Page images
PDF
EPUB

ment. Meanwhile, a motion had been made and carried, in the chamber of deputies, for an address to the king, praying him to cause a bill (projet de loi) abolishing capital punishments to be presented for their consideration. The king, in his answer, promised to comply with this request, and expressed his disapprobation of inflicting capital punishments for political offences. The people, who demanded vengeance on their late oppressors, considered this in the light of a conspiracy between the executive and legislative, to screen them from their fate; and, on the 17th and 18th of October, mobs assembled before the Palais Royal, uttering threats against the government. The national guard and the troops of the line were both put in requisition to preserve tranquillity; and the ministers felt themselves obliged to abandon the intended bill. On occasion of the disturbances, Odillon-Barrot, prefect of the department of the Seine, had issued a proclamation exhorting the people to preserve order, in which he designated the proposition of the ministers as unseasonable. The conservatists in the ministry resented the use of such language by a subordinate officer, and demanded his dismission. But the. king, fearful of the consequences, would not consent to this step; and baron Louis, the duke de Broglie, count Molé, and Guizot, immediately quitted their offices. The new ministry was now composed of the mouvement party: Dupont retained the seals, Sébastiani the navy department, and Gérard the war department, while Laffitte succeeded to the post of president of the council and minister of finance, marshal Maison to that of minister for foreign affairs, Montalivet to the ministry of the interior, and Merilhou to that of public instruction. In a few days, however, general Gérard retired, and was replaced by marshal Soult; marshal Maison was succeeded by Sébastiani; and the marine was given to count d'Argout. The trial of the ministers finally came on Dec. 15, and lasted to the 21st, the court sitting every day from ten o'clock till four. M. Persil, the attorney-general, Bérenger, reporter of the committee who had prepared the bill, and Madiez de Montjau, were appointed on the part of the deputies to conduct the impeachment. The 15th, 16th and 17th were occupied in the opening of the charge by Bérenger, and the examination of witnesses. The evidence of the first charge, that of having interfered with the elections, consisted of the circulars of the ex

ministers, requiring the public functionaries to vote for ministerial candidates, and of other written instruments, promising places in return for votes. The charge of having arbitrarily changed the institutions of the country, rested on the memorial to the king, and the ordinances themselves, the illegal and unconstitutional nature of which was undeniable. The use of military power to enforce them was equally a crime; and the charge of having excited civil war, and armed the citizens against each other, was made out by evidence, showing that they had directed and approved of the employment of the troops in Paris during the three days. The 18th, 19th and 20th were occupied by the speeches of the attorneygeneral on the import of the evidence, and of the counsel for the prisoners, and by the reply of M. Montjau for the impeachment. The counsel for the accused were M. Martignac for prince Polignac, Sauzet for Chantelauze, Hennequin for Peyronnet, and Crémieux for Guernon de Ranville. Martignac contended, first, that, as the provision of the charter, which rendered the ministers responsible, also declared the person of the king invi olable, and the nation had, by the acts of July, chosen to render the king personally responsible, and driven three generations at once from the throne,-that article of the charter was virtually annulled; secondly, that the chamber of peers did not constitute the court prescribed by the charter, as two fifths of its members had been ejected by the accusers themselves; and, thirdly, that there was no law which applied to the case, the charter having only provided that laws should be passed defining what should be esteemed treason, which laws had never been enacted, and the articles of the penal code, which described certain offences, supposed to be similar to those with which the prisoners were charged, not designating them as treasonable. The managers of the impeachment asserted, in reply, that the ministers had rendered themselves responsible by signing the ordinances, and that the expulsion of the royal family was only one consequence of their crime, from the punishment of which the accomplices could not expect to escape, on the plea that the principals had been condemned. On the 21st, the court found the prisoners guilty of treason, under the fifty-sixth article of the charter, by having countersigned the ordinances of July 25, attempted to enforce the execution of them by arms, and advised the king to

declare Paris in a state of siege, to subdue the legitimate resistance of the people. The judgment then declared that, as no law had determined the punishment of treason, it belonged to the court to supply the deficiency; and condemned prince Polignac to imprisonment for life, and to civil death; and Peyronnet, Chantelauze, and Guernon de Ranville, to imprisonment for life, with the loss of their titles, rank and orders.-See Procès des derniers Ministres de Charles X (2 vols., Paris, 1830). While the trial was going on, the Luxembourg was surrounded by a clamorous mob, demanding the death of the prisoners, and threatening vengeance in case the sentence was not satisfactory. As the trial proceeded, and it began to be suspected that a capital sentence would not be pronounced, the violence of the multitude increased, and every thing seemed to menace a new insurrection. The troops and national guards were kept under arms by night, and bivouacked in the public places. The whole personal influence of the king and of Lafayette was also employed to soothe the populace: still the number and clamor of the mob became so alarming that it was determined to remove the prisoners secretly to Vincennes before sentence was pronounced. This being accomplished on the 21st, the populace received the annunciation of the sentence, on the next day, without committing any actual violence, as they had no direct object of attack. These disturbances were no sooner over, than the question of the extension of the elective franchise became a subject of division between the chambers and the ministry, and also divided the ministry itself. The consequence was the retirement of the keeper of the seals, Dupont de l'Eure, who was in favor of more extensive changes than his colleagues in the ministry; Odillon-Barrot also resigned the prefectship of the Scine. The chambers were, likewise, employed, at this time, in the permanent organization of the national guard, and were disposed to abolish the office of commander-in-chief of that body, which had been created during the summer, and bestowed on Lafayette. The influence of that illustrious patriot had been somewhat diminished by the successful conclusion of the trials, and the suppression of the riots of December, -results which his authority had contributed so much to bring about,-and the conservatists now became desirous to get rid of those very men who had directed the storm of the revolution, and calmed

its fury. Lafayette, therefore, perceiving the counter-revolutionary tendency of the government, resigned his post on the 24th December; and count Lobau was appointed commander of the national guards of Paris, that of commander-inchief of the national guards of the kingdom being thus abolished. Thus the party of the movement, composed of many able and highly popular men, was thrown into opposition to the government, while the chamber of deputies, which, as we have before said, had been elected before the revolution, was disposed to look upon the ministry with jealousy, as partaking too much of the revolutionary leaven, This, then, was the state of France at the close of the year in which the act of the revolution had occurred. A new king, who was understood to have no great regard for the "men of July," and who was willing to end the revolution with the change of dynasty which seated himself on the throne, had been created by the two chambers, without any appeal to the national voice. Those chambers consisted of the peers, men in general attached to the old régime, and enemies of the revolution, and of the deputies, composed of a majority of men who had been inclined to oppose the arbitrary policy of the late government as inexpedient and unsafe, and had so far yielded to the popular call as to sanction the change of dynasty, but had no wish to make further changes in the constitution of the government. The courts of law were composed almost entirely of friends of the old order of things, many of whom had shown themselves the ready instruments of an arbitrary administration in prosecuting the friends of freedom. The body of the nation had, of its own accord, formed itself into national guards, which chose their own officers; but it had never been accustomed to the exercise of any political rights, and it now looked to be admitted to the privileges of freemen. It demanded the abolition of the hereditary peerage, the extension of the elective franchise, and a new organization of the municipal administration, in which the nation should be permitted to take part. In regard to foreign affairs, the patriots, or the movement party, were urgent for a favorable answer to the overtures of the Belgians. They complained of the refusal to accept the crown, which had been offered to the duke of Nemours, and they complained equally of the interference of the French ministers in preventing the election of the

duke of Leuchtenberg. (See Belgium, in this Appendix.) "When called upon," said Lafayette, "to explain my notions of non-intervention, I declared that, whenever the right of sovereignty was claimed by the people, every intervention in the affairs of that people should be considered as a declaration of war against France. As to the union of Belgium with France, I would not have stopped to inquire whether it would be displeasing to this or that power; I would only have asked whether it was the will of a majority of the Belgians to effect, and the will of the representatives of the French nation to accede to, the union." In the beginning of the year 1831, the public mind continued to be agitated by conspiracies and rumors of conspiracies of the Carlists, or partisans of the exiled family. On the 15th of February, an attempt was made to celebrate the anniversary of the assassination of the duke de Berri; and a print of the young duke of Bordeaux, his son, was crowned with flowers. This foolish or criminal act rendered Paris the scene of new riots. A mob collected and entered the church, tearing down the crosses and fleurs-de-lys, or emblems of Carlism. They then sacked the archiepiscopal pal ace, and proceeded to commit similar acts of violence; and the government were obliged to calm the excitement by causing the fleurs-de-lys, and other obnoxious emblems, to be removed from all public buildings. Another consequence of this affair was the bringing in a bill for the perpetual exile of the banished royal family from France, which passed the chamber of deputies by a majority of 332 to 122, and the peers by a majority of 29. On the 13th of March, the Laffitte ministry, which had enjoyed neither the favor of the king, of the conservatists, nor of the movement party, resigned their portfolios, and were succeeded by men of the former party, Casimir Périer, president of the council, taking the office of minister of the interior, baron Louis succeeding Laffitte in the department of finance, and admiral Rigny, d'Argout in that of the marine. Sebastiani and Soult retained respectively the foreign and war departments, and Montalivet exchanged that of the interior for that of public instruction. The new ministry was much more firm and energetic than the former one, and declared the principles on which it was determined to govern, to be, to put down all irregular power at home, and to refrain from all armed intervention abroad. One of the first measures of the new min

istry was the introduction of a bill, in the nature of a riot act, for the prevention of those crowds and commotions which continually disturbed Paris. It enacted that all persons forming an assemblage in any public place should be bound to disperse when required to do so by the prefect of police; and that, after the summons had been repeated three times in vain, force might be used. This law served to strengthen the hands of government; and it was rigorously executed in April, when the public peace was disturbed by some riotous assemblages of the populace, which seemed to have no definite object or assignable cause. A new electoral law had been already brought before the chambers by the former ministry. By the old law, the qualifications of an elector were, that he should pay 300 francs of direct taxes, and be, at least, thirty years of age: these qualifications excluded the great body of Frenchmen from the elective franchise, which, in fact, belonged to a small body of not more than 80,000 men out of a population of 32,000,000. The projet of the ministers was to double the number of electors in each college (see Elections), taking the whole number from those who paid the highest tax in each department. After considerable discussion, the chamber of deputies, however, fixed the qualifications of electors at 200 francs of direct taxes, and twenty-five years of age, with a provision that when the number of electors was smaller than one in one hundred and fifty inhabitants, the next highest taxed should be included in the electoral list to make up the proportionate number. This change carried the number of electors to about 215,000. The departmental colleges, composed of the fourth part of the electors who paid the highest taxes, and who had a double vote, were also abolished, and the qualification for being elected was reduced from the payment of 1000 to 500 francs of direct taxes. It now remained to fix the budget for the year. Laffitte had opened his budget, but the supplies had not been voted at the time of his resignation. The extraordinary services of the year alone amounted to nearly 220,000,000 fr., and he had proposed to raise 200,000,000 by sales of the national forests. M. Périer proposed to raise a loan of 120,000,000 francs in rentes at five per cent. The necessary votes having been passed, the king prorogued the chambers on the 20th of April; and the chamber of deputies was afterwards dissolved by an ordinance of the 24th of May. Notwithstanding the

popularity of the king, discontents and political divisions continued in full force throughout his dominions. It was no longer doubtful, however, that the government, with M. Casimir Périer at their head, felt increased strength. Accordingly, M. Anthony Thowret, editor of the Révolution newspaper, was prosecuted, and sentenced by the court of assizes to three months' imprisonment and a fine of 5000 francs, for an article published by him, calculated to bring the king's government into hatred and contempt; and, on an attempt being made to consecrate the column in the place Vendome as an altar to the name of Napoleon, on which occasion the public strewed the rails, the column itself, and the area between, with dedicated books, prints, writings, votive garlands, crowns, wreaths, &c., the prefect of police, with the national guards, repaired speedily to the spot, turned out the worshippers, and actually swept the whole of the offerings from before the popular idol, without resistance. About the same period, a medal was decreed to be struck for the decoration of those who principally distinguished themselves during the "days of July." This decree, however, was not carried into execution without jealousy and contention. The ministry designated the ornament as donné par le roi (given by the king), and required an oath to Louis Philippe and the charter. The individuals for whose honor the decoration was designed, objected to the reception of that from the king which they had earned from the nation; and the consequence is stated to have been that, out of 1528 persons, to whom the medal was assigned, upwards of 1000 refused to accept it on the terms proposed. In the midst of this anarchy, the king of the French, with that prudential foresight and conciliatory disposition which have characterized most of his movements, determined on a tour through the provinces of his dominions, one of his objects having doubtless been to attach to his person, by so popular a course, a large portion of his subjects, who might otherwise have been disposed to join the disaffected. During this progress, his majesty was received every where with great enthusiasm. At St. Germain, Poissy, Nantes, Dieppe and other places, he reviewed different bodies of the national guards, amid the acclamations of the populace, who, from St. Cloud to the limits of the department of the Seine and Oise, formed a line on each side of the high road, with banners, tri-colored flags and

[blocks in formation]

branches of trees. Yet, notwithstanding these loyal demonstrations, France still contained all the elements of political excitement; and to cope with the agitation arising from the conflicting elements, was no easy task to a newly-established government; but, by the active cooperation of the national guard, the efforts of the authorities had hitherto been successful in repressing the numerous tumults with which they had been compelled to contend. In the early part of June, France declared war against Portugal, with the following claims: "Liberty to Bonhomme, with 20,000 francs of indemnity, and the dismissal of his judges; the recall of Claude Souvinet from banishment; an indemnity of 6000 francs to each of the Gambergs and Vallons detained at Oporto, and 10,000 francs to Dubois; adherence to the French form of arrest; prohibition of the insertion of articles in the journals against France or its government, and of political discourses against the French by ecclesiastics; and, lastly, an apology to the French consul, for offensive expressions injurious to his character." This expedition, however, for which considerable preparation was made, ended in the capture of eight Portuguese ships of war, which caused a speedy adjustment of the differences which had been complained of. On the 14th and 15th of June, a commotion of rather a serious character arose in Paris, which was not subdued without the interference of the military. Its origin was absolutely insignificant, having arisen from the unfeeling attack of a watchmaker on a young ballad-singer, who was chanting Napoleon in the Hundred Days." This assault on the minstrel was instantly resented by the mob by a fierce attack on the premises of the watchmaker, and by a cry of "Down with the Carlists." Trifling as was the cause of offence, the tumult prevailed to such an extent, that several corps of municipal and national guards were served with ball-cartridge, and remained under arms all night, in the apprehension that the rioting would be renewed in the evening, which, however, happily, was not the case. At Beauclaire, also, in the south of France, there was some serious rioting about the same period. The people there, on the day of the fête, raised the tree of liberty; and, the mayor having called out the troops to pull down the tree and disperse the multitude, the soldiers joined the patriots; and a body of Carlists, who came from the country to pull down the tree, were attacked by the

chasseurs, some killed, some wounded, and others taken prisoners and ill used. Lyons was also visited by some disturbances, and the Chouans agitated the west of France; but, by the vigorous measures of government, all these tumults were speedily repressed. A reform of the chamber of peers now became the principal cry in France; in other words, the abrogation of hereditary peerage, and the appointment of a senate, the members of which should possess, from their personal characters, a solid claim to public confidence. The venerable and popular Lafayette published a long election address, in which he strongly advocated the expediency of a peerage for life only; and so unpalatable had hereditary power been in France since the revolution of 1789, that the government was obliged to make this concession to the public will. Meantime other subjects occupied the minds of the French-the settlement of Belgium, the deliverance of Poland, and the emancipation of Italy and the Peninsula; and the meeting of the chambers was looked forward to with intense interest. The elections had taken place in the beginning of July; and, although great efforts had been made by the movement party, they gave a decided majority in favor of the ministry. Of the thirteen deputies returned for Paris, the ministerial party carried eight. Pledges, however, were very generally demanded, and as generally given, to abolish the hereditary peerage; but, except upon this point, the movement party did not seem to have gained any accession of strength by the creation of the new constituency. It should, however, be remarked that this constituency was, as we have already stated, extremely small, and that the whole administration, down to the minutest ramifications, being lodged solely in the hands of the government, its influence is much greater than persons accustomed only to our administrative machinery would be apt to suppose. On the 23d of July, the king opened the chambers with a speech which produced a very powerful effect. Adverting to the internal state and interests of the country, he declared his resolution to punish equally the machinations of Carlist conspirators and of republican alarmists. He stated that the Austrians, on the demand of France, had evacuated the papal states; that the Belgic fortresses on the side of France were to be demolished; and that the Portuguese fleet had been captured. On the 27th, 28th and 29th of July, the celebration of the three memorable days

But

of the previous year's revolution took place, and was attended with great splendor and popular enthusiasm. The first day was devoted to the inauguration of the brazen tablets in the Pantheon, recording the names of the heroes who fell in the cause of liberty-a very splendid and imposing ceremony. On the second day, Paris became one great fair, when the population gave themselves wholly up to joy and merriment. On the 29th, there was a review, which was a grand spectacle. The king and royal family were every where received with the greatest enthusiasm. There were above 100,000 men under arms; and the cordiality which pervaded the ranks appeared almost to confound the rules of military discipline. The election of the bureaur (that is, of the president and secretaries of the standing committees of the chamber of deputies) showed the strength of the ministerial party. Out of eighteen, the opposition carried only six. the great trial of strength was to take place in the choice of the president of the chamber. The friends of M. Laffitte had determined to elect him president: the ministerial candidate was Girod de l'Ain; and the prime minister had declared that if the former was chosen he should immediately retire. Laffitte, though by no means with the movement party, was supported by them as an opposition candidate, as well as by a large body of his friends. The struggle, which was severe, resulted in the choice of the ministerial, by a plurality of only three votes above the opposition candidate. In consequence of the smallness of the ministerial majority, M. Casimir Périer resigned, and the ministry was dissolved; but, on the invasion of Belgium by the Dutch being communicated by king Leopold, and a resolution formed to send 50,000 French troops, to repel it, they consented to retain office for some time longer. The effect of the assistance thus afforded to Belgium, will be found noticed in our article Belgium, given in this Appendix. Riots, in Paris and other parts of France, for the most insignificant causes, and the question of the abolition of hereditary peerage, continued subjects of apprehension and agitation until the middle of September. Ön the 16th of that month, the fall of Warsaw to the Russians was officially announced by ministers to the chamber of deputies. This intelligence became at once the topic of conversation and indignant declamation in every circle; and, on Friday, the 17th, "War against Russia!" and

« PreviousContinue »