GIFT OF MICHAEL REESE i I mm k THE STORY OF THE NATIONS MODERN FRANCE 1789-1895 BY ANDRE LEBON MEMBER OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN 1898 COPYRIGHT, 1897 By G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Entered at Stationers' Hall, London BY T. FISHER UNWIN Ube Knickerbocker pre00, flew Borfc INTRODUCTION. THERE is some difficulty in compressing into one volume the history of a century so rich in ideas, in events and in men as the present period has been in France. Such an effort at reduction necessitates the elimination of all that is picturesque in the facts to be related, leaving only their substance, and all attempt at giving any portrait of the personages whose acts are narrated in their results alone. It has struck me, however, that even so brief a summary may not be useless, since the principal cha- racteristics of our century, which are now to be found scattered throughout various special histories, when brought together and united may furnish to the reader their own peculiar contingent of instruction. I shall not dwell on the nature of this instruction, but prefer to leave the facts to speak for themselves, rather than to suggest reflections which might be attributed to party-spirit. I owe to the reader also a few words on the method which I have endeavoured to follow, as well as on the general conception of the work. Vlll INTRODUCTION. My method, if somewhat unusual, is at any rate of an extreme simplicity, since it consists in re- lating accomplished facts, and seeking their origin not in the circumstances which render them difficult of comprehension, but in those which make them explicable. That is to say, where a political system has failed, I have tried to show its obvious defects and not its hidden virtues. As to my conception of the book, it was imposed upon me by the subject itself. After the formidable outbreak of the French Revolution and the events of the French Empire, civil equality triumphed, but all problems connected with the political organisation of the country, with public liberty and the advent of democracy, remained unsolved, and while the first phase ran its course, power was centred in a pro- pertied middle class extremely restricted in number. This phase ended in two revolutions the Revolu- tion of 1830, which the middle class itself got up in order to break the power of royalty ; and that of 1848, promoted by the Democracy against the middle class, which had shown itself too inert and too shortsighted to extend the suffrage in proper time. From 1848 to 1870 there lasted a second phase, during which the electorate, now recruited by universal suffrage and master all at once of the situation, chose to abdicate its functions in favour of a dictator rather than see its sovereignty called in question by the old political parties. And once again liberty was the sufferer. It had failed to secure the progressive development of parliamentary institutions, INTRODUCTION. IX and was thrust aside in order that popular Right, which is political equality, might proclaim its power unmistakably. After the ruin and the shame of the Second Empire, equality still subsisted and liberty returned. France is at present engaged on the task of finding a modus vivendi for both which shall contribute to the progress of democracy. The undertaking is all the more diffi- cult that the instruction of the people, which ought to have preceded the change, has lagged slowly after it, so that the nation's initiation into normal conditions of political life was not made either under the repres- sion from which the previous generation suffered, nor during the struggle for existence imposed upon the Republic by the National Assembly and later in 1889 and 1893. The author would be glad if these pages might prove to those who read them that it is not by flying from one excess to another that a great people can achieve freedom and occupy a becoming place in the world. PARIS, 1897. r- CONTENTS. I. PAGE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION THE STATES-GENERAL THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY May 5, 1789-December 21, 1792 i-3i The Ancient Regime The Sovereign and the Court Meeting of the States-General National Assembly : Session of the Tennis Court Constituent Assembly ; Declaration of the Rights of Man Insurrection of July and Storming of the Bastille Countershock in the Provinces Night of the 4th of August The 5th and 6th of October Social, Economical, and Political Reforms The Clubs and the Press Flight of the King : his arrest and return The Constitution of 1791 Legislative Assembly : the Girondin Ministry The Declara- tion of War against Austria Failure of the French Troops Insurrections in Paris : Suspension of the King Battle of Valmy Dumouriez in the Low Countries End of the Legislative Assembly. II. THE NATIONAL CONVENTION September 20, 1792- October 26, 1795 ... 32-52 Abolition of Royalty Trial and Death of Louis X VI. The fjrs_Coalition Royalist insurrection in La Vendee Loss of Belgium The Reign of Terror Fall of Robespierre The xi XI 1 CONTENTS PAGE Constitution of 1793 Carnot and the Committee of Public Salvation Success of French Arms Treaties of Bale The Constitution of the Year III. -Royalist Insurrection in Paris. III. THE DIRECTORY October 27, i795-November TO, 1799 ... . 53-68 Foreign Policy of the French Directory : the war on the Rhine; Bonaparte's Italian Campaign; Treaty of'Campo- Formio Complications in the domestic policy: the l8th Fructidor and the 22nd Floreal The Expedition to Egypt Second Coalition : Reverses of the French Armies on the Rhine and in Italy Bonaparte returns to France : the l8th Brumaire. IV. THE CONSULATE November 10, 17 99 -May 17, 1804 69-87 The Provisional Government of France after the 1 8th Brumaire Bonaparte and Sieyes The, Constitution of Year VIII. Bonaparte First Consuls-Continuation of the -v'/War : Campaign of iSocft Treaty of Luneville Struggle with England The Armed Neutrality League Evacuation of Egypt Peace of Amiens Bonaparte, President of the Italian Republic Annexation of Piedmont and settlement of Switzerland Rupture of the Peace. V. THE FIRST EMPIRE May 18, 1804- April 6, 1814 88-no Modifications to the Constitution of the Year VIII : Senatus- Consulte of the 28th Floreal Administrative and Judicial reforms : the Civil Code Scheme of Napoleon for the invasion of England Third Coalition : Napoleon marches on the Rhine Occupation of Vienna Battle of Austerlitz CONTENTS. XJii PAGE Peace of Presburg Fall of the German Empire Napnlgon in Prussia: Battles of Jena and Aucrstudt The Continental I UorkiuK- Fourth Coalition : Campaigns of 1806-1807 Peae_oI~XU&it The Affairs of Spain The Interview of Erfurth Napoleon in Spain Fifth Coalition : Campaign of 1809 Peace of Vienna Sixth Coalition : Rupture Russia The Russian Campaign Awakening of the Nati Campaign of 1813 France invaded Abdication of Napoleon. VI. THE FIRST RESTORATION April 7, i8i4-March 26, 1815 THE HUNDRED DAYS March 27 to June 23, 1815 ..... 111-127 Louis XVIII. The New Constitution and the Charter of 1814 The Reaction and the Opposition. Return of Napoleon The Additional Act Campaign of 1815 Fall of Napoleon. Second Restoration Treaty of Paris Political Condition of France in 1815. VII. LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES FROM 1789 TO 1815 128-151 LETTERS : French Literature at the end of the Eighteenth Century Oratory Sociological and Economical Research Philosophy, Criticism, History Poetry, Fiction, the Drama Chateaubriand Madame de Stael. ART: Painting Archi- tecture and Sculpture Music. SCIENCE: Chemistry and Physics Medical Science Mathematics and Astronomy. VIII. THE SECOND RESTORATION June 24, i8i5~July 29, 1830 . .... 152-170 Return of Louis XVIII. The Cabinet of the 24th of September, 1815 Royalist Reaction: the White Terror First Ministry of the Duke de Richelieu General Election of xiv CONTENTS. PAGB 1817 Decaze Ministry Assassination of the Duke de Berry Second Ministry of the Duke de Richelieu Villele Ministry Military Expedition to Spain Charles X. Political and Religious Reaction Polignac Ministry The July Ordinances and the Revolution of 1830. IX. THE JULY MONARCHY July 30, i830-February 23, 1848 . 171-196 Louis-Philippe The Charter of 1830 Character of the July Revolution The Political Parties The first two Ministries Casimir Perier Ministry Cabinet of the nth of October, 1832 The Parliamentary Anarchy First Ministry of M. Thiers Mole Ministry Second Ministry of M. Thiers The Soult-Guizot Ministry The Oriental Question The Spanish Marriages Conquest of Algeria Revolution of February, 1848. X. LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES FROM 1815 TO 1848 197-260 LETTERS : General features of French Literature during the Nineteenth Century Fiction The Stage Poetry History Criticism- Economic and Social Theories Polemics and Oratory Philosophy. ARTS : Painting Lithography and Design Sculpture Architecture Music. SCIENCE : Mathematics and Astronomy Physics and Chemis- try Natural Science Medical Science. XI. THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 February 24, 1848- December i, 1851 .... 261-290 Public Spirit in France, after the Revolution of February The Provisional Government The Constituent Assembly and the Luxembourg Commission The Committee of Five CONTENTS. XV PAGE Rising of June, 1848 Dictatorship of General Cavaignac The Constitution of 1848 Louis Napoleon's Presidency- Roman Affairs and the French intervention Presidential Message of the 3ist of October Conflict between the President and the Assembly Coup (fctat of December 2, 1851. XII. SECOND EMPIRE December 2, 1851 -November 23, 1860 .... . 291-312 Constitution of 1852 Restoration of the Empire The Absolute and the Liberal Empire Financial. Acts and Social Reforms The Crimean War Congress of Paris Opposition to the Empire The Plot of Orsini and the Italian Question The Expedition to Italy Economical Policy and Commercial Treaties. XIII. SECOND EMPIRE November 24, i86o-September 4, 1870 . . . 3 r 3-337 The Roman Question Catholic Opposition General Election of 1863 Rouher, the " Vice-Emperor "The Schleswig- Holstein Difficulty Battle of Sadowa Defensive Policy of the French Government Decree of the 1 9th of January, 1867 Senatiis-Consulte of the 8th of September, 1869 Olliver Ministry Plebiscite of May 8, 1870 The Hohenzollern Candidature War of 1870 Fall of the Empire. XIV. THE NATIONAL DEFENCE THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY September, i87o-December 31, 1875. 338-364 The Middle Class in 1870 The Government for National Defence Siege of Paris The National Assembly Govern- ment of M. Thiers The Commune of Paris The Rivet Con- stitution The Monarchist Opposition The Septennate Marshal MacMahon's Presidency Constitution of 1875. XVI CONTENTS. XV. PAGE THE THIRD REPUBLIC January i, i875~january, l8 95 - 365-393 Division of Political Parties Ultramontane Manifestation Resignation of Marshal MacMahon M. Jules Grevy's Presidency Public Education Acts The Congress of Berlin Expeditions to Tunisia and Tonquin Gambetta and the Elections of 1881 Jules Ferry Ministry Radical Ministry and General Boulanger Resignation of M. J. Grevy M. Sadi- Carnot's Presidency The Boulanger agitation Friendly relations between France and Russia Elections of 1893 Casimir Perier's Presidency Faure's Presidency The Socialist Party. XVI. LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES FROM 1848 TO 1895 394-462 LETTERS : The Stage Fiction Poetry Criticism Philo- sophy History Polemics and Oratory Political Economy. ARTS : Painting Black and White Sculpture Archi- tecture Music. SCIENCES : Mathematics and Astronomy Physics and Chemistry Natural Science Medical Science. BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . 463-464 CHRONOLOGICAL CHART OF THE LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY FRANCE . . . Between pages 464 and 465 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF GOVERNMENTS AND MINIS- TRIES IN FRANCE, FROM 1780 TO 1895 465-470 INDEX 47 1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. THE BASTILLE THE TENNIS-COURT OATH .... MIRABEAU AND DREUX-BREZE LOUIS XVI. ... . MIRABEAU ....... ROUGET DE LISLE SINGING THE MARSEILLAISE DANTON . MARIE ANTOINETTE ASSASSINATION OF MARAT ROBESPIERRE . . ... BONAPARTE, BY GROS NAPOLEON AT JENA NAPOLEON, BY GROS * . PAGE Frontispiece 6 12 16 21 3 34 37 42 44 55 64 89 109 TALLEYRAND 1 From Scribner 1 s Monthly, by permission of the publishers. XV111 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. NAPOLEON IN 1814-15, BY PAUL DELAROCHE BOISSY D'ANGLAS ANDRE CHENIER ...... CHARLES X. . , LAMARTINE VICTOR HUGO ...... EUGENE DELACROIX ..... THIERS, BY E. APPERT . . . . MARSHAL MACMAHON, BY E. APPERT GAMBETTA PRESIDENT CARNQT PASTEUR TAGE 118 132 138 1.6 1 198 214 243 383 390 455 MODERN FRANCE. d78i-i8 9 5.) I. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION THE STATES- GENERAL THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY - THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. (May 5, 1789 December 21, 1792.) THE task before us is not that of describing minutely the political and social condition of France at the close of the Ancient Regime ; I all we have to do is rapidly to sketch the more characteristic features of the change which culmi- nated in the French Revolution. The first thing to be noted is the omnipotence of the sovereign. All contemporary writers of the time of Louis . ;ree in declaring that there existed no deimite ruL f/. the discharge of public 1 A volume of the piv ^ is to be devoted to the period covering the years from 1515 to 1781;. 2 * TfiE FRENCH REVOLUTION. functibns, 'an'd' 'if, later, under the influence of an inevitable reaction against revolutionary doctrines, a certain school of writers has maintained that France had a genuine Constitution previously to 1/89, this theory is altogether contradicted by the observations of contemporaries. " All evils," wrote Turgot, in his celebrated " Memorial to the King," " arise from the absence in France of a Constitution." And Necker, in his turn, spoke of " this pretended Constitution wherein no public power can find either the beginning of its rights or the limit of its authority." In fact a few customs for the most part obsolete, or, if not obsolete, at least easily superseded by contrary customs - - alone restrained the arbitrary power of the sovereign. The States-General composed of the Clergy, the Nobles, and the Third Estate were at one time consulted with reference to any levy of taxes or to the promulgation of any important law, but since the year 1614 they had never been convoked* The parliaments, as the great courts of justice in the provinces were usually called, were occasionally allowed to remonstrate with the King before registering an edict, but they could feel no certainty that their observations would be attended to, and the royal will sufficed to compel them to the act of registration without demur. As regarded the administration of justice, the sovereign had the powci- not only of pronouncing arbitrary judgment in a suit, but also of relegating to the Bastille without any trial, and by a simple THE A NCI EXT A Y-f ;/.!//:. 3 c cacJict, alike the most illustrious and the most obscure of his subjects. In short, under the more or less specious appearance of local activity, all the real administration of province and town was in the hands of agents of the central power, otherwise named Tntendants. Under a system of government so nearly abso- lute the King obviously could not perform person- ally and in detail the functions attributed to him, and on the other hand he was occasionally subject to a certain pressure of public opinion. Through- out the eighteenth century, during the reigns of the depraved Louis XV. and his weakly-amiable successor, it was the Court which really governed, and the Court was composed of privileged persons, forming the only portion of the public whose opinion could reach the throne. A privileged clergy owned an immense extent of territory, and were not only exempt from pay- ment of state taxes, but possessed the right of levying tithes for their own advantage upon the poor. A privileged nobility whose sons, elder and younger, shared the immunities which were always growing in number with the creation of new titles, ground the people down by the exercise of feudal rights, while themselves paying no taxes into the royal treasury. And even a not incon- siderable portion of the Third Estate had either bought exemption from a certain number of state taxes, or profited by the venality of government functionaries and legal officers to escape from payment of them. So that De Tocqueville, who 4 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. must be numbered among the writers most to be relied upon in their description of the Ancient Regime, summed up the situation by saying, " Tax- ation fell not upon those who could best pay it, but ' upon those who could least escape it." Such a system, although fundamentally unjusti- fiable, might at least be tolerable if accompanied by good government ; but it could not survive either the disastrous wars under Louis XV. or the economic and financial crises which marked the reign of Louis XVI. Our brief sketch suffices to show what were the ' chief features of the Revolution. First it involved social change that is to say, the disappearance of privileges ; then it had to effect a political readjust- ment which should render the restoration of privi- leges impossible, by limiting the power of the monarch who conferred them. But it is remarkable that against the actual monarch himself there was no feeling of hatred. The people, in their complaints, distinguished between the King and his Court, just as they separated religion from the priests. In the beginning, at any rate, the people were neither anti-monarchical nor anti-clerical, and they only became s6 when the King and the Church eventu- ally identified themselves with the abuses which had to be destroyed. Consequently, when Louis XVI. was forced by want of money to summon the States-General, there was no decidedly revolutionary tendency to be detected either in the meetings held for MEETING OF THE STATES-GENERAL. 5 the election of deputies or in the lists of grievances (cahicrs dc dolcances) which it was customary to submit to candidates. Hardly even any appre- hension was expressed lest the deputies should not employ full freedom of deliberation. No question of political organisation was raised, only a general resolute demand formulated for indi- vidual liberty, inviolability of property, equality of imposts, and prohibition of any levy of taxes with- out the consent of the nation. Briefly, the people, on being consulted after a silence of two centuries, assigned to their representatives a task of social reconstruction, but did not indicate the measures to be taken to this end. Nevertheless, as we shall see, the political aspect of the situation had to be faced from the very first day. L- The States-General met at Versailles on May 5, 1789. According to precedent the members of each estate should have deliberated apart from the others, thus in a manner forming three Chambers with distinct respective interests. But the Third Estate, representing as it did the middle class, composed the most numerous of the three orders, and aimed directly at suppressing the privileges of the other two. It could not allow the decisions it might arrive at to be subject to the consent of the other interested parties, and conse- quently demanded that all three orders should meet in a Plenary Assembly, and the vote of the majority be taken. On the i/th of June the Third Estate proclaimed itself a National Assembly, and in the TEXNIS COURT OATH. / famous Session of the Tennis Court swore not to separate again until it had given a Constitution to France. But the clergy and the nobility, impressed with the danger of the situation, could not allow themselves to be absorbed, and they were supported by the King, who, in a sitting on the 23rd of June, declared that he would only consent to a Plenary Assembly when neither property nor privilege were at stake, and when there should be no question of any rules for ulterior convocations of the States- General. In other words, he refused to allow a total poll on the only occasions when it would be neces- sary. Open war was thus declared, but only for a moment. Already, by the 2/th of the same month the King had come to see that he must yield to the immov- able resolution of the Third Estate, additionally fortified as this was by the support of the lower clergy and the small nobility. He allowed the three orders to assemble, but his reluctance and hesitation had bred distrust of him, and the Revolution had commenced, although it was not yet accomplished. And out of the very circumstances accompanying these incidents arose the ideas which were to reign in the Constituent Assembly, and of which our own times still feel the influence. The desire to confer a Constitutional Monarchy on France was unanimous, and would probably so have remained for a long time, but for the repeated mistakes committed by the King and the Court party. 8 THE FKEXCH A'/- I 'OL UTION. Already two schools of thought were formed, one rationalist, the other historical ; but the former was destined to absorb the latter without any prevision of the extremes to which its own doctrines would lead it. The leaders of the historical school were men like Mounier and Malouet, who professed themselves disciples of Montesquieu and accepted his teachings in regard to England. We need not here inquire whether the great thinker really did describe the English Constitution as it existed in the eighteenth century, or whether his conception of it was an abstract and consequently incorrect one. The fact remains that the historical school chiefly represented the ideas which Montesquieu had introduced to the world of thought, and recommended a more or less faithful imitation of English political methods : that is to say, the separation of the executive, legislative, and judiciary powers, and the appointment of two Chambers. Now, if the first of these demands was justified in the first instance by the abuses which had arisen in France, thanks to the inextricable confusion of powers under the Ancient Regime, it came to be discredited later, as we shall see, by the absurdities of its application ; while as to the second, it suffered at this time from the same objections in the eyes of the country as that separate deliberation of the three orders to which the people had refused consent. For it was not possible to conceive the idea of an Upper House where the privileged classes might sit alone just at this moment when the predominating aim was to establish the civil and fiscal equality of all classes. THE RATIONALIST SCHOOL. 9 To the rationalist school the meaning of the situa- tion was clear. This school was permeated with the ideas of Rousseau on Natural Rights, and not find- ing in French traditions any elements for a new political order guaranteeing the liberties of the people, it followed Sieyes along a path of political speculation often just in principle, but erroneous in application. Thus, while accepting the separation of powers it pushed the principle to such lengths as to demand a per- manent Legislative Assembly, which the Executive should have no power to dissolve, whose decisions should be independent, and none of whose members could be a minister. The rationalists did not indeed reject a priori a plurality of Chambers, and went so far as to admit that there might even be three ; but they started by saying that where the framing of a Constitution was in question, the existence of one Assembly only would best ensure the unanimous expression of the national will. And the Constitution once made, it was extremely unreasonable, they maintained, to form three Cham- bers of which the component classes were mutually at variance, the only true method being to divide the Third Estate into three equal parts. 1 On the one hand there was distrust of the Execu- tive, resulting as well from past errors as from the hesitating and reactionary attitude of the Court when the Revolution first broke out ; on the other was the almost insurmountable difficulty, at so critical a moment, of practically defining the various powers of 1 Thus Sieyes in his celebrated pamphlet on the Third Estate. IO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. government and limiting their respective fields ; and in the situation thus created we find the origin of all the mistakes inevitably committed by the Revolu- tionists. Moreover, in addition to class distinction, there were other privileges peculiar to provinces, municipalities, and corporations, and these, joined to local custom, were opposed in spirit to that uniform and united government of which, otherwise, the need was general. This same need became more pressing later, when a coalition of foreign sovereigns threatened the terri- torial independence of France, and forced the new government to adopt a more centralised method of administration than had prevailed under the Ancient Regime. France desired renovation, yet in her past history found no precedent for any change, and the Revolu- tionists being thus driven to seek in a humanitarian philosophy the formula of their rights and the realisation of their hopes, were inevitably committed from the first to a policy of expansion. Mirabeau, one of the few really political spirits of the time, wrote in his Diary : " Before troubling ourselves so magnanimously with the codes of other nations, we might have laid, if not completed, the foundations of our own." But this Was not to be. An impulse of a different order had made itself felt, and the true aim of the Revolution was forgotten. "The lost title-deeds of humanity must be found again," was a current phrase of the moment, and Dupont, an influential member of the Constituent DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAX. II Assembly, boldly announced : " Our aim is to make a Declaration of Rights which shall serve for all men, all times, and all countries, and be an example to the whole world." And from this notion sprang the famous Declaration of the Rights of Man, drafted by the Assembly on the 26th of August. The document was far more practical in its tenure than might appear on a first reading, for each one of the principles formulated responded to a need of the moment. But the phrasing and general tone were too abstract and philosophical, and the real meaning of the proclamation being thus obscured, it was easily twisted by acute critics into a sense never intended by its authors. " Men at birth are all free and entitled to the same rights," said the famous Declaration, such rights being further defined as consisting primarily of liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. Sovereignty is vested in the whole nation ; liberty consists in being able to do whatever does not injure others ; the law may only forbid actions which are harmful to society, and is limited to the expression of the general will. The law must be equal for all, and all citizens, either personally or through their representatives, are entitled to assist in the framing of laws. On these general statements followed a number of more definite assertions to wit, all citizens to be qualified for posts in the public service without any other distinction than that afforded by differences of ability ; no man to be arrested or detained unless by permission, and in conformity with the 12 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. law ; no penal laws to be made retrospective in their action ; liberty of opinion, even in religious questions, unless the manifestation of any such opinion consti- tute an interference with public order ; right of free speech, writing and printing, but with full responsi- bility for the abuse of such authorisation ; equal incidence of taxation according to each person's income; the right accorded to all citizens of fixing MIRABEAU AND DREUX-BREZE. taxation and superintending its application ; finally, express prohibition of any seizure of another person*:, property unless after payment of a provision:!: indemnity. In one point only did the. Declaration touch on an organic question, and that was by affirming that unless rights be guaranteed and powers clearly defined, no people can be said to possess a Constitution. The principle thus vaguely and doubt- fully formulated served within ten years to render STOA'.]//.\e; o/-' THE I'.AST/LLE. 13 the Executive and Legislative almost strangers to one another, to subordinate the first to the second, and finally to deprive the Legislative of all real power, and concentrate authority in the hands of a group of irresponsible functionaries. But while the thinkers of the Assembly thus gave the rein to their academic tendencies, the realities of the moment were emerging more and more distinctly, and the true meaning of the Revolution soon became apparent. The Court was far from accepting as irrevocable its own capitulation of the 2/th of June. Already it was preparing a counter-stroke, and did not shrink from the idea of employing violence if necessary, troops composed for the most part of foreign mercenaries being concentrated to this end around Paris and Ver- sailles. Some partial riots had already taken place in Paris, and these assumed the form of a veritable insurrection when it was suddenly made known on the nth of July that the King had dismissed Necker, who at this time was considered the only man capable of restoring the ruined finances of the kingdom, and of affording to the Constituent Assembly the political satisfaction which it craved. On the 1 2th Camille Desmoulins harangued the people in the garden of the Palais Royal, and incited them to resist by armed force the threatened move- ment of reaction. The next day the mob invaded the Hotel des Invalides, and seized all the old guns, sabres, and pieces of cannon which were to be found, while at the same time artisans were busily engaged in manufacturing thousands of pikes. On the 1 4th 14 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. an angry and menacing crowd assembled in front of the Bastille. This ancient stronghold, still formidable for defence, towered over the spot where the column of July now stands, and had long been used as a State prison. To the popular mind it was a hated symbol of tyranny and despotism, and this sentiment explains the march to its gates of the mob at a moment when behind these no prisoner of note happened to be confined. De Launay and his Swiss guards defended the fortress for several hours, and the assailants lost two hundred of their number before their attack was crowned with victory. They avenged their fallen comrades by murdering De Launay and his lieu- tenants, and began at once to dismantle the execrated walls. On learning what had happened in Paris, Louis gave yet another proof of his vacillating and feeble nature. He followed the bad advice of his courtiers, only to show himself incapable of facing the conse- quences of his own acts. He hastily recalled Necker, sent away the foreign regiments, and, the better to mark his submission to the popular will, he deter- mined to leave Versailles and take up his residence in Paris. Bailly, a former President of the Assembly, was appointed mayor of the capital, while Lafayette was called to the organisation and command of the National Guard, which was immediately decorated with the tricolor cockade. 1 1 Blue and red are the municipal colours of Paris, while white was the badge of the old monarchy. NIGH 7 OF THE 4 TV/ OF AUGUST. 1$ By all these acts the King delivered himself into the hands of men who had just learnt how to compel his obedience, while he still listened to the warnings against these same men of his shortsighted and reactionary courtiers. The provinces felt the countershock of the fall of the Bastille, and while in Paris the people had de- stroyed the symbol of royal despotism, in Burgundy and the Valley of the Rhone the peasants attacked and set fire to chateaux and convents, believing that by destroying all archives they would free themselves for good from the tyranny of feudal rights and dues. The movement spread rapidly through the country, and the propertied classes, unable to defend them- selves, adopted the simpler plan of voluntarily sur- rendering privileges of which they must otherwise be deprived by force. Thus it happened that on the famous night of the 4th of August the Assembly witnessed a long proces- sion of nobles and churchmen, who, fired by a noble impulse of enthusiasm and renunciation, had come of their own accord to abdicate their feudal rights, and to receive in return a promise of pecuniary indemnity. But all this time the Court was obstinately bent upon resistance, and neither the Declaration of Rights, nor the defeat of the so-called English party in the Committee charged by the Assembly with the drafting of a Constitution, could disarm the hostility of the reactionary aristocrats. Some insensates even tried to persuade the King, who had returned to Versailles for the summer, to summon foreign troops once more around him. A LOUIS XVI. THE 577/ AND 6TH OF OCTOBER. \J royalist demonstration, manufactured by the same faction, took place on the 1st of October in the theatre at Versailles, when the white cockade was hoisted, and the tricolor emblem of the new move- ment trampled under foot. The Parisians already exasperated by famine consequent on two successive bad harvests fell into a frenzy at this news, and a compact crowd of famished men and women marched to Versailles at the head of the helpless National Guards, forced their way into the palace, and obliged the King, the Queen, and the Dauphin to return on the 6th of October to Paris, whither the Assembly soon followed. This time the Government was truly in thrall to the populace. The slightest riot became a matter of grave import, for exasperation grew steadily in the capital, where the populace every day saw fresh noble emigres depart for the foreign courts, whither already, at the end of July, the King's nearest relatives had gone to seek assistance against the revolutionists. The Revolution had been born only six months, yet already it had entered upon a new phase. Political and social merely in the beginning, it had now assumed a national and patriotic character, and in the light of these new sentiments the attitude of the King and the nobles, by giving rise to a suspicion not merely of retrogade tendencies, but also of high treason, intensified the popular irritation, and drove the Government into arbitrary acts of defence against the rising peril from without. This was the origin of the various repressive 3 1 8 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. measures which culminated in the Reign of Terror. The idea of liberty, growing ever fainter, was gradu- ally superseded by a Dictatorship and an excessive centralisation of authority, which, after serving the ends of the Committee of Public Salvation, resulted in a military despotism. But events of which the germs were latent in the first months of the Revolution were only to develop fully later on, under the pressure of circumstances. Until nearly the end of 1790 the Assembly was occu- pied chiefly with the civil and military reforms required by the country, and the ground covered by these strenuous and fertile efforts was indeed of marvellous extent. The division of France into departments, districts, cantons, and communes, decreed on the 1 6th of January, 1/90, was principally intended to efface the old provincial landmarks and thus to destroy the longstanding privileges which the clergy, the nobility, and even the Third Estate of the towns had preserved in the local systems of administration. And in a similar spirit, by suppressing the Trade Guilds or mer- chants' companies, whose vexatious restrictions ham- pered the free development of commerce and industry, the Government sought to foster individual enterprise. The same object inspired the dissolution of the old Parliaments (provincial Courts of Justice) and the sup- pression of all feudal and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, to which succeeded a form of justice common to the whole country, and the promise of a uniform code which was to complete national unity while rendering the forms of law easier and more generally accessible. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL REFORMS. 1 9 Doubtless the reforms were carried too far, and local life was so effectually extinguished that, with a few exceptions, it has never recovered. Indignation at the abuses of the Guilds led to a total prohibition of all spontaneous associations, and this anomaly has not yet quite disappeared from the statute-book. The venality which had reigned in the law courts seemed so monstrous that it was decided to have only elective judges and to limit the period of their functions to ten years. But in spite of these exaggerations, the reforms were certainly in harmony with the aspirations of the people, as is proved by the fact of their having survived the Revolution, and stamped France with the characteristics by which we know it to-day. The destruction of the nobility and clergy as privi- leged classes was rapidly achieved. Primogeniture and entail were abolished ; the absolute equality of all citizens, nobles or others, in the eye of the law was proclaimed, and the obligation imposed upon parents to divide their property equally among all their children. As for the clergy, they were deprived of the monopoly of registry by which they had formerly been able to refuse to heretics the authentic proofs of their birth and marriage, and the municipality took over the right of issuing these certificates without any regard to differences in religious belief. Ecclesiastical vows were pronounced legally null and void, and the Church ceased to be a corporation holding property collectively. One of the most sweeping and, socially speaking, momentous reforms was the reconstruction of the 2O THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. whole fiscal system of France. The multiple vexa- tious taxes, such as tattles, tithes, excise, internal customs, were all swept away and replaced by three principal sources of revenue, that is, taxation of commerce and manufacture, the land tax, and income tax, or taxes on real and personal estate. The revenue thus raised, however, was not sufficient to enable the Assembly to pay off the enormous debts contracted by the monarchy, and recourse con- sequently was had to what was known as " national treasure " (biens nationaux], or, in other words, the property of the clergy and of the emigrant nobles. The larger proportion of this was furnished by the Church, which owned vast lands, and these domains were placed " at the disposal of the nation " by a decree of the 2nd of December, 1789, on condition, however, that the State should henceforward provide for the expenses of religious rites, pay the clergy and exercise the functions of public charity. Temporarily, also, pensions were assigned to the dispossessed monks and friars. Later, in 1792, when the tide of emigration in- creased, it was decided also to confiscate the property of all nobles who had not returned to France by a specified date. And as the- difficulty of selling all these lands at once without depreciating them enormously was all but insurmountable, the Treasury emitted the famous " assignats," a forced paper currency which in the beginning represented a certain fixed amount of property in land. The consequence of this step was, on the one hand, the creation of a class of small or moderately rich MIRABEAU. 22 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. proprietors, and on the other the eventual deprecia- tion, far below their nominal value, of the " assignats " as soon as the necessities of the war plunged the Revolutionary Government into financial straits. Up to the point now reached, the Assembly, how- ever radical its measures, had certainly not out- stripped the desires of the nation ; but in decreeing the extinction of the clergy and nobility as privileged orders, had, on the contrary, given expression to the will of the constituencies. But it was otherwise with the promulgation on the 1 2th of July, 1790, of a Civil Constitution of the Clergy, a measure which transgressed the limits of the Assembly's power and provoked in many places a resistance followed by civil war. Protestants, especially English Protestants, must have a difficulty in realising the horror inspired in Roman Catholics by the spectacle of a purely lay power interfering in questions of ecclesiastical dis- cipline and hierarchy. This was the sentiment which predominated, how- ever, when the Assembly attempted to force the bishops and curates of the various dioceses and parishes to submit themselves to free election at the hands of laymen, and to undertake the discharge of their holy office only after swearing a solemn oath to obey the new rules. The Pope intervened and forbade the bishops to take the oath. The greater number obeyed the Papal order and were supported by the majority of the faithful, who deserted the official churches to attend the religious functions secretly celebrated by refractory priests. THE CLUBS AND THE PRESS. 2$ Persecution from the Government and rebellion on the part of the people quickly resulted in the blunder of the Assembly a blunder which was also the determining cause of Louis's great and final mistake. As the tide of Revolution mounted, the King's difficulties increased. Public opinion and the decisions of the Assembly were alike influenced by the associa- tions known as clubs which held periodical meetings in Paris. The originators of the Revolution, Sieyes, Lafayette, and others, composed the Eighty-nine Club, whose principles, however, were already out- stripped by the Jacobins, consisting of such relatively moderate politicians as Lameth, Duport, and Barnave, who were soon to be reinforced and completely dominated by Robespierre ; while the Cordeliers, led by Danton-, were more uncompromising still. The tone of the Press, directed by Camille Des- moulins, Marat, and the like, grew daily more dictatorial. Riots broke out in all the principal towns, and even in some regiments, while, as a crowning stroke of fate, Mirabeau the only man endowed with sufficient perspicacity to understand that the Revolu- tion was escaping from all control and that the King should be brought to accept measures which might avert the imminent peril Mirabeau died pre- maturely on the 2nd of April, 1791. Then, no longer able to cope with the situation ; deprived of the help of Necker, who, feeling himself helpless, had resigned his office in September, 1790 ; conscious that each day further undermined the edifice of legitimate monarchy, and aggrieved as a conscientious Catholic 24 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. by that Civil Constitution of the Clergy from which he had vainly endeavoured to withhold his consent Louis took a fatal and irrevocable resolution. He determined to flee to join his brother D'Artois and the Prince of Conde, who were already in Germany, and to push on negotiations with the Powers Austria, Prussia, Piedmont, and Spain who had been invited to intervene in the affairs of France. The negotiations had been secret, but the French nation suspected and justly resented their existence. The flight of the King on the 2Oth of June, 1791, changed suspicion into certainty. Louis, recognised and arrested at Varennes, was brought back under a special escort to Paris, where the Assembly at first suspended him from his royal functions, but, in the hope of coming to some satisfactory agreement, re- instated him later. Already, however, the word " Re- public " had been mentioned, and a demonstration in favour of such a change, in the Champ de Mars on the 1 7th of July, 1791, had to be suppressed by force. The first French Constitution, promulgated on the 3rd of September of the same year, was branded with failure from the moment of its birth. It offers, nevertheless, an interesting study as re- flecting all the events which have been detailed, and as indicating the legislative changes witnessed by the present century. The document opens by reciting once again the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the functions of the Citizen, and abolishes in its preamble every institution of the Ancient Regime which was in oppo- sition to the principle of equality. Such were orders CONSTITUTION OF 1 79 1. 2 5 of nobility, feudalism, hereditary functions and offices acquired for money, trade guilds and cor- porations. These being swept away, the Constitution then applied itself to the constitution and definition of new rights, some of which have been already described. The remainder were liberty of the press, the right of assembly unarmed, compulsory provision for deserted children and the infirm poor, work for all the able- bodied, and gratuitous public instruction in all indis- pensable branches. It was a noble programme full of generous inten- tions, but many years had to elapse before its realisa- tion, and to this day some portions of it are still in abeyance. As an instrument of government, the Constitution of 1/91 reflects the needs and predominating ten- dencies of its time, but, equally, the extreme political inexperience of its authors. It decrees that there shall be only one legislative Assembly, to be elected by all citizens paying a tax at least equal to three labour days, such citizens choos- ing electors of the second class, who were empowered to choose deputies. The Assembly was to be elected for two years, during which time there could be no dissolution. All laws were to emanate in the first instance from this body alone, which could also declare war on the pro- posal of the King. The sovereign's person was invio- lable, but he would be considered to have abdicated his functions if he quitted his kingdom without per- mission or led an army against the nation. 26 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. He named his ministers who were allowed to sit in the Chamber, but no deputy could hold office under the Crown while his election to the Assembly lasted, nor for two years following. As to the Chamber, it possessed merely a right of temporary veto, and any constitutional measure voted by two consecutive Assemblies at an interval of four years was bound to become law. Finally, judges, being elective, were independent of the Executive and Legislative bodies. The defects of such a system are patent at the first glance. That the sovereign his office having become an object of suspicion should be shorn of authority was an integral part of the Constitution, and may be regarded as necessitated by the circumstances of the moment. But the curious provision by which it was sought to save the Chamber from the demoralising influence of the Executive and ensure a greater independence in its deliberations, that, namely, which forbade the King to choose his councillors among the best members of the Assembly, sprang from a mistaken idea of the absolute necessity of separating the dif- ferent powers of the Government. And however ex- plicable, in the excited state of the general mind, such a prohibition might be, it could only lead to endless dissensions between the two bodies which were thus debarred from coming to a mutual under- standing through the intermediary of their best representatives. But the Assembly was so convinced that its work THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 2/ would last as to decree that no revision of the Consti- tution should be proposed before 1795 or effected before 1800. And yet just one year was to suffice for the destruction of the elaborate edifice ! The Assembly separated on the 3 UNIVERSITY 62 THE DIRECTORY. But Bonaparte, in whom the desire for supreme power was developing itself, felt that his renown among the masses would be all the greater if he could conclude a brilliant peace on the morrow of his stupendous victories. Moreover, peace with Austria would leave him free to carry on military operations against the only enemy of France which was still uncrushed in other words, Great Britain. Consequently, against the orders of the Directory, which opposed the cession of Venice to the Austrians, Bonaparte, on October 17, iJTc^, signed the treaty of Campq Formio. By the terms of this peace, Austria gave Belgium to France, and admitted the latter's claim to the left bank of the Rhine and the Ionian Islands. Austria further recognised the existence of the Cisalpine Republic in return for Venice, Istria, Friuli, and Dalmatia. Bonaparte being thus at liberty, the Directory, whose most pressing need was to continue the war, began to think of employing him against England. Preparations had already been made for a descent upon Great Britain, but Bonaparte soon convinced himself that these means were insufficient, and that the enterprise as planned was insensate. Neverthe- less, the project which he conceived was more insen- sate still ; for, at the risk of embroiling France with her time-honoured ally, Turkey, he determined to invade Egypt, and that, not with the idea, as one might think, of planting the tricolour in the valley of the Nile, but with the dream of going further still and striking at the British Lion in India. This THE EXPEDITION TO EGYPT. 63 plan was the first visible sign the conqueror had yet given of that wild and exuberant imagination which was ultimately to lead him, and France in his train, to Baylen, to Moscow, and to Wa.tejck>o. The Directory allowed itself to be persuaded by its famous general, all the more that it felt that there might be some prudence in removing so extraordinary a man from France. The army left Toulon on May 19, 1798, and(^uc- cess crowned the first attempts of the brilliant leader. } Malta was taken, in passing, on the nth of June, Alexandria occupied on the 2nd of July, Cairo on the 23rd ; and while on the one hand Bonaparte drove away the Mamelukes, who had advanced to prevent his march, on the other he set up a government in harmony with local customs, and appointed men of learning to study the history and science of the country. But Fortune soon ceased to smile on the great commander. On the 1st of August, the fleet which had brought him, and was commanded by Admiral Brueys, was surprised and destroyed at Aboukir by Nejgpn, and Bonaparte, cut off from his means of communication by sea, had perforce to seek an issue in terra firma. Towards the south he established outposts at the cataracts of Syene (Assouan), and simultaneously marching towards Syria, he reached Gaza and Jaffa, and defeated the Turks at Mount Thabor on April 16, 1799 ; but owing to the want of provisions and heavy artillery, he failed in the siege of St. Jean d'Acre on the 2 1st of May. Forced to re-conduct his exhausted and plague-stricken troops NAPOLEON AT JENA. (From the Painting by Horace Vernet in the Gallery at Versailles.} CRITICAL POSITION OF THE DIRECTORY. 65 into Egypt, he again beat the Ottomans, on the 25th of July, at Aboukir ; but being now insufficiently provided with men and war material, and learning that things were going badly in Europe, he left the fragments of his force under the command of Kleber, and, embarking alone on a frigate, he reached the coast of France on the 8th of October, to find a serious state of affairs indeed. The Directory, too weak for the critical position in which it found itself, alternated in its conduct between violence and pusillanimity. At one moment, to re- lieve the drain on the exhausted exchequer, it carried through an operation which, under the pompous title of " Consolidation of the Third," was really a declara- tion of bankruptcy, since it meant paying two-thirds of the public debt in depreciated paper notes, and keeping only the interest of the surplus for the Grand Livre. At another moment it sought to paralyse the growing opposition among the public to its measures by summarily annulling the regular elections on the 22nd Floreal = May 1 1, 1798. One day the Govern- ment decreed a forced loan from the rich ; a little later it established compulsory military service for all Frenchmen aged from twenty to twenty-five years. It displeased everybody at home and abroad. Its attacks on the temporal power of the Pope, the exactions of its representatives in Holland, at Genoa, and Milan, the quarrelsome and dissolute conduct of its members all combined to render the other Powers uneasy and to alienate the French people, who, after having hailed the Revolution as 6 66 THE DIRECTORY. an era of liberation, began to find the-ir new masters more insupportable than the old. Little by little the excesses of the Government dis- gusted public opinion in Europe, and brought those who had first sympathised with the new France to take sides with the Powers who were now thirsting to retrieve their own disasters. In March, 1 799, at the instigation of Pitt, a second coalition was formed against France. It was more formidable than its predecessor, as, in addition to the old members, it included Russia and Turkey ; and it was also more dangerous, for the double reason that the allied armies could now count on public sup- port in their own countries, and that the common foe was less enthusiastic and less energetic than in 1792. The campaign began with some partial successes of the French in Naples, but the Directory soon succumbed before the five enemies whom it had now to face. Jourdan had crossed the Rhine, omy to fall back upon Alsace, after being defeated at Stockach by the Archduke Charles (March 25, 1799). In Italy, Scherer, beaten at Magnano on the 5th or April, retired behind the Adda ; and Moreau, who succeeded 'almost immediately to the command, had no better luck, being defeated in his turn at Cassano on the 28th of April, and forced to take refuge in Turin, and finally in Genoa. Macdonald, isolated in the Neapolitan territory, made haste to the north, but lost the battle of La. Trebbia against SouvarofTon the i8th-i9th of June. Joubert, replacing Moreau and Macdonald, was BONAPARTE RETURNS TO FRANCE. 6/ defeated and killed at Novi on the I5th of August ; and not only was Italy quite lost to France, but France itself was threatened with a new invasion. In two other places fate was kinder to the French arms, for Brune drove back a force of English and Russians who had endeavoured to land at Bergen, in Belgium (September 19, 1799); while Masse"na suc- ceeded in detaching the Muscovite from the Coali- tion, after inflicting on him a crushing defeat at Zurich on the 25th and 26th of September of the same year. But although these successes staved off the im- minent invasion, they could not rehabilitate the Directory in the eyes of the public. The Govern- ment was accused, not entirely without reason, of having destroyed, through its ineptitude, the magnificent advantages which France had obtained by the treaty of Campo Formio ; and the Councils, revolting in their turn, forced three members of the Directory to send in their resignation (3Oth Prairial June 1 8, 1/99). The ruin of the Directory was now as complete as had been that of the Legislative on the 1 8th Fructidor and 22nd Floreal. Not one of the powers instituted by the Constitu- tion of the Year III. still existed: all that survived was a passionate desire to see order succeed to anarchy, and to save the social gains of the Revo- lution from the dangers of a monarchical restoration. Bonaparte returned to Paris at the very moment when this state of things had reached its most critical point. He was hardly on the spot before the general voice entreated him to put an end to a situation so 68 THE DIRECTORY. lamentable in itself, and so dangerous to national security. All parties united in this appeal : Sieyes, who, although recently elected a member of the Directory, could not forgive the authors of the Constitution for having neglected his advice as to the reorganisation of France ; the Jacobins, who preferred the sword of revolution to a return of the ancient dynasty ; the Moderates, who, fearing the effect of a Restoration upon the holders of national property and trembling lest the civil reforms should be reversed, were willing temporarily to sacrifice their liberal theories for the preservation of the principle of equality ; the' Royalists, who were simple enough to think that Bonapa-rte would be satisfied to play the part of Monk by immediately offering the crown to Louis XVIII. all, in short, were of one mind. All urged Bonaparte to conspire against the Constitution ; while he, although willing enough to further their views in this respect, took care to be bound to no faction. When by the coup d'etat of the iSth Brumaire (November 9, 1799) he caused the Council of Five Hundred to be dissolved by his grenadiers, he could number among his accomplices several members of the Directory and the majority of the Council of Ancients, and was willing for the moment to assume only the title of Consul, and that conjointly with two others. But, in reality, it was his own will, and his alone, which was now to be imposed on France, and the despotism thus inaugurated shone with extraordinary splendour for a while, only to leave the French nation at last enfeebled and despoiled. THE CONSULATE. (November 10, 1799 May 17, 1804.) ON the 25th of July, 1795, during the discussion in the National Convention of the Constitution of the Year III., Sieyes, the most thorough-going meta- physician, among those who have studied constitu- tional questions, ever known to the world, proposed a counter-project, wherein may be found the germ of all the principles underlying the Napoleonic form of government. It is not easy to follow the celebrated philosopher through the labyrinth of his abstract speculations, but his ideas merit notice both because of the date to which they belong, and because of the colour which they were made to give later to the Dictatorship. "Unity of power," said Sieyes, "leads to despotism: division, to anarchy. Some method of conciliating the two must be found. If the principle of equilibrium be adopted, there is perpetual war between the Executive and the Chamber of Representatives ; but there remains another plan, that, to wit, of so organising unity of power that the Chamber may be the arbiter between the Government and the Opposition. Direct govern- 69 70 THE CONSULATE. ment by the people is an absurdity. A people desirous of obtaining more liberty should have itself represented in as many directions as possible, but must take care not to give a plurality of representative offices to one person. The national will may be expressed in four different departments of thoughts, for each of which it requires a separate organ or depository namely, a Constitutional body, who will act as guardian of the fundamental charter ; a reformatory Tribunate, charged to interpret popular opinion to the Legisla- ture ; an Executive, consisting of a Council of State, which will appoint ministers and draft projects of law ; and, finally, a Legislative Assembly, which shall possess no initiative, but be simply there to pro- nounce a final judgment after having listened to the per et contra statements of the Executive and the Tribunate." Such was the marvellous piece of reasoning which Sieyes submitted in 1795 to the National Convention. To the honour of that assembly, let it be said that the project was rejected almost unanimously ; but Sieyes did not accept his defeat. He employed the whole time that the Directory lasted in perfecting his system, and when Bonaparte, suddenly hoisted into power by the coup d'etat of the 1 8th Brumaire, looked about for a constitutional instrument, Sieyes offered his own He had been much struck during the preceding years by the many fluctuations of opinion in France which the different electoral systems introduced since 1789 had revealed, and it was with the object of ensuring stability to the new institutions that this SIEVES' POLITICAL PLANS. *J\ fertile inventor now made a fresh suggestion. u Con- fidence," he announced, "should come from below, authority from above." And to apply this maxim he propounded a scheme by which the electors, instead of voting for their representatives, should simply draw up a list of eligible persons, among whom the Government might then name the mem- bers of the different assemblies. And in order to ensure the permanence of the revolutionary spirit, Sieyes decreed that all persons who had discharged public functions since 1789 should be included in these lists, and that the lists themselves should not be revised for ten years. Evidently no better means could be imagined for guarding against abrupt changes of opinion, and assuring the exercise of power, in all its shapes, to those who had created the Revolution or had profited by it. Members of the Tribunate and the Legislative Chamber, to whom Sieyes attributed the same functions as in his project of J/95, were to be appointed by a College of Conservators, composed of one hundred life members, all in possession of wealth, who were, in the first instance, to be chosen jointly by Sieyes and Bonapa^PJ and afterw^pds to be recruited by co-option. This college a mere oligarchy had also another mission, which was to designate a " Grand Elector," exclusively empowered to appoint a consul for foreign affairs and another for home affairs, both of whom were to choose a council of state and corresponding ministers. National functionaries were to name the officials for the departments, and these, in their turn, 72 THE CONSULATE had to appoint officials for the communes, all being alike chosen from the list of eligibles to which reference has already been made. The whole of this curious mechanism was lacking in a stable foundation, being anti-democratic in the sense that the exercise of the rights of electors was reduced to a simple formality, while the monarchical principle was vitiated by the appointment 01 the Grand Elector, " the fatted pig " (le pore a Pengrais], as Bonaparte called him, who existed only for the creation of consuls, and might be deprived of his functions by the College of Conservators the moment his action displeased them. Such as the system was, it did not please Bonaparte, who found it too com- plicated and likely to interfere with his pretensions. He therefore borrowed from it only as much as suited him, and made short work of the clauses which might have interfered with his absolute power. For the rest, Bonaparte had formulas of his own, only they were derived, not from abstract specula- tion, but from eminently practical considerations. For instance, in a letter which he wrote in 1797 to his future foreign minister, Talleyrand, he enounced the principle that a^Jon-sovereign people may have need or guarantees against abuse of power, but that any such precaution is absurd when the people itself is the only source of power. Which meant simply that in Bonaparte's view ail limitations of the authority of an hereditary ruler are legitimate, but that no bounds need be put to the power of a chief of the state whom the voice of the people has acclaimed. And as he intended himself to be that CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR VIII. 73 chief, he proceeded to reduce the Constitution to a question of pure form. Neither desiring for himself, nor being willing to confer on another, the pompous, but inefficient, functions of a Grand Elector, he simply suppressed that office. He allotted to himself the title of First Consul for ten years, and, while accepting Cambaceres and Lebrun as colleagues, took care not to give them any but a consultative voice in affairs. He appointed Sieyes President of the College of Conservators, of which the name was changed to Senate, and took measures for admitting to that assembly only men devoted to himself, while at the same time decreeing that it should.be recruited exclusively from a triple list of candidates to be drawn up respectively by the Legislative Body, the Tribunate, and the Government. He kept the Tribunate, but denied it the right of initiating any law, and limited its office to the expression of pious hopes. He also kept the Legis- lative Chamber, but deprived it of the power of discussion, and left it only the right of silently voting .laws after hearing them explained by dele- gates from the Council of State and the Tribunate. Then, as the system of lists of eligibles, ingenious as it was, still restricted his power overmuch, he deter- mined that the first appointments of deputies and functionaries should be made independently of any lists, and that these should only be drawn up by the electors one year after the establishment of the new government, and should be revised only once in three years. 74 THE CONSULATE. Naturally there was no longer any question of constituting permanent assemblies : the sessions were to be simply for four months of each year. No time was wasted, either, in enumerating the rights of citizens. Inviolability of domicile, individual liberty, and the right of petition were, indeed, briefly men- tioned, but accompanying them was the ominous declaration that in periods of revolt or trouble even this simulacrum of a Constitution might be suspended. The Constitution of the Year VIII., thus sub- mitted to popular ratification, had, nevertheless, a high-sounding style. " It is founded," said its preamble, " on the real principles of representative government and the sacred rights cf property, equality, and liberty. . . . Citizens, the Revolution, bound to the principles from which it started, is now finished." The Revolution was indeed finished for the time being, but hardly through the consolidation of the principles of 1789. No doubt property, under its new form, and equality, resulting from the destruc- tion of privileged orders, subsisted intact. It was, indeed, the mission of Bonaparte to preserve them against attempts at reaction. But liberty was an empty word. The very opposite of the ideas from wh-ich the Revolution had sprung was now prevailing. Less than ten years previously popular election had been the starting point of everything, even of the magistracy and local administration. Now election had been replaced by the choice of the executive, even in the constitution of controlling assemblies. The only idea was to leave a free hand to an THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION. 75 imperious Dictator. " The Senate, the Legislative Chamber, the Tribunate," wrote Thibaudeau, " were for Bonaparte only instruments to which he was to give the tone, printing-presses intended to reproduce exactly the thoughts which he communicated to them, so that they might receive the stamp of legality and be put into circulation." From the very beginning the Senate showed itself servile, sanctioning decrees of exile in its adminis- trative capacity, and in its Senatus-Consultes allowing all kinds of restrictions to be introduced into the Constitution. The Tribunate showed signs of in- dependence, only to find itself destroyed, and the Legislative Chamber, dumb though it was, had yet to submit to arbitrary decrees which were intended to enslave it still further. Gradually the habit arose even of dispensing with the Chamber for certain laws which were elaborated, under the form of regulations, by the Council of State. This body was especially favoured by Bonaparte, and in its presence he one day re-stated, in yet clearer terms, the aphorism which he had emitted in 1797:, "The present Government is representative of the sovereign people : there can be no opposition to the sovereign." Of such an evolution as we have described, the last stage could only be the suppression of all the forms instituted by the Constitution itself, and was the point at which Bonaparte eventually arrived. A new administrative organisation was the neces- sary corollary of the new political constitution. The Revolution, in replacing the old provincial limits by departments, had deprived the central Government of 76 THE CONSULATE. almost all authority, and handed over local adminis- tration to functionaries elected by the populations of the district. Bonaparte changed all this, and, by the law of the 28th Pluviose, Year VIII., he took care to have himself represented in the smallest division by an official of his own choice. In the department he placed a Prefect, in the arrondissement a Sub-Prefect, in the commune a Mayor, all assisted by Councils a Council for the Prefecture (jConseil-Generar), a Council for the arrondissement, a Municipal Council for the Mayor ; every one of which bodies, like the so-called political assemblies, were composed of Government nominees, who had no power to decide anything, but could only express hopes of which the central authority took what notice it chose. The arrondissement became the centre of local administration and justice, having a Civil Tribunal, a Receiver of Revenue, and Assistant- Commissioners for most of the Government services. The chief towns had Commissioners, and a Court for Criminal Cases, attached, in each instance, to one of the twenty-seven Courts of Appeal into which the country was divided, and from which the final decision rested with the Court of Cassation in Paris. In short, the centralisa- tion obtained under Louis XIV. had been revived and even increased, the network of Government agents being closer, and local autonomy more re- pressed than in the eighteenth century. It is a curious thing that political changes have often taken place since the days of which we treat, and new ideas opposed to the government traditions of that time have prevailed, yet but little alteration has been BONAPARTE RESTORES PUBLIC ORDER. JJ introduced into the administrative machinery of the Year VIII. 1 Armed with such a powerful weapon of reform, Bonaparte was soon able to restore public order, and, with security, prosperity also began to revive. The finances were reorganised and the Bank of France established, thus restoring some elasticity to the treasury in spite of the continuation of foreign war. Public works were resumed, agriculture was stimu- lated by the recent redistribution of property in land, industrial enterprise expanded with the demand for the necessaries of life, which, by reason of the war, could not be imported, and commerce was born again, so that at last the astonished country became aware of a general comfort to which it had long been a stranger. The Council of State, meanwhile, was actively preparing the Codes which were to confer on France a long-desired unity of legislation. The First Consul was taking measures to create a new nobility by the foundation of the Order of the Legion of Honour, which was to recompense eminent services both in military and civil life ; and he also sought to instil his own ideals into future generations by founding the University of France, which, organised on a basis at once military and monastic, became the central authority for all educational establishments, even private ones being forced to send up their pupils for the official examinations. Bonaparte's inexhaustible For further details on this subject and French legislation generally, see my work written in collaboration with Mr. Paul Peter, " France As It Is," published in 1888 by Cassell & Co. / 8 THE CONSULATE. energy busied itself with everything in turn ; the future was to him a matter of as great moment as the present, and if his domineering temperament asserted itself in each one of his achievements, it is at least impossible to deny that he left an ineffaceable stamp upon the country whose destinies he now controlled according as his sovereign caprice suggested. In some of his processes of national reconstruction the conqueror showed a very liberal mind. He re- pressed indeed, with rigour, an attempt at insurrection of the Royalists of Vendee (January, 1800), and while suppressing a great number of newspapers, established a strict censorship for the rest ; but on the other hand his first care had been to recall all who had been proscribed under the Directory, to restore their liberty to the Nonjurant priests who still languished in prison, and finally, closing the lists of emigrants, to declare all nobles of the old regime admissible to public functions, while at the same time confirming the holders of national property in the possession of their estates. " There are no longer either Jacobins, or Moderates, or Royalists : there are only Frenchmen," he had proclaimed on his 'accession to power, and this message of peace, succeeding to the periodical pro- scriptions of preceding years, had caused a general feeling of relief. Bonaparte crowned his work of pacification by a master-stroke. Under the Constitution of the Year I'll., complete religious liberty had succeeded to the persecutions against the Roman Catholic Church which had followed on the Civil Constitution of the THE CONCORDAT. 79 Clergy. The Republic no longer paid a salary to any priest, or provided any place of meeting for religious worship (Law of the 3rd Ventose, Year III. January 2I > J 795)- But tms liberty was more theoretical than real, for the faithful could not fall, from one day to another, into the habit of providing for the ex- penses of their own church services ; the priests, often objects of political suspicion, were hampered in the discharge of their duties ; and it followed that in many communes religious rites were altogether in abeyance. Bonaparte determined to revive them everywhere. By the Concordat of the 1 5th of July, 1801, concluded with Pope Pius VII., the French Government under- took to pay salaries to all priests and bishops, and by this measure won the gratitude of the Catholic population. 1 In the universal joy at this restoration of religious peace, certain tendencies of the Concordat, and certain conditions accompanying its promulgation, escaped notice. The Government, for instance, reserved to itself the right of appointing archbishops and bishops, subject only to the canonical law of the Pope, and decreed a whole series of rules by which the clergy, like the University, were reduced to being an instrument of domination in the hands of the despot. All these reforms were not carried through without offending some prejudices, and rousing some resist- ance even among the docile and impotent bodies 1 A similar undertaking was entered into with regard to Protes- tants and Jews. So that in France the ministers of three religions are paid by the State. 8O THE CONSULATE. created by the Constitution of the Year VII I. ; but Bonaparte overcame these obstacles with the utmost facility. He began, in 1802, by deciding that the first partial renewals of the Legislative and the Tribunate, instead of being performed by lot, should be accom- plished by simply naming the outgoing members a highly practical measure, by which he easily got rid of his adversaries, Daunou, Benjamin Constant, Chenier, and the rest. But even this did not satisfy him. In the Senatus-Consulte of the i6th Thermidor, Year X. (August 2, 1802), Bonaparte had himself pro- claimed Consul for life, with the right of naming his successor ; he reduced the number of members of the Tribunate ; decreed that the dates for the sessions of the Legislative Assembly should cease to be fixed, and that diplomatic treaties should no longer be submitted to it for ratification. He also withdrew from the two bodies above named the right of pre- senting candidates for the Senate, and conferred it upon himself ; and he remodelled the lists of eligibles in such a manner as to give the Government a decisive influence upon their composition. The Senatus- Consulte in which these measures passed was not submitted to public ratification. The new doctrine was formulated in the Report to the Senate in the following terms : " General prosperity is the expression of the wishes of the citizens with regard to the laws which they shall obey. By the guarantee of the rights of the nation the application of the dogma of the people's sovereignty is referred to the Senate, which is the bond of the nation. This is the only social doctrine with which we need concern ourselves." CAMPAIGN OF l8oO. 8 1 On only one point was it deemed necessary to have recourse to the plebiscite. Bonaparte was acclaimed Consul for life by three millions and a half of votes out of four millions and a half of electors. How was it possible to refuse to such a ruler any- thing that he wanted, even though it were the abdi- cation from its functions of a whole nation and the cessation of all political life ? While restoring public order, was he not also recalling victory to the French flag? On coming to power he had made offers of peace to Germany and to England, but these two powers (and particularly the last named), who believed France to be exhausted, haughtily refused. A new military enterprise had therefore become necessary, and it was crowned with success. Moreau was commanding the French forces in Germany, Massena in Italy. The latter, with a handful of worn-out soldiers, shut himself up in Genoa, and succeeded during two months in keeping at bay 120,000 Austrians under Melas. Moreau, marching upon Schaffhausen, defeated Kray at Stockach, at Engen, and at Moeskirch (May 3-5, 1800), driving him behind the fortifications of Ulm. Bonaparte, at the head of an improvised army, crossed the St. Bernard on the I5th of May, in the teeth of numberless difficulties, and cut off the com- munications of Melas with Austria. Surprised by this bold manoeuvre. Me^s, tried to break through the French lines ; but he was repulsed by Bonaparte's advanced guard at Montebello on the 9th of June, 7 82 THE CONSULATE. then beaten at Piacenza, and finally defeated with crushing effect at Marengo on the I4th of June, after having twice held victory within his grasp, and being forced to yield at last only when Desaix arrived unexpectedly on the field of battle. Moreau on his side was not idle, having carried off a victory at Hochstadt and advanced as far as Munich. Bonaparte, in order to complete his enterprise and hasten the conclusion of peace, determined, against the custom of the time, upon a winter campaign. In Italy, Brune marched towards the Adige, while Macdonald turned the flank of the Austrians in the Tyrol, and Murat took possession of the Pontifical States. In Germany, Moreau, abundantly furnished with men and provisions, inflicted on the Austrians the bloody defeat of Hohenlinden (December 3), and was thus enabled to establish himself at Lintz and Steyer that is to say, almost at the gates of Vienna ; and then Austria determined upon signing a peace./ The Treaty of Luneville (February 9, 180 1 ) restored things almost to the same point where they had been placed by the Peace of Campo Formio^-that is to say, the whole of Italy fell under the domination, if not into the posses- sion, of France, with the additional proviso that Tuscany was erected into the Kingdom of Etruria under the rule of the Spanish Prince of Parma, and that French garrisons were installed in Otranto, Taranto, and Brindisi. England alone, supported by Portugal, was still in arms. THE LEAGUE OF NEUTRALS. 83 Bonaparte's renown was now so firmly established in Europe that kings began to solicit his alliance ; and already Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark had concluded the League of Neutrals (December 16, 1800) by which to protect their commerce against the competition of Great Britain. But the British fleet was so superior to the others, that the battle of Copenhagen, fought on the 2nd of April, 1801, by Nelson against the Danes, sufficed at once to dissolve the league and cool the zeal of the Northern Powers. The death of the Tsar Paul I., and the succession to the throne of the mystically-minded Alexander, once again left France to stand alone against Great Britain. France was not in a condition to wage a maritime war. Her strength was already too fully absorbed on the Continent to allow even of her relieving Malta, which the English had blockaded. In Egypt, Kleber, left to his own devices, had signed with Admiral Sydney Smith the Convention of El-Arish, by which English ships undertook to convey French troops to their own country. /But William Pitt refused to ratify the Convention, and Kleber, driven to desperation, had succeeded once again in de- feating the Turks at Heliopolis (March 20, 1800), and retaking Cairo. But he was assassinated on the I4th of June, and the command fell to a mediocre officer, General Menoul who, after being beaten at Aboukir (March 21, 1801), and at Canopus on the 9th of April, had finally to capitulate, and evacuate Egypt. 84 THE CONSULATE. In spite, however, of these successes, Great Britain thought the time had come to treat with France. Bonaparte was beginning to study the reconstitution of the French navy. He had also begun to assemble in the camp at Boulogne an expeditionary corps for the invasion of England, and the naval battle of Algesiras had shown that, even in the matter of fleets, te French renascence was not to be despised. By the Peace of Amiens, signed on the 2/th of March, 1802, Great Britain not only confirmed the French in fhe possession of all their territorial acqui- sitions on the Continent, but also recognised the exist- ence of the various republics which, extending from the Low Countries via Switzerland into Italy, formed, so to speak, a band of French dependents.^ England restored the colonies which she had seized from France, gave up Malta and the Cape tq their former possessors, and of all her conquests kept only Trini- dad and Ceylon. Two years, then, of effort had restored a state of things which, on Bonaparte's return from Egypt, seemed nearly lost ; and in addition to this advan- tage, the general peace which not France only, but the whole of Europe had so long desired in vain, was at last re-established. Is it to be wondered at that the French people should have repaid such benefits by throwing themselves at the feet of their liberator? ( The Consulate for life bestowed upon Bonaparte seemed merely the natural recompense for such a record of pacification, of reviving calm and internal reforms. ) More perspicacity than is given to the multitude would have been necessary to discern, in ANNEXATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS. 85 this hour of glory and prosperity, the fundamental vices of the new system, and the indestructible germs of corruption which it concealed. But as a point of fact, the equilibrium introduced by the treaties of Lun&alle and Amiens was bound to be of short duration. The chief causes contributing to this result were the violent character of the First Consul himself and the conditions underlying the superstructure of French power abroad, to which may be added the inherent weakness of the French Government, or rather the utter impossibility which it would have been for anybody but Bonaparte him- self, in the zenith of his strength, to keep going such an enormous administrative machine. The Italian Republics were too feeble to stand alone ; Switzerland was too disunited ; Germany, unaided, was incapable of accomplishing the necessary transformations in her condition ; while Bonaparte himself was too imperious and too suspicious to allow of anything around France to be done without his despotic intervention. He annexed Piedmont and the island of Elba, and turned them into French departments (September n, i $02) ; he consented to select the Doge of Genoa ; he became the President of the Cisalpine Republic (January, 1803); and in the following February allowed himself to be made Mediator of the Helvetic Confedera- tion, and the moving spirit of a Constitution too centralised in its nature for the requirements of such a state. In Germany he intervened to expedite the secularisation of the ecclesiastical principalities, by which measure he intended to indemnify the Prince 86 THE CONSULATE. Bishops for the territorial losses which France had inflicted on them in the valley of the Rhine. In short, peace had hardly been proclaimed before it became evident that, under various names and forms, France, and France only, was the governing power in these countries outside her legal sway. Such a policy was well calculated to alarm the neighbouring nations, and when by the measures, unsuccessful though they were, by which he sought to repress the Negro insur- rection in San Domingo, Bonaparte seemed to betray a serious intention of reconstituting a French Colonial Empire, Great Britain once more took alarm. And her alarm was so great that, in despite of the Treaty of Amiens, she refused to evacuate Malta, and seized all merchant vessels sailing under the French or Dutch flag (May 13, 1803). Bonaparte retaliated by invading Hanover, the hereditary kingdom of George III., and by closing the French ports to English merchandise. If war were not yet openly declared, it was not far off. Bonaparte resumed his preparations at Boulogne, while England sought allies on the Continent. An enormous blunder, not to say a crime, com- mitted by Bonaparte meanwhile furnished the pretext for a fresh coalition against France. The police had discovered a plot to assassinate the First Consul in which George Cadoudal, Pichegru, Moreau and other royalists were implicated. Pichegru committed suicide, Moreau took refuge in the United States, while the others were tried and executed. But these measures of repression did not satisfy Bonaparte, who, rinding that the conspiracy had THE DUKE D'ENGHIEN. 87 originated with the Royalist party, sent some soldiers into the Grand Duchy of Baden, there to arrest the heir of the Conde family, the Duke d'Enghien. The Prince was summarily tried and shot at Vin- cennes on the 2ist of March, 1804 a violation of neutrality which caused Prussia to range herself on the side of the enemies of France. (At the same moment Bonaparte had himself pro- claimed Emperor as a protection against the dangers which threatened his life/N The Empire and a new war, such were the immediate consequences of Cadoudal's attempt ; but both had been inherent in the conditions of the moment and the character of the man who dominated France, and the events we have now to detail found their only possible termi- nation on the field of Waterloo. V. THE FIRST EMPIRE. (May 1 8, 1804 April 6, 1814.) THE same majority which haa acclaimed Bona- parte Consul for life, conferred an hereditary empire on Napoleon I. This was the answer given by France and her chief to those conspirators who believed that poison or the dagger would be sufficient to reseat the French legitimate sovereign on his throne. It was also a final reaffirmation of revo- lutionary principles in face of the new monarchical coalition of Europe against France. The first public documents, like the first coins of the new era, bore the contradictory inscription, "The French Re- public, Napoleon I., Emperor." But the contra- diction was more apparent than real, for the inscrip- tion expressed the complex sentiment of the nation, which seemed to feel that in choosing a General of the Republic for a Dictator it had set a seal, so to speak, to the Republic itself; while as to the Constitution, that known by the name of the Year VIII. needed but little alteration to become an Imperial form of government. OF TTTF ^K UNIVERSITY NAPOLEON. (From a pen-and-ink sketch by Gros.) 9O THE FIRST EMPIRE The change was accomplished by the Senatus-Con- sulte of the 28th Floreal, Year XII. (May 18, 1804), which was characterised chiefly by a new attempt to break down all eventual opposition. (_ It was decreed that the number of Senators should hence- forth be unlimited, and that the Emperor himself should appoint them A He was also to name the presi- dents of the Legislative Chamber and the Tribunate, both of which were to have a longer term of exist- ence than hitherto, while the salaries of their members were increased. But the Tribunate, in losing all pub- licity for its meetings, parted with its last shred of independence. The Senate remained guardian of the Constitution, but could only annul acts which would be contrary to the prerogatives of the Emperor, or those which might tend to a restitution of feudal rights, or to any interference with the titles of the holders of national property ; and even in these respects the Emperor had the privilege of revocation. Thus it will be seen that if the social conquests of the Revolution were preserved, of liberty there was no hint. " Home and Foreign Policy does not concern the Legislative Chamber," declared Napoleon I., and the statement is in direct contradiction to the political ideas of 1789, which referred everything to elective Assemblies. In 1789 the Executive was nothing; in 1804 it * s everything. The pains which fifteen years previously had been taken to determine the rights of the citizen in the Constitution, were now devoted to defining the situation and fixing the allowances of the members of the Imperial family, as well as of the great digni- IMPERIAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 9 1 taries and marshals whose presence was to reflect lustre on the throne, until a new nobility was created by the decree of 1808. Of course, some measures remained to be taken later to complete the edifice thus built up ; but their nature had already been so indicated by the circum- stances of the case, they sprang so naturally from the very foundation of Imperialism, as to pass almost unobserved at the moment of realisation. The Tribunate, for example, was suppressed as useless in 1807, and its office undertaken by com- missions of the Legislative Chamber, whose members from 1808 were named by the Emperor. Again, in the same year 1807 it was decreed that judges should only be irremovable after five years of probation, during which they would be able to prove their docility. Little by little the habit was introduced of performing every public act by com- mand of the Head of the State, without any respect even for constitutional forms. In 1807, and later, a simple decree prorogued the powers of the outgoing members of the Legislative ; at other periods the Chamber was not even convoked, and taxes were voted without its assent. In the same manner fresh taxes were imposed, or the military contingent to be raised by conscription was increased, and even in- dividual liberty ceased to be respected, for, still in 1807, tne same arbitrary form of decree instituted State Prisons a sort of improved Bastille wherein any citizen could be indefinitely detained on a mere order of the Executive. In short, nothing was left standing, in a political 92 THE FIRST EMPIRE. sense, in France except Napoleon himself. All con- trol, all moderation, all thought of equilibrium of powers had gone by the board : every institution paled and withered in the presence of the Emperor. Here and there, indeed, a person was to be found who foresaw the ultimate consequences of such a a system. " The organisation of the powers of the State," wrote Rcederer in the Year XII., "cannot work effectually as it is at present. It will serve the ends of a despotic ruler, but must overthrow a feeble one. ... A Senate, which has long bent to an arbitrary will, may one day well believe itself entitled to a will of its own, for a body which has allowed everything to another will end by thinking everything is allowed to itself. After having been employed by a Prince to destroy constitutional power, it may con- ceive that it is entitled to destroy the Prince in person." Ten years later, this prophecy was verified word for word. After the disasters of 1813, Napoleon, in the hour of defeat, sought to galvanise the powers which his own action had paralysed. " You," he said, in accents of emotion, to the Legislative, " You are the natural exponents of the will of this throne. You must give the example of energy." But he had sapped all energy, and in 1814 his obedient and servile Senators were the first to abandon his cause. This extremity had, however, yet to be reached, and in the meanwhile a new period of military glory was to open before Napoleon ; and if in the long run France could but lose in the herculean struggle not only her political liberty but the best blood of her GENERAL STATE OF PROSPERITY IN Fk. \.\CK. 93 sons and the chief territorial acquisitions of the Revo- lution, it may at least be said that her victorious armies spread throughout Europe the ideas which had determined the events of '89. Napoleon had induced Pope Pius VII. to come to Paris for the purpose of crowning him (December 2, 1804), but the Emperor did not allow himself to be diverted from more serious matters by the pre- parations for this sumptuous ceremony. The promulgation in 1804 f the Civil Code of which he Tiad "actively superintended the drafting, and which long bore his name, inaugurated that unification of French legal procedure which in 1806 was extended to civil causes, in 1807 to commercial laws, in 1808 to criminal cases, and in 1810 to penal legislation. Roads and canals were made in all directions, improvements effected in the ports of Cherbourg and Antwerp, considerable buildings erected in Paris and other large towns ; the linen industry, weaving and cotton spinning were all fostered ; sugar was extracted from beetroot,(and French commerce generally, sup- ported by the reputation of the victorious armies, recovered its lost ground in European markets^ Napoleon consented, without much difficulty, to become KiriP^of Ita^ with the idea of giving some cohesion to that country, and thus making it the centre, if necessary, of attacks upon Austria. But this step was not only a mistaken act of policy as regarded the Italians, who would certainly have preferred a national ruler, but it also accentuated in the watchful eyes of Europe the ambitious views of 94 THE FIRST EMPIRE. the Emperor ; and when Napoleon had to give up the idea of invading England, on the failure of the French Mediterranean fleet to pass Cape Finisterre, which was defended by Admiral Calder, and to rejoin their sovereign in the Channel, the third coalition against France had already taken form. It in- cluded Great Britain, Russia, Sweden, Austria, and Naples, and hostilities began simultaneously from Hanover, the valley of the Danube, Lombardy, and Southern Italy. Napoleon marched towards the second of these points against General Mack, who was at the head of 80,000 Austrians, and had the Russian army behind him. By one of his accustomed manoeuvres the Emperor, instead of attacking Mack at the entrance to the defiles of the Black Forest, rapidly crossed Franconia and threw himself between the enemy and Vienna. He was victorious at Wertingen, Gunzburg, and Elchingen, and forced Mack to retire upon Ulm, where the Austrian capitulated on the ipth of October, 1805, with the whole of his army. The joy caused by this victory would have been unalloyed if, two days later, Nelson had not destroyed the French fleet at Trafalgar, thus forcing Napoleon to abandon, for the moment, all idea of destroying the English power on the sea. But the Emperor did not allow himself to be dis- couraged by this naval reverse. On his entry into Vienna on the I3th of November, he found himself threatened from two sides. One army, composed of Austrians and Russians, cornmandecLby IheitTespec- tive sovereigns, was in Moravia ; while another, with TREATY OF PRESBURG. 95 the Archduke Charles, at its head was slowly coming up from Italy although exposed to constant onslaughts from Masscna and Ney. Napoleon marched against the allies in Moravia, and defeated them completely in the memorable battle^of Austerlitz on the 2nd of December, 1805. Austria, in alarm, sued for peace, but only obtained it on the harshest terms./ By the Treaty of Presburg (signed on'the 26th of December, 1805), Austria ceded Venice, Istria, and Dalmatia to the Kingdom of Italy, while the Tyrol and Austrian Suabia were divided between the Dukes of Bavaria, Wurtemburg, and Badeny Prussia, although only awaiting her oppor- tunity to turn against Napoleon, judged it prudent for the hour to prove her zeal by accepting Hanover in exchange for Cleves, Wesel, and Neufchatel, which were given to France^ Prussia also subscribed to the dissolution of the__Holy Roman Empire and to the simultaneous constitution of a Rhenish Confederation, from which she, as well as Austria, was excluded, but of which Napoleon, by an act of folly, caused himself to be proclaimed the official protector, thus incurring the risk of rousing the susceptibilities of German patriotism. Such triumphs were well calculated to intoxicate, and Napoleon, whose fervid imagination was always ebullient, had no need of such stimuli to fall into excesses. In order to secure his conquests, he thought it well to distribute them among his brothers, his relatives, and his comrades in arms. Thus Joseph Bonaparte was crowned King of Naples, Louis Bona- parte made King of Holland, while others became 96 THE FIRST EMPIRE. Grand Dukes, Princes, or Counts in Italy and Germany, and Napoleon further accustomed the army to the enjoyment of honours and money by periodically conferring both. At the same time he sought to perpetuate these creations by laws of primogeniture in favour of the sons of those originally ennobled. The effect, however, was only to corrupt public spirit by rousing the desire for luxury in men who, up to this time, had been willing to sacrifice their lives for glory ; and simultaneously a just indignation awoke in the foreign populations, who saw their lands and their wealth pass into the possession of un- scrupulous conquerors. A final stroke of audacity crowned the structure of one man's omnipotence. Neither Russia nor England had joined Austria in concluding peace, and Napoleon, not without reason, suspected Prussia of intending to join these two Powers in a new attack upon Imperial France. Instead, then, of waiting to try conciliatory measures, he determined to take the offensive. His " Grand Army " was still ort German territory, so, placing himself at its head on the 8th of October, (\ 806, he marched upon the Prussian line of communi- cations with the Elbe, inflicted a defeat there on the 1 4th of the same month in the two battles of Auerstadt and Jena^in the latter of which the Duke of Bruns- wick was killed), then, pursuing Prince Hohenlohe and Bliicher, forced them to surrender, with arms and baggage, at Prenzlau and Liibeck. In less than a month the Prussian army had been swept into space, and the conqueror made his entry into Berlin^ Master now of the German coast along the North THE CONTINENTAL BLOCKADE. 9/ Sea and the Baltic, Napoleon turned Ms attention to dealing a decisive blow at England. (Not being able to ruin her by force of arms, he determined to destroy her commerce.Ntnd by the decree issued at Berlin on the 2 1st of November, 1806, he declared a blockade against the British Isles and forbade all com- mercial relations with them. This is the measure usually known as the Continental Blockade. From the Baltic to the Adriatic, through the Channel, the Ocean, and the Mediterranean, all English merchan- dise became contraband of war, and every British subject might be thrown into prison. This was Napoleon's answer to the decision by which England proclaimed a fictitious blockade of the ports between Brest and Hamburg, thus closing them to the ships of neutral Powers. But the reply could not be com- plete as long as one port in Europe remained open to British merchant-vessels ; and Russia still turned a deaf ear to the commands of the despot. Napoleon resolved to crush this remaining centre of resistance ; an and trusting to an insurrection in Germany and in Italy, she declared war against France. Napoleon hastened to the scene, and, uniting the two armies of his excellent lieutenants Massena and Davoust, he inflicted crushing defeats on the Arch- duke Charles at Abensberg and Eckmiihl on the 20th and 22nd of April, 1800,. uOn the I3th of May he entered Vienna in triumph^) On the 2ist and 22nd of the same month he endeavoured to cross the Danube and complete the rout of the Austrian Generalissimo, but the battle of Essling was a fruit- less massacre. Napoleon then summoned his troops from Italy, resumed the offensive, and gained the victory of Wagram on the 6th of July. Austria, TREATY OF VIENNA. 1 03 defeated for the third time, signed an armistice at Znaym on the nth, and followed it up with the Treaty of Vienna, completed on the I4th of October, by which the French Empire gained Illyria, while various portions of the Austrian territory went to enrich Bavaria, Saxony, and even Russia. In spite of these successes public opinion was not favourable to the French. Napoleon had hardly quitted Spain before events began again to be hostile to him. Soult had failed in reconquering Portugal and Ney had lost Galicia, while at Talavera King Joseph nearly suffered defeat (July 27, 1809). And even where the conqueror himself was present victory cost more efforts than previously. The enemy had grown in energy as the French army had lost in cohesion and determination. The young conscripts and the foreign contingents, furnished though they were by pretended allies, made a bad substitute for the many humble heroes who for fifteen years past had met their death on European battlefields. The northern frontier of the Empire was threatened when the English seized Flushing on the I5th of August, 1809, and Antwerp itself would probably have been taken had not fever decimated the troops on their disembarkation. Napoleon perceived the growing perils of his situation, but tried yet again to defy Fate by renewed affirmations of his ambition. Not satisfied with having placed members of the family of Bona- parte on various European thrones, he aspired now to the hand of an Imperial Princess in the hope that she might give him the heir whom Josephine IO4 THE FIRST EMPIRE. Beauharnais had not borne, and at the same time secure for France the moral support of her native country. Napoleon divorced Josephine, and married the Archduchess Marie Louise on the 1st of April, 1810. A son was the fruit of this union, and received in baptism the pompous title of King of Rome (March 20, 1811). His birth, however, was the sole advantage, if such it could even be called, which accrued from this marriage. Austria was not to be won over to France, but, on the contrary, only awaited an opportunity to fall once again upon Napoleon. The opportunity came when Napoleon, who after his mistaken action in Spain had only one blunder left to commit, decided upon the war with Russia. He found a pretext by strictly (enforcing the Continental Blockade. This measure had been the governing idea of the Napoleonic reign) and was to be the cause of its ultimate destruction. Already, in 1810, King Louis Bonaparte, rather than ruin his subjects, had preferred to quit the throne which his imperious brother had bestowed upon him. First Holland, then Bremen, Hamburg, and Liibeck were united to France, so as to allow of a more vigorous repression of the English contraband trade. As the Watch kept in the Russian ports of the Baltic was less severe, Napoleon called upon the Tsar to fulfil his engagements better. But Alexander, who was already alarmed at the territorial acquisitions which had brought France almost to his door, refused to acquiesce in the arrogant demand. Having con- cluded peace with Turkey on the 28th of May, 1812, THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 1 05 and secured the support of Sweden, where the hereditary Prince, formerly Bernadotte, had so com- pletely forgotten his French origin as to become prime mover in opposition to Napoleon, the Tsar made up his mind to face the chances of war. Without even waiting to pacify Spain, (^Napoleon collected 600,000 men, of whom one-third were foreigners, and marched in the direction of Moscow. with the avowed intention, well known to his staff, of proceeding thence towards Tiflis and British India.) He reached Moscow indeed, but there his military career was destined to receive a final check. Having crossed the Niemen at Kovno on the 25th of June, 1812, he remained too long at Vilna, occupied Witepsk on the 28th of July, and entered Smolensk on the I /th 1 9th of August after a sanguinary struggle. The enemy retreated continually as the French advanced along the vast, deserted, and soon to be frozen plains of Russia. Napoleon succeeded, how- ever, in coming to close quarters with the foe at last, and was victorious at Borodino on the /th of Sep- tember, but the battle was won with such terrible loss of life and by such prodigies of valour that Napoleon, being so far from his reserves, hesitated to follow up his success by pursuing the Russian army. He entered Moscow on the I5th of September, but only to find it an immense brazier, the Governor having fired the town before evacuating it. Napoleon nevertheless remained there a month, awaiting offers of peace which did not come. At last, overtaken by the first cold, he decided upon a retreat (October 18). What this retreat proved to IO6 THE FIRST EMPIRE, be is well known : ; ts disasters have passed into a js legend. ^\lready when it began, the French army counted only 80,000 men. Frost, famine, disease, and battle aiding, only 20,000 at last reached the Niemen at the end of DecembeA The engagements of Krasnoe, Beresina, and Vilna once more cast lustre on French arms, but the tenacity of the Russian character and the rigour of the Russian climate finally triumphed even over courage and military genius. On his return to Paris, Napoleon learnt that in Spain the French forces had been driven back by degrees to the Pyrenees, thanks to the unceasing efforts of Wellington, who, ever since repulsing the attack of Massena on the lines of Torres- Vedras, had slowly but surely regained all the ground lost in preceding campaigns. But the Emperor had no leisure to devote for the moment to the South. He had to allow Wellington to beat King Joseph at Vittoria and threaten the French frontier, while turning his own attention to a more pressing danger in the East. \From the moment that the disasters in Russia, with their weakening effect on Napoleon's power, had become known, all the personal resent- ment of the European sovereigns and all the national hatreds which twelve years had accumulated against France, broke bounds^ Prussia allied herself with Russia, all Germany followed suit, soon to be joined by Austria, who was willing to leave Marie Louise to her fate. Hastily collecting an improvised army, (^Napoleon managed to beat the allied forces on the 2ndof May, 1813, at Lutzen jj but, exasperated by CAMPAIGN OF 1813. IO/ the very dangers of his position, still confident in his star, and refusing to recognise either the insurgent world in front of him or the exhausted France that lay behind, he declined to treat on condition of ceding Illyria and his German possessions. One last victory gained at Dresden on the 26th and 2/th of August seemed for a moment to justify his attitude, but the various secondary defeats which his lieutenants suffered, andQhe battle, or rather battle^, of Lejj->zig ^*-^ (October 16-19) obliged him to beat a retreat.) The glory of years was now a thing of the past. France was invaded on the south by Wellington, on the east^ by Bliicher and Schwarzenberg. Napoleon tried to galvanise the country by calling for a levy en masse and demanding a general rising. But he had strained patriotism to breaking point, and among all the functionaries whom he had placed in the great offices of State he found no man who was not now bent upon saving his own life, and above all his fortune. One day, in 1812, during the Russian campaign, a report had been spread of the conqueror's death, and this announcement alone sufficed to stop all the wheels of government, for, failing Napoleon, there was no man who could keep the enormous machine at work. France had no longer any life of her own, and when misfortune and invasion threatened, Napoleon looked in vain for a trace of the heroic enthusiasm of 1792. The nation was weary and servile, with only strength left to complain of the long and bitter sacrifices it had been called upon to make. Napoleon had still an available force of 60,000 men. With these he hurried eastwards to make one r IO8 THE FIRST EMPIRE. last effort, and on French ground for it was here that hostilities were now transported he performed once more prodigious acts of valour. He defeated Bliicher at Saint Dizier and Brienne (January 27 and 29, 1814), was repulsed at La Rothiere on the 1st of February, but victorious again over the Prussians at Champaubert, Montmirail, Chateau - Thierry and Vauchamps (February 10, n, 13, and 14). He also defeated the Austrians at Mormant, at Nangis, and at Donnemarie (February 16 and 17), and once again beat Blucher at Soissons and Craonne. But at Laon (March 10) he met with a repulse, was almost defeated at Arcis-sur Aube (March 20 and 21), and on learning that his Marshals Mannont and Mortier had been beaten in front of Paris on the 3ist of March and that the capital had been occupied by the enemy, he withdrew to Fontainebleau and, succumbing at last to the number of his foes, and finding himself abandoned by his oldest lieutenants, (he finally determined, to abdicateV April 5). Thus terminated the career of the man who, born of war, perished by war. His glory was to know but one brief revival a year later, and even that epilogue was destined to be fatal to France. The military and administrative genius of Napoleon was remarkable for an extraordinary mixture of practical good sense and extravagance. The internal reforms by which he restored order and calmed the public mind were yet marred by excessive centralisation and compression ; while his foreign policy, although ostensibly intended to free France from the invaders, merely served the purposes of his own overmastering ambition and not ABDICATION OF NAPOLEON. I Op simply brought the invader back to France, but left the 'country more feeble than it had been under Bonaparte's predecessors. Nevertheless, his^ichievements were useful in the end to Europe, for(fhroughout the immense extent of TALLEYRAND. territory which formed the theatre of war, Napoleon overthrew a number of decrepit dynasties and founded the^ great united nations of our day.^ The love of national independence, the revolt against feudalism, 110 THE FIRST EMPIRE. and the knowledge of civil equality followed on the track of the French armies ; but just because the pro- paganda resulted on invasion, it was accompanied by a hatred against France which is not yet appeased. And it may truly be said that if France owes to Napoleon a period of unexampled lustre and renown, she has also him largely to thank for the foreign and domestic complications of her present position. VI. THE FIRST RESTORATION (April /, 1814 March 26, 1815). THE HUNDRED DAYS (March 2J to June 23, 1815). EVEN before Napoleon's abdication the idea of re- storing the Bourbons to the throne had found utterance in France. At Bordeaux, whither Wellington had advanced after the victory of Toulouse, the Count of Provence, brother of Louis XVI., had been pro- claimed king under the name of Louis XVIII. (March 12). At Paris even the Senate, edged on by the crafty Talleyrand, hastened to pronounce the de- thronement of Napoleon (April 3) and to draw up a Constitution for Louis XVIII. to sign as a condi- tion of his return to power, while almost simul- taneously concluding with the Allies a treaty which reduced France once again to the frontiers established on the ist of January, 1792 (April 28). This idea of admitting Louis XVIII. only on cer- tain conditions, if due to men who were at the same time guilty of great ingratitude towards Napoleon, was all the same a measure of real political significance. It formed, in fact, the only possible method of com- promise between the doctrines born of the Revolution 112 THE FIRST RESTORATION. and that portion of the Ancient Regime which it was necessary to restore ; and if France in 1814 had been able to do what she did in 1830, and what England had already done in 1688, many painful crises would have been averted, or at any rate long delayed. But, unfortunately, events took another turn. The Re- storation soon showed itself as implying a total sub- version of the Revolution, and fresh political convul- sions were the inevitable result. Louis XVI 1 1., although firmly attached to the principle of the Right Divine, was yet sufficiently intelligent to understand that he could not by a stroke of the pen suppress all that had happened in France during twenty-five years. His proclamation, dated from Hartwell on the 1st of January, 1814, dis- tinctly promised that the composition of the adminis- trative and judicial bodies should be unchanged ; that government functionaries should continue at their posts, and officers suffer no degradation of rank ; that the Civil Code should be preserved intact except " in some points which are contrary to religion," and that no reprisals consequent on the Revolution would be allowed. But, on the other hand, the document was dumb as to the political guarantees to be offered to the public. The current of reaction against absolute power which had followed on Napoleon's tyranny might have been utilised by the King in a way to make himself leader of the liberal party. But instead of listening to the wise councils of some among his allies, especially the Tsar, who was wonderfully pene- trated with the impossibility of establishing in France the despotic rule which he wielded in his own person PROJECT OF A CONSTITUTION. in Russia, Louis preferred to engage himself in no way, and invited the country to confide in his royal pleasure for such concessions as he was willing to make. The Senate, aided by the Allies, might indeed have wrung the necessary guarantees from the King ; but the Constitution drafted by that body in the first days of April proved how much more its authors were thinking of their own advantage than of the public weal. Certainly the project contained excellent political suggestions. A Senate, named by the King ; a Legislative Chamber, named by the electorate and susceptible of dissolution ; responsible ministers who might sit in Parliament ; an inviolable King, chosen, however, constitutionally in the person of Louis XVIII. ; both Chambers to be able to present pro- jects of law, but the Lower House alone to initiate measures of Finance : such was the programme, and it obviously revived the clauses of the Constitution of 1789. But the public did not perceive that. All it saw was that the sitting Senators had stipulated that they should form part of the new Senate and keep their emoluments untouched. Such a claim was too cynically calculating not to bring discredit on the whole scheme and its authors. "This is not a political Constitution, but a self-constitution of in- corrie" ran a witty remark. And as Louis XVIII. v Was surrounded with uncompromising royalists, among whom was his own brother and presumptive heir, the Count d'Artois, who refused to give up the doctrine of a pure Right Divine, he took advantage of the situation to reject the propositions of the Senate, and 9 114 THE FIRST RESTORATION. to formulate on his own account the concessions which he was prepared to make. Therefore in his famous declaration dated from St. Ouen on the 2nd of May, 1814, Louis styled himself "King of France and Navarre by the Grace of God," the better to show that he held his crown exclusively from Heaven and not by the will of the people, while he promised to confer a Constitution on his subjects and to submit it, but for advice only, to the Senate and the Legisla- tive Chamber. Hence the Charter which was promulgated on the 4th of June. It had been drawn up by a mixed Com- mission of Senators and Deputies, but was not sub- mitted either to the Senate or the Legislative Chamber ! The document starts from the fundamental principle that royalty is anterior and superior to everything ; only the King voluntarily undertakes certain reforms in the ancient procedure of the monarchy. Some insignificant concessions are made to the spirit of the age ; the possession of national property is assured to its holders ; religious liberty and equality are guaranteed, but with the important proviso that Roman Catholicism is proclaimed to be the " Religion of the State " ; liberty of the Press is promised with a reservation for the reform of abuses ; the abolition of universal conscription proclaims that the era of mili- tary enterprise is closed, and if members of the old nobility resume their titles, the newly ennobled at any rate keep theirs, and the magistracy is pronounced irremovable. The Charter confers on the King exclusively the initiative and the sanction of laws. Article 14, which THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES. I I 5 in 1830 was to help Charles X. to make his coup-d ctat, provides that the Sovereign may take all the measures necessary for the application of the law and the security of the State. He names all life peers and all here- ditary members of the Chamber of Peers, which assembly is unsalaried and deliberates in secret. The Chamber of Deputies, whose sittings are public, must be returned by electors paying at least 300 francs of direct taxes, and chosen among persons whose assessment is fixed at a minimum of 1,000 francs. The Deputies are to be renewed to the extent of one-fifth every year. Ministers are responsible to the Chamber, and may be arraigned by it, but must then be tried by the Peers, who also take cognisance of attempts against the State. In spite of some defects in detail, notably the limited electorate for the number of persons paying 300 francs of taxation did not amount to one hundred thousand the provisions of this Charter afforded France an opportunity of trying a liberal and serious form of government, after the license of the Revolu- tion and the depotism of the Empire. To facilitate the work of transition, Louis took care to call to the Chamber of Peers the greater number composing the Imperial Senate, and to change nothing but the name of the Legislative Body, which became known as the Chamber of Deputies. And the majority of Liberals whose voice had so long been unheard, men like Benjamin Constant, Lafayette, Cousin, and others, hailed with joy the new dawn of political freedom. Nevertheless, throughout the country a growing anxiety soon became apparent. For the Restoration Il6 THE FIRST RESTORATION. was not simply a political phenomenon. The return of the emigrant nobles constituted a grave perhaps the gravest social problem, since it involved the simultaneous existence or superposition of two differ- ent societies, the component members of which during twenty-five years had been strangers to one another, or, worse than strangers, bitter foes. Frenchmen who had not left their country in that interval, but, adapt- ing themselves little by little to a liberal regime, had learnt to march with the times, desired to preserve the civil conquests of the Revolution and to enjoy unmo- lested the share of national property which they had paid for in hard cash. But those who had followed their princes into exile execrated the Revolution quite as much as the Empire. They stigmatised the Charter as an act of unpardonable weakness ; they advocated a return to the system " of their fathers," in other words to absolute monarchy, and demanded to be reinstated not merely in their lands but also in their privileges, such as the preponderance of the clergy in public instruction, and preferential distinc- tions of military rank for the nobles. They even went so far as to ask for the restoration of primogeni- ture, the abolition of civil marriage, and a return to the administrative divisions of pre-revolutionary France. In short, they announced themselves as not merely conservative, but reactionary, and their arro- gance alarmed the public mind. And this alarm was rendered all the greater by the fact that Louis XVIII., who later distinguished himself by his firm resistance to the exaggerated demands of the " ultras," was at this time surrounded by ministers in open opposition NAPOLEON BACK IN FRANCE. I I/ to the Charter which the Sovereign himself had decreed. This circumstance naturally provoked doubts of the sincerity of Louis's own Liberalism, and other facts were not wanting to aggrieve the public still more directly, either by menacing the security of property or by wounding national susceptibility. The appointment of General Dupont as Minister of War ; the capitulation of Baylen ; the honours ren- dered to the memory of Cadoudal and various other generals who had betrayed the national flag ; the dismissal on half-pay from the army and navy of a great number of officers to make room for emi- grants who had fought against France were one and all obnoxious to the nation. Various acts of religious intoleration further exasperated the country, and brought it to a condition in which the slightest breath was soon to suffice to upset the Restoration. Napoleon, a prisoner in the Island of Elba, was kept informed of the state of the public mind by the numerous adherents whom he had left in France. As soon as he thought the situation of the Bourbons sufficiently imperilled, he left suddenly with the small band of old troopers who had accom- panied him in his retreat, and disembarking in the Gulf of Juan on the 1st of March, 1815, he arrived as far as Grenoble without meeting with the smallest resistance. By a series of lively and ardent proclamations, such as he knew well how to make, he convinced the nation that its sovereignty had been outrageously violated, and roused such intense enthusiasm that the NAPOLEON IN 1814-1815. (From the painting by Paul Delaroche.) NAPOLEON BACK IN FRANCE. \\g troops sent to resist him, first under General Labe"- doyere, and then under Marshal Ney, simply went over to him without striking a blow. On the ipth of March, Louis XVI 1 1., feeling himself deserted, fled from Paris, and Napoleon effected his entry the following day. He found the public in a very different state of mind Jle that which he had known one year pre- viously. In his exile he had thoroughly recognised the fact that during his first reign he had carried his contempt of political liberty much too far, and he had consequently been careful to profess liberal principles in the first speeches which he made during his journey from the south to Paris. But the enthusiasm of his reception had reawa- kened his old instinct of domination, and by the time he reached the capital he addressed once more as " subjects " the men whom, at starting, he had hailed by the name of " citizens." A few interviews with functionaries and public servants convinced him, however, that it would be necessary to treat very seriously the universal desire for security against personal power, and that the great fault found with the Restoration was far less that a Bourbon had remounted the throne than that he had granted institutions which were not sufficiently liberal. Napol'eon at once adapted himself to the situation, and, sending for Benjamin Constant, he said, " Give me your advice. I will grant public debates, free election of responsible ministers, and liberty of the press, . . . above all liberty of the press : to restrict that is absurd ! " I2O THE FIRST RESTORATION. Nevertheless he interfered rather peremptorily with the Commission which he had charged to draft a form of government. The Commission desired that all peers should be hereditary, and to this Napoleon was opposed. He observed, not without justice, that in France there was no real aristocracy of which the members were distinguished either for power or for public spirit. " In thirty years from now," he said, " my mushroom nobles will be merely soldiers or court chamberlains : their place will be a camp or an antechamber." But on this point he gave way, standing out firmly on others. He insisted that the clause of the charter forbidding confiscation should be expurgated, a decision which caused some alarm among holders of property. He also stipulated, with the view of formally establishing the continuity of the Imperial tradition, that the new Constitution should be styled an Additional Act to the Constitution of the Empire ; and this phrase, by implying a certain identity with the former statute, suggested a fear that one day the older measure might be revived. The Additional Act, which was promulgated on the 22nd of April and submitted to a merely formal plebiscite, of which the results were solemnly pro- claimed on the ist of June, did, in point of fact, contain some genuine improvements on the charter of 1814. Hereditary peership might in course of time give a real independence to the Upper Chamber ; the substitution of twenty-five for forty-five years as the age at which men were eligible for Parliament, threw NEW EFFORTS OF THE COALITION. 121 open a political career to the new generations, while the publicity of the debates in the two chambers allowed public opinion to control parliamentary discussions. On the other hand, ministerial responsibility was subjected to very complicated formalities. In- stead of a partial there was to be a total renewal of the Lower Chamber every five years, and the system of electoral colleges established in the Year X. was revived, with the double difference, however, that the primary electoral assemblies filled up an- nually the vacancies in the colleges, and these, the component members of which were chosen from among the most highly taxed representatives of the nation, definitively elected the deputies instead of merely presenting a list of candidates for govern- ment approval. But by this time the clash of arms resounded on all sides. The plenipotentiaries of the Powers who were sitting in congress at Vienna in order to wind up proceedings after the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, and to reconstitute the map of Europe, now hastened to proclaim Napoleon an outlaw and to renew the ties, so lately dissolved, of the last Coalition. Vendee, honeycombed with royalists, was once more insurgent. In a moment the situation of 1792 had returned. As in 1792, patriotism reawoke in France, unac- companied, however, by the same confident hopes, and destined to be confronted by a more united Europe, better armed for war and more determined to put a 122 THE FIRST RESTORATION. final end to the bellicose and revolutionary instincts of France. Napoleon, true to his genius, did not wait for the army to seek him. Taking the offensive, he entered Belgium on the I5th of Jujje with 130,000 men, and on the i6th, in spite of General Bourmont's treachery, he routed the Prussians at Ligny under Bliicher ; but the discomfiture inflicted on this general was npt^sufficient to prevent his marching on the l8th tcjf Waterloo, where, through his support of Wellington's admirable tactks, the French army suffered an irreparable defeat/ Napoleon returned vanquished to Paris, whither the Allies soon followed him. The inhabitants of the capital were little disposed to sacrifice themselves or to surrender their recently acquired liberties for the sole glory of Napoleon, and the Chamber of Deputies, which had held its first sittings on the 3rd of June, chose for its president Lanjuinais, who was a true Liberal. In spite of administrative pressure, and notwith- standing the many hindrances which the Imperial Government, in contradiction to its promises, had placed in the way of a free Press, not more than sixty pure Bonapartists were returned at the General Election. The majority was formed of Moderate Liberals, and these had instantly taken measures for preserving their independence should Napoleon be victorious, or for avoiding all participation in his fall if he were defeated On the arrival of the news of Waterloo, the general expectation was that the Emperor would make a FALL OF NAPOLEON. 12$ coup - d^tat. On the motion of Lafayette, the Chamber declared itself to be permanently sitting, and summoned the Ministers to its bar. Disconcerted by this sudden measure, Napoleon began by forbidding the Ministers to obey the call ; but later, seeing himself deserted and losing his own faith in his star, betrayed moreover by his closest adherents, notably Fouche, who was negotiating and intriguing with everybody, the Allies included, the Emperor felt that at last all was lost. On the 23rd of June he abdicated in favour of his young son, the King of Rome, and left for Roche- fort, whence, having voluntarily surrendered to the English, he was conducted by them to St. Helena. This solution was not unwelcome to the Chambers of Legislature. After the experience they had just had of a Bourbon, a Bonaparte advised by a Council of Regency and controlled by some new constitu- tional clauses might have proved acceptable. Napoleon II. was consequently proclaimed sove- reign, and a revised version of the Additional Act prepared, to serve either for the young Bonaparte or for Louis XVIII. (if he had to be reinstated), or any other king. The revision was made by a Commission of the Lower Chamber. Its principal features con- sisted in granting the initiative of the laws to Parlia- ment and the Executive concurrently, in guaranteeing |poliial as well as civil equality to all Frenchmen, in abolishing orders of nobility, old and new, and finally in imposing no property qualification either for the elected or for the electorate of the first degree!) This elaborate project was destined, however, to 124 THE FIRST RESTORATION. prove sterile. Acting under the advice of friends whose intelligence and capacity were greater than those of his Ministers in 1814 conspicuous among whom were Lally-Tollendal, Chateaubriand, and Talleyrand Louis, from Cambrai, whither he had taken refuge, launched a proclamation, dated 2/th of June, in which he sought with much tact to calm the public mind. Certainly he gave it to be understood that he would order new elections to the Chamber, and that particular persons whose share in recent events he considered too marked would not benefit by the royal clemency ; but nevertheless he ad- mitted that he had made mistakes, and professed himself ready to profit by his recent experience. He promised to form a united Ministry whose loyalty to the Charter would be assured, and ener- getically repudiated all intention of re-establishing tithes or feudal rights. These assurances sufficed to restore public con- fidence ; and as various high functionaries, beginning with Fouche, had no other thought than to prove their zeal and thus obtain good posts under the new Government, the efforts of the Chamber re- mained necessarily fruitless. On the /th of July, Louis announced that he would return uncondi- tionally to Paris, and on the following day the Chamber was dissolved. Thus for the second time were the Bourbons re- stored, and the white flag replaced that tricolour to preserve which so much blood had been shed since 1792. But the situation of affairs was infinitely worse than in 1814. TREATY OF PARIS. \2$ The mad attempt known as the Hundred Days had reawakened the territorial greed of the Allies. Instead of the benevolence which they had ex- hibited towards the first Restoration, all their talk now was of mutilating" frontiers, demanding indemnities enormous in amount for the period, and even of occupying French territory so as to prevent the pos- sibility of new enterprises. And the treaty which finally closed the war forced France to pay more than one milliard of francs in different indemnities, quartered 150,000 foreign soldiers on her for three years at her cost, deprived her of Philippeville, Marien- burg, Bouillon, Sarrelouis, Landau, and various com- munes in Aix and Savoy, thus leaving her frontiers exposed and the whole country geographically and strategically weaker than at the end of the reign of Louis XIV., while all her neighbours and rivals in Europe could boast of augmented power. The domestic affairs of the country were in no better case. The Liberals, although hostile at first to the return of Napoleon I., had gradually rallied round him on finding him disposed to make conces- sions, and this movement accidentally, so to speak, gave birth to that monstrous alliance of Liberalism and Bonapartism of which later years were to witness the full development. The Liberals exerted themselves to the utmost to prevent the return of the Bourbons, and the failure of their efforts, joined to resentment at the punish- ment meted out by Louis to some of the func- tionaries who had deserted him on the 2Oth of March, threw them into the ranks of opposition to 126 THE HUNDRED DAYS. the dynasty, and even of conspiracy and military machinations. The ultra- royalists, on the other hand, such as Polignac, La Bourdonnaye, Vitrolles, and others, re- turned from their second exile more violent, more embittered and more implacable than ever. More than ever, too, were they determined to carry on the struggle of the Old France and the New, and to this end they used both the Parliament and the Press, resorting even to secret associations, with which they honeycombed society in the hope of thereby effec- tually counteracting the concessions of the King. What could Louis do, placed as he was between two parties, one reactionary, the other almost revo- lutionary? He had not encouraged the last Coalition, but, on the contrary, had kept himself aloof from the Allies' quarters during the Waterloo campaign, intervening only at the Peace to moderate some of the exces- sive demands made by the victors. But it was true, all the same, that foreign aid had replaced him on the throne, and that, so far from having been recalled by the voice of France, he had been received with more than coldness by the population of Paris and the Chambers themselves. He resolved to use every means of averting a con- flict between the middle classes and the populace on the one hand, and the nobles and royalists on the other ; and as an unmistakable proof of his inten- tions in this respect he included in his new Ministry two men who had sprung incontestably from the Revolution, namely, Talleyrand and Fouche. THE POLITICAL CONDITION IN l8l6. \2J In a letter written three years later to his brother, the Count d'Artois, he expressed in noble terms his sense of the mission which he had assigned to himself. " The system which I have adopted," he said, " has for its foundation the maxim that one man cannot be the sovereign of two peoples, and all the efforts of my government are directed towards achieving the unity of the French people, now unfortunately divided among themselves." These elevated aims were, however, singularly difficult to realise in the atmosphere of greed and passion which surrounded the person of the King. Something like a coup-d'etat was necessary in 1816 before he could get rid of the irreconcilables ; and between that date and 1821 he succeeded only by a constant struggle in imposing his own ideas of moderation and justice on others. But the effort wore him out. He was already old, and, weary at last of being neither understood nor supported, Louis, from the last-mentioned date onwards, let the Restoration slide into a groove of reaction, along which, by gradual steps, it was finally brought to the Revolution of 1830. VII LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES FROM 1789 TO 1815. IT would seem as if the brilliant outburst of litera- ture in the eighteenth century had exhausted the genius of France, leaving nothing to be produced during the brief but stirring times between 1789 to 1815. The Revolution was nourished and inspired by Voltaire, Diderot, and J. J. Rousseau, whose works formed, so to speak, a thick and tall plantation in whose shadow no other growth was possible. But, in fact, the continual wars in which the nation wasted its strength, and the tyrannical centralisation imposed by Napoleon on the French mind, consti- tuted a very unfavourable environment for any pro- duction of genius. Unbridled action the destructive action of the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, the constructive action of Napoleon's Assemblies chiefly characterised the period, and it is consequently on the active side, among orators, controversialists and sociologists, that we must seek the best examples of literature. Similar influences reigned in Art, but Science, immersed in the consideration of enduring pheno- 128 LETTERS. 1 29 mena, and therefore naturally alien to political agita- tion, was not prevented by the troubles of the times from yielding marvellous results. Indeed, one of the chief features of French history at this date is the imperturbable progress of scientific research in the midst of social convulsions. LETTERS. If the Revolution had not suddenly destroyed polite society and cut short artistic leisure, it is certain that a special form of literature, what one might call a Louis Seize literature, would have arisen. Towards the end of the Ancient Regime one per- ceives, concurrently with the philosophical movement of the period, an aesthetic current flowing from those springs of antique beauty of which the very existence had been forgotten. The erudition and spirit of archaeo- logical research which distinguished the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, and were especially marked in the Graeco- Roman studies of the Count de Caylus (vide his Scenes from Homer and Virgil), had a strong influence upon David and other painters. The Abbe Barthelemy's "Journey of Young Anacharsis in Greece " met with a success which proves the reviving interest of the public in antiquity, and Andre Chenier, the greatest poet of the age, was soon about to give true literary expression to the Greek ideal of plastic beauty. Contemporary with these Neo- Hellenists were the disciples of Rousseau, Bernardin de St. Pierre, the emotional philosopher, Madame de Stae'l, author of " Les Passions," Mirabeau, the impassioned writer of 10 130 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1789-1815. the " Letters to Sophie," and Madame Roland, the incarnation of the " New Heloise." Again there were the " hommes d'esprit," or wits such as Rivarol and Chamfort, who carried the art of conversation (causerie} to perfection, and finally the later ency- clopaedists, Condorcet and Volney. Here we see the direction in which literature would have developed under Louis XVI. but for the pro- found modifications introduced by the Revolution. When that period had passed a new literature arose, which bore a superficial air of neo-classicism, and belonged to the Graeco-Roman movement through the correct poetry of Fontanes and the purity of style of Paul-Louis Courier. Essentially it was composed of revived Catholicism, lyrical exag- geration, Wertherism, and changes in the genius of the language, all of which elements constituted a pre- paration for the so-called Romantic School. ORATORY. The Clubs and Assemblies of the Revolution, wherein new ideas and absorbing interests were debated with such energy, naturally produced many brilliant orators, all of whom possess a fervid, pas- sionate eloquence, often unrestrained, and most fre- quently invested with the pompous forms of ancient rhetoric. High above all towers Mirabeau. His chief cha- racteristic is passion, a passion which flames in his famous "Letters to Sophie" (1777-1780), which elevates his speech to sublimity, animates his coun- tenance, and lends accents of penetrating emotion to OR A TOR Y. 131 his voice. Yet fervour in him was always moderated by the force of his reasoning and the quickness of his apprehension. Rarely indeed in any politician have passion, reasoning power and wit been united to the same degree as in Mirabeau, who, thanks to his possession of such qualities, becomes the very type of orators, and the representative of the whole French nation at this period when daring was only surpassed by genius. The Abbe Maury, champion of the clergy and nobles, was a more skilful dialectician, but he had the defects of his qualities. He was a rhetorician, and put too much preparation into his phrases and too much artifice into the march of his ideas. But his prodigious memory, his facility, his rapid percep- tion, his imperturbability and the magnificent quality of his voice, raised him to the chief rank among the adversaries of Mirabeau, who was accustomed to say of him, " When he is right we dispute, when he is wrong I crush him." Danton, "King of the Market Place" (roi des Halles\ that tribune of the biting and fiery tongue, played at street corners the same part as Mirabeau in the Assembly, and succeeded to him there on the latter's death. Danton's character is well expressed in the words which he pronounced on the 2nd of September : " That cannon which you hear is our charge upon the enemy. To conquer, what do we need ? Audacity, yet more audacity, always audacity." Marat, " friend of the people " and most energetic of publicists, carried his hatred of usurpers to the BOISSY D'AXGLAS, ORATORY. 133 pitch of genius. His eloquence was inspired by rage and revolt, and was united to a remarkable prompti- tude of judgment. " I cease not from preaching insurrection," he said, "after having shattered the talisman of a false respect for degraded chiefs. . . . Death, death, that is the punishment which should await all traitors who are bent upon destroying us." Desmoulins was a fluent, witty, and sarcastic rhetorician, who appealed to the most enlightened classes of the public by the enthusiasm manifested in his anonymous writings, and fired them by the ardour of youthful talent with which he urged them to the exercise of the loftiest virtue and patriotism. Vergniaud, the most eloquent of the Girondins, was principally distinguished by a scorn of men, which lent to his utterances in general a haughtiness further intensified by his noble manner. A strict logician and gifted with a keen and open mind, he would, but for his natural indolence, have been the Mirabeau of the Legislative Assembly. Robespierre took his stand upon lofty principles, which he sought to apply with uncompromising strictness. He was sober, and of elegant habits, but possessed by the high-flown tendencies of his age and inflated with false conceptions of metaphysics and history. Nevertheless the strength of his convic- tions produced a great effect. " That man will go far," said Mirabeau. " He believes everything he says." Saint- Just was the philosopher and moralist of the Mountain. He was saturated with the " sensibility " of the time, and it was doubtless this emotional 134 LETTERS, ARTS) AND SCIENCES, 1789-1815. quality which gave suppleness and picturesqueness to his clear and rapid speech. " Tyranny is a reed which bends before the wind and recovers itself," he said. And again : " Abuses disappear for an instant, then reappear, just as we see humidity vanish from the ground only to fall once more from the skies." Every style of eloquence finds its representative among these men, who have been chosen for mention because their names are familiar to the world. Differing among themselves in talent and political ideals, they are yet stamped by the French Revolu- tion with one common characteristic. One and all are convinced that they are working for mankind, that their mission is to achieve universal equality hence their generalisations and the poetical enthu- siasm which lifts them above the common. This same belief animated Napoleon, being singu- larly strengthened by a mystical faith in his genius and his star. He was the one great orator of the post-revolutionary period. His proclamations to his army are models of concision, force, and noble imagery. His " eagle-glance " astonished the political assemblies, whom the profundity of his conceptions and his marvellous analytical faculty overmastered. His actions, his writings, his words, the grandeur of his rise, and the ruin of his fall combined to create a poetical legend to which many literary ckefs d'oeuvre later owe their origin. SOCIOLOGICAL AND ECONOMICAL RESEARCH. Politicians sought to reduce to a concrete form the aspirations of mankind towards happiness ; while SOCIOLOGICAL AND ECONOMICAL RESEARCH. 135 numberless abstract thinkers, moved by similar feel- ings of benevolence, dreamed of a social state in which every person might have an equal share of good fortune. And among these dreamers were some who considered the possibility of imposing their theories, and all the consequences to be derived from them, by violent means upon their fellow-citizens. The most celebrated of all, Babceuf, paid for the audacity of his views with his life. His opinion was that Property belongs to the nation, and that indi- vidual possession is a usurpation. No citizen should be entitled to more than the usufruct of the land : to live he must work. Education should be national, universal, and equal, and every man should bear arms. Everybody has a right to be happy : every- body should be happy. " Nobody," cried Babceuf, "can have conspired more thoroughly than I. My crime, I am convinced, is common to all Frenchmen, or at least to all virtuous Frenchmen, to all who reject the odious system which makes the opprobrium and exceeding misery of the many a condition of the happiness of the few." Side by side with these forerunners of modern socialism were writers who were beginning to raise political economy to a science. This branch of study had already yielded brilliant results in the eighteenth century. The Physiocrats, by their bias towards individualism and liberalism, as well as by their appeals to natural right, had exercised a marked influence upon the Revolution ; and the Constituent Assembly had even attempted to embody the prin- cipal axioms of the school into laws. After the 136 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1789-1815. Empire, however, the theories of the Physiocrats fell into discredit, and were replaced by English ideas, by the teachings of Adam Smith and Ricardo, whose serious works and profound opinions modified the views of Europe. J. B. Say (vide " Treaty of Political Economy," 1803; "Cathechism," 1815) adhered to the ideas of the English school, while arranging them in a much more logical and systematic manner. Just as Lavoisier had done for chemistry, so did Say fix for Political Economy a nomenclature which was eventually adopted by all writers on the subject. He formulated the theory of " outlets " (debouches) by proving that each nation must pay its own products for those which it acquires, and was reso- lutely opposed to government intervention and prohibitory tariffs. By his lucid style, his power of generalisation, his energy and personal influence, Say popularised a science which up to his time had only occupied the attention of a few learned persons. PHILOSOPHY, CRITICISM, HISTORY. But, while progress was thus manifest in all subjects bearing upon the material improvement of man's condition, the same, as we have already remarked, cannot be said of those branches of speculation whose object is to satisfy the mind. Philosophy had its sole representative in the narrow empiricism of Condillac. Literary criticism did not rise above the meagre and coldly classic methods of La Harpe. In thrall to the pedantic judgments of ordinary minds, it POETRY. 137 was wanting in the spirit of investigation and the wide erudition which alone invest the process with authority and make it lasting and fruitful of results. History for the most part produced only colourless compilations. But the writings of Bonald, author of ' a "Theory of Political and Religious Power" (1/96), the " Considerations on France " of Joseph de Maistre (1796), and the " Considerations on the Revolution" of Madame de Stae'l (1818), by their methods of original research, their political acumen and the brilliancy of their style, were the forerunners of the prodigious historical development which was to mark the Restoration. POETRY, FICTION', THE DRAMA. Novelty was, however, most remarkable in fiction. The Drama was enriched by no work of any import- ance, while Poetry contrary to most examples in the history of Letters gave birth to an independent genius who was neither a product of the moment nor a precursor of the immediate future. Andre Chenier, as has often been remarked, was a Greek or Neo-Roman, that is a pagan enamoured of gracious images, of amiable divinities, of smiling land- scapes, which .appear in his poetry under a pure and perfectly classic form. His fresh song, the melodious utterance of an ardent and noble soul reinvoking a ) bygone beautiful, happy age, forms a strong contrast y to the sombre and tragical events of the Revolution, C with its alternations of enthusiasm and terror, and the uncertainty of its social state. To this contrast 138 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1789-1815. Chenier owed his rapid success, and, doubtless also, a portion of his glory. Marie-Joseph Chenier, although a prominent lite- rary figure in his time, cannot be compared to his poet-brother. He worked chiefly for the theatre, and ANDRE CHENIER. his pieces, strictly classical in form, are remarkable only for some traits of frigid beauty. Truth to tell, the Drama of the period found itself equally embarrassed by the license of the Revolution and the censorship of the Empire. FICTION AND DRAMA. 139 Beaumarchais in 1792 concluded his celebrated tetralogy by producing " The Guilty Mother," wherein he shows us Almavira astonishingly transformed into a moralist. But the comedy was very inferior to its predecessors, and the unimportant theatre at which it was produced did not contribute to its success. In 1790 and 1792 the author rearranged some scenes of his " Tarare " according to the prevailing taste, but the changes thus made failed to render the philoso- phical poem either less obscure or more entertaining. An infinite number of tragedies and comedies of all sorts and forms appeared during this period, but the only important incident was the birth of melodrama, destined to achieve a rapid success. Barely two years before 1789 Fiction had been enriched by the little masterpiece " Paul and Virginia," a graceful idyll, the love story of two children told with human reality and depth of feeling, and set in the dazzling framework of Nature in her tropical mood. In 1791 Bernardin de St. Pierre published "The Indian Hut," a protest, more witty than convincing, \ against Science, rendered monotonously fatiguing at x last by the glow of descriptive colouring. Neither this work nor its more famous predecessor introduced a new element into literature. Almost simultaneously Chateaubriand and Madame de Stael published, the first " Atala " (i 800) and " Rene" (1802), the second "Corinne" (1802) and "Delphine" (1807), and thus introduced the personal novel for the first time into French fiction. This meant the sub- stitution of the author's own impressions for the 140 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1/89-1815. rhetorical flights which had hitherto done duty as description. Rene was Chateaubriand himself Chateaubriand with his sore moods, his sickly shrinking from the trivial details of life, his unquiet spirit, his embittered, haughty melancholy, and his dream of an impossible love. Delphine and Corinne were equally Madame de Stael, with her beautiful arms, her romantic ardour, the irresistible impulses of her heart, her grace, her intelligence, her noble aspirations. Thanks to the wide and penetrating mind of Madame de Stael, a new world was revealed in Italy and Germany, while to Chateaubriand's eloquent and fervid genius the renascence of the religious spirit must be ascribed. Such works had not only an irresistible effect upon the age which produced them, but exercised a great and lasting influence upon succeeding generations. And since they marked the end of one stage of literary evolution and the be- ginning of another, their authors are worthy of more than a passing mention. CHA TEA UBRIAND. Chateaubriand showed in childhood a shy and melancholy disposition, which the influence of his sister Lucile encouraged rather than restrained ; and his early youth was marked by a precocious disgust with life and an immeasurable ennui. He was, moreover, morbidly proud, and the fame and gratified vanity which were eventually his lot came too late to console him for the humiliations and deceptions of CHA TEA UBRIA ND. 1 4 1 a youth passed in poverty. His unsatisfied soul, absorbed in self-contemplation, found no other solace than to analyse its own sadness and bitterness. Ardent, and passionately attached to beauty in all its forms, he fed the flame of his longing with every means of enjoyment which offered itself, but gave nothing of his own in return. " My mind," he said, " while made to believe in nothing, not even in myself, to despise all things, honours, misery, kings, and peoples, is yet dominated by an instinct of reason which orders it to reverence whatever is admittedly beautiful, such as religion, justice, humanity, liberty, and glory." By obeying this instinct Chateaubriand succeeded in forgetting himself that is, if to forget oneself means to write works wherein the only standard referred to is oneself. The beauty of the Christian religion appealed to him all the more that for a century it had been obscured by indifference. To restore full light would be to discover a new form of beauty. The charms of nature impressed Chateaubriand still more profoundly. He travelled widely, and re- produced in his pages the pathetic and original beauty of Greece and Italy, of Spain, America, and the East. No writer has ever painted more faithfully, yet more poetically, the all-compelling, sombre or gracious spell of the night, the solemnity of primaeval forests and prairies, the misty skies of Germany, the sunlight of Italy, the loveliness of Greek mountains or the varied colours of Arab encampments. The " Genius of Christianity," published on the 1 8th of April, 1802, a short time after the Concordat, 142 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1/89-1815. rehabilitated religion in the eyes of good society, which had seen Christianity eclipsed and ridiculed by rationalism. The work was not dogmatic ; if it had been so nobody would have read it. The thought embodied in its lines is feeble, feeble also are its arguments, and its metaphysical reasoning is infantile. But it was a prose poem which, by a series of pic- turesque and pathetic images, awoke all the vague religious feeling that slumbered in the souls of men, and cleverly turned this emotion to the profit of Catholicism by demonstrating to respectable people that they might henceforth profess that creed without fear of ridicule or absurdity. Such a work was well calculated to influence the age in which it appeared. It unlocked the prison gates of religious aspiration which, gathering strength from previous repression, soared aloft to a position whence it dominated thought for half a century. Nor was this the only effect produced by the "Genius of Christianity." ^Esthetic doctrines were also revived by it. In its vast and confused scheme it found place for all the fertile ideas which were transforming literature. Old rules, narrow, conven- tional, and vexatious, were abandoned ; poetry and art succeeded to rhetoric and ideology ; nature in its true grandeur and beauty, and the expression of real emotion replaced descriptions of drawing-room man- ners and mythological scenes. Henceforth writers turned for inspiration to foreign literature, to the Bible, to Gothicart, to medievalism and history in general. " The Natchez " (from which ' Atala " and " Rene " were excerpts), " The Martyrs " (in which must be CHA TEA UBRIAND. 143 included "The Itinerary of Paris to Jerusalem"), are two epic romances or prose poems built up on two antitheses, one being the contrast between natural and civilised man, the other the opposition between the Pagan and the Christian world. Rene was a type whom these works introduced to the public. " From the beginning of my life," he says, " I have never ceased to nourish sorrow. I bore the germ of it within me as the tree bears the germ of its fruit. An unknown poison penetrated all my senti- ments. I pursue a painful dream. . . . Life wearies me. I have ever been consumed by ennui ; that which interests other men touches me in no way." The character thus described possessed an irresistible .attraction for later writers, furnishing them with the psychological elements which they translated into \disgust of life, monstrosity of sentiment, and superiority of guilty passion. A greater merit of our author was to reveal its true aim to history by his own success in revivifying the buried past. As a stylist Chateaubriand restored the breath of life to the French language. He is not a master, it is true ; he is unequal, and infected with the bad taste of the time. A large part of " The Martyrs " is pompous, emphatic, insipid, " Empire " in a word. But his real manner, that which belongs to him alone, that which is known as " Chateaubriand's style," is of brilliancy, of harmony and rhythm all compact. He saw at a glance all that was most characteristic in his subject. He possessed the art of grouping and of framing, and he knew how to make his readers hear all the voices of nature. 1 44 LE TTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1 789- 1815. His influence in the nineteenth century is immense. Lamartine borrowed from him ennui, melancholy, vagueness of soul. Alfred de Vigny owes to him the note of pessimism ; Victor Hugo, picturesque description, the epic sense, the use of historical erudition ; De Musset, the refinements of a dandified . boredom. All the novelists of passion, such as George Sand, Sainte-Beuve, Flaubert ; all the Neo- Catholics, Lamennais, Lacordaire, Montalembert, to wit ; historians like Thierry, Michelet, even Renan, resemble him on some side, and usually this is the description of nature which they have introduced into their romances, their philosophy, their narratives of travel, their erudite researches or their historical works. MADAME DE STAEL. If Chateaubriand was chiefly an impressionist Mdme. de Stae'l was principally a thinker. The first influenced those around him by his style, his descrip- tions, his artistic conceptions, but the second owed her authority to her ideas, her conversation, her personal magnetism. She was sentimental and romantic like Rousseau, argumentative and worldly like Voltaire. Her intelligence was cosmopolitan and her religious feeling weak. Nevertheless her influence on the thought of the time was as great as Chateaubriand's an apparent contradiction which a brief analysis of her principal works will suffice to explain. " Literature, Considered in its Relation to Social Institutions" fi8oo), is a thesis on the development W XN X V .LjXA OJ. J. MADAME DE STAEL. 145 of human intelligence in all its manifestations. The Romanticists owed to it the following criticism : " The object of literature is no longer to' be, as in the eighteenth century, merely the art of writing : it is to be the art of thinking, and the standard of literary greatness will be found in the progress of civilisation." Better still, the work contained the germ of all later developments of criticism : " I propose," said the writer, " to examine the effect upon literature of religion, customs and laws, and the influence upon these of literature." The seed of all Romantic Drama is contained in " L'Allemagne " (1810). Mdme. de Stael attacks the unities and makes light of rules. " Some declare," she says, " that language was definitely fixed on such a day and such a month, and that the introduction of a new word would now be a barbarism. Others affirm that the rules of the drama were laid down for good in a such or such a year, and that any writer of genius who would now effect a change is to blame for not having been born before that year, wherein all literary discussion, past, present and future, terminated for ever. And in metaphysics, above all, it has been ^/decided that since Condillac one can take no step forward without being lost." Have we not here an indication of the impending revolution in the French language, the French theatre, and almost in philosophy ? " Considerations on the French Revolution " (1818) is an explanatory apology of the Revolution, of which the tendency is summed up in the following maxim : " All minorities invoke justice, and justice is liberty. II 1 46 LE TTERS, ARTS, A ND SCIENCES, 1789-1815. One can only judge a party by the belief which it professes when in power." The work is too narrow in scope, and limited too exclusively to purely political considerations, as well as being too imbued with the idea that for a people a Constitution is everything. But it is very sugges- tive, thanks to the multitude of acute remarks which it contains. Guizot profited much by it, and eventually took up the argument, amplified it, and finished it in a manner superior to the original. Politically, Mdme. de Stael is the mother of parlia- mentary and dogmatic Liberalism. As historians, Guizot and De Tocqueville felt her influence. Her " Germany " revealed to the world a new form of literary genius, and in the years between 1820 and 1829 promoted a prodigious outburst of translation. Schiller, Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Manzoni, Wie- land, Herder, Goethe, and Dante in turn received a French dress. Mdme. de Stael also inspired Lamartine, and suggested to Balzac his researches into the social dramas of the great world. " Mdme. de Stael and Chateaubriand," writes M. Lanson, "considered themselves to have but little in common. But in reality, although of opposite principles and temperaments, they gave the same impulse to literature. Mdme. de Stael furnished the Romanticists with ideas, -theories, and a method of criticism ; Chateaubriand gave them an ideal, desires, and the means of enjoyment. The woman defined where the man realised." A R T PA IN TING. 1 4/ ART. The orators of the Revolutionary Assembly loved to invoke the heroic examples of the Roman Re- public. The dramatists of the same period, with the aim of pleasing a public penetrated with admiration jr' for the civic virtues of Plutarch's Illustrious Men, ' borrowed from Antiquity the subjects of almost all their tragedies : and similarly artists took the ancient Greeks and Romans for their models. PAINTING. The greatest painter of the age, David, had sacrificed largely to the taste of the day, before painting his masterpieces, " The Session of the Tennis Court " and the " Coronation of Napoleon," wherein he represented the spirit of liberty, the noble efforts and attitudes and the grandiose imagination of the Revolution. In his earlier manner are " The Horatii," " Brutus," and " The Death of Socrates " ; and he reached the crowning-point in this style when he painted the frigid and mechanical " Rape of the Sabines." He was the head of a school, but his disciples proved either quite different to their master or very inferior to him. The fact is David's merit lay in his personal originality, and that passion for the great and the colossal which led him to. design unrealisable monuments and made him a majestic master of the ceremonies during the fetes of the Revolution. Like Andre Chenier Prud'hon loved Antiquity for its grace. His " Diana," " Psyche," " Love," " Venus 148 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1789-1815. and Adonis," "The Spinning Girl," and "The Cotton- winder " have a quiet charm which renders them superior to his too celebrated allegory, " Justice and Vengeance pursuing Crime." Girodet fell under the influence of the new ideas, and especially in his "Deluge" (1806) and "Burial of Atala" (1808) he is "the precursor of the Romantic school. All the remaining painters consecrate their pencils to the glory of Napoleon. Charles Vernet painted the battles of Marengo (1804), of Austerlitz (1808), of Rivoli (1810), and the Passage of the St. Bernard. To Gerard we owe a remarkable portrait of Napoleon ; to Isabey, the "Conference at the Congress of Vienna"; to Gros, the "Plague of Jaffa" (1804), the "Battle of Eylau" (1808), and a portrait of Josephine. ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE. Architects and sculptors are almost exclusively employed in constructing monuments commemora- tive of Imperial victories, and here again the models for their works are derived from antiquity. Chalgrin began the Arch of Triumph at the Barriere de 1'Etoile (1809-11); Lepere and Gondouin raised the Vendome column (1805); Fontaine and Percier constructed the other Arch of Triumph in the Place du Carrousel (1807). The bas-reliefs decorating these monuments were sculptured by Clodion and Bosio, while Brongniart designed the Bourse (1808). All are in Graeco-Roman style that is to say, without originality if not without grandeur. MUSIC SCIENCES. ' 149 MUSIC. In Music also there is but little originality. The enthusiasm of the period finds its echo only in the "Marseillaise" of Rouget de 1'Isle, or in those fine lyric outbursts, " Le Vengeur " and " Le Chant du Depart." Concerted music is cold and formal, Me"hul's pompous " Joseph " being the best example. In the "Paul and Virginia" (1/94) and in the "Bards" (1804) of Lesueur one may discern a beginning of Romanticism, and the same is true of the works of Cherubini. Some pleasing musicians like Dalayrac achieved success in the light style of the Vaudeville. SCIENCE. The student of the French Revolution is struck with the rapidity with which that great event was accomplished. Twelve years saw the downfall of old institutions and the reconstitution of society on a new basis. And this same phenomenon, under a more striking form still, appears in the radical trans- formation of Natural Science. Barely fifteen years sufficed to eradicate all previously-received ideas, to introduce a new conception of matter, to substitute the theory of simple bodies for the antiquated notion of four elements, to reveal the true composition of living beings, and to establish their real relations with their environment. CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. Lavoisier is the chief promoter of this scientific revolution. To him must be ascribed the concep- I5O LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1789-1815. tions underlying the modern science of Chemistry. His discoveries related to the nature of metals, the composition of acids, of air, of water, the nature of heat, and to combustion, respiration, and animal caloric. And as the new ideas required a new language, the French chemists who gathered round Lavoisier created the nomenclature with which are associated so many discoveries whose influence persists to the present day. MEDICAL SCIENCE. The new scientific current, combined with the rationalism of the eighteenth century, produced a school of philosophical medicine, adorned by the names of Bichat, Cabanis, Pinel, Broussais, Desault, and Corvisart, most of whom were distinguished writers. Medicine enfranchised itself more and more from empiricism. Anatomy, physiology, therapeutics, and surgery became exact sciences. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. Finally, the same revivifying breath animated the dry bones of mathematics and inspired the most brilliant among the geniuses of whom France may well be proud. Condorcet published his "Calculation of Probabilities," and a work of philosophical tendency entitled " Progress of the Human Mind." Lagrange solved the problem of lateral equations by an analysis of the irreducible, and brought all the processes of the infinitesimal calculus back to the algebraic calculus. Laplace wrote his immortal work on " Celestial MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. l$l Mechanism," described the perturbations of the principal planets, reduced all the laws of Mechanis to general principles, and by means of Kepler's laws, which he deduced from observation, he formulated the law of universal gravity. Monge applied the analytical method to geometry. Delambre measured the meridian (1792-99), and laid the basis of the metrical system (i 806-10). The Institute was founded in 1795. Chateau- briand's "Genius of Christianity" dates from 1802, and the same year saw the restoration of religious rites. Never was religion exposed to such grave attacks in France as during the years 1789-1802, and never did science register more brilliant or more rapid triumphs. May we regard this as a simple coincidence, or is the explanation to be found in a relation of cause and effect? That is a problem which the present writer does not pretend to solve here, but which imposes itself on the thinking mind at the conclusion of this first period of our historical survey. VIII. THE SECOND RESTORATION. (June 24, 1815 July 29, 1830.) ON the /th of July, 1815, even before returning to Paris, Louis XVIII. had formed a ministry which, as he conceived, afforded to the revolutionary party such a clear proof of his goodwill that it could not fail to calm the public mind. It comprised Talleyrand and Fouche, Pasquier and Marshal Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, all of whom, by different methods and in different degrees, had distinguished themselves during the Revolution and the Empire. On the 1 3th a royal decree introduced alterations into the electoral legislation prescribed by the Acte AdditioneL The number of deputies was nearly doubled, being fixed at 402. The age of electors was changed from thirty to twenty-one, and candi- dates were declared eligible at twenty-five, instead of, as hitherto, at forty. The constituency of each arrondissenient was com- posed of electors assessed at 300 francs, and the number of candidatdl whom it sent up was exactly 152 THE ACTE ADDITIONEL. 153 double that of the deputies to be returned. Out of that list the constituency of the department, formed of the most highly-taxed electors, had to choose at least one half of the deputies assessed at 1,000 francs of taxes ; but as the number of electors became thus very limited, the Prefects were empowered to add ten persons of their own choice to each constituency of the two sorts. This decree was simply provisional ; one of its clauses, indeed, announced that it was to be submitted for revision to the next Parliament, at the same time as the articles of the Charter concerning the initiative of laws, the mode of renewing the Chamber, &c. These proposals could not be said to aim at giving a truly national character to the new Government, since not even the middle classes, but only the wealthiest members of the community, were called upon to exercise power. Louis XVIII. hoped by this device to interest those whom the years following the Revolution had enriched in the preservation of his throne ; but it did not take him long to perceive that the desired support was not thus to be gained. The parvenus who feared a reaction were, many of them, less concerned to prevent its coming than to shelter themselves from its effects by cringing im- moderately to the Court. Just as a number of Jacobins had crowded to the receptions of Napoleon as soon as he became Emperor, so did the majority holders of national property hasten to proclaim a loyalty to Louis which was all the more effusive because it was of recent date ; and they entirely failed to perceive how much their excessive zeal 154 THK SECOND RESTORATION. added to the difficulties encountered by the King in carrying out his pacificatory intentions. And as, by the decree of the I3th of July, the Imperial Chamber had been imprudently dissolved, and a general election ordered, the neophytes were furnished with an ample opportunity of displaying all the fury of their convictions. The Government itself gave the signal of violence. It replaced all the functionaries who had been dis- missed during the Hundred Days ; it deposed the peers who had declared their adhesion to the Acte Additionel ; it tried by court martial, or before the High Court of Justice, the generals who had followed Napoleon, such as Ney, Labedoyere, and others, who were shot before the end of the year ; it instituted Provost's Courts for the pursuit and arrest of " suspects," and, in short, established a state of things aptly described as the White Terror, in contradistinc- tion to the Red Terror of 1793. Naturally, private persons hastened to follow the example of Government. In the provinces, especially in the South, assassinations and massacres disgraced this period, and the trade of the informer flourished as of old. The general election on the I4th of August, taking place under such vitiated conditions, could only yield results entirely contrary to the hopes of the Govern- ment. Liberals either withdrew from the struggle or were swamped by the tide of reaction which had swept over France, and the Chamber was composed almost exclusively of " ultras " men who hated the Revolution and all that recalled it, who declared THE CABINET OF THE 2^TH OF SEPTEMBER. 155 themselves almost inimical even to the Charter, who dreamed of nothing but vengeance, repression, and exceptional laws men, in a word, more royalist than the King himself. Before the new Chamber met, Louis, urged by those around him, especially by the Count d'Artois, who was reckless in his support of the " ultras," resolved to dismiss the Ministry of the /th of July, which yet, under the able guidance of Talleyrand, had succeeded on the 2nd of October in signing the preliminaries of peace with the foreign Powers. Without relinquishing his programme, the King called a Cabinet formed of men like the Duke de Richelieu, formerly an exile and a great friend of the Tsar, Decazes, Barbe-Marbois, and others, whose past could inspire no suspicion in the extreme royalists. By their means, and the support, if neces- sary, of the peers, among whom reasonable councils prevailed, Louis hoped to be able to impose his ideas on the Chamber of Deputies. The new Cabinet, constituted on the 24th of Sep- tember, 1815, was carried along at first by the current of the hour. One law against seditious utterances (November 9) empowered the tribunals to deal with the smallest chance remarks of citizens ; two others, dated 29th of October and 2Oth of December respec- tively, handed over to the arbitrary action of Govern- ment all persons suspected of entertaining hostile sentiments towards the Restoration ; a third (January 12, 1816), ironically described as a law of amnesty, decreed perpetual banishment against the members of the National Convention who had voted for the 156 THE SECOND RESTORATION. death of Louis XVI., and ordered the exile of the Bonaparte princes. These measures distinctly violated the King's promises and the articles of the Charter, but it was necessary to concede something to the prevailing humour of Parliament in order not to precipitate a conflict. And eventually the conflict broke out all the same. Not content with obstructing in every way the vote on the Budget a measure already rendered very critical by the estimates for home and foreign expenditure the Chamber demanded the reinstatement of the clergy in their former rights of civil registration, and the restitution to the Church of all property which had not yet been sold, besides a grant of forty-one millions annually to be applied as the clergy might think fit, as compensation for the lands which had passed to other owners. The reac- tionary party did not succeed in obtaining more than the abrogation of the Law of Divorce (May 8), and the concession to religious of the right to teach in public schools (February 29) ; but there was no mis- take as to their intentions. They were bent upon destroying, bit by bit, the entire work of the Revolu- tion, and felt themselves sufficiently sustained by excited public opinion to propose an extension of the suffrage by which the electoral qualification was lowered to fifty francs. Louis XVIII. was alarmed at such audacity. Feel- ing that the Government was hastening to the brink of a precipice, he took the advice proffered by Decazes, and published the Decree of the 5th of September, 1816, in virtue of which the Chamber GENERAL ELECTION OF l8l6. 157 was dissolved, the number of deputies reduced to 259, and the eligible age fixed at forty years. The Decree was of doubtful legality, electoral legislation being one of the functions of Parliament; but its justification lay in the exceptional gravity of the moment. The Extreme Right received the measure with op- probrium, but the Extreme Left, 1 recognising the im- portance of saving its dearest ideals, abstained from presenting candidates of its own and supported those whom the Ministry favoured. In the General Election held on the 4th of October, the " ultras " proved to be in a minority, and the Cabinet obtained a preponderance of votes among the dynastic Liberals, who, led by Decazes and Laine, and aided by Jordan, Courvoisier, Royer-Collard, De Serre, De Broglie, &c., were intent upon trying to establish Parliamentary government in France. From this time dates what has been aptly called the Government of the Centre. With rare and pass- ing exceptions, the Parliamentary system in France has never followed the English model that is to say, the country has never been governed alternately by two disciplined and co-ordinate parties. In the French Chamber there have always been two wings differing profoundly in principle, who, if they occa- sionally unite in a vote of opposition, are yet in- capable of forming a majority, either separately, or 1 Parties in France do not exchange places in Parliament when there is a change of Ministry. Conservatives and Reactionaries sit always on the right of the President, the Liberals and Radicals on the left ; hence the expressions, " Right " and " Left " which serve permanently to designate the two parties. 158 THE SECOND RESTORATION. by an understanding which their mutual repulsions renders illusory. Between these two extremes is a floating mass of deputies who incline first to one side and then to another, according to the opinion which momentarily prevails, who never, or almost never, succeed in giving stability to a Ministry, but never- theless, in spite of the excesses of the two extremes, impose on the country at large a sufficiently moderate and liberal policy, and thus avoid the perils incident on sudden change. This system, under forms of government not always identical, has prevailed on the whole from its incep- tion until the present time ; but it has never yielded such brilliant results as in its early years, from 1816 to 1820, when the men who had founded it and the questions which they discussed were alike memorable and important. The work of the new Government consisted in five great enterprises, which were brought to a successful issue. These were : the financial rehabilitation of France, with the consequent withdrawal of foreign troops from her territory ; the abrogation of the exceptional laws voted by the reactionaries in 1815 ; the electoral law of the 5th of February, 1817, which deprived the great landowners of a portion of their influence by suppressing the two degrees of suffrage and including all voters taxed at 300 francs in a single constituency for each department ; the law of the 1 8th of March, 1818, in virtue of which for many years the French army was recruited by an annual drawing of lots within the limits of the contingent fixed by law, and conscripts who had drawn a low DUKE DE RICHELIEU MINISTRY. 159 number were enabled to buy themselves substitutes ; finally the law, or rather three laws, of the i/th of May, 26th of May, and 9th of June, 1819, on the Press, by which newspapers, while dispensed from the necessity of obtaining an administrative license, were forced to deposit a security for the execution of any sentence which a jury might pronounce against them. These various measures were not carried without difficulty. Every year the partial renewal of one- fifth of the deputies obliged the Government to reconstitute its majority, and to increase or diminish its infusion of liberalism in accordance with the fluctuations of public opinion and the composition of the Chamber. The Left accused it of temporising, of showing insufficient confidence in the benefits of liberty, of too much harshness towards the exiles of 1815, and even of unjustifiable leniency towards the encroachments of the Catholic clergy. The Right could not forgive the Decree, or, as it preferred to say, the coup-d'etat of the 5th of September, 1816, and being for the moment in opposition, it found fault with the electoral law for narrowness, and with the press law for unnecessary rigour. A first change in the Ministry became necessary in December, 1818. The Duke de Richelieu resigned, leaving to Decazes and General Dessoles the task of forming a cabinet with inclinations towards the Left. But in the elections of 1819 the Left won numerous seats, and when, in consequence of this, various Imperialist generals, such as Foy, Lamarque, and Sebastiani, together with former members of the I6O THE SECOND RESTORATION, Convention like Gregoire, returned upon the scene, the Centre took alarm, and began to gravitate towards the Right. The assassination of the Duke de Berry on the night of the I3th-I4th of February, 1820, raised a panic, and Richelieu returned to power on the 2ist of the same month, while the services of Decazes were dispensed with. Determined now to govern with the support of the Right against the Left, the Duke overturned with his own hands the Liberal edifice raised during the pre- ceding years. Fresh measures were taken against " suspects," censure and preliminary authorisation restored with regard to the Press, and modifications introduced into the electoral law by a measure passed on the 29th of June. This consisted in depriving a large number of manufacturers and tradesmen of their votes by forming at least one-half of the electoral qualification out of the tax on real estate, and in decreeing that the more heavily-taxed electors of each department should vote in the arrondissement with the holders of the 300 franc franchise for the return of 172 deputies, and in the departmental con- stituency (formed of themselves alone) for the election of the remaining 258, thus giving political preponder- ance to the large landowners. These various measures, and especially the last (known as the Law of the Double Vote), exasperated the Left, which went so far as to preach recourse to violence, and even to assist in certain military con- spiracies and plots against the life of the King, all discovered in time, but very agitating nevertheless to DUKE DE RICHELIEU M1MSTRY. 10 1 public opinion. The Duke de Richelieu counted on the support of the Right ; some of whose representa- tives, such as Villele, Corbiere, &c., had posts in the Ministry. But these very men were secretly in league CHARLES X. with the Count d'Artois, whose approaching accession was rendered ever more probable by the feeble health of the King, and disapproving of the comparative moderation of the Premier, they did not hesitate to 12 1 62 THE SECOND RESTORATION. ally themselves with the Left in order to overturn him. Riche.'.eu retired on the I2th of December, 1821, and was succeeded three days later by Villele, who chose for his colleagues such uncompromising re- actionaries as Corbiere, Mathieu cle Montmorency, de Peyronnet, &c. Villele was endowed with the common sense of a good man of business, free from dogmatic prejudices, but he lacked the necessary force of character for resisting the demands of his party. His Government, which survived Louis XVIII. and lasted until 1827 under Charles X. (formerly Count d'Artois, who suc- ceeded to the throne on the i6th of September, 1824), was one long series of proceedings against Liberalism and the social legislation of the Revolu- tion. Two measures, dated respectively the i/th and 25th of Mareh, 1822, confirmed the law of Preliminary Authorisation in respect to the Press, and removing the cognizance of offences committed by newspapers from juries, handed them over to the Correctional Tribunals. The suppression of the High Normal School, as well as of the chairs of distinguished historians and philosophers like Guizot, Victor Cousin, Jouffroy, and Dubois, filled the learned world with alarm as proving that public instruction was about to fall under the predominating influence of the clergy. The Spanish war undertaken in 1823 in order to protect Ferdinand VII. against his subjects, who wished for a Constitution and political reforms, was repugnant to the majority of Liberals. VILLELE MINISTRY. 163 A legend grew up round the Revolution, now that the impression of the Terror had faded, and round Napoleon now that he died in St. Helena on the 5th of May, 1821. It became the fashion to say that the French army had formerly overrun Europe in order to propagate liberty, and that it was consequently very badly employed in keeping despotic princes upon their thrones. The parliamentary Left, reduced to a small number of deputies, and unable to wring any concessions from Government, took refuge more and more in illegal measures, which carried away even those who openly censured them like Royer-Collard, or condemned them in silence like General Foy and Casimir Perier. In three years, from 1821 to 1824, there were no less than eight conspiracies in which civilians and military men were alike compromised. Nineteen persons were condemned and eleven executed. Villele faced the position with remarkable energy, repressing rebellion on the one hand, while taking measures to ensure victory in Spain on the other. (Storming of the Tro- cadero, near Cadiz, on the 3Oth of August, 1823.) Believing himself master of the situation, he took advantage of these successes to dissolve the Chamber and issue writs for a General Election ; but this step ruined both its originator and the Restoration itself. The returns of the 25th of February, 1824, although recklessly manipulated, reduced the number of Liberal deputies to twenty, and Villele thus found himself at the mercy of 'a Chamber as intolerant and violent as that of 1815. He crowned his imprudence by abolishing the system of partial renewal which, by 164 THE SECOND RESTORATION. frequent periodical elections, would have enabled him to moderate the excessive ardour of his majority. A law dated Qth of June, 1824, decreed that the new Chamber should last seven years, to be entirely reconstructed at the expiration of this term. There followed on this an incredible series of attacks upon the spirit of modern France. In 1825 the Five per Cents, were converted into Three per Cents., and the thirty millions thus saved were inscribed on the Grand Livre in favour of the exiles whose property had been confiscated during the Revolution. This step was resented by the holders of the old Five per Cents., and revived the smouldering hatred against the men who had served in foreign armies against France. The same year a law passed on the 24th of May to legalise the existence of nunneries, while on the 2Oth of the previous month another decree, called the // Sacrilege Act, had declared thefts and profanations in churches to be punishable by death. In 1826 the Government proposed to re-establish the law of primogeniture in cases of intestacy and for that portion of patrimony which the Code left at disposal of the owner. 1 All the resolution of the Chamber of Peers, which on this occasion as on many others showed itself infinitely more reasonable and moderate than the 1 According to French law a father can only dispose of a portion of his property equal in amount to the share of one child. But if he has more than three children he can leave one-fourth of his property as he may choose. This was the portion which the law of 1826 sought to assure to the eldest son in cases of intestacy. ARROGANCE OF THE " ULTRAS." 165 Lower House or the Government, was necessary to repel this attack, and to limit the project to a revival of entails, but only for two generations, in favour of the children of a legator or donor (law of the 1 7th of May, 1826, abolished on the 7th of May, In 1827 a new Bill, ironically described as a " Law of Justice and Love/' was introduced to fetter still // further the liberty, already so curtailed, of the Press, by submitting each number of a journal and each volume of a book, to the Censor before publication ; but this measure, although it passed the Chamber of Deputies, was resolutely thrown out by the Peers. L In short, each session of Parliament was marked by a new effort, usually successful, at unmitigated re- action. Neither Villele nor the cause of the Royalists gained in general estimation through all these events. The students submitted with scanty patience to the yoke imposed upon them by the teaching in the schools, while the middle classes were uneasy at the various assaults upon their interests, and shared the alarm of the mass of the population at the revival of the hated aristocratic and clerical spirit. Some good can be attributed to this period, as, for instance, the reorganisation of the public finances, and the Code of Forestry dated 1827; but these benefits were outweighed by the arrogance of the " ultras " and the growing pretensions of the clergy, . who were now completely dominated by the Jesuits. / Demonstrations which were almost riots broke out constantly in the streets of Paris, the burial of the 1 66 THE SECOND RESTORATION. smallest celebrity furnisning a sufficient pretext. Villele was not only attacked by the Left, but also by some uncompromising Royalists, who accused him of not having known how to checkmate the opposi- tion of the Upper Chamber, in spite of the new creations by which he had hoped to obtain a majority ; and there were still other men, like Chateaubriand, whose vanity he had managed to wound in the course of his long tenure of power. Nevertheless he still believed in the possibility of restoring his impaired credit. On the 6th of November,, 1827, he induced the King to pronounce the dissolution of the Lower Chamber, and exhausted every means of obtaining a faithful majority in the elections. But his efforts were vain. Only one hundred and eighty of his supporters were returned, the rest being one hundred and eighty Liberals of different shades and sixty "ultras." On the 5th of January, 1828, Villele re- signed. As the ministers were taking leave of the King, one of them, Clermont-Tonnerre, said to Charles X., " I entreat of your Majesty not to forget that our Ministry was the most royalist which the country will ever accept." But this was a lesson which the monarch was incapable of understanding or remem- bering. A Cabinet formed out of the Right, but with Liberal tendencies, and composed of Martignac, De la Ferronays, Portalis, Roy, and De Vatimesnil, hastened to restore their chairs to Guizot and Cousin, to abolish Press Censorship (Law of the i8th July, 1828), and even to forbid the Jesuits to teach in ecclesiastical seminaries, as well as to limit the 'MARTIGNAC'S RESIGNATION. 167 number of pupils admitted to these establishments (i6th of June, 1828). But the Ministers had not the confidence of the King (whose friends were constantly advocating a coup d'tiat], and found themselves, moreover, in a very precarious position in Parliament, where they failed to satisfy the " ultras " or to obtain the support of the Left, now growing daily in influence, thanks to discipline, cohesion, and apparent moderation. Martignac had not sufficient authority to impose his policy on the King, nor sufficient determination to obtain a majority on one side or the other of the Chamber. Defeated in April, 1829, by a coalition of the Left and Extreme Right on a point of order, and feeling himself mistrusted both by the Sovereign and the Chamber, he resigned in August after the voting on the Budget. Charles had only been waiting for an opportunity to form a Cabinet after his own heart, such as he had dreamed of during his exile, but such as he had never seen since 1814. The mystic and ignorant Polignac, Bourmont, a former emigr^ who had betrayed Napoleon at Water- loo, and La Bourdonnaye, one of the most obstinate of the reactionaries of 1815, formed the principal ornaments of this Ministry (August 8, 1829), a Ministry which, as the King hoped, would be highly combative, but which counted not a single man of action among its members, nor any unity of views. Nobody failed to perceive the real significance of such a Cabinet. The Extreme Right talked openly 1 68 THE SECOND RESTORATION. of dissolving the Chamber and suppressing the Charter, while the Left prepared energetically to resist the impending attack, and even the most moderate journals warned the King that he would be wise not to seek adventures. But Charles only listened to his evil councillors. He opened the Session of the 2nd of March, 1830, by a threatening speech, to which the two Chambers replied, the Upper by affirming the necessity of ensuring unity of action between the King and the people, and the Lower maintaining that such unity was impossible as long as there existed a Ministry whose fundamental principle was an " unwarrantable distrust of France." The King's answer was not long in coming. The Chamber was prorogued on the I9th of March and dissolved on the i6th of May, while the elections were fixed for the 23rd of June. Charles addressed a manifesto to the constituencies, in which he spoke of attacks made upon his royal prerogative. The answer of the electors was to return 274 Liberals out of 428 deputies. But even yet a very little effort would have sufficed to avert an acute crisis. The majority of the Left were but little inclined to face the perils of a revolu- tion, and if, after the result of the elections was known, the King had consented to form another Ministry, in all probability a compromise would have been reached. But Charles believed himself to have a mission from God ; he wished to save religion and royalty, and could not see that he was compromising the one and ruining the other. And just at this moment the news arrived at Paris THE JULY ORDINANCES. of the capture of Algiers by, a fleet which had been sent to x avenge an insult offered to the French Consul by the Dey. These tidings, following so soon on the joint action of France, Great Britain, and Russia to bestow free- dom on Greece (naval combat of Navarino, October 20, 1827), intoxicated Charles with a prospect of military glory. He thought that nothing could be denied to him ; and without even waiting for the Chamber to meet, on the 25th of July he signed a series of decrees which were so many acts of defiance to his adversaries, even to the most moderate among them. Fortifying himself, although very erroneously, with Art. 14 of the Charter (see above, p. 1 14), he suspended /the law of 1828 and thus restored the Censorship of ' the Press ; he declared the Chamber dissolved, and ordered the Prefects to draw up new electoral registers which should contain only the names of those paying 300 francs of taxes levied entirely on real estate. And the preamble of these decrees ex- pressly stated that their object was to oppose resist- ance to " the turbulent democracy which has invaded even our laws and tends to displace legitimate power." There was not the shadow of any democracy in the limited franchise of the institutions which had been es- tablished after the Restoration ; therefore the decrees of the 25th of July were essentially absolute in tendency. No sooner were they grasped by the people of Paris than revolt followed on stupor and insurrection on revolt. Three days of battle, first in the Press and THE SECOND RESTORATION. then in the street, sufficed to defeat the King. A tardy change of Ministry and the revocation of the decrees did not avail to save his dynasty. He fled to Rambouillet, then later to England, and France was relieved without much difficulty of the last of her Bourbon kings. IX. THE JULY MONARCHY. {July 30, 1830 February 23, 1848.) THE leaders of the Parliamentary Opposition were greatly embarrassed by the rapid success of the Three Days the " Three Glorious Days' " Revolution. If Republican ideas inspired some classes in Paris, they were far from having penetrated to the provinces or pervaded any departments of the Government. Also there was but little disposition to accept the abdication of Charles X. in favour of his grandson the Duke de Bordeaux, later known as Count de Chambord, who was still a minor. A new experience of Divine Right, complicated by a Regency, was not an attractive prospect. Presently arose the idea of seeking a king in the younger branch of the Bourbons. Like all junior members of a reigning house, Louis-Philippe, Duke d'Orleans, had Liberal pretensions which inspired some confidence in those who knew him, and he had already been thought of as a candidate to the throne in 1815, at the time of the Second Restoration. Now, in 1830, the crown was offered to him, but 171 172 THE JULY MONARCHY. on conditions which it was hoped would prevent the renewal of the difficulties which the country had encountered with the elder branch. The Charter, known as that of the 9th of August, 1830, which Louis-Philippe took an oath to obey, was drawn up in a few days, not to say hours, by a Parliamentary Commission composed of Villemain, Benjamin Constant, General Sebastiani, Dupin. &c., and hastily voted by the two Chambers. The new document was merely an attenuated edition of the Charter of 1814, all clauses in the latter which had offended national sentiment or provoked hostility being simply suppressed. The preamble disappeared because it contained an affirmation of Divine Right, and was replaced by a declaration on the model of that made by England in 1688, to the effect that the throne was vacant and a sovereign had been elected by the people to fill it. The tricolour flag was once more hoisted. Catholicism ceased to be described as the " State Religion " since the State could have no special religion but to avoid wounding any susceptibilities the Roman Faith was proclaimed to be that " of the majority of the French people." The National Guard, disbanded under Villele, was reconstituted and given the right of electing its own officers. Preliminary censorship was removed from the Press, and a law for liberty of public instruction was promised, although never decreed. In the matter of administrative organisation the Charter of 1830 presented few novelties. Both THE ELECTIONS ACT AND THE PEERS ACT. 1/3 Chambers, together with the Executive, were to initiate laws. Thirty was fixed as the age at which deputies might be elected, and twenty-five for the franchise. The constitution of the Upper Chamber and the money qualification for the franchise were to form subjects of special legislation, and, as a point of fact, were considered the following year. The Elections Act, dated I9th of April, 1831, suppressed the privilege of a double vote, and divided the constituencies in such a way that each should henceforward elect only one deputy instead of voting as hitherto for all the deputies from one department. The number of eligible deputies was tripled by fixing the qualification at 500 francs, and the number of electors doubled by lowering the franchise to 200 francs for ordinary persons and by conferring it on all retired officers and members of the Institute who paid 100 francs of taxes. 1 The Peers Act (December 29, 1831) occasioned an admirable debate in the Lower Chamber. In vain Royer-Collard, Guizot, and Thiers defended the principle of heredity as favourable to the indepen- dence and authority of the Upper Chamber, for the great majority of the Assembly and the King himself, 1 It should be noted that the " professional franchise," the refusal to accord which occasioned the Revolution of 1848, was demanded by the Government of 1830. The proposal was to confer the franchise on men who, without being rich, possessed a certain social position, such as judges, barristers, solicitors, &c. The Left rejected the innovation out of distrust of judges, whom it regarded as reactionary, and the Right followed suit because it feared the Liberalism of barristers. As to the pure Legitimists they, believing the country to be with them, and supported by Be'rryer, demanded universal suffrage in two degrees. 1/4 THE JULY MONARCHY. whose disposition was jealous and narrow, were determined to allow none but life peerages. Finally it was decided that the sovereign should select the peers from among the higher civil and military functionaries who had served a specific number of years, and such property-holders or manufacturers as for three or five years, according to circumstances, had paid at least 3,000 francs a year in taxes. Neither the members of the Upper Chamber nor those of the Lower were to receive salaries or gratuities. Such was the Act. It annihilated the political power of the Upper Chamber, and thirty-six creations were necessary before it could be passed. The Revolution of 1830 was more important than may appear on a superficial examination. It finally eliminated from the Constitution all lingering trace of Divine Right, and proclaimed the sovereignty of the people. " The principle of the Revolution of July, as of the Government derived from it, is not insurrection," said Casimir Perier to the Chamber a few weeks later. " It is resistance to the aggressions of authority. France was challenged and defied. She defended herself, and her victory is the victory of Rights which had been unworthily outraged." No description could have been more exact, both as to practice and principle. The character of the Revolution emerges clearly from the choice made of a new Prince by the people's representatives, as well as from the terms of the agreement which that Prince signed before his accession. He was to reign no longer by anterior and superior right, but because he CHARACTER OF THE JULY REVOLUTION. IJ$ had accepted the conditions to which the exercise of his power was subordinated by law. But royalty was weakened by the ordeal through which it had passed. It had been conclusively proved that the throne might easily be induced to capitulate, and consequently could no longer be regarded as a force, whether for equilibrium or for restraint. Instability caused loss of strength, and it was easy to foresee that the ground gained at the expense of their rulers by the people must inevitably increase in extent. A wise policy, prescient of the coming evolution, would have facilitated the transition from the present to the future by educating the masses progressively through a gradual extension of the suffrage, and thus preparing for the inevitable dawn of democracy ; but what happened was exactly the contrary. Louis- Philippe and his advisers were more bent upon repairing the damages of authority than upon assist- ing the political and social transformation to which the Revolution of July had been a first step. After eighteen years of the new government the electorate had not advanced one degree from the point where the law of 1831 had placed it ; and every outlet of reform had been arbitrarily closed. The electorate was barely larger now than at the Restora- tion. In 1831 there had been 166,000 electors; in 1848 the number had risen only to 240,000. More- over, representation was so badly distributed that one deputy sometimes sat for 150 electors, 25,000 inhabi- tants, and 440,000 francs of revenue, as against 3,000 electors, 226,000 inhabitants, and 2,200,000 francs in another place. 176 THE JULY MONARCHY. There was consequently an extremely restricted franchise, and even within these narrow limits a flagrant inequality in the distribution of seats. And, as if this were not enough, there was no payment of deputies, and the electoral qualification excluded all but the richer candidates. Among these many were Government functionaries, of whom the number rose from 139 at the beginning of the reign to 200 at the end, in a Chamber composed of but 459 in all, and it was natural that such men should be exposed to the suspicion of subserviency to the Executive. There was, in short, ample justification for the famous Reform petition presented in 1847, which said : " The Nation cannot find in the existing electorate either a precise expression, a faithful image, or a sincere representation of its opinions, its interests, or its rights." The law of 1831 also transformed the Upper Chamber into a mere assembly of functionaries with- out traditions and without credit, incapable of taking root in the country where it had no guarantee of permanency, and where it personified no lasting interests. Such an institution could but play anew the humble part of a Napoleonic Senate, the energy to emulate the brilliant example of the Peers of the Restoration being denied to it ; and, placed between a weakened form of Royalty on the one hand, and a restricted Lower Chamber, intriguing or servile in temper, on the other, it was ill-equipped for the task of guiding the political movement of a population which had so lately tasted the joys and the triumphs of insurrection. THE PARLIAMENTARY PARTIES. I// Louis-Philippe and his followers, however, like Bonaparte after the 1 8th Brumaire, believed that revolutionary principles had been exhausted by the Charter of 1830, and that henceforward it would be merely necessary, as they were fond of saying, "to restrain the Revolution so that it might be fruitful, and so that it might not be wasted." This delusion was fostered in them by the hos- tility which the Revolution of July had excited in Europe, where the Legitimist dynasties were alarmed at the events of Paris and the echo they had aroused .in other countries, especially in Belgium. 1 But the leaders of the revolt against the Restora- tion were not unanimous in their views, and if some were willing to join the Court in applauding resistance to progress, others on the other hand were anxious to join the forward movement. The occasion would have been a great one for France to make acquaintance at last with the division of parties into Liberals and Conservatives, if unfortu- nately each one of the fallen governments had not left a legacy of irreconcilable adherents. After the dissolution of the Chamber, and the general elections consequent on the law of 1831, it was found that there were no less than five parliamentary parties ; that is, a few Republicans led by Gamier-Page's, a 1 On learning the Revolution of July, the Belgians had taken arms to shake off the yoke of Holland to which the Peace of 1815 had united them. Belgium obtained its independence, but the Powers prevented her choosing a Prince from among the members of the new Royal Family in France ; and to guard against French inter- vention the country was made neutral under the joint protection of Europe, 13 1/ THE JULY MONARCHY. dynastic Left under Odilon Barrot, a Left and a Right Centre wherein Thiers and Guizot respectively asserted their authority, and a little Legitimist phalanx faithful to the old rulers and inspired by the illustrious Berryer. Out of this broken parliamentary mass many Ministries were born and perished, each one seeking to capture a majority which was ephemeral and elusive when found, until the moment in 1840 when, after hesitating for long between progress and reaction, after yielding one day to resist the next, the July Monarchy was crystallised, so to speak, into the Ministry of Guizot, who, during the seven years that his power lasted, conducted it gently to its fall. Louis-Philippe's first Ministry (nth of August, 1830) was presided over by Dupont (de 1'Eure), and composed partly of Progressives and partly of Con- servatives. It made many changes among officials, ^abrogated the law of sacrilege, recalled the regicides banished in 1816, and once more referred Press offences to a jury. It was succeeded, on the 2nd of November, by the Laffitte Cabinet, consisting largely of Liberals, and which signalised its Liberalism by the reactionary law of the loth of December, for- bidding advertisements of political writings. A few days later the members of the last Ministry of Charles X., the men who signed the July Ordi- nances, were accused by the Lower Chamber, and condemned by the Upper to perpetual imprisonment. But this sentence did not appease popular passion. Hatred of the Bourbons and of the clergy broke CASIMIR PRRIER MINISTRY. 1 79 out in repeated demonstrations in Paris, Lille, Dijon, and other places. Having failed to restore order, and being abandoned by many of his followers, among others by General Lafayette, who gave up the command of the National Guard and inaugurated a policy of opposition strongly tinged with Republicanism, Laffitte resigned, and was replaced by Casimir P6rier. Pe*rier combined great energy with a curious mix- ture of arbitrariness and Liberalism. In a few days he succeeded in stamping his administration with the only qualities worthy of the name of government, and by the vigour of his rule he restored public confidence. He came into power on the I3th of March, 1831, and on the 2ist he promulgated a law of municipal organisation which, while leaving the nomination of mayors as heretofore to the Ex- ecutive, deprived this of the power to name the mem- bers of the Municipal Councils once elective bodies, but which since the Year VIII. had ceased to be so. On the loth of April another law empowered the Government to disperse popular assemblies by force after three ineffectual summonses. The contrast between these two measures sums up Perier s character. His promptitude of action displayed itself equally in all directions. He sent reinforcements to the Belgians, who had risen against the Dutch, and occupied Ancona so as to force Austria to evacuate the Legations. He restored order to French finances ; energetically repressed the insurrection of Lyons (November, 1831) and the riots of Grenoble (March, ISO THE JULY MONARCHY. 1832); replied to a Legitimist movement in Vendee by forbidding the Bourbons to set foot in France (Decree of the loth of April, 1832), and handed over impartially to the law the republicans and the re- actionaries who conspired against the July Monarchy. Perier died suddenly of cholera (on the i6th of V May, 1832), one of the many victims of that terrible epidemic, and his Cabinet deprived of his guidance was too feeble for the situation it had to face. The insurrection was spreading in Vendee, and lasted, in point of fact, until the end of November. In the month of June, in Paris, a Republican rising fomented by Legitimist and Bonapartist agents had to be repressed with bloodshed ; while in Belgium the struggle with Holland still continued. The Conservatives and Moderate Liberals alike perceived that a serious effort must be made to fill the place of Perier. On the nth of October a strong Cabinet was formed, under the Premiership of Marshal Soult, and including Thiers, Guizot, and the Duke de Broglie, which continued the policy at once authori- tative and liberal inaugurated by their predecessor. A law of the 22nd of June, 1833, extended to the Councils-General of Departments the elective form of administration granted in 1831 to the munici- palities. An Act dated the 28th of June created a / system of primary instruction, up to that time much neglected in France, by obliging every commune to maintain at least one school for boys. Elementary instruction, however, was not rendered obligatory, nor was any system of gratuities provided for it. The clergy of all denominations recognised by the THE SOULT AND GUIZOT MINISTRY. l8l State were accorded a share in the direction and superintendence of schools. These were Liberal measures, but an opposite tendency inspired the Act of the i6th of February, 1834, which sought to hinder the distribution of revolutionary pamphlets by obliging hawkers to obtain a Government licence ; and this was equally the case with another law of the loth of April, which, improving on the Penal Code of the Empire whereby associations of more than twenty persons were forbidden, decreed severe punishments against I x all secret or public societies consisting of groups of less than twenty persons corresponding with one another. Replying to the furious attacks of the Left, who denounced this last-named measure as being a flag- rant violation of the Charter, Guizot said that the Act was an exceptional one necessitated by the dangers of the moment, and especially by the exis- tence of the association known under the name of Rights of Man, which numbered 162 sections in Paris and 300 in the Departments. This argument proved so convincing that the Act passed, and now, sixty years later, it is still unrepealed. In spite of all efforts, the situation of affairs grew worse. In April, 1834, a Republican insurrection provoked by this very law on associations took place in Lyons, and was followed by similar risings in Marseilles, St. Etienne, and finally in Paris, where more than usual severity had to be applied in repres- sion. The Cabinet thought it a wise step to dissolve the Chamber, but the new one returned by the con- 1 82 THE JULY MONARCHY. stituencies was more divided against itself than ever. In the Ministry there were dissensions which, be- tween March and November, led to no less than four changes of composition. The party of resistance, as it was then called, gained ground each day, until even Thiers broke away from it, in spite of his early Liberalism, and on the I2th of March, 1835, consented to remain in the Ministry which had now been remodelled for the fifth time under the Duke de Broglie. The trial of the insurgents of the previous April lasted for nine months before the Upper Chamber, and in the teeth of numerous condemnations con- spiracies and outrages went merrily on. Fieschi's infernal machine which was destined to assassinate the King, but killed instead of him various members of his suite (July 28, 1835), finally brought the Government to adopt the reactionary measures known as the " Laws of September." These laws, passed on the 9th of September, 1835, inflicted once more on France all the severities prac- tised by Napoleon and the Bourbons. The Upper Chamber became a court of justice, not simply, as the Charter laid down, for the trial of attempts against the safety of the State, but for a number of offences variously and vaguely described as provocations to revolt against institutions, offences against the person of the King, and even theoretical ,- attacks upon the prevailing form of government. The Press, in all other cases than those detailed above, remained under the jurisdiction of juries, but the procedure to which it was exposed became more FIRST MINISTRY OF M. THIERS. 183 summary and more severe, a simple majority T on the jury sufficing to procure convictions ; and the censor- ship was enlarged so as to include theatrical repre- sentations and the publication of engravings, draw- ings, and emblems. These measures were opposed to the traditions of Liberalism even more through their tendencies than their provisions, and the moral blot which they in- flicted on the July Monarchy far outweighed their benefits. The press found a way of substituting insinuations for overt attack ; judicial proceedings and harsh repression did not avail to prevent repeated attacks on the life of the King (there were two in the course of 1836), and revolutionary republicans like /Blanqui and Barbes easily found members for their secret societies. Warned by some symptoms of lassitude in the majority of the Chamber, Thiers began to think that it might be wise, after leaning so long on the Right, to turn now a little towards the Left. In the Cabinet formed on the 22nd of February, 1836, of which he was Premier, he eliminated the " doctrinaires " of the Right Centre such as Broglie and Guizot, and ad- mitted some members of the Third Party who were more disposed to conciliate the Liberals. The new Ministry had no definite programme, and showed itself incapable even of carrying such a measure as the Conversion of the Rentes, which the state of the money market rendered urgent, if the true interests of the Treasury were to be consulted ; but which the King and his followers could not make up their 1 Since 1831 seven votes out of twelve had been necessary. 184 THE JULY MONARCHY. minds, until the end of the reign, to sanction, for fear of alienating the electorate. During the parlia- mentary recess the dissensions between Thiers and Louis-Philippe increased. The former wished to intervene in Spain in order to protect Queen Isa- bella against the Carlists, and pursue a policy dia- metrically opposed to that of the Restoration in 1823 ; but, rather than yield, the King accepted the resignation of Thiers without waiting for a vote of the Chambers, and this act of arbitrary authority gave rise to endless attacks upon royalty which lasted, with ever growing asperity, until 1848. The Third Party was easily persuaded to fill up the ministerial vacancy thus created by the will of the King. On the 6th of September Mole formed a first Cabinet with the assistance of the doctrinaires, and on the I5th of April he constituted a second Ministry from which the doctrinaires were excluded, but in which no change but this personal one was apparent. Mole" was hardly installed before Prince Louis Napoleon, nephew of the First Emperor and destined himself to be the Second, thought the moment favourable for reviving the Bonapartist agita- tion, and appeared suddenly at Strasburg, where he had adherents among the civil and military population. A few hours saw the end of this ridiculous venture (October 30, 1836), which the Government con- sidered so unimportant that it contented itself with exiling the Prince to the United States, while placing his accomplices on their trial. The affair took a somewhat different complexion when the jury ac- quitted these prisoners, thus betraying, to say the MOLfi MINISTRY. 185 least, some sympathy with their offence ; but the Mole Cabinet enjoyed so little influence in the Chamber, that even this verdict could not enable it to obtain assent to the new measures of repression for which it asked. Mole, however, contrived to maintain his position until the spring of 1839, thanks to the support of the King, who twice, in November, 1837, and March, 1839, allowed him to dissolve the Chamber, the country, no longer able to understand the complications of parliamentary policy, on both occasions returning a majority committed to no definite opinion whatever. Mole was the author of some important Acts, notably, in 1837 and 1838, those relating to the administration of the communes and departments where, in spite of some ameliorations in detail, the principal decisions of the .local councils remained dependent on the assent of the central executive. In 1838 other measures followed bearing on the powers of Tribunals of First Instance and Justices of the Peace (Juges de Paix\ on commercial failures and bank- ruptcies, and on asylums for the insane. But each time that a particular policy was in question Mole" remained without authority in the Chamber, for the double reason that he followed from day to day a haphazard line of action, and that he had arrayed against him all the most eminent men, such as Thiers and Guizot, who, although now rivals, united in attacking the common foe ; and a coalition which they eventually formed, for the moment, with the wings of the Right and the Left succeeded on the 8th of March, 1839, in overthrowing Mole altogether. I 86 THE JUL Y MONARCHY. Such a coalition, however, is often more potent to destroy than to create, and so it was in this instance. The ministerial crisis lasted a long while. A hetero- geneous Cabinet with little to distinguish it was formed on the 3 ist of March for the simple despatch of public business, and gave place on the I2th of May to a Ministry presided over by Marshal Soult, but also composed of secondary representatives of the Right and the Left. And yet the situation was one of gravity. The Egyptian Question was a source of alarming rivalry between France and England, for while the latter, although recognising Mehemet-Ali as here- ditary ruler of Egypt, was unwilling to invest him otherwise than partially and for life merely with the Pachalic of St. John of Acre, the former wished to bestow the whole of Syria upon him. The internal position of affairs was also threatening. An attempt at a Republican rising in Paris, in May, was promptly repressed, but it revealed for the first time the existence of a popular agitation which aimed no longer at merely political reforms, but, assuming a social complexion, demanded, among other things, an equal division of the land. In the Chamber all parties were bewildered and undecided. The King grew daily more unpopular, being accused, and not without reason, of choosing insignificant men for ministers so as to be able to control their policy ; and a proof of the hostility he thus excited was presently afforded by the refusal 01 a grant for his younger son, the Duke de Nemours. The Soult Cabinet fell beneath this blow; and 'SECOND MINISTRY OF M. THIERS. 187 Louis-Philippe resigned himself, although very re- luctantly, to the necessity of summoning Thiers, who on the 1st of March, 1840, formed a Ministry which, being composed exclusively of elements from the Left Centre, rested, through this very fact, upon too narrow a parliamentary basis. Thiers, in those days, was still very imaginative and inclined to follow rather than restrain popular sentiment, besides being filled with admiration for Napoleon I. and desirous of military glory. His Ministry, which lasted only some months, was marked by one act, and one bellicose intention. The act was to decree that Napoleon's ashes should be solemnly restored to France a ceremony which gave fresh life to the 1 Napoleonic legend ; z the intention was betrayed by the decision to reply by warlike preparations to the Convention of the 1 5th of July, by which England and the other Continental Powers agreed to checkmate the policy of France in Egypt. But on this point Louis-Philippe once more opposed his veto, and allowed his ministers to retire without a vote of the Chamber, rather than yield to their counsels. He was doubtless wise in refusing to encourage the bellicose tendencies of Thiers, but the crisis of 1840 increased public uneasiness by once more rousing national passion, by demonstrating ' x Prince Louis Napoleon, who had left the United States and established himself in England, seized the occasion for a fresh enterprise. He disembarked at Boulogne on the 6th of August, 1/1840, but was at once arrested and brought to trial before the Upper Chamber. This time, instead of being reconducted to the frontier merely, he was imprisoned in the fortress of Ham, from whence he succeeded in escaping in 1846. 1 88 THE JULY MONARCHY. that Europe was still united against France, and by leaving the Sovereign more exposed to attacks than ever. Guizot now became the head of the Government. In the Cabinet of the 29th of October he left the Premiership, it is true, to Marshal Soult ; but never- theless he remained the real chief from this period until the fall of the July Monarchy a monarchy of which he may be said to have summed up, in himself, every essential characteristic. Guizot was endowed with marvellous eloquence, and this led the public to attribute great strength of character to him, but he was in reality of a vacil- lating disposition, which not only deprived him of all authority over the King, but left him unable to refuse the most ambiguous solicitations. He said one day : " The middle-classes (bourgeois) have no taste for great enterprises. When driven to undertake them by chance, they are uneasy and em- barrassed ; responsibility troubles them they feel out of their element, and, being anxious to return to it, they drive easy bargains." And this description, which for the rest is true enough, applied exactly to Guizot himself, with the aggravating circumstance that he never suspected the existence in France of any 'element outside this middle-class which was. for the time being, the only legal exponent of public opinion. He saw no need of extending the franchise, since any movement which did not accord with the ideas of his own class seemed to him unmitigated anarchy. He was content to see royalty reposing on the foun- THE ELECTORAL AND PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 189 dations which had been adopted for it in the be- ginning, and totally failed to understand that these very foundations were shaken by the popular passions now beginning to seethe beneath the surface. He believed himself to be consolidating the dynasty of 1830 when defending, on all occasions, the preroga- tives of the Crown, and exhibiting more complacency than was needful towards the wishes of the King. He cannot be described as a reactionary Minister, since he was sincerely attached to as much liberty as had been achieved ; but he reduced ad absurdum the principle of immovable Conservatism, and hence ruined the cause which he had sworn to defend. An agitation in favour of electoral and parlia- mentary reform began in 1840, to continue uninter- ruptedly until 1 848. The electoral reform demanded was an extension of the franchise, which some thinkers here and there wished to render universal, while the Moderates desired to limit it to the so-called " Capacitaires" z Parliamentary reform required a limitation in the inordinate number of functionaries who sat in the Lower Chamber, or, at any rate, the prohibition of any promotion during the time that they continued to represent a con- stituency. Both the changes described were to be recommended the extension of the franchise, be- cause it would convince the people that their still vague dreams of social regeneration were, at least, not opposed by the interests of a caste or a coterie, the prejudices of a class, or the selfishness of the rich ; parliamentary reform, because it was advisable 1 See above, p. 173. 190 THE JULY MONARCHY. to redeem the Chamber from all suspicion of servile or venal motives. But Guizot haughtily rejected both demands, and de- servedly drew down upon himself a bitter apostrophe from Lamartine in 1842. "You inexorably refuse all amelioration. If such were the only attitude necessary for a Statesman charged to direct a Government, there would be no need for a Statesman. A bar would suffice." It is possible that Guizot might at last have re- solved to give some satisfaction to the Progressive party, had it not been for the irreconcilable opposi- tion of the King. But when in 1842 the Duke d'Orleans, Louis-Philippe's eldest son and presump- tive heir, was killed in a carriage accident, there perished the only member of the royal family who could in any way perceive the necessities of the future or recognise a law of inevitable evolution ; and Guizot, fairly overborne by Louis-Philippe's obstinacy, henceforward closed his ears to all de- mands. During the seven years which followed on the for- mation of the Cabinet of the 29th of October, 1840, outrages, Press prosecutions, financial and adminis- trative scandals added to the uneasiness of the country, by casting doubts not only on the stability of the Government, but also on its honour. Guizot contrived, nevertheless, to exist by means of experiments and compromises, in spite of two dissolutions, one in 1842 and the other in 1846. He succeeded in passing some useful laws, such as a Better Housing Act, and other Acts on Game THE SPANISH MARRIAGES. 1 91 Licenses and Railroads. But the moment politics came into play, everything went against him. In 1842 he failed to induce the Protectionists to accept a Customs Union which he had concluded with Belgium, and was forced to give up the arrangement made with England on the subject of the Right of Search. In 1844, the Tahiti incident with the indemnity granted to Pritchard, the missionary, were un- favourably commented on by the public, who had not yet recovered from the check imposed upon France in 1840 in Egypt. Guizot, finding himself regarded as being unduly conciliatory towards Great Britain, sought to pur- chase popularity by the Spanish marriages, which consisted in marrying Queen Isabella to a Bourbon Prince, Don Francois d'Assise, and in giving the Duke de Montpensier, Louis-Philippe's brother, as a husband to the Queen's sister. But in order to ac- complish this, he had to conciliate Austria by favour- ing her policy in Switzerland and Italy, and this departure from the national traditions of France outweighed any advantages to be obtained from the alliances. Guizot's greatest failure in home affairs was his incapacity to settle the religious question, which came to the front chiefly in connection with Public Instruction. The clergy, whose successive encroachments so largely contributed to the unpopularity and fall of Charles X., had regarded the July Monarchy with a very hostile eye ; and their discontent was exaspe- 192 THE JULY MONARCHY. rated by the measures which marked the early part of Louis-Philippe's reign. The Charter, however, promised liberty of teaching, and eminent Catholics, like Montalembert and Lacordaire, who long before the higher ranks of the clergy had seen the necessity for the Church to seek popular support, in preference to identifying its action exclusively with the upper classes, were urgent in demanding the fulfilment of the promise. The Law of 1833 on Primary Instruction had already empowered religious congregations to furnish teachers to the national schools. But Secondary Instruction remained a monopoly of the University, to which private schools had to send the pupils who aspired to academical degrees. One proposal made by Guizot in 1833 had not succeeded because the Lower Chamber wished to refuse to unauthorised communities, and especially to the Jesuits, the right to open Secondary Schools. In 1844 Villemain, who was then Minister of Public Instruction in the Soult- Guizot Cabinet, presented another project, which, while highly favourable to the small seminaries, 1 appeared excessive to the friends of the University, and altogether inadequate, on the contrary, to the clerics, whose object was simply to destroy State schools. Villemain fell ill and had to resign his post before the Act was passed, and his successor, Salvandy, chose the easy alternative of avoiding so thorny a subject. He gave some satisfaction to the Catholics by allowing ecclesiastics to sit in the 1 Small seminaries are ecclesiastical Secondary Schools placed under the control and inspection of bishops. THE OCCUPATION OF ALGERIA. 193 Council of Public Education (December 7, 1846), and after that the whole question was adjourned indefinitely, while leaving opinions much divided and exasperated. But the Government, if very feeble and undecided in its home and foreign policy, did at least enrich France by one great possession namely, Algeria. The various stages of this enterprise lasted from 1830 r to 1847, and were carried on by one ministry after another, in the teeth of military and parliamentary obstacles, with a perseverance highly honourable to the statesmen of the period. Doubtless, when Charles X. ordered the occupation of Algeria, nobody foresaw either the length of the arduous undertaking or the magnitude of its results. It happened here, as in so many colonial enter- prises, that the resistance of the native population caused the invader to extend his conquests beyond the limits originally intended. But the fact remains that the fanaticism of the Mahometans, joined to a tenacity in the French of which they do not often give proof ended by conferring on France a colonial possession of nearly four million souls. In 1833 the tricolour already floated over all important points of the coast from Bona to Oran ; in 1835 Tlemcen was taken, and when, by the Treaty of Tafna concluded with the gallant Abd-el-Kader, the western portion of the Regency had been momentarily pacified, the invaders were able to concentrate their attention on Constantine in the East, which fell on the I3th of October, 1837. When shortly afterwards Abd-el-Kader broke the 194 THE JULY MONARCHY. peace, the French passed the Iron Gates (October, 1839), occupied Cherchell, Medeah, and Milianah in 1840, Boghar and Saida in 1841, Sebdou and Tebessa in 1842, Tenez and Collo in 1843, Batna, Biskra, and Laghouat in 1844, and, pursuing the Emir into Morocco, of which the Emperor supported him, they bombarded Tangier on the 6th of August, 1845, and by the victory of Isly on the I4th of the same month constrained him and his ally to treat. In 1846 Aures was subdued, Kabylie submitted in the following year, and on the 23rd of November, 1847, Abd-el-Kader surrendered himself a prisoner. The conquest of Algeria was complete. In this great enterprise one man particularly distinguished himself, Marshal Bugeaud, who shone equally in administration and in war. A moment came when he thought himself obliged to resign his post as Governor-General. The Government decided to replace him by the Duke D'Aumale, youngest son of the King, aged twenty-five only. Marshal Soult, disapproving of the appointment, resigned the Premiership (September 19, 1847), and Guizot then publicly assumed the direction of a Cabinet of which he had been the real moving spirit for some time previously. He was destined, in his new capacity, to assist at the funeral of the July Monarchy. The situation was not brilliant. The railroads begun in 1842, chiefly at the expense of the State, had disturbed the equilibrium of the Budget, and a floating debt of nearly one milliard francs disquieted the money market, which was already gravely affected by the agricultural crisis, now two years REVOLUTION OF FEBRUARY. 195 old. Guizot, who had destroyed his authority by inertia in great things and craftiness in small ones, had found some difficulty in filling vacant posts in his Ministry, so widespread were the general disaffection and discouragement, and so pressing the fear of an approaching disturbance. These sentiments mani- fested themselves unmistakably in the parliamentary debates in January, 1848, but Guizot met all com- plaints and all challenges with his usual uncompro- mising disdain and imperturbable optimism. He conducted the struggle in the least felicitous manner possible. The agitation for electoral reform was universal. Its leaders men like Duvergier de Hauranne, Remusat, &c., of extremely moderate views, and belonging in many instances to the Left Centre organised banquets at which numberless speeches were made in favour of an extension of the suffrage. One of these banquets was announced for the 22nd of February, when all at once the Govern- ment forbade its taking place. Immediately, in spite of the Press, which preached patience, in spite even of the secret societies, which did not think the moment favourable for a rising, the workmen of the |/ Faubourg St-Antoine assembled in the streets. On the 22nd, anjd still more on the 23rd, there was fighting, and, strange to say, even the National Guard, composed chiefly of small shopkeepers, cried " Vive la Reforme " with the best of the insurgents. Finding himself thus deserted by the men who had given him the throne, and on whose fidelity he thought he could count, the King took alarm. On the night of the 23rd-24th of February he appointed 196 THE JULY MONARCHY. Bugeaud to the command of Paris, and called upon the Left Centre and the members of the " Dynastic Left," such as Thiers and Odilon Barrot, to form a Ministry. Too late ! The insurgents were already in possession of the capital. On the 24th, at mid- day, Louis-Philippe abdicated in favour of his infant grandson, the Count de Paris. Again too late ! The Chamber was invaded by the mob, and, acting thus under popular pressure, it elected a Provisional Government, composed of Lamartine, Dupont (de 1'Eure), Ledru-Rollin, Marie, Cremieux, Arago, and Garnier-Pages, who, adjourning to the Hotel de Ville, summoned Louis Blanc to join them, and proclaimed the Republic. X. LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES FROM 1815 TO 1848. LETTERS. A LONG period of peace produced an exuberant growth of literature under the Restoration and the July Monarchy. The best minds of the nation no / longer poured forth their blood or wasted their / genius on battlefields, but in the intellectual arena \ they displayed on all sides the vigour and passion \and elevation of thought which are necessary to the production of masterpieces. The Eighteenth Century witnessed the high-water mark of Rationalism. The Nineteenth is pre- eminently the period of historians, both in the proper meaning of the word, and in that other sense in which romance writers may be described as histo- rians, since they reproduce the manners of the day. The consequences of this formidable reaction proved much more important than the episodes of the feverish combat waged by literature against academical forms and filled the half of our present century with three great movements Christian Renascence, Con- stitutional Monarchy, and Socialism. 197 198 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. We have seen how Chateaubriand and Mdme. de Stael had dazzled the imagination, and touched the eart, of their readers by that picture of the " suffering modern soul " which, accompanied by descriptions of passion and character, and mixed with reflections, impressions of travel, politics, art, and history, formed their conception of a novel. The later novelists had soon to abandon a style so overcharged and complex, but each writer took from LETTERS. 1 99 the storehouse of materials that which best suited his own temperament, and reduced it to the form required for a finished work of art. Benjamin Constant's " Adolphe" (1815) was clearly the offspring of Chateaubriand's " Rene," with all the poetry and all the idealism of the model left out, but with an added fineness of perception, a psychological depth, and an uncompromising sternness of observa- tion to which the older writer was a stranger. Similarly the enigmatical Julien Sorel of Stendhal's " Le Rouge et le Noir" is the product of a terribly ingenious analysis of character unrelieved by the palest gleam of poetry. Among other graduates in what might be described as the " School of Despair " are Alfred de Vigny, ^author of" Military Servitude and GreatnesT^ljf^ 5 ), that noble, high-souled, and melancholy book wherein, for once only, a proud aristocrat has taken the public into his confidence and revealed the true secret of his .hopelessness ; Sainte-Beuve, the writer of " Volupte " / (1834), whose hero, the mystical, restless, and subtly- V dreaming Amaury, buries in a seminary a love too refined to be ever realised ; Lamartine, whose " Jocelyn" (1836) combines the purest love with the most poignant bitterness ; finally, Alfred de Musset, who, under the name of Octave in the " Confessions n^EnfanJL-du SiecleJ' (1836), bewails and reviles the disillusions of his famous sojourn in Italy with George Sand, and unveils all his audacities and all his scruples, as well as describing the strange lassi- tude which shortened his life. So far in our survey we have followed one current ; 2OO LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. let us now trace another by drawing attention to the t brilliant fancy, the dreamy mysticism, and the pic- turesque descriptions which furnish more particularly ) the stuff of Romanticism, and of which Madame de Stael, rather than Chateaubriand, was the origina- tor. First as to time in this connection comes Nodier / with "Jean Sbogar " (1818), the chivalrous brigand, with "Trilby" (1822), and "La Fee aux Miettes " (1832), works of fantasy where one may plainly see the influence of Young's " Night Thoughts," and still more of Goethe's Ballads and Hoffmann's Tales. Next we have Stendhal, whose " Chartreuse de Parme" (written in 1830 and published in 1839) is made up of descriptions of the small Italian princi- palities, with their thousand intrigues, of anecdotes of the author's first experiences in arms, reminiscences of his early love-affairs, and a fanatical admiration for Napoleon. Stendhal escapes classification, but he might be likened to Mdme. de Stael if the "Chartreuse de Parme" herself had not dealt a fatal blow to " Corinne." IV^erimee is more romantic than Beyle, but other- wise resembles him in his scepticism and his impas- sive attitude. His " Guzla," published in 1827, has been justly described as a masterpiece of mystification, > and is a marvellous example of local colouring. The same remark applies to his " Chronicle of Charles IX.," a historical romance in the style inaugurated in 1826 by the "Grig-Mars "of Alfred de Vigny. In " Colomba" (1840) and " Carmen " (1847) ne attained perfection, and created two delightful feminine types LETTERS. 201 the first, gentle, melancholy, untamed, and tragic ; the second, alert, gay, coquettish, and dangerously vicious. Victor Hugo's " Han d'Islande" (1823) and " Bug Jargal " (1826) are picturesque and glowing, while in ' " N6tre-Dame de Paris" (1831) he transforms the building into a kind of colossal living thing which feels and thinks and speaks, as it towers above the swarming and parti-coloured crowds of mediaeval Paris. Theophile Gautier, in his "Jeune France " (1833) and "Mademoiselle de Maupin " (1835), gives free play to an unbridled fancy on the look-out for extraordinary, or rather extra-natural, sensations, which fatigues the admiring reader at last by its excess of colour and picturesqueness. All these novels have merit, without doubt merit and beauty but they lack the strong originality and boldness of conception which would stamp their authors as creators. We find these qualities, on the other hand, in George Sand and Balzac : one being the head of the idealist school, the other passing for being the chief of realists. George Sand is indeed idealist in the sense that her imagination is greater than her perspicacity, and what she thinks is more than really exists. She differs from the Romanticists by the harmonious simplicity of her form, the unexaggerated freshness of her colouring, and, above all, by the fact that she seeks her protagonists among the humbler classes / and tillers of the soil. Up to now, all heroes of romance had been aristocrats if not actually by X^birth, at least in thought and feeling. 2O2 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. Nevertheless, George Sand owed much to Chateau- briand, whose works she had largely read. Like him she went for the materials of her novels to her own store of emotions, her own experience of grief, retail- ing with all the feverishness, the exaggeration, and the eloquence of genius, her life, her passion, her vengeance, and her love. "Indiana" (1832) represents the feminine type the weak being whose passions are repressed, or, one might say, suppressed by law whose love hurls itself blindly against the obstacles created by civilisation. The work was born of the bitter disappointment which her unhappy marriage brought to the writer. "Valentine" (1832) is another variation on the same theme of an ill-assorted union springing from merely conventional considerations. In "Jacques" (1834) the author describes her ideal of love in a man, as in " Indiana " she had described her ideal of love in a woman; and in "Mauprat" (1837) she shows how love can elevate a savage nature. " Lelia " (1834) is the history of a soul torn between doubt and faith, / between passionate sensuality and transcendent / spiritualism; while in " Spiridion " (1840) this same restless soul seems finally to have found its true path, along which it pursues religious truth and a divine ideal two of the absorbing pre-occupations of the period. But there was another subject of intense interest at that time Socialism, and George Sand, abandoning her purely religious ideal for the moment, wrote " Le Compagnon du Tour de France" (1840), "Horace" (1842), "Consuelo" (1842), "La Comtesse de Rudolstadt" (1843), " Le Meunier d'Angibault" LETTERS. 203 (1845), and "Le Peche de M. Antoine" (1847); wherein all systems figure in turn, including Tho- sophy and Communism. Politico-social questions hampered her genius how- ever, and she soon abandoned them for a new manner. In 1846 appeared the exquisite idyl, "La Mare au Diable," a romance of the fields ; which was fol- lowed by "La Petite Fadette " (1848) and " Francois le Champi " (1850), two masterpieces of a style hitherto unknown to French literature, where the idyl had consisted merely in an insipid adaptation from the Greek. Balzac differs in an even greater degree than George Sand from the Romanticists. He has a strong, precise perception of reality, an instinctive knowledge of life, and the power of making his personages live, joined to the faculty for analysis and for systematic arrangement which usually dis- tinguishes a man of science. He hits the essential truth of things even while generalising. His method of summing up all his works in one, and of reproducing the same characters in a hundred different situations, gives an effect of incomparable power. His defects are those of his qualities : fertility and force pro- ducing incorrectness of style, pedantry, interminable digressions, chimerical views, and a want of fineness and critical perception. One needs only to pass in review the more cele- brated volumes of " La Comedie Humaine," to see with what completeness and what security of touch Balzac has reproduced the society of the period in which he lived ; and with what penetration he per- 2O4 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. ceived the new conditions imposed upon the furious pursuit of material resources, the struggle and the strife of men who only seek to live. " La Physiologic du Manage" (1829) was a brutal revelation of conjugal debauch ; " La Peau de Chagrin," with its heroine Fcedora, gave high dramatic form to the type of a woman without heart or passion ; yet another type, " L'lllustre Gaudissart," appeared as the prince of bagmen ; " Eugenie Grandet" (1833) contained a perfect picture of pro- vincial life and the " cheap " existence of dwellers in small country towns. " Le Pere Goriot " (1835) re- mains for all time an example of the excesses, some- times sublime and sometimes ridiculous, of paternal affection ; " La Recherche de 1'Absolu " gives a tragic and powerful representation of a man of science so possessed with the idea of a discovery as to sacrifice all to that one passion ; " La Femme de Trente Ans " (1831) is a masterpiece of psychological observation ; "Ursula Mirouet" (1842) is a delicate and chaste study of noblest affection. Many more characters stand out in striking relief from the pages of these hundred volumes : La Cou- sine Bette, an envious old maicl ; Madame Hulot, a beautiful, virtuous woman betrayed by an unworthy husband ; Madame Marneffe, the shameless and unscrupulous wife of a small functionary ; the usurer Gobseck, the miser Grandet, the stockbroker Nu- cingen, the convict Vautrin, and others such as Rastignac, Mortsauf, Rubempre, and Mother Vauquer. Balzac's influence on literature is greater than that of George Sand, and if he is perhaps not her equal, it LETTERS. 20$ is only because his ambition to be all-embracing caused him to waste his force. Both authors wrote for a fairly cultivated public. And as they obtained both fame and money, the idea occurred to other writers to address themselves directly to the masses, and to reach them at once by the device of the daily serial. Eugene Sue, by thus publishing his " Mysteres de Paris" in the columns of the Siecle, operated a literary revolution. From that moment the unlimited popular success of the novel was assured, its appeal being addressed to a public of simple minds with a taste for the marvellous, and small powers of analysis. Fiction then entered on a new stage, and not only lost in beauty of style, but was subjected to a pecu- liar species of literary torture the invention, namely, of extraordinary intrigues over-stimulating to the reader's curiosity, accompanied by great pomp of sentiment and by socialistic professions vaguer in nature than the utterances of the greater writers, but probably all the more dangerous. Eugene Sue also published in 1844-45 the " Wandering Jew," wherein he originated, under the name of " Rodin," the well-known type of the Jesuit fortune-hunter who recoils neither from assassinations nor poisonings, as well as numberless other characters which to-day are forgotten. Alexandre Dumas is the most prolific and the most talented of the popular romancers. About the year 1825 he had devoured Walter Scott, Goethe, and Schiller, at that time very fashionable, as well as Barante's " History of the Dukes of Burgundy " ; and this course 2O6 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. of reading determined his vocation. Gifted with a very fertile imagination, and a strong liking for adventurous characters, full of fire and readiness, gaiety and wit, he turned for the materials of the greater number of his romances to the reigns of the later Valois and the Regency, which were the periods when adventurers flourished. And by thus presenting French annals in an attractive and, on the whole, exact form, he spread a knowledge of history not only among the masses in his own country, but throughout the whole world. We may name "La Reine Margot" (1845), "La Dame de Montsoreau" (1846), " Les Trois Mousquetaires " (1844), "Vingt Ans Apres" (1845), " Le Vicomte de Bragelonne " (1847), (all evoking memories of St Bartholomew), " The Court of Henri III.," "Louis XIII.," and finally " Monte-Cristo " (1845), a colossal imitation of the "Arabian Nights" adapted to modern usage, and wherein the power of gold replaces the wand of the enchanter and the marvels worked by genii. Whatever the defects of such works, one must admit that they achieved an unprecedented success. Dumas amused, delighted;, and ravished successive generations. He represented a social force which exists even yet. Paul de Kock, a lesser Dumas, gained an European reputation through his mirth-compelling stories. He introduced into the novel all the comic side of life. Gifted with real powers of observation and an irre- sistible sense of the ridiculous, he revived the old Gallic gaiety which the melancholy of Rene and his too numerous descendants seemed t6 have completely killed. THE STAGE. 2O? To sum up, then, the Novel, until 1848, with a few exceptions, remained a romantic product ; but as it approached the date of the new Revolution, its character gradually altered and was finally quite transformed. The love of the marvellous, the yearn- ing for the Infinite, all the exaggerations of idealism were destined to be swept away by the whirlwind of those material aspirations which the Novel itself had contributed to formulate by giving expression to the Utopian ideas of Socialism, and spreading them abroad on the wings of popular literature. THE STAGE. It was not without effort that the Novel had attained to this prodigious development. Every radical change disturbs some habits, injures some interests, and rouses bitter discontent. The French public loved abstractions, precise, severe methods and correctness of style too much not to be often offended and disgusted by the sudden apparition in literature of historical verities and un- disguised passion, of license of form and a glow of description. The disciples of the new school had to reply to very vehement attacks from their adversaries, and nobody was ever more ridiculed or aspersed than Victor Hugo, George Sand, Balzac, Dumas, and Theophile Gautier. As long as these viruient onslaughts took place in salons or newspaper offices their echo did not pene- trate to the ear of the great public. It was different when the battle was transferred to the theatre, and 208 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. there waged with all the added impressiveness of scenic effects. It swelled to the proportions of an epic, and the victory which the Romanticists finally carried off from the Classicists was crushing and conclusive. Of late years endless discussions have arisen over the precise meaning of this word Romanticism ; but in 1830 everybody understood it too well to require any definition. The Classic School represented French art in its traditional form and methods, without regard to the fact that the form no longer commanded obedi- ence and that the methods were worn out. The Romantic School desired to rejuvenate Art by giving it a new dress and a new colouring, by representing human nature with its real passions and weaknesses, by seeking a background for emotion in the world of nature, and giving local and historical truth to the heroes of a drama. The " Romantic School " did not exist until Victor Hugo founded it by formulating the doctrines of its scattered partisans in the preface to his " Cromwell " * (1827), and by furnishing them with an ideal and a rallying point in " Hernani " (1829). And the word " School " itself must not be taken to mean any hier- archy of teaching, for it simply served to describe a group of young men who were bound to one another by the ties, at once strong and loose, of hope and enthusiasm. The old-fashioned classical tragedy still counted sufficient admirers to ensure success to such dull and frigid, feeble and colourless productions as Ancelot's "Louis IX." (1819), Casimir Delavigne's " Vepres THE STAGE. 2OQ Siciliennes" (1819), or Lebrun's "Marie Stuart" (1820). But Victor Hugo's preface to " Cromwell" (1827) dealt it a first fatal blow. Hugo took for models the Bible, Homer, and Shakespeare, and rejecting the theory of the three unities, he adopted the new rule of contrast that is to say, the perpetual antithesis between good and evil, beauty and grotesqueness, the world and nature, fate and providence, laughter and tears. He worked out a theory of the drama, and by contrasting it with tragedy, compassed the ruin of the latter. A new language followed necessarily on this transforma- tion, and was defined by Hugo in the following terms : " We want a free form of verse an honest, loyal poetry which shall courageously say everything without false shame, express everything without affecta- tion, and pass naturally from comedy to traged^/rom the sublirfie~to tKe~~ grotesque ; which shall overcome the monotony of the Alexandrine by an apt employ- ment of the caesura ; and prefers the carrying on of one line into another to an inversion which obscures the sense ; which shall be faithful to rhyme that enslaved Queen the supreme charm of our poetry, inexhaustible in its variety, elusive in its elegance and its composition, which shall avoid tirades and delight in dialogue." We know that Hugo carried out his programme entirely. His audacious innovations scandalised the classics even more than his attack upon acknowledged rules. The first attempts at reform were timid. Casimir Delavigne gave up unity of place in his "Marino 15 2 TO LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. Faliero" (1829); and Soumet, in " Une Fete de Neron " (1829), achieved a compromise between tragedy and the latent aspirations of the public towards the movement and glow of drama. In 1830, Victor Hugo produced " Hernani," wherein he reduced to practice the system which he had adopted in " Cromwell," a drama unadapted for the stage. Every point was excessive, heroic, superhuman. The characterisation of the ancient drama gave way to theatrical effects, and person- ages, action, and plot were subordinated to " stag- ing " and costume. But extravagance of action and falseness of colouring were alike forgiven for the sake of lyrical style. The evening of the 25th of February is famous in the history of literature. The rival schools indulged in a free fight, but the genius of the author and the enthusiasm of his partisans triumphed over the Classicists and their vain appeal to the secular arm : and through the breach thus made the Romanticists poured in. One work of Hugo's followed another. " Marion Delorme," the reformed courtesan washed clean by maternal love and by repentance ; " Le Roi s'amuse " (1832), wherein it is a father whose moral deformity is cured by passionate affection for his child; " Lucretia Borgia" (1833), yet another ex- ample of maternal love, this time redeeming a monster of depravity; " Ruy Bias" (1838), the lackey who loves a queen, and whose nobility of soul elevates him a plebeian above those who have only noble blood; finally, " Les Burgraves" (1843), an Eschylean drama, which failed completely : such THE STAGE. 211 were the pieces composing an extraordinary, fantastic series, wherein the abuse of the method of contrast destroys all verisimilitude in the characters and their surroundings, but which is admirably effective, spark- ling with life and gaiety, and superbly lyrical in style. In 1831, Alexandre Dumas produced "Antony," an astonishing production of which the essential meaning, the leitmotiv^ lies wholly in the final phrase, " She resisted me. I have assassinated her." The piece caused immense scandal, but Antony the " beau tenebreux" the prince of morbid lovers, obtained a great success, especially with women. " La Tour deNesles" appeared in 1832. Its scenic effect was incontestable, but its plot contained the most terrific accumulation of massacres, abominations, and crimes which had ever been presented to the public. It was followed by other historical dramas, namely, in 1837 by "La Reine M argot "; in 1839 by "Made- moiselle de Belle Isle"; and in 1843 by " Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr." There remains to be noticed the " Chatterton " of Alfred de Vigny (1835), a morbid, poignant, and eloquent drama, the most remarkable of all the Romantic school, and which, more than any of its predecessors, roused passionate emotion among the spectators. The denouement of the piece, containing the death of the loving, faithful Kitty a death so tragic and simple as to exalt its heroine into a martyr of conjugal duty appeared sufficiently immoral in the eyes of the public to be denounced from the Tribune of the Chamber of Deputies. The Classicists made an attempt to defend them- 212 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. selves by other means than protestations, cat-calls, hisses, and appeals to Government. The most brilliant opponent of the Romanticists was Viennet, who once defiantly said, " These changes of place, this license of time, these prologues and the rest suit me not at all, and I shall remain in this respect the last of the Romans." He produced various tragedies strictly classical in form, of which the least bad were " Clovis " (1830) and " Arbogaste " Ancelot, an old man now, wrote " Maria Padilla," which was acted in 1838 ; and Ponsard followed with "Lucrece" in 1843, and " Agnes de Meranie" three years later. The respectable delusion that these authors were keeping alive the traditions of common sense and of true French art was fostered by the persistent flocking of the public to tragedies into which the genius of Rachel infused a ne\v vitality. POETRY, Madame de Stael had a very distinct idea of the sort of poetry which was to work the literary reform so ardently desired by her. Its inspiration must, she conceived, be sought in meditative contemplation of the riddle of human destiny ; and, only a few years after her death, the poet whom she had invoked arose in Lamartine, who even borrowed of her the title of one of his poems, " Les Recueillements " (published in 1839). Lamartine's mind had been nourished on the poetry, of Ossian, Schiller, Klopstock, and Byron ; he \ POETRY. 213 was as religious as Chateaubriand and in the same manner, and he shared Madame de Stael's vigorous hatred of Napoleon. His religious and philosophical conceptions were very lofty and clothed in language of enchanting harmony. His "Meditations poetiques" (1820), " Nouvelles /Meditations" (1823), "Harmonies poetiques et reli- gieuses" (1830), and "Chute d'un Ange " (1838), had for their themes the struggle of the human soul with the problems of destiny, the metempsychosis of the mind, Providence, and the beneficent influence of nature and solitude, all expressed in melodious verse full of freshness and of bold, original imagery. It was said of Lamartine that he had summoned poetry from Parnassus, and, in place of the lyre with seven chords, had given the muse the human heart to play on with all its strings vibrating to the in- numerable thrills of nature and the soul. On the whole, he has left only uncertain utterances, vague but harmonious, and as such corresponding to the dreamy aspirations of high-toned women, and sooth- ing to the proud grief of disillusioned souls. These qualities ensure Lamartine's immortality. For the rest, he judged himself with absolute correctness. "I have had soul, it is true ; and that is all. I have rendered some notes that came from the heart. Soul is, however, sufficient for feeling, but not for expres- sion. Time has failed me for a perfect work, but that is because I have wasted time that capital of genius." In reality Lamartine does not belong to the 214 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. Romanticists. He approaches more nearly to Cha- teaubriand, and nearer still to Madame de Stael, whom he completes, so to speak, as a poet, just as Guizot completed her as an historian. VICTOR HUGO. The same influences acted upon Victor Hugo, being carried in his case as far as they could go. In the beginning, when he wrote his Odes (1822) he is almost classical. Nodier plunged him into the Romantic move- ment. " Some styles," wrote Chateaubriand, " are con- POETRY. 215 tagious, and their colour dyes off upon other minds." Victor Hugo was permeated with the style of Chateaubriand himself. His imagination was ex- traordinarily powerful, and he possessed the power of assimilating Nature and incarnating surround- ings, every aspect of which he rendered with pro- digious intensity and exaggeration. It was this same faculty, reacting from his mind on his character, which resulted in those variations of political conduct with which he has frequently been reproached. In point of fact, he did not vary ; he only received the impression in turn of every opinion that prevailed throughout his long existence ^ Legitimism, Bonapartism, Republicanism, Socialism, he absorbed them all, and, after the delay neces- sary for assimilation, reproduced them with such entire good faith as to prove that he was successively convinced of the truth of each one of them. In this way he passed from Chateaubriand to Madame de Stae'l, from Legitimism to Liberalism ; in this way he joined the disciples of the Romantic school in 1824, and straightway rose to the first place j^ among them. He affirmed Thought to be "virgin \ and fruitful soil, whereon ideas spring freely, and, so 4 to speak, by chance." In 1829 he published " Les - Orientales," which, in the history of poetry, marked a date as important as the production on the stage of " Hernani." It realised, less in substance, perhaps, than in form and rhythm, a portion of the programme which the Romanticists had assigned to poetry, and which was well described by Sainte-Beuve in the following words : 2l6 LETTKRS, ARTS, AXD SCIENCE^, 1815-1848. "It is sought to restore truth, naturalness, a familiar tone even to French poetry, and at the same time to revive its firmness of style and brilliancy, to teach it anew how to express things that for nearly a century past it has forgotten, to instruct it in others which it has not yet learnt, to enable it to express the emotions of the soul and the least shades of thought, and to reflect external nature not only by colouring and imagery, but sometimes also by a simple and happy juxtaposition of syllables ; to make it show itself in airy fancy, invested with any form it may choose and clothed with delicate grace ; to give it, in great subjects, the movement and step of groups and combinations (ensembles] ; to suggest in an ode, and not inadequately, the great music of the day or the features of Gothic architecture," &c. Victor Hugo was to endeavour to realise all these ideals. " Les Orientates," full of dazzling external effects, were followed (1831) by " Les Feuilles d'Automne," a poem of the heart ; then (1835) came " Les Chants du Crepuscule," the poetry of doubt elevated to the rank of a doctrine; and in 1837, "Les Voix In- terieures," a grand expression of the inexorable con- flict waged between scepticism and faith ; finally, " Les Rayons et les Ombres " (1840) showed a clear- ing of the horizon. Thus we see Hugo at the same time as George Sand undergoing a similar crisis of the soul, and then, in faithful correspondence with the stages of evolution of his age, dreaming, on the eve of the events of '48, that he may accomplish some social mission, and POETKY. 217 aspiring, like Lainartino, to influence his fellow-citizens by some more direct means than the writing of fiction. In the first stage of his career he had stood revealed as one of the greatest of French lyrists, and very largely contributed to restore beauty of form to the French language, and to renew its methods of versifi- cation. Alfred de Vigny, stronger than Lamartine and more philosophical than Victor Hugo, was also, if the truth must be told, the one great thinker of the Romantic school. But while Victor Hugo could render every voice of nature and every accent of the human heart, De Vigny has but one note, very pure, indeed, very strong, altogether dominant, which may be described as the cry of yearning loneliness. " Eloa" (1824), "Moise," " Le Deluge," " La Colere de Samson" (182226) rank with the finest poems in French literature, and they are, moreover, original, in that they unite the substance of Romanticism to a purely classic form. Alfred de Musset was also a victim of the mal du siecle, but he soon learnt to make fun of Lamar- tinian whimpers. Nevertheless he tried, with George Sand, the experiment of realising a romantic ideal of love, and all he gained from this insensate attempt was to feel the full bitterness of passion and to sow the seeds of immeasurable and incurable suffering. On the other hand, he shows himself a great lyrical poet in the elegies entitled " Les Nuits " (1835-37), and he created an original philosophy which con- sisted in regarding memory (Le Souvenir] as the one remedy for the ills of life, the one guardian of 2l8 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. happiness and love, since it remains, sweet and con- solatory, after grief is over and love is dead and happiness has vanished. Musset was for a long time the poet by preference of youthful readers, whom he attracted by his lively pictures of love, his sensibility, his dandyism, and the other inferior sides of his genius. A voracious reader, he was familiar with ancients and moderns, with English and German, and he united in his own person almost all the characteristic features of his epoch. His " Contes d'Espagne et d'ltalie" (1830), his Tyrol in "La Coupe et les Levers" (1835) are quite false to nature as false as Hugo's descriptions of the Rhine and Stendhal's pictures of Italy, which they further resemble in being unmistakably inspired by Madame de Stael. Brizeux is known as the author of the delicious idyl, " Marie," which describes the pure love of youth, and strikes, in poetry, the same key of rustic simplicity which George Sand had introduced into fiction. Theophile Gautier, in action the most brilliant and uncompromising of the Romanticists, unlike his fellows, is not at all lyrical. He is an amazing painter or engraver in words, having but one theme, namely, physical love. But his pen adorns this theme with the most fantastic variations, the most dazzling embroideries. His form is always splendid, full of brilliant imagery, excessive subtleties, refine- ments of expression, superabundant rhymes and systematic transitions. Indeed, it is too beautiful : its splendour blinds. At the period which we are POETRY. 219 considering, Gautier had not yet shown all that he was capable of as a poet. His strange and fiery poem p "Albertus," published in 1832, is an exaggerated application of Hugo's law of contrasts. In his "Com&iie de la Mort" (1838) he shows himself pre- occupied, like so many others at the moment (only less profoundly, for he was no thinker), with the' problem of man's end. But he was far from resembling his contemporaries in another point, their interest, namely, in politics, for the bourgeois inspired him with hatred and repulsion, and he was a fanatical exponent of the Art for Art's sake theory. Beranger and Auguste Barbier, on the contrary, found in politics the source of all their inspiration. Beranger gently rallied Napoleon in the " Roi d'Yvetot" (1813), but hurled invectives at the in- vading Allies, and peppered the Restoration with sarcasms. His poems attacking nobles, priests, and the censorship of the press were sung throughout the length and breath of France. The Government took alarm, and threw the singer into prison. The Revo- lution of 1830 set him free, and thenceforth, his im- portance enhanced by the aureole of martyrdom, he conducted an incessant campaign against the abuses of Constitutional monarchy, and became in turn a Republican, an Imperialist, and a Socialist. Beranger carried to the point of genius the talent of giving voice to the instincts, the sensations and the ideas of the lower middle-class (la petite bourgeoisie) of the period in which he lived. Hence his celebrity, his immense popularity. He was the only really 220 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. popular, the only national poet of his time ; but his chief glory resulted from ephemeral causes, and vanished with the events and the manners to which it owed its existence. The same must be said of Barbier, who produced one work, " Les lambes " (1831), after the Revolution of July, which caused a great sensation as being in perfect harmony with the excited state of the public mind, but was forgotten in the calm that followed. HISTORY. j In 1834, Augustin Thierry expressed the belief that " History would stamp the nineteenth century V for its own, just as Philosophy had done for the eighteenth." Our preceding sketch has already de- monstrated the truth of this prophecy. The most remarkable consequence of Romanticism was to quicken the study of history. Thanks to Chateaubriand's " Martyrs," to his auburn-haired Franks, the writers of fiction turned for their materials to the Middle Ages, and Madame de Stae'l, by introducing the great figure of Napoleon into polemical literature, gave rise successively to the magnificent invectives of Lamartine, and to the en- thusiastic legend which, beginning with Beranger's songs, was swollen by Victor Hugo's strophes, and finally immortalised by Thiers. Inspired by the example of the Romanticists, his- torians proceeded to restore their real background to events which previously they had contented them- selves with drily narrating. They began to make their readers acquainted with the men of past days HISTORY. 221 in the manners, the dress, the habits and charac- teristics of the period, turning" for this end to docu- mentary evidence as contained in departmental and communal archives, and in local and private collections. The present century being combative in its ten- dencies, party passion is perhaps mainly responsible for the modern historical method. The monarchy, when restored after the French Revolution, needed to prop up its power by appeals to the past, and mere tradition being a broken reed, writers like Joseph de Maistre and Bonald had to seek in the history of the Middle Ages for proof of the rights which they were anxious to establish. Liberals, on the other hand, went to the same sources for a justification of popular sovereignty or, rather, of middle-class supremacy. This double current flowing from the fountain-heads of history grew eventually to a great river, bearing on its breast an immense number of original works and an abundance of discoveries. Augustin Thierry's vocation for history was deter- mined by a perusal of " Les Martyrs," and led in 1820 to the publication of his "Letters on the History of France," which dealt a fatal blow to the old methods of writers like Mezeray, Garnier, An- quetil, and Velly. He followed up this first attack in a still more masterly fashion in his " History of the Norman Conquest of England" (1825), wherein the whole system of the new school was disclosed. To-day it is no longer possible to write history in the interest of one idea only ; the reading public will not stand 222 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. it. They require to be told everything ; to have described and explained the condition of the nations at every point, and to feel sure that to each century its real place has been assigned with its true atmo- sphere and value. Thierry, in his first work, did not rise above political passion. His object was to rehabilitate the middle- classes, so that they might resist the reactionary ten- dencies of the Government. Consequently he repre- sented the emancipation of the Communes as a true social revolution, the prelude of all those which have successively improved the condition of the Third Estate, and described the events of 1789 and 1830 as being a retaliation for the Prankish Conquest. The same tendency pervades his " Dix Ans d'Etudes Historiques" (1834), and even the " Histoire du Tiers-Etat" which appeared in 1853. But when he finally forgot this theory, Thierry wrote a masterpiece. The " Recits des Temps Merovingiens " (1840) is a graphic picture, composed with the help of an infinity of significant trifles, of a very complex society, the originality of which lay in a racial antagonism softened by mutual imitation. The real Franks and the real Gauls were resuscitated in all the simplicity of their respective legends, and for the first time the dryness of mere dates and the mono- tonous recital of events gave way to a reality at once accurate, living, and dramatic. Almost at the same time as Thierry published his " Lettres sur 1' Histoire " in the Courrier Fran^ais, Guizot, Madame de StaeTs most distinguished pupil, published his "Histoire du Gouvernement Represen- HISTORY. 223 tatif" (1821-22), and shortly afterwards his "Essais sur 1'Histoire de France" (1823), which illuminated all the avenues of history. This was followed by " L'Histoire de la Revolution d'Angleterre " (1827- 28), and by " L'Histoire GeneVale de la Civilisation en France " (1828-30), which simply took up, amplified and completed the work of Madame de Stae'l. The guiding principles of these two histories were reverence for justice and love of liberty. Guizot, cold, correct, and always clear, excelled in reconstituting the past with the help of German and English erudition, and in analysing and criticising the doctrines of his predecessors. Ideas alone have attraction for him, but he rendered them in a masterly manner. If he lacks the faculty which Thierry possessed of infusing intense life into his compositions, he is capable of embracing wider views, and of comprehending better the existence, the role, the relations, development and machinery of the great constitutional bodies of modern life, such as Feudalism, the Church, the Throne, and the Communes. But, like Thierry, he belongs to his time, and refers events to a preconceived design, which is as much as to say that he is orthodox in his beliefs. The methods of these two masters created, conse- quently, two schools of history one picturesque, or descriptive and realistic, the other by preference idealistic. Alexis de Tocqueville is the most distinguished member of the Philosophical school. In considering the evolution of the century, one fact had struck him particularly the progress of French society towards democracy ; and he went to the United 224 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. States in order to observe the working of that form of government. The fruit of his studies, " Democracy in America" (1835-39), is a work of immense intellectual scope, conceived in the spirit of Guizot, written with the same authority but with calmer impartiality, with as rigorous logic but greater depth of thought. No writer has ever understood or ex- plained the system of the United States in a manner superior to De Tocqueville, nor analysed better the influence of democracy on the ideas and manners of a nation, with the corresponding sway which these ideas and manners exercise on political or- ganisation. Michelet, a disciple of the celebrated Neapolitan Vico, founded the Symbolical school, at once philo- sophical and picturesque, and dominated by the idea of progress. His conception of history was " A resur- rection of integral life." He published the first volumes of his great history of France, " Le Moyen Age," in 183343. His method was first to reconstruct the body, so to speak, of past ages by carefully describing the geographical character and appearance of each of the great territorial divisions of France, then to revivify the soul. And they live, these past ages, in all the intensity of their instincts, their beliefs, their desires, and their transports. Michelet was endowed with the most brilliant of undisciplined imaginations. He was a true seer, a magical writer, exquisitely poetical and yet con- summately erudite, versed in all the learning and discoveries of the day, especially those of the German savants, and adding constantly to his store of know- HISTORY. 22$ ledge out of the priceless archives of the Bibliotheque Nationale, to which he was attached officially from 1831. His views are novel and profound, and he excites and carries away his readers. Nevertheless he has certain preconceived ideas and prejudices, and is so impressionable as to fall into contra- dictory excesses and give a false idea of history. These defects became patent more especially after 1843, when, in company with Edgar Quinet, he published his work on the Jesuits. Michelet espoused the cause of democracy with fervour, and became an uncompromising enemy of kings and priests. In 1846 he wrote " Le Peuple," and then gave up his great history of France in order to devote himself exclusively to the Revolution (1847-53), in describing which he indulged in wild enthusiasm and extraordinary invectives. These ex- cesses were fatal to his talent, and, as we shall show later, he never found again the serenity and impartiality which, joined to his essential qualities, made his " Moyen Age " the greatest of historical works. If Michelet was the most unbridled of the Romanti- cists, Thiers regarded all such eccentricities as savour- ing of insurrection, and he consequently cannot be described as an artist. Nor is he a philosopher, although he believed that society evolves itself in obedience to regular laws. His principal qualities as an historian are the same as those which he showed in politics persuasive reasoning power and practical good sense. His history of the Revolution (1823- 27) and of the Consulate and Empire (1840 et 16 226 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. are planned with much breadth ; but being based on doubtful documents, or, at any rate, on documents too hastily accepted, they abound in inaccuracies. But the narrative is a masterpiece of eloquence, and con- tains many interesting, pathetic pages, besides offering a luminous picture of politics and finance in one of the most memorable and complex periods of history. Thiers delighted in battle scenes and descriptions of strategy, which were at one time unanimously admired and are now justly criticised. He was an enthusiastic partisan of Napoleon as military com- mander, legislator, and administrator, considering him in all three respects the greatest of men ; and together / with Beranger and Hugo, he is responsible for that \ Napoleonic legend whichjj As shown already by the example of Michelet, History, no more than Fiction, the Drama or Poetry, could remain unaffected by the democratic tendencies of the age. Socialism had its historian in Louis Blanc (" Histoire de Dix Ans," 1841; " Histoire de la Revolution Frangaise," 1847 et seq.}, whose funda- mental idea was that Authority, Individualism, and Fraternity are the three great principles which prevail throughout the history of the world. His works, correct as to facts, are deformed by passion, intolerance and party spirit. CRITICISM. Literary Criticism is indebted to History for the fruitful transformation which has been operative in its methods and proceedings. Madame de Stael and Benjamin Constant broke CRITICISM. 227 through the old routine, prevailing ever since the sixteenth century, by which the only function assigned to Criticism had been a minute search for beauties and defects in literary production. The new method consisted in taking into account /the circumstances under which a work had seen the \light, and in studying the psychology of the writer. These principles inspired the lectures of GgofYroy *^ (published 1819-20), and lent them some originality and independence of thought. Sainte-Beuve published his "Tableau Historique et Critique de la Poesie Franchise et du Theatre Fransais au XVI. Siecle" (1828) with the definite 1/^ntention of consolidating the Romantic School by finding a national support for it in the past. Sainte- Beuve is an historian in the widest sense of the word, as proved by his magnificent narrative of Port-Royal (1840 et seq.\ which showed a profound comprehension of the ideas and sentiments of the men and the works belonging to the seventeenth century. But it was only after 1848 that he attained to the full development of his genius, and began to exercise a preponderating influence over literature. Between 1828 and 1838 the sceptre of the critic / was wielded by Villemain. He was the first to J ally criticism to history, sociology, and philosophy ; | the first to seek in manners an explanation for ideas, \ and to judge a writer's productions with the help afforded by a knowledge of his character. " He raises literary history to the full dignity of history proper," said Augustin Thierry, " making of it a new science of which he is the creator." 228 LETTERS, ARTS, AXD SCIENCES, 1815-1848. Saint-Marc-Girardin is distinguished for having closely connected Morals with Comparative Criticism. He fell into the same exaggeration as Geoffroy Saint- Hilaire in his method of Comparative Anatomy. He has original views and luminous notions of relation, but his system gradually leads him to baseless hypotheses and erroneous conclusions. ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL THEORIES. The nearer one approaches to studies wherein imagination should play a smaller part than obser- vation and experience, the less one ought to perceive the influence of Romanticism. But even Economists and Socialists were unable to escape from the strongest tendency of the period. To what but Romanticism can we ascribe that attachment to the Middle Ages which induced Villeneuve-Bargemont (" Economic Politique Chretienne," 1834) to demand State inter- vention for technical instruction, and for forcing workers to save their money and group themselves in corporations ? To what other influence can we attribute the strange forecasts of Fourier as to the future of the world ; or the paradoxical audacity of Saint-Simon and Proud'hon ; or the wealth of penetration and brilliancy of style which have given new life to that science of political economy born, as we have seen, in a previous era ? And where we find this romantic and mystical colouring, so do we also find that same ardent combativeness and that same confusion of ideas which we have remarked upon so often already in trie course of this chapter. ECOVO.}f/CS AND SOCIAL THEORIES. 22Q Charles Dunoyer (" Libert^ du Travail," 1 845) asserts that economical and social phenomena are inseparable- "Services" form the great object of exchange between men ; and all value consequently results from human activity, either intellectual or material. Social in- equalities must for that very reason be maintained, since they are the condition of division of labour. Bastiat (" Sophismes Economiques," 1845-48) takes refuge in an imperturbable optimism, but he shows cleverness in criticising social systems and defend- ing " infamous capital " against Proud'hon's attacks. Auguste Comte originated the historical school of political economy. He founded sociology, marked its place, fixed its boundaries, stated its problem, and defined its principles and its method. He believed that progress is accomplished by evolution. The same period saw the birth, in France, of socialism, under a strangely mystical and ideal form, which must perhaps be traced to the vague and pompous religiosity of Chateaubriand. Fourier, the founder of Phalansteries, imagined an ideal and fantastic world wherein capital, labour, and talent should be associated in virtue of an emotional attraction which he deduced from the law of physical attraction. Saint-Simon reconstructed society on a new basis. He substituted for the social hierarchy, which after the Revolution had remained the same as before 1789, hree classes composed respectively of manufacturers (industriels\ savants, and artists, corresponding to the principal faculties of the human mind. He placed spiritual power in the hands of the savants, and 230 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. bestowed temporal rule upon the propertied, manu- facturing and commercial classes, and, desirous of putting an end to the struggle between the body and the mind which had resulted from misappre- hension of the doctrines of Christ, he preached a new religion. Saint-Simon had considerable influence upon the majority of the great minds of his time ; among others, upon Augustin Thierry. The disciples of his school naturally carried the ideas of their master to extremes, and starting from the principle " To every one according to his capacity, and to every capacity according to its works," they arrived at the abolition of inheritance and every privilege of birth, and finally at community of wives. Proud'hon (" De la Propriete," 1840-41 ; " Contra- dictions Kconomiques," 1846-49), who was a re- markable writer and polemical genius, sought, like Saint-Simon, a remedy for the evils worked by the modern transformation of industry. He found it in unmixed individualism. " Absolute equality of con- ditions," he said, " is the supreme law of humanity." The right of property should be replaced by a simple right of possession. Inheritance should be preserved, but plurality of inheritances forbidden. A govern- ment is necessary in order to maintain this ideal equality among all members of society, and this government should be Anarchy. " Legislative power belongs only to reason systematically demonstrated. . . . The science of government belongs by right to one of the departments of the Academy of Science. Every citizen who can address a memorial to the ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL THEORIES. academy is a legislator. The people is the guardian of law, and forms the executive." Cabet advocated pure communism, which he em- bodied in a wondrous novel entitled " LTcarie" (1841). Pierre Leroux, who had a deplorable influence over George Sand, desired that property should not be divided, but used in common. He imagined a family in which the wife should no longer be subordinated to the husband or the children to the father, and a State wherein there might be no political power. He also desired to obliterate the difference, so marked in Christianity, between heaven and earth. Future life was to consist in an infinite repetition of terrestial existence without personal identity and without memory. Leroux's principal works are " L'Huma- nit6" (1840); "De la Ploutocratie " (1848) ; " Du Christianisme " (1848). Louis Blanc ("Organisation du Travail," 1839; " Cath6chisme des Socialistes," 1 849) did not rise so high. He contented himself with advocating national workshops as a remedy for the suffer- ings of the unemployed, in the belief that the irresistible competition thus created would lead per- force to the closing of private factories. He main- tained that the same system should be applied to agriculture, and proposed the abolition of collateral inheritances. POLEMICS AND ORATORY. All the great questions which agitated the public mind at this period whether religion, social problems, 232 LETTERS, AK'TS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. freedom of ritual, of the press, of instruction, the charter, the organisation of the electoral system, revolutionary principles or absolutism were dis- cussed with identical ardour and intensity in polemi- cal pamphlets, in parliamentary and university centres, and even in the pulpit. Joseph de Maistre, with his vehemence, his close dialectics, and his transcendent irony, lent authority to the ultramontane section, and worked out the idea of providence which he had first stated in his " Con- side>ations sur la France." He defended the authority of the Church, by which he meant one power only, that of an infallible Pope ; and was equally a partisan of royalty, which he wished to have absolute, without limit or control. In " Le Pape " (1819) and " Les Soirees de St. Petersbourg" (1821), he attacked with eloquence the philosophy of the eighteenth century, a period to which, by a strange contrast, he belonged himself, in virtue of his style and his abstract, reasoning turn of mind. Lamennais, on the contrary, was a true Romanti- cist. He first perturbed his contemporaries by his " Essai sur 1'Indifference en Matiere de Religion " (1817), which was an endeavour to demonstrate the philosophical truth of Catholicism against heretics and unbelievers, and he ended by shaking all beliefs. Together with Montalembert and Lacordaire he preached (" L'Avenir," 1830) democracy joined to re- ligious theocracy ; then in " Les Affaires de Rome " (1836) he attacked the Pope for being too much occupied with temporal matters, and demanded full political and religious liberty in " La Separation de POLEMICS AND ORATORY. 233 1'Eglise et de 1'Etat. In " Les Paroles d'un Croyant" (1833), which created a profound sensation, he em- bodied in words by turn vehement and tender, sombre and serene, his dream of a Catholic Demo- cracy, inspired by the true spirit of the gospel, and / irreconcilably opposed to a Church or State which I could oppress the weak. Montalembert, in vehement pamphlets, endeavoured to organise a party of Catholic Liberals. After 1830, he became the Catholic champion in the Upper Chamber. He was a fighting orator, alert and energetic in speech, prompt in repartee as in apostrophe, but without depth or originality. Paul-Louis Courier came to the rescue of the malcontents always an important party under all forms of government with a series of pamphlets (1816-22) written in a very pure style of incisive satire, in which he deplores the bitterness and fer- vour of undisciplined Individualism against society. His love of Greek, and his fine, artistic writings, make of Courier the last representative of true classical spirit. Armand Carrel, biting and satirical, showed himself in the National an indefatigable champion of political liberty, and of the external greatness of France. Cormenin began as a democrat, to pass later into the service of the Church, to which he devoted his eloquent dialectical gifts. He wrote the " Livre des Orateurs," a work of studied eccentricity, written in a glowing style and full of ingenious remarks. In the Chambers the struggle between the Royalists and the Liberals, and the explosion of party passion 234 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. consequent on the Revolution of July, produced a brilliant group of orators. First came the friends of Madame de Stael, Mathieu de Montmorency, Camille Jordan, the Duke de Broglie, and above all de Serre, who " put the most soul into politics." To these must be added Benjamin Con- stant, who, unsparing in analysis, devoted his incisive and insolent powers of speech to the support of one thesis : the obligation of the State to defend the rights of individuals, and the claim of individuals to revolt if the State hindered their freedom in the exercise of these rights. Next came the doctrinaires, disciples of Royer- Collard, the apostle of legitimacy, whose slow speech and solemn, clear, precise eloquence, with its abun- dance of ideas and sober imagery, exercised an in- comparable sway. The orators of this school were eloquent rather than active, and distinguished them- selves more in Liberal opposition than when in possession of the government. I/ Their most distinguished member, Guizot, was dogmatic and sententious, haughty and sometimes bitter, but he produced a great effect by his austere elegance of speech, his energy and authoritative atti- tude. He defended the middle class, in the exercise of its new power, with all the conviction of an historian who, with the help of documentary evidence, had described the various stages of growth through which the bourgeoisie had passed, from the Barbarian invasion until these days when Providence had decreed their possession of the government. He opposed the i/mounting tide of democracy, with the belief that in POLEMICS AND ORATORY. 235 so doing he was protecting France in the persons of the middle classes, whose ideas he regarded as the utterances of Reason itself. Berryer was a powerful improvisatore, of sonorous delivery and authoritative gesture, always ardent, by turns majestic and terrible, and he pleaded the cause of fallen royalty with that peculiar eloquence of the advocate of which the impression fades with the passing moment. This was the characteristic which made Louis Blanc remark that Berryer's " sterile omnipotence stirred up passions which it could not guide." Casimir Perier, another opponent of revolutionary tendencies, was a passionate and impetuous speaker, inclined to noisy outbursts, to crushing apostrophes, and redoubtable whims of attack. Lamartine was prodigal of lyrical passages, of highly coloured imagery and melodious sentiment. He delighted his hearers without convincing them, perhaps because his only ambition in debate was to contribute those ideas of justice, generosity, and humanity which are peculiar to poets but do not correspond to the respective interests of political parties. Thiers, self-willed and autocratic, very shrewd and clear-headed and self-possessed, showed always a great knowledge of affairs, and was convincing through his power of reasoning, his practical common sense, and penetration. He had a great mastery of facts and figures, and could shed a flood of light on the most difficult subjects. Even the pulpit had its Romanticists in Lacordaire 236 LETTERS, ARTS, ,t\D SC/F.NCES, 1815-1848. V (" Conferences cle Notre Dame," 1835 and 1843), a bold and impassioned preacher who held the ear of the crowd by his inspired flights, and his breadth of illus- tration, as well as by the charm of his attitude, while for the young there was a potent attraction in the wide liberalism of his principles. The Classicists were represented by Fere de Ravignan. He was a measured, sober speaker, an able and persuasive dialectician, large of gesture, ascetic in appearance, and deriving great power from his strong convictions and authoritative character. PHILOSOPHY. Dualism reigned also in the serene regions of pure philosophy where electicism was opposed to positivism. During the revolutionary period, as we have seen, Philosophy remained in a measure subordinated to Physics, thanks to the success of the theories which Condillac had borrowed from Locke and Hume. But under the First Empire, Maine de Biran and Ampere saved Philosophy from persistence in a path which must have led to ruin. Maine de Biran placed the Essence of Being in Will. Ampere demonstrated that Reason is the dominating faculty, since it applies the action of the Will to elements formed by the Senses. Royer-Collard united Sensation, Will, and Reason in a theory of Consciousness which gave birth to Eclecti- cism, and this form of philosophy has reigned almost exclusively ever since in all the French schools. Victor Cousin (" Du Vrai, du Beau, du Bien," 1815- PHILOSOPHY. 237 20) gave the name of Eclecticism to everything which was true in the philosophical systems of all countries and all times. He crowned his work by placing an abstract generalisation, the Ideal, above the reality of all individual things. His vast inquiry into the views of all thinkers had, at least, this merit, that it inaugu- rated the history of Philosophy in France. But with- out any deep discussion of the subject it is easy to see that a system such as Cousin's is literary rather than scientific, and one may ask whether he, by spreading it everywhere, and availing himself of his eloquence and authoritative position to give it an official stamp, did not contribute more than anybody to suffocate for a long time in France all attempts at original philo- sophical speculation. Cousin had a brilliant disciple in Jouffroy, a man of fine perceptions and an accomplished writer, who was the first to recognise the imperfections of the master's doctrine. The axiom, " Phenomena only are the object of immediate consciousness," seemed to him of more than doubtful truth, and he was thus led to proclaim that Man can arrive in himself at the prin- ciple which produces phenomena, and this principle Jouffroy named the Ego. In other words, the Soul comes by reflection to an immediate consciousness of Itself. The failure of Metaphysics to solve the problems of existence and to determine the nature of God and the human soul, induced Auguste Comte to found Positi- vism ("Systemede Philosophic Positive," 1824; "Cours de Philosophic Positive," 1839-42), the starting-point of which he found in the doctrines of Saint-Simon 238 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. and in that of various physiologists, among others Broussais. Comte taught that we can only have knowledge of facts through their relation with other facts, and so ad infinitum. He consequently denied Causality. Positivism as a system consists in the Law of the Three States, or, if preferred, the Three Epochs of Thought and Science ; namely, the religious period, the metaphysical period, and the scientific period. Therefore its task is to determine the more general relations of the objects of the different sciences. In his Classification, which is one of the great achievements of human thought, Comte demonstrated that mathematical science is universal, and forms the only foundation of all natural philosophy. Philosophy, then, is summed up in Mathematics. Positivism, having received the sanction of Littre, exercised a considerable influence over medical men and physiologists in France. It spread mainly in foreign countries, and especially in England, where it found adherents among such men as Stuart Mill, Bain, and Herbert Spencer. Eclecticism belonged especially to the period we have been considering, through its lofty spiritualism, its historical tendencies, and the elements which it borrowed from other countries, particularly Germany and England. Positivism is related to Eclecticism more closely than one might think through the mystic and religious colouring which we have found prevailing everywhere, and which mingles so strangely with the Utopian ideas of the Socialists. Positivism had a cult, that of great PAINTING. 239 men ; it had rites and ceremonies, and in Humanity it had even a God. ART. Artists have always sought in literature for their subjects ; consequently it is not to be wondered at that Romanticism in the sphere of letters should have produced a corresponding revolution in Art. And since artists are even more impressionable and high- strung than writers, the struggle between the Romantic and the Classical schools in the studios grew to epical proportions. The exaggerations into which both parties fell make the period between 1815 and 1848 one of the liveliest and most curious in the history of French Art. PAINTING. In 1815 the Classical school reigned alone. It filled the Institute, dominated the Salon, and mono- polised State patronage. The public, from habit, accorded its sole favour to the " coloured bas-relief," as this cold and conventional style has been termed. But already for ten years previously a number of young men, fervent admirers of the word-painting of Chateaubriand, were inspired with the idea of emu- lating his example on canvas, and began to rise in revolt against the " puppets " in theatrical postures of David and Gros. Gericault, in 1812, painted "An Officer of Chasseurs on Horseback," followed in 1814 by a " Wounded Cuirassier," both vigorous and living works, which yet passed almost unperceived, in spite of the manner in which the painter had realised the 24O LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848 beauty and grandeur of the modern soldier. Never- theless Gericault, with his power of rendering violent movement and strength of expression, had struck the great blow which was to rouse the public from its traditional mood of admiration, and reveal to it a new manner of art. His "Raft of the Medusa" (1819), thanks to its strong originality, its spirited execution, and wild grandeur, produced an indescribable sensa- tion, followed by an angry outburst of opposition. The Classicists quoted against it such examples as Picot's " Cupid and Psyche," or Girodet's " Galatea," but these did not suffice to stem the mounting tide of Romanticism, and the Classicists had to open their ranks to Ingres. This painter had studied in Italy the masterpieces of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies, and preached the beauty of the Raphaelesque line. At first he was overwhelmed with abuse, and accused of wishing to carry Art back to its infancy. But as he had already founded a school, and sub- stituted calm enthusiasm for the exaggerations of Gericault, the Classicists began to be glad of his adhesion, and from that moment the Art of Greece and Italy was erected into a barrier against the " barbaric invasion," or, in other words, against the Romanticists. Ingres had in point of fact been influenced very strongly by the example of the Antique (vide " QEdipus before the Sphinx," " Jupiter and Thetis," " Romulus overcoming Arvon "). Later, he was cap- tivated by great historical subjects, such as " Aretino and the Envoy of Charles V." (1815), "Henry IV. and his Children" (1817); then returned again to PAINTING. 24! mythology, and finally was attracted by religious incidents ("St. Symphorien," painted in 1834, and " Jesus among the Doctors," 1 842). He was such a firm adherent of Classicism as to exclude Shakespeare ]/from the group of great men in his " Apotheosis of Homer" (1827). Ingres was a great painter, enamoured of perfection in line and stroke, and he attained to a decorative, almost sculptural, serenity united to a somewhat neutral tone of colour which is not wanting in charm. He excelled in the expression of his faces and in soft outlines of form, but he was cold, and had no feeling for landscape. The seascape in his " Roger and Angelica " (1819) is extraordinarily weak. He might have acted, however, as a counterpoise to Romanticism. But when Gericault died prematurely he was suc- ceeded by Delacroix. Naturally impetuous, yet full of self-control, the latter was eminently adapted to resist Ingres. The two were in complete contrast. Dela- croix, instead of delineating a contour with precision, would indicate a movement, and he gave the ensemble of a physiognomy rather than its peculiar lineaments. He excelled in surrounding' his personages with dramatic skies, magnificent waves, vigorous sweeps of ground ; and, as a colourist, he always sought for glowing effects. His " Dante and Virgil," exhibited in 1822, excited the opposition of the Classical camp, who protested against the painter's abuse of dramatic expression, the exaggeration of his sentiment, and those artifices of composition which, it was alleged, "made all parts of the painting contribute to the 17 242 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. rendering of some factitious emotion." The " Mas- sacre at Scio" (1824) placed Delacroix in the posi- tion of a party-leader. Of this picture Theophile Gautier wrote : " These horrible scenes, rendered with / unflinching brutality, the feverish, convulsive design, the violent colouring and furious brush-work excited the reprobation of the Classicists, and delighted all the young painters by the boldness of a novel method which nothing had taught the public to expect." Invective was clothed in Homeric metaphors, when as, for instance, Delacroix was accused of ^/daubing his canvasses " with a drunken broom ! " But the artist imperturbably pursued his way. For his magnificent series of lithographs from " Faust " he drew his inspiration from Goethe; for "Hamlet" he turned to Shakespeare ; and Walter Scott inspired his " Death of the Archbishop of Liege," a tumultuous scene, lighted by. the red glare of torches ; while the iambics of Barbier suggested "The Barricade" (1831). Delacroix revolutionised the painting of battle-scenes by his representation of the fights at Nancy, Poitiers, and Taillebourg. A journey to Morocco and Algeria suggested the admirable series of pictures, " A Woman of Algiers " (1834), "A Jewish Wedding in Morocco," "Turkish Women at the Bath," "A Lion Hunt," " The Bride of Abydos," " A Moorish Cafe," and the brilliant " Entry of the Crusaders into Constan- tinople" (1841). To describe a talent so various it would be necessary to cite almost every example, rang- ing from the " Death of Sardanapalus " and the decora- tions of the Bourbon Palace and the Luxembourg Library to paintings of animals, such as " A Lion PAINTING. 243 Devouring a Horse " and " Tigers at Play " ; for Dela- croix excelled in rendering all styles, all epochs, all climates, and all civilisations. Equally with Hugo he carried off victories for the 7 EUGENE DELACROIX. Romanticists. He had a novel theory of Art which he formulated in the phrases, " Art exists chiefly through expression." " The value of a work of Art is measured by the amount it reproduces of the senti- ment (emotion] of its author." 244 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, lSl5~ Delacroix's dominating qualities, in fact, were poetic fervour, devouring passion, and the delight of abso- lutely exhausting the emotion produced in him by the inception of a work. Like Shakespeare he had , an insatiable desire for violent and savage emotion \ joined to the same tragic conception of life, the same lofty and philosophical comprehension of the sadness, \ the sombreness, and unrest of all living things, / whether human or brute. It is this perception which makes the unity and grandeur of his work. Ary Scheffer belonged to the Romantic party chiefly because of his fanatical admiration for Dante and Goethe. He was a dreamer and a mystic, yet also a philosopher, and has left some remarkable works, such as "Faust and Margaret" (1831), " Faust and Mephistopheles on the Brocken," " Francesca da Rimini" (1835), "The King of Thule," "Jesus the Consoler of the Afflicted" (1837), "St. Monica and St. Augustine" (1846). Paul Delaroche applied the teaching of Delacroix, with reservations, and was careful not to imitate the master's impetuosity. He has been compared, as a - timid Romanticist, to Casimir Delavigne. He painted historical subjects careful in composition, sufficiently dramatic, very correct in the matters of costume and archaeology, yet open to the reproach of pomposity and conventionality. In his line he imitated Guizot and Augustin Thierry. We may cite among his works " The Death of Elizabeth" (1827), "A Scene of St. Bartholomew's Massacre " (1826), " Edward's Children " (1833), " The Murder of the Duke de Guise" (1835). or THR I UNIVERSI-] PAINTING. ^^45 Delacroix's influence was limited chiefly to artists. He alarmed his contemporaries, and it was left for posterity to do him full justice. The success of Romanticism among the public at large must be chiefly attributed to Horace Vernet, who was gifted with powers of observation, a prodigious memory, and great facility of conception and of execution. Already in 1819 his reputation had been made by his " Massacre of the Mamelukes " and a whole series of pictures relating to the First Empire which have contributed a share to the formation of the } Napoleonic legend ("The Dog of the Regiment," "The Trumpeter's Horse," "The Soldier of Waterloo," " The Soldier- Labourer "). Between 1830 and 1833 he produced his finest works, " The Pope's Walk," " Judith and Holofernes," " The Brigand's Confession." A voyage into Africa produced the fine Biblical scenes, " Rebecca and Eleazar," " Hagar and Abraham," " The Good Samaritan," also the charming genre pictures, " The Arab's Prayer," "The Desert Sentinel," "A Lion Hunt," and various battle scenes, interesting from the correctness of detail, the diversity of costume, the beauty of the horses, and the charm of the land- scapes. Among these the most celebrated are " The Taking of La Smala " and " Episodes of the Siege of Constantine." Horace Vernet excelled in the art of grouping and the broad treatment of masses. Decamps painted bright genre pictures and dazzling . Eastern scenes (" Break-up of a Turkish School," \"Halt of Arab Horsemen," &c.). His "Night 246 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. Rounds " made a great sensation. He was a fertile and varied painter, and succeeded in deriving original effects from his familiarity with the works of Rem- brandt and his acquaintance with the East. Eugene Deveria left a magnificent painting of the "Birth of Henry IV." (1827), and Hippolyte Flandrin was the author of some fine religious frescoes. LITHOGRAPHY AND DESIGN'. There has never been in France so brilliant a constellation of draughtsmen as during the Restora- tion and the July Government. Almost all the great painters produced remarkable lithographs. Delacroix's works in this line have already been mentioned, and to these should be added the " Lon- don Types " of Gericault, the bitter caricatures of Decamps, Jean Gigoux's illustrations to Beranger and " Gil Bias," Johannot's plates to Byron, Walter Scott, and Cooper, to the "Diable Boiteux," to "Don Quixote," to " Manon Lescaut," and to " Faust." Charlet celebrated the Napoleonic period. His firm and vigorous pencil reproduced such scenes as reach the heart of the multitude in "The Guard Dies," " The Soldier's Alms," " The Emperor and his Guard." He even painted, in strong and sober colours, "An Episode of the War in Russia" (1836), of which De Musset said, " It is Despair in the Desert." After 1830 Charlet devoted himself to passing scenes, and drew caricatures of manners, explaining them by a biting text, many phrases of which have since become proverbial. He was a moralist, with a true and original vision of nature. LITHOGRAPHY AND DESIGN. 247 Unfortunately, by representing the " Chauvinism " of his grumblers in the light of a favourable contrast to Parliamentarism, he has helped to diffuse among the masses the false idea that liberty and Imperialism were one and the same. His pupil Rafflet followed in the same path. He produced a masterpiece in the "Nocturnal Review" (1848). Gavarni, original in execution and able in his method, was one of the greatest of French draughts- men. He travelled indefatigably, and first attracted I /Attention by his Basque interiors, costumes, and manners. Later he did some pretty fashion plates (1830 to 1838), and became a keen and profound V observer of Parisian manners. The absurdities, the vices, and the trickeries of the capital found in him the most incisive of satirists. His students, his actresses, his lorettes, his enfants terribles, his costume balls, his female authors, his men in the street, are not less remarkable for their correct drawing than for the originality and sarcasm of their texts. Daumier was a creator of types, such as Bastien and Robert, the legendary assassins; M. Persil the r magistrate, who is capable of anything which may ensure his success in life; and last, but not least, Robert Macaire. Daumier was incomparable as a painter of the Orleanist bourgeoisie, with its legal functionaries, its taxpayers, its landlords and tenants, and its philanthropists. As a political controversialist he was of redoubtable strength. His " Legislative Belly," and the invention of a pear to represent the head of Louis Philippe, contributed not a little to the discredit of the July Monarchy. 248 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. Cham was not philosophical like Gavarni, nor politically of importance like Daumier. Rather was he the Paul de Kock of design. He limited himself to reproducing the smaller incidents of the street and of everyday life. His personages are insignifi- cant citizens, nursemaids, and soldiers, but in his line he is unsurpassable. Grandville was inferior as a caricaturist to the above-named trio of genius. His talent was real, but he pushed too far the style which had first made his success by endowing animals, plants, and even in- animate objects with the physiognomy, the passions and the absurdities of man. He achieved popularity by attacking the House of Orleans and its follow- ing in the prints known as " The Funeral Train of Liberty," "The Poultry-yard," and "The Greased Pole." Worthy of mention also are his illustrations of the fables of Lafontaine, and of Beranger's songs and of " Gulliver." SCULPTURE. JBUide was the revolutionary sculptor of the period. Stone throbbed with life beneath his touch ; it became invested with colour. His relief, " La Marseillaise " on the Arc de 1'Etoile (1838), is one of the greatest masterpieces of art. As one looks one seems to hear the voice of the terrible goddess, that superhuman call by which she summoned and carried away young and old to the defence of their native soil. One feels tempted to follow in the path along which her im- perious gesture has hurled the crowd. But Rude, like Genius itself, is unequal. His statue of Marechal SCULPTURE. 249 Ney, for instance, is theatrical rather than tragic, and the violent attitude of the figure is wanting altogether in grandeur. On the other hand, some of his works, such as " Mercury Binding on his Talaria" (1827) and The Neapolitan Fisher-boy," are full of classical beauty. David d'Angers endeavoured to create a national art. His principle was to render the soul of a great man by interpreting his moral side with the help of physiology. He made an interesting innovation in his manner of draping the nude, and from this point of view his statue of Conde (1817) is remarkable. The monument of Bonchamp (1824) and the "Fenelon" (1826) have an interest as being applica- tions to historical statuary of the theory of the sculptor that the decorative details of the basement should all be related to the principal theme. His masterpiece in this line is the monument to General Foy (1827), set about with the most distinguished men of the period, such as Chateau- briand, Royer-Collard, Casimir Perier, Benjamin Constant, Hugo, &c. Another example is the pedi- ment of the Pantheon, with the innumerable medal- lions which entitle the sculptor to be described as the historiographer of his time. Pradier was more essentially classical, and kept up the tradition of elegant grace, purity of line, finish, and voluptuous delicacy. He chose the nude by preference, having a great talent for reproducing the folds of the flesh, and the texture and fineness of the skin. His figures are almost all perfect, good examples being the "Bacchante" (1819), the "Psyche" (1824), 25O LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES* 1815-1848. the " Three Graces "(1831)," Venus and Love " ( 1 836), "Phryne" (1845), and "Sappho" (1848). Cl^singer was a sculptor of power and energy, but he was very unequal, and failed in carrying out his own colossal conceptions. By a curious contradic- tion, such of his works as are likely to prove enduring xare precisely those which are notable for grace, like the "Woman Bitten by a Serpent" (1847), tne //" Bacchante" (1848), and busts which in their living, breathing charm are the forerunners of the works of Carpeaux. Barye is the creator of a whole branch of art. Before his time the sculpture of animals was looked upon as inferior, and the public was only acquainted with the classical lion resting its paw on a ball and looking, like a well-bred poodle. Barye's "Tiger j/ Devouring a Crocodile" (1831) was a revelation, and his " Stag Overthrown by two Greyhounds " a triumph. He had studied animals with passion, and his bronzes reproduced not only their forms but their habits arid characters. We may cite " A Horse Overthrown by a Lion" (1833), " A Struggle between Two Bears" (1833), "A Dead Gazelle" (1833), and the " Lion with the Serpent " (1833). A RCHITECTURE. Romanticism had but little influence on architec- ture, which during the Restoration and the July Monarchy produced only mediocre works. There is nothing to mention except the continuation and completion of the Arc de Triomphe de 1'lttoile (1836), the commencement of the Madeleine (1842), Visconti's ARCHITECTURE MUSIC. 2$l fountains " Gaillon " (1824), " Louvois " (1835), "Moliere" (1841), St. Sulpice (1842), and Napoleon's tomb in the Invalides (1842), the work of the same artist. All architecture was classic, and obedient to the / strictest formula of the Academic des Beaux Arts, which was destined for a long time to imitate Greek and Roman monuments exclusively. It was only in 1837, when the Commission of Historical Monuments was nominated, that a movement of renascence was perceptible, and the habit began of seeking the elements of a new art in buildings on French soil and adapted to French customs and characters. At first religious inspiration prevailed, and this was the sentiment which presided over Lenoir's .restoration of the H6tel de Cluny, and the works of Lassus at St. - Germain l'Auxerrois( 1856), the Sainte-Chapelle(i84o), and Notre Dame (1845). MUSIC. Musicians were much more affected by the new ideas. Boieldieu was the recognised exponent of the French school. His talent, which was pleasing, graceful, and exhilarating, may be found entire in "La Dame Blanche" (1825), a comic opera which, by increase of orchestration and a florid style of song, formed the connecting link between the purely French genius of Mehu, and the Italo-French school which imitated Rossini. Herold is of the same order, possessing qualities of measure, of intelligence, of sober vigour ; he some- times achieves a dramatic effect, but real strength of 252 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. inspiration is lacking to him. His masterpieces are " Zampa " (1831) and " Le Pre aux Clercs " (1832). Halevy represents the pompous, conventional, and occasionally imposing style which reigned on the French stage during more than half a century. He is emotional, powerful, and has an instinct of great theatrical effects, but his method is vulgar. Halevy's style is essentially narrative, and " La Juive" (1835), " L'Eclair " (1835), " Les Mousquetaires de la Reine " (1846), and "Charles VI." (1843), furnished historic opera with its most important formulas. Auber pleases always by his melodiousness and the facile tunes which dwell easily in the memory. Almost all his operas, " La Muette de Portici " (1828), "Fra Diavolo" (1830), " Le Domino Noif " (1841), "Les Diamants de la Couronne " (1841), " Haydee " (1847), have achieved considerable success. Finally comes Adam, who in " Le Chalet " (1834) and " Le Postilion de Longjumeau " (1846) shows a true gift for collecting and developing popular airs. Meyerbeer represented eclecticism. In spite of his German origin, his qualities make him one of the great masters of French music. He has the lucidity which the French mind requires in all things, and he has a comprehension of scenic effects and a dramatic instinct. He knows how to take advantage of the orchestra, and to introduce contrasts between the singing of the violins and flutes, and the deep tones of the double basses and the crash of brass instru- ments. " Robert le Diable "(1831)," Les Huguenots " (1836), " Le Prophete" (1849), exhausted the gamut of feeling. Overpowering passion, melody, dramatic MUSIC. 253 /Xemotion, lofty love, picturesqueness, poetry, fancy all are there. Meyerbeer, in the universality of his style and the variety of his forms, is a marvellous link between the old and the new schools of music. The masters of romantic music, Berlioz and F^li- cien David, achieved a mixture of the Ode Symphony and the Dramatic Symphony; and created a French style which had less movement than the drama, but / was less severe than the oratorio. Berlioz was an ardent student of Weber, Gliick, v Beethoven, Shakespeare, Byron, and Hugo. His " Symphonic Fantastique " a vehement, exaggerated composition was followed by the dramatic symphony " Romeo et Juliette" (1839), and the " Damnation de Faust" (1846), which is the most faithful of all musical transcriptions of Goethe's masterpiece. Berlioz obtained little success at the theatre, as he would not make any concession to stage conventions of which he could only see the paltry side. His " Benvenuto Cellini" (1838) was outrageously hissed in spite of its admirable score and its picturesque fancy. The composer by his combativeness made too many enemies for success, but even when most abused his genius enabled him to exercise an immense influence. Felicien David was, in a sense, a painter, and the creator of the specialty of musical orientalism. His ./Instrumentation absorbed the attention of his listeners, and he began to make his reputation in 1844 with " Le Desert." We shall return to him after 1 848. SCIENCE. It would seem as if Romanticism had influenced 254 LETTERS^ ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. even Science. For between 1815 and 1848, it is not mathematical but physical sciences which make the greatest progress : that is to say, those sciences which demand the most imagination. Moreover, the resounding war waged between Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire recalls combats of the Romanticists and Classicists in the arena of Arts and Letters. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. Cauchy reconstituted entirely the theory of imagin- ary functions, and his labours resulted in the most striking progress which mathematical analysis has accomplished in this century. Leverrier resumed the calculation of planetary in- equalities. He defined the irregularities of the earth's motion round the sun ; completed the theory of Mercury ; continued the theory of the motions of Venus, and calculated the inequalities of Mars. He also found the solution of the perturbations of Uranus, and, by pure calculation, made the marvellous dk- covery of the planet Neptune which, exactly in the spot indicated by Leverrier, was perceived by a German astronomer on the 23rd of September, 1846. PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. Biot busied himself chiefly with the science of Optics. He made some able observations in this branch, and reduced to clear and precise laws the facts which he and his predecessors had collected (Biot's Laws). He also measured the velocity of the propagation of sound in solid bodies. His "Treatise on Experimental and Mathematical Physics" (i 8 1 6) was in its time a standard work. PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 255 Fresnel in 1820 invented the lens known by his name, and, in conjunction with Arago, the lantern furnished with concentric wicks which was first used in the lighthouse of Cordouan (1823). Ampere, whose mind was of a far-reaching, philosophical grasp, conceived the idea of a general classification of the sciences, an immense chart of human knowledge drawn up so logically that each science should be placed closest to that other with which it had the most analogy. In this way families, branches, and reigns were defined in a manner similar to that employed by Jussieu for plants and Cuvier for animals. But this enormous effort of thought was surpassed by Ampere's labours in the field of electro-magnetism. In 1820 he discovered the funda- mental truth that electric currents mutually attract and repulse one another. The fact thus established has had far-reaching results on the discovery and application of mechanics. Ampere solved at once all electro-dynamic problems by reducing them to questions of calculation (vide mechanicism of currents). He invented the galvanometer, and with Arago undertook experiments on the magnetisation of soft iron, which gave rise to a number of machines, among others the telegraph-printer, electro-magnetic motors, interrupters, and electric clocks. His theory of electric magnets destroyed the old hypothesis of two fluids, and proved the electrical nature of mag- netism. A final discovery, completed in 1832 by Faraday, resulted in the production by magnets, of the dazzling electric light. Arago, whose share in the labours of Fresnel and 256 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. Ampere has already been mentioned, was the author of the theory of undulations, by which the analogy between waves of light and sound was made evident. He also explained the scintillation of stars, and made some important researches into the maximum tension of vapour of water at an elevated temperature, besides inventing the photometer. Balard, by his discovery of bromine (1826) associ- ated with chlorine and iodine, started that idea of " families of simple bodies " which was epoch-making in the history of chemistry. Before Balard, said J. B. Dumas, " elements were considered independent of one another, but since the discovery of bromine it is clear that they form natural families, and that when any member of the family is still unknown, one may yet predict that it will eventu- ally be found and all its qualities with it." Balard also discovered the mode of utilising, in order to obtain sodium and potassium, the sediments of saline waters which up to his time had gone to waste (1830 ct seq^}. Chevreul studied fatty substances, dividing them into stearine, margarine, oleine, and showing how their acids could be applied to industry. One result of this has been the candle which has replaced the tallow dips and wax-lights of old ; while margarine has been applied to the creation of artificial butter in the large quantities known to modern enterprise. Chevreul's name is further associated at this period with valuable discoveries in relation to colour. His lectures on " Chemistry applied to Dyeing " date from 1831, and those on "The Simultaneous Contrast of Colours" from 1839. NATURAL SCIENCES. NATURAL SCIENCES. The great naturalists of the preceding period still occupy the scene. Lac^pede published in 1827 his "Natural History of Man," and in 1830 his " Ages of Nature." Cuvier in 1816 published his " Animal Kingdom " a summary of his views on the distribution of the animal kingdom as founded on organisation a work which formed the starting-point of a multitude of later researches. He terminated his magnificent career by publishing the "Natural History of Fishes" (1828), and the "History of Natural Sciences" (1830-33). Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire published the " Philosophy of Anatomy "in 1818-22. The great event of the period was the debate in 1830, between Cuvier and Saint-Hilaire, on the unity of organic composition in all animals. The scientific world of Europe followed the various phases of the discussion with rapt attention. Saint- Hilaire maintained that the unity existed and was of the greatest philosophical importance ; while Cuvier replied that reasoning in Natural History is produc- tive only of sterile hypotheses. Saint-Hilaire argued that germs are not pre-existent, but form and develop themselves, and that the animals alive to-day have descended through an uninterrupted series of generations from the lost animals of the ante- diluvian world. Cuvier retorted that if species have changed by degrees some trace should be found of these gradual modifications. He admitted that there 18 25$ LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. might be some very small number of structural plans in the infinite variety of anatomical forms, but he absolutely rejected the idea of unity. In a word, the discussion was yet another form of the eternal battle between analysis and synthesis. Elie de Beaumont was the inventor of Stratigraphy, Together with Brochant de Villiers and Dufrenoy he drew up, between 1826 and 1844, the magnificent " Geological Chart of France." MEDICAL SCIENCE. The period is not distinguished by any great anatomical discoveries. Comparative anatomy pro- gressed, and still more did histiology, to which a great impulse was given by the microscope constructed in 1824 by Chevalier. Physiology made rapid strides, thanks to Magendie's researches into morphine, strychnine, quinine, iodine^ prussic acid, &c. He exploded the ancient ideas about animism and vitalism, and proclaimed the truth that experimental methods alone can demonstrate physiological laws. Flourens, by a series of experiments on the nervous system, in 1825, evolved some remarkable theories on the seat of consciousness ; and to his valuable studies on Embryogeny (1836) we owe an extended know- ledge of the relations between physiology and medi- cine. Among the great doctors of the time are Bouillaud (diseases of the heart), Louis (fever and phthisis), Trousseau (fever) ; and in, the list of great surgeons are Dupuytren, almost as renowned for his bluntness, MEDICAL SCIENCE. his originality and his display, as for his professional capability and his profound knowledge; and Velpeau, who was the first author in France of a " Manual of Anatomical Surgery" (1825-26); while celebrated in the region of medical jurisprudence was Orfila, who wrote a " Treatise on Poisons," published in 1815, and a work on " Legal Medicine" in 1821-23. Seeking now to generalise our conclusions and define the dominating character of the fertile, complex and busy period we have been studying, we see that the revolt of Romanticism against the philosophical spirit of the eighteenth century produced a religious revival which, up to 1848, inspired poetry and fiction, parliamentary debates, pamphleteering, sociological Utopias, and philosophical dissertations. But when religion is made the subject of free dis- cussion, its essence, which is faith, vanishes. And in point of fact all this great tide of religion, which did not spring from the soul, but was of merely literary origin, disappeared abruptly in the Socialist explosion of 1848, like a river which is suddenly engulfed. Qn the other hand, however, the triumph of Roman- ticism in the domain of ideas completed the revolu- tion which, in 1789, had been accomplished on the social side. ^ The overthrow of Classicism was the end of a secular tradition. History arose and taught the world that political forms are not immutable, but may be attacked in the very elements which have contributed to their creation, and that the only direction which they take is determined by the hazard of brute force the brute force of united material interests. Here 260 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1815-1848. we have a sufficient explanation of the violent ex- cesses which marked the struggle between Romanti- cists and Classicists. The contending parties instinctively felt that the consequences of victory would reach farther than the triumph of such or such a formula of art. A mass of contradictory, and therefore subversive, ideas cannot be hurled with impunity into the minds of the multi- tude. These ideas were destined to germinate, and after destroying Absolute Monarchy (which is Political y Classicism), they uprooted Constitutional Monarchy, and finally led to the triumph of jCggsarism^ which is the political incarnation of Romanticism. "It is not liberty which is new in France," said Madame de Stael, " but tyranny." XI. THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. (February 24, 1848 December I, 1851.) AFTER the Revolution of 1789 no event has been so far-reaching, or so fraught with political and social consequences to France, as the Revolution of 1848. All Europe was affected by the nationalist and demo- cratic spirit which now awoke after the long repres- sion dating from 1815. The period, then, is one which deserves that we should briefly describe the state of French society on the 24th of February, 1848, and the principal characters of a movement which, without being accompanied by any wars comparable to those of the first Revolution and the Empire, yet extended beyond the frontiers of France, roused first Italy and then Germany, and is largely responsible for the political institutions of both countries. The French nobility no longer existed, for the old families had not recovered from the blows inflicted in 1789, and the new creations made by Napoleon not only had failed to take root in the nation, but had also been unable to preserve their newly acquired 261 262 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. wealth from the havoc worked by the laws of succes- sion. The majority of titled persons had rallied round Louis-Philippe as they would have done round any other government, for the reason that they were eager for posts and salaries. A minority only, faithful to legitimacy, had entrenched themselves in a dignified, if sulky, opposition to the younger royal branch. Neither on one side nor on the other was there any appreciable social influence on which any govern- ment could place reliance. The clergy were not more influential than the nobility, for their attitude and their claims during the reign of Charles X. had caused them to be mistrusted by all true Liberals. They had begun now to detach themselves from the monarchical party, partly because they had been injured by their close alliance with the last of the Bourbons, and partly because, prescient, if unconsciously so, of the social evolution which was to mark the middle of the century, they began to drift towards the masses who were henceforth to be the source of power. The most intelligent members of the priestly party hoisted the Liberal flag ; but since nothing could be more opposed to the disciplined hierarchy of the Roman Church than liberty, it is evident that the new move was simply an effort to recover ancient power. The priests had not been able to resign themselves to the loss of their former political preponderance, and hoped for better times in the immediate future. To realise this hope they con- sented to flatter popular passions, but no sooner did these turn against them, no sooner did they perceive a possibility of invoking secular aid for the recovery THE PUBLIC SPIRIT IN 1848. 263 of their power, than they unanimously deserted the Liberal camp and returned at once to the cause of authority. The middle classes were no longer what they had been in 1830. The bourgeoisie, qualified electors and National Guards alike, after three fruit- less experiments, had at last awakened to the fact that they were rather simple and even rather vain in imagining that they could install a Representa- tive Monarchy in Revolutionary France. Liberals had failed to find, under the monarchy of July, the progressive satisfaction of their desires which they had expected, since the normal course of develop- ment of the principles of 1830 had been abruptly dut short in the middle of the reign. Other classes, and especially the electors, whose great preoccupa- tion was to have material security, or, in other words, whose chief characteristic was an unyielding egotism, had lived too long in the midst of riots and alarms, and in the fear of unknown dangers, to feel any great attachment for the Orleans dynasty. Consequently the revolution of the 23rd of February excited some sympathy for the cause of electoral reform, but was met on the other hand by a total indifference to the form of government. As to the proletariate, the peasantry were sceptical on the subject of pure politics, but their temperament and the revolutionary origin of their property inclined them to theories of equality ; while the artisan, who alone perhaps still nourished a living political faith in the midst of general lassitude, was growing each day in importance with the progress of industrial enterprises, and, finding the economical vicissitudes 264 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. of his existence already hard to bear, aspired to the rights of citizenship so that he might defend his own interests and thus undertake a task which, as he con- ceived, everybody else had neglected. The bourgeoisie or middle classes then accepted the Republic in this sense, that they desired no longer to waste their time or their strength in supporting ephemeral privileges behind which to shelter themselves ; the peasantry accepted it because, while satisfying their preference for equality, it allowed them to sell their wheat and their cattle in peace ; and the artisan not only accepted, but ardently desired it, because he thought it promised the dawn of social regeneration. Consequently it was with the general, not to say unanimous, consent of all classes that on the 26th of February the Provisional Government proclaimed a Republic. But what form was this Republic to take ? Every sort had been tried during the first Revolution, and the only difficulty was to choose between so many models. Chance succeeded where human wisdom might have failed. On the 24th, in a long speech, delivered in the Chamber which was filled with people, Lamar- tine had proposed that the Provisional Government should summon to a national consultation the whole country " yes, every man who as a man was entitled to be considered a citizen." And thus it came about that France passed abruptly from an electorate of two I hundred and fifty thousand individuals to one of ten millions. A decree of the 4th of March established that all Frenchmen who had attained the age of THE UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 26$ twenty-one and could prove six months' residence in a commune should be entitled to vote. This was universal suffrage, unadulterated and direct, carrying with it the obligation for each elector to choose, not one deputy, but the whole list for his department, and conferring upon him at the same time the power to select these repre- sentatives wherever he liked, among the poor or the rich since deputies were henceforward to be paid twenty-five francs per diem, and consequently no longer needed a property qualification. An im- provised measure of such proportions was alarming. Real Republicans like Louis Blanc, Ledru-Rollin, and others, knowing the ignorance of the country, felt uneasy. Later some consolation was derived from a witticism. " To punish M. Guizot for having refused the assistance of men of ability, the assist- ance of all men of inability has been decreed at a stroke," said some one. Meanwhile joyful preparations were being made everywhere for the elections, which had been fixed for the month of April, a date necessitated by the time required to register the names of all the new electors. The Republicans marched boldly to battle, resolute to do what in them lay to make up for the ignorance of the mass. Catholics and Legitimists awaited the result of the elections with confidence being convinced, although wrongly, that the country was with them ; and the Bonapartists were also in good spirits, feeling sure, and not without grounds, that, in certain country districts, the Napoleonic legend was still sufficiently vigorous to 266 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. afford them some advantage. The Orleanists alone were depressed, but that was not surprising in a party so recently defeated. The elections passed off amid almost religious calm and general enthusiasm. Out of 900 members to the National Assembly 100 proved to be Legiti- mists, and the remaining 800 were either Republicans or so-called Republicans, of whom the majority, however, were incontestably moderate. But by the 4th of May, when the first meeting took place, the situation was already radically changed. Nothing could have testified better to the generosity, one might almost say the candid sim- plicity, of the Provisional Government than the series of decrees issued between the 24th of February and the end of April. The abolition of death sentences for political offences ; annulment of all current processes and punishments against political offenders ; the suppression of the heavy stamp duty imposed on newspapers ; the abrogation of the / Press Laws of the 9th of September, 1835; the emancipation of slaves in the colonies ; the facilita- tion of naturalisation for foreigners such were the various measures which proved how strong was the impulse in all men of feeling heart, not only to relieve the nation of laws from which they had them- selves suffered, but also to bestow new and precious privileges upon humanity. The simplicity of these same men betrayed itself in the decree of the 8th of March, by which the National Guard, constituted with some care under the preceding Government, was suddenly enlarged LAMARTINE'S MANIFESTO. 267 so as to admit all Frenchmen between the ages of twenty-one and fifty-five years, at the risk, naturally, of arming all the worst members of the population. Yet another example of the same sort was the celebrated manifesto to the Powers of Europe (4th of March) wherein Lamartine announced that the Inter- national Treaties of 1815 had ceased to exist legally for the French Republic, but that " the prudence of the Republic was for Europe a better and more honourable guarantee than the letter of treaties which had been so often violated or modified." And when, some days later, there was urgent need of money, both to supply the deficit of the Treasury for the payment of bonds and to reimburse the depositors in the savings bank who had been seized with panic, and the Government ordered that imposts should be paid in advance, that direct taxation should be increased by one half, and an additional sum raised by taxing mortgages, the honest but ingenuous authors of these plans were absolutely stupefied at the unfavourable reception which they met with from the public. Other difficulties awaited them, more serious even than financial ones. Under cover of the new laws on the Press, a number of journals had been founded, some of which were very violent and * espoused socialistic or, even, communist opinions. Moreover, the clubs which had existed during the first Revolution had been revived, and among their members were not only dreamers, but also the most renowned conspirators of the July Monarchy, who were engaged in perfecting their organisation by instituting, under the name of Club of the Clubs, a 268 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. central authority intended to control all the political associations of the capital. Thus the machinery for popular manifestations and even risings was ready, while military support could be obtained from the National Guard. As a point of fact, various street tumults took place. One, on the i6th of March, was caused by discontent at the dissolution of the compagnies d elite, or picked troops of the National Guard. On the i/th another was got up to demand the adjournment of the election to the Assembly, which, it was feared, might be reactionary ; and this was followed, on the i6th of April, by a further rising which had for object to signify that if a majority of Monarchists were returned, recourse would be had to arms. And as the Provisional Government, by entering into negotiations, and sometimes giving way, developed by degrees in the rioters a consciousness of their own power, only a good opportunity was needed to provoke a real insurrection, and this was soon furnished by the growing agitation about social questions. For several years past the Socialists had taught that the first duty of the State was to furnish work to those in need of it, and to organise this same labour in such a way that every worker might each day have time sufficient for education and repose. This doctrine formed the subject of a work of Louis Blanc's which appeared in 1839, under the title of " Organisation of Labour," and gave currency among the proletariate to the idea that a simple law was all that the problem needed for solution. The Provisional Government, to a certain extent THE LUXEMBOURG COMMISSION. 269 also dominated by Socialist ideas, but still more impelled by the circumstances of the moment, had taken two very grave resolutions. On the 2/th of February it instituted national workshops, wherein for a small but fixed wage the numerous artisans whom the economical crisis had thrown out of work were formed into gangs and employed in earthworks; and on the 28th it opened in the Luxembourg Palace, under the presidency of Louis Blanc, a kind of working man's parliament, composed of two hun- dred delegates from the different trades who were to prepare a project for the organisation of labour to be presented to the Constituent Assembly. The conferences held at the Luxembourg Palace resulted in some practical suggestions of reform, but, above all, in a vast exposition of theoretical views. Among the first class may be mentioned the founda- tion of several co-operative associations for produc- tion, and the decree of the 2nd of March, which set a limit to the hours of daily labour in factories, and made the hiring of workmen by middlemen for profit illegal. 1 It was found, however, impossible to apply this decree. As to the theoretical views, they assigned to the future the task of attacking financial feudalism and bridling competition, suggesting, as means to these ends, associations of workmen and the disinterested intervention of the State. The State, for instance, was to buy up mines, railways, and canals, and to carry on agricultural enterprises, with the double 1 Middlemen hired workmen for masters in return for a fixed sum to be paid by the workmen out of their wages. 2/O THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. object of occupying the unemployed and diminishing the profits of landlords and shareholders. Banks and assurance companies were also to be nationalised ; the State was to institute a system of commercial and territorial credit, exchange was to be regulated by marts where no middlemen should intervene, sale prices were to be fixed, and ruinous competition in this way averted. Of all these ideas not one received a practical application, but they constituted a programme which, in its essence, is still that of the present-day Socialists. And although Louis Blanc and his friends carefully repudiated recourse to violence, the richer classes began to feel alarmed. As to the national workshops, the suggestion was not entirely novel. Elizabeth's Poor Law, the "cahiers" of 1789, the Decrees of the National Convention, all proclaimed a desire to find work for the able-bodied and to provide for the weakly. The thought was a generous one^ but extraordinarily difficult to carry out, since to proclaim the right of everybody to means of subsistence was to impose upon the State the obligation of providing work and aid in inverse proportion to the prosperity of the market and the wealth of the Treasury. The events of 1 848 revealed that which those least gifted with foresight ought to have foreseen. The number of workmen who applied in a few weeks to / the national workshops was more than one hun- dred thousand. Real work for all was not to be procured, and recourse was had to interim salaries for the unemployed, who thus, like the true workers, THE COMMITTEE OF FIVE. 2JI lived at the expense of the State, and, becoming accustomed to this comparatively easy life, naturally inclined to resort to revolutionary methods the day on which the harassed Government was- driven by want of money to cease from its costly experiment. In spite of these various measures, which were preparing trouble for the future, but of which the ill effects were not immediately visible, the National Assembly was justified in declaring solemnly on the 8th of May that the Provisional Government had deserved well of the country. It had, in fact, suc- ceeded in preserving order without bloodshed at a moment when all the public departments were dis- organised. Unfortunately this peaceful state of affairs was not destined to continue. While awaiting the vote on the future constitution, the Assembly assigned executive functions to a Com- mittee of Five (May 10), namely Arago, Gamier- Pages, Marie, Lamartine, and Ledru-Rollin, none of whom were Socialists. The resolute exclusion of this party from power irritated a considerable portion of the Parisians, and caused the Assembly to be sus- pected of reactionary tendencies. On the I5th of /he same month, on pretence of demanding that the Jrovernment should encourage the Polish insurrection, a procession invaded the Legislative Chamber, and had to be dispersed by the National Guard. This incident had a disturbing effect on everybody. The / Assembly was alarmed at being at the mercy of the mob. It suspected the Executive of weakness, per- haps of complicity. At the same time it caused uneasiness to foreign powers by expressing (May 2/2 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. 24) the wish that Germany might be united, Poland and Italy freed, and simultaneously roused apprehen- sions in the more advanced sections of the Parisians by demanding that measures should be taken against the leaders of the recent demonstration. A grave mistake of the Assembly and a serious error of judgment on the part of the Executive, com- bined to precipitate events. The Assembly was anxious to close the national workshops, which it regarded as costly and dangerous, and while always protesting that the operation should be carried through by degrees, it lost no opportunity of attack- ing the Government on the subject. The Executive first hesitated, then wildly decided all at once, on the 2 1st of June, that all workmen between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five should be peremptorily ordered to choose between military service and dis- missal from the workshops, while older men should receive assistance towards obtaining employment in the provinces. This abrupt determination to which effect began to be given on the very following day caused great popular excitement. The National Guard made common cause with the regular troops in the wealthier quarters, but in the poorer quarters it sided with the insurrectionists. On the 23rd there were barricades all over Paris ; on the 24th the Assembly proclaimed the state of siege, accepted the resignation of the Five, and handed over all executive functions to General Cavaignac, the Minister of War. During four days a sanguinary battle raged, and although Cavaignac was eventually victorious, his CAVAIGNAC, MINISTER OF WAR. 2/3 triumph left an inexorable resentment in the hearts of the people, and the Assembly inflicted a death- blow upon its own popularity by decreeing the exile of several thousand insurgents (June 27). Cavaignac had long been well known for his Republican opinions, consequently the events of the month of June, although rendering him victorious over revolutionary socialism, failed to ensure for him the support of the middle class and provincial popu- lations, who, terrified, were determined to find a saviour of some sort. Cavaignac did all that was in his power to re- establish public order, and to maintain, it with the help of a moderate Ministry formed from members of the Left. At his suggestion the guarantee was once more exacted from all newspapers, clubs a^frd meet- ings were only licensed when their organisers had made satisfactory declarations to Government, and members of the Assembly who appeared to have encouraged the recent risings were put upon their trial. But Cavaignac was as firm in repressing the propaganda of Royalists and Bonapartists as of Revolutionists. Consequently when the Bonapartists, feeling the approaching reaction, began to recover confidence, and when Prince Louis-Napoleon suc- ceeded in getting himself returned at a bye-election, the Assembly, which had at first supported Cavaignac and his policy, commenced to find fault with him and to lower him in public estimation. Such was the situation when the Constitution of the 4th of November, 1 848, was promulgated. This 19 274 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. Constitution, born in the midst of storms, showed on the' part of its originators extraordinary ignorance of the essential conditions of public life. The pre- amble recited the rights and duties of the citizen, and if the Assembly had not yet the courage to proclaim every man's right to work, it affirmed at least his right to assistance. The Constitution pro- vided a Council of State, for the elaboration of projects of law, which the Legislative Chamber was to elect for six years. The Chamber itself was composed of 750 members, elected for three years by universal, direct suffrage, the voting to be by departmental ballot. The Assembly fixed the date and duration of its own sessions, and could not be dissolved before the expiration of the specified time. The President of the Republic for there was no longer any talk of a committee as head of the Executive was also to be elected by direct, uni- versal suffrage for four years, at the end of which period he would be no longer eligible. He was empowered to name and dismiss his ministers, who, on their side, were to be as responsible as himself. Not content with having instituted a Single Chamber and given to the head of the State an electoral basis wider than that of the Chamber itself; not content with having given permanency to the Assembly and roused the ambition of the President by forbidding his re-eligibility, nor with having endeavoured to reconcile two irreconcilable respon- sibilities, that of the head of the State and that of his ministers, the Constitution of 1848 further rendered all revision of its work a quasi-impossibility, THE CONSTITUTION OF 1848. 2/5 by decreeing that motions for revision should be voted three times with an interval of a month between each vote, by a majority of three-fourths of the Chamber, and that even then the revision should be made by a specially constituted body. Such measures appeared lightheartedly designed for breeding unappeasable dissensions, and among them all none was more fraught with danger than the method appointed for electing the President. He was to be chosen by an enormous popular vote, and in a country like France, with a highly cen- tralised Government and an electorate but little accustomed to the exercise of its political rights, he could not fail to think himself superior to an Assembly which offered no real counterpoise to his authority. But no argument availed to convince the Assembly of the danger it was incurring. " We must trust to Providence," cried Lamartine, in a fine oratorical out- burst ; and not even the simple precaution was taken of declaring ineligible to the Presidency any member of the families which had reigned over France. And there was one Prince whose ancestors had ceased to reign long enough for their virtues alone to be remembered, whose name recalled both a period of military glory and a period of revolution, while seeming at the same time to combine the traditions of equality so dear to all Frenchmen, and the auto- cracy which is welcome at moments of social trouble and political indecision. This Prince Louis-Napo- leon Bonaparte, son of Louis one time King of Holland, and nephew of the Great Napoleon was 2/6 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. only known personally by his foolish adventures at Strasburg and Boulogne, and by certain works stamped with a kind of mystic socialism which he had written during his captivity in the fortress of Ham. On being elected to the Chamber he had declared himself a Republican, while maintaining an attitude of prudent reserve which disarmed hatred and allayed suspicion or fear. On the loth of December, 1848, he was chosen President of the Republic by the enormous majority of five millions and a half against one million and a half of votes cast for Cavaignac. Napoleon I. had been proclaimed Emperor by the nation, because he appeared the supreme per- sonification of that civil equality which the forces of reaction were endangering; and similarly Louis- Napoleon was made President for the sake of pre- serving the political equality which had been only recently acquired. If this acquisition were threatened in its turn, then the Prince-President had but to make a sign to become Emperor himself. And the opportunity for this transformation was soon to be afforded him by the divisions and hatreds between all parties, by the weakness of the governing classes and the growing lassitude of the country. While * awaiting this inevitable consummation, he showed great dexterity in ingratiating himself with men of the day, and making use of them all without com- mitting himself with any of them. He knew how to turn any loss of credit in others to his own advan- tage, and gradually built his power on the ruins of liberty. LOUIS-NAPOLEON'S PRESIDENCY. 277 The Constituent Assembly survived the election of the roth of December a few months, and passed various laws on the Council of State, the mode of proceeding to elections, and other things necessary to the machinery of government. Louis-Napoleon was installed as President, and chose for his first Cabinet, on the 3oth of December, men who were members of the old dynastic Left during the reign of Louis-Philippe. The Premier was Odilon Barrot, whom the last king had called upon to save the crown when it was already too late. But the dynastic Left had changed in the twelvemonth since 1847, and when the Cabinet instituted new proceedings against secret societies, and introduced a law pro- hibiting clubs, it found itself on several occasions in a minority. So far from resigning, however, it presided at the general election on the I3th of May, 1849. These elections, which differed widely from those of the preceding year, returned a Legislative Assembly of singularly mixed element. Moderate Republicans were reduced to about eighty members, while the advanced section obtained 180 seats. Paris, Lyons, the greater number of the large towns, and even the army, on which votes had been conferred by the new electoral law, returned Extreme Radicals. There were 450 Monarchists elected, but they represented all shades of opinion as to what particular monarch they would prefer to see on the throne of France, being some of them Bonapartists, others Legitimists (more numerous than formerly), and the greater number Orleanists, although among these again there were not sufficient to form a majority in Parliament. 2/8 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. Louis-Napoleon took little pains to apply parlia- mentary rules as to choosing ministers whose views were in accord with those of the nation's representa- tives. Just as he had formed his Cabinet of the 3