial energy 
 of England without staying to consider that it 
 emanated from public and not from official initiative. 
 He deemed it best to encourage a taste for material 
 prosperity among the people, to substitute bodily 
 welfare for political liberty, for he knew that when 
 the mind is enthralled by physical comfort the task 
 of governing becomes all the easier. Whatever might 
 have been the results of his policy, he had not the 
 time to put his plans into operation, and it is 
 doubtful whether they would have succeeded, as 
 public opinion was strongly opposed to him. 
 
 In spite of these interior disturbances, the year 1829 
 was fruitful in hterary and scientific productions, while 
 as regards foreign policy the Government had resolved 
 to take more stringent measures against Algiers, a 
 town which could not be reduced by the ordinary 
 measures of civilised warfare. 
 
 The new year’s receptions of the political and 
 learned bodies of the State by the King were anxiously 
 looked forward to. It had not been forgotten that 
 Charles X. on a previous occasion had allowed the 
 rancour of personal feeling to penetrate the courtesy 
 of his usual deportment when the High Court of 
 Justice had pronounced a verdict antagonistic to the 
 royal idea on politics and religion. These expectations 
 
1830. ] THE RESTORATION. 271 
 
 were not disappointed. This year, instead of contenting 
 himself with remaining silent, the King presumed to 
 give advice to the first president of the Court of Justice, 
 whilst, at her private reception, the Duchess d’Angou- 
 léme, seeing the members of that same Court approach, 
 merely motioned them to pass on. Contrary to public 
 opinion, which expected that the Ministry would en- 
 deavour to govern without the aid of the Chambers, 
 the latter were convoked for the 2nd of March, 
 by a royal decree, published in the Moniteur of 
 the 6th of January. This did not solve, but merely 
 changed the aspect of the question, and led to the 
 Liberal newspapers discussing what the Government 
 would do in the event of the Legislative proving hostile 
 and refusing to vote the budget. The Royalist papers 
 took up the controversy, and defied the Chamber to 
 refuse that vote, adding that it would then become 
 a question of an appeal to arms, and that the King 
 would be found to have a sufficient supply of them. 
 This challenge was eagerly taken up by the Liberal 
 press, notably by an entirely new paper, the WVational, 
 edited by MM. Thiers, Mignet, and Armand Carrel. 
 It was the pen of Thiers which first propounded 
 the doctrine, “ the King reigns, but does not govern.” 
 Every one was preparing for a conflict, and some 
 members of the Liberal party already speculated on 
 the as yet novel idea of substituting another member 
 of the royal family for the present monarch, as had 
 happened in England in 1688. The opinions of the 
 National made a great many converts, whilst another 
 
272 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOOH. [1830. 
 
 newspaper, the Zribune of the Departments, still more 
 advanced in its ideas, was said to be the organ of the 
 Republicans, at that time few in number, but very 
 energetic. 
 
 Polignac had laid down for himself a programme 
 by which he could steer clear of all political compli- 
 cations and discussions. He meant to propose to 
 the Chambers a great many projects, tending to de- 
 velop an immense industrial energy, requiring vast 
 capital, and by these means to avoid the measures 
 more immediately connected with constitutional 
 liberty. He still thought that he could reckon 
 upon a majority of two hundred votes. In addition 
 to this majority he hoped to revive the royal prestige 
 by a vigorous expedition then preparing against the 
 pirates of Algiers. Three elections which took place 
 before the opening of the Legislative, and in which 
 two out of the three chosen candidates professed 
 Royalist opinions, strengthened the impression of the 
 Prince of being able to weather the political storm. 
 
 Unfortunately the obstacle to this policy of ter- 
 giversation came from a quarter whence it was least 
 expected. Whilst the minister strained every nerve 
 to avoid topics of an irritating nature in the speech 
 from the throne, the King insisted upon displaying 
 his authority. 
 
 The coolness with which the King was received 
 at the opening of the Chambers (March 2nd) was 
 still further increased by his open declaration that 
 in the event of opposition to his will and government 
 
1830. ] THE RESTORATION. 273 
 
 he would know how to deal with it. It was throwing 
 down the gauntlet there and then. Nor was the 
 Opposition slow to take it up. In spite of the warnings 
 contained in the reply to the royal speech, drawn up 
 by a deputy of undoubted Royalist tendencies, the 
 King decided upon an immediate prorogation of the 
 Chambers, and even wished to refuse to receive this 
 answer. But though this refusal was overruled by 
 his Ministers, who wanted to give the conflict an 
 appearance of having been begun under provocation, 
 Charles X., nevertheless, insisted upon adjourning the 
 Chambers on the 19th of March until the 3rd of 
 September. This was tantamount to an official decla- 
 ration of war. In the face of the hostilities aroused 
 by these despotic proceedings, the Prime Minister 
 continued to cherish the most erroneous illusions. 
 These illusions were fostered by the official reports of 
 various prefects, intended to remain secret, but which 
 were published afterwards, and which represented 
 France as solely interested in questions of material 
 prosperity, and. altogether heedless of politics; and 
 that at the very time when politics occupied all 
 minds. Deceived by these assurances, and also by his 
 own calculations, which induced him to believe that he 
 would have a majority of at least forty votes, Polignac | 
 persuaded the King to dissolve the Chambers (16th 
 of May), to fix the new elections on the 23rd of June 
 and the 3rd of July, and to convoke the Chambers 
 thus elected for the 3rd of August. 
 
 In spite of Royalist intrigues, the elections of 
 
 S 
 
274 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830. 
 
 the 23rd of June—from which, for reasons to be ex- 
 plained shortly, twenty departments had been excluded 
 —resulted in the nomination of a hundred and forty- 
 one Opposition candidates against fifty-seven Royalist 
 or Ministerial ones.. The Ministry tendered its resig- 
 nation, which the King refused to accept, and the 
 Council occupied itself with prospective measures, in 
 case the elections of the 3rd of July should be equally 
 unfavourable. At the same time it was proposed to 
 change the electoral and press laws by royal decree ; 
 but this measure was adjourned until later. . The 
 second series of elections was as disastrous to the 
 Government as the first. Nothing remained now but 
 the elections for the twenty departments, which. had 
 been postponed, lest their well-known Liberal opinions 
 and the consequent election. of the Opposition candi- 
 dates might have influenced others in following their 
 example. What had been foreseen happened; the 
 Royalists were again defeated. Out of four hundred 
 and twenty-eight deputies, two hundred and seventy 
 belonged to the Opposition, and one hundred and 
 forty-five were Ministerialists; the remaining thirteen 
 being of doubtful opinions. Up till then, though 
 acting arbitrarily and ill-advised, the King had _ not 
 transgressed his constitutional rights. But now he 
 should have submitted to the will of the nation, con- 
 veyed to him in unmistakable terms, and _ sacrificed 
 the Ministry to popular opinion. Instead of doing 
 this, he began to have recourse to illegal proceedings. 
 Whilst these elections were going on some events 
 
1830. ] THH RESTORATION. 275 
 
 took place, which showed but too plainly that popular 
 discontent was on the increase, and that it needed but 
 a favourable opportunity to break out into rebellion. 
 On the occasion of an entertainment given to the King 
 and Queen of Naples, on their passage through Paris, 
 several conflicts took place between the military and the 
 citizens, the latter ending by setting fire to a heap of 
 chairs round a bronze statue of Apollo, in the gardens 
 of the Duke of Orleans. Even the successful termi- 
 nation of the expedition to Algiers (July 5th) failed 
 to kindle the enthusiasm with which military triumphs 
 were ordinarily received, a failure chiefly caused by 
 the arrogance of the Royalist newspapers, and by the 
 fear that a force which had subjugated a foreign foe 
 might be turned against the people. ‘These suspicions 
 were not altogether unfounded, for 1t was known that 
 General de Bourmont, the chief of that expedition, and 
 appointed to this post in the face of public opinion, 
 had, before his departure, expressed the hope that, 
 in the event of a coup d’état being decided upon, 
 the King would await his return with the vic- 
 torious army. He was under the impression that 
 the taking of Algiers would end the war in Africa, 
 while, on the contrary, it was but the beginning of the 
 strife, for each particular tribe which had fought for 
 the Dey was resolved to continue the contest. The 
 popularity of Charles X. seemed now irretrievably 
 lost. On his return from the church of Notre-Dame, 
 where a Ze Deum had been celebrated in honour of 
 the taking of Algiers, the crowd amidst which he had to 
 $2 
 
276 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830. 
 
 pass received him in profound silence—a sad blow to 
 one who loved popularity, but would not forego one 
 iota of his own pretensions in order to endeavour to 
 deserve it. 
 
 Even before the result of the elections was known, 
 the King and his Ministers had determined upon a 
 coup d@’état rather than dismiss a Ministry which 
 was distasteful to the nation. Charles X. pretended 
 that the fourteenth article of the Charter gave him 
 the power to cut any political knot by a royal ordinance. 
 This power had been more than once invoked by 
 Louis XVIII, but the Opposition had always con- 
 tested its application, because, though the text might 
 lend itself to it, the spirit of the Charter was against 
 it. This fourteenth article conferred upon the King 
 the power of issuing “the decrees and ordinances neces- 
 sary for the execution of the laws and the surety of the 
 State ;’’ but it could not mean that he was justified 
 in adopting the same prerogative for the violation of 
 these laws. Divers attempts at solving the difficulty 
 were discussed by the Ministry, and it was decided at 
 last that by royal decrees the new Chambers should be 
 dissolved; that mo newspaper or periodical should 
 appear without the permission of the authorities, which 
 permission had to be renewed every three months; 
 that the electoral law should be abrogated and replaced 
 by a system closely resembling that of 1814, whilst 
 the electoral colleges were summoned to assemble on 
 the 6th and 13th of September, the Chambers (for a 
 last sitting presumably) for the 28th, and lastly, that a 
 
1830. ] THH RESTORATION. 277 
 
 number of councillors of State, dismissed under the 
 Martignac Ministry, should be reinstated in their 
 functions. Those of the Ministers who were opposed 
 to these extreme measures consented, nevertheless, to 
 sign the decrees, either from a feeling of affection for 
 the King, or else from fear of being accused of deserting 
 a sinking ship. They had no thought for France, 
 which, by their acts, they exposed to the horrors of 
 civil war; they deemed themselves the servants of 
 royalty, not of the nation. 
 
 Foolhardy m his dependence upon the military 
 forces, undeterred by the ominous warnings of so ex- 
 perienced a man as M. Sauvo, the chief editor of the 
 Moniteur, Polignac published the royal decrees in that 
 newspaper on the, 26th of July. The capital was awe- 
 stricken when it found the walls placarded with them, 
 though they had been expected for several days. 
 The 26th of July fell on a Monday, when thousands 
 of artisans abstained from work, but the tranquillity 
 of Paris was not disturbed. The press was the first 
 to give the signal of resistance. At a meeting of 
 the journalists of the Liberal newspapers, at the 
 offices of the Wational, a protest was drawn up which 
 has become historical, and which fully pomted out the 
 illegality of the King’s decrees. Contrary to the then 
 prevalent customs of not signing articles in the papers, 
 this protest was subscribed in full by forty of the 
 principal editors and contributors to the organs of 
 the Opposition, a boldness which caused the Govern- 
 ment to give orders for their being arrested, and which 
 
278 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1830. 
 
 ad 
 
 orders were only prevented from being executed by the 
 rapid march of events. Some of the printers of these 
 Liberal papers became frightened, and refused to pub- 
 lish them any longer, whereupon their editors sum- 
 moned them before the tribunals, and they were 
 condemned to continue and print these papers, as the 
 royal decrees had not yet been legally promulgated. 
 Nor were the doings of the police, who had orders to 
 dismantle the presses, more successful. The workmen 
 whom they brought refused .to obey, intimidated by 
 the threats of the journalists, who qualified the pro- 
 posed actions as illegal. In one instance, the Com- 
 missary of Police, at his wits’ end, was compelled 
 to have recourse to the assistance of the smith usually 
 employed to chain the galley-slaves together. This 
 was the only active resistance on the 26th. The 
 capital was. roused, anxious, on the alert, but not 
 sufficiently excited to resort to violent measures. ‘The 
 military authorities took no precautions, the prefect 
 of police, Mangin, held himself answerable for the 
 public tranquillity, and the King, lulled to_ rest 
 by this delusive security, started at seven in the 
 morning for Saint-Cloud, to hunt at Rambouillet, 
 forgetting, in his hurry, to send to Marmont, Duke 
 of Ragusa, an order to invest him with the com- 
 mand of the troops. The Duke had, however, openly 
 expressed his disgust at being probably called upon 
 to risk his life for acts of which he disapproved, and 
 on behalf of people whom he despised. 
 
 With the exception of the crowd surrounding the 
 
1830.1} THE RESTORATION. 279 
 
 carriage of de Polignac and pelting it with stones—a 
 disturbance with which even a post of soldiers, which 
 was quite near, did not interfere—the day passed 
 without more serious demonstrations. 
 
 On the following morning, the 27th of July, the 
 symptoms became more grave. The streets were 
 crowded with compositors and printers whom their 
 masters had. dismissed. Joined by bands of artisans 
 who had voluntarily left their workshops, they formed 
 themselves into groups, eagerly discussing the situa- 
 tion, and shouting, “ Long live the Charter.” The 
 young students from the various schools and from the 
 University, and the clerks from the principal ware- 
 houses, came to swell their number and increase the 
 excitement by inflammatory speeches. The proclama- 
 tion that Paris was declared in a state of siege added but 
 fuel to the flame. Some shots were fired between four 
 and five in the afternoon by detachments of the guard 
 and of the gendarmerie in the vicinity of the Palais 
 Royal. Nothing more was wanted; the people im- 
 mediately attempted to throw up barricades, to pull 
 down the insignia of the Bourbons, to uproot paving- 
 stones for defensive and offensive’ purposes, and to 
 smash the street lamps, so that the darkness might 
 hamper the movements of the troops. All this was 
 accomplished in a few hours. On the 28th the in- 
 surrection was in full swing, and spread through 
 every quarter, the royal armouries were emptied, and 
 the National Guards showed themselves in their uni- 
 forms at the barricades. The tricolour flapped gaily in 
 
280 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1830. 
 
 the wind from the Hotel de Ville, and it was also hoisted 
 on the church of Notre Dame and on a hundred public 
 buildings. While the sight of this flag was hailed 
 with acclamations of joy, the alarm-bell rang from 
 all steeples; and, as Marmont informed the King by 
 a message on the followmg morning, “it was no 
 longer a riot, but a revolution.” In spite of this 
 alarming news, the King and his Court remained at 
 Saint-Cloud unshaken in their confidence. Polignac 
 and his Ministers sat in permanence at the Tuileries, 
 where the head-quarters of Marmont were, and closed 
 their eyes to their critical position. The troops of 
 the line meanwhile fraternised with the people, and 
 abandoned to them their barracks, arms, and ammu- 
 nition. Shortly after Marmont had sent his message 
 to the monarch, the firmg was suspended by mutual 
 consent, to await the result of the royal answer. All © 
 might have been settled in a manner comparatively 
 peaceful even then, had not an unforeseen incident 
 changed the situation. 
 
 Carried away by excitement, a detachment of soldiers 
 stationed in the Place Vendédme left its post, to place 
 itself at the disposal of the deputies assembled at the 
 house of Laffitte, the banker of the Liberal party, 
 Marmont, being informed of this, commanded one of the 
 two battalions of Swiss charged with the defence of the 
 Louvre to take the place of the troops of the Place 
 Vendéme, and the other battalion to remain where it 
 was. ‘The captain of the latter told his men to assemble 
 in the court-yard. As there were no longer any troops 
 
1830. ] THE RESTORATION. 281 
 
 outside the Louvre, a youth made his way to the 
 interior of the palace and boldly showed himself at 
 the window. The soldiers, under the impression that 
 the people had invaded the palace, fled hurriedly to 
 the Tuileries, and communicated their terror to the 
 troops who were stationed there. They also aban- 
 doned their post, and rushed to the gardens, where 
 Marmont, with a great deal of trouble, rallied them, 
 fell back with them upon the Bois de Boulogne, and 
 marched to Saint-Cloud to announce that Paris was 
 lost. Paris was indeed lost. The Revolution was 
 virtually accomplished on the evening of the 29th, 
 though the result proved less brilliant than the struggle 
 to accomplish it had been heroic. This barren result 
 was chiefly owing to the want of unanimity among 
 certain deputies, and to the pusillanimity of some 
 others. For the last three days they had assembled 
 at various places, because many of them believed that 
 they had not, and could not have, any legal right to 
 meet before the 3rd of August, the day on which the 
 Chambers had been convoked. Profuse as they were 
 of words, they shrunk from action. 
 
 Meanwhile Lafayette, who had returned in great 
 haste to Paris, took the command of the National 
 Guards, and installed himself at the Hotel de Ville. 
 When it was found that all attempts at reconcilia- 
 tion between the deputies and the King were fruit- 
 less, a municipal Committee joined the General; but 
 afraid of transgressing the constitutional forms, they 
 did not dare to form a Provisional Government ; 
 
282 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830. 
 
 they wanted to preserve an appearance of legality in a 
 situation which was absolutely illegal. 
 
 Until now the name of no one had been pronounced 
 as that of a probable successor to Charles X., for the 
 deposition of the King had not even been hinted at, 
 and nothing had been determined. ‘The editors of the 
 National, probably apprehensive that an arrangement 
 might be concluded, which would have again destroyed 
 all liberal reforms, took the first step in attracting 
 the public mind to a new Government. On the 30th 
 of July they distributed throughout the capital a 
 placard setting forth the impossibility of Charles X. 
 returning to Paris, the difficulties of the re-establish- 
 ment of a Republic, and ending with the recom- 
 mendation that the nation should offer to the Duke 
 of Orleans the crown of France. ‘This suggestion 
 met with general approval. But no one knew where 
 the Duke was to be found, whether he was in the 
 country, and even if he would accept the offer. 
 M. Thiers and the celebrated painter, Ary Scheffer, 
 who had given drawing lessons to the Duke’s 
 daughters, went to .Neuilly and were received by 
 the Duchess and her sister-in-law, Princess Adelaide. 
 The first showed herself surprised and dissatisfied; the 
 second declared that her family was at the. disposal 
 of France, and offered to inform her brother of the 
 request. 
 
 On the return of the two delegates to the Palais 
 Bourbon, where the deputies were assembled, a Com- 
 mittee of five members was sent to the House of 
 
1830.] THE RESTORATION. 283 
 
 Peers, to propose the nomination of the Duke of 
 Orleans as Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom. At 
 the same time arrived a messenger from Charles X. 
 revoking the decrees of the 25th; but the unanimous 
 answer of the deputies, uninfluenced by the some- 
 what wavering attitude of the Peers, was that the 
 revocation came too late. A message was sent to the 
 Duke of Orleans to inform him of the resolution 
 arrived at, and Charles X. had ceased to reign. 
 
 When the Duke received the news that the crown 
 of France had been offered to him, he went to Paris 
 to consult Laffitte, who informed of this arrival the 
 Committee deputed by the Chamber to offer the 
 Prince the Lieutenant-Generalship. The Duke still 
 hesitated to accept the proffered post but was pre- 
 vailed upon by the deputies, who told him that his 
 refusal would inevitably entail the establishment of 
 a Republic. This determined him, and a short 
 proclamation was published, acquainting the Chambers 
 and the nation with his decision, and ending with 
 these memorable words—‘“ Henceforth the Charter 
 shall be a reality.” Shortly afterwards an inter- 
 view with Lafayette took place at the Hotel de 
 Ville, when the General frankly declared that he 
 could have wished France to have become a Re- 
 public; but that, seeing the impossibility of per- 
 manently introducing it, he was prepared to support 
 faithfully a monarchy surrounded by so many Re- 
 publican institutions. The Duke and the General 
 subsequently appeared together on the balcony of the 
 
284. THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830. 
 
 Hotel de Ville, and the former was virtually accepted 
 as the chief of the new dynasty. 
 
 However much Lafayette has been blamed for not 
 introducing a Republican government in 1830, it should 
 not be overlooked that he well knew the dangers attendant 
 upon such a step, that he was perfectly aware of the 
 small number of Republicans then existing in France, 
 and of the slight hold their opinions had upon 
 the masses. He accepted what he thought to be the 
 best Government for his country, and if he sacrificed 
 his ideal Republic he at least endeavoured to do that 
 which was practicable. 
 
 The deposed King was still at Saint-Cloud, deserted 
 by many of the soldiers and by several of his courtiers, 
 who went to seek their fortune elsewhere. Charles X. 
 decided upon removing to the royal chateau of Ram- 
 bouillet, about twenty-five miles from Paris, with 
 his body-guards, his Swiss troops, and other soldiers, 
 whose fidelity was, however, doubtful. The new 
 Government resolved to terrify him, and allowed 
 a body of six or seven thousand armed men, without 
 any order or fixed plan, either on foot or in different 
 vehicles, to start for the castle where the aged monarch 
 was. ‘The Chamber had already sent three delegates 
 to watch officially over the safety of the ex-King, 
 and officiously to induce him to leave Franee as quickly 
 as possible. When the delegates arrived (8rd August) 
 Charles X. and the Duke d’Angouléme had already 
 signed their abdication in favour of the King’s grand- 
 son, the Duke de Bordeaux, and had appointed the 
 
1830. ] THE RESTORATION. 285 
 
 Duke of Orleans regent, with the title of Lieutenant- 
 General. 
 
 It was finally resolved that the King and his 
 family should embark at Cherbourg. During the 
 journey, which lasted a fortnight, the inhabitants of 
 the villages and towns which they traversed received 
 them without uttermg any exclamations, but when 
 they arrived at their place of embarkation they found 
 the populace very excited and the town itself every- 
 where decorated with the tricolour. The harbour of 
 Cherbourg was, at that time, separated from the city 
 by a large circular railing, and whilst the old King, 
 his relatives, and suite, went on board two American 
 vessels, the Great Britain and the Charles Caroll, 
 which were the property of some members of the 
 Bonaparte family, a great number of people crowded 
 against the other side of the railings, animated by feel- 
 ings of indignation or compassion. Before Charles X. 
 left he recommended the pensioners of the civil 
 list to the generosity of the conquerors, whilst his 
 body-guards, which had already handed to him their 
 standards, and accompanied him thus far, took their 
 leave. “Then it was necessary to depart." Standing 
 on deck, the old King bade farewell to France. And, 
 taken in tow by a steamer, the Great Britain unturled 
 her sails, whilst the guards ascended in silence the 
 Cherbourg coast. Some spectators who had lingered 
 on the shore followed with their eyes the track of this 
 vessel on the waves, when they saw her suddenly 
 
 1 Louis Blane, Histoire de Dia Ans, bk. i, ch. 10. 
 
286 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOOH. (1830. 
 
 turn round, and quickly retake the direction of the 
 harbour. Was this in consequence of some violent 
 order given by Charles X. to the crew? This might 
 have been dreaded; but everything had been carefully 
 foreseen. A brig, commanded by Capain Thibault, 
 had received orders to accompany the Great Britain, 
 and to sink her in case Charles X. should attempt 
 to act as a master. This relentless foresight was not 
 justified by subsequent events. The ship only returned 
 to fetch some provisions, which had been forgotten 
 amidst the disaster which overwhelmed the descendant 
 of several generations of Kings. When everything was 
 ready for departure, the order was given to start. The 
 Bourbons set sail towards England, taking perhaps 
 the same road on the ocean that formerly the vessel 
 which bore the conquered Stuarts had taken. There 
 was no tempest in the sky; the wind swelled the sails, 
 and the ship disappeared on the sea.”’ 
 
 Thus finished the Restoration, a result produced by 
 the innate obstinacy of the Bourbons as well as by the 
 natural course of events, and which brought about a 
 Revolution really confined to Paris, but with which 
 the whole of France sympathised. The sole conflict 
 that took place in favour of the fallen dynasty was at 
 Nantes, but it was of no importance. The Bourbons, 
 who had returned to France amidst enthusiasm, de- 
 parted amidst indifference. 
 
Book Off. 
 
 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 § I.—THE BEGINNING OF THE ORLEANS DYNASTY. 
 (from the 3rd of August, 1830, to the 28th of July, 1836.) 
 
 Tue first act of the Lieutenant-General, King of France 
 in all but the name, was to convoke the Chambers for the 
 3rd of August, the date originally fixed by Charles X., 
 but which had been indefinitely postponed by the decree 
 of the 25th of July, dissolving the Legislative. In 
 accordance with this initiative appeal of the Republican 
 Government, the session opened on the day appointed, 
 and after a short address of the Lieutenant-General, at 
 once proceeded to the verification of the deputies elected. 
 Several of the elections were invalidated because the — 
 secrecy of the ballot had been tampered with. On the 7th, 
 the Chamber of Deputies discussed the modifications to be 
 introduced into the Charter, which was no longer granted 
 to the nation by the King, but imposed by the former 
 on the monarch, as the first and principal condition of 
 sovereignty. Article 14 was worded in such a way as 
 to be no more susceptible of sophistical or ambiguous 
 interpretations. The prescribed age for candidates was 
 reduced, the septennial Legislature changed into an 
 
288 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830, 
 
 integral renewal of the Chamber every five years, and 
 Roman Catholicism was abolished as the religion of 
 the State, though it was officially stated that it was 
 the creed professed by the majority of Frenchmen ; the 
 censorship ceased to exist; the jury was reinstated for 
 all offences of the press laws; the tricolour was adopted 
 as the national flag; the organisation of the peerage, 
 the liberty of instruction, and various other questions 
 were postponed till further discussion. 
 
 To the Charter was prefaced a declaration, stating 
 that the throne was vacant de facto et de jure, and that 
 it was necessary to provide for its being filled. The 
 amended text of the new Charter followed this preamble. 
 Then came the request to the Duke of Orleans to take 
 the oath to the Charter and the institutions which it 
 defined ; and after his acceptance and oath before both 
 Chambers assembled, to assume the title of King of the 
 French. 
 
 The Chamber of Deputies adopted these measures 
 by two hundred and nineteen against thirty-three 
 votes, notwithstanding the protest of several Royalists 
 against the proclamation of deposition and transfer of 
 the crown. ‘They abstained from voting, and gave up 
 their seats afterwards. 
 
 In the House of Peers the only dissentient voice 
 was Chateaubriand’s, who vindicated the rights of the: 
 young Henry V., though he rendered homage to the 
 energy and legality of the resistance of the Parisians, 
 while condemning the councillors of the King, who 
 had provoked this resistance. The great author an- 
 
1830. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 289 
 
 nounced at the same time his retirement from political 
 life. 
 
 The deposition of the elder branch being thus 
 officially accomplished, Louis Philippe accepted the 
 title of King of the French, and proceeded to the 
 composition of his first Cabinet (11th August), while 
 on the same day the Royal Guards were disbanded. 
 General Lafayette was invested with the temporary 
 command of all the National Guards, which were 
 rapidly re-organised. ‘They were intended to form the 
 basis of a military system which would considerably 
 decrease the cost of a standing army. 
 
 Every revolution, however shght, tends more or less 
 to suspend work and industry, and this last one was 
 no exception to the almost general rule. Bands of 
 destitute artisans, clamouring for work and assistance, 
 were perambulating the streets of Paris, and the 
 Government hastened to lay before the Chambers 
 a bill authorismg it to raise a credit of five million 
 francs to provide for these pressing wants. Many 
 masters and manufacturers, notably the master-printers, 
 created, as it were, new enterprises, in order to provide 
 employment. But notwithstanding all that the Govern- 
 ment and private energy could do, some disturbances, 
 which led to no grave consequences, were caused by 
 this enforced idleness. 
 
 Four of the late Ministers of Charles X. having 
 been arrested on various parts of French territory, 
 public opinion demanded their prosecution, and almost 
 their death. Both Chambers decided that they should 
 
 t 
 
290 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830. 
 
 be prosecuted; and they were confined to Vincennes 
 during the drawing up of the indictment. Meanwhile, 
 a deputy, Victor de Tracy, presented a bill for the aboli- 
 tion of capital punishment. He, as well as others, feared 
 that the desire for vengeance might be the cause of 
 sanguinary reprisals, the more to be regretted, as the 
 Revolution had shed no blood, save in battle. The 
 King, whose inclinations were all for mercy, and whose 
 dislike for inflicting death made him even abandon the 
 chase, was in favour of this proposed bill, and so were 
 several of the Ministers, but the public considered it a 
 means to shield Polignac and his accomplices from the 
 punishment that might overtake them. Nevertheless, 
 the bill might possibly have passed, but for the objec- 
 tions of the magistrates and military authorities against 
 the sudden adoption of a measure which entailed an entire 
 modification of penal legislation. In this emergency it 
 was referred to a select Committee to report upon. 
 
 On the 18th of August the Chamber of Deputies 
 discharged, as it were, a debt of gratitude, by voting a 
 bill for granting pensions to the widows and orphans 
 of those who had perished during the combats of the 
 three days of July. Various other measures were in- 
 troduced to satisfy public opinion with regard to 
 election practices, especially one which obliged a candi- 
 date to seek again the suffrages of his constituency in 
 case of his accepting an office under Government, as 
 is done in England. The church of Sainte-Geneviéve 
 was reconstituted as a Pantheon for the sepulture of 
 eminent men. 
 
1830.] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 291 
 
 On the 29th of August, the King, accompanied by 
 Lafayette, reviewed the National Guards in the Champ 
 de Mars. The enthusiastic reception which he received 
 left no doubt about the satisfaction felt on all sides, 
 nor was Louis Philippe less prompt in testifying his 
 delight at these marks of public affection. 
 
 This general joy was shortly to be marred by the 
 report that the Duke de Bourbon had committed 
 suicide. ‘The partisans of the elder branch insinuated | 
 that the new King had incited the Duke’s mistress, the 
 Baroness de Feuchéres, to murder the old nobleman, 
 because Louis Philippe feared that his son, the Duke 
 d’Aumile, the probable heir of the Duke de Bourbon, 
 might be disinherited. The news of this death, received 
 the morning after the review held in the Champ de Mars, 
 excited public opinion, and was eagerly taken advantage 
 of by the King’s political antagonists. Howsoever dis- 
 agreeable these innuendoes might have been to Louis 
 Philippe and his family personally, they contributed in 
 no way to embarrass his Government, in the position in 
 which it found itself with regard to the other Huropean 
 Powers, who might have objected to the expulsion of 
 a royal dynasty, which they had helped to restore 
 in 1815. That they did not do so was simply be- 
 cause the allied sovereigns had aimed in 1815 less at 
 the reinstatement of the Bourbons than at the irre- 
 vocable exclusion of Napoleon and his family. If 
 France, in resorting to a Revolution, did not at the 
 same time put into action Imperial ideas of conquest, 
 the European Powers did not feel called upon to declare 
 
 ¢ 2 
 
292 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830. 
 
 war against her out of mere inclination for monarchs 
 by divine right. 
 
 Besides, the condition of affairs had changed. Apart 
 from his inherent love of peace, which was carried even 
 to extremes, Louis Philippe was scarcely the man to 
 disturb European peace in order to undertake a crusade 
 for the sake of seeing the tricolour wave on the Rhine, 
 the Pyrenees, or the Alps. As long as France was 
 left the sole arbiter of her own destinies, she had no 
 wish to kindle strife elsewhere. That is what Louis 
 Philippe notified to the foreign Cabinets on the morrow 
 of his accession; and the anxiety aroused by the 
 three days of July subsided. England was the first 
 to recognise the new Government. All the other 
 States, save three—the Emperor of Russia, the King 
 of Spain, and the Duke of Modena—followed England's 
 example. With remarkable good sense, Louis Philippe 
 took little or no notice of the slight, which induced 
 the three sovereigns to reconsider the matter, and offer 
 voluntarily what they had at first refused. 
 
 Truth to tell, the extreme peaceful disposition of 
 the new King was hardly in accordance with the 
 feelings of the majority of the French nation. There 
 was dormant within her a sentiment of aggression, 
 and under the cloak of resentment against the 
 Bourbons, she was thirsting to revenge the defeats 
 sustained in 1814, and the treaties which were the 
 consequence of it. ‘The glorious battles of the Revo- 
 lution and the Empire found at every fireside 
 poets, who, not content with describing them in the 
 
1830. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 293 
 
 most glowing colours, opposed to them as contrasts 
 the humiliations of the Bourbons, brought back in the 
 wake of the foreigner. To sweep away the latter from 
 the territory that had once belonged by right of conquest 
 to France, and to avenge Waterloo, was the cherished 
 dream of those who had fought under Napoleon ; and 
 if these veterans were too old they wished to bequeath 
 that duty to their sons and brothers, younger, though 
 not more energetic than they were. The Restoration 
 understood this craving, and had endeavoured by 
 diplomatic combinations to regain for France the left 
 bank of the Rhine, of which public opinion regretted 
 the loss, not perhaps from love of aggrandisement, 
 but because its possession by Prussia was an indubi- 
 table proof of military humiliation. It is doubtful, 
 therefore, whether its peaceful transfer to France by 
 its present possessors would have satisfied those 
 who had not yet forgotten the conquests made by 
 the Republic and the Empire, who were content to 
 forget the misery and desolation caused by the Revolu- 
 tion, the despotism and the exorbitant requisitions of ~ 
 the Empire, to remember nothing but its brilliant 
 deeds and warlike struggles. Until recently the enthu- 
 siasm evoked by the grand Republican epoch had de- 
 pended chiefly upon the verbal transmission of its eye- 
 witnesses, but when M. Thiers’ dramatic narrative of 
 the History of the French Revolution appeared,’ the 
 admiration knew no bounds, and there was created a 
 
 1M. Thiers’ History of the French Revolution, from 1789 to the 18th 
 of Brumaire, was published in parts from the years 1823 until 1827, 
 
294. THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. (1830. 
 
 kind of revolutionary legend growing more intense 
 day by day, and which is lasting still. Various in- 
 fluences had combined to place the just wars of the 
 Revolution and the iniquitous struggles of the Hmpire 
 on the same line. Napoleon was regarded as the 
 founder of French grandeur, as the victim of monarchs, 
 as the apostle of liberty; and if his son had appeared 
 at the opportune moment in July, 1830, it 1s probable 
 that an irresistible impulse on the part of the nation 
 would have proclaimed him Emperor. 
 
 From these undefined sentiments, scarcely under- 
 stood, and owing more to impulse than to deliberate 
 analysis, there arose a current of bellicose passion 
 taking various shapes, but all tending to embroil France 
 into war with her neighbours for the sake of propa- 
 gating a crusade of universal Republicanism. ‘This 
 would at any time have been embarrassing to the new 
 Kang and his Government, but peculiar circumstances 
 combined just now to invest this tendency with a more 
 serious aspect. England, but especially France, was 
 filled with the most eminent advocates of Spanish . 
 Liberalism, whom the sanguinary despotism of Fer- 
 dinand VII. had driven from their country. The late 
 French Government, which had restored Ferdinand 
 to the Spanish throne, had been overthrown, and he 
 had refused to acknowledge the new monarchy. No 
 better opportunity could be desired to induce the French 
 Republicans to make common cause with their Spanish 
 brethren. An invasion was planned, arms bought, 
 subscriptions raised, and two different bands entered 
 
1830. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 295 
 
 Spain, which were driven’ back. The Spanish King 
 hastened to acknowledge Louis Philippe, and the 
 latter was obliged to check all further attempts of the 
 Spanish Liberals and their friends, to which hitherto 
 he had shut his eyes. The refugees complained, and 
 the French Republicans, who shared their opinions, 
 blamed the Government; but they forgot or over- 
 looked the fact that such offences against international 
 law could be tolerated no longer the moment the two 
 kingdoms had resumed their official relations. 
 
 On the 2nd of September, the Chamber of De- 
 puties passed a bill which allowed all political exiles 
 to re-enter France, with the exception of the Bonaparte 
 family. This was a measure of security rendered 
 necessary to public peace, though Louis Philippe 
 himself was far from being hostile to the members 
 of that dynasty. This official act of justice was fol- 
 lowed by a popular demonstration in honour of those 
 who, under the Restoration, had vindicated the cause of 
 liberty at the cost of their lives. On the 22nd of Sep- 
 tember, the anniversary of the death of the well-known 
 four sergeants of La Rochelle, a public meeting took 
 place at Paris, on the Place de Gréve, and a petition 
 was signed requesting the abolition of capital punish- 
 ment for political offences—a generous action, the 
 more so, as the four Ministers of Charles X., who 
 had given orders to shed the blood of the Paris popu- 
 lation, and whose death was clamoured for, were then 
 in prison. In consequence of this popular ebullition of 
 feeling, it was officially decided that the scaffold would 
 
296 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830. 
 
 never more be erected on the Place de Gréve, and this 
 law has been faithfully adhered to. 
 
 It is with the human mind after the strong: 
 emotions of a revolution as with the ocean after a 
 violent storm ; it does not resume its calm all at once, 
 but remains for some time agitated by the ground-swell 
 of conflicting currents. Now that the Government 
 was once more firmly established, there were not 
 wanting various elements of dissension, which, under 
 the Restoration, had been united, but became now 
 again subdivided into Republicans, Bonapartists, and 
 a new faction, the Legitimists. Added to these, a 
 novel kind of opposition showed itself under the name 
 of Socialism, including the disciples of Saint-Simon 
 and Fourier. These latter were mostly bent upon 
 accomplishing their reforms in a peaceful spirit; the 
 political form of Government was almost indifferent 
 to them, provided they were left free to meet without 
 being disturbed, and to ventilate their opinions in the 
 furthering of their cherished ideal of a community 
 founded upon the system of every one employing his 
 natural or acquired aptitudes for the benefit of his 
 fellow-creatures. Foolishly enough the Government 
 saw fit to imterfere with these and similar meetings ; 
 and as a consequence the clubs disappeared, but they 
 were replaced by secret societies. Before their dissolu- 
 tion, these societies had time, however, to organise a 
 battalion which was sent to take part in the emancipa- 
 tion of Belgium, in revolt against the Dutch. 
 
 Since 1815 Holland and Belgium had been united 
 
1830. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 297 
 
 under one dynasty, that of the House of Nassau. The 
 union could never be and never was cordial. The two 
 populations differed too much in every respect, in 
 religion, mind, and manners. The hostility was ever 
 latent, and, instigated by the success of the Revolution 
 in France, it broke out openly in August, 1830. The 
 Dutch troops entered Brussels, but public feeling was 
 too much against them, and they had to retire; a month 
 later the whole of Belgium was in rebellion. 
 
 Prussia as a co-signatory of the treaty of 1815, 
 prepared to send troops into Belgium, for this revolt 
 constituted a violation of that treaty and changed 
 as 1t were the organisation of one of the Huropean 
 States. France was opposed to this plan, and declared 
 that a French army would enter at the same time 
 as the Prussians. This threat put a stop to all 
 further hostilities, and the question was referred to a 
 diplomatic conference in London, which pronounced 
 the separation of the two countries, to the great 
 chagrin of the French, who would willingly have an- 
 nexed Belgium, in spite of the opposition of the natives 
 themselves, and the decision of the other Powers, 
 unwilling to stand by and see France extend her 
 territory. Though accused of sacrificing the interest 
 of his country to the consolidation of his dynasty, 
 the French King with sound good sense preferred not 
 to go to war. 
 
 Louis Philippe’s Ministry was not so united as could — 
 have been desired. His first Cabinet had been re- 
 cruited from the various shades of the former Opposition. 
 
298 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830, 
 
 Thus composed, the diversity had become antagonism, 
 and the Ministers were divided amongst themselves, for 
 some belonged to the ‘party of resistance,” as the 
 partisans of a Constitutional monarchy were cailed, 
 others to the “ party of progress,” a name given to the 
 more advanced Liberals. ‘The King himself leaned 
 towards the former, but in the presence of a people, 
 still proud of the victory of its reconquered rights, 
 Tiouis Philippe felt the necessity of conciliating the 
 party of progress. ‘T’he dissension among the Cabinet 
 first showed itself on the occasion of the discussion on 
 the bill for abolishing capital punishment. The King’s 
 personal feelings were in favour of the bill, and he con- 
 veyed to the Chamber his intention of deferring in all 
 things to its wishes (October 9). There is little doubt 
 that this sentiment was inspired by the desire to pre- 
 vent the four former Ministers of Charles X. from being 
 sentenced to capital punishment, which sentence, once 
 pronounced, it would have been difficult not to execute. 
 In spite of the petition signed on the Place de Gréve 
 three weeks ago, in spite of the evident desire of the 
 Chamber and the King, the newspapers of the Oppo- 
 sition discussed the proposed bill most violently, and 
 excited great irritation amongst the Paris population. 
 This led to a riot, and crowds of people entered the 
 Palais Royal. Driven from there, they went to Vin- 
 cennes, shouting, “Down with Polignac. Death to 
 the Ministers.” The firm attitude of the governor of 
 that fortress soon convinced them that any attempt 
 upon the former Ministers would be resisted to the 
 
1830. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 299 
 
 utmost ; they returned to Paris, continued their demon- 
 strations for one or two evenings, and then finally dis- 
 persed. M. Guizot, one of the Ministers and the leader 
 of the “party of resistance,’ would have had these 
 rioters severely punished, the other members of the 
 Cabinet insisted upon moderation and conciliation. The 
 counsels of the latter prevailed, and thereupon MM. 
 Guizot, de Broglie, Louis, Molé, Casimir Périer, and 
 Dupin resigned. 
 
 On the 8th of December died Benjamin Constant, 
 president of the Council of State, and formerly one of 
 the most eminent members of the Opposition. His 
 funeral gave rise to some disturbances, which were soon 
 suppressed. 
 
 Meanwhile, the indictment against the four ex- 
 Ministers of Charles X. having been drawn up, the 
 prisoners were brought before the bar of the Upper 
 House on the 10th of December, and the proceedings 
 were throughout conducted in a spirit of moderation, 
 which was but once departed from on the side of the 
 prosecution. 
 
 While the Peers were engaged upon their judicial 
 duties, with an appearance of calmness at least, the 
 building in which they held their sittings was sur- 
 rounded by a threatening crowd with difficulty held 
 back by the National Guards. During the tnal 
 Lafayette employed all his energy to prevent an 
 outbreak of popular feeling; for many persons, with 
 a strange inconsistency, now demanded what some 
 weeks ago they had unanimously wished to abolish. 
 
300 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830. 
 
 Nevertheless, capital punishment was not pronounced 
 on the political culprits; they were condemned to 
 imprisonment for life, and the sentence was commuted 
 to one of transportation, though France had no place 
 to which to send them. 
 
 Popular feeling demurred against this sentence, 
 which was considered too lenient. Though the National 
 Guards shared in the general opinion, a conflict had 
 nearly occurred between them and the working popula- 
 tion. The authorities appealed to the loyalty of the 
 students of the various schools, who, joining the Guards, 
 perambulated the capital, counselling peace and submis- 
 sion to the laws. Both those defenders of public order 
 were the subject of a vote of thanks of the Assembly, 
 which was officially rejected by the young men, because 
 some deputies had blamed them for having expressed 
 the hope, that order being once established, liberty 
 should be granted. They were incensed that the free- 
 dom of expressing their opinions, for which they had 
 shed their blood in the three days of July, should now 
 be conceded to them conditionally. 
 
 The Chamber of Deputies became aware of the 
 danger of concentrating in one person the whole com- 
 mand of the National Guards, because it gave to 
 its possessor a power far greater than that of any 
 other authority. It was probably satisfied of the in- 
 tegrity and single-mindedness of Lafayette, who at 
 present held this post, but it could not insure the 
 same qualities in his successor, and therefore a bill was 
 introduced prohibiting any one person from holding the 
 
1830. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 301 
 
 command of all the National Guards, or even of those 
 of one department or arrondissement. The moment 
 Lafayette learned this he tendered his resignation, 
 which was reluctantly accepted by the King. The 
 latter would have acted wisely if he had created 
 another post for the great Republican General, who 
 had sacrificed his opinions in placing Louis Philippe 
 on the throne, an event which he might have easily 
 prevented. Some persons even averred that the new 
 monarch was but too glad to md himself of an 
 auxilhary who might have become embarrassing. At 
 any rate, Lafayette, after he had given up his 
 command, became, as it were, the chief of an Oppo- 
 sition, which, without aiming at the overthrow of the 
 dynasty, desired rather to consolidate it, by bringing 
 it back to a system more consistent with its origin; 
 these attempts were, however, often dangerous to its 
 safety. 
 
 Contrary to his expectations, but as might have 
 been foreseen, Marshal de Bourmont had discovered 
 that the taking of Algiers and the subjugation of the 
 surrounding districts meant two different things. He 
 nevertheless organised some effectual expeditions 
 against the Arabs; but after the July days he was 
 replaced in his command by General Clausel, who 
 continued the energetic measures of his predecessor, 
 but without any great results, owing to the recall of 
 various troops and the stubborn resistance of the enemy. 
 
 The Conference of London had signed, on the 
 3rd of February, the final protocol which separated 
 
302 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1830. 
 
 Greece from Turkey, and constituted it an independent 
 State. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg was offered the 
 vacant throne, but he refused; and the Powers were 
 reduced to find another prince willing to accept the 
 honour. France had played an important part in the 
 emancipation of Greece from Turkish rule, and what- 
 ever may be thought at the present day of the inefficient 
 rule of this kingdom, it 1s certain that the French 
 Government does not deserve to be blamed for this. 
 The diplomatists of Europe, instead of completing the 
 work begun, deemed it fit to curtail Greece’s inde- 
 pendence by withholding from her the territory to 
 which she was entitled, and which would have made 
 of her a kingdom, not only capable of resisting the 
 encroachments of her neighbours, but sufficiently strong 
 to form a community which could have dispensed with 
 foreign aid. 
 
 The French Revolution had kindled throughout 
 Europe an impulse towards more liberal institutions, of 
 which nearly every country availed herself to attempt 
 to abolish the tyrannic encroachments of her rulers. 
 Many nations failed in their attempts, but some of 
 the minor States of Germany succeeded in obtaining 
 a Constitution, whilst popular demonstrations in Savoy 
 and Milan were promptly suppressed. In Poland the 
 Revolution assumed serious proportions; the Grand 
 Duke Constantin, brother of the Czar, was compelled 
 to withdraw his troops from the latter country; and a 
 Provisional Government was formed under the dictator- 
 
 ship of Chlopicki, an old general of Napoleon. A 
 
1830-31. ] THE REHIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 303 
 
 number of Republicans in France demanded that the 
 Government should aid the Polish insurgents, but 
 political reasons prevented this, and Poland was left 
 to herself, destined to perish. 
 
 The Revolution of Belgium having terminated by 
 the declaration of her independence and her erection 
 into a monarchy, there remained nothing but to choose 
 a King from among the foreign princes available for 
 such an exalted position. Three candidates were: pro- 
 posed, the Archduke Charles of Austria, the Duke de 
 Nemours, and the: Duke of Leuchtenberg, a son of 
 Prince Kugéne de Beauharnais. 
 
 Louis Philippe was not only opposed to the annexa- 
 tion of Belgium to France, but had intimated that he 
 would not accept the crown of this kingdom for any 
 of his sons. The election of the Duke of Leuchten- 
 berg was also objected to by the Powers. The new 
 kingdom paid no regard to these objections, and in 
 the Belgian National Congress the Duke de Nemours 
 received ninety-seven out of a hundred and ninety- 
 two votes, the Duke de Leuchtenberg seventy-four, and 
 the Archduke Charles the remaining twenty-one. 
 
 Thanking the Belgian deputation, which had been 
 sent to announce this election, for the great honour 
 . done to his son, Louis Philippe persisted nevertheless 
 in his refusal (February 17th, 1831), basing it upon 
 the disastrous consequences which had accrued to France 
 by the attempts of Louis XIV. and Napoleon to 
 impose princes of their dynasty on neighbouring 
 countries. He, moreover, counselled the Belgians to 
 
304 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1831. 
 
 select a monarch whose nomination should not give rise 
 to a disturbance of the peace of Europe. 
 
 While France was thus trying to insure the peace 
 of a neighbouring State, her own was broken once more 
 by the intrigues of the Legitimist and clerical parties, 
 who organised demonstrations on the anniversary of the 
 death of Louis XVI. Emboldened by the indifference 
 of the Parisians, which they accounted at least a negative 
 success, these parties announced in their newspapers that 
 a public demonstration would be held in the church 
 of Saint-Roch (February 13th) to celebrate a service in 
 commemoration of the death of the Duke de Berry, 
 assassinated eleven years before. 
 
 This time the authorities interfered. The clericals 
 transferred the ceremony to the church of Saint- 
 Germain ]’Auxerrois, but the mob, who saw in this 
 manifestation a challenge of the priests to the Parisian 
 population got excited, broke into the church, demolished 
 everything, and, not content with this, sacked, on the 
 following day, the palace of the Archbishop of Paris. 
 To prevent a recurrence of these scenes, the authorities 
 were obliged to take down the crosses outside the 
 public places of worship, and also the emblems in 
 which the lilies of the Bourbons were displayed. Even 
 the King had these flowers effaced from his escutcheons, 
 and from his carriages, as well as from the liveries of 
 his servants. 
 
 The bad news from Poland provided the Parisians 
 with another opportunity for tumultuous proceed- 
 ings. ‘They went in crowds to the Russian Embassy, 
 
1831. ] THEH REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 305 
 
 and broke every window in the building (March 10th). 
 The Ministers being harassed by dissensions, which 
 compromised their authority with the Chambers, not- 
 withstanding their honourable attempts to ameliorate 
 the state of the existing laws, at last offered their 
 resignation, leaving the King to form another Cabinet. 
 In spite of their difference of opinions, Louis 
 Philippe entrusted Casimir Périer with the task of 
 forming a new Ministry, which the latter undertook, 
 on condition, however, of choosing for his colleagues 
 only those who should agree with his views. On 
 the 13th of March the new Cabinet was complete, 
 and Casimir Périer, the President of the Council, 
 took the portfolio of the Interior. He had all 
 the firmness necessary for a good Munister; unfor- 
 tunately, he disdained to be guided by the wishes of 
 the majority, or even to listen to a minority; he could 
 not brook opposition; his was the “ party of resistance,” 
 which did not endeavour to convince its opponents, 
 but sought rather to crush them, and, therefore, not 
 seldom converted them into enemies. Popular demon- 
 strations were to him a bugbear, and he looked upon 
 them as so many threats to public order. In the 
 course of his career, he never recovered from the 
 terror inspired by the beginnings of the Revolution of 
 July; consequently the first measure he proposed 
 to the Chambers was a law against gatherings in 
 the streets, and which authorised the military to fire 
 after three summonses to disperse. The freedom of 
 debate in public meetings inspired him with no less 
 u 
 
306 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1831. 
 
 fear. ‘The principle of the Revolution,’ he said, 
 ‘is not insurrection; it is resistance against the aggres- 
 sion of authority.” How he would have resisted this 
 aggression, unless by the same tactics as those employed 
 in England, which he equally condemned, he never 
 explained. His intentions were, no doubt, excellent, 
 but he considered the Charter as perfect, and not 
 open to progressive improvement. 
 
 At the end of the previous year France had, through 
 the mouth of her then Prime Minister, Laffitte, expressly 
 formulated the principle of non-intervention, provided 
 the other Powers consented to adopt the same. But 
 when the Austrians now declared that they would 
 intervene by force of arms in the Italian Peninsula, 
 France stood calmly by, and maintained the theory of 
 peace at any price, provoking the exclamation of 
 General Lafayette that such conduct was incompatible 
 with the dignity of a great country. 
 
 This disinclination for war was carried too far 
 perhaps; and the Legitimists began to attempt, with- 
 out much success, to undermine the new dynasty by 
 intrigues, which had proved so disastrously successful 
 in 1793 im the Vendée. The King, on his journey 
 through the east of France, was well received every- 
 where, and this apart from the fictitious enthusiasm 
 always attaching more or less to the reception of a 
 new monarch. ‘There was a real and warm sympathy 
 felt for the King, ‘‘ sprung from the barricades ;” and 
 the rural populations, little accessible to the secondary 
 causes which excite the Parisians, were not displeased 
 
1831.] THK REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 307 
 
 with Louis Philippe for maintaining peace under any 
 circumstances. Shortly before the King’s journey the 
 Chambers were dissolved and the new Legislative 
 convoked for the 23rd of July; two hundred and 
 twenty-two deputies of 1830 were re-elected. 
 
 The King himself opened the session for 1831, and 
 in his speech from the throne intimated that he had 
 offered to mediate in the affairs of Poland. Laffitte, 
 the Prime Minister of the former Cabinet, but now 
 a member of the Opposition, was named President of 
 the Chamber, and two out of the four vice-presidents 
 were of the same party. The debate on the King’s 
 speech was very stormy, the Government being re- 
 proached with having left Italy and Poland to their 
 fate. 
 
 The Count de Montalembert, trusting to a clause 
 in the Charter which admitted liberty of instruction, 
 opened a school, which was closed by order of the 
 Government. Being tried before the Chamber of Peers, 
 a fine of a hundred frances was inflicted. The news of 
 the fall of Warsaw caused also great agitation in Paris 
 and in the Chambers. 
 
 On the 18th of October the hereditary right of the 
 eldest sons of peers to a seat in the Upper Chamber 
 was annulled by the Chamber of Deputies, and on 
 the following day the Government created thirty-six 
 new peers, the deputies having meanwhile passed a law 
 proscribing the members of the elder Bourbon branch 
 from entering French territory. On the 20th of the 
 next month a terrible insurrection broke out at Lyons, 
 
 u 2 
 
308 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1831-2. 
 
 caused by trade disputes. The troops and part of the 
 National Guards were driven from the town, which 
 remained at the mercy of the working men. When, 
 however, the Duke of Orleans and the Minister of 
 War arrived with an army, they found no difficulty in 
 quelling the disturbances, without any bloodshed. 
 
 A scourge more terrible and difficult to subjugate 
 than any of humanity's own making appeared in the 
 beginning of the following year (1832). ‘Travelling 
 from the depths of Asia into Poland, the cholera, 
 with one bound as it were, swooped down upon 
 England. ‘The towns on the French coast of the 
 Channel were in hourly expectation of this dread 
 visitant, the more terror-inspiring from his unknown 
 nature. On the 26th of March, amidst the rejoicings 
 of the mid-Lent day, the first victim fell in Paris. 
 For a few hours the popular tumult concealed the 
 horrible news. But the following morning the entrances 
 of the hospitals were blocked by agonised sufferers. 
 Whole quarters of the capital had been attacked. 
 When a mysterious epidemic like this breaks out, the 
 first cry of the ignorant is, ‘‘ We are poisoned.” Sus- 
 picion catches hold of the slightest imaginary motive, 
 and suspicion meant death to the individual suspected. 
 For one hundred and ninety-eight days the disease 
 raged in the capital with almost unabated violence, carry- 
 ing more than twenty thousand persons to the grave, and 
 amongst them Casimir Périer. The mortality was 
 greatest in Paris, though the sufferings of the provinces 
 were also very severe. 
 
1832. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 309 
 
 Once more an insurrection was attempted in the 
 Vendée, instigated by the presence of the Duchess de 
 Berry. Four departments and several arrondissements 
 having been placed in a state of siege, the disturbances 
 were finally put a stop to by the arrest of Charles X.’s 
 daughter-in-law on the 7th of November. 
 
 The funeral of General Lamarque (June 5th), who 
 had been one of the most popular orators of the Oppo- 
 sition, was the cause of another disturbance. The 
 Republicans hailed it as an opportunity for a counter- 
 demonstration, vying in pomp with the official obsequies 
 of Casimir Périer. The salvoes in honour of the defunct 
 were mistaken for an attack on the population. Ina 
 short time the nearest barrack was invaded, and the 
 few soldiers who were there handed over their arms 
 and provided ammunition. A moment afterwards the 
 struggle had begun. 
 
 With the quickness of lightning the imsurrection 
 spread, and in the evening, in spite of its having no 
 settled plan or chief, it had made itself master of nearly 
 all the left bank of the Seine and about half of 
 the right. Martial law was proclaimed, several 
 arrests were effected, newspapers and journalists were 
 seized—notably Armand Carrel, the editor of the 
 National, who was almost immediately set free, and 
 soon the Republicans, too few in number, scarcely 
 organised, were vanquished by arms; their heroic 
 defeat added perhaps to the prestige of a cause, never 
 without vehement partisans in France. On the 22nd 
 
 of July, the Duke of Reichstadt, son of Napoleon [., 
 
310 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1832. 
 
 died at Schénbrunn, in Austria, at the age of twenty- 
 one. 
 
 Though the treaty signed in London in 1831 
 had proclaimed the independence of Belgium, the 
 King of Holland refused to submit to this decision ; 
 and as he persisted in his refusal, and had sent troops 
 into Belgium, the French army of the north, under 
 Marshal Gérard, stationed on the Belgian frontiers, 
 received orders to occupy that kingdom. Belgium 
 felt herself slighted by this interference, which, 
 though provided for by the treaty above mentioned, 
 imphed, as it were, her inability to fight her own 
 battles ; an implication felt the more bitterly as it was 
 based on truth. Hence a series of misunderstandings 
 and imaginary depreciations, which made the task of 
 the Marshal one of great difficulty. 
 
 In the whole of Belgium the Dutch were masters — 
 only of the citadel of Antwerp. The war was thus, 
 as it were, reduced to a siege, but the siege of a fortress 
 which the greatest military authorities, including 
 the Duke of Wellington, had proclaimed impregnable. 
 Nevertheless the Dutch, under General Chassé, were 
 forced to capitulate (December 23rd), having held out 
 for nearly a month. The garrison was to be disarmed 
 and conducted as far as the frontiers, where their 
 arms should be restored to them, provided the King 
 of Holland would consent to evacuate two forts still 
 in his possession. This condition having been re- 
 fused by the King, the garrison remained prisoners 
 of war. 
 
1832. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 311 
 
 On the occasion of the arrest of the Duchess de 
 Berry, the Government had promised that a bill to 
 decide the fate of the prisoner should be proposed to 
 the Chambers. The law proscribing the elder branch 
 of the Bourbon family had provided no punishment in 
 the event of their transgressing it, for the contingency 
 was regarded as so problematical that no penalty had 
 been deemed necessary. The present infraction, there- 
 fore, embarrassed all parties. The silence with regard 
 to punishment could not mean merely expulsion from 
 France. This would be tantamount to putting a 
 premium upon the repeated attempts of the exiled 
 family ; and to tolerate, as it were, provocations to civil 
 strife and its disastrous consequences. If a new law 
 were passed it could not be applied to the Duchess, 
 whose offence was anterior. If she were tried before 
 the Royal Court of Poitiers and acquitted, it would 
 be a virtual triumph for the adherents of Legitimacy. 
 And on the other hand, she could hardly be executed 
 even if a sentence of death were pronounced. ‘These 
 questions were debated by the newspapers of all parties 
 with a bitterness, which, on the part of the Legitimists, 
 did not even spare the King. 
 
 Public opinion was too vehement not to imfluence 
 the Chambers. Various personal circumstances, affect- 
 ing the health of the Duchess, who became a mother 
 whilst in prison, tended to aggravate the embarrassing 
 situation. At last the Government ordered her to be 
 conducted to Palermo, as soon as she was able to bear 
 the fatigues of the journey, and there she joined her 
 
312 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOOH. [1833. 
 
 second husband, the Count Lucchesi-Palli, whom she 
 had married in secret, during her residence in Italy. | 
 Her accomplices were at the same time acquitted on 
 the plea that the principal author of the conspiracy 
 had been withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the 
 court. 
 
 If the Legitimists were troublesome, the Republicans 
 were more unmanageable still. In spite of its pacific 
 intentions, the Government was forced to fine heavily 
 and to imprison several journalists, who, by figuring 
 as martyrs, added fresh fuel to the cause they so 
 zealously had advocated. 
 
 No government could have taken the cause of 
 France’s welfare more to heart than that of Louis 
 Philippe. Measures both liberal and well-intended 
 were constantly brought forward, the principal work 
 of this year’s session, and which will remain an honour- 
 able monument of Louis Philippe’s reign, being the 
 law on primary education (June 18th). It imposed 
 neither gratuitous nor obligatory instruction, two things 
 still clamoured for by some isolated thinkers; it 
 nevertheless insisted on each Commune having at least 
 one school; no one was allowed to teach unless provided 
 with a certificate of proficiency, the children of the 
 poor had a right to eleemosynary tuition—in short, 
 education received an impulse which could not be 
 arrested even by subsequent laws intended to grant 
 a supremacy to those schools managed by religious 
 congregations. Whatever improvements were intro- 
 duced afterwards owed their efficiency to the 
 
1833. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 313 
 
 valuable basis of these primary measures. Nor were 
 the material wants of France overlooked. Various 
 projects were mooted for the defence of the capital, 
 their execution being embarrassed and delayed by 
 the opposition of the Republicans, who persisted in 
 regarding them as being intended as a means of 
 terrifying Paris rather than of protecting it. 
 
 Meanwhile, the French were but slow in establishing 
 their sway in Algeria. Though the relations with the 
 various tribes assumed more friendly aspects, the chief 
 destined to wage the most formidable struggle against 
 France was emerging from obscurity. That chief was 
 Abd-el-Kader. After several skirmishes, General Des- 
 michels committed the error of signing a treaty with 
 him; and thus tacitly admitted and enhanced that 
 warriors importance by granting him several conces- 
 sions regarded by the Arabs as so many tributes to 
 their valorous resistance, and consequently as so many 
 incentives for prolonging it. 
 
 Notwithstanding the rigorous crusade of the 
 crowned heads of Hurope against anything and every- 
 thing savouring of liberalism and socialism, a new 
 spirit of progress seemed, as it were, to animate the 
 younger generation. In Italy the revolutionary 
 ferment became almost chronic. Joseph Mazzini, 
 aided by the Polish general Ramorino, of Savoy ex- 
 traction, founded the society of Young Italy, destined 
 to lay the foundation-stone of the idea whence was born 
 Italian unity. 
 
 Unfortunately, and contrary to its promising begin- 
 
314, THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. (1834. 
 
 nings, the Government of Louis Philippe felt tempted 
 to imitate the measures of repression indulged in 
 by other sovereigns, and began to deviate from the 
 liberal path it had proposed to itself. In addition 
 to the various attempts at gagging, or at least at 
 circumscribing, the lberty of the press, the Govern- 
 ment now introduced a bill (February 25th) which, 
 whilst theoretically admitting the freedom of public 
 associations for the purpose of political discussion, 
 attacked it in practice by hampering it with the con- 
 dition of preliminary authorisation. The Government 
 overlooked, or rather disregarded, the fact that the 
 formation of similar associations became impossible 
 under such conditions, for the simple reason that 
 the authorities could withhold their sanction if so 
 disposed. 
 
 The debates on this bill were stormy and 
 violent. The deputies opposed to it taunted some 
 of the Ministers with having, under the last reign, 
 belonged to secret societies; and argued that, 
 therefore, they themselves could have been prosecuted 
 by the former Government of Charles X. Never- 
 theless, the bill passed by a majority of a hundred 
 and two votes, and was promulgated on the 10th of 
 April. 
 
 The submission of the Lyons workmen, three years 
 ago, had been but temporary. The struggle between 
 capital and labour had again recommenced; the latter 
 numerically the stronger, but the weaker in culture 
 and financial resources, had gained the upper hand for 
 
1834. | THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 315 
 
 the moment. The workmen had started an associa- 
 tion called the ‘‘ Mutualists,” which, after various 
 negotiations with the masters, ordered a general strike, 
 fortunately soon put an end to by the sensible inter- 
 vention of the most influential of the Republicans. 
 Nevertheless, six Mutualists were prosecuted for un- 
 lawfully assembling, and appeared on the 5th of April 
 before the civil tribunal, which postponed judgment 
 until the 9th. Added to this excitement the news 
 arrived in Lyons of the violent debates in the 
 Chambers on the law on associations, which set the 
 whole of the town in a ferment. The Mutualists 
 were bewailing the fate of their comrades on the point 
 of being condemned ; the members of the various other 
 clubs awaited but the signal of their chiefs to begin an 
 open struggle. When on the 9th the hearing of the 
 case was resumed, a gun was fired in the midst of 
 the speech for the defence, and a workman, killed 
 by a soldier, was carried into court. Nothing more 
 was wanting. <A revolt broke out simultaneously 
 in all parts of the town. For full five days it raged 
 unabated; but on the 14th the town was in the 
 hands of the troops, who had defeated the insurgents, 
 discouraged by the absence of those leaders ape whose 
 assistance they had reckoned. 
 
 The news of the Lyons insurrection caused great 
 excitement in Paris. An expression of M. Thiers in the 
 Chambers, misinterpreted by the Parisians, attributed 
 the victory to the insurgents. The Paris malcontents 
 judged the moment opportune to take up arms 
 
316 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1834. 
 
 also; and a disturbance took place, which lasted for 
 about four-and-twenty hours, though it had no more 
 chance of success than that of Lyons, as its instigator, 
 Captain Kersausie, had been arrested at its very com- 
 mencement. Various other disturbances broke out in 
 the provinces, and, for this reason, the Chamber of 
 Peers was invested with the authority to judge 
 all armed attempts against the State, committed 
 by the members of prohibited associations. A decree 
 of the 15th of April convoked this Court to 
 judge the insurgents of Lyons and other localities. 
 As an additional measure of precaution, the Govern- 
 ment introduced a bill punishing those persons who 
 secreted arms and ammunition, whilst, at the same 
 time, it regulated their sale by manufacturers and 
 dealers. 
 
 On the 20th of May died General Lafayette; and 
 with him disappeared the last of the grand actors of 
 the first Revolution. Twice he had witnessed the 
 fall of the monarchy; the last time he might perhaps 
 have re-established the Republic, if, to the honesty of 
 a Washington, with whom he has so often been 
 compared, he had added the American’s fixity of 
 purpose and energy of will. 
 
 Four days later the sessions terminated, and 
 the following morning a royal decree dissolved 
 the Chambers, convoking the electors for the 2Ist 
 of June, and the new Legislative for the 29th of 
 August. 
 
 For the first time since the fall of the Bourbon 
 
1834. | THH RHIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPH. 317 
 
 dynasty, the Legitimist candidates presented themselves 
 in large numbers. Where there was no candidate of 
 their own party they voted from sheer hatred against 
 Louis Philippe for the Republicans. Nevertheless, 
 from their proneness to provoke revolutions, the 
 latter lost many seats. This, as it were, created a 
 tiers parti, or third party, of men of undecided 
 opinions, not pledged to support either side, incapable 
 in fact of doing so, and not having any distinct 
 political aim beyond that of watching the march of 
 events, and of being guided by them. ‘The elections 
 over, a royal decree convoked the Chambers for 
 the 3lst of July; and they were again prorogued 
 till the 29th of December, after the address had been 
 voted. 
 
 Meanwhile several changes in the Cabinet had 
 taken place. Marshal Soult having resigned in con- 
 sequence of some divergence of opinion between 
 him and his colleagues about the administration of 
 affairs in Algeria, his successor, Marshal Gérard, 
 the new President of the Council and Minister of 
 War, entered office with the distinct idea of bringing 
 about an amnesty for all past political crimes and 
 offences. But the King and the other Mainisters 
 showed themselves opposed to the measure, where- 
 upon the Marshal resigned, and was succeeded on 
 the 29th of October by M. de Rigny. The latter’s 
 tenure of office was short-lived, for, in a few days, 
 in consequence of disagreements between the Ministers 
 and the King, who frequently endeavoured to impose 
 
318 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1834. 
 
 his personal opinions, the whole Cabinet, with the 
 exception of two of its members, resigned. 
 
 To them succeeded a Cabinet chosen by the King 
 from among the third party, and presided over by the 
 Duke de Bassano. The Chambers were convoked about 
 three weeks earlier than the time first decided upon, 
 but, unfortunately, the new Cabinet, unable to agree 
 upon certain measures of urgent policy, lived but three 
 days, and is known in history by the name of the 
 “Three days’ Ministry.” On the 13th of November 
 the old Cabinet resumed its functions, under the presi- 
 dency of Marshal Mortier, Duke de Treviso. 
 
 During the prorogation of the Chambers, the 
 Court of Peers, invested with judiciary power, thought 
 itself insulted by the newspaper the JVational. Its 
 responsible editor was brought before its bar, and 
 defended by one of his contributors, Armand Carrel, 
 himself a prisoner for a similar dereliction; but not- 
 withstanding his advocate’s masterly speech the editor 
 was condemned to a fine of ten thousand. francs and 
 two years’ imprisonment. Shortly afterwards, though 
 the King had been unwilling to accede to the request 
 for an amnesty on the part of Marshal Gérard, the 
 Ministry prevailed upon him to grant a pardon to a 
 great number of political offenders (December 27th). 
 But there was a considerable difference between a 
 pardon and an amnesty. 
 
 Though not productive of any great military event, 
 the occupation of Algeria during 1834 had brought about 
 a more friendly state of feeling between the native tribes 
 
1834. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 319 
 
 and the French; for the former had become alive to the 
 advantages to be derived from a commerce with the 
 military centres. These prospects of improving relations 
 no doubt emboldened Marshal Soult—who was then 
 still President of the Council—to meet the objections 
 raised against the vote of credit for Algeria, by the firm 
 statement that not only should the conquest of that 
 country never be abandoned, as some deputies had _ pro- 
 posed, but that the Government intended to inaugurate 
 a system of colonisation, which, in the course of time, 
 might bear the happiest results. Yet the demand 
 that the Government should give up a hardly-earned 
 conquest was not altogether unreasonable. The path 
 to the permanent acquisition of Algeria must at all 
 times have been beset with difficulties; and, apart 
 from this, a counter-influence was springing up simul- 
 taneously with the extension of French influence, of 
 which no one as yet could fathom the ultimate results. 
 Abd-el-Kader, to whom, as we have already stated, 
 were granted several concessions, while pretending to 
 co-operate with the French, had utilised those marks 
 of goodwill and consideration to enhance his power 
 with the Arabs. Nevertheless, in furtherance of 
 the project of ultimate occupation, a royal decree 
 of the 22nd of July, 1834, appointed a Governor- 
 General of Algeria, who should only be responsible 
 to the Minister of War, and who was assisted by a 
 civil intendant and a naval commander; a second 
 decree regulated the administration of justice in that 
 colony. 
 
320 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1835. 
 
 The year 1835 began inauspiciously. The King 
 had always been desirous of making his influence 
 predominate in the Ministry, and had attempted this 
 several times during the. past year; but the new 
 Cabinet which was now in office, determined to show 
 its power, which meant the subjugation, as it were, 
 of Louis Philippe’s personal pretensions. 
 
 The first opportunity that offered itself for a dis- 
 play of this emancipation was an interpellation about 
 the frequent Ministerial crises. The former Cabinet 
 had scarcely been reinstated before it was ready again 
 for dissolution. Marshal Mortier had recognised his 
 insufficiency, and the King, instead of simply appoint- 
 ing a new president, sought to reconstruct the whole 
 administration. In furtherance of this project several 
 former prime ministers were consulted ; but the nego- 
 tiations proved unsuccessful. 
 
 In the Chamber of Deputies (March 11th) the 
 Marquis de Sade, who moved the interpellation, stated 
 that an unfavourable impression had been produced in 
 the country by the various Ministerial crises, because 
 they implied anarchy in the very midst of the Govern- 
 ment. He did not scruple to suggest that the fault lay 
 entirely with the King, who was confounding the right 
 which the Charter conferred upon him of selecting his 
 Cabinet with that of an absolute monarch. The Ministry 
 did not attempt to defend Louis Philippe, and on the next 
 day the official newspaper, the MJonzteur, published the 
 nomination of the Duke de Broglie as Prime Minister, 
 whilst all the former members of the Cabinet retained 
 
1835. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 321 
 
 their portfolios. Almost at the outset of its career, the 
 Ministry had to deal with a difficult question. The 
 American Government had long since claimed an in- 
 demnity for the damage caused to her mercantile navy 
 by the seizure or destruction of many of her ships, 
 owing to the decrees of 1806 and 1807. This claim 
 had been acknowledged by Napoleon I. in 1810, though 
 he reduced it from seventy to eighteen millions of 
 francs, a reduction which had not been accepted by 
 the United States. Subsequent events left the matter 
 pending until 1831, when it was revived. A new 
 investigation took place which resulted in the fixing 
 of an indemnity to the United States of twenty-five 
 millions of francs, from which was to be deducted a 
 million and a half which these States owed to France. 
 In order to discharge this debt a vote of credit had 
 been demanded in 1834, which the Chamber saw fit to 
 reject. 
 
 Immediately after the Chambers met this year, 
 the demand for the vote of credit was renewed, for a 
 decision had become imperative. ‘The rancour always 
 more or less attending discussions on pecuniary com- 
 pensation for injuries received many years ago, was in 
 this instance embittered by a threatening message sent 
 by the American President Jackson. ‘The French 
 Government had no other alternative but to recall its 
 representative from the United States, and to offer the 
 Ambassador of that country his passports. ‘hese in- 
 cidents did but aggravate the polemics of the press 
 on both sides, and awaken the susceptibility of public 
 
 v 
 
322 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1835. 
 
 opinion. The sword was not actually drawn from the 
 scabbard, but the hand was laid on the hilt. 
 
 These elements of discord found their echo in the 
 debates, but the Ministry prevailed upon the majority 
 to vote the credit of twenty-five million frances, and 
 this was done on the 25th of April, on condition, how- 
 ever, that the payment was not to take place until the 
 American Government should have furnished satisfactory 
 explanations with regard to the violent expressions 
 used by President Jackson. ‘These were forthcoming, 
 but there was left in Franee an impression that the 
 Cabinet of Louis Philippe, from an inordinate love of 
 peace, had been wanting in dignity. 
 
 By investing the Chamber of Peers with judicial 
 authority in the various prosecutions for insurrection, 
 the Government. had imposed a heavy task on it. 
 This deviation from the ordinary legal practices, though 
 legalised by a recent law, gave that tribunal a some- 
 what specious character. In consequence of the revolt 
 at Lyons, and of the last disturbances in Paris and 
 the provinces, two thousand persons had been arrested 
 and four thousand witnesses had to be heard. The 
 accused who were finally tried by the Court were one 
 hundred and sixty—of whom even forty-three were 
 absent. 
 
 As is usual in all political prosecutions, the accused 
 wanted to become accusers, if not judges, and to bring 
 all existing institutions before the bar of public opinion, 
 either through themselves or through the mouth of 
 their defenders. How far they might have succeeded 
 
1835.] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 323 
 
 in their object if they had adopted a common line 
 of defence is very problematical; but from a want of 
 organisation or divergence, not of opinion, but of 
 purpose, they failed. The whole trial was one scene 
 of confusion. Some of the accused kept obstinately 
 silent, others protested energetically; a few accepted 
 the debates and answered the questions put to them ; 
 several objected to appear at all, and had to be dragged 
 before the Tribunal, their garments torn, their faces 
 covered with blood—a spectacle ill calculated to further 
 the ends of justice; others again refused to dress 
 themselves, and the authorities were compelled to 
 leave them in their beds, as they could not be 
 brought naked into court. It was simply another 
 form of insurrection and resistance, but planned with 
 as little foresight as those which had miscarried when 
 attempted by arms. 
 
 Amidst these deplorable incidents a fresh trial was 
 commenced, against several of the barristers and news- 
 papers defending the Republicans, on account of the 
 writing and publishing of a letter, severely reflecting 
 on the Chamber of Peers. Jor full nine months, 
 confusion, rancour, and agitation reigned supreme. 
 No capital sentence was pronounced; the gravest 
 punishment was transportation. rom all this resulted 
 a state of things pregnant with sinister forebodings 
 of some great catastrophe. Some of the foreign and 
 provincial newspapers mentioned even the report of a 
 plot to assassinate the King. In the capital they re- 
 ferred to the very spot where 1t would take place, and 
 
 v 2 
 
324 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOOH. [1835. 
 
 the day it was fixed upon. The attempt was to be 
 made either in the neighbourhood of the theatre of 
 the Ambigu, or on the Boulevard du Temple, which 
 the King would have to pass on his way to the 
 review to be held on the anniversary of the Revolu- 
 tion of July. The police had received hints, which 
 were insufficient, however, to lead to any discovery ; 
 the information simply pointing to an individual who 
 could not be found. 
 
 Louis Philippe insisted upon holding the review, 
 though fully aware of the rumours afloat. On the 
 28th of July, he left the Tuileries, accompanied by 
 a numerous retinue. He had already passed the 
 theatre of the Ambigu, and reached the Boulevard du 
 Temple, opposite the Café Turc, when, stooping to 
 receive a petition from one of the National Guards, he 
 perceived, on resuming his position, a slight puff of 
 smoke issuing from the top storey of a house. ‘‘ This,” 
 he said to the Prince de Joinville, “is meant for me.” 
 Scarcely had the words left his lips, when a terrible 
 detonation took place. When the smoke cleared up 
 the King and his sons were found sitting imperturbably 
 on their horses, whilst forty or more persons were 
 lying dead or dying at their feet, and amongst them 
 four or five officers of the King’s suite and Marshal 
 Mortier. After the first moment of stupor, the King 
 resumed his route, amidst the deafening cheers of the 
 multitude ; whilst the National Guards and_ police 
 invaded the house whence came the murderous dis- 
 charge, and succeeded in tracing the assassin, who, 
 
1835.] THH RHIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 329 
 
 terribly wounded, had descended by means of a rope, 
 and dragged himself to the courtyard of an adjacent 
 building. 
 
 That in an atmosphere of recrimination and hatred 
 such an attempt would lead to mutual accusations was 
 not surprising. The Government gave the example 
 by implicating the Republicans, and arresting a great 
 number of them, notably Armand Carrel. The Repub- 
 licans retorted by accusing the Legitimists, who, in their 
 turn, inculpated their accusers. In a short time it was 
 proved, however, that this attempt at assassination had 
 been the isolated act of one person, or at the most of 
 a few individuals. The most officious of the Govern- 
 ment organs persisted, nevertheless, in blaming the 
 Republicans; and the funeral of the victims of this 
 attempt was not expected to pass without some sort 
 of violent demonstration. With the exception of an 
 appeal to summary justice conveyed in the cry of ‘ To 
 the prisons,” which started from the ranks of the 
 National Guards, everything passed off quietly. 
 
 The King had issued a proclamation, which fore- 
 shadowed the adoption of rigorous measures, and it was 
 not difficult to divine the institution at which these 
 measures would strike first—namely, the press. As 
 a natural consequence of the public ferment, these 
 intentions were rather applauded than otherwise. The 
 newspapers were blamed, justly or unjustly, for the 
 depression of trade, and all those who had to live 
 by commercial transactions imagined that they would 
 resume their normal prosperity the moment the press 
 
326 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1835. 
 
 was muzzled and the word Republican struck out of 
 the dictionary. 
 
 In spite of the eloquent defence of Royer-Collard 
 and others, the laws against the press, supported by the 
 Duke de Broglie, the same who, twenty years before, 
 had been the first to claim unrestrained freedom for 
 the expressions of public opinion, were passed, and 
 promulgated on the 9th of September. They remain 
 historically infamous under the name of “the laws of 
 September.” ‘The Government had obtained their pass- 
 ing, as it were, under false pretences. It knew that the 
 crime committed on the 28th of July was not the work 
 of a party, but it took advantage of the error to commit 
 an iniquity. As we have already seen, the assassin, 
 who was a Corsican, named Fieschi, was apprehended 
 lying in the courtyard of a house adjacent to the one 
 where the crime was committed. Transported to the 
 hospital, the Hétel Dieu, all the resources of medical 
 sclence were employed to preserve the life of a man 
 destined for the scaffold, who had tried all trades, 
 save honest ones, and who had been an _ habitual 
 criminal, living for some time in. the most abject 
 poverty. His crime was committed at the instigation 
 of an old stoical Republican fanatic, named Morey, who 
 kept obstinately silent before his judges, and carried his 
 secret, if there was one, with him to the grave. 
 Another accomplice was Pépin, a grocer of the Faubourg 
 Saint-Antoine, who had provided the necessary funds. 
 He showed some signs of weakness at his trial, but when 
 the hour of death came, displayed a firmness scarcely 
 
1836. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 327 
 
 expected. Of two other secondary accomplices, one was 
 acquitted, and the other condemned to twenty years’ 
 imprisonment. Fieschi himself, actuated by the morbid 
 curiosity of the public, who treated his every act as if 
 he had been a man moved to his dastardly crime by the 
 most exalted patriotism, posed as a hero, and continued 
 to play this part throughout the trial, avowing his 
 crime, however, no doubt thinking that his confession 
 might save his hfe. But he and his two accomplices 
 were executed on the 19th of February, 1836. 
 
 As if to counteract the sorrowful effects of the 
 late events, the King had opened the session for 1836 
 on the preceding 29th of December, with a speech 
 which breathed the utmost spirit of moderation and 
 promised reforms, as well as the preservation of the 
 nation’s interests. These sentiments were endorsed by 
 the President of the Chamber, but, unfortunately, were 
 not destined to be realised. For the day before these 
 words were uttered the Court of Peers had pronounced 
 judgment on the many persons implicated in the late 
 attempts at insurrection. The same Court was termi- 
 nating the preliminary proceedings in the Fieschi trial, 
 and darker prospects still were looming in the future. 
 
 On the llth of January the Minister of Finances 
 resigned in consequence of having imprudently intro- 
 duced a bill analogous to that formerly projected by 
 M. de Villéle for the conversion of Government annuities. 
 This project was not altogether distasteful to a certain 
 number of deputies, but they wanted more time for 
 investigation than the Minister had been willing to 
 
328 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1836. 
 
 allow. They now wished the entire Ministry to promise 
 that it should revive the bill at some subsequent 
 period, but rather than do this it elected to resign. 
 
 After various attempts to form a Ministry subser- 
 vient to the King’s influence, the Monzteur of the 22nd 
 of February published the list of the new adminis- 
 tration, which had to deal immediately with the same 
 financial project that had caused the retirement of its 
 predecessor. The new President, M. Thiers, promised, 
 however, to lay, the following year, before the Chambers 
 a bill dealing with the matter, unless unforeseen circum- 
 stances should prevent this. Being subsequently invited 
 to explain its policy, the new Cabinet contented itself 
 with generalising, without, however, laying down a fixed 
 plan, probably intending to be guided by the course of 
 events. 
 
 On the 25th of June there was another attempt to 
 assassinate the King. At the moment when Louis 
 Philippe, in his carriage, was bowing to the National 
 Guards stationed at the Tuileries, a musket was fired, and 
 the carriage became filled with smoke. The man who 
 attempted the life of the King neither ran away nor 
 offered any resistance. He frankly confessed his inten- 
 tion, and expressed his regret at not having succeeded, 
 because he considered Louis Philippe as the arch-enemy 
 of all Republican institutions, of which the would-be 
 assassin, whose name was Louis Alibaud, was a fanatical 
 partisan. He denied having any accomplice, and died 
 on the 11th of July, proclaiming his unaltered devotion 
 to the cause of the Republic. The opponents of the 
 
1836. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 329 
 
 Ministry took advantage of this event to censure the 
 Cabinet. This was an act of injustice, for it had no 
 more power to prevent this attempt than the late 
 Ministry could have frustrated the previous one of 
 Fieschi. Sometime afterwards two young students 
 were brought before the assizes of the Seine, accused 
 of having written a letter, in which they expressed 
 a wish to kill the King; but on confessing, however, 
 that they had simply written it in order to gain some 
 notoriety, the jury acquitted them. 
 
 Whilst the Republican party was being continually 
 discredited by these insane attempts of fanatics, with 
 whom it had not the shghtest sympathy, it sustained an 
 almost irreparable loss in the death of one of its most 
 valued members. On the 22nd of July, Armand Carrel 
 was mortally wounded in a duel with Emile de Girardin, 
 the editor of the new ministerial organ, the Presse. 
 After forty-eight hours of cruel suffering he expired. 
 His death caused a deep sensation, for he was not only 
 an eminent journalist, but a man of noble character, of 
 unwavering loyalty to the cause he had adopted, and 
 - which he made respected even by its opponents, through 
 his intelligent advocacy. A numerous concourse of 
 distinguished men of various opinions attended his 
 funeral. 
 
 Amidst these inauspicious events the anniversary of 
 the Revolution of July drew near. It was impossible 
 not to dwell upon the sad incident which had attended 
 its last celebration. The Government received informa- 
 tion of several projected attempts on the King’s lie. 
 
330 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. 11836. 
 
 Like the year before, no details were forthcoming to 
 justify domiciliary search. But formerly the indica- 
 tions had also been of the vaguest kind, and had led 
 to a most terrible reality. The only means to prevent 
 a new crime was to dissuade Louis Philippe from hold- 
 ing the annual review. At first the King refused, 
 because he would not shrink from the danger; and 
 because he was fond of coming in contact with the 
 National Guards, and had promised to inaugurate 
 the triumphal arch de l’Etoile, only just completed. 
 He gave way, however, to the entreaties of his Cabinet. 
 The review was countermanded; and the triumphal 
 arch was inaugurated by the Ministers, in the presence 
 of animmense crowd. ‘The Government, modifying the 
 primitive idea which had led to its erection, consecrated 
 it to the glory of the various armies of the Republic 
 and the Empire, instead of to the victorious legions 
 of Austerlitz, as was intended originally. 
 
 § Il. THE END OF THE ORLEANS DYNASTY. 
 From the 28th of July 1836, to the 24th of February, 1848. 
 y , Y 
 
 Dourine the past five years of Louis Philippe’s reign 
 ‘the relations of France with the foreign Powers had 
 not been very cordial, save with England. When M. 
 Thiers assumed office this friendly bond was in danger 
 of being slackened, by the evident inclination of the 
 Minister to exchange the intimacy with England for 
 that of Germany and Russia. A marriage between 
 
 the Duke of Orleans, the eldest son of Louis Philippe, 
 
1836. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 331 
 
 and the Austrian Archduchess Theresa was planned, 
 but the project was discountenanced by the Court of 
 » Vienna. 
 
 This rebuff to his matrimonial policy made M. 
 Thiers turn anew to the English alliance. A com- 
 bined action was conceived with the Cabinet of St. 
 James’s with regard to the affairs of Spain, to which 
 Louis Philippe showed himself strongly opposed, and 
 therefore M. Thiers tendered his resignation. 
 
 A new Ministry, with M. Molé as President, and 
 which was almost the old one of the year 1832, save the 
 Duke de Broghe and M. Thiers, entered upon office, and 
 shelved the question of intervention in Spanish affairs ; 
 and this notwithstanding the pressure of public opinion, 
 which was decidedly favourable to it, not because it 
 loved Constitutionalism more, but because it loved 
 Carlism, in its mind synonymous with absolutism, less. 
 
 It would have been well if the new Cabinet had 
 adhered to the tactics of non-intervention with regard 
 to Switzerland. Unfortunately it allowed itself to be 
 induced by the Court of Vienna to demand from the Hel- 
 vetian Republic the expulsion of those political refugees, 
 who gave umbrage, not to France, but chiefly to Austria. 
 The demand was couched in terms which could not but 
 be offensive to the authorities, whilst, added to this, a 
 French spy was caught on Swiss territory, charged with 
 the secret mission of instigating the refugees, so that 
 they might compromise themselves in such a manner as 
 to give France an excuse for enforcing her demands. 
 
 Neither M. Thiers nor his successor, M. Molé, had 
 
332 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1836. 
 
 been let into the secret of these machinations; and when 
 they were revealed they at first discredited them, until 
 at last, unable to deny their existence, they were in a 
 measure bound to attribute them to the refugees them- 
 selves. This suited the purpose of coercion equally 
 well; and, as more pressing demands were addressed 
 to the Swiss, they were obliged to promise satisfaction 
 to France to avoid an unequal struggle. 
 
 In consequence of the death of the ex-King of 
 France, Charles X., on the 6th of November, at 
 Goritz, in Styria, his four late Ministers were liberated 
 from their confinement, and Prince Polignac alone 
 was expelled from French territory. Even before 
 the aged ex-King of France was removed from this 
 world another candidate for the throne arose. On the 
 evening of the 3lst of October, the Government re- 
 ceived from Strasburg the fragment of a telegraphic 
 message which stated that ‘this .morning towards 
 six o'clock Louis Napoleon, son of the Duchess de 
 Saint-Leu, in concert with the colonel of artillery, 
 Vaudrey, whom he had taken into his confidence, 
 perambulated the streets of Strasburg with a party 
 of...” This message had been conveyed by the 
 old telegraph, and could not be farther deciphered on 
 account of the gathering darkness. The Ministers 
 immediately assembled at the ‘Tuileries, where the 
 remainder of the message was anxiously expected 
 throughout the night. 
 
 The next morning an aide-de-camp of General 
 Voirol, commander of Strasburg, arrived, and told 
 
1836. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 393 
 
 the story of the attempt and failure of Napoleon I.’s 
 nephew, Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the third 
 and only surviving son of Louis Bonaparte, King of 
 Holland, who had taken advantage of his residence in 
 Switzerland to concoct with some of the officers of 
 the Strasburg garrison a plot to overturn the monarchy 
 of July. His plan was to tamper with the troops, 
 to call the populace to arms, and march upon Paris, 
 trusting to circumstances to fix upon the kind of 
 government which was to result from this insurrection. 
 Frustrated in his project by the presence of mind of 
 the colonel and some officers of the 46th regiment 
 of the line, the chief mover of the plot was arrested 
 and brought to Paris, where he had a confidential 
 interview with the prefect of police, which resulted 
 in his being conveyed to a vessel lying at Lorient, 
 in Brittany, and ready to start for America. No 
 promise or engagement of any kind was demanded 
 from him. He was treated with every consideration, 
 and a sum of fifteen thousand francs was handed to him 
 to provide for his most pressing necessities at landing. 
 On the other hand, the chief mover of a military 
 mutiny, which broke out at Vendome on the same 
 day as that of Strasburg, but who was only a non- 
 commissioned officer, was brought before a council of 
 war and condemned to death, which sentence was with 
 difficulty commuted into one of transportion. 
 
 With the exception of the failure finally to 
 subjugate Abd-el-Kader, and another attempt to assas- 
 sinate Louis Philippe, when he went on the 27th of 
 
, 
 
 334 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1837. 
 
 December to open the sittings of the Chambers, the 
 further political events of the year 1836 were without 
 importance. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1837 the assizes of the 
 Lower Rhine acquitted the accomplices of Louis Napo- 
 leon in the Strasburg affair, as the prime mover of the 
 plot had been withdrawn from legal jurisdiction. Instead 
 of accepting the imphed rebuke, the Government sought 
 by an expedient to prevent the recurrence of such an 
 acquittal. ‘To effect this it presented to the Chambers a 
 bill, by virtue of which soldiers and civilians engaged 
 in the same conspiracy were to be judged by different 
 tribunals ; the civilians by civilians, the military men 
 by court-martial. This was reversing the forms of 
 jurisprudence hitherto applied. At the same time, 
 a law was proposed, by which a part of the island 
 of Bourbon was selected instead of Cayenne as a place 
 for the deportation of political offenders, the latter 
 colony having proved so fatal that transportation to 
 it was tantamount to a sentence of death. Lastly, a 
 third project revived some of the clauses of the penal 
 code of the Empire, and proposed to punish all persons 
 who should not reveal the knowledge of a projected 
 attempt against the King’s life. The opposition to 
 this last law was very great, because if once passed it 
 would virtually lead to a compulsory and legal system 
 of spying. 
 
 The King had a large private fortune, yet he 
 was sometimes heard to complain that there might 
 come a time when his children should be in poverty. 
 
1837.] THH RHIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPEH. 335 
 
 Influenced by this hyperbolical dread he instigated 
 his Ministry to propose to the Chamber of Deputies 
 a measure to provide an allowance for the Duke 
 of Orleans, and also one for the Duke de Nemours, 
 which measure was thrown out, as well as the law 
 granting separate tribunals to military men and civilians 
 engaged in the same conspiracy. This involved the 
 resignation of the Cabinet. After several weeks spent 
 in fruitless combinations the members who represented 
 energetically the party of resistance retired, and left 
 M. Molé to construct another Cabinet, which was 
 finally constituted on the 15th of April. 
 
 To judge from the opinions of its chief this adminis- 
 tration was known to be one of conciliation; hence it 
 was well received, for the country had got tired of the 
 violent measures of repression and their concomitant 
 outbursts of murderous frenzy. Though the Ministry 
 did not revoke the laws on transportation and on the 
 concealing of conspiracies of its predecessors, the 
 Chamber did not discuss them, but voted (April 22nd) 
 the bills for the allowance to the Duke of Orleans and 
 for the jointure of the eldest daughter of the King, who 
 had married Leopold, the new King of the Belgians, 
 whilst the bill for an allowance for the Duke de 
 Nemours was withdrawn. These pecuniary questions, 
 however, left a feeling of discontent in the minds of 
 many, which was fanned into greater flame by the 
 Republicans, who made it a weapon to diminish the 
 prestige of royalty. They had undoubtedly a right to 
 do so, but it remained an open question whether those 
 
336 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1837. 
 
 who were enamoured of a monarchy objected to pay the 
 allowances asked for. A general amnesty for political 
 offences promulgated on the 8th of May was received 
 with great satisfaction. 
 
 On the 30th of the same month the Duke of 
 Orleans married the Princess Helena of Mecklenburg- 
 Schwerin. Though an alliance with the daughter of 
 a more powerful monarch might have been desirable, 
 and the Legitimists rejoiced that the royal prince 
 had been unable to obtain a consort from one of 
 the great sovereign houses, the graceful bearing and 
 the unaffected manners of the young princess won 
 many hearts, and even the Protestant religion which 
 she professed was considered as a safeguard against 
 clerical intrigues to which the Queen was suspected 
 to be accessible. Another marriage took place the 
 same year in the royal family. On the 17th of October 
 the Duke Alexander of Wurtemberg married Princess 
 Marie, a daughter of the King, and who was very 
 popular in France on account of her artistic tastes. 
 To these family joys was added the satisfaction of 
 the successful expedition against Constantine, in 
 which the Duke de Nemours had heroically played 
 his part. 
 
 M. Molé, dissatisfied with the uncertain and small 
 minority he could command in the Chambers, advised 
 the King to decree their dissolution, which was done 
 on the 30th of October, the electors being convoked 
 for the 24th of the following month. Contrary to the 
 Prime Minister's expectations, the new elections neither 
 
1838. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 337 
 
 provided him with a more numerous majority nor 
 consolidated his ministerial position. 
 
 This obliged him as it were to evade political dis- 
 cussions, and to confine himself to commercial measures. 
 He had neither the tact nor the authority to carry 
 through the bills he presented, so that the Chambers, 
 taking advantage of this weakness, mutilated them to 
 such a degree that little or nothing of their original 
 scope remained. ‘The various opposition parties com- 
 bated this incapable and powerless administration each 
 on its own account, and they combined to overthrow 
 it. Public opinion, ever imbued with an innate sense 
 of justice, saw in this Coalition something unfair. As 
 long as the three opposition parties had fought each 
 under its own flag for its own imaginary or real advan- 
 tages, though they might differ from and harass each 
 other, it was looked upon as consistent with parlia- 
 mentary honesty ; but when, in order to unite against 
 a comparatively defenceless foe, they elected to forego 
 their individuality, to subscribe to measures and 
 opinions at complete variance with their hitherto pro- 
 fessed creeds, the proceeding was regarded as unbe- 
 coming the legislators of a great country. This 
 sentiment was re-echoed by the newspaper, the Journal 
 des Débats, after the Coalition had gained the victory, 
 when it wrote, ‘“‘ You may count upon our support, but 
 never upon our esteem.” Nevertheless the whole of 
 this year was spent in preparing the Coalition campaign 
 for 1839. 
 
 Meanwhile France was far from being tranquil. 
 
 Ww 
 
3938 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1838. 
 
 Several prosecutions were instituted for conspiracy 
 against the King’s hfe. The Bonapartist attempt of 
 Louis Napoleon at Strasburg was also not without its 
 results. Under the ostensible form of a report, a 
 former officer of the Sappers and Miners had published 
 a virtual apology for this attempt at insurrection. He 
 was condemned to five years’ imprisonment, to pay a 
 fine of ten thousand frances, and to perpetual police 
 supervision; but his condemnation had nevertheless 
 the effect of drawing again public attention to Louis 
 Napoleon, who had returned from America to Switzer- 
 land. Ill advised, the French Government insisted 
 upon his expulsion from the latter country, but as the 
 Imperial Pretender had taken the precaution of becoming 
 naturalised there, he refused to quit Swiss territory; a 
 determination in which the authorities, in spite of them- 
 selves perhaps, were compelled to support him. Already 
 French troops had been massed on the Swiss frontiers, 
 and Switzerland in her turn was making preparations 
 for having her rights respected, when Louis Napoleon, 
 pretending to be magnanimous, declared that he would 
 not be the cause of such a conflict, and went to Eng- 
 land. The Government of Louis Philippe committed 
 the blunder of allowing him to assume the important 
 character of a political martyr, or rather of a victim to 
 the name of his uncle. 
 
 While the dynasty of July was waging this ill- 
 advised persecution against the Napoleonic pretender, 
 a grandson, destined to perpetuate the royal line of 
 Orleans, was born to Louis Philippe on the 24th 
 
1838-9. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 339 
 
 of August. The child received the title of Count de 
 Paris. 
 
 The small French garrison which had occupied 
 Ancona, a small port on the Adriatic belonging to the 
 Pope, since the year 1832, was recalled, and thus the 
 Austrians, who were already masters of Lombardy and 
 Venice, could enter the Papal States at any moment. 
 Louis Philippe’s Government felt itself also compelled 
 to blockade various ports of Mexico and of the Argen- 
 tine Republic, as it could receive no satisfaction for 
 the maltreatment of several French residents by the 
 inhabitants of these Republics, continually devastated 
 by mternecine wars. 
 
 On the 17th of December, the King opened the 
 sessions of the Chamber for 1839, and as usual 
 appealed to the feelings of concord and union of the 
 deputies to consolidate the welfare of France. Never 
 was an appeal addressed to men more determined not 
 to yield. At the voting for the presidency of the 
 Chambers, M. Dupin, the Government candidate, 
 obtained but a majority of five over the candidate of 
 the Coalition ; and everything portended the victory of 
 the latter. The sympathy which was felt privately for 
 Louis Philippe, who had just lost his daughter, the 
 young Princess Marie (January 2nd, 1839), did not 
 prevent the Chambers from opposing each paragraph 
 of the reply to the address from the throne. The most 
 cruel classical epigrams were introduced into the debate, 
 and though the Ministry succeeded in obtaining a 
 victory, it was a victory more fatal than a defeat. The 
 
 w 2 
 
34) THH FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1839-40. 
 
 same day the Cabinet offered its resignation, having 
 obtained from the King a decree dissolving the Chambers 
 and convoking the electoral colleges (31st of January) ; 
 but at the monarch’s request it remained in office until 
 the 8th of March. The adversaries of the Govern- 
 ment had been again victorious, but like the robbers 
 in the fable, when the booty had to be shared, the 
 animosities and hatred which had slumbered when a 
 victim was to be despoiled, now reappeared in full force; 
 they could not agree among themselves, and were re- 
 duced to construct a provisional Cabinet, devoid of all 
 political colour, and merely called into existence for the 
 despatch of the most pressing business. 
 
 What peaceful measures were unable to effect an 
 insurrection accomplished. On the 12th of May, an 
 attempt at a revolt was made in Paris, which, though 
 not dangerous in itself, opened the eyes to the ex- 
 pediency of the Government presenting a more united 
 front to its dangerous and fanatical opponents. The 
 ministerial complications suddenly ceased, the chiefs 
 of the Coalition retired once more, and a new Ministry 
 leaning to the side of the King’s opinions was formed. 
 
 Almost at the outset of its career, the Cabinet 
 found itself confronted by the Eastern Question, 
 hostilities having broken out between the Sultan 
 of Turkey and his hereditary vassal, the Pacha of 
 Egypt, Mehemet Ali. France felt bound as it were 
 to interfere—a credit of ten million francs for the 
 amelioration and increase of the navy was asked for 
 and granted by the Chambers. 
 
1840. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 341 
 
 Whilst the Eastern Question was obtruding its 
 difficulties of settlement, public opinion clamoured more 
 than ever for internal reforms, especially for the diminu- 
 tion of the monetary qualifications of the electors ; 
 reforms which, instead of being proposed by the 
 Ministry, were continually shelved. 
 
 This policy of delay was the more unsound because 
 the King, at the beginning of the sessions of this year, 
 again requested an allowance for the Duke de Nemours 
 in view of his projected marriage with the Princess 
 Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, a provision for the Duchess in 
 case of widowhood, and an additional sum to defray 
 the incidental expenses, amounting in all to about a 
 million and a half of francs. The request being rejected 
 by the Chambers (February 20th), the King felt him- 
 self personally slighted; and, whilst attributing the 
 refusal to his Cabinet, devised measures to construct 
 a new one—M. Thiers, of all men the one whom the 
 King liked least in such a position, being selected as 
 its chief (lst March). For the third time the vexed 
 question of the conversion of Government annuities 
 was brought before the Chambers, and after a stormy 
 discussion thrown out by the Peers. 
 
 A great surprise was in store this year for France. 
 The English Government having consented to give 
 up the remains of Napoleon, and the Chambers having 
 voted a credit of a million francs to defray the expenses, 
 ason of the King, the Prince de Joinville, started on 
 the 7th of July for St. Helena, in order to bring them 
 
 over. 
 
342 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1840. 
 
 Notwithstanding the refusal of a dowry for the 
 Duke de Nemours, this Prince married on the 27th of 
 April the Princess of Saxe-Coburg. On the 15th of 
 July the sessions were closed. That same day Eng- 
 land, Russia, Austria, and Prussia signed a treaty in 
 London, by which they engaged themselves to compel 
 the Pacha of Egypt to accept the proposals of the 
 Sultan of Turkey. These proposals were the here- 
 ditary possession of Egypt by Mehemet Al and his 
 direct descendants, and the Pacha’s occupation of Syria 
 for his lifetime. The French Government demanded 
 that Syria should also be considered an hereditary pos- 
 session of the Pacha, and, suspecting that war in the 
 East was going to break out, it called up a hundred 
 and fifty thousand men, and collected its whole fleet 
 at Toulon. 
 
 Emboldened no doubt by the revival of his name 
 in France, Louis Napoleon attempted on the 6th of 
 August, a landing at Boulogne, accompanied by about 
 sixty individuals disguised as French officers. The 
 whole affair savoured more of a burlesque procession 
 than of a serious endeavour to overthrow a dynasty, 
 though one soldier was wounded in this ridiculous 
 attempt. ‘Taken prisoner, the Prince was condemned to 
 confinement for life in the castle of Ham. A few days 
 after this condemnation, Louis Philippe was again shot 
 at_ as he crossed the Place de la Concorde in a carriage 
 with his family. The assassin, taken red-handed, was 
 condemned to death about seven months later. Many 
 people, alarmed at the prospect of a war with which 
 
1840. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHIDLIPPH. 343 
 
 France was threatened at the moment, in consequence 
 of the Eastern complications, saw in this attempt a 
 demonstration of the Revolutionary party. 
 
 The difficulties about the Eastern Question be- 
 coming very grave, the King convoked the Chambers 
 for the 28th of October to begin the sessions of 1841. 
 When the speech from the throne was placed by the 
 Ministers before Louis Philippe, he refused to subscribe 
 to the somewhat threatening sentiments expressed in 
 it in relation to the affairs of the East, which refusal 
 compelled his Cabinet to resign. 
 
 M. Guizot having returned from England, where 
 he had been Ambassador, a new Cabinet was formed 
 under his auspices (29th October), of which the pro- 
 gramme was warlike for the interior, but peaceful 
 enough with regard to foreign nations. Public opinion 
 was dissatisfied, and openly accused M. Guizot of having 
 hampered at London the policy of M. Thiers. The 
 accusation was unjust, and the Ambassador had faith- 
 fully executed the orders of the President of the 
 Cabinet, though it was well known that they did not 
 agree with his own views. 
 
 The opinion entertained by the public of the character 
 of the new Ministry was confirmed by the speech from 
 the throne, which expressed a hope that the peace of 
 Kurope would not be disturbed, whilst it announced at 
 the same time a resolution to check anarchical passions 
 by every means consistent with the existing laws. The 
 Liberal press received this political programme with 
 the greatest discontent. 
 
344 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.  [1840-1. 
 
 France had become imbued with the idea that it 
 was bound to defend the Pacha of Egypt, and she 
 would willingly have drawn her Government into a 
 war, but Louis Philippe and his Ministry were stoutly 
 opposed to it. Hence the mutual recriminations in 
 the Chambers, which were fortunately ended by a 
 treaty signed later in London (10th of July, 1841), 
 which at least for a time terminated all controversy 
 on the subject. In the interval of these debates the 
 remains of Napoleon had been brought back to France, 
 and deposited on the 15th of December, 1840, amidst 
 great pomp, in. the chapel of the Invalides, pre- 
 paratory to a vault being built for them. This task 
 was not accomplished until ten years later. ‘The re- 
 currence of disturbances in Algeria during this year 
 generally resulted in victories for the French. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1841 the important 
 discussions on the fortifications of Paris were renewed. 
 The project was, notwithstanding its undeniable utility, 
 received with every mark of disapproval by the various 
 sections of the community. ‘The Republicans, who were 
 suspicious of the use the Government might make of 
 them, rejected all attempts at fortifying the capital. 
 The Legitimists seeing in the project an increase of 
 strength for a town which originated every revolution 
 and was the capital of centralisation, also opposed the 
 scheme, whilst M. Molé and some of his former col- 
 leagues made the discussion an occasion of intrigue, to 
 overthrow the Government and to facilitate their resump- 
 tion of office. In spite of these tactics the bill passed 
 
1841 - 2.] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 345 
 
 and became law on the 3rd of April. After various 
 minor bills had been adopted the sessions terminated 
 on the 25th of June, 1841. Two days before their 
 closing the Chambers sustained a great loss by the 
 death of the principal Republican orator, Garnier-Pagés, 
 who was replaced by Ledru-Rollin, destined to become 
 as eloquent as his predecessor. 
 
 In July, August, and September of the same year 
 (1841), disturbances broke out in several parts of the 
 provinces caused by the collecting of the tax on doors, 
 windows, and personal or real property. In the prose- 
 cution which followed, most of the offenders were 
 acquitted. On the 20th of December a treaty was 
 concluded between France, England, Russia, Prussia, 
 and Austria, by which these nations granted each other 
 the mutual right of searching their ships, in order to 
 insure the better the abolition of the slave-trade. 
 
 The sessions of 1842, which began on the 27th of 
 December, 1841, necessarily ‘opened with the debate 
 on the speech from the throne, in which the Govern- 
 ment was somewhat severely handled not only by the 
 Opposition, but also by its own party, for its share in 
 the treaty with England relative to the mght of search. 
 Not that the slave-trade was defended, but according 
 to the antagonists of the treaty, France had allowed 
 herself to be placed by England in too humiliating a 
 position by submitting to some of its clauses. 
 
 The discussion on the electoral reform came next 
 in rotation. There were two bills proposed by private 
 members, but both were rejected. On the llth of 
 
346 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. 1842-3. 
 
 June the Chambers were dissolved, and the electors 
 convoked for the 12th of July. The general elections 
 resulted in a majority for the Conservative party. 
 Nevertheless the various shades of Opposition when 
 united were still capable of presenting a formidable 
 front, which rendered the position of the Government 
 sufficiently difficult. 
 
 Amidst all this political agitation the royal family 
 was struck by a blow more cruel even than the loss 
 of Princess Marie. On the 13th of July, 1842, the 
 Duke of Orleans was going in a carriage from Paris to 
 Neuilly when the horses bolted. He jumped out, but 
 fell, and died from congestion of the brain a few hours 
 afterwards. ‘This death rendered necessary an imme- 
 diate law to provide for the succession of the throne, 
 as the Count de Paris, the son of the Duke, was at 
 the time of his father’s death only four years old. ‘The 
 Chambers were convoked for the 26th of July. 
 
 The Iing’s bereavement had the effect of rallying 
 round him all those who were not declared enemies of 
 his dynasty. Nevertheless the laws on the regency 
 were vehemently combated, the Charter not providing | 
 for such a contingency. The Duke de Nemours was 
 appointed regent in case of Louis Philippe’s death. 
 The Chambers having been assembled for the purpose 
 of voting this law, were prorogued immediately after- 
 wards ; the monarchy had meanwhile received a shock, 
 more damaging than was at first believed. 
 
 The year 1843 and its sessions were almost bare of 
 political events. The Ministry had already some time 
 
1843. ] THE REHIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. O47 
 
 ago begun negotiations with Belgium to inaugurate 
 a system of free trade, in all probability most advan- 
 tageous to both countries. Intimidated by the great 
 manufacturers of France, who could influence the 
 elections and drive it from office, it broke off these 
 negotiations. M. Guizot and his colleagues were 
 behind their time; they were a Cabinet of resistance; 
 and, as Lamartine pertinently remarked, a stone barrier 
 would have served the purpose of checking all progress 
 equally well. They ignored everything, corrupt prac- 
 tices at elections, fraudulent transactions in the matter 
 of public contracts, as long as they were allowed to 
 remain in their places, where they enacted the characters 
 of scarecrows to every liberal and spirited measure. 
 
 The clerical party, who for a long time had worked in 
 the dark, now appeared openly in the arena of political 
 strife, and demanded freedom for secondary instruction, 
 which meant liberty for themselves, and coercion and 
 repression for all those who did not think as they did. 
 All kinds of religious associations, brotherhoods, and 
 similar societies flourished publicly, the police could not 
 or would not suppress them, though they were for- 
 bidden by law. No one would have objected probably 
 to liberty being granted to the clericals if the same 
 tolerance had been extended to their adversaries also. 
 
 Notwithstanding their frequent and brillant vic- 
 tories in Algeria, the French had not obtained there 
 as yet a firm footing. Abd-el-Kader was for ever 
 harassing them by instigating the various tribes to 
 
 revolt. On the 16th of May, the Duke d’Aumale suc- 
 
348 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1843-4. 
 
 ceeded, however, in capturing several of the principal 
 officers of the Arab chief, the latter himself escaping 
 with difficulty. This surprise led to the complete sub- 
 mission of the tribes that had hitherto remained hostile. 
 
 The sessions of 1844 opened with an incident that 
 gave rise to a most eloquent speech from M. Guizot, 
 and an equally eloquent retort of M. Berryer. Several 
 Legitimist deputies had been to London to pay their 
 respects to the Count de Chambord, the son of the late 
 Duke de Berry. The Prime Minister saw fit to rebuke 
 this visit, and as a natural consequence recriminations 
 followed between those who had made this voyage, and 
 those who sought to defend it. Nevertheless a vote of 
 censure was passed, couched in unparliamentary terms, 
 which was not accepted by those deputies who were thus 
 blamed. ‘They resigned, and presented themselves to 
 their constituencies for re-election in which they were 
 successful. ‘This rendered M. Guizot unpopular, and 
 the feeling was increased by his obstinate adherence 
 to the treaty with Kngland relating to the night of 
 search, of which we have already spoken, and which, 
 according to the opponents of the Ministry, placed 
 France in a humiliating position. Scarcely was the 
 vote of censure passed on the Legitimist deputies when 
 the news arrived that Admiral Dupetit-Thouars had 
 taken possession of Otaheite in the name of France. 
 One year before this event Queen Pomare had placed 
 her dominions under the protectorate of the French 
 by a treaty declared valid by England. Everything had 
 gone smoothly until a Mr. Pritchard, combining the 
 
1844. | THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 349 
 
 functions of ex-English consul, Protestant missionary, 
 and physician to the Queen, had instigated her to throw 
 off all allegiance to the French Government, and to 
 disavow the treaty with France. Nevertheless the 
 act of Admiral Thouars was illegal, and the Govern- 
 ment hastened to disclaim having given any orders 
 to occupy the island. In a short time, however, all 
 controversy on the point ceased by the French arresting 
 Pritchard, and sending him to England. 
 
 In Algeria also troubles were not at an end. After 
 his late escape Abd-el-Kader endeavoured to instigate 
 the Emperor of Morocco to measures of hostilities 
 against the French, and by leading this monarch to 
 believe that his dominions were being threatened by the 
 proximity of a fort which the French had erected near 
 his frontier. Yielding to popular pressure, the Emperor 
 Muley-Abd-el-Rhaman despatched an expedition against 
 General Lamoriciére, which was, however, routed with 
 the loss of two hundred men. Instead of regarding it 
 as a declaration of hostilities, the French Government 
 very sensibly treated this as a simple act of insubordina- 
 tion, sufficiently punished by its own failure. It was 
 the more justified in this, as other nations were already 
 on the alert for the results which might probably accrue 
 from the near neighbourhood of the French to Morocco. 
 For various reasons, but especially commercial ones, 
 the British Government was watching with a certain 
 interest the amicable or hostile relations that: might be 
 established between Algeria and Morocco. The French 
 Government contented itself, therefore, with demanding 
 
350 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1844. 
 
 compensation for the attack on the French troops, and 
 insisted on the expulsion of Abd-el-Kader from Morocco, 
 whilst, at the same time, it hastened to assure the 
 Cabinet of St. James’s that no territorial acquisition 
 was contemplated. The English Government not only 
 declared itself satisfied, but instructed its consul at 
 Tangiers to support the demands for satisfaction 
 advanced by the French, so as to avoid a war. The 
 Emperor of Morocco, however, proving obstinate, and 
 refusing to enter upon pacific negotiations, the Prince de 
 Joinville partly destroyed Tangiers, Marshal Bugeaud 
 defeated the Moroccan troops at Isly, Mogador was 
 bombarded ; and the Emperor was compelled to submit, 
 and to expel Abd-el-IKader, who nevertheless found 
 means to prolong his hostility. 
 
 Meanwhile the Pritchard affair, a version of which 
 had arrived in England almost simultaneously with 
 himself, was assuming an aspect calculated to lead to 
 unpleasant relations between England and France. As 
 may be imagined, the story supplied mainly from 
 Pritchard’s own evidence was not likely to be favour- 
 able to the French. Sir Robert Peel in the House of 
 Commons expressed himself about if in terms which were 
 offensive to France; and he even hinted at demanding 
 satisfaction. ‘The Irench session of the Chambers was 
 about to close; but M. Guizot, being interpellated, 
 refused all explanations, and argued that it was 
 necessary to keep the pending negotiations secret. 
 This unjustifiable behaviour led to a suspicion that 
 the Cabinet was preparing some humiliating concession 
 
1844 -5.] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 351 
 
 to England, and the nation consequently became irri- 
 tated against the Ministry. M. Guizot treated the 
 affair in a thoroughly business-like spirit, and offered 
 Pritchard a pecuniary compensation, which was ac- 
 cepted; but the minister’s haughty and disdainful 
 behaviour towards the deputies, who had a right to 
 demand explanations, left an unfavourable impression 
 in the public mind. 
 
 At the opening of the sessions for 1845 (December 
 26th, 1844), notwithstanding the conciliatory tone of 
 the speech from the throne, stormy discussions arose. 
 In the House of Peers M. Molé accused the Cabinet of 
 compromising the peace of Europe by its desire to 
 preserve it at all cost. Animadversions on the Pritchard 
 affair, on the treaty with Morocco, and on the nght of 
 search conceded to England, were not wanting. M. 
 Guizot replied that other measures would be devised 
 more in conformity with the wishes of the Chambers ; 
 and retaliated by accusing his opponents of wishing to 
 compromise the friendly relations with Kngland by 
 their intrigues. 
 
 In the Chamber of Deputies M. Guizot met a more 
 formidable adversary in M. Thiers, who supported a 
 vote of censure on the Ministry, and was very bitter 
 when finding fault and commenting upon the Pritchard 
 affair ; he blamed the indemnity paid to the latter, and 
 this payment became one of the principal weapons 
 against the Ministry in the hands of the Opposition. 
 Though the vote of censure against the Government 
 was rejected, the majority was so small that M. Guizot 
 
302 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1845. 
 
 felt compelled to tender his resignation and that of 
 his Cabinet. But the Conservatives taking the alarm 
 begged him to remain; the King declined to accept 
 his resignation, and M. Guizot sacrificed his dignity to 
 his vanity. He asked for a grant of secret service 
 money, which was equivalent to a vote of confidence, 
 and obtained a majority of four-and-twenty (22nd of 
 February). 
 
 Various other bills, relating to the organisation of 
 savings-banks, the construction of new railways, and 
 electoral reforms, were passed; but one of the chief 
 incidents of the session was the interpellation of M. 
 Thiers with regard to the illegal existence of several 
 educational establishments directed by the Jesuits. 
 The Government did not deny that the laws against 
 them were still in force, but at the same time it ex- 
 pressed an opinion that it would be better to apply them 
 according to circumstances. Nevertheless M. Thiers 
 insisted upon the expulsion of the Jesuits, and was 
 supported by a large majority. The Government 
 found itself ina dilemma. It dared not disregard the 
 will. of the Chambers, and would not act against this 
 religious brotherhood. In this emergency it be- 
 thought itself of applying to the Pope, and of inducing 
 him to order the Jesuits to leave France. This expe- 
 dient succeeded; but it was said by the Opposition 
 that the laws of France were dependent for their 
 execution on the pleasure of a foreign potentate. 
 
 In consequence of the objections against the right 
 of search, a treaty modifying the former arrangement 
 
1845-6. | THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. Bits) 
 
 was signed with England on the 12th of May, which 
 did not materially alter the measures for the abolition 
 of the slave-trade, but left to each nation the duty of 
 searching her own vessels. On the 2lst of July the 
 sessions for 1845 closed. 
 
 For some considerable time France had _ been 
 agitated by the question of workmen’s wages, and 
 these disputes generally ended by the men striking. 
 One of these strikes occurred in Paris and lasted three 
 months. ‘The Ministry interfered, arrested eighteen 
 artisans for having combined to obtain a rise of wages, 
 a combination forbidden in France by law, and con- 
 demned two among them—one to three, the other to 
 two years imprisonment. ‘This measure had not the 
 desired effect ; the strike continued. 
 
 Nor was the Government more successful in their 
 expeditions against Abd-el-Kader, who continued his 
 resistance, often inflicting severe losses on the French. 
 In one of these expeditions Colonel Pelissier was sent 
 in pursuit of a very fierce Kabyle tribe which took 
 refuge in some caves. As they repeatedly refused to 
 surrender, he ordered lighted fascines to be placed at 
 the mouth of these caves, which resulted in the death 
 of six hundred Arabs, whilst two hundred more died 
 after being taken out. 
 
 Though the whole of Europe was exercised by the 
 eruelties perpetrated in Galicia at the instigation of 
 Austria, M. Guizot declined to discuss them. The 
 session for 1846 was closed on the 3rd of July, and a 
 decree was published dissolving the Chambers, fixing 
 
 x 
 
oo4 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1846. 
 
 the elections for the 3rd of August, and convoking 
 the Legislative for the 19th of the same month. 
 With the exception of various measures of home 
 interest, the session had been productive of few 
 political incidents, though M. Thiers made a brilliant 
 speech in support of a proposition of M. de Rémusat 
 to prevent Government officials from being elected 
 members of the Chamber of Deputies, and which 
 already foreboded as it were the great changes at hand 
 to be accomplished in another year. ‘The frequent 
 attempts on the King’s life testified to a feeling that 
 Louis Philippe’s dynasty did not meet with popular 
 approbation, whilst the escape of Louis Napoleon from 
 his prison at Ham (May 25th) rejoiced the partisans 
 of the Bonapartist dynasty. 
 
 The attempts on the King’s life were made use of 
 by the Ministry and its adherents to arouse a sympathy 
 with their cause, and to influence the general elections 
 at hand. ‘They succeeded; and the Ministerial can- 
 didates increased in number, whilst the ranks of the 
 Opposition were thinned. 
 
 > 
 
 Nevertheless the words “electoral reform” were in 
 everybody's mouth, and even on the lips of Conserva- 
 tives. The electors hailed them with enthusiasm. The 
 current was too strong to be withstood, and M. Guizot 
 himself admitted that progress had become necessary, 
 though he modified the admission by saying, that Con- 
 servative policy alone was capable of dealing safely 
 with such reform. 
 
 A short session intended merely to verify the 
 
1846-7. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 300 
 
 elections was held, in which the Ministerial candidate 
 was chosen as President of the Chamber by a majority 
 of twenty-two votes against M. Odilon Barrot, the 
 Opposition candidate for the office. 
 
 The political situation, sufficiently embarrassing at 
 this period, was aggravated by a monetary crisis brought 
 about by the failure of two successive harvests. The 
 Government, appealed to for a reduction of the import 
 duties, refused, alleging that there was nothing sufh- 
 ciently alarming to warrant such a measure. When 
 stern facts, however, belied the official statements, the 
 Ministry was obliged to give way, and provisions 
 from being scarce became abundant in the seaport 
 towns, where they remained for want of means to trans- 
 port them, as the imundations, which were especially 
 severe in the south of France, suspended nearly all 
 traffic. The municipalities did all they could, but by 
 a little more timely interference of the Government 
 many of the calamities resulting from this state of 
 affairs might have been avoided. Spain and Algeria 
 were also frequent causes of trouble to the French 
 Government—the one by the constant discussions 
 evoked by the matrimonial combinations with regard 
 to the Infanta Isabella and her sister; the other by 
 its periodical revolts under Abd-el-Kader, who at one 
 time had three hundred French prisoners decapitated. 
 
 Under such mournful auspices dawned the year 
 1847, the combined monetary and food crises continued, 
 and led to horrible outrages on the part of the famished 
 populations in various parts of the country, which even 
 
 x 2 
 
306 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. |1847. 
 
 the execution of five of their principal leaders failed 
 to check. What was wanted most, instead of measures 
 of punishment, was a sensible interference of the Govern- 
 ment, which remained inert, harassed by the Opposition, 
 but accomplishing nothing, and wasting its valuable 
 time in discussions. ‘The very adherents of the Govern- 
 ment began to perceive that it lacked the energy needed 
 at such a critical period. M. Guizot contented himself 
 with a majority in the Chambers; beyond this he 
 seemed to care for nothing save to continue his policy 
 of resistance and hostility to every species of reform. 
 No stone was left unturned to maintain the influence 
 of numbers, and money that might have been better 
 spent was wasted in evil practices, in screening frauds 
 in the various departments of the administrations, and 
 in trying to bribe newspapers to take up the cause of 
 the Government. 
 
 ‘T'o these home scandals were added the disastrous 
 effects of M. Guizot’s foreign policy. The marriage 
 of the Duke de Montpensier, the fifth son of Louis 
 Philippe, with the Infanta Louise Ferdinanda, sister 
 of the Queen of Spain, which had taken place the year 
 before (L0th October, 1846), had produced a coolness 
 between England and France, for which the Minister 
 endeavoured to compensate by entermg upon more cordial 
 relations with Austria and other absolute Powers. He 
 saw fit to interfere in the interior quarrels of the Hel- 
 vetian Republic, an interference not only unjustifiable, 
 but aggravated by his joining the retrograde party. 
 Even in this his policy was too many-sided to be 
 
1847-8. ] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 307 
 
 productive of either good or evil. He wanted to 
 please Austria, who feared that the Swiss revolutionary 
 movement might cause a similar movement in Italy ; 
 he did not wish for an open rupture with England. In 
 this emergency he endeavoured to draw Great Britain 
 into an alliance to which Russia and Prussia had already 
 given their assent, and which aimed at crushing all 
 attempts at emancipation from clerical and Austrian 
 encroachments now being organised in Switzerland, 
 and secretly fostered by the Liberal party in Italy, a 
 country which, according to a saying of the Austrian 
 Minister, Metternich, was at that time “merely a 
 geographical expression.’ In these endeavours M. 
 Guizot was not successful, for Lord Palmerston, obliged 
 to submit to Parhamentary and public opinion, advanced 
 many objections to the proposed alliance. In Italy, the 
 people counting upon the liberal inclinations of Pope 
 Pius IX., manifested at his accession to the Papal see, 
 were preparing for an open revolt against foreign oppres- 
 sion, whilst England protested against the Austrian 
 occupation of Ferrara. M. Guizot only sent a diplo- 
 matic note to Vienna, and this defiance of public opinion 
 lost him the little popularity that he still possessed. 
 The political horizon grew darker each day, cheered by 
 no ray of light save that of the surrender of Abd-el- 
 Kader (November 25th, 1847). 
 
 At the beginning of 1848 the situation of con- 
 stitutional royalty was already seriously compromised. 
 The Opposition, finding it impossible to obtain the 
 shghtest concession of reform from a majority servile 
 
308 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1848. 
 
 to M. Guizot and his Cabinet, had recourse to a series 
 of political banquets in various parts of the country, 
 where it ventilated its opinions. This proceeding 
 should not have been objected to, as M. Guizot had 
 himself given the example when, in 1846, he harangued 
 the electors of Lisieux at a similar gathering. The first 
 banquet held by the Opposition had taken place on the 
 9th of July, 1847; and nearly thirteen hundred people, 
 among whom were eighty-six deputies, were present. It 
 was a great success, and the provinces followed the 
 lead. These banquets, as was at first imtended, were 
 merely political demonstrations to impress upon the 
 Ministers the necessity of Parhamentary and electoral 
 reform, but they became in a short time the instru- 
 ments for expressing entire dissent from the Govern- 
 ment, and for devismg means for its overthrow. 
 
 Amidst these political agitations the sessions of 
 1848 opened. The King’s speech, as a rule common- 
 place, replete with stereotyped phrases, was this time 
 expected with great anxiety. The continuation of 
 the political gatherings hostile to his dynasty could 
 not pass unchallenged. Nor was public expecta- 
 tion disappointed. ‘To the factions embarrassing his 
 Government and dynasty he opposed the Charter, 
 which he promised to preserve intact, in spite of 
 “the blind and hostile passions” which endeavoured 
 to overthrow it. These words “blind and_ hostile 
 passions” did not only rebuke the various parties 
 outside the Legislative Assembly, but struck at many 
 of its members, who had initiated and organised the 
 
1848.] THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 359 
 
 banquets, in order to bring before the nation questions — 
 which the Parliamentary majority, obtained by the 
 Government at the sacrifice of everything consistent 
 with honour, refused even to discuss. This majority 
 was the only body that remained unaffected or pre- 
 tended to remain unaffected by the gathering storm. 
 With the most sublime indifference it elected the 
 Ministerial candidate to the presidency of the 
 Chambers, and took care to exclude every member 
 of the Opposition from the Committee charged with 
 composing the answer to the speech from the throne. 
 Before this answer was being discussed, some facts 
 came to hght reflecting upon the honesty of the private 
 secretary of the Prime Minister, who was accused of 
 having been bribed by an individual who had solicited 
 a place under Government. M. Guizot reluctantly 
 confessed that such malpractices existed, and attempted 
 to justify them by quoting precedents; the majority 
 absolved him from all dishonest intentions. 
 
 The debate on the address, commenced on the 17th 
 of January, 1848, provoked as usual a review of the 
 home and foreign policy of the Government, in which 
 the Opposition was not sparing of its censure, M. Thiers 
 going even as far as to avow his sympathy with every 
 revolution tending to bring about the amelioration of a 
 state of affairs such as was then existing. M. Guizot, 
 nevertheless, continued his system of resistance, and 
 endeavoured to put down the political banquets about to 
 be held. The Opposition, to show its complete defiance 
 of the Ministry, organised a banquet for the 22nd of 
 
360 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1848. 
 
 February ; but after long and fruitless negotiations, the 
 Liberal deputies decided that it should not take place, 
 lest it might lead to an insurrection. Unfortunately 
 that decision came too late to be generally known. 
 A number of students and artisans who were to take 
 part in it having arrived at the place of meeting, M. 
 Odilon Barrot’s house, and not finding that deputy 
 at home, went to the Chamber, their numbers swollen 
 by an enormous crowd. On the Place de la Concorde 
 they met with a company of the municipal guard, who 
 barred their passage. ‘They were, however, allowed 
 to proceed, but on their return they encountered some 
 squadrons of cavalry, between whom and the popu- 
 lation a struggle ensued, in which several persons were 
 wounded. In the evening Paris was quiet, but the 
 following morning (Iebruary 23rd) the troops occupied 
 various strategic positions. The National Guards were 
 called out, and endeavoured to mediate between the 
 military and the population, whilst making it a con- 
 dition that the Ministry should resign or grant the re- 
 quired concessions. M. Guizot retired, and to M. Molé 
 was entrusted the task of forming a new Ministry. 
 Though the newly-appointed Minister was not an ardent 
 Liberal, this change proved a temporary relief, and in 
 the evening the town was illuminated; but many of 
 the barricades remained, guarded by armed citizens, who 
 threatened to proceed to the Chambers the next morn- 
 ing to demand the abdication of Louis Philippe. 
 
 This vapouring of some excited citizens would pro- 
 bably have led to nothing if an incident which occurred 
 
1848. ] THH REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 361 | 
 
 the next day (24th February) had not rendered all 
 reconciliation impossible. In the evening the troops 
 came into collision with the National Guards and the 
 people by whom they were accompanied. A stray shot 
 was followed by a murderous discharge on the part of 
 the regulars ; in a moment the streets were littered with 
 wounded, and the Revolution was virtually declared. It 
 was no longer the abdication but the deposition of 
 Louis Philippe which was demanded. 
 
 M. Molé having been unable to form a Cabinet, 
 M. Thiers was sent for, and, as a first condition,. he 
 insisted upon complete electoral and Parliamentary 
 reform. ‘The King refused to grant this; but, in the 
 meanwhile, the troops had been ordered to suspend all 
 hostilities, and M. Thiers issued a proclamation to the 
 effect of his having been charged with the formation 
 of a new administration, composed of several of the 
 leading members of the Opposition. It was too late ; 
 the msurgent committee made a counter-proclamation, 
 in which it stated that as Louis Philippe had ordered 
 the people to be murdered like Charles X. had done, he 
 had better go and rejom the ex-monarch. The Kung, 
 who had gone into the court-yard of the Tuileries to 
 review some of the troops and National Guards, 
 was met with a universal cry for reform, and had 
 to retreat precipitately. Towards two o’clock in 
 the afternoon it was conclusively shown that the last 
 chance to save the dynasty was abdication. Louis 
 Philippe signed this in favour of the Count de Paris, 
 and appointed as regent the Duchess of Orleans, who was 
 
362 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1848. 
 
 left alone in the Tuileries, while the King and his 
 family made their way to the Place de la Concorde, 
 where some carriages awaited them. From thence they 
 started for Saint-Cloud, and in a few days they con- 
 tinued their route to Havre and embarked for England. 
 The attempt to proclaim the Duchess of Orleans regent 
 was equally unsuccessful. She was obliged to quit 
 France, and to rejoim the royal family. And thus 
 ended the Orleans dynasty. In the meanwhile a Pro- 
 visional Government was appointed, at the head of 
 which were MM. Arago, Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin, and 
 some other well-known Liberals. 
 
Book WiLL. 
 
 THE SECOND REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 § I.—A FRESH ATTEMPT AT A REPUBLIC. 
 (Prom the 25th of February, 1848, to the 2nd of December, 1852.) 
 
 Tut members of the Provisional Government were, as 
 far as circumstances would allow, carefully selected by 
 the deputies and the crowd which was present at 
 the last sitting of the Chamber. This crowd did 
 not exactly represent the opmion of the whole of the 
 nation, but might safely be taken as a sample of 
 the opimion of the capital, which, in France, is in 
 all cases of a violent overthrow or of a sudden 
 establishment of a dynasty the supreme arbiter, and 
 which is virtually, if not nominally, listened to by the 
 remainder of the country. If proof had been wanted 
 that those elected were for the moment regarded as 
 being the fittest to whom to entrust the helm of the 
 State, it would have been forthcoming in the follow- 
 ing curious coincidence. When the Revolution was 
 merely a question of hours the newspapers the Vational 
 and the feforme assembled within their offices the 
 leading members of the Opposition, and proceeded to 
 

 
 364 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. ~* [1848. 
 
 draw up a list, if not of a Government, at least of a 
 temporary Committee of Direction. With one or two 
 exceptions the personages thus chosen were the same 
 as those selected in the Chamber of Deputies. 
 
 The Provisional Government thus constituted pro- 
 ceeded to the Hétel de Ville, and issued there a pro- 
 clamation, setting forth the names of its members, and 
 announcing at the same time that until further ratifica- 
 tion by the nation a Republic had been decided upon ; 
 it also thanked the National Guards for their zealous 
 co-operation in the crisis just passed. ‘The exigencies 
 of the moment necessitated prompt and complete action, 
 consequently, contrary to custom, the executive and 
 legislative powers were concentrated into the same 
 hands. The Chamber of Deputies was dissolved, the 
 Chamber of Peers prohibited to assemble, and various 
 other measures were devised and executed to ensure the 
 unhampered action of the preliminary administration. 
 This once accomplished, the Government proceeded to 
 discuss the legality of definitely proclaiming the estab- 
 lishment of a Republic, or to wait until the nation had 
 been appealed to. Meanwhile the tricolour, supple- 
 mented by a red rosette, was selected as the national 
 standard in preference to the red flag which the most 
 vehement of the Republicans wanted to adopt. The 
 National Guard, dissolved by a royal decree, was reor- 
 ganised, and another question which had agitated the 
 public mind for some time, namely, that of providing 
 employment by Government interference for those who 
 were willing to labour, but could not find work, was 
 
1848. ] THE SHCOND REPUBLIC. 365 
 
 provisionally settled. The Government did promise to 
 provide work for all artisans, but this was afterwards 
 explamed to mean that it would do its utmost to find 
 them something to do. In the meanwhile so-called 
 
 bd 
 
 “national workshops ” were opened, in which workmen 
 without any means of subsistence received very small 
 wages for very lttle work done. A natural result of 
 every insurrection, howsoever mild in its character, is 
 to disturb the framework of society, and the one of 
 1848 was no exception to this rule. Several noblemen’s 
 seats and public establishments were pillaged and de- 
 stroyed, and the authorities were compelled to take 
 severe measures and hand over the plunderers to public 
 justice. Capital. punishment for political offences was, 
 however, abolished. 
 
 Contrary to expectations, a great propensity was 
 manifested among those whose political opinions were 
 not supposed to tend that way to declare their adher- 
 ence to the Republic. Functionaries, hitherto staunchly 
 monarchical, Marshals who had offered to fight for 
 the fallen dynasty, bishops, clericals, and ultramontane 
 newspapers, nay, several Legitimists, all of a sudden 
 conceived a sincere attachment to the Revolution of 
 February, which they were pleased to term a “ warning 
 given by Providence.” 
 
 Among the many offers of service thus received 
 there was one which the Provisional Government would 
 have willingly spared. It came from Louis Napoleon, 
 a nephew of the Emperor Napoleon I., and though 
 ostensibly couched in the most Republican terms, it 
 
366 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1848. 
 
 scarcely concealed the motives of a pretender. With 
 an admirable foresight which must ever do it credit, 
 these motives were fathomed by the Government, and 
 the nephew of Napoleon was invited to return to 
 England, whence he came. 
 
 No protest of any kind having been made against 
 the establishment of the Republic, the Government felt 
 itself justified in proclaiming it, and this was officially 
 done on the 27th of February, amidst spontaneous 
 acclamations of enthusiasm and approval. 
 
 In order that its intentions might not be mistaken 
 by the foreign Powers, the Government hastened to 
 assure them of their pacific imtentions, poimting out 
 that the treaties of 1815, though considered not alto- 
 gether just, would be respected in so far as they related 
 to territorial stipulations. At the same time the new 
 Republic promised her support to those nations who 
 might wish to regain their independence, or to defend 
 themselves when threatened by monarchical aggression. 
 It became also necessary to attend to matters of home 
 interest, especially those connected with the finances, 
 which were in a most deplorable state, not so much as 
 a result of the late crisis, but rather as the very cause 
 of it. Repudiation and bankruptcy, which were eagerly 
 counselled by some, were wisely rejected, for it was the 
 aim of the Government to do nothing that might be 
 considered dishonourable, but to trust to the reviving 
 confidence and to the adoption of sound financial measures 
 to overcome the pecuniary embarrassment of the State. 
 Nevertheless the members of the Provisional Government 
 
1848. ] - THE SHCOND REPUBLIC. 367 
 
 were not so united as could have been desired. - Dis- 
 sensions had sprung up, fomented by the various clubs, 
 which took advantage of the mght of public meeting, 
 and propagated doctrines too Utopian to be ever realised. 
 The result was a conspiracy to expel the more mode- 
 rate members of the Government, and to replace 
 them by men holding extreme Republican and Com- 
 munist opinions. This plot (April 16th), discovered 
 in time, was not only frustrated, but turned to 
 the advantage of the Republic. The elections for a 
 National Assembly, to be chosen by universal suffrage, 
 were fixed for the 23rd of April, and the Assembly 
 thus elected convoked for the 4th of May. 
 
 It was natural that the Government should desire 
 the election of those candidates who had given proof of 
 their attachment to Republican institutions. Neverthe- 
 less, with commendable good sense the Minister of the 
 Interior discouraged all attempts to interfere with the 
 voting, in order to show that the electoral system 
 inaugurated by the Republic was fully practicable, not- 
 withstanding the assertions to the contrary by many. 
 The result was a success, for, with the exception 
 of a few preliminary disturbances, the elections went 
 off peacefully, and the majority of the newly-chosen 
 deputies were sincere and honest Republicans. During 
 the last days of the existence of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment numerous decrees were promulgated, amongst 
 which was one relating to the abolition of slavery in 
 the French colonies, another for finishing the Louvre 
 in Paris, a third for recasting the copper coin, and 
 
368 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1848. 
 
 several others. In granting every citizen of twenty- 
 one years the right to vote, the Provisional Government 
 conceived the laudable ambition of also educating him 
 to use this privilege for the benefit of the country. 
 With this intention 1t prepared a plan by which educa- 
 tion should be free, gratuitous, and obligatory, and 
 which would have been beneficial to every one; but 
 unfortunately, when afterwards the law passed, the 
 clerical party took advantage of it, and frustrated its 
 good intentions. 
 
 On the 4th of May the Second Constituent 
 Assembly began its sittings in a temporary building 
 erected in the court-yard of the Palais Bourbon, for the 
 apartment hitherto devoted to the purpose was found 
 too small to contain nine hundred deputies. After the 
 preliminary ceremonies, the Provisional Government 
 remitted its powers into the hands of the representa- 
 tives of the French people, amidst the enthusiastic 
 shouts of “Long live the Republic!” An enormous 
 crowd had gathered outside the building, clamouring 
 to see the representatives, who showed themselves in a _ 
 body, and were eagerly welcomed. A vote of thanks 
 to the Provisional Government having passed, the As- 
 sembly proceeded, after. various proposals and*debates, 
 to elect its Hxecutive Committee, consisting of five 
 members. This committee was to appoint nine Minis- 
 ters with portfolios, and a tenth who should preside 
 over the Legislative. Neither of these ten could be 
 a deputy; all and each of them were personally re- 
 sponsible to the Assembly. | 
 
1848. ] THE SHCOND REPUBLIC. 369 
 
 It was not long before dissensions began to show 
 themselves in the Assembly. Several of its members 
 had been elected because they professed themselves 
 Republicans, but they were not Republicans at all, and 
 merely awaited an opportunity to embarrass and hamper 
 the Legislative. Such an opportunity is never long 
 wanting in France. It presented itself on the 15th of 
 May in connection with a demonstration in favour of 
 Poland held by the most democratic partisans of the 
 Republic, who insisted that France should assist the 
 former country, and avenge the cruelties inflicted upon 
 her by Prussia and Austria. The Assembly was in- 
 vaded, its members driven forth, and another Revolu- 
 tion might have been the result, but for the energy 
 displayed by the National Guards, who dispersed the 
 rebels and arrested the ringleaders, who were temporarily 
 confined in Vincennes. 
 
 Though all the extreme democrats were not equally 
 guilty, this attempt proved a cruel blow to the Re- 
 public, of which its adversaries, notably the Legitimists 
 and Orleanists, were not slow to take advantage by 
 insinuating that a Republic which was not able to take 
 take care of itself was no Government at all. In con- 
 sequence: of several resignations and the simultaneous 
 elections of some deputies by different constituencies, 
 the department of the Seine was called upon to appoint 
 eleven new members for the Constituent Assembly. 
 Among the candidates was the Prince de Joinville, 
 son of Louis Philippe. At the general election no 
 Royalist had dared to come forward, but now they 
 
 7. 
 
370 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1848. 
 
 grew more bold. The Executive Committee deemed it 
 prudent not to tolerate what it considered a first step 
 to the presidency of the Republic, and consequently 
 to the re-establishment of the monarchy. Hence it 
 proposed to apply to the Bourbons of the younger 
 branch the law which the latter had passed in 1832 
 against the elder branch. In spite of the protestations 
 of the Duke d’Aumale and the Prince de Joinville, 
 based upon the services they had rendered to France 
 in the campaigns of Algeria, which country, as they 
 truly said, they had left im deference to the national will, 
 the bill expelling them was voted by a large majority. 
 It would have been well if a similar prohibitive measure 
 had been adopted with regard to the members of the 
 Bonaparte family, but though there was actually such a 
 law'in existence, the sons of Jéréme, Lucien Bonaparte, 
 and of Murat were sitting in the Assembly. It was 
 difficult therefore to refuse the same privilege to their 
 cousin, Louis Bonaparte, when he was elected for the 
 department of the Seine. In order, perhaps, not to 
 let this election assume too great an importance, the 
 majority, after some discussion, voted the admission of 
 Louis Bonaparte, though it might have been fully 
 aware of the danger of permitting to sit as a deputy 
 a man who had already twice attempted to overturn a 
 former Government, and who under the veil of being a 
 Republican was planning his own ambitious schemes. 
 At this juncture the President of the Assembly received 
 two letters of the new deputy—the one regretting that 
 his name should be the cause of any disturbance ; the 
 
1848. | THE SHCOND REPUBLIC. 371 
 
 other sending in his formal resignation, and stating 
 that, when France should be more calm, he would 
 re-enter it as a private citizen. 
 
 This was, as it were, the prologue to the play which 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte meant to act, and in which 
 he sustained the principal part for nearly twenty years. 
 
 Great hopes had been built upon the new Assembly, 
 which it was thought would be able to cure all evils 
 and realise all dreams. After a sitting of six weeks, 
 matters instead of improving were growing worse, 
 though not from the fault of the majority, but from 
 the intrigues of those who had entered it under false 
 pretences in order to overthrow, or, if that were 
 impossible, to harass the Republic. Unfortunately 
 a great many of these formed part of a Committee 
 charged with the discussion and investigation of 
 a problem as grave and momentous as any that had 
 ever come before a Legislative Assembly. We have 
 already mentioned the scarcity of work that prevailed 
 for so long a time in France, and the proposed action of 
 the Provisional Government to endeavour and provide 
 employment. As a trial, the Government had created 
 national workshops, to which resorted in a short time 
 a hundred and ten thousand men, of whom many were 
 not artisans, in the proper sense of the word, but who 
 all were in sore want. It was proposed to have re- 
 course to a somewhat cruel, but necessary weeding, and 
 to send those men who did not habitually reside in Paris 
 back to their own departments, but even then there 
 would remain at least seventy-five thousand unprovided 
 
 y 2 
 
372 | THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1848. 
 
 for. Howto employ them usefully the Government was 
 at a loss to conceive. They were a strong drain upon the 
 finances of the country ; and to turn them adrift home- 
 less and penniless in the streets of Paris was more 
 perilous still ; it was provoking an insurrection which in 
 addition to money might also cost blood. These con- 
 siderations of humanity and prudence had no weight 
 with the men who were bent upon the destruction of 
 a Republic scarcely established. 'They stigmatised the 
 national workshops as the haunts of idlers and mis- 
 creants, ever ready to sweep down upon Paris to pillage 
 and devastate it. No doubt there were evil-minded 
 men amongst so large a number of the working orders, 
 but the majority were well disposed, and regretted 
 their inability to procure other employment than that 
 which was but almsgiving in disguise. The Executive 
 Committee, baffled in its attempt to obtain more legiti- 
 mate employment for these large masses, was at last 
 compelled to adopt severe measures. It decreed that 
 all unmarried workmen from eighteen to _five-and- 
 twenty employed in these workshops should enter the 
 army, and that the others should be sent to that part 
 of the department of Loir-et-Cher called the Sologne. 
 In case of refusal on either side, the national 
 workshops were to be closed immediately. The 
 measure was not very considerate in more ways 
 than one. ‘To the honest workman, a military life in 
 time of peace is laborious idleness, and as there 
 was no prospect of war, there was not the remotest 
 chance of improving his position by displaying his 
 
 
 
*1848.] THE SHCOND REPUBLIC. 373 
 
 valour. On the other hand, removal to the provinces 
 was tantamount to transportation for many of the men 
 who had their families in Paris. Added to this 
 came the knowledge that the Sologne was a_hot- 
 bed of certain marshy fevers, which might destroy 
 health, if not cause death. Under these circumstances 
 the workmen drew up a petition praying for a delay 
 in closmg the national workshops. This was rejected, 
 the petitioners assembled in crowds, and a fratricidal 
 struggle took place, lasting for three days (23rd, 24th, 
 25th of June), in which more than seventeen hundred 
 persons were wounded and twelve hundred killed. 
 Among the latter were two deputies, the Archbishop 
 of Paris, who was murdered while climbing over a 
 barricade, and five generals, one of whom was General 
 Bréa, who was assassinated whilst endeavouring to 
 persuade the insurgents to lay down their arms.* 
 While this conflict was raging the report leading to 
 the dissolution of the national workshops was quietly 
 read, and the Executive Committee was urged upon even 
 by the Republicans to abdicate, but it refused. When, 
 however, a vote of the Assembly concentrated the whole 
 of the Executive in the hands of General Cavaignac, and 
 proclaimed martial law, the Committee sent in its resig- 
 nation, declaring that it would not retire before an 
 insurrection, a sedition, and a public danger, but that 
 the moment the Assembly had pronounced it neces- 
 
 1 In Les Crimes du Deux Décembre, by M. Schoelcher, ch. iv. § 2, pp. 
 914—216, there is in a note a letter of M. Nadaud, in which he attributes 
 the assassination of that general to Bonapartist agents. 
 
374 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1848. 
 
 sary, it felt bound to obey, and to re-enter the ranks 
 of the deputies, in order to devote itself with them to 
 the salvation of the Republic. 
 
 When the worst agitation of this struggle of Re- 
 publicans against their brethren had subsided, General 
 Cavaignac remitted his temporary powers in the hands 
 of the Assembly, which, after passing a vote of thanks, 
 named him chief of the Executive, and President of 
 the Council of Ministers, with the nght of appointing 
 and dismissing his colleagues. There was no man 
 living so deserving of this trust as Cavaignac. From 
 the 28th of June to the 20th of September, the time 
 his Government lasted, his behaviour throughout was 
 marked by a noble sentiment of justice and clemency. 
 To him were due the numerous acquittals, and far more 
 numerous lenient sentences on those who had taken part 
 in the insurrection. In the choice of his ministers, he 
 ever deferred to the voice of the Assembly, without 
 nullifying his individual opinions. The worst measure 
 passed during his rule—namely, a law for restricting 
 the lberty of the press—was due not to himself, but 
 to the inspirations of his advisers and the Assembly, 
 who while suppressing immediately the ultra-Repub- 
 lican organs, left the field open to the furious and 
 undisguised attacks of the Legitimists and Orleanists. 
 Cavaignac was a sincere Republican. ‘To the intrigues 
 of those men who were hostile to the Republic he would 
 have opposed all the honest means in his power ; but, un- 
 fortunately, his tenure of office proved too short. Some 
 elections having taken place on the 26th of September, 
 
 
 
1848. | THE SHCOND REPUBLIC. 375 
 
 Louis Napoleon was elected as deputy for the department 
 of the Yonne, and this time he accepted the honour. 
 Meanwhile for the last six or seven weeks the 
 National Assembly had been occupied with the debates 
 on a new Constitution, destined to give stability to 
 the Republic. The principal question it gave rise to 
 was the nomination of a President of the Republic. 
 Though inspired by different motives, Royalists and 
 Republicans were much in favour of such an appoint- 
 ment. Only a small number of the members of the 
 Assembly feared the peril that might accrue to France 
 from investing one man with responsibilities and power 
 closely resembling those of a Constitutional King. 
 Among that small number was M. Jules Grévy, now 
 (1878) the President of the Chamber of Deputies, who 
 with a prophetic foreboding painted the evils of placing 
 this power into the hands of an unscrupulous indi- 
 vidual. ‘To prevent these evil results, he proposed an 
 amendment, which, notwithstanding its sensible pro 
 visions, was thrown out by a majority of four hundred 
 and eighty-five, so that it was decided that a President 
 of the Republic should be chosen. After much dis- 
 cussion as to whether the President should be elected 
 by the Assembly or by universal suffrage, the latter 
 mode was adopted. From that moment that election 
 became the chief pre-occupation of the whole of 
 France. The day on which it was to take place was 
 fixed for the 10th of December, when by an over- 
 whelming majority, Louis Bonaparte was elected Pre- 
 sident of the Republic, over the heads of such men 
 
376 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1848. 
 
 as Cavaignac and Lamartine, not to speak of Ledru- 
 Rollin and Raspail, fanatics perhaps, but honest men, 
 not adventurers seeking nothing but the gratification 
 of hereditary ambition. What led the people to elect 
 Louis Bonaparte was the magic of his name, for he 
 was no well-known personage, or even a hero, unless his 
 ventures at Strasburg and at Boulogne gave him a 
 right to be so called. 
 
 On Thursday, the 20th December, the Constituent 
 Assembly proclaimed Louis Napoleon President of 
 the Republic, and he retained that office from that 
 day until the second Sunday in May, 1852. The new 
 President having been invited to take the oath of fidelity 
 to the Republic and to the Constitution, entered the 
 hall, quietly ascended the tribune, and after having 
 been sworn, made a short speech, in which he declared 
 his intentions of fulfilling his duty as a man of honour; 
 he then read the names of the Ministry, which he had 
 already selected, and went up to General Cavaignac, 
 to whom he offered his hand. The honest soldier 
 reluctantly accepted it, and returned the pressure coldly. 
 
 When Louis Napoleon assumed office, the home 
 affairs of France were, if not prosperous, at least tran- 
 quil; her relations with the other Powers were amicable, 
 in spite of the various attempts that had been made to 
 interfere in the affairs of Italy, which had been always 
 politely but firmly declined by that country, whilst, 
 when Cavaignac retired, negotiations were pending for 
 amediation between Austria and Sardinia. From the 
 outset of his presidential career, and notwithstanding 
 
1848-9. ] THE SECOND REPUBLIC. 377 
 
 his assertions to the contrary, Louis Napoleon’s aim 
 was to overthrow the Republic. This, however, required 
 time, and above all the dissolution of the Assembly, 
 from which he had received his power. A bill was 
 proposed, not by the Government, but by a private 
 member, for dissolving the Assembly and for holding 
 a general election, and this bill passed on the 14th of 
 February, 1849. During the debates on this proposal 
 the building where the Assembly met was surrounded 
 by a strong cordon of troops, to guard it against a 
 supposed formidable insurrection of the Mobile Guards, 
 of whom, however, not a trace could be seen. 
 
 The prince-President owed a debt to the clerical 
 party for having furthered his election. Without 
 daring openly to acknowledge these obligations, he 
 withdrew the laws on primary instruction, which 
 were unfavourable to the priests; and he interfered 
 in the affairs of Rome, ostensibly for the purpose of 
 continuing the mediation inaugurated under the 
 Government of Cavaignac, but in reality to re-establish 
 the temporal power of the Pope. Some deputies 
 protested, but without much result. On the 26th 
 of May, the sessions were closed, the general elec- 
 tions having taken place on the 8th of the same 
 month. The various intrigues employed by the re- 
 actionary party to intimidate the people with over- 
 drawn pictures of socialism and communism resulted in 
 a minority for the Republicans; but the Government 
 abstained from influencing the elections, fearful lest 
 they might unite all the clericals, Legitimists, and 
 
378 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1849. 
 
 Orleanists against it. ‘The victory was shared between 
 the extreme democrats and the reactionary party. 
 In a short time after the new Assembly met there 
 could no longer be a doubt whither matters were 
 tending. In consequence of the news that the French 
 and the Romans were confronting each other beneath 
 the walls of Rome, Ledru-Rollin demanded the in- 
 dictment of the President and his ministers, and 
 threatened to have recourse to arms (12th June). 
 On the following morning Paris was placed in a state 
 of siege, several newspapers were suspended, thirty- 
 two deputies were ordered to be arrested, the right of 
 public meeting was abolished, and other severe measures 
 were taken. ‘It is a dictatorship,” exclaims M. Jules 
 Grévy, who had foreseen all this. His cry was met 
 by the ministerial answer, “The highest law is to 
 save a nation.’ ‘This answer henceforth served to 
 cover many iniquities. Delivered from the Opposition, 
 the President proceeded to please the clericals. With- 
 out having given the least cause for aggression, Rome 
 was treated as an enemy, and the Pope brought back 
 under the protection of French troops, who remained 
 until the month of September, 1870. In a short 
 time Louis Napoleon appointed another Ministry, as 
 the first, though pliable enough, was not sufficiently 
 servile for him, and still respected parliamentary tra- 
 ditions. A special message to the Assembly explained 
 the apparent reasons for this dismissal (31st October). 
 M. Rouher, whom in the course of the Empire we 
 shall meet again, and who entered the Assembly as a 
 
 
 
1850. ] THE SECOND REPUBLIC. 3v9 
 
 Socialist deputy, formed part of this new Munistry, 
 which inaugurated the personal Government of Louis 
 Bonaparte. 
 
 The first indication of the growing ascendency of 
 the clerical party was the passing of two bills, virtually 
 placing primary instruction in the hands of the 
 priests. In vain some of the most eloquent and power- 
 ful of the deputies opposed the project; they wasted 
 their energy to no purpose. In the meanwhile, the 
 Republicans were persecuted with unabated vigour. If 
 perchance some deputies of the Opposition were 
 elected, their constituencies were threatened with all 
 kinds of ignominy. A moral Reign of Terror com- 
 menced. Universal suffrage was mutilated by a 
 bill of the 31st of May, which required of every 
 elector a previous domicile of two years. Hach crime 
 brings almost always its own punishment, and in 
 passing this law the Assembly prepared for itself a 
 snare, for if the working population could have voted 
 two years later, the coup d état of the 2nd of December 
 might have become impossible. Meanwhile the Presi- 
 dent made a journey through various parts of France, 
 and absolutely disclaimed all intentions of any attempt 
 against the Republic, with which he was already credited 
 by public opinion. Nevertheless both he and a majority 
 of the Assembly were working for the destruction of 
 the existing form of Government, but this once attained, 
 their common action would cease. The majority wanted 
 the re-establishment of a Legitimist or Constitutional 
 Monarchy, the President the re-establishment of the 
 
380 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.  [1850-1. 
 
 Kmpire of Napoleon. ‘To effect this, the army, ever 
 susceptible to the influence of that name, was being tam- 
 pered with. The generals known to be hostile to the 
 President’s plans were gradually removed to different 
 distant centres; and new batches of superior officers 
 were created in Algeria, who replaced and counter- 
 acted the influence of the former. ‘Those generals 
 whom it was found impossible to remove were chiefly 
 members of the Legislative. 
 
 Thus the struggle went on, hidden as yet, but fre- 
 quently breaking out in violent debates in the Assembly. 
 The majority would not or could not determine upon 
 a combined plan of action beyond the overthrow of 
 the Republic. After that each party was determined 
 to work for its own benefit. In vain were the warnings 
 of several deputies, who saw what was looming in 
 the future; notably that of M. Thiers, who foretold 
 in the beginning of January, 1851, the advent of the 
 Empire. ‘I do not know when it will come, but of 
 this I am sure, that sooner or later we shall hear that 
 the Empire is made,’ he said. In consequence of the 
 dismissal of General Changarnier from the combined 
 commands of the National Guards and the garrison of 
 Paris, the Assembly passed a vote of want of confidence 
 in the Ministry. The Cabinet was obliged to retire, 
 and the President of the Republic, unable to compose 
 anew one, either from the minority or the majority, 
 created an administration formed of men devoid of 
 the least political significance (24th January), but 
 fit and able to perform their duties as ministers. ‘This 
 

 
 1851.] THE SECOND REPUBLIC. ool 
 
 was against the wishes of the Assembly; and when, 
 a few days afterwards, the Minister of Finances 
 asked for an increase of the civil list for Louis 
 Napoleon, it was refused, unless the latter would 
 consent to form a Ministry reflecting the opinions of 
 the majority of the Assembly. The President would 
 not grant this concession; he had already determined 
 to place himself in open antagonism to the Assembly, 
 for on various public occasions he had uttered senti- 
 ments which left no doubt on this point. Amidst these 
 dissensions the time gradually drew near for Louis 
 Napoleon to remit his powers into the hands of those 
 from whom he had received them, as the Constitution 
 did not allow any one to be elected twice in succession 
 President of the Republic. The extreme Demo- 
 cratic party announced its intention of putting forward 
 as their candidate the representative Nadaud, who 
 though honest and intelligent, was a mason, and, there- 
 fore, offended the prejudices of many of the tradespeople, 
 who imagined him to be the personification of Socialism. 
 Meanwhile the army was continually being tampered 
 with and it was no longer doubtful that all the in- 
 trigues of the Executive concealed but imperfectly 
 hostile projects to the Republic. The Assembly, 
 though it perceived the danger, was reluctant to use 
 its right of preventing it; the officials responsible for 
 the security of the Legislative neglected their duties, 
 and many were still unwilling to believe that the 
 President would resort to violent measures. 
 
 The Assembly became discredited in public opinion; 
 
382 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1851. 
 
 the poorer classes owed it a grudge for having de- 
 prived them of their votes; the Republicans were 
 against it on account of its openly expressed monar- 
 chical tendencies ; whilst the Royalists, on the other 
 hand, were dissatisfied because it prolonged the an- 
 tagonism between itself and the President of the 
 Republic. The industry and commerce of the country 
 suffered through all these dissensions; and every one 
 felt that a crisis was at hand, and wished for a quick 
 solution of the difficulty. The partisans of Napoleon 
 were masters of the situation, because they swayed the 
 public administration in a country which had been for 
 a long time accustomed to regard the Executive as the 
 
 
 
 supreme voice of her ruler. 
 
 Louis Napoleon, the instigator and inspirer of 
 the projected coup dctat, had entrusted its execution 
 to other hands than his own. ‘The moment for 
 striking the fatal blow had been several times deferred. 
 At last the 2nd of December was fixed upon, as 
 it was the anniversary of the battle of Austerlitz. 
 If the President did not believe in the favourable 
 omen himself, he knew that this day could not fail 
 to bring some advantageous recollections to the minds 
 of the French nation. The might before the principal 
 conspirators assembled at the LHlysée, the residence 
 of the President, to decide upon their final measures. 
 To one accomplice, Persigny, was entrusted the task 
 of taking possession of the building where the Assembly 
 met; a second, de Morny, was to seize upon the 
 Government offices and the telegraphs, whilst many 
 
 
 
1851. ] THE SECOND REPUBLIC. 
 
 
 
 
 others were told off to perform similar dishonourable « 
 actions. 
 
 The projected conspiracy was carried out silently 
 and successfully. Thirty thousand troops were sta- 
 tioned in different parts of Paris, ready to crush the 
 least attempt of resistance, or, in case of failure, to 
 protect the flight of the conspirators. The first 
 inkling of the coup détat and its favourable issue was 
 conveyed to the Parisians by a proclamation placarded 
 on the walls of the capital, stating that the National 
 Assembly was dissolved, universal suffrage re-estab- 
 lished, and the French convoked to their electoral 
 meetings, from the 14th to the 21st of December, 
 whilst the capital and some of the adjacent departments 
 were proclaimed in a state of siege. At the first news 
 of the events of the past night, meetings were held at 
 the houses of several members of the Opposition, but 
 before the end of the day, these deputies were nearly all 
 arrested. Thus left to herself, without representatives, 
 without newspapers, without guidance, Paris was at 
 first undecided. Some few unimportant attempts at 
 resistance were made, but failed, and a new Ministry 
 was appointed. In the meanwhile large crowds had 
 assembled on the Boulevards; squadrons of cavalry 
 perambulated the town, without meeting with overt 
 resistance ; only cries of ‘‘ Long live the Republic!” 
 were heard. The military, irritated by those manifes- 
 tations, charged the people, and killed and wounded 
 a great number, amongst whom were many inoffensive 
 
 individuals. Nevertheless the whole of the 3rd and 
 

 
 384 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1851. 
 
 
 
 part of the 4th of this month passed in comparative 
 tranquillity, a phenomenon so unexpected. that the ac- 
 complices of the President, not being able to explain 
 this calm, got frightened themselves. They, there- 
 fore, resolved to strike a terrible blow, and gave orders 
 to the military to disperse the crowd by force of 
 arms. ‘This command was executed without any legal 
 warning, so that, even according to official mendacious 
 documents, nearly four hundred persons were killed by 
 the fire of the cannons and of the soldiers.! This 
 frightful massacre struck terror mto the hearts of the 
 Parisians, and the victory, if such a.name may be given 
 to such an action, remained with Louis Bonaparte. 
 During the next few days the arrests became so 
 numerous that the prisons were found too small, 
 whilst in the provinces any resistance which might 
 have been attempted was frustrated by want of 
 organisation. 
 
 According to the programme laid down in the pro- 
 clamation of the 3rd of December the nation was called 
 upon, on the 20th and the 21st of the same month, to 
 vote for the question whether Louis Napoleon should 
 remain President of the Republic for ten years, and 
 draw up a new Constitution. A majority of more than 
 six millions sanctioned his usurpation, which was 
 applauded by the leaders of the clerical party. In con- 
 sequence of this all opposition was crushed, and 
 thousands of his antagonists were transported or 
 
 1 Details of this barbarous massacre, as given by English eye-witnesses, 
 are to be found in the Times of the 6th and 13th of December, 1851. 
 
1851-2. ] THE SECOND REPUBLIC, 385 
 
 exiled, and amongst the latter were eighty-two former 
 representatives. 
 
 On the 14th of January, 1852, the new Constitution 
 was promulgated, by which the President became om- 
 nipotent, the deputies were deprived of their right of 
 interpellation, and of initiating or proposing amend- 
 ments to the laws, whilst the Senate was no longer inde- 
 pendent. One of the first acts of the new Executive 
 was to confiscate part of the private property of the 
 Orleans family, and to order a compulsory sale of the 
 remainder, whilst, at the same time, it passed a decree 
 compelling all officials to take the oath of fidelity to 
 Louis Napoleon. Many subsequent decrees subverted 
 everything which had hitherto been considered con- 
 stitutional The new Assembly, which met on the 
 29th of March, received the name of Legislative 
 Body; but several of the Republican members elected 
 refused to take their seats. For the Republican in- 
 signia were substituted on the standards of the different 
 regiments the former Imperial eagle, and the initials 
 of the prince-President. His effigy had already re- 
 placed the emblem of the Republic on its coins. In 
 the month of September of the same year Louis 
 Napoleon made a triumphal journey through the 
 provinces, during which he was received everywhere 
 with the most obsequious and official adulation. Many 
 of the Government functionaries even went so far as 
 to say that the nation desired the Empire, a statement 
 which was ratified by the President, who proclaimed at 
 Bordeaux that the re-establishment of the Empire meant 
 
 Z 
 
386 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1852. 
 
 peace. His utterances in the provinces had already 
 prepared the way for the tacit admission that the 
 Empire had become necessary, and on the morning 
 after his return to Paris the Moniteur announced that 
 the manifest demonstrations in favour of its re-estab- 
 lishment imposed on the prince-President the duty of 
 consulting the Senate. The result might have been 
 foreseen. The nation was again called upon to decide 
 on the next 4th of November whether the President 
 should be Emperor, and whether the imperial dignity 
 should be hereditary in his family, and this was replied 
 to in the affirmative by a majority of nearly eight 
 million votes (November 21st). A few days later 
 (December 2nd), the President ascended the throne, and 
 took the title of Napoleon IIT. 
 
Book Lf, 
 
 Hebe Be CO Nel? Hv Doe ek: 
 
 Gabi Anby hh ba oT: 
 § I.—THE REVIVAL OF IMPERIALISM. 
 (From the 2nd of December, 1852, to the 1st of January, 1859.) 
 
 Ir proof were wanted that Napoleon III. was anxious 
 to benefit himself first of all, it would be found in the 
 promulgation of a series of decrees (11th December to 
 18th December) which regulated a civil list for himself 
 and his relatives. A Court in many respects similar 
 to that of the First Empire was formed, and several 
 of the imperial dignities of Napoleon I. were revived. 
 When a nation strongly imbued with the sentiments 
 of liberty is to be trodden under foot by an autocrat, 
 there are but two ways in which such subjugation 
 can be accomplished: the despot must appeal either 
 to her love of conquest and military glory, or else 
 plunge her into a state of moral corruption. As long 
 as Napoleon III. was not master of the situation, he 
 was compelled to have recourse to the first means ; 
 but now such expressions of hostility to foreign coun- 
 tries might produce fatal consequences ; therefore the 
 z2 
 
388 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.  [1852-3. 
 
 new Emperor hastened to mitigate his former declara- 
 tions by pacific assurances calculated to tranquillise 
 public opinion in the interior as well as in the exterior. 
 The first care of a founder of a dynasty must be to 
 insure its duration by providing an _heir-natural or 
 adoptive. Various matrimonial negotiations with 
 princely and sovereign houses having proved unsuc- 
 cessful, a marriage was arranged between the Emperor 
 and a Spanish lady of noble birth, Hugenie de Montijo, 
 Countess of Teba. The news of the marriage, which 
 took place on the 29th of January, 1853, caused great 
 surprise, and was not altogether satisfactory to the 
 nation, who expected that the Emperor should have 
 concluded a more illustrious alhance. The example 
 of the prodigious luxury set by the Court was imitated 
 by all classes, and led to speculations on the stock- 
 exchange and in other doubtful commercial enterprises 
 to an extent which aroused the anxiety of many earnest 
 well-wishers to the country. Nevertheless great public 
 works were undertaken, which caused a large deficit in 
 the budget; but in spite of this semblance of pros- 
 perity dissatisfaction prevailed, and though it dared not 
 openly show itself, 1t led to conspiracies against the 
 lives of the Emperor and Empress, which fortunately 
 were discovered before they were carried out. 
 
 A sectarian quarrel between the Greek and Latin 
 Catholics at Jerusalem furnished the Czar Nicholas 
 with a pretext for attempting to overthrow the “Sick 
 Man,” as he called Turkey. England, having been 
 consulted by the Russian Emperor with a view to 
 
1853. ] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 389 
 
 co-operation in this projected crusade, refused. Un- 
 deterred by this, the Czar sent Prince Mentschikoff to 
 Constantinople with demands which, if conceded, would 
 virtually have made Turkey a province of Russia. 
 About six weeks after these demands had been refused 
 the Russian troops crossed the Pruth and entered 
 Moldavia (July 2nd, 1853), whilst already on the 13th 
 of June the English and French fleets had anchored 
 in Besika Bay, ready to pass the Dardanelles, and to 
 protect Constantinople, for the treaty of 1841 had 
 placed Turkey under the guarantee of the five great 
 Kuropean Powers, who later on held a conference at 
 Vienna (September 7th—January 16th, 1854), but with- 
 out result. On the 30th of November Russia began 
 hostilties by destroying the Turkish fleet at Sinope, 
 and at the end of January of the following year war 
 between England, France, and Russia was deter- 
 mined on, but not declared. These warlike rumours 
 caused great agitation in the French capital, and 
 the newspapers being virtually debarred from giving 
 accurate information, the opening of the Chambers was 
 anxiously looked forward to, it being expected that the 
 Emperor would refer to the prospect of war, whilst 
 an additional motive for uneasiness existed in the failure 
 of the crops. The Emperor tranquillised the public 
 mind by announcing that large purchases of grain were 
 already on their way to France, but he declared that 
 war was imminent. In order, however, to attenuate 
 this statement, he added that England and Germany 
 were at one with France to repress Russia’s ambition, 
 
390 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1854. 
 
 to maintain Turkey’s integrity, and to watch over the 
 rights of the Christians of the Hast. A loan of two 
 hundred and fifty million francs was voted, and so 
 great was the enthusiasm of the nation that in ten 
 
 days the public subscriptions amounted to nearly double: 
 
 that sum. On the 27th and 28th of March war was 
 officially declared against Russia both by England and 
 France; ten days later an increase of the military 
 contingent for 1855 was voted by the Assembly, which 
 was dismissed shortly afterwards. In the beginning of 
 May an Anglo-Irench fleet entered the Baltic, and on 
 the 14th of August bombarded the fortress of Bomar- 
 sund, which surrendered on the following morning. 
 Whilst the plan of attack was being discussed 
 between the commanders of the united French and 
 English armies, General Espinasse was despatched with 
 two divisions to drive the Russians from the Dobrud- 
 scha 
 
 
 
 a fruitless expedition which cost the French 
 above five thousand men. The allied generals received 
 orders to land in the Crimea and to take the strongly 
 fortified town of Sebastopol 
 were no efficient maps of the territory to be invaded, 
 
 an arduous task, as there 
 
 
 
 and the numerical strength of the Russian army was 
 unknown, while a complete ignorance prevailed as 
 to the resources of Sebastopol. This ignorance en- 
 tailed extensive surveys, and the mouth of the Alma, 
 near the ancient town of Eupatoria, was fixed upon as 
 a landing-point. At the approach of the allied armies 
 Prince Mentschikoff, the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 
 Russian army, retired, not deeming it prudent to risk 
 
 
 
 EE << Oe eee CO ee 
 
1854. ] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 391 
 
 an engagement under the fire of the two fleets. 
 The Alles continued their march towards the south 
 along the sea-shore, in order to have the advantage of 
 the support of their fleets, in case of a sudden attack. 
 The Russian commander awaited them with an army 
 of forty-six thousand men on the heights overlooking 
 the left bank of the Alma, securely entrenched by for- 
 tifications which Nature herself had rendered almost 
 impregnable. The Allies attacked him, and after a bril- 
 hant battle which lasted three hours and a half, the 
 Russians were utterly routed, and made a precipitate 
 retreat upon Sebastopol (September 20th), where they 
 took up a position to the east of the fortress, whilst the 
 allied fleet prepared to blockade it. When the Allies, who 
 continued their march, came within sight of that fortress, 
 it was found to be almost impossible to attack it from the 
 north side, and a series of flank marches was determined 
 upon in order to reach the small ports of Balaklava 
 and Kamiesch, the possession of which would enable 
 the besiegers to keep open their communications, and to 
 receive ammunitions and provisions. On the 17th of 
 October the Anglo-French troops began the trench- 
 works for a siege, the long duration of which was 
 scarcely then contemplated. Balaklava was occupied 
 on the 26th of September, and on the 25th of the 
 following month the Russians made a sortie from 
 Sebastopol, and took some redoubts from the Turks, 
 but when they attacked the English they were com- 
 pelled to retire with heavy loss. During this battle 
 occurred the celebrated “ Charge of the Light Brigade,” 
 
392 ‘THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1854. 
 
 in which only a hundred and ninety-eight men returned 
 out of the six hundred and seventy British horsemen 
 who rode down the “ valley of Death.” These reverses 
 brought about in Russia a fanatical excitement against 
 the invaders, fanned into flame by the fulminations of 
 the priests. From all parts of the country troops 
 and volunteers flocked to the Crimea, cheered by the 
 presence of the HEmperors’s two sons. On the 5th 
 of November, before daybreak, under cover of a 
 thick mist, forty thousand Russians swooped down on 
 the lines of the British, attacked eight thousand of 
 them near the old fort of Inkermann, and intended 
 to force them to advance in the teeth of their artillery, 
 or to drive them into the sea. The English kept 
 the Russians at bay for six hours, and when at last a 
 reinforcement of six thousand French troops came up 
 the onset of the enemy was stopped, and the troops of 
 the Czar were driven back after a most sanguinary 
 struggle, with a loss of fifteen thousand killed, 
 wounded, and prisoners. Simultaneously with this 
 onslaught, five thousand Russians attacked the trench- 
 works of the French, to the left of the main army, 
 and were also defeated. After this Gortschakoff, who 
 had succeeded Mentschikoff in command, refrained from 
 active operations, during the whole of a most severe and 
 rigorous winter, when the Allies suffered privations of 
 which the record has become historical. It was hoped 
 at one time that the sudden death of the Emperor 
 Nicholas I. (March 2nd, 1855) would have put an 
 end to all hostilities; but his successor and son 
 
 
 
1855. ] THE SHCOND EMPIRE. | 393 
 
 Alexander II. signalised his accession by a most 
 bellicose manifesto. The investment of Sebastopol was 
 continued for eleven months, and after many san- 
 guinary encounters and repeated bombardments, a grand 
 assault was made on the 8th of September upon the 
 Malakhoff tower and the Redans, the most important 
 fortifications to the south of the town. The French 
 succeeded in capturing and retaining the Malakhoff, the 
 division under General MacMahon being the first to 
 enter. The attacks of the English on the Great Redan, 
 and of the French upon the Little Redan, were not so 
 successful, for the Allies were compelled to retire after 
 a desperate struggle with great loss of life. In the 
 night the Russians abandoned the southern and prin- 
 cipal part of the town and fortifications, destroyed 
 everything they could not carry with them, sunk or 
 burnt the remainder of their fleet, and occupied the 
 northern forts. The Alles thereupon entered the town 
 (September 9th), obliged the enemy to capitulate, and 
 virtually put an end to a war which throughout had 
 generally been conducted on both sides with every senti- 
 ment of humanity and honour, consistent with the stern 
 necessities of modern warfare. This successful issue 
 tightened the cordial bonds already existing between 
 England and France. While the war was raging the 
 Emperor and Empress paid a visit to the Queen of 
 England, which visit -was returned in the month of 
 August, 1855, by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. 
 The Legislative Body of 1855 passed all the laws 
 presented to it; amongst others one which granted to 
 
394 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. [1855-6. 
 
 the Government, the monopoly of finding substitutes 
 for those who declined to enter the army, and another 
 which created a fund for rewarding those soldiers 
 who, after the expiration of their time of service, re- 
 engaged themselves. New imposts were also voted, 
 as well as another loan of one hundred and twenty- 
 five million francs. Encouraged by the success of the 
 English Exhibition of 1851, the French Government 
 revived three years later a project for a universal 
 exhibition already broached in 1848, and which was 
 - held with great success in 1855. 
 
 Under the new state of things, with all independent 
 newspapers virtually suppressed, the French were un- 
 certain whether the fall of Sebastopol meant the end of 
 the war or the beginning of a new struggle. The 
 Czar seemed disinclined to accept the conditions offered 
 to him; but it was at last agreed that the final terms 
 of peace should be discussed in a Congress, to be held at 
 Paris, and to be opened in February, 1856, under the 
 presidency of M. Walewski, Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 On the 26th of April peace was officially concluded 
 between Russia and the allied Powers. About a month 
 previously (March 16th) a son had been born to 
 Napoleon III., and the Senate passed a bill appointing 
 a regent, in the event of the Emperor’s death. 
 
 Napoleon ILL. seemed now to have reached the zenith 
 of his prosperity. From all sides foreign princes came to 
 visit him, and Paris became the pleasure-ground of the 
 universe. ‘T'o render her fit for such an object she was 
 transformed into a town of palaces; the working classes 
 
 
 
1856-7. ] THE SHCOND EMPIRE. 395 
 
 and the small tradesmen were compelled to leave the 
 quarters they had formerly inhabited, and had to remove 
 to the suburbs; rents rose, and inordinate speculations 
 of all kinds, suspended for a moment during the war, 
 increased in spite of the warnings of many eminent 
 men, and even of the Emperor himself. Added 
 to this came the failure of the crops of the year 
 before, which increased the cost of living, already 
 weighing too heavily on the least affluent classes, whilst 
 in the provinces inundations devastated several depart- 
 ments. The dissensions between the clergy of liberal 
 and ultramontane opinions about the doctrine of the 
 Immaculate Conception, then promulgated, did not tend 
 to foster the growth of religion among the people. 
 
 The session of the Legislative Body for 1857 was 
 not marked by anything of importance, and though 
 there was an increasing deficit in the budget, it was 
 scarcely discussed. By the terms of the Constitution 
 the general elections were to take place during this 
 year ; great administrative pressure was brought to bear 
 upon them, and, as a natural consequence, the candidates 
 of the Government obtained nearly everywhere large 
 majorities. ) 
 
 As the coup détat had driven from France all those 
 men whose pens might have been employed in the vin- 
 dication of justice and liberty, the tranquillity of public 
 life remained undisturbed, save by the din of the 
 imperial fétes and the open display of a gallant and 
 licentious court. The last vestige of the liberty of the 
 press had been destroyed by imperial decrees, and this 
 
396 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1858. 
 
 suppression soon resulted in lowering the intellectual 
 standard of the nation; for, unable to discuss serious 
 subjects, the few eminent authors remaining treated 
 frivolous topics. Amidst this illusive silence an event 
 occurred, which for a few days filled the whole of Europe 
 with evil forebodings. At the New Year’s receptions 
 of 1858 the Emperor expressed his satisfaction at the 
 continuation of the amicable relations between France and 
 foreign nations, as well as at the undisturbed tran- 
 quillity of the Empire. <A fortnight after (January 
 14th), an attempt was made on the lives of Napoleon 
 ILI. and the Empress, on their way to the opera, by the 
 throwing of explosive bomb-shells whilst their carriage 
 was passing. It was at first believed that the plot was 
 due toa conspiracy of French Republicans, but it was 
 found afterwards that its prime movers were some 
 Itahans, of whom Orsini was the head, and who con- 
 sidered the Emperor to be the chief obstacle to the 
 independence of Italy. As a consequence attention was 
 drawn to the various refugees in England, Switzerland, 
 and elsewhere, and a diplomatic note was sent by the 
 French Cabinet to the English Government, demanding 
 that vigorous measures should be taken to prevent in 
 future similar attempts, and that the laws affecting 
 political exiles should be altered. The House of Com- 
 mons refused to sanction such an alteration, and the 
 Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, resigned. The Legis- 
 lative Body at the opening of the sessions was called 
 upon to sanction severe measures of repression. ‘These 
 accorded but too well with the task Napoleon had set 
 
 
 
1859. ] THE SHCOND EMPIRE. 397 
 
 himself of ruling France despotically, for, though osten- 
 sibly the result of Orsini’s attempt, they in reality 
 struck at the Republicans. At the end of January the 
 Senate voted a Senatus Consultus, by which the Empress 
 was appointed regent. The police having been reor- 
 ganised, the Minister of the Interior, Billault, and the 
 Prefect of Police, Piétri, resigned; the latter was replaced 
 by General Espinasse, who had many guiltless persons 
 arrested, and revived a system of terrorism, in no way 
 inferior to that of the Restoration. 
 
 § II.—PROGRESS OF THE SECOND EMPIRE. 
 (From the 1st of January, 1859, to the 15th of February, 1865.) 
 
 On the evening of the Ist of January, 1859, the news 
 spread through Paris that the Austrian Ambassador 
 had been more than coolly treated at the official recep- 
 tion held that day ; and after a lapse of three days the 
 very words uttered by the Emperor were published, 
 which foreshadowed a rupture in the diplomatic rela- 
 tions between Austria and France. The official news- 
 paper, the Moniteur, tried a short time afterwards to 
 combat the evil influence of these rumours by stat- 
 ing that no change had taken place in the political 
 situation, but this statement received almost a virtual 
 denial by the sudden journey of Prince Napoleon, a 
 cousin of the Emperor, who went to Turin to marry 
 Princess Clotilde, a daughter of Victor Emmanuel, 
 King of Sardinia; for, as a result of this alliance, the 
 French Emperor would probably support the latter in 
 
098 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1859. 
 
 the now expected war against Austria. In opening 
 the sessions on the 7th of February, Napoleon III. 
 announced that the political situation with regard to 
 Italy was calculated to cause some uneasiness, though 
 he added “there was as yet no sufficient motive to 
 lead to war, and he thought it was likely that peace 
 should not be disturbed.’ These Imperial words failed 
 to inspire the least confidence. ‘ Rumours vague and 
 absurd,” as the organs of the Government chose to 
 term them, continued to be propagated; but on the 
 5th of March these rumours were confirmed by the 
 official notice that the Emperor had promised assist- 
 ance to the King of Sardinia in case of any aggressions 
 of Austria. In truth the situation of the latter country 
 with regard to France and Italy had for some time 
 caused uneasiness to the various Governments of 
 Hurope. 
 
 Already in the Conference held at Paris, after the 
 Crimean war, the Sardinian Prime Minister, Cavour, 
 had complained of the encroachments of Austria in 
 Italy ; for, by her military preparations in the minor 
 principalities she was a source of constant anxiety 
 to Piedmont, and could, by a sudden attack, establish 
 her dominion throughout the whole Peninsula. When 
 
 the Treaty of Paris had been supplemented and im- 
 
 proved upon by the new Conferences, which were held 
 two years later, Austria had shown such ill-will during 
 the whole of these negotiations, that the French 
 Emperor was thoroughly dissatisfied; a dissatisfaction | 
 of which Cavour was not slow to take advantage, as 
 
 
 
1859.] THH SHCOND EMPIRE. 399 
 
 he himself had already broken off all diplomatic rela- 
 tions with the Aulic empire for more than a year. No 
 one doubted that a war against Austria had really been 
 decided upon, notwithstanding official denials, and the 
 attempts of England at mediation ; for it was well 
 known that even before the late Conferences had ter- 
 minated the Sardinian minister had been consulted by 
 Napoleon III. about the creation of a new Italian king- 
 dom, comprising Piedmont, Lombardy, Venice, the 
 Duchies of Parma, Tuscany, Lucca, Modena, Piacenza, 
 and Guastalla, and part of the States of the Church, 
 whilst France, as a compensation for her assistance, was 
 to receive Nice and Savoy. One alternative remained, 
 namely, the holding of another Congress, and every- 
 body expected that it should have assembled, when 
 on the 19th of April, Austria issued an ultimatum 
 giving the Cabinet of Turin three days to reduce her 
 army to a peace-footing, and to disband her volunteers, 
 who had converged from all parts of Italy. The Sar- 
 dinian Government having refused, General Giulay 
 received orders to commence hostilities on the day 
 indicated. The French Government had meanwhile 
 obtained the sanction of the Chamber to raise to a 
 hundred and forty thousand men the contingent of 
 1859, and to contract a loan of five hundred million 
 francs. It was officially announced by the President 
 of the Assembly, de Morny, that no other Govern- 
 ments would participate in the conflict except those 
 whose interests were concerned in it, and on the 
 3rd of May the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated 
 
400 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1859. 
 
 that war was declared between France and Austria. 
 In a proclamation of the French Emperor himself 
 it was distinctly declared that no aggrandisement of 
 territory was contemplated, that he was only actuated 
 by a love for humanity and liberty, and that there was 
 no intention to dethrone the Pope, but merely to free 
 him from the pressure brought to bear upon him by 
 the Austrians. Though no one believed in the dis- 
 interestedness of Napoleon III., though this war was 
 regarded by many as a means used to divert public 
 attention, and others pretended that he was only 
 moved by the threats of the Italian secret societies, it 
 was nevertheless popular in France. 
 
 On the 29th of April the Austrian commander 
 crossed the Tessino, and entered Piedmont, which he 
 could have overrun, but he did not even attempt it; 
 and, later on, he echelonned his army, consisting of a 
 hundred and fifty thousand troops from Pavia and 
 Piacenza to Novra and Vercelli. On the 10th of May 
 the French Emperor departed, amidst the enthusiastic 
 acclamations of the assembled multitude, to take the 
 command of the army, which had already entered Italy, 
 taken up its position under the walls of Alessandria, 
 and was everywhere received with the warmest manifes- 
 tations of joy. On the arrival of the Emperor, Victor 
 Emmanuel placed himself under his orders, and Napo- 
 leon took the chief command of the combined armies. 
 Nothing of any importance took place before the 20th, 
 when the Austrians made a sudden sortie on the 
 Piedmontese vanguard, posted before Montebello, 
 
1859.] THE SHCOND EMPIRE. 401 
 
 and drove them back on the French, who, taken 
 unawares, wavered for a few moments, but soon rallied, 
 repulsed the enemy, and compelled him to retreat 
 (May 20th). 
 
 The Austrian commander thought that the Allied 
 troops would cross the Po at certain points, and had 
 taken his measures accordingly, but they passed the 
 river farther down to the north-west. On the 30th 
 the Sardinian army crossed the Sessia, and carried the 
 bridge and village of Palestro, whilst an attempt of the 
 Austrians on the following day to retake these points 
 was vigorously repulsed (May 30th and 31st). On the 
 2nd and 3rd of the next month General MacMahon 
 crossed the Tessino and defeated the Austrians at 
 Turbigo. It was necessary for strategical reasons to 
 gain possession of the bridge of Magenta, and on the 
 4th of June an outpost-skirmish to that effect assumed 
 the proportions of a great battle, in which the position 
 of the French army was endangered for many hours. 
 It was only saved through the dash of the troops under 
 MacMahon, who forced their way through the Austrians 
 at the point of the bayonet, whilst Napoleon III. 
 narrowly escaped being made a prisoner. Victors and 
 vanquished passed the night on the battle-field, but 
 the following morning the Austrians abandoned their 
 positions—thus acknowledging their defeat—and left 
 the way open to Milan to the French and Sardinians, 
 who made a triumphal entry into that town on the 7th 
 of June. 
 
 The Austrians on retreating to Lodi had fortified 
 
 aa 
 
402 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1859. 
 
 the village of Malegnano, but Marshal Baraguay 
 d’Hilliers dislodged them from this position and drove 
 them behind the Mincio (July 8th). At that juncture 
 the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph assumed him- 
 self the command of his army, because Giulay had 
 failed in all his operations. He took up his posi- 
 tion on a ground perfectly well known to him, and 
 recrossed the Mincio to attack the Alles, who boldly 
 went to meet him. The generals of both armies 
 were ignorant of the marches and counter-marches 
 of the hostile troops; and therefore, instead of 
 confronting each other in a body, isolated engagements 
 took place on a line of great extent, of which the 
 principal strategic points were the tower of Solferino 
 and the village of San Martino. On this vast line 
 three hundred thousand troops were hurled against each 
 other during fifteen hours on the 24th of June, and 
 the victory remained with the Alles, though a terrible 
 storm arrested their further progress, and favourad the 
 retreat of the Austrians to Verona. 
 
 The successes of the French and Sardinian armies 
 led to several important events in Central Italy. The 
 news of the landing of the French at Genoa on the 
 29th of April had been the signal for a rising in 
 Tuscany, which compelled the Grand Duke to abdicate, 
 while the dictatorship of that Duchy which was 
 offered to Victor Emmanuel was accepted by him 
 
 only temporarily. The Duke of Modena and the ~ 
 
 Duchess of Parma followed the example of their 
 brother of ‘Tuscany, and these States, as well as 
 
 wif 
 a TS 
 
1859. ] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 403 
 
 the Legations, ranged themselves under the banner 
 of the King of Sardinia. Meanwhile Austria was 
 threatened in Venice, where she was much hated; the 
 French and Sardinian fleets had entered the Adriatic, 
 expecting to meet with the vessels of the enemy 
 near the island of Lossini, but they had already 
 left it, whilst in Venice itself everything was prepared 
 for a rising. In consequence of an autograph letter 
 of Napoleon III. to Francis Joseph, inviting him to 
 a personal interview, a cessation of hostilities was 
 arranged, to the great dissatisfaction of the French, but 
 more so of the Italians, who found themselves baffled 
 in the task of completely freeing their country, so 
 that a coolness arose between Victor Emmanuel and the 
 French Emperor. The interview between the two 
 Emperors took place in the village of Villafranca 
 (July 11th), without any other person being present; 
 and therefore, until this day, the details of the meet- 
 ing have remained a secret. But its result became 
 known officially: this was the formation of an Italian 
 confederacy under the honorary presidency of the Pope; 
 Austria ceding the whole of Lombardy, save Peschiera 
 and Mantua, to France, to be handed by her to Italy, 
 whilst Venice was to form part of the confederacy, 
 though remaining an Austrian possession ; the duchies 
 were restored to their former princes, who promised to 
 grant a general amnesty; the Pope should be asked to 
 introduce certain reforms in his States; and all persons 
 compromised in the recent revolt against Austria were 
 to be amnestied. Within four-and-twenty hours of 
 
 dae 
 
404, THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOOCH. [1859. 
 
 the meeting of the two Emperors, the treaty and 
 counter-treaty, afterwards confirmed at Zurich (No- 
 vember 10th) were signed, and ‘thus the judgment 
 and will of both these monarchs decided the fate, the 
 political future and the fortunes of two nations. Never 
 were the stipulations of a diplomatic document more 
 disregarded, for the rulers of the Duchies did not even 
 attempt to return to their States, the Legations never 
 returned under the Papal sway, and the Italian con- 
 federacy remained a dead letter. | 
 
 The peace concluded at Zurich satisfied no one, but 
 was forced on Napoleon by events which only reached 
 their completion at the battles of Sadowa and Sedan. 
 From this moment the imperial throne received a shock, 
 of which the effects were perhaps imperceptible at first, 
 but which made the Emperor conscious that his hold 
 upon the French nation was dependent on a career of 
 uninterrupted military victories, and that one serious 
 defeat might overthrow him and his dynasty. ‘This 
 consciousness of his unstable tenure, no doubt, actuated 
 him to grant a general amnesty for all political offences 
 on the 15th of August; but this proffered Imperial 
 favour was disdainfully refused by many of the most 
 eminent exiles. 
 
 On the 20th of September the Pope delivered in 
 a secret consistory an allocution, in which, after 
 vehement lamentations on recent events, he declared 
 the acts of his revolted subjects null and void, and 
 threatened with excommunication all those who had 
 participated in them. Many of the French bishops 
 
1859-60.] - THE SECOND EMPIRE. 405 
 
 took up the text, and maintained that the spiritual 
 power of the Pope would decrease with the loss of his 
 temporal power. ‘This led to bitter polemics; and 
 though Napoleon III. was opposed to the maintenance 
 of the temporal power of the Pope, he found him- 
 self compelled to consent to a prolonged military 
 occupation of Rome, to support that which he actually 
 condemned, At the beginning of the year 1860 (23rd 
 of January) an important treaty of commerce was con- 
 cluded between England and France, which at first was 
 opposed by a part of the French nation, on account of 
 the reduction of duties on English goods. Mean- 
 while the attacks of the clerical party in France 
 against the Emperor's policy on the Roman question 
 continued, and led him to abandon his idea of a con- 
 federacy for Italy, a land which aspired to nothing but 
 Unity. 
 
 In opening the sessions (2nd March, 1860), the 
 Emperor of the French admitted the necessity of 
 constituting the north of Italy one great kingdom, 
 and claimed as a compensation for furtherimg this 
 project the French slopes of the Alps, not as a 
 matter of aggrandisement, but as one of protection 
 for the. frontiers. The population of the Itahan 
 Duchies and of the Legations were invited to give 
 their vote on this question, and unanimously de- 
 manded to be annexed to Sardinia. A similar vote 
 was taken, with the same successful result, for the 
 annexation of Savoy and Nice to France (April 15th-— 
 24th, 1860), in spite of the protest of some eminent 
 
406 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1860. 
 
 Italian Liberals, and the less openly expressed dissatis- 
 faction of the Eurepean monarchs, who looked askance 
 at this increase of territory, which seemed an 
 attempt at the reconstruction of the old Napoleonic 
 Empire. Italy thought herself absolved from all 
 gratitude towards France, as she considered that the 
 latter’s services had been paid for, whilst the pro- 
 longed occupation of Rome by French troops added to 
 her irritation. Pius IX., to resist the probable en- 
 croachments of the newly constituted Kingdom of 
 Italy, ordered the formation of an army of twenty 
 thousand men, of which the command and organisation 
 were offered and accepted by the French general 
 Lamoriciére, with the permission of his own Govern- 
 ment. The Italian Prime Minister, Cavour, pretended 
 that a great part of the new Papal army was composed 
 of foreign mercenaries, and constituted an infringement 
 of the law of nations. He demanded that this army 
 should be disbanded, and on the refusal of Pius IX.., 
 Italian troops entered Papal territory. Contrary to the 
 Pope’s expectation, France, instead of supporting him, 
 merely recalled her Ambassador from Turin, whilst the 
 Italian army defeated the Pontifical troops at Castel- 
 Fidardo (September 18th), and compelled Lamoriciére 
 to shut up himself in Ancona, which capitulated some 
 time afterwards, so that there would have been an end 
 to all Papal government, but for the French Emperor 
 increasing the garrison of Rome. About the same time, 
 General Garibaldi, at the head of a troop of volunteers, 
 made himself master of Naples, and contributed to the 
 
1860-1. ] THE SHCOND EMPIRE. 4.07 
 
 union and independence of Italy, which led to Victor 
 Kmmanuel being declared King of the whole of the 
 Peninsula, except Rome and Venice (February 21st, 
 1861). 
 
 Syria, which had been restored to Turkey in 1841 
 by Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt, was the constant 
 scene of sanguinary quarrels between the Mussulman 
 and Christian populations. Abd-el-Kader, who had 
 been liberated by Napoleon, then President, had lately 
 taken up his residence at Damascus. He came to the 
 aid of the Maronite Christians, and saved a great 
 number from the murderous violence of the Druses, 
 a warlike people dwelling among the mountains of 
 Lebanon. The news of the atrocities committed by 
 the latter filled the whole of Hurope with indignation. 
 On the proposal of the French Emperor, an army of 
 twelve thousand men was sent to Syria (August 3rd, 
 1860). When they arrived they found that peace had 
 been restored, but, nevertheless, remained in the country 
 six months longer to see that the arrangements concluded 
 were carried out. The Syrian expedition and the war 
 in Italy had for some time diverted public attention 
 from the labours of the Legislative Body, which, as 
 usual, implicitly obeyed the will of Napoleon III. 
 The home and foreign policy, the Roman question, 
 and the finances were often violently attacked and 
 criticised by various deputies, without producing the 
 least result, for the Imperial system was at that time 
 at the height of its fictitious prosperity. Jverything 
 the Emperor undertook had succeeded; France was at 
 
408 THH FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. _ [1860-1. 
 
 peace in the interior and the exterior, and, neverthe- 
 less, a sentiment of uneasiness prevailed. 
 
 The treaty concluded in 1858 with China stipulated 
 that the Powers who signed it should have the right 
 of establishing a permanent embassy at Pekin. In 
 June, 1859, an English fleet, presenting itself at the 
 mouth of the Pei-ho, to conduct the ambassadors to 
 Pekin, had found the passage barred, and the attempt 
 to force it proved fruitless. After many negotiations, 
 the English and French Governments insisted on 
 avenging the insult done to their flags. An Anglo- 
 French army of thirty-three thousand troops defeated 
 the Chinese on several occasions, marched towards 
 Pekin, and burnt the Emperor's summer palace. 
 Finally a convention was signed, by which China was 
 compelled to make an apology, and to pay immediately 
 a large indemnity (October 24th, 1860). The session 
 for the year 1861 was opened on the 4th of February, 
 and the Senate had been convoked a few days before 
 in order to grant the Legislative Body the right of 
 discussing publicly an address to the Emperor on all 
 matters regarding home and foreign policy. 
 
 Another expedition, which was at first undertaken 
 in combination with England and Spain, but after- 
 wards continued alone by France, was directed against 
 the Republic of Mexico. Its purport was to demand 
 satisfaction for many gross outrages on foreigners, as 
 well as for the refusal of the payment of arrears due 
 to bondholders. The Mexican Congress dissolved, and 
 conferred full powers on the President, Benito Juarez. 
 
-1862-3.] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 409 
 
 The French troops advanced in the interior, and the 
 Mexican President quitted the capital, whilst General 
 Forey, who had arrived with two thousand five hundred 
 soldiers, was appointed to the command of the expedi- 
 tion. The Mexican Congress protested in vain against 
 this invasion (October 27th, 1862). 
 
 In the meanwhile, at the opening of the French 
 sessions of 1862 (January 27th), and after several 
 financial laws had been adopted, the discussion on. the 
 address to the speech from the throne revived in the 
 Senate the religious question in connection with the 
 Italian situation, whilst in the Legislative Body the 
 same discussion furnished the occasion of a debate on 
 the expedition of Mexico, which was violently attacked 
 by some of the Liberal members, both on finan- 
 cial and political grounds. A few days afterwards 
 unfavourable news arrived from Mexico, and the 
 project of establishing a Mexican monarchy for the 
 Archduke Maximilian of Austria, was mooted by 
 France, and received with much favour by the egis- 
 lative Body, but was disapproved of by the British 
 and Spanish Governments. After the passing of several 
 measures, including the budget for 1863, both the 
 Legislative and the Senate were prorogued. 
 
 The sessions of the year 1863 was opened with a 
 speech from the Emperor, in which he confined himself 
 to enumerate all the benefits which his Government 
 had conferred upon France. The Legislative Body was 
 approaching the term of its dissolution, the deputies 
 were pre-occupied with their re-elections, and the 
 
410 WE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1863. 
 
 Senate did not care to disturb public opinion. All 
 the debates were more or less shortened, whilst the 
 discussion on the address in both Chambers, though 
 it did not last long, betrayed the uneasiness felt 
 at the continuation of the war with Mexico. In 
 the Legislative Body the debates on the address 
 furnished an opportunity to define the attitude of the 
 country and the Government towards Poland, which 
 had again risen in insurrection against Russia, be- 
 cause the latter State could not be prevailed upon 
 to execute her stipulations and the treaties of 1815 
 with regard to this unfortunate nation. In fact, since 
 the Polish Revolution of 1831 the Russian Govern- 
 ment seemed to have abandoned all idea of concilating 
 Poland, and only thought of completely crushing it. 
 Unable to suffer any longer, the Poles rose in 1862, 
 and for more than a year successfully opposed the 
 power of Russia, but the strength of numbers pre- 
 vailed at last, and order was reinstated only by 
 massacres and deportation to Siberia, whilst the im- 
 tervention of the Kuropean Powers proved fruitless. 
 Notwithstanding all the pressure brought to bear by 
 the prefects and other functionaries, the new elections 
 in France resulted in a great moral success for the 
 Opposition, though the numerical victory remained 
 with the Government, a victory partly obtained by the 
 promises even of the official candidates to induce the 
 Emperor to grant liberal reforms. The spirit of hberty 
 was stirring everywhere, and the capital herself declared 
 almost openly against the Empire, by electing all 
 
 
 
1863. ] THE SHCOND EMPIRE. 411 
 
 the Opposition candidates. In consequence of this a new 
 Ministry was formed, of which M. Billault was appointed 
 the head; but at his death, which happened shortly after 
 his nomination, M. Rouher was named in his place. 
 
 During this year (1868) the situation in Mexico had 
 not made much progress. The French had taken 
 Puebla (May 18th), and occupied the capital (June 
 10th). General Forey had appointed a junta of thirty- 
 five notables, charged to elect a triumvirate, which, in 
 its turn, had to convoke an Assembly of two hundred 
 and fifteen members to determine the form of Govern- 
 ment. This Assembly decided, on the 7th of July, that 
 Mexico should become an Empire, and offered the 
 crown to the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who 
 accepted it about a year later (10th April, 1864). 
 
 The opening of the sessions for 1864, which was 
 fixed for the 5th of November, was looked forward to 
 with some anxiety. People were eager to hear the ex- 
 planations of the Government on the affairs of Poland, 
 and to observe the attitude of the new Legislative. 
 Napoleon, in his speech, cast the blame of the failure 
 of the negotiations in favour of Poland on the European 
 Powers, while, in reality, it was the distrust of the 
 Imperial system which caused it. He also brought 
 forward his favourite project of a Congress of Sovereigns, 
 proclaimed that the treaties of 1815 had ceased to exist, 
 and that such a Congress alone could solve the ques- 
 tions now pending. ‘The crowned heads of Hurope had 
 already been invited, and the secondary powers gave 
 their adhesion unreservedly ; but others, Russia, Austria, 
 
412 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1864, 
 
 and Prussia, stipulated for a specification of the points 
 to be debated; England refused point blank, and all 
 idea of a Congress was abandoned. | 
 
 The verification of the powers in the Legislative 
 Body lasted for nearly a month, with the result of 
 exposing the prevailing electoral corruption, and the 
 unseating of six members. In the Senate the debate 
 on the address gave rise to an interesting discussion 
 on Poland, during which one of the members elo- 
 quently pleaded her cause, and was supported by a 
 cousin of the Emperor, Prince Napoleon. It was 
 virtually admitted that though Poland was to be pitied, 
 it was impossible to assist her. In the Legislative the 
 debate on the address lasted for more than four weeks, 
 and provoked a vigorous criticism of the Opposition on 
 the home and foreign policy of the Government, but 
 notably on the expedition to Mexico, which burdened 
 the budget with a deficit of over nine hundred million 
 frances, and compelled it to issue a loan of three hundred 
 millions. In fact, nearly all the Liberals were opposed 
 to the continuation of the interference in Mexican 
 affairs, and expressed freely their opinions that it 
 would be better for France to end it. But the 
 Emperor, who had induced Maximilian to accept the 
 proffered crown, before he started for his distant states, 
 concluded with the Mexican monarch a treaty, by virtue 
 of which the French army should be gradually reduced, 
 whilst Mexico was to repay to France her expenses. 
 
 On the 28th of May the sessions were closed, 
 and, though no virtual changes had been effected 
 
1864. | THE SHCOND EMPIRE. 413 
 
 in the Constitution, a remarkable change began to be 
 perceptible in the tactics of the Government towards 
 the Chamber and the country. An energetic Opposition 
 manifested itself, without as yet showing any tan- 
 gible results, but paving the way for the evolution of 
 ideas which gradually influenced public opinion. The 
 Government felt but too well that if not in the presence 
 of an irreconcilable enmity, 1t was already face to face 
 with a vigorous antagonism. Finding it impossible to 
 battle against the stream, it pretended that the Emperor 
 was the promoter of a new system of liberalism. 
 Though devoid of direct interest to France, the public 
 mind was exercised by the war between Denmark, 
 Prussia, and Austria, which annulled the treaty signed 
 in London in 1852, regulating the succession to the 
 throne of Denmark, and at which France had been 
 one of the co-signatories. ‘This same year the Emperor 
 concluded with the King of Italy a Convention (Sep- 
 tember, 15th), by virtue of which France undertook to 
 withdraw her troops from Rome, on the condition of 
 Italy engaging herself not to invade the Pontifical ter- 
 ritory, and to defend it against all attacks. This measure 
 provoked the threats of the clerical party, against which 
 the Government felt itself powerless to act. 
 
 § III.—THE DOWNWARD COURSE OF IMPERIALISM. 
 (From the 15th of February, 1865, to the 4th of September, 1870.) 
 
 Though the Emperor by some recent acts had some- 
 what slackened the rigour of the Imperial system, he 
 
414 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1865. 
 
 was resolved not to be coerced. If any illusions had 
 been entertained to the contrary, they were fated to be 
 dispelled by the speech from the throne, at the open- 
 ing of the sessions (February 15th). After the usual 
 self-gratulations of Napoleon III. with regard to his 
 foreign policy, he concluded in the following words :— 
 ‘While constituting ourselves the ardent promoters of 
 useful reforms, let us maintain with firmness the basis 
 of the Constitution, let us oppose ourselves to the 
 exaggerated tendencies of those who provoke changes 
 for the sole object of sapping what we have founded. 
 Utopianism is to welfare what illusion is to truth; 
 progress does not mean the realisation of a more or less 
 ingenious theory.” In spite of these warnings the dis- 
 cussions on the address were very animated, and reflected 
 principally on the absence of all necessary liberties. 
 The Emperor felt himself attacked by the extreme 
 Liberals, and also by the partisans of a monarchy 
 whose inclinations were not quite so absolute as his 
 own. One of his chamberlains, in replying in the 
 Chamber to these attacks, committed the blunder of 
 speaking of “the man of genius” who had dragged 
 France from an abyss on the 2nd of December. 
 Then, for the first time for many years, was heard 
 in public the mght word to stigmatise the coup 
 adétat. “The 2nd of December,’ cried M. Ernest 
 Picard, one of the leaders of the Opposition, “the 2nd 
 of December was a crime.” ‘To describe the tumult 
 which followed would be impossible, and though these 
 words were suppressed in the official report of the 
 
1865-6. ] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 415 
 
 sitting, they had been uttered. On the 29th of April 
 the Emperor quitted Paris for Algeria, and appointed 
 the Empress Regent in his absence. Whilst he was in 
 that colony, Prince Napoleon went to Ajaccio, in Corsica, 
 to take part, on the 15th of May, in the unveiling of a 
 monument in memory of Napoleon I. and his four 
 brothers. As a natural consequence he was called upon 
 to make a speech, in which he developed many demo- 
 cratic tendencies, and consequently offended his cousin. 
 This occasioned some embarrassment in official circles, 
 and the J/oniteur made not even mention of the dis- 
 course, but published a letter of the Emperor rebuking 
 the Prince. 
 
 At the opening of the sessions of 1866 (January 
 22nd) everything appeared calm: Napoleon III. had 
 returned from Algeria, France was at peace with all 
 foreign nations, the occupation of Rome was about to 
 cease, and the French troops in Mexico were to be 
 recalled ; the difficulties that had arisen between Prussia 
 and Austria with regard to Schleswig-Holstein seemed 
 to be removed, at least temporarily. Nevertheless a 
 vague feeling of uneasiness prevailed, which was not 
 even allayed by the protestations contained in the 
 speech from the throne that France should preserve a 
 strict neutrality in the event of a war breaking out 
 between the two German Powers. In the discussions 
 on the address to the throne several members of the 
 Opposition, notably M. Thiers, expressed themselves 
 in forcible terms about the necessity of the Government 
 taking the initiative of more liberal reforms. 
 
416 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1866. 
 
 The first note of alarm was, however, sounded by 
 the Emperor himself, who, in a speech delivered at 
 Auxerre (6th May) invoked the memory of his uncle, 
 and declared his detestation of the treaties of 1815, 
 which Europe persisted in considering as the basis of 
 her present political system. As the state of affairs 
 was very critical, this allusion was interpreted as fore- 
 boding the intention of the Emperor to consent, if not 
 to contribute actively, to the remodelling of the map 
 of Europe, for public opinion began now to occupy 
 itself with the crisis impending between Prussia and 
 Austria. The Emperor had renewed the proposal of 
 his favourite project—a Congress of the European 
 Powers—which was unsuccessful, mainly through the 
 difficulties raised by Austria. . Under these circum- 
 stances Napoleon III. felt himself called upon to lay 
 down his programme in the form of a letter to his 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs (June 11th). This letter 
 professed to trace the conduct which the representative 
 of France should have adopted, in case the proposed 
 Congress had taken place. ‘ You should have declared 
 in my name that I disclaim all idea of territorial aggran- 
 disement, as long as the balance of power in Europe is 
 not disturbed; there would have been no thought of 
 extending our frontiers, unless the map of Europe were 
 modified to the exclusive advantage of one great Power, 
 and unless the neighbouring provinces demanded, by 
 freely expressed votes, their annexation to France.” 
 After attributing the conflict between Austria and 
 Prussia to the vaguely defined geographical position 
 
1866. ] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 417 
 
 of the latter Power, the wish of Germany for a political 
 reconstruction more consistent with her general wants, 
 and the necessity of Italy to assure her national inde- 
 pendence, the letter continued: ‘‘I could have desired 
 for the secondary States of the German Confederation 
 a more intimate union, a more powerful organisation, a 
 more important part to play; for Prussia more homo- 
 geneity and power in the north, for Austria the 
 maintenance of her great position in Germany. I 
 could have wished that, as an equitable compensation, 
 _ Austria would give up Venice to Italy ; for if, together 
 with Prussia, and without regard for the treaty of 1852, 
 it has waged against Denmark a war in the name of 
 German nationality, it appears to me just that she 
 should recognise in Italy the same principle by com- 
 pleting the independence of the Peninsula.” The letter 
 finished by stating that “if peace were disturbed, the 
 Emperor had received from the Powers the assurance 
 that, whatever might be the results of the war, none 
 of the questions concerning France should be decided 
 without her consent.’ 
 
 A few days after the publication of this letter war 
 was declared between Prussia and Italy on the one hand 
 and Austria on the other, and after a series of victories, 
 of which the one at Sadowa (July 3rd) was the crowning 
 success, peace was finally concluded with Prussia at 
 Prague (August 23rd), and with Italy at Vienna 
 (October 3rd). Venetia, which had been ceded to France 
 by Austria, was finally annexed to Italy, which also 
 came in possession of the four Italian fortresses, 
 
 bb 
 
418 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.  [1866-7. 
 
 Peschiera, Mantua, Verona, and Legnago, whilst in 
 Germany a North Confederation had been formed, and 
 Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Homburg, part of Hesse- 
 Darmstadt, Nassau, and Frankfort had been annexed to 
 Prussia. } 
 
 In the meanwhile the Senate had voted a law by 
 which the Legislative Body was prohibited from dis- 
 cussing or proposing any changes in the Constitution 
 of 1852. The result of the Austro-Prussian war had 
 changed the political condition of France, though the 
 Government stated, in a circular addressed to her diplo- 
 matic agents abroad, “that the new distribution of 
 European forces had nothing to alarm France.’ The 
 French troops finally evacuated Rome (9th to 11th 
 of December), whilst the official newspaper mentioned 
 that in the spring of 1867 the army from Mexico 
 should return to France. 
 
 The Constitution of 1852 had remained nearly 
 unchanged during ten years, but an imperial decree 
 suppressed on the 19th of January, 1867, the right 
 which had been granted to the Legislative seven years 
 before, of discussing the address to the throne, and 
 substituted in its stead interpellations, which had to be 
 authorised or could be adjourned by the majority. In 
 opening the sessions (I*ebruary 14th) the Emperor 
 announced the withdrawal of the troops from Mexico, 
 and the proposal of a law to increase the army, whilst 
 a few days later in the Legislative Body some of 
 the deputies interpellated the Government on a recent 
 violation of correspondence. Another interpellation took 
 
1867.) — THH SHCOND EMPIRE. 419 
 
 place (25th and 26th of February) about the legality 
 of the decree suppressing the address to the throne, 
 but it led to no results; whilst M. Thiers, about a 
 fortnight afterwards, interpellated the Government on 
 their policy with regard to foreign nations—an inter- 
 pellation which led to a discussion lasting four days, 
 and in which the Opposition told the Government some 
 bitter truths, though the Chamber voted by a large 
 majority its satisfaction with the acts of the Ministry. 
 
 Negotiations had been in progress between the 
 King of Holland and the Emperor about the annexa- 
 tion to France of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, 
 but the great Powers interfered ; and a Conference was 
 held in London, in which it was decided (May 11th) 
 that the King should remain Grand Duke, but demolish 
 the fortifications of the town of Luxemburg, whilst the 
 Prussian garrison was to evacuate that fortress. 
 
 In the discussion on the budget—a discussion which 
 was still allowed—some financial arrangements of 
 the Government were severely and deservedly criti- 
 cised ; the Legislative also passed a law to ameliorate 
 the position of teachers in public schools, in spite of 
 a strong opposition from the clerical party. On the 
 lst of April was opened in Paris the Universal Exhibi- 
 tion of Fine Arts and Industry, to which almost all 
 nations had contributed, and which was visited by 
 large numbers of strangers, amongst whom were nearly 
 a hundred sovereigns and princes. The Emperor of 
 Russia, Alexander II., who was one of these, was 
 
 fired at by a Pole, just as he was returning with 
 baie 
 
420 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.  [1867-8. 
 
 Napoleon III. from a review. The news that the 
 Emperor Maximilian had been shot, at Queretaro, in 
 Mexico, on the 19th of June, produced a_ general 
 consternation, and put a stop to the official /é¢es given 
 by the Court. 
 
 The Senate and the Legislative Body had _ been 
 convoked for the 18th of November, and this was 
 rather earlier than usual. The tone of the Emperor’s 
 speech was very peaceful and conciliatory. He stated 
 that ‘‘the changes which had happened on the other 
 side of the Rhine should be aecepted, and that as 
 long as the interests and dignity of France were not 
 menaced the modifications which took place because 
 various nations desired them did not concern her.” 
 And yet public opimion remained in a state of un- 
 certainty, and commerce languished. Interpellations 
 about the probability of the King of Italy seizmg Rome 
 took place in the Senate and in the Legislative Body, 
 and during the discussions in the latter house one of the 
 Ministers, M. Rouher, solemnly declared in the name of 
 the French Government that it would never allow Italy 
 to become master of Rome, neither of the capital nor of 
 any part of the Roman territory, a declaration which 
 later events have stultified. After much discussion, 
 two new laws, the first regulating the raising of fresh 
 levies for the army, the second instituting a new 
 kind of National Guard, were passed on the 14th 
 of January, 1868. The last law was not put into 
 execution by the Government, owing to the death of 
 its chief promoter, the Minister for War, Marshal Niel, 
 
1868.] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 421 
 
 which took place, however, more than a year and a 
 half later, whilst the first law was received by the 
 nation with great disfavour, and gave rise to severe 
 disturbances in some of the large towns, in which 
 the military had to be called out. 
 
 The Second Empire wished to slacken a little 
 the bonds which had tied down the press until now. 
 It therefore proposed a bill by which newspapers 
 were allowed to appear without the authorisation of 
 Government, did away with “official warnings,’ and 
 transmitted to the tribunals the power which the 
 administration had possessed of suspending or suppress- 
 ing a newspaper, but it still maintained the pecuniary 
 guarantees and penalties, as’ well as the prohibition of 
 discussing the acts of Government officials. This bill 
 was approved of by the Legislative Chamber as well 
 as by the Senate, though in the latter body it met 
 with some violent opposition. The very next day 
 after it had become law several new Liberal news- 
 papers appeared in the capital and in the provinces. 
 A law was also passed regulating the holding of 
 public meetings, which in reality gave the authorities 
 the power of forbidding them whenever they should 
 think fit so to do, and allowed a commissary of police, 
 who had always to be present, the right of dissolving 
 the meeting if he deemed it necessary. The Legis- 
 lative Body spent an entire month (29th June till 
 29th July), in discussing the budget. Several mem- 
 bers of the Opposition criticised the yearly increasing 
 deficit, the continual augmentation of the expenses for 
 
422 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1868. 
 
 the army, and the intricate and unintelligible mani- 
 pulation of the finances of the State. 
 
 The sessions were closed on the 28th and 30th 
 of July, but already rumours were bruited about 
 that a dissolution of the Chambers was imminent, 
 so that the deputies who presented themselves for 
 re-election were obliged to profess more or less 
 Liberal tendencies in their addresses to the electors. 
 During this year several newspapers were prosecuted 
 and condemned, as well as a few members of political 
 societies. But a great sensation was produced by a 
 prosecution undertaken against the newspapers which 
 had proposed to open a subscription for erecting a 
 monument in honour of Charles Baudin, a represen- 
 tative who had been killed by the troops on the 
 9nd of December, 1852. Some of the most eminent 
 barristers of the Liberal party, and amongst them 
 M. Gambetta, defended these papers, and attacked 
 the manner in which the Second Empire had been 
 established. Their speeches, reproduced in all the 
 newspapers, recalled to the mind of the nation the 
 history of the coup d’état of the 2nd of December, a 
 crime which, according to some of the partisans of 
 the Imperial dynasty, had been absolved by the votes 
 of the whole of France, but which was stigmatised by 
 one of the barristers engaged in this lawsuit “as the 
 most criminal deed which history shall ever remember, 
 and which, as every act is followed by its consequences, 
 shall, therefore, not remain unpunished.” The accused 
 editors were, of course, condemned to imprisonment and 
 
1868-9. | f THE SECOND EMPIRE. 423 
 
 fines, as well as all the newspapers which had admitted 
 in their columns the lists of subscribers to the pro- 
 posed monument. 
 
 The term of the present Legislative expired on the 
 Ist of June, 1869, and as the new elections were 
 to take place in the second quarter of the year, they 
 pre-occupied the nation to the exclusion of all other 
 topics. Even the speech from the throne at the 
 opening of the sessions (18th January, 1869), bore traces 
 of this general pre-occupation. It alluded to the 
 arduous task of the Government to erect on a soil 
 so frequently shaken by revolutions an administration 
 sufficiently impressed with the wants of its time to 
 adopt the benefits of liberty, and sufficiently strong not 
 to fear its excesses. After which the Emperor expa- 
 tiated upon the prosperous condition of the army, and 
 the perfect organisation of the arsenals and storehouses, 
 which would the better enable France to proclaim 
 her desire for peace, as no one could or would 
 attribute it to weakness or want of preparation. 
 Speaking of the revolution in Spain, which led to the 
 deposition of Queen Isabella, the Emperor congratu- 
 lated himself that it had caused no rupture of the 
 cordial relations between that country and France, 
 that, in fact, she was at peace with all the world. 
 Referring again to the coming elections, Napoleon 
 hinted that the time for more liberal reforms was 
 at hand, a prospect which did not seem any longer 
 to terrify the majority of the Legislative. There 
 was even amongst the Government supporters a certain 
 
424 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. _ [1869. 
 
 group of deputies who wanted more than the Emperor 
 had promised. The complete liberty of the press 
 was asked for; the Opposition did not hesitate to 
 attack some of the personal favourites of the HEm- 
 peror; in fine, a new era of liberty seemed to be 
 approaching. The maintenance of peace, and the 
 reduction of the army, on both economical and moral 
 grounds, were eagerly discussed, and met by the 
 Government in a spirit which, if it had been sincere, 
 would have argued well for the future. Since then it 
 has become doubtful whether there was not a deeper 
 motive underlying this apparently conciliatory system. 
 Notwithstanding this the elections were eagerly con- 
 tested by the Opposition. The struggle was passionate 
 on both sides, and the Government brought to bear all 
 its pressure on the constituencies. ‘The elections resulted 
 in an almost open condemnation of the system hitherto 
 pursued by the Imperial Government, and nearly all 
 the large centres chose Opposition candidates, of whom 
 some declared themselves absolutely irreconcilable to the 
 kmpire, notably MM. Gambetta and Rochefort, above 
 all the latter, who by his revolutionary publications 
 had become the idol of the Parisian population. 
 
 The growing opposition to the Empire was mani- 
 fested in more ways than one; and every now and then 
 the large towns were the scenes of unarmed demon- 
 strations, which the Government saw fit to suppress by 
 charges of cavalry and attacks of the police. It some- 
 how was bruited about that these demonstrations were 
 organised by the Government itself, im order to serve 
 
 
 
1869. ] THE SHCOND EMPIRE. 425 
 
 as a pretext for not disbanding part of the standing 
 army, a measure which public opinion claimed as 
 affecting the welfare of the nation. The partial 
 divulging of the origin of these demonstrations led 
 to the arrests of the editors and printers of several 
 newspapers, who after being confined for some time 
 were released without the least investigation having 
 taken place. 
 
 The Legislative was convoked for an extraordinary 
 session on the 28th of June, in order to proceed to 
 the verification of the powers of the newly-elected 
 deputies, which would take up too. much time at the 
 beginning of the ordinary session. The Liberal candi- 
 dates brought again to light the manceuvres by which 
 the Government had supported its own partisans. A 
 large number of the majority reiterated also their 
 demands for a more liberal Constitutional and Parlia- 
 mentary system; they claimed for the Legislative the 
 right of regulating the organic conditions of its 
 labours and its communications with the Government. 
 This was more than the Government in its most liberal 
 moments had intended to grant. Still it could not 
 openly reject these demands, and to grant them would 
 have been against the terms of the Constitution, which 
 reserved to the Emperor the initiative of Constitutional 
 modifications. In this emergency the Legislative was 
 prorogued and the Senate called together for the 
 2nd of August, to discuss the various reforms destined 
 to establish the Government on new bases. On the 
 18th of July the Emperor announced his intention of 
 
426 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1869. 
 
 granting these reforms. This would naturally lead to 
 such a change in the Imperial system that the Cabinet 
 felt itself bound to tender its resignation. Many 
 Ministers, however, remained with the new administra- 
 tion, and by a Senatus-Consultus of the 8th of Sep- 
 tember several liberal measures were adopted, which 
 already foreshadowed the advent of a Parliamentary 
 system. The decree of the 13th of July pro- 
 roguing the Legislative had not fixed a day for its 
 re-assembling, and according to Parliamentary usage, 
 this should take place within six months of the date 
 of the last session. It was stated at first that this 
 time should be reckoned from the day of prorogation, 
 and measures had already been taken effectually to 
 protest against such an intended delay; but the 
 Ministry wisely convoked the deputies for the 29th of 
 November. Meanwhile some supplementary elections 
 had taken place, in which the most turbulent of the Re- 
 publican party endeavoured to elect no other candidates 
 
 but those who would refuse to take the oath to the © 
 
 Empire. Four ultra-Republicans were elected, amongst 
 whom was M. Rochefort, the Government having given 
 him a safe conduct to re-enter France. 
 
 At the opening of the sessions (29th of November) 
 the Emperor once more referred to the difficulty of 
 establishing in France ‘a regular and peaceful use 
 of liberty,” and ended by expressing his confidence in 
 the maintenance of public order, provided the deputies 
 would lend him their assistance in preserving liberty. 
 After various interpellations, the verification of the 
 
 
 
1869. ] THE SHCOND EMPIRE. 427 
 
 powers of the deputies, interrupted by the sudden | 
 prorogation of the 13th of July, was proceeded with, 
 and ended on the 27th of December, on which day 
 the whole of the Ministry resigned. The following 
 morning the official newspaper published a letter in 
 which the Emperor requested M. Emile Ollivier, 
 formerly one of the leaders of the Opposition, but 
 who for some time had endeavoured to bring about 
 a fusion between the Liberal and Imperial policies, to 
 point out to him the persons most capable of forming 
 with him a homogeneous Cabinet, faithfully reflecting 
 the majority in the Legislative, and which was called 
 upon to aid in the task of setting in motion a regular 
 constitutional system. In order to understand the 
 import of this event, it should not be forgotten 
 that hitherto all liberal initiatives had been imme- 
 diately followed by acts more or less neutralising such 
 intentions. This tergiversation had produced a disas- 
 trous effect in more ways than one. The partisans of 
 autocratic rule warned the Emperor that he was going 
 too far, whilst the adherents of the Parhamentary system 
 maintained that Napoleon did not go far enough, though 
 they were, nevertheless, disposed to support him, as the 
 military power was in his hand, and he could thus 
 frustrate the violent attempts of all utopists and ultra- 
 Republicans. These moderate reformers did not per- 
 ceive that the Empire, born from the coup d état of the 
 2nd of December, could not exist, if it would seriously 
 practise liberty. Under these disquieting auspices the 
 year 1870 began; no Cabinet had as yet been appointed. 
 
428 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1870. 
 
 On the 2nd of January the new administration was 
 formed with M. Emile Ollivier as Prime Minister. Six 
 days had elapsed in negotiations, for in taking the 
 reins of power the new Premier was obliged to co- 
 operate with politicians who up till now had been 
 comparative strangers to him. As we have already 
 seen, he in reality belonged to. the Republican party, 
 to which until lately he was attached by hereditary as 
 well as personal bonds. The virtual desertion of his 
 old allies rendered his position a false one. It was 
 felt on both sides that he could not entirely be de- 
 pended upon; and, therefore, he inspired but a mediocre 
 confidence. ‘T'wo of his principal colleagues, MM. Buffet 
 and Daru, the former Minister of Finances, the latter 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, -were known to be staunch 
 defenders of the Parlamentary system, to which they 
 had clung throughout. 
 
 The first care of the new Cabinet was to dismiss 
 
 M. Hausmann, Prefect of the Seine, who had em- 
 bellished Paris at so great a cost, and to appoint in his 
 stead M. Chevreau, a gentleman who was more in har- 
 mony with the Liberal party. Suddenly the joy caused 
 by the triumph of the Liberal policy was marred by an 
 untoward incident. In consequence of a violent political 
 controversy, the editor of an ultra-Republican paper 
 sent two of his friends to Prince Pierre Bonaparte, a 
 cousin of the Himperor, to arrange for an armed en- 
 
 counter. After a very short discussion, the Prince shot > 
 
 one of these gentlemen, M. Victor Noir, through the heart 
 (January 10th). This murder, for such it was, aroused in 
 
 
 
1870.] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 429 
 
 the highest degree the indignation of the Republicans. 
 The Prince was arrested, but by the terms of the Senatus- 
 Consultus of 1852, which regulated the position of the 
 members of the Bonaparte family, it was decreed that 
 they could only be tried by a jury of members of all 
 the counsels-general drawn by lot from the whole of 
 France. The funeral of the murdered man would 
 inevitably have led to a revolt without the interven- 
 tion of a brother of the victim, and of. several members 
 of the extreme Liberal party, amongst whom was M. 
 Rochefort, who was indicted for having written an 
 article in which he was said to have instigated the 
 people to rise in rebellion. He was condemned to six 
 months’ imprisonment, and a fine of three thousand 
 francs, without forfeiture, however, of his civil rights. 
 His arrest led to a disturbance, the pillaging of an 
 armourer’s shop, and to the erection of several. barri- 
 cades, which were left without defence and quietly 
 demolished by the police. Nevertheless the nation 
 was full of hopes that her expectations were about to be 
 realised. The coalition which had always combated 
 the Empire was dissolved, and the adherents of Parlia- 
 mentary rule turned upon their former allies, the 
 Republicans. A great Liberal current, fostered by 
 the Government itself, had set in, and the people 
 were hoping that the Emperor would grant liberty 
 without a revolution. As is usual with such attempts 
 at reform, the nation began to ask too much, not 
 taking count of the Empire’s past, and of her tradi- 
 tions, until some of the Bonapartist organs implored 
 
439 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1870. 
 
 the Ministers to slacken their headlong career of inno- 
 novation. The partisans of autocracy were getting 
 frightened. The Ministry proceeded, nevertheless, and 
 was encouraged by public opinion. 
 
 In authorisng M. Emile Ollivier to initiate a 
 liberal Empire, Napoleon did not intend to proceed as 
 far as his Ministry. He now thought it necessary 
 to oppose a bar to the rising tide. On the 21st of 
 March there appeared in the official newspaper one 
 of those letters which he affected so much, and which 
 invited the President of the Council to submit to him 
 a plan for a Senatus-Consultus “intended to check the 
 immoderate desire for change which possesses certain 
 minds, and which disturbs public opinion by creating 
 an unstable state of affairs.” The new plan “should 
 lay down once for all the fundamental dispositions, the 
 necessary consequences of the appeal to the people of 
 1852, divide the legislative powers between the two 
 Chambers, and restore to the nation the constituent 
 power, which she had delegated to others.” The 
 Cabinet, or rather M. Rouher in its name, took seven 
 days to draw up this Constitutional programme, 
 which was placed on the table of the Senate on 
 the 28th of March. It was nothing more or less 
 than the skeleton of the Constitution of 1882, 
 stripped of all its excrescences, and reduced to forty- 
 five clauses. Clause 13 read: “The Emperor is re- . 
 sponsible to the French people, to whom he has always 
 the right to appeal,’ while clause 44 declared “ that 
 the Constitution could not be modified save by the 
 
 
 
1870. ] THE SHCOND EMPIRE. 431 
 
 people, and on the proposal of the Emperor.” The first 
 left always open the road to another 2nd of December ; 
 the second effectually prevented any or every consti- 
 tutional reform displeasing to Napoleon III.; both 
 clauses and many others were completely opposed to 
 the spirit of Parhamentary Government. The agitation 
 provoked by the presentation of this Senatus-Consultus 
 was increased when it was proposed to have it ratified 
 by an appeal to the people; as the Constitution of 
 1852 had been modified eight times already, without 
 any of these changes ever having been sanctioned by 
 the nation. It could therefore not be necessary now, 
 and the objections which many deputies raised against 
 it were perfectly rational. Nevertheless on the 5th of. 
 April the bill to have the change in the Constitution 
 ratified by the people passed; the Senate had, mean- 
 while, commenced a debate on the new Constitution 
 (April 19th), and voted the whole of the forty-five clauses 
 of which it was composed on the following day. Three 
 days later an imperial decree convoked for the 8th of 
 May all the electors to sanction the following formula : 
 “The people approves the liberal reforms introduced 
 in the Constitution since 1860 by the Emperor with 
 the concurrence of the principal bodies of the State, 
 and ratifies the Senatus-Consultus of the 20th of 
 April,” whilst the Legislative was prorogued until 
 after the nation had voted. ‘The secret of this renewed 
 appeal was contained in the last words of the 
 Emperor's manifesto which accompanied it, which was, 
 in fact, an attempt to establish the succession of the 
 
432 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1870. 
 
 Napoleonic dynasty on a more secure basis than 
 hitherto. 
 
 The struggle between the partisans and the enemies 
 of the Empire grew more violent than at the general 
 elections of the year before ; for, though the ostensible 
 Issue was simply the ratification of the Constitution, the 
 real question was the continuance of the Empire. Many 
 electors who detested the imperial rule, nevertheless 
 gave it their votes, for fear of worse to follow, in case 
 of its overthrow. This dread was cunningly kept up 
 by the machinations of the Government, and to this 
 was owing the great majority of nearly six million 
 votes which it obtained. The large towns had almost 
 all declared against the new Constitution, but the pro- 
 vinces and the rural populations had approved of it, 
 so that the Emperor was justified in saying that a 
 numerical majority of the nation had once more granted. 
 him leave to do with France what he liked. The 
 Legislative re-opened after the appeal to the nation 
 had been decided, and discussed several laws ; amongst 
 others it rejected the petition of the Orleans family to 
 be allowed to return to France, and passed a bill to 
 reduce the yearly levy by ten thousand men. 
 
 It had just begun its debates on the budget when 
 a newspaper, the Journal des Débats, spread the report 
 that the German Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern- 
 Sigmaringen, a relative of the King of Prussia, had 
 accepted the crown of Spain, offered to him by General 
 Prim. ‘The Government being interpellated on the sub- 
 ject, the Duke de Gramont, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 
1870.] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 433 
 
 confirmed the report, but stated at the same time 
 that the Spanish people had not as yet pronounced 
 their opinion, and that the French Ministry ignored 
 the details of a negotiation which had been concealed 
 from it. “ But,’ continued he, “ we do not believe that 
 the respect for the rights of a neighbouring nation 
 obliges us to allow a foreign State, which places one 
 of her princes on the throne of Charles the Fifth, to 
 upset to our detriment the actual balance of power in 
 Europe, and to endanger the interests and honour of 
 France. We are convinced that this eventuality shall 
 not be realised. To prevent it we reckon on the wisdom 
 of the German nation and on the friendship of the 
 Spanish people; but if it were otherwise, strong in the 
 belief of your support and that of the nation, we shall 
 know how to do our duty without hesitation and with- 
 out weakness.” 
 
 The debate was adjourned, and for several days the 
 Ministry refused to give further explanations, on the 
 pretext that negotiations were pending. On the 12th of 
 July the news that Prince Hohenzollern had refused the 
 proffered crown arrived in Paris, and on the same day 
 Napoleon III. informed two of the foreign ambassadors 
 that the difficulty had been overcome, and that all 
 prospects of war were at an end. The Bonapartists 
 were far from satisfied with this solution of the 
 question, and stated on the authority of the War 
 Minister, Marshal Lebceuf, “that everything was ready 
 for war, that the Prussians were not prepared, that it 
 was necessary to put an end to the insolent pretensions 
 
 a Ys 
 
434 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. {1870. 
 
 of such an aggrandising Power, and that the cam- 
 paign would not last six weeks,’ whilst they regarded 
 with contempt those who differed from them in 
 opinion. On the 15th of July an official statement 
 was read in the Senate and Legislative, which set forth 
 “the certainty that the nation approved the policy of 
 the Government, and supported it; that in the nego- 
 tiations which were just terminated care had been 
 taken not to wound the susceptibilities or the in- 
 dependence of Spain; that the Cabinet of Berlin 
 and the King of Prussia had declared not to have 
 been aware of the arrangements between the Spanish 
 Government and Prince Hohenzollern; and that the 
 King had only interfered as the head of the family, 
 and not in his capacity as a sovereign.” The French 
 Government further stated, ‘‘ We cannot consider this 
 reply satisfactory, we cannot admit this subtle dis- 
 tinction between the head of the family and the 
 sovereign, and we have insisted that the King of 
 Prussia should advise, and if need be, compel Prince 
 Leopold to abandon his candidature. Whilst we 
 were interchanging notes with Prussia, the news of 
 the renunciation of the Prince came from a quarter 
 whence we did not expect it, and was communicated 
 to us on the 12th of July by the Spanish Ambassador. 
 The King of Prussia having wished to remain aloof 
 from this question, we requested him to connect 
 himself with it, and to declare that if by one of those 
 changes which are always possible in a _ country 
 emerging from a revolution, the crown was anew 
 
1870. | THH SECOND EMPIRE. 435 
 
 offered by Spain to Prince Leopold, he would not 
 again sanction his acceptance, so that the question 
 might be considered as finally solved. . .. The 
 King consented to approve the renunciation of Prince 
 Leopold, but refused to bind himself not to sanction 
 again in future the renewal of this candidature... . 
 Although this refusal appears to us scarcely justifiable, 
 our desire to preserve to Europe the blessings of peace 
 was such that we did not break off our negotiations, 
 and that in spite of our legitimate impatience, and 
 fearing that discussions might hamper them, we 
 asked you to defer our explanations. Therefore we 
 were greatly surprised when yesterday we learnt that 
 the King of Prussia had sent an aide-de-camp to our 
 ambassador to inform him that he would no longer 
 receive him, and in order to invest this refusal with a 
 non-ambiguous character, his Government communicated 
 this officially to the Cabinets of Europe. We heard 
 at the same time that Baron Werther, the Prussian 
 Ambassador in Paris, had received orders to take 
 leave of absence, and that armaments were going on in 
 Prussia. Under these circumstances to attempt more 
 for the sake of conciliation would have been incon- 
 sistent with our dignity, as well as an imprudence. 
 We have neglected nothing to avoid the war; we shall 
 prepare ourselves to carry on the one offered to us, 
 whilst leaving to every one his own share of the re- 
 sponsibility.” This statement was received amidst the 
 applause of nearly the whole of the Assembly, and 
 the Government proposed immediately a loan of fifty 
 ccd 
 
436 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1870. 
 
 million francs for the Ministry of War, in order 
 to be ready for every contingency, which was granted 
 at the same time, notwithstanding the refusal to 
 vote of the members of the Opposition. One of 
 these members, M. Thiers, made a speech, in which 
 he observed that as the candidature of Prince Hohen- 
 zollern had been withdrawn, there was no occasion 
 to shed torrents of blood about a mere question 
 of etiquette; that he was ready to vote all the means 
 necessary to the Government when war should be 
 finally declared, but that he insisted upon the com- 
 munication of the dispatches upon which this de- 
 claration of war was based, and that he declined the 
 responsibility of a war which had so few grounds 
 of justification. ‘This speech was delivered amidst 
 continual interruptions, loud hootings, and insults, 
 which the President of the Chamber had the greatest 
 difficulty to repress. M. Emile Ollivier, the Keeper 
 of the Seals, stated in reply that the Ministry was 
 fully alive to its duty, that it also believed that 
 useless wars were criminal, and that if it decided 
 upon this strife provoked by Prussia, it was because 
 none was ever felt to be more necessary. He went 
 on to say that none of the members of the Ministry 
 had sought the opportunity of making war, that the 
 Government had not discussed the fitness or unfitness 
 of the hour for attacking Prussia, that it did not wish 
 to attack at all either Germany or Prussia, but that 
 it had received an insult which it could not bear, and 
 a menace which, if allowed to be executed, would reduce 
 
1870.] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 437 
 
 France to the lowest rank of nations. Finally, he re- 
 fused to communicate to the Chamber the dispatches 
 asked for, on the ground that they were confidential, 
 and that it was contrary to diplomatic usages. The 
 Opposition insisted, but without result, and the 
 Minister repeated that France had been driven to 
 this war, because she had done all that was humanly 
 and honourably possible to avoid it. These words were 
 received with much applause; and then the Minister 
 of War presented two bills, the one calling out the 
 Garde Mobile, the other asking for volunteers during 
 the war. After which M. Ollivier resumed his speech, 
 and accused the Opposition of having excited public 
 opinion by averring that the battle of Sadowa had 
 lowered France in the eyes of Europe. In spite of 
 the many interruptions and the violent animadversions 
 of the majority, M. Thiers in his reply to the Minister 
 maintained that it was unlkely that Prussia should 
 ever again support the candidature of Prince Hohen- 
 zollern, and that France had been lowered, not by the 
 members of the Liberal party, but by the originators 
 of the war in Mexico, who now accused these members 
 of trying to embroil their native country, when, on 
 the contrary, they wished to prevent the shedding 
 of blood. 
 
 On the next day, the 16th of July, a great number 
 of senators, headed by the president, M. Rouher, 
 went to the Tuileries to compliment the Emperor, 
 and three days afterwards the French diplomatic agent 
 at Berlin notified to the Prussian Government that 
 
438 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HPOCH. (1870. 
 
 France considered herself at war with Prussia, and the 
 Duke de Gramont communicated this official declaration 
 to the Legislative on the following day. Hvery evening 
 large crowds perambulated Paris, shouting, ‘‘'T’o Berlin, 
 to Berlin!” Republican songs were heard in all the 
 theatres and open-air concerts, by permission of the 
 authorities, whilst those who declared themselves par- 
 tisans of peace were maltreated in the public streets. 
 In the provinces the excitement was not so universal, 
 though the declared opponents of the war or of the 
 Empire were not seldom threatened, and one unfortu- 
 nate gentleman, accused of shouting “‘down with the 
 Emperor ’”’ was seized by the peasants, brutally treated, 
 and finally burnt alive. The Imperialist newspapers 
 insulted all those who opposed this warlike impulse, and 
 M. Thiers in particular became the object of the most 
 violent attacks. The Legislative was occupied three 
 days (20th to 22nd of July) in voting the budget, and 
 in passing divers laws—amongst others, one granting a 
 credit of four million frances to assist the families of 
 the recruits called out. The sessions were closed on 
 the following day in spite of the members of the 
 Opposition, who protested against being dismissed 
 when the country was at war. 
 
 Napoleon III. assumed the chief command of the 
 army. By a decree of the 27th of July he conferred 
 the regency on the Empress, and started on the fol- 
 lowing day for Metz, where his head-quarters were 
 established. He did not pass through Paris, as he 
 had done in 1859, but addressed a proclamation to 
 
1870. ] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 439 
 
 the French nation, in which he reiterated that war had 
 been provoked by Prussia, and that France did not 
 wage war against Germany, but, on the contrary, 
 wished that all the peoples of the great Germanic 
 - nationality should be unfettered in accomplishing their 
 destinies. From the same town he also issued a mani- 
 festo to the troops, announcing that they were entering 
 upon a long and arduous war, on a scene bristling with 
 obstacles and fortresses, that he was certain that a 
 French army would show once more what it could 
 do when animated by a sentiment of duty, kept 
 together by discipline, and urged by the love of 
 country ; that wherever it might wind its way beyond 
 the frontiers it would find glorious traces of its fathers, 
 and that it would show itself worthy of those immortal 
 traditions. 
 
 France was without an ally. Though at the 
 beginning of the Hohenzollern imbroglio the Foreign 
 Powers had not left Prussia in ignorance of their 
 sympathies with the French, the immoderate demands 
 of the Imperial Cabinet after the renunciation of Prince 
 Leopold had completely changed their dispositions. 
 England was neutral; Italy was oscillating between 
 France, who had given her Lombardy but who kept 
 Rome, and Prussia, to whom she owed Venetia; Russia 
 guaranteed Prussia against all attempts from the ex- 
 terior; Austria was compelled to remain inactive lest 
 she might lose her German provinces, already too in- 
 clined to sympathise with Prussia. A few days after 
 the declaration of war the German Premier, Count 
 
4.40 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY #HPOCH. [1870. 
 
 von Bismarck, alienated the sympathy remaining for 
 France in Europe by publishing the draft of a treaty 
 which Napoleon III. had proposed to the King of 
 Prussia after the war of 1866. In this treaty the 
 Emperor recognised the union of North and South 
 Germany, except Austria, in return for Prussia allow- 
 ing him to take possession of Belgium, and assisting 
 him in case of need with her troops. The French 
 Ministry denied the existence of this document, which 
 was proved to have been entirely written by the 
 then French ambassador, M. Benedetti, who failed to 
 give satisfactory explanations. The bitter feelings be- 
 gotten by the exactions of Napoleon I. in Germany 
 were rekindled by the attack of his nephew, and 
 fanned into blaze by the aspirations of German 
 unity, and by the belief that Napoleon IIT. was hostile 
 to it. The existence of these feelngs was not known 
 at the Tuileries, and a similar ignorance prevailed with 
 regard to the military organisation of Prussia, which 
 could bring into the: field almost a million of com- 
 batants, well disciplined, well armed, and hating the 
 French invaders. 
 
 Already, during the first days of the mobilisation, 
 the boasted organisation and discipline of the French 
 troops were found to be imaginary. Everything 
 was wanting or in disorder. No plan of the cam- 
 paign was in existence, and the army scattered along 
 the frontier waited for orders which did not come, and 
 remained for some time inactive. In the war thus 
 ventured upon, France had only at her immediate 
 
1870. ] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 441 
 
 disposal two hundred and seventy thousand soldiers, 
 which by a vigorous effort might be increased in a fort- 
 night to three hundred and fifty thousand. These troops 
 were composed of various corps, having no combined 
 plan of action. There was no simple and rapid system 
 of either mobilising or concentrating them. Only on 
 one line of railways the regulations for the furtherance 
 of military transport and service were sufficiently com- 
 plete to be available, and these were not utilised, from 
 ignorance of the fact in higher quarters. The result 
 was that where provisions abounded there were no 
 troops, and that troops were sent where there were 
 no provisions. Such was the state of things at the 
 opening of the campaign. 
 
 The military movements of the Prussians were not 
 known. On the 15th of July, the King had ordered 
 the army to be mobilised, and during the four fol- 
 lowing days the Grand Juke of Baden, the King of 
 Bavaria, and the King of Wurtemberg did the same. 
 Within a few days the North Germans had ready for 
 action three hundred and eighty-three thousand foot- 
 soldiers and forty-eight thousand cavalry, without 
 reckoning the garrisons of the different towns and 
 fortresses, whilst South Germany was preparing to 
 increase within a very short time these masses with 
 a contingent of about two hundred thousand men. The 
 Prussian army was composed of three corps d’armée. 
 The first, of about sixty thousand, under General Stein- 
 metz, with its right flanked by the neutral territory 
 of Luxemburg, advanced by Treves and Sarrelouis; 
 
44.2 VHH FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1870. 
 
 the second, of a hundred and forty thousand, which 
 was soon to be increased to a hundred and ninety- 
 four thousand, commanded by Prince Frederick Charles 
 was to march by Mayence and Mannheim towards the 
 Saar, linking together the first and third corps; the third, 
 of a hundred and fifty thousand troops, commanded 
 by the Crown Prince, threatened Alsace, and protected 
 the left bank of the Rhine against all surprises. The 
 King of Prussia arrived on the lst of August at 
 Mayence, where he established his head-quarters. On 
 the 2nd of August the first engagement, of little im- 
 portance, took place, in order to drive out of Saarbruck 
 a Prussian detachment, which hardly resisted. This 
 trifling engagement was greatly magnified by the 
 partisans of the Empire, and the French official. 
 newspaper announced that the French had taken the 
 offensive, crossed the frontier, and invaded German 
 territory. 
 
 Marshal MacMahon, recalled from Africa to take 
 the command of the first French corps darmée, arrived 
 at Strasburg on the 24th of July. He found every- 
 thing in disorder, and unable to obtain any information 
 as to the movements of the enemy, he detached the 
 division of General Douay on a reconnoitring expedi- 
 tion, which entered Weissenburg, a town in Alsace, 
 protected by a strong line of fortresses. This division 
 was attacked by superior forces, and after an heroic 
 defence, the town was taken by storm by the Crown 
 Prince, and the French General was killed (4th August). 
 
 On the next day Marshal MacMahon was ordered 
 
1870.] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 443 
 
 by the Emperor to advance with the fifth and seventh 
 corps towards the threatened point of French terri- 
 tory, and on the following day he took up his position 
 on a ground chosen by himself between Worth and 
 Fréschwiller, i order to give his reinforcements 
 time to come up. He was suddenly attacked by 
 the army of the Crown Prince, superior in numbers, 
 and defended himself during the whole day with great 
 energy, but was obliged to succumb at last. The 
 defeat became a complete rout, and the consequences 
 would have been even more serious but for the vigorous 
 stand made by the Algerian sharpshooters and two 
 regiments of cuirassiers (6th August). On the same day 
 the French under General Frossard sustained a severe 
 reverse at Forbach,: an almost impregnable position, 
 which, though disputed inch by inch, was stormed and 
 taken at last by the Prussians, at an enormous cost of life. 
 
 That very day a rumour spread in Paris that 
 Marshal MacMahon had obtained a great victory, and 
 had taken the Crown Prince and twenty-five thousand 
 Prussian prisoners. Universal joy prevailed in the 
 capital, nearly every house was decked with the tri- 
 colour, whilst crowds blocked the principal thorough- 
 fares and sang the Marseillaise; but two hours later 
 it was discovered that these tidings were false. In 
 order to avoid such fictitious news, the Ministry pro- 
 mised to communicate henceforth and at once any news 
 which it might receive from the army, and at one o clock 
 in the morning a telegraphic message was affixed to the 
 doors of the Ministry of the Interior, which mentioned 
 
— 444 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1870. 
 
 the retreat of General Frossard, though no details were 
 given. On the next day the inhabitants of the capital 
 were informed of the defeat of the army of MacMahon, 
 the loss of Forbach, the retreat of the two armies, and 
 the advance of the enemy. Mad with excitement Paris 
 clamoured for arms. The Empress, who had returned 
 from Saint-Cloud, issued a proclamation in which she 
 entreated the people to be united, and stated that, 
 faithful to her mission and duty, she would be the 
 first to defend the standard of France, at any risk. 
 The capital was declared in a state of siege, the Legis- 
 lative and the Senate were convoked for the 14th of 
 August, and the danger becoming more pressing, for 
 the 9th. Proclamations addressed to the French and 
 to the Parisians called upon the whole nation to rise 
 
 as one man as they had done in 1792, and counselled 
 
 the capital to remain calm. 
 
 On the 9th of August the Legislative meets, the 
 building is surrounded by a dense crowd, which is 
 kept in order by troops, who are received with the 
 cry of ‘“ March to the frontiers.” M. Ollivier attempts to 
 prove that the military situation is not desperate, and 
 solicits the confidence of the Assembly. M. Jules 
 Favre, one of the members of the Opposition, proposes 
 that guns should be distributed to all citizens capable 
 of bearing arms, that the National Guards should be 
 re-orgamised in conformity with the law of 1831, 
 that a committee should be appointed composed of 
 fifteen members of the Assembly to consider the best 
 means of repelling the foreign invasion, and that the 
 
 
 
1870.] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 445 
 
 Emperor should be no longer Commander-in-Chief. 
 This last proposal causes a vehement outburst of con- 
 flicting feelings, and the President refuses to put it 
 to the vote, as being unconstitutional. Finally, after 
 a long debate, often interrupted, the Assembly decides 
 that it will support a Cabinet capable of providing 
 means for the defence of the country, and the Ministry 
 considering this declaration tantamount to a vote of 
 want of confidence, offers its resignation to the Empress, 
 who accepts it, and entrusts the Count de Palikao with 
 the formation of a new Cabinet. 
 
 It was evident to the whole nation that the 
 Emperor and Marshal Lebceuf were incapable of ful- 
 filling the duties entrusted to them—the one as Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, the other as Major-General of the 
 army. In the sitting of the llth of August the 
 Minister for War stated that Marshal Bazaine, who had 
 gained his laurels in the Mexican campaign, had been 
 appointed Commander-in-Chief. The Legislative voted 
 the re-organisation and arming of the National Guards 
 in all the departments, as well as a credit of fifteen 
 million francs. It also adopted several financial 
 measures proposed by the Ministry, but all this failed 
 to satisfy the members of the Opposition, who distrusted 
 the Government, and accused it of sacrificing the defence 
 ‘of France to the interests and preservation of the 
 Imperial dynasty. Nevertheless, the Ministry actively 
 urged the completion of the fortifications of Paris, 
 victualled the capital, and appointed General Trochu its 
 governor. 
 
446 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. (1870. 
 
 After the defeat of Fréschwiller Marshal Mac- 
 Mahon moved with the remainder of his army to 
 the camp of Chalons, rallying on his march the 
 division of General de Failly. When he reached the 
 camp, part of the Canrobert division, as well as the 
 reinforcements sent by the Minister for War, and 
 the Garde Mobile of the department of the Seine, 
 had already arrived. General Frossard’s division and 
 all the other army corps were concentrated at Metz, 
 under the command of Marshal Bazaine. The Hm- 
 peror, who had remained in the latter fortress until 
 the 14th of August, resolved to rejoin MacMahon at 
 Chalons. Whilst he was proceeding on his journey, 
 Marshal Bazaine fought the battles of Borny (14th 
 of August), Gravelotte (16th of August), and Saint- 
 Privat (18th of August). In the first two he obtained 
 the victory, but did not profit by them to pierce the 
 enemy's line. 
 
 The troops in the camp of Chalons formed a total 
 of about a hundred and forty-five thousand men. It 
 was the proposal of Marshal MacMahon to retreat 
 slowly with this army on Paris, in order to give 
 the capital time to complete its preparations, and in 
 the event of investment to secure for it an army which 
 might come to its aid. On the 16th of August 
 Napoleon III. arrived at the camp with his son and his 
 cousin Jéréme. Ina council of war held on the same 
 evening, and at which Marshal MacMahon, Prince 
 Napoleon, General Trochu, and several other generals 
 were present, the plan of retreating on Paris was 
 
1870.] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 44.7 
 
 adopted, and the Marshal was appointed commander of 
 the army of Chalons, and General Trochu Governor of 
 Paris, and chief of the contingent destined to defend the 
 capital. The next day General Trochu communicated 
 these tidings to the Regent and Council of Ministers, 
 but he met with a strong opposition, and the Empress 
 declared that the return of her husband to the capital 
 after so many reverses would be the signal for the 
 outbreak of a Revolution. Almost at the same time 
 the news arrived of Bazaine having obtained a signal 
 and decisive victory, and the retreat on Paris was then 
 considered unnecessary. ‘The Minister of War, Count 
 de Palikao, proposed that the army of Chalons should 
 move towards the north, take the Prussians in the rear, 
 relieve Metz, and join the army of Bazaine. This 
 plan was not impracticable, but hazardous, for the 
 Prussians under the Crown Prince were already moving 
 on Paris. The council of war adopted this project, 
 which was opposed at first by the Emperor and 
 Marshal MacMahon, but finally both assented. In the 
 morning of the 2lst the army of Chalons, after having 
 set on fire everything it could lay hands on, left 
 its quarters, which the Prussians occupied the same 
 day. On his arrival at Rheims (22nd August) Mac- 
 Mahon received two despatches from Bazaine informing 
 him of the latter’s defeat at Saint-Privat, and of his 
 intention to operate in the direction of Montmédy. 
 The following day MacMahon’s troops moved towards 
 that place and arrived on the 26th at Vouziers in the 
 Ardennes. The Crown Prince of Prussia, who had been 
 
448 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1870. 
 
 at first ignorant of the movements of the Marshal, soon 
 guessed their purport. He relinquished his contem- 
 plated march on Paris, ordered the army of the Meuse, 
 under the Prince of Saxony, to effect a junction with 
 his own, and hastened in pursuit of the French. 
 Marshal MacMahon’s forebodings were now realised. 
 He was cut off from Paris, and, in the event of his 
 persisting to reach Montmédy, exposed to the danger of 
 being surrounded. Being without tidings of Bazaine, 
 who was shut up in Metz, he sent a message to tell 
 him that on the 29th he would endeavour to fall back 
 upon Meziéres, and from there farther down westward 
 unless he learned that the army of Metz had commenced 
 its retreat. The Minister for War continued to urge on 
 the Marshal to hasten to the relief of Bazaine; MacMahon 
 obeyed, and resumed his forward march on the 28th. 
 The next day some isolated engagements took place, 
 and on the 30th the army crossed the Meuse, when 
 a division under General de Failly was surprised at 
 Beaumont and routed. During the whole of the night 
 of the 30th and the following day, the retreat on 
 Mezitres might have been practicable, had not the 
 Kimperor ordered the army to concentrate round Sedan. 
 On the evening of the same day the Prussians crossed 
 the Meuse on bridges which the French had neglected to 
 destroy, and cut off the route from Sedan to Meziéres. 
 The following morning the French were completely sur- 
 rounded, and the only retreat open to them was Belgian 
 territory. At dawn (September Ist) the battle began 
 in the village of Bazeilles, when almost immediately 
 
1870.] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 4.49 
 
 Marshal Mac-Mahon was wounded and had to be carried 
 off the field, having transmitted his command to General 
 Ducrot, who a little later handed it to General de 
 Wimpfen, appointed Commander-in-Chief in the event 
 of any accident happening to the Marshal. Pressed on 
 all sides by superior forces, mown down by the artillery 
 which poured shells upon them from the heights com- 
 manding their positions, the French were gradually 
 driven back in the hollow at the bottom of which hes 
 Sedan. About two o’clock Wimpfen offered to the 
 Emperor to place himself in the midst of the troops 
 and endeavour to cut a passage through the Prussians, 
 but he refused, and told the General to ask for an 
 armistice. ‘The latter declining, Napoleon ordered the 
 white flag to be hoisted, and the firing to cease along 
 the whole line—an order which General Ducrot refused 
 to sign, as well as General Wimpfen, who there and 
 then resigned his command, a resignation which the 
 Emperor did not accept. Napoleon III. wrote there- 
 upon to the King of Prussia, that having been unable 
 to die in the midst of his troops, there remained nothing 
 for him but to give up his sword and to capitulate. 
 The capitulation was accepted on the following con- 
 ditions: “The French army to be prisoners of war; 
 the officers to keep their swords and personal pro- 
 perty; all other arms to be given up to the Ger- 
 mans.” If on the next morning at nine o'clock these 
 | } terms were not accepted, the bombardment would re- 
 commence. General Wimpfen obtained as a favour 
 that the officers should return home upon signing an 
 did 
 
450 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY HEPOCH. [1870. 
 
 engagement not to combat any more during this war. 
 The following morning (2nd September) at nine o’clock, 
 Napoleon III. proceeded to the village of Donchery, 
 where he met Count von Bismarck, who accompanied 
 him to the Chateau of Bellevue, the head-quarters of 
 the King of Prussia. On the 3rd of September, the 
 Emperor was conducted to the castle of Wilhelmshohe, 
 near Cassel, the former residence of his uncle Jéréme, 
 when King of Westphalia. 
 
 On the morning of the 3rd of September the 
 Minister for War ascended the tribune of the Legislative, 
 and after having referred to his promise of communica- 
 ting to the Chambers all the tidings he should receive, 
 stated that “serious events had just happened, and 
 that he had received news which, though not official, 
 might be true.’ He went on to say that Marshal 
 Bazaine, after an engagement of about nine hours, 
 had been obliged to fall back upon Metz, and had 
 been unable to effect the proposed junction with the 
 army of Marshal MacMahon. ‘On the other hand,” 
 he continued, ‘‘we have received information of a 
 battle which was fought between Meziéres and Sedan; 
 a battle alternated by successes and reverses. We 
 at first defeated part of the Prussian army, and drove 
 it into the Meuse, but afterwards, somewhat over- 
 whelmed by numbers, we were obliged to retreat either 
 into Meziéres or into Sedan, and even in small numbers 
 on Belgian territory.” He also informed the Chambers 
 that Marshal MacMahon had been wounded and that 
 
 the situation was critical. 
 
1870.] THE SHCOND EMPIRE. 45] 
 
 In the evening the news of the disaster of Sedan 
 arrived in Paris; large crowds went to the Louvre, the 
 residence of General Trochu, and to the Legislative, 
 and loudly demanded the deposition of the Emperor. 
 Towards midnight an official proclamation was pub- 
 lished, announcing the capitulation of Sedan, and the 
 captivity of Napoleon III., whilst stating at the same 
 time that the Government was taking the measures de- 
 manded by the critical aspect of affairs. At one o’clock at 
 night a sitting was held by the Chamber, in which were 
 proposed the deposition of the Emperor and his dynasty, 
 the appointment of an Executive Committee to resist by 
 all possible means the invasion, and to drive the enemy 
 from French territory, and the maintenance of General 
 Trochu as Governor of Paris. The discussion was ad- 
 journed till the next day (September 4th), when another 
 proposal was submitted to the Assembly, conferring on 
 the Count de Palikao the title of Lieutenant-General, 
 and appointing an Executive Council selected by the 
 Legislative. A third proposal, signed by M. Thiers 
 and forty-seven deputies, to appoint an Executive 
 Committee of National Defence, and to convoke a 
 Constituent Assembly as soon as possible, was also 
 laid before the Chamber. It was decided to refer 
 these three proposals to a Committee, which should 
 discuss them without delay, and the sitting was sus- 
 pended until its report should be ready. 
 
 In the meanwhile several thousands of National 
 Guards had gone unarmed to the building where the As- 
 sembly held its sittings, and which was surrounded by an 
 
452 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1870. 
 
 enormous crowd of people, nearly all clamouring for the 
 abdication of the Emperor. ‘Troops and policemen were 
 stationed everywhere, who only allowed the deputies to 
 pass, as well as those persons who had tickets of ad- 
 mission; but they could not prevent many people from 
 entering also. Whilst the Committee was deliberating, 
 a large number of people had collected outside on 
 the steps, and under the colonnade of the Hall of the 
 Assembly, and they all loudly demanded the deposition 
 of Napoleon III., a demand which was re-echoed by 
 the great mass of individuals who filled the Place 
 de la Concorde, the quays, and the Champs Elysées. 
 The agitation of the assembled multitude imcreased, 
 and finally they broke through the ranks of the 
 soldiers and the police, and arrived before the building 
 of the Legislative. The National Guards who were 
 on duty fraternised with the people, and assisted them 
 in climbing over the wall, whilst the regular troops 
 looked on without interfering. 
 
 The crowd, which had invaded the Legislative, 
 rushed through every passage, and penetrated into all 
 the rooms, even into those in which the deputies were 
 assembled in committee. The public tribunes became 
 soon filled to suffocation, whilst M. Schneider, the 
 president of the Assembly, did all that lay in his power 
 to calm the excited multitude. The sitting was de- 
 clared opened, and several leading members of the 
 Opposition united their efforts to those of the president, 
 and demanded in vain to allow the Assembly to de- 
 liberate. Many of those who had filled the tribunes 
 
1870. | THE SECOND EMPIRE. 453 
 
 descended to the seats of the deputies in the Hall, the 
 doors were burst open, and fresh crowds arrived, who in- 
 creased the tumult and loudly demanded a change of 
 Government, as well as the proclamation of the Republic. 
 At last M. Gambetta pronounced the deposition of the 
 Imperial dynasty, amidst the vehement applause of the 
 assembled multitude, who still insisted, however, upon 
 the proclamation of the Republic. It was thereupon 
 resolved to proclaim this new form of government at 
 the Hdétel de Ville, and the leading members of the 
 Liberal party went thither, followed by enormous 
 masses of the people. They were soon joined by many 
 other deputies, and the French Republic was then 
 publicly declared. Acting upon the advice of some of 
 her advisers, the Empress had already left for England. 
 
 The troops which were stationed in Paris offered 
 no resistance to the people, and only a few National 
 Guards kept sentry before the public buildings, which 
 henceforth were considered as national property. <A 
 Government of National Defence was _ provisionally 
 appointed, composed of the nine deputies of the de- 
 partment of the Seine, with General Trochu as its 
 president. 
 
 “Thus fell the Empire;' not as the Restoration, 
 vanquished after a prolonged and sanguinary battle ; 
 not as Louis Philippe, taking flight before the irri- 
 tation of all, and having scarcely tried to hold his 
 ground; but sinking beneath the responsibility of its 
 treachery, and overwhelmed by its political and military 
 
 1 F. Lock, Histovre des Francais, vol. vi., ch. xxi., § 2. 
 
454 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH. [1870. 
 
 faults. 1848 had been a revolution caused by contempt, 
 1870 was a revolution caused by disgust. The Em- 
 pire lasted twenty years . . . a long period in the 
 life of a human being, but a small one in the life of a 
 nation. It had its foundation in the infatuation which 
 rendered possible the crime whence it sprung; 1t owed 
 its duration to the terror which its initiative crime 
 inspired. In order to deter minds from thinking 
 of liberty, it gave full scope to sensual appetites, 
 for such is the policy of all despotisms. But on the 
 very day when material pleasures no longer sufficed, 
 and when it was compelled to utter the word 
 ‘Liberty,’ it was lost. The ebb which was perceived 
 from afar sapped the ground under its feet; it felt 
 that the quicksand would do its work, and in order 
 to save the dynasty, and without caring whether it was 
 not going to ruin france, it had the folly to provoke 
 the catastrophe by which, unfortunately, it was not 
 overwhelmed alone.” 
 
 THE END. 
 
 
 
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Selections from Cassell Petter & Galpin’s Volumes (Continued ). 
 
 THE NEW, BIBLE COMMENTARY. 
 
 New Testament Commentary for English 
 
 Readers. Edited by C. J. ELticotr, D.D., Lord Bishop of 
 Gloucester and Bristol. 
 
 VOL. I. contains THE FOUR GOSPELS, price £1 1s. 
 
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 The Life of- Christ. 
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 The Bible Educator. 
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 Some Difficulties of Belief. 
 
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 Some Present ‘Dangers of the Church of 
 
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 New Greece. 
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 Hellenic Kingdom, showing the responsibilities and obligations 
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 Country. By LEWIS SERGEANT. Demy 8vo, with Two Maps, 2!Is. 
 
 Armenia, and the Campaign of £877. 
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 at the Seat of War, with specially-prepared Maps and Plans. 
 Demy 8vo, cloth, AI Is. 
 *¢, , . . Asa whole, the book is the best we have seen on the subject of 
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 A Ride to Khiva. 
 
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 Lives of the Lords Strangford. 
 
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Selections from Cassell Petter & Galpin’s Volumes (Continued), 
 
 
 
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 England, Cassell’s History of. 
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 United States, Cassell’s History of the. 
 
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 India, Cassell’s History of. 
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 extra crown 4to. Complete in Two Vols., cloth, 18s. 
 
 
 
 The War between France and Germany, Cassell’s 
 
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 British Battles on Land and Sea. 
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 Old and New London. A Narrative of its History, 
 
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 The Races of Wagers 
 
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 The Countries of the World. 
 
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 4 
 
Selections from Cassell Petter & Galpin's Volumes (Continued). 
 
 The Book of the Horse. 
 
 With Hints on Horsemanship, the Management of the Stable, 
 Breeding, Breaking, and Training for the Road, the Park, and 
 the Field. By SAMUEL SIDNEY. With Twenty-five fac-szmzle 
 Coloured Plates from Original Paintings, and 100 Wood En- 
 gravings. Demy 4to, 600 pages, cloth bevelled, gilt edges, 31s. 6d ; 
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 The Book of Poultry. 
 
 By L. WRIGHT. With Fifty exquisite Coloured Portraits of Prize 
 Birds painted from Life, and numerous Wood Engravings. . Demy 
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 The Book of Pigeons. 
 .By ROBERT FULTON, assisted by the most Eminent Fanciers. 
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 Coloured Plates, and numerous Engravings on Wood. Demy 4to, 
 cloth bevelled, silt edges, £1 11s. 6d.; half-morocco, gilt edges, 
 
 £2 25. 
 The Book of Birds. 
 
 Translated from the Text of Dr. BREHM, by Prof. T. RYMER 
 JONES, F.R.S. With 400 Wood Engravings, and Forty Coloured 
 Plates from Original Designs by F. W. KEYL. Four Vols., 4to, 
 cloth, 7s, 6d.; gilt edges, 10s. 6d. each. Or Two Vols., cloth, gilt 
 edges, £1 I0s.; half-calf, £2 2s. 
 
 Familiar Wild Flowers. 
 FIRST SERIES. By F. E. HULME, F.L.S., F.S.A. With Forty 
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 a Concise Scientific Summary. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt edges, 
 in cardboard box, I2s. 6d. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery 
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 taining about 9,000 Recipes. 1,280 pages, royal 8vo, half-roan, 15s. 
 
 
 
 The Domestic Dictionar ? 
 An Encyclopedia for the Household. 1,280 pages, royal 8vo, 
 half-roan, I5s. 
 
 Cassell’s Household Guide. 
 
 New and kevised Edition. A comprehensive Guide to every 
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 page, ha COLOURED PLATES. Complete in Four Vols., cloth, 
 s. each. 
 
 
 
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Selections from Cassell Petter & Galpin’s Volumes (Continued ). 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Magazine of Art. 
 VOL. I., with an Etching for Frontispiece, and-containing Full-page 
 Engravings of Pictures by P. H. CALDERON, R.A, W. C. T. 
 Dopsson, R.A., A. ELMORE, R.A., T. FAED, R.A., Sir JOHN 
 GILBERT, R.A., F. GOODALL, R.A., the late Sir EDWIN LANDSEER, 
 R.A., F. LEIGHTON, R.A., J. E. MILLAIS, R.A., J. PETTIE, R.A., 
 the late J. PHILLIPS, R.A., E. M. WARD, R.A., G. F. WATTS, RAG 
 W. F. YEAMES, R.A., J. B. BURGESS, A.R.A., VICAT COLE, A.R.A., 
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 edges, 7s. 6d. 
 
 SCIGNCE Oneal, 
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 by eminent Scientific Writers. Vol. I. contains about 350 II]lustra- 
 tions and Diagrams. Extra crown 4to, cloth, price 9s. 
 
 
 
 ¢ 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure 
 
 Peril, and Heroism. By F, Wuymper, Author of “ Travels in 
 Alaska,” &c. VOL. I., with upwards of too Original Illustrations 
 executed specially for the Work. Extra crown 4to, 320 pages, 
 cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 
 
 Great Industries of Great Britain. 
 
 VoL. I. With about 130 Illustrations, Extra crown 4to, 320 pages, 
 cloth, 7s. 6d. ; 
 
 Russo-Turkish War, Cassell’s History of. 
 
 Vou. I. By the Author of CASSELL’S HISTORY OF THE FRANCO- 
 GERMAN WAR. With about 300 ILLUSTRATIONS. Extra crown 
 4to, cloth, 9s. (Zo be completed in Two Vols.) 
 
 Cassell’s New Natural History. 
 
 Edited by P. MARTIN DUNCAN, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of * 
 Geology, King’s College, London, assisted by Eminent Scientific 
 Writers. Illustrated throughout. Vols. I. and II. now: ready, 
 gs. each. 
 
 The WVorldeot thee eee 
 
 Translated from the French of MOQUIN TANDON, by the Rev. 
 H. MARTYN-HART, M.A. Illustrated. Cloth, ros. 6d. 
 
 Transformations of Insects. 
 By P. MARTIN DUNCAN, M.D., F.R.S. With 240 highly-finished 
 Engravings. Mew and Cheaper Edition. Demy 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 
 
 Cassell Petter & Galpin: Ludgate Hill, London; Paris; and New York. 
 6 
 
 
 
Selections from Cassell Petter & Galpin’s Volumes (Continued ). 
 
 
 
 iicestrredqtesteainters. of ©@hristendom; from 
 CIMABUE to WILKIE. By JOHN FORBES-ROBERTSON. Illustrated 
 throughout with carefully-executed Engravings of the Masterpieces 
 of the several Painters. Royal 4to, cloth elegant, gilt edges, £3 3s. 
 
 ‘¢ Comprises the history of all that is splendid and admirable in the painter’s 
 ‘ mp y I I 
 art.”— Zimes. 
 
 The Leopold Shakspere. 
 
 The Poet’s Works, in Chronological Order, from the Text of 
 Professor DELIUS, with “ Edward the Third,” and “ The Two 
 Noble Kinsmen,” and an Introduction by F. J. FURNIVALL. With 
 about 400 Illustrations. 1,184 pages. Small 4to, 10s. 6d. Dedi- 
 cated by permission to H.R.H. PRINCE LEOPOLD. 
 
 
 
 Royal Quarto Shakespeare. 
 Edited by CHARLES and MARY COWDEN CLARKE, and contain- 
 ing about 600 Illustrations by H. C. SELOUS. Printed in new 
 large type on royal 4to paper. Complete in Three Vols., cloth 
 gilt, gilt edges, £3 3s.; morocco, £6 6s. 
 
 The Practical Dictionary of Mechanics. 
 Containing 15,000 Drawings of Machinery, Instruments, and Tools 
 in use by every Profession and Trade, with Comprehensive and 
 TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION of each Subject. Complete in Three 
 Volumes, 2,880 pages, super royal 8vo, cloth, £3 3s.; half-morocco, 
 
 £3 155. eer 
 The Doré Fine Art Volumes, 
 
 Published by CASSELL PETTER & GALPIN, comprise— 
 La Sal. CAt aS ELS 
 5 : 
 
 The Doré Scripture Gallery 5 10 0 | Don Quixote ; ; 1 100 
 The Doré Gallery. - 5 50] La Fontaine’s Fables a Ce As: 
 The Doré Bible. : .4 40 | The Wandering Jew . Gs EGO 
 Milton’s Paradise Lost . 2 100] The Days of Chivalry wR G 
 Dante’s Inferno . ‘ . 2100] Fairy Tales Told Again .o0 50 
 
 Purgatorio and Paradiso . 2 10 0 
 *y* Also kept in Morocco bindings suitable for Presen/ation. 
 
 Louis Figuier’s Popular Scientific Works. 
 New and Cheaper Editions, Containing all the Original Illustra- 
 tions, the TEXT REVISED AND CORRECTED, price 7s. 6d. each :— 
 
 The Human Race. Revised by ROBERT WILSON. 
 
 Mammalia. Revised by Professor E. PERCEVAL Wricit, M.D. 
 The World Before the Deluge. Revised by W. H. Bristow, F.R.S. 
 The Ocean World. Revised by Prof. E. PERCEVAL WRIGHT, M.D. 
 Reptiles and Birds. Revised by Captain PARKER GILLMORE. 
 
 The Insect World. Revised by Professor DUNCAN, M.D., F.R.S. 
 The Vegetable World. Revised by an Eminent Botanist. 
 
 
 
 Cassell Petter & Galpin: Ludgate Hill, London, Paris, and New York. 
 
 7 
 
THE [IPRA®Y Ae THE 
 
 SEP I ¢ 1934 
 
 Selections from Cassell Petter & Galpin’s Volumes (Continued). . 
 English Play!VERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 By Professor HENRY MoRLRY. Being VOL. III. of THE LIBRARY 
 OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. With Engravings from Original 
 MSS., &c. Extra crown 4to, cloth, 11s. 6d. 
 
 Shorter English Poems. 
 
 By Professor HENRY MorRLey. Being Vol. I. of CASSELL’S 
 LIBRARY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Containing! the Leading 
 Characteristic Shorter Poems of English Literature, from the Earliest 
 Period to the Present Time, with upwards of 200 Illustrations. 
 Extra crown 4to, 512 pages, cloth, 12s. 6d. 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Illustrations of English Religion. ; 
 By PROFESSOR HENRY MORLEY. Being Vol. II. of ‘ Cassell’s 
 Library of English Literature.” Illustrated throughout with En- 
 gravings from original MSS., &c. Ex. crown 4to, cloth, 11s. 6d. 
 
 A. First Sketch of English Literature. 
 
 By Professor HENRY MORLEY. Crown 8vo, 912 pages, cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 Dictionary of English Literature. 
 
 Being a Comprehensive Guide to English Authors and their Works. 
 
 By W. DAVENPORT ADAMS. 720 pages, extra fcap. 4to, cloth, 15s. 
 
 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 
 Giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, 
 Allusions, and Words that have a Tale to Tell. By the Rev. 
 Dr. BREWER. Demy 8vo, 1,000 pages, cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 By AARON PENLEY. With Illustrations in Chromo-Lithography, 
 after Original Water-Colour Drawings. Super-royal 4to, cloth, 15s. 
 
 Principles of Ornamental Art. 
 
 By F. E. Hume, F.L.S., F.S.A., Art Master in Marlborough 
 College. With over 400 Designs. Royal 4to, cloth, 25s. 
 
 Studies in Design. 
 
 For Builders, Architects, Designers, House Decorators, and 
 Manufacturers. By CHRISTOPHER DRESSER, Ph.D., F.L.S., &c. 
 Consisting of Sixty Original Designs by the Author, accompanied 
 by descriptive Letterpress. Demy folio, cloth, £3 3s. 
 
 
 
 Gas" CASSELL PETTER & GALPIN’S COMPLETE CATALOGUE, 
 containing a List of Several Hundred Volumes, including Bibles and Religious 
 Works, Fine Art Volumes, Children’s Books, Dictionaries, Educational Works, 
 Hand-Books and Guides, History, Natural History, Household and Domestic 
 Treatises, Science, Serials, Travels, &c. &¢., sent post free on application. 
 
 
 
 Cassell Peller & Galpin: Ludgate Hill, London, Paris; and New York. : 
 
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