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<Dth of September,
1791, after embodying a final impulse of disinterested-
ness in the ordinance that none of its members should
be eligible to the Legislative, by which decision it
deprived the latter of the services of the few experi-
enced men whom the first years of the Revolution
had formed.
And the new Assembly having to deal with a weak
ministry and a King whom the nation did not trust,
immediately appointed permanent Commissions to
discharge the various functions of government.
The Assembly was divided into three principal
parties : namely the Feuillants (so called after a club
wherein they held their meetings), who represented
the old constitutional ideas and believed that the
problems of the hour could be solved by imitating
English institutions ; the Montagnards, who formed
what to-day would be called the Extreme Left, and
were ready to establish their coveted Republic by
violence if necessary ; finally the Girondins, who
counted Vergniaud, Guadet, and Gensonne among
their members and were for the time being in the
ascendant, and who, although no Royalists, yet showed
greater moderation and respect for legality than their
rivals.
The Assembly began with two measures, the severity
of which was rendered excusable by the growing sense
of national peril.
28 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
The Nonjurant priests who would not subscribe to
the Civil Constitution of the Clergy were deprived of
their salaries, and the emigrants, who at Brussels and
in the valley of the Rhine were stirring up a foreign
invasion of France, were denounced as conspirators,
whose property was to be seized for the benefit of the
National Treasury.
And the King of Prussia and the Emperor Leopold,
in the declaration of Pilnitz on the 2/th of August,
1791, having proclaimed their intention of inter-
vening to restore Louis XVI. to his former rights, the
Assembly requested the King officially to warn these
Powers to cease from their warlike preparations.
At this time there was no idea in France of starting
on a career of European conquest. The only aspira-
tion of the people was to have their liberty and in-
dependence respected, and if only their neighbours
allowed them to manage their own affairs they did
not contemplate disturbing the peace of any nation.
But when the Imperial Chancellor Kaunitz replied to
the representations of Louis XVI. by proclaiming
" the legitimacy of the League of Sovereigns for the
honour and safety of their crowns," the French pre-
pared resolutely to defend their territory against
invasion.
And from the day that w r ar thus broke out in
Europe, the Revolution inevitably changed its cha-
racter, and, ceasing to be peaceable and humanitarian,
became, as was natural, aggressive and bitterly war-
like.
In all these events the course adopted by Louis
XVI. was one of duplicity, for while officially acting
THE G IRON DIN MINISTRY. 2$
in accordance with the orders of the Assembly, he
secretly incited his brother monarchs to despatch
armed forces against France.
In March, 1792, he accepted a Girondin Ministry
composed of such men as Servan, Dumouriez, and
Roland, and solemnly declared war on the 2Oth of
April against Leopold, while at the same time
secretly sending messengers to encourage the advance
of the Austrian army. This treasonable behaviour
was divined by, rather than known to, the people,
whose suspicions changed into certainty at the first
defeat inflicted upon French arms. The Girondin
Cabinet resigned on the refusal of Louis to sanction
the decree of expulsion against the Nonjurant eccle-
siastics, and was succeeded perforce by a ministry
chosen from the feeble faction of the Feuillants ; and
popular passion, already excited, was further inflamed
by the Manifesto, dated the 26th of July, in which
the Duke of Brunswick, Commander-in-Chief of the
Prussian Army, announced that he was commissioned
to restore the French sovereign to the full enjoyment
of his rights.
Once already, on the 2Oth of June, an angry
crowd had invaded the Tuileries and threatened
the King, and on the loth of August a second out-
break drove Louis to seek safety in the Assembly,
from whence he passed to spend his last sad days
in the Temple prison, and finally to m'eet death on
the scaffold.
The populace was now master of Paris and the
Government. The municipal officers, elected by the
people and commanded by Danton, continued to
THE REIGN OF TERROR. 3!
flatter the mob until the day when men even more
violent than themselves supplanted them.
On the arrival of the news that Longwy and
Verdun were occupied, the populace stormed the
prisons and murdered nearly a thousand aristocrats
and priests, thus inaugurating the Terror which was
later to become a system of official government.
The Legislative Assembly was fully alive to the
perils which threatened the frontier, and before pro-
ceeding even to the deposition of the King, it issued
a proclamation calling volunteers to arms for the
defence of the country.
Then it decided to dissolve itself, and to take steps
for the convocation of a National Convention which
should be invested with the full authority required
to save France from her enemies. For the moment
all talk about the division or equilibrium of governing
powers was at an end. Patriotism was in the ascen-
dant, and thousands of soldiers rallied round the flag.
Raw recruits, enrolled among the fragments of the
old army, met the Prussians at Valmy on the 3Oth
of September, and drove them back from the eastern
frontier, while a further victory at Jemmapes on the
8th of November conferred possession on France of
the Low Countries, now known as Belgium.
Before the pressing needs of the hour but one
thought predominated, that of forming a government
strong enough to cope with foreign and domestic
foes. This led, not as yet to the Dictatorship of one
man, but to the tyranny of the Assembly. Foreign
interference therefore had the threefold effect of
overthrowing the monarchy, rousing the lust of
conquest, and annihilating liberty in France.
II.
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
{September 20, 1792 October 26, 1795.)
SOME years later than the events just detailed,
Sieyes, as spokesman of the very men who during
the Terror shone by their absence and were remark-
able chiefly for cowardice, chose to describe the
National Convention in withering terms. It was a
body, he said, of men " audacious without genius,
whose incomprehensible force, whose monstrous
unexampled authority, was derived from their profes-
sions of liberty. Insensate and ferocious, they created
obstacles while destroying the means of government,
and when irritated by opposition they punished
France for their own incapacity as rulers."
This severe indictment may be just in some
respects, but whatever were the excesses and violence
of the National Convention, it was, taken as a whole,
a great assembly, not unworthy to be compared with
the noble examples of antiquity. If guilty, as one
must admit, of terrible and often needless cruelty in
the slaughter of some thousands of "suspects" belong-
ing to the aristocracy, the priesthood, and the military,
it yet saved France from foreign invasion, and defended
ABOLITION OF ROYALTY. 33
the principles of the Revolution against the attacks of
every crowned head in Europe.
The Convention destroyed itself, indeed, by sending
many of its own members to the scaffold ; but on the
other hand it furnished extraordinary examples of
courage, as when, for instance, Danton, condemned
in his turn to the doom which he formerly pronounced
on others, refused to fly, for the reason, as he alleged,
that " a citizen does not carry his country with him
on the soles of his feet."
And if foreign and domestic feuds absorbed the
chief energies of the Convention, it still found time,
in its innumerable committees, to accomplish an
enormous amount of legislative work, wherein idealist
conceptions mingled with practical aims, and which,
chaotic and unfinished though it might be, yet laid
the foundation of a genuine progress.
The Convention met on the 2ist of September,
1792.
On the same day it decreed the abolition of royalty,
but this was merely to kill the slain, for Louis was
already a prisoner and of no further account in public
eyes.
By this decree the Convention declared the will
of the people to be the source of all constitutions, and
the plebiscite necessarily sprang from the affirmation
of this principle.
By this time the Girondin faction had lost all
authority, and as external complications became
more threatening, the Moderates, or so-called Party of
the Plain, gave way before the increasing power of
the ardent and audacious " Mountaineers."
4
34
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
Danton and Robespierre, destined a few months
later to be at bitter enmity, united for the moment
in demanding the trial of Louis XVI. On the nth
of December he was summoned to the bar of the
DANTON.
Convention to answer to the charge of conspiracy
against public liberty and national safety.
After a unanimous verdict of "guilty," he was
condemned to death by 387 votes against 338 which
were given in favour of a milder punishment. His
execution, which took place on the 2ist of January,
THE FIRST COALITION. 35
1793, not only ushered in the sanguinary Reign of
Terror, but was an act of defiance towards the
Coalition.
Already the crowned heads of Europe had been
thrown into consternation by the undertaking of the
National Convention to afford "help and sympathy
to all nations struggling to recover their liberties "
(Decree of the iQth of November, 1792); and now
the execution of Louis seemed to threaten the life
of every king, while the evident inclination of the
Parisians to push their revolutionary propaganda
beyond their own frontiers was not likely to reassure
the timid or calm the perturbed.
On all sides preparations were made and negotia-
tions begun towards repressing the dangerous move-
ment.
Instead of waiting for the action of its enemies,
the Convention preferred to anticipate it. So far,
France had been at war only with Austria and
Prussia, but in March and April hostilities were
declared successively against England, Holland, and
Spain. At the same time the whole Germanic Con-
federation made common cause with the enemies of
the Republic.
Nor were foreign wars the only danger against
which the Convention had to contend. For some
months past the Western provinces, such as Lower
Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, and La Vendee,, had
been in a state of agitation, caused by the outrage
inflicted on the sentiment of Roman Catholicism,
still so fervent in those provinces, by the Civil Con-
stitution of the Clergy, and heightened by the exas-
36 THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
peration of the loyalists at the execution of Louis
XVI. It is from this period that dates the dreamy
mysticism which we note as being the modern
characteristic of Legitimist doctrines.
A terrible insurrection, headed by the nobles and the
priests, broke out in the disaffected provinces where
patriotism was still too feeble to allow of the popu-
lations acquiescing in the levees en masse which the
Convention had ordered for the formation of its army.
No common energy was necessary to show a bold
front to so many enemies, both foreign and domestic,
and in this respect the Convention did not prove
itself unequal to the task before it.
Neither the news that Tabago and Pondicherry
had surrendered to the English, nor the graver defeat
of Dumouriez at Neerwinden, followed by the
treachery of this general who went over to the
enemy, nor yet the invasion of the northern frontier
availed to shake the courage of the governing body.
The measures necessary for forming and increasing
the army were energetically pursued, and in a few
weeks 1 20,000 men were enrolled and equipped, and
while the Committee of General Security directed its
attention to the discovery of " traitors " who, many
of them innocent victims, were handed over to the
revolutionary tribunals, the Committee of Public
Salvation addressed itself entirely to the defence of
the country against external foes.
A terrible famine meanwhile reigned throughout the
land, and the Convention put the finishing touch to
the state of siege which had been proclaimed for the
whole of France, by draconian laws against monopo-
ACTION AGAINST MONOPOLISTS.
37
ists, and the establishment of a maximum tariff
beyond which it was forbidden to sell articles of food
MARIE ANTOINETTE.
This iron despotism was made excusable by the
pressing peril of the hour, but its own abuses dis-
38 THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
credited it. Suspicion and alarm, calumny and
denunciation were rampant.
Since the trial of Louis XVI. the Mountain had
regarded the Girondins as lacking in zeal, and it
presently launched the further accusation of
" federalism " and consequently high treason when
the same party sought to extenuate to some extent
the resistance shown to the new ideas by Bordeaux
and Lyons. The Girondins also committed the fatal
imprudence of requiring the Convention to put Marat
on his trial.
This sinister personage, a journalist and a deputy,
was accustomed daily to clamour for the execution
of such nobles or priests as were still on French
soil ; but when brought himself before the Revolu-
tionary Tribunal he was acquitted. The mob
escorted him in triumph to the Assembly, and this
body, terror-stricken, on the 2nd of June voted a
decree of arrest against thirty-one Girondin deputies.
For the moment the Mountain was master of the
situation. Bad news poured in incessantly on all
sides. Caen and Marseilles imitated the risings in
Lyons and Bordeaux, while in the Cevennes and
the western provinces the peasants were in revolt.
Toulon had been surrendered to the British, Mayence
had capitulated, Conde and Valenciennes were
occupied by the Austrians (July to August, 1/93).
Nevertheless, the Committee of Public Salvation
worked with feverish energy, some members going
in person to visit the various armies, while from Paris
the great Carnot issued plans and orders for defence.
Nor did the Committee of General Security slumber,
ROBESPIERRE. 39
but, armed with the terrible law against Suspects, it
despatched emissaries to the provinces to superintend
the imprisonments and executions which had been
decreed. Before the close of the year the insurgents
of the west had been driven back from the principal
towns, Bordeaux and Lyons were pacified, Bonaparte
had recaptured Toulon, and Jourdan had been
appointed to the command of the Army of the
North.
But the Queen, Marie Antoinette, all Girondin
leaders, several generals suspected of treason or only
of weakness, a'nd many others too numerous to
mention, had met their death on the scaffold.
The Mountain itself was breaking up into factions,
and Robespierre, the predominant member of the
Committee of Public Salvation, was accused by the
partisans of Hebert of being too indulgent, and by
the followers of Danton of being too despotic.
Robespierre defied both groups, and put Hebert
and Danton to death within twelve days of one
another, the first being executed on the 24th of March,
and the second on the 5th of April, 1794. The chief
partisans of these two leaders followed them to the
scaffold, and during the weeks following on these
events the Terror reached its maximum of intensity.
Such a system of government could not fail to
destroy itself. Robespierre was incorruptible and
austere, but his mind dwelt chiefly on abstractions,
his nature was inexorably cruel, and he believed that
to himself every action was permissible. Confident
in the double support of the Jacobin Club and the
Commune of Paris, he felt sure that the population
4<D THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
of the capital would long maintain him as master of
the Convention.
But a day came at last when the Convention itself
took alarm. The spectacle of so many falling heads
filled the usually inert mass of deputies with doubts
of their own safety.
When Robespierre on various public occasions
proclaimed himself the high priest of the new Cult of
the Supreme Being, his pretensions were met with
ridicule ; and when, intoxicated with the notion of
his own omnipotence and incorruptibility, he com-
mitted the grave mistake of accusing Carnot and
Cambon (absorbed as both were in defending their
country and husbanding its finances) of treason, the
public conscience rose in indignant revolt.
On the Qth Thermidor (July 27, 1/94) a majority at
last accused Robespierre of aspiring to the dictator-
ship, and he was condemned to that death on the
scaffold which so many persons some criminal, some
noble and innocent victims had endured before him.
France was at last delivered from a sanguinary yoke
under which she had groaned for more than a year.
In the midst of the excesses which it had tolerated
or undergone, the Convention had found leisure for
the study, prosecuted indeed in the somewhat puerile
fashion of the day, of great constitutional problems.
The troubled period 'we have just described saw
the birth of two Constitutions, and if neither had any
practical application, both are curious as historical
monuments of political ideas.
The first of these theoretical systems was inspired
by the Girondins before the leaders of that party had
CONSTITUTION OF 1/93. 4!
been brought to the scaffold. Two peculiarities be-
tray the state of mind of the authors of the document.
True to humanitarian principles, they abolished the
punishment of death for all non-political offences, the
stipulated exception being rendered necessary, as
they conceived, by the conditions of the moment ; and
impressed with the hindrances to national defence
which arose from party spirit, they naTvely put into
the mouth of the illustrious Condorcet, who introduced
the Bill, the axiom that " Constitutions founded on an
equilibrium of powers presuppose the existence of
two parties, while a cardinal principle of any Republic
is to recognise none."
As a solution for all problems, they suggested the
formation of a single Assembly, to be elected by all
citizens over twenty-one years, without property or
money qualifications of any sort, and the constitution
by the same electorate of an Executive consisting of
seven ministers and a secretary, one-half of whom were
to retire every year. The framers of this measure were
convinced that the frequency of elections would suffi-
ciently restrain any attempt at despotism on the part
of the Single Assembly, but as an additional security
they introduced universal suffrage, which thus made
its first appearance in France, and accorded to the
electors the right not only of directly voting all con-
stitutional laws, but also of forcing the Legislative, on
occasion, to revise any ordinary law.
The realisation of these imposing conceptions of
government was prevented by the execution of the
Girondin deputies. But even before being involved in
the destruction of its authors, the new Constitution
CONSTITUTION OF 1793. 43
had been denounced by the Jacobins as anti-demo-
cratic, fatal to liberty, and imbued with federalism.
It was anti-democratic in that it permitted the
popular referendum for only a certain number of
laws ; it was fatal to liberty, because making the
Executive too independent of the Assembly ; it was
tainted with federalism for the reason that deputies
were to be elected according to their departments,
instead of representing, as is proper, the whole of the
national territory.
The Mountain had no sooner freed itself from its
enemies than it proceeded to frame a Constitution on
contrary lines to the above. In this second product
of the spirit of the age, all laws without exception
were to be submitted to the ratification of the multi-
tude, or at least were to be taken as having received
this, if within forty days of their promulgation no
general ballot were demanded by a specified number
of electors.
The Legislative was to choose the Executive from a
list of candidates drawn up by the electorate, one for
each department, and the Legislative Assembly itself
was to be elected for one year only.
Not merely the right, but the duty of the nation to
rise against an oppressive government was distinctly
formulated ; while, by a subtle paradox, Robespierre,
who possessed to so finished a degree the art of
despatching his adversaries to a better world, moved
that deputies should have the privilege of not being
punished for their opinions. These particulars suffice
to give a correct idea of the practical and philosophical
value of this new political instrument.
ROBESPIERRE.
THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SALVATION. 45
Its defects, indeed, were so patent that the Jacobins
had hardly promulgated it (in June, 1793) before its
application was adjourned. Time, in fact, was wanting
just then for experiments in constitutional machinery.
The paramount need of the moment was to defend
the national territory, and to this end all power had
to be concentrated in a few capable hands. A Com-
mittee of Public Salvation was formed, and did not
prove inadequate to the task imposed upon it. France,
indeed, had good reason to be proud of its achieve-
ments, and could draw from it some consolation for
the excesses of the Terror.
The Allied Armies, commanded as they were by men
whose interests were not identical, had failed perhaps
to take full advantage of their first successes, and
while they delayed their onward march the troops of
the Republic had leisure to organise themselves.
Carnot from Paris directed the advance, and the
soldiers, led by generals who only the day before had
been simple privates or non-commissioned officers,
found in the fervour of their patriotism the strength
to support unexampled privations, and in a short
time not only to re-conquer the positions which had
been lost, but even to take the offensive. Jourdan's
victory over the Austrians at Wattignies put an end
to the blockade of Maubeuge (October 15, 1793);
while the success of Hoche and Pichegru at Weissen-
burg on the following 27th of December drove
the Allies back upon the right bank of the Rhine.
Almost at the same time the troops despatched to
Vendee, under Westermann, Marceau, and Kleber,
having suppressed the insurrection there, were free to
46 THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
reinforce the armies on the frontiers ; and in the
spring of 1794 a vigorous effort transported the field
of battle outside French territory. The victory of
Fleurus on the 28th of June restored a free entry into
the Netherlands to the Republicans, while by the
battle of Saorgio on the 28th of April and that of
Boulou on the 1st of May, the Piedmontese were
driven across the Alps and the Spaniards forced to
return to their own peninsula.
By the end of 1794 Holland was occupied, North
Germany threatened, and Spain had been invaded in
two places simultaneously Catalonia, namely, and
Guipuzcoa.
We see, then, that if the Convention had over-
thrown Robespierre, it had at any rate preserved the
men who could usefully defend their country, as well
as the organisation from which the armies derived the
material aids and the moral enthusiasm necessary for
the accomplishment of their difficult task. Govern-
ment in the interior had been facilitated, and the
Convention had acquired a certain freedom from the
control of the populace by taking over some of the
powers belonging to its rival, the Commune of Paris,
as well as by closing the Jacobin Club and disarming
some sections of the National Guard.
But the Convention itself remained absolutely
inexorable in regard to any generals guilty, or even
suspected, of failing in the accomplishment of their
high mission, and if the repressive measures resorted
to were sometimes mistaken, the conviction which
they generated that dismissal would follow on defeat
was, at least, an admirable stimulus to energy.
.
TREATIES OF BALE. 47
The success of the French arms frightened various
Powers into an attempt at treaty. Spain, knowing
that peace could be purchased on easy terms, offered
to cede to France the part of San Domingo which
belonged to her ; while Prussia, not at all desirous of
being infected by the spiritof revolutionarypropaganda,
and having just acquired Warsaw in the partition of
Poland, was disposed to hand over the left bank of
the Rhine.
These terms were agreed to in the treaties of
Bale (5th of April and 28th of July, 1795), and
France, delivered from two enemies, with a govern-
ment recognised at last by two European courts, had
further cause for exultation in the news that on the
2 1st of July, at Quiberon, Hoche had destroyed a
band of emigres whom England had endeavoured to
disembark in the western provinces, with the object
of reviving the dying flame of insurrection.
In spite, therefore, of defeats by sea and the loss of
the islands held by the French in the West Indies
and the Mediterranean, the National Convention had
some reason to be proud of the work it had done on
the Continent, when, on the 26th of October, 1795,
the moment came for it to declare that its mission
was finished.
The task of the Convention had not been* limited
to the preparation and direction of the war ; for if in
plenary assembly the subjects principally discussed
had been proscriptions or military measures, the
committees had accomplished an amount of legisla-
tive work which at this distance of time appears
surprisingly great.
48 THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
It is true that this activity did not yield many
positive results at the moment, for if the Convention,
in the midst of war's alarms and political excesses,
did actually found the public educational system
which still flourishes in France, and establish the
principal scientific institutions, 1 on the other hand it
had to limit itself in many instances to the accumula-
tion of materials which were utilised by its successors.
To the Convention is also due the preparatory work
which resulted later in the celebrated codes of
Napoleon, and bestowed legislative unity, for civil
and criminal causes alike, upon the whole of France ;
while to the same source must be ascribed that great
Book of the Public Debt which forms the foundation
of French national credit.
The Convention, before dissolving, left, in the shape
of a Constitution, a kind of political testament which
proves at one and the same time how much ideas
had changed in the space of six years, and yet how
1 The Institute of France, the Conservatory of Arts and Crafts,
the Conservatory of Music, the Museum of Natural History, the
Normal High School, &c., date from these troubled times. The
same is to be said of the Lycees for Secondary Instruction and the
School of Medicine. As regards Primary Instruction, its principles
were formulated but could not be applied, and the real foundation
of this branch took place only in 1833.
The Convention also fixed a standard of weights and measures
founded on the metrical system, and invented a New Age Calendar,
in which the first year began with the proclamation of the Republic
on the 2 ist of September, 1992, and the months were re-named
according to their respective seasons (Vendemiaire, Brumaire,
Frimaire, Nivose, Pluviose, Ventose, Germinal, Floreal, Prairial,
Messidor, Thermidor, Fructidor). But this final innovation did
not survive the political reaction which accompanied and followed
the Second Empire.
CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR III. 49
far men still were from understanding the functions
of a normal government.
The Constitution of the Year III., which laid down
rules for the organisation of political power and the
exercise of public functions in France from November
1795 to 1799, is a curious mixture of reaction against
the political abuses of the preceding years and theore-
tical speculation of the sort which disdains the teaching
of experience. The avowed intention of the chief
framers of this document (Boissyd'Anglas,Thibaudeau,
La Reveillere, Daunou, &c.) is to establish " a govern-
ment by the best" and to this end they reject all direct
intervention of the people in the work of legislation,
and seek, by means of a rating qualification for
voters, to guarantee Elective Assemblies from any
introduction of ignorant and unstable elements.
Experience has convinced them of the dangers of
a Single Chamber, and they have insensibly returned
to the idea of counterpoise and equilibrium. They
consequently suggest the creation of a Council of Five
Hundred which shall propose laws, and a Council of
Ancients, of half the above number, whose function
would consist in accepting or rejecting en bloc, with-
out amendments in detail, the various measures
elaborated by the first-named body. '
The evil of debating under pressure from the mob,
or allowing the latter to intervene directly in the
business of administration, is guarded against triply
by limiting the number of strangers to be admitted
to the Chamber during discussion, by ordering that
no troops shall be stationed nearer than a radius of
six myriameters from the Chamber, and by denying
5
5<D THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
to the Legislature the power of instituting permanent
committees.
Great efforts are made to preserve full liberty of
individual action, but the right of meeting is regarded
with much suspicion, and very severe measures are
taken against emigres.
The weakest point of this Constitution, that from
which conflict was bound to arise, lay in the obstinate
and superstitious veneration which its authors felt for
the principle of the separation of powers. They
proclaim the absolute inability of members of the
Legislature to perform any executive functions, and
stipulate that the two powers shall remain almost
totally independent of one another.
The two Legislative Councils are to be elected in
the second degree by all citizens of the age of twenty-
five who pay one direct tax. They are to be renewed
every year to the extent of one-third of their number,
and if an outgoing member has once been re-elected,
he can only become a candidate again after a lapse of
two years.
No man can be a member of the Five Hundred if
under thirty years of age, and only married men or
widowers of forty are eligible to the Council of
Ancients.
The executive functions are vested in a Directory
of Five Members, renewable one every five years,
and of which an outgoing member can only be re-
elected after a lapse of another five years.
These Directors are chosen by the Council of
Ancients from a list of ten presented by the Five
Hundred, and they also are only eligible at the age
ROYALIST INSURRECTION. 51
of forty. Once elected, they cease, so to speak, to
have any contact with the Legislative body. They
cannot dissolve it, nor be dismissed by it. They
name the ministers, but are under no obligation to
choose them from among persons who are agreeable
to the majority. They are the supreme executive
agents, yet may be refused the means of executing
anything ; and as the Directory is renewed infinitely
more slowly than either of the Councils, and by the fact
of its merely partial renewal cannot always be held
to represent faithfully the actual state of public
opinion, it will be seen that the result could only be a
deadlock from which the one possible issue lay in
force.
Before the Constitution of the Year III. had begun
to work, a significant incident revealed the dangers
which lay ahead, and made it evident that questionable
means would have to be employed to avert them.
In spite of the relief caused by the fall of Robes-
pierre on the 9th Thermidor, the memory of the Terror
was so vivid, and the burdens of every sort consequent
on the war were so heavy, that already a -tide of
reaction had set in.
The Royalists raised their heads once more. In
Paris itself they were assured of help from some
sections of the National Guard, and had succeeded
in winning General Pichegru to their side.
They believed that in the next elections to the
Councils they would have a majority, and that the
merest trifle would then lead to a restoration of
the Monarchy.
But the Convention was not disposed to submit its
52 THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
work the whole patrimony of the revolution so to
speak and the fate of the holders of national
property to the chances of the urns, and it conse-
quently decided on a step more hazardous than
constitutional.
That is to say, it ordered the electors to choose
two-thirds of the members of the new Councils
from among the outgoing deputies of the National
Convention, and decreed that previously to the elec-
tion of the remaining third, the Directory should be
reconstituted. By this device the spirit which had
inspired the Convention was given at least one
year's new lease of existence in the Councils, and
a majority of Jacobins assured to the Executive for
three years.
The disappointed Royalists determined to delay
their conspiracies no longer, and on the I3th
Vendemiaire (October 5, 1/95) they marched forty
thousand strong upon the Convention. Young
General Bonaparte, called to the aid of the State,
succeeded without much difficulty in repressing the
attempted insurrection. But one discouraging fact
had emerged plainly from the events of the day.
Not only was the reign of violence still in existence,
but it was clear that the restoration of political calm
would often have to depend upon force. It had also
been proved that the complicated machinery of the
new Constitution, with the additional hindrances intro-
duced by the provisional measures of the Convention,
must soon end in open conflict between the Directory
and the Councils.
III.
THE DIRECTORY.
(October 27, 1795 November 10, 1799.)
SETTING aside the complications which were soon
to arise in the internal policy of France, 1 the general
situation was far from being brilliant when the new
Government entered upon its functions.
The excessive emission of assignats for the needs
of the Treasury had severely shaken public credit; the
laws regarding monopolists (accapareurs) and the price
of provisions had ruined commerce and industry; while
the peace with Prussia and Spain having only partially
restricted the theatre of war, the continuance of
hostilities was soon to result in foreign enterprises
undertaken to provide the French soldiers with the
food and money which their own land could no longer
afford them. The impulse to foreign conquest sprang,
then, from economical considerations, while at the
same time appearing as the only method by which
the remaining members of the Coalition could be
brought to terms.
1 It must be remembered that in virtue of the prevailing form of
administration, the Directory had little control over the functionaries
in the Departments, who were elected by their fellow-citizens.
5
54 THE DIRECTORY.
Three generals, who had already become famous,
commanded the principal armies : Moreau. on the
Rhine ; Jourdan. in the north ; Hoshe, in the west. .
One of the first acts of the Directory was to appoint
a fourth general to command the army of the Alps,
which had been deplorably inactive for some months
past. Nobody seemed so fitted for the post as the
hero of the I3th Vendemiaire, General Bonaparte,
who had also distinguished himself as a captain of
artillery at the siege of Toulon.
Carnot, who, in becoming a member of the
Executive, had not ceased to be organiser-in-chief
of the campaigns, had determined that the year
1796 should be employed in attacking Austria and
by the invasion of Cisleithania, in destroying, if
possible^the chief continental centre of the Coalition.\
To this end, Hoche was directed to remain on the coast
of Brittany to repulse, if necessary, any attack on the
side of the sea ; while Jourdan, Moreau, and Bonaparte
were to march from three points on the hereditary
states of the Emperor ; the first by the valley of
the Mein, the second by that of the Neckar, the
third by Northern Italy.
In Germany the concerted movement was executed
slowly and with but moderate success, Jourdan and
Moreau, who commanded between them 120,000 men,
being too far apart from one another to be able to
crush the Austrians. They advanced a certain
distance, however, and the victories of Radstadt,
Ettlingen, and Neresheim (in July and August, 1796)
caused uneasiness in the Court of Vienna. But the
Archduke Charles, nothing daunted, began by defeat-
NAPOLEON AT ARCOLA.
{Frotn the painting by Gros.)
5 6 THE DIRECTORY.
ing Jourdan at Wurzburg (September 3) and driving
him across the Lahn ; after which, turning upon
Moreau, he forced him to withdraw as far as Alsace.
In Italy, on the contrary, Bonaparte, electrifying his
troops by the promise that in the Peninsula they
should find the plenty of which they had so long
been deprived, carried off one brilliant victory after
another. At Montenotte on the 1 2th of April he cut
off the enemy's line of march, on the 1 4th beat the
Piedmontese at Millesimo, and defeated the Austrians
at Dego on the I5th. Pursuing the Piedmontese
along the road to Turin, he beat them once again on
the 26th of April at Mondovi, and forced them on the
28th to sign the armistice of Cherasco. This truce
soon became a treaty of peace which (signed on the
3rd of June) not only assured to France the possession
of Nice and Savoy, but allowed her to occupy the
fortresses of Coni, Tortona, and Alessandria ; and
even while the negotiations for this peace were pro-
ceeding, Bonaparte marched against the Austrians
under the command of Beaulieu and forced them
to retire upon Milan, beating them afterwards at
Piacenza, l^odi, and Borghetto (on .the 9th, loth,
and 3Oth of May), and driving them into the Tyrol.
He seized Verona and besieged Mantua, while all the
time levying contributions of war which enabled him'
not only to provide for his soldiers, but also to send
money to the Directory and to the generals command-
ing the French forces in Germany.
Austria, however, was roused. Beaulieu was re-
placed by Wurmser, who received reinforcements, bu\;
committed the mistake of dividing his army in order
BON. I/'. I AT/-. S ITALIAN c.l.\fr.UC,N. 57
to send it along the two sides of the Lake of Garda
into Italy. Bonaparte, abandoning Mantua, took up
a position on the Mincio which enabled him to beat
the two wings of the Austrians separately at Lonato
and at Castiglione on the 3rd and 5th of August
respectively, after which, advancing upon Roveredo
and Trent, he took Wurmser in the rear in the valley
of the Brenta, defeated him at Bassano and San
Giorgio (on the 8th and I5th of September), and shut
him up in Mantua, of which the siege recommenced.
A little later, in October, news came that the island
of Corsica had been retaken from the British by a
force which Bonaparte had despatched from Leghorn.
Yet a tbjxd army was brought by Austria into
the field, under the command of Alvinzi ; but Bona-
parte, unsurpassably resourceful, and obeyed by men
in whom he had inspired a superhuman enthusiasm,
was equal to all the difficulties of the situation. At
Arcola on the i$th of November, at Verona on the
1 3th of January, 1797, at Rivoli, at San Giorgio again,
and at La Favorita (i4th, I5th, and i6th of January),
his success was such that the Austrians were again
driven back; and Wurmser, still blockaded in Mantua,
had finally, on the 2nd of January, to capitulate.
Bonaparte, having now a few days of leisure, took
advantage of it to begin organising the provinces
which he had occupied.
The Duke of Modena and the Pope having deserted
him on the approach of Alvinzi, he dethroned the
former and turned his state into a Republic, adding
to it the Romagna and the Legations of Ferrara and
Bologna, which the Pope had ceded in the peace of
58 THE DIRECTORY.
Tolentino (loth of February). Following his peculiar
instinct of repression and domination, Bonaparte next
proceeded to found the Republics of Venice and
Liguria.
The Archduke Charles, delivered from Jourdan and
Moreau, was now advancing with a fourth Austrian
army.
Bonaparte sent forward his lieutenants Joubert and
Massena, who respectively reached the Brenner (by
the Tyrol) and the heights of Tarvis, while the con-
queror himself marched upon Klagenfurt, forced the
passage of Neumarkt, and, on the 7th of April,
entered Leoben. 6\t the same time the French
forces in Germany resumed the offensive. Hoche, who
had succeeded Joubert, crossing the Rhine and fight-
ing five battles in four days. ) Three of these combats
were victories (Neuwied, Ukerath, and Altenkirchen),
and^simultaneously Moreau had driven the Austrians
back into the Black Mountains) But these triumphs,
while reported at Vienna, were unknown to Bona-
parte, and he was consequently induced prematurely
to sign the preliminaries of peace at Leoben on the
1 8th of April, and thus arrested the advance of the
victorious French.
Such were the prodigious feats which disabled
Austria, and so far alarmed England as to induce her
to begin those negotiations at Lille which unfortu-
nately came to nothing.
Bonaparte's triumphs struck the popular imagina-
tion all the more that they coincided in time with
an internal crisis which affected France morally and
materially to a very painful degree.
DOMESTIC POLICY. 59
In the beginning of its career the Directory had
met with some success. Hoche had been able to
suppress a new attempt of the Royalists, encouraged
by England to rise, and the chiefs of the movement,
Charette and Stofflet, had been shot (February-
March, 1796) ; while in Paris Baboeuf's abortive
Communist agitation resulted also in the death of
that leader (May, 1796). But, generally speaking,
the Government and the police had little authority
throughout France. Bands of brigands infested the
south and west, and the Directory, with the feeble
local powers conferred on it by the Convention, was
ill able to cope with these disorders.
The prolonged war had completed the ruin of the
Treasury and the destruction of commerce, in spite
of the sums some millions of francs which
Bonaparte sent periodically from Italy. More-
over, the country was beginning to weary of the
enormous strain which had been imposed on it
by circumstances. A gambling fever, a mania for
speculation, and a general depravation of morals
spread everywhere, the regions of government not
excepted, and more than one exalted personage was
already noted for the dissoluteness and venality of
his character.
Such a state of things was favourable to the
designs of the Royalists. The son of Louis XVI.,
whom his followers called Louis XVI I. , had died
in 1795 in the prison of the Temple ; and the late
king's brother, the Count .of Provence, later known
as Louis XVI 1 1., was endeavouring, in the country
whither he had fled at the outbreak of the Revo-
60 THE DIRECTORY.
lution, to gather up the threads of a vast Royalist
conspiracy.
Emigrants poured back into France, and their
mere presence there was A menace to the beati possi-
dentes of national property. A Royalist association,
whose action extended all over France, had its head-
quarters in Paris, and was known under the name of
Clichy.
When the Legislative Assembly was partially
renewed in the Year V., a sufficient number of
Royalists were elected to make General Pichegru
President of the Council of Five Hundred, and
to include another reactionary, Barthelemy, in the
Executive. The colleagues of the latter, alarmed
at the strength of the tide of reaction, summoned
a veritable army to the capital under the com-
mand of General Augereau ; the council chambers
were surrounded, and the Jacobin minority annulled
the recent elections. Fifty-three deputies, among
whom were Pichegru, Boissy d'Anglas, Portalis, &c.,
were exiled, some to Cayenne and others to Oleron,
while the same fate befell two members of the Direc-
tory, namely, Barthelemy, the proved accomplice of
the Royalists, and Carnot, whose only crime had been
to deprecate violent proceedings against the latter.
((Such was the coup d'etat of the 1 8th Fructidor
(September 4, 1797) directed by the Executive
against the Legislative Assembly, or rather by the
surviving members of the National Convention
against the partisans of reaction,/
Less than two years, then, after its foundation, the
Constitution had been destroyed.
AViir CHARACTER OF THE WAR. 6 1
With Carnot departed the chief organiser and
moving spirit of the patriotic campaigns. And an
evil fate decreed that almost simultaneously a pre-
mature death should abruptly carry off General
Hoche, who had the command on the Rhine, and
was the only officer whose military renown approached
that of Bonaparte and might, at a given moment,
have controlled the Corsican's ambition.
It seemed, then, that at the very hour when the
Directory had returned to revolutionary methods,
France was deprived of the two men who had hitherto
contributed to her exterior strength. The coinci-
dence was the more unfortunate that the Directory,
in order to justify its recent acts and to consolidate
its authority, was inevitably led to foreign war as a
means of diverting the public mind from internal
affairs, and as a pretext for continuing the policy of
the National Convention.
From this date, then, the war, which up to 1795
had been purely defensive, and in 1796 only so far
offensive as was required for the purpose of resisting
Austria, became an instrument of domination and
conquest, and a means of replenishing the French
treasury by the indemnities wrung from the countries
which were invaded. And this character the war
maintained until 1814.
True to its new' principle, the Directory broke off
the negotiations proceeding at Lille with England,
and would have welcomed a similar termination to
the conditions by which Bonaparte was endeavouring
in Italy to transform the preliminaries of Leoben into
a treaty of peace.
>
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</ne undertook a mortal conflict with the Colossus
of me North, far less to add new victories to his long
list of triumphs than in the hope of striking at England
in the person of the Tsar.)
But the further he went away from France, the more
treacherous grew the ground beneath his feet. He
felt that one check would expose him to a declaration
of war from the barely vanquished enemies whom he
left behind, and who might at any moment cut off his
line of communication with his base. For this reason
he failed in carrying out his present campaign with
the decision which had characterised him hitherto.
~ 8
98 THE FIRST EMPIRE
For instance, when established at Warsaw at the end
of 1806, he hesitated to provoke a general insurrec-
tion of the Poles for fear of displeasing the Court of
Vienna. Some preliminary engagements, with heavy
losses, took place at Czarnovo, Golymin, Soldau, and
Pultusk, but Napoleon judged it well not to proceed
further for the moment, and took up his winter
quarters in front of the Vistula. The Russians, com-
manded by Benningsen, believed they could surprise
him with advantage, but the battle of Eylau, on the
8th of February, 1 807, soon undeceived themTalthough
the French losses were so heavy that Napoleon. deter-
mined to remain in his winter quarters, and contented
himself with investing Dantzig. which fell into his
power in the month of May.
In the summer the Russians returned to the charge.
Napoleon, however, had found the means of reconsti-
tuting his army and manoeuvring in such a way as to
bring the enemy into positions favourable to himself.
The victory of Friedland on the I4th of June, 1807,
not only caused a precipitate retreat of the Russians,
but also led to the capitulation of Koenigsberg, the last
town where the Prussians still held out. The Tsar
Alexander was convinced that nothing more could be
done for the moment^ He began also in his turn to
be fascinated by Napoleon's genius, and to cherish
some resentment against England for her unremitting
efforts to stir up and subsidise the European Powers
without taking the field herself?
An interview took place at Tilsit between the two
Emperors, and a peace was the result on the 8th of
July, 1807.
PEACE OF TILSIT. 99
This peace was made almost entirely at the expense
of Prussia, which was reduced to the possession merely
of her eastern provinces, and even among these had to
endure the loss of Dantzig, which was made a free town,
and of Magdeburg, where a French garrison was in-
stalled. Within Prussian territory, between the Elbe
and the Rhine, the Kingdom of Westphalia was created
for the benefit of Jerome Bonaparte, while Saxony was
enriched by Prussian Poland and invited, with West-
phalia, to join the Rhenish Confederation. Napoleon
bestowed on the Tsar the right of seizing Finland, and
even, if necessary, theOttomanprovincesof the Danube;
while for himself he took the mouths of the Cattaro
and the Ionian Islands, with absolute liberty to do
what he liked with them.
At a first glance, France in the year 1807 appears
at the utmost height of power which human imagina-
tion could conceive ; but in reality nothing could be
more fragile than the edifice which Napoleon had
built up at the cost of blood and suffering.
As once Charlemagne in the midst of feudatory
Markgraves, so was now the Emperor of the French
surrounded by tributary states in which he had
installed his vassals. But these states had only a
factitious existence ; they were too feeble to subsist
alone. Their rulers and functionaries were standing,
so to speak, on air in the midst of indifferent or hostile
subjects. A breath was sufficient to crumble the whole
edifice into dust, leaving nothing behind it but the bitter
hatred provoked by abuse of power. And bitterest
of all foes was Prussia, in whose soul humiliation bred
an inexorable resentment, and whose very misery was
100 THE FIRST EMPIRE.
fertile for regeneration and became the well-spring of
an overwhelming vengeance.
Napoleon's own system was henceforth to be his
ruin. He became incapable of standing the smallest
contradiction or the faintest effort at revolt.
The grave blunder which England made in bom-
barding Copenhagen caused Denmark, and even
Austria, to adhere to the Continental Blockade ; but
a still graver blunder of Napoleon's repaired the
consequences of Great Britain's action, and brought
about the final resistance of Europe to the Imperial
idea.
Spain had been an ally of France ever since
1795, but her Bourbon rulers hardly offered sufficient
proofs of their docility to Napoleon, and in 1806
there had been a moment when they seemed inclined
to make common cause with Russia. The Emperor
imagined that he could bind Spain to himself by
proposing to associate her in the conquest of
Portugal the only portion of the Western Con-
tinent where English influence still predominated,
but so feebly at any rate for the moment, that a slight
effort might easily have annihilated it.
An army corps under Junot reached Lisbon without
having to strike a blow. But by a strange coin-
cidence this very opportunity which Napoleon had
chosen for attacking the Iberian Peninsula was, of
all others, the one least favourable for such an under-
taking. For the Pope had refused to allow the States
of the Church to join the Continental Blockade, and
had equally declined to recognise Joseph Bonaparte
as King of Naples, whereupon the Emperor deter-
THE AFFAIRS OF SP.AIN.
mined to occupy Rome (April 2, 1808) and to
transform the Papal States into simple Departments
of France.
This step roused the hostility of the whole Catholic
world, and more especially of Spain, where religious
fanaticism has always held sway. And as if this were
not enough to alienate the Spanish people, Napoleon
committed yet another mistake.
The King, Charles IV., who was old and ill,
formed the centre of various Court intrigues, of
which the object consisted in preventing Prince
Ferdinand's succession to the throne. The latter
addressed an entreaty for aid to Napoleon, who, in
the hope of obtaining a new ally, was willing at
first to afford it. Things changed, however, when,
in consequence of the insurrection of Aranjuez,
Charles decided upon abdicating, and appointed
Ferdinand as his successor.
This did not suit the views of the Emperor, to
whom it now appeared that the best and easiest
plan would be to remove the last Bourbon who
still reigned on the continent of Europe. Where-
fore he ordered his brother Joseph to cede the crown
of Naples to Murat, and to come at once to mount
the throne of Spain.
The introduction of a foreign prince was by no
means to the taste of the Spaniards, and while Court
functionaries were hastening to do homage to the
new sovereign, the Spanish people, exhorted by their
priests, rose in revolt. In a few days the insurrection
was general, and although the victory of Bessieres
at Rio-Seco on the I4th of July, 1808, opened the
: I,?2,< ; T'lJR FIRST EMPIRE.
access to his new capital to. King Joseph, the French
troops were beaten at Saragossa and Valencia, forced
on the 2 ist of July to capitulate at Baylen, defeated
once more at Vimeira in Portugal by the British,
who had hastened to the rescue, and compelled to
withdraw in the autumn of the same year beyond
the Ebro.
Napoleon arrived at once with reinforcements
from the army in Germany, and by victories at
Burgos, Espinosa, and Tudela in November, 1808,
he brought his brother and the French flag back to
Madrid. At the same time General Soult drove
back the British to Corunna and General Gouvion
Saint -Cyr retook Catalonia. Napoleon, however,
had no leisure wherein to complete his conquests or
pacify the country, for Austria had seized the oppor-
tunity of his absence to come v again to the front,
and being lavishly supplied with English gold> 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<Dth
of December of members of the minority then exis-
tent, so now (June 2, 1849) he manoeuvred in a way
to ensure the admission into this same Cabinet of
some of those Moderate Republicans who were so
sparsely represented in Parliament, but whom he
desired to reassure as to his intentions. He was soon
to unmask himself entirely in a matter which,
although it concerned foreign relations chiefly, was
yet of a nature to cause intense excitement at home.
In 1848, Pope Pius IX., whose Prime Minister was
Rossi, a former Liberal peer of Louis-Philippe's, be-
lieving the Legations to be threatened with an invasion
by Austria, addressed to Cavaignac a prayer for
military help, which, refused at first, was accorded
later when Rossi had been assassinated during a rising
of the Roman people (November 15, 1848).
The French troops, however, did not leave before
the election of Louis-Napoleon, and when, some
weeks later, the Pope fled to Gaeta and the Romans
had deposed him as King and declared for a Re-
public (February 9, 1849), the question of French
intervention remained as it was.
The position of the Prince-President in this busi-
ness was peculiar. In his youth he had fought against
the Temporal Power ; in the Assembly he had opposed
Cavaignac's project, but now that he was the Head of
the State he felt the necessity of conciliating Catho-
lics. His own wish would have been to withdraw
ROMAN AFFAIRS. 2JQ
into the background while urging on Piedmont to
assist the Holy See. But Piedmont had inoppor-
tunely undertaken a war against Austria, and after
being beaten at Custozza (July 25, 1848), and again
at Novara (March 23, 1849), the King, Charles Albert,
had hastened to abdicate.
France was now forced to take up a decisive atti-
tude. The clearly expressed desire of the Assembly,
which had not yet separated, was that the Romans
might be left to manage their own affairs, but that
the French Government should intervene to preserve
intact the territory of Piedmont.
The Government obtained supplies without exactly
stating what was to be done with them. Then dis-
regarding the opinion of the Chamber, it despatched
an expeditionary corps to Civita Vecchia (April 25).
Driven back once from Rome by Mazzini and Gari-
baldi (April 30), the French commander, General
Oudinot, besieged the town and marched in at the
end of twenty days' fighting (July 2).
By this time the Legislative Assembly had entered
upon its functions, and its views were not the same as
those of the Constituent Assembly ; while, on the
other hand, the state of the public mind in Paris was
utterly averse to any attempt on the part of a French
force to assist the cause of Papacy and absolute rule.
The Cabinet having obtained a vote of confidence
from the Assembly (June 1 1) there was a partial rising
in the streets of Paris, which received the support of
some Radical deputies, among others Ledru-Rollin,
The movement was promptly repressed, but the
Government purposely exaggerated its importance
28O THE REVOLUTION OF 1848.
so as further to confuse public opinion. A great
number of the opponents of the Government were
arrested and condemned, and three laws, on the I4th
of June, 2/th of July, and pth of August, respec-
tively, were summarily passed against political clubs
and the press, and in favour of a state of siege.
The alliance between the President and the ma-
jority seemed now complete, but it was not destined
to endure. Louis-Napoleon was willing to pass as
having repressed the Roman Republic, and even, if
necessary, as having restored the Temporal Power,
but he was not yet prepared to declare himself
inimical to reforms and hostile to Italian liberty.
He exacted from Pius IX. the promise that, before
returning to the Eternal City, he would make
some concessions to the spirit of the age. The Pope,
although reluctant, finally assented, whence the so-
called motu proprio of the I2th of September, by
which the Holy Father promised his rebellious
subjects, besides an amnesty, that there should be
certain ameliorations introduced into civil legislation
and the machinery of judicial and local administra-
tion, that laymen should be admitted to government
offices and a consulta created for the voting of taxes.
This motu proprio did not satisfy the Romans after
their recent taste of the sweets of political autonomy.
In Paris, while applauded by some Republican depu-
ties of the Cavaignac school, it gravely displeased
the majority of the Assembly, who saw in Louis
Napoleon's attitude an attempt to fetter the inde-
pendence of the Holy See.
The Prince-President was not blind to these senti-
MESSAGE OF THE $\ST OF OCTOBER. 28 1
ments, and he anticipated the outbreak of the inevit-
able conflict. In his message of the 3ist of October,
he solemnly affirmed that he shared to the full the
responsibility of his ministers, and that he desired a
firm and united policy. " The name of Napoleon,"
he boldly continued, " is of itself a programme signi-
fying order, authority, religion, and the prosperity of
the people at home, with national dignity abroad.
This is the policy inaugurated by my election
which I wish to see triumph."
And as if further to manifest his will, he named,
without the sign-manual of his ministers, a new
Cabinet, which responded to no Parliamentary neces-
sity, but contained, with General d'Hautpoul, the
principal men who continued to serve Louis Napoleon
after he became Emperor. These men were Fould,
Bineau, Rouher, De Parieu, &c. (November I, 1849).
This step portended imminent war between the
President and the Assembly. But Louis-Napoleon
was not the man to proceed at once to extremities.
He had hardly pronounced his daring message
of the 3 ist of October to the Assembly before he
proceeded to restore the reins to the Parliamentary
majority.
The Constitution of 1848, like the Charter of 1830,
had promised a law on Liberty of Instruction. The
Constituent Assembly had intended to make this law
very favourable to State inspection of private schools.
The Legislative Assembly, on the contrary, made it
very favourable to the Catholic Church, to which it
even granted an important measure of control over
the University. This was the law of the I5th of
282 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848.
March, 1850, which had reference only to primary and
secondary instruction. Under this law any private
person, any association of laymen or religious con-
gregation, acquired the right to open a school, without
being subject to any State inspection outside matters
of morality, legality, and hygiene. Nobody could be
debarred from imparting secondary instruction, ex-
cept on the ground of scandal ; but the teachers in
the primary schools had to be provided with a diploma
of capacity, except when, as in the case of sister-
hoods, they obtained from their bishop a special
certificate, known as a " letter of obedience." The
University was left in possession of all its branches of
instruction : only, instead of enjoying a monopoly as
formerly, it had now to encounter a very active com-
petition T ; and, while keeping the right to confer
degrees, it was forced to admit a great number of
priests to its administrative departments and councils
of discipline, besides including religious dogmas in its
programme.
The University was not, indeed, officially deprived
of the direction of primary public instruction, but,
thanks to the letter of obedience, it became almost
impossible to obtain lay female teachers, and the e.du-
cation of girls fell more and more into the hands of
religious. The country, consequently, was buying
very dear the most precious of all liberties, and the
education of the young was, for long years to come,
to be permeated with doctrines essentially opposed to ,
the first notions of freedom.
1 In less than a year the clergy founded 257 establishments for
secondary instruction, and two years later there were twenty houses
governed by Jesuits.
SUPPLEMENTARY ELECTIONS. 283
The Parliamentary majority had barely obtained
this victory before it began to turn its attention else-
where.
Some supplementary elections took place in March
and April, 1850, in order to fill the vacancies left by
deputies who had been condemned for their share in
the events of the I3th of June, 1849. Out of thirty-
seven seats to be reoccupied, twenty-seven were
retained by Republicans and ten fell to Monarchists.
Although these ten constituted a net gain for the
friends of the majority, much was made in Govern-
ment and Parliamentary circles of the pretended
revival of revolutionary tendencies. Universal suf-
frage had never been in favour with Monarchists,
and while not daring to suppress it, they were deter-
mined at any rate indirectly to reduce the number of
electors.
By a law passed on the 3ist of May, 1850, the
period of residence in a commune necessary for a
voter was prolonged from six months to three years
from the date of his first payment of direct taxes,
and this change had the effect of excluding from
the franchise almost the whole of the working popu-
lation, who were, of necessity, nomad. By a stroke
of the pen, in short, three millions were disfranchised
that is, 64 per cent, of the electorate of Paris and
29 per cent, of the electorate of the departments.
By this measure, more clearly even than by a
new law against the liberty of the Press (July 16,
'1850), it was borne in upon the masses, whose aspira-
tions towards equality were rudely wounded, that the
Legislative Assembly was dominated by the party of
284 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848.
reaction, 1 which needed to make but a few more
blunders to complete its loss of popularity and render
the Prince-President arbiter of the situation.
These blunders the Assembly did not fail to com-
mit. On separating for the recess it appointed a
so-called Permanent Commission empowered to watch
the Executive, and as the members nominated to this
Commission were all well-known Monarchists, the
partisans of Louis-Napoleon adroitly used the circum-
stance to raise apprehensions in the public mind of
a contemplated restoration of the old dynasty, now
universally detested.
These apprehensions presently gathered weight
from negotiations for a fusion between Orleanists and
Legitimists. The Monarchists felt their divisions to
be a source of weakness, and when Louis-Philippe
died, on the 26th of August, the idea suggested itself
of reconciling the younger and elder branches. The
Orleans princes showed themselves willing, but on
this occasion, as later in 1873, the Comtede Chambord
1 The Assembly had appointed a large Commission for the fulfil-
ment of the pledges constitutionally given on the subject of public
charity. This Commission, torn between fear of socialism, appre-
hension of extending immoderately the principle of State interven-
tion, and unwillingness to interfere with the charitable funds of
Catholicism, discussed and investigated much, but made few practical
suggestions. It was, however, the author of the Acts of 1850 on
Sanitary Dwellings, Old Age Pensions, Mutual Aid Societies, Legal
Assistance, &c., besides various reforms in the administration of
savings banks and hospitals. To the same Commission were also
due various projects with respect to the observance of Sunda}',
the distribution of out-door relief, and medical service in the
country ; but these reforms were not carried out before the Legisla-
tive Assembly came to an end. The great socialist movement of
1848 thus shrank to insignificant proportions in practice.
PLANS OF LOUIS-NAPOLEON. 285
grandson of Charles X. opposed an invincible
refusal to the guarantees demanded of him. He
wished to reign in virtue of his hereditary rights, but
he declined to state what the nature of his govern-
ment would be.
The attempted fusion was a failure, but the noise it
made caused uneasiness in the country, and facilitated
the plans of Louis-Napoleon. These plans consisted
in taking up the attitude of a representative of the
new ideas as opposed to the agents of the Monarch-
ists, or in appearing as chosen by the popular voice in
contradistinction to the elect by Right Divine.
Louis-Napoleon had not yet determined upon the
coup d'etat : he would probably have been content, at
any rate for the moment, with the suppression from
the Constitution of the clause which forbade his re-
election as President on the expiration of his term of
office. The rest, that is to say a greater independ-
ence with respect to the Assembly, would have
come later. In August, 1850, the Prefects, although
the subject lay quite outside their competence, were
ordered to ask all the Councils-General of the De-
partments whether the Constitution might not admit
of revision. The Councils, although forbidden by
the law to engage in political discussions, took the
matter into consideration, and fifty-two out of their
number declared themselves wholly or in part favour-
able to the revision, while twelve were against it,
and twenty-one abstained from giving an opinion.
At the same time Louis-Napoleon increased his
popularity by a series of tours in the provinces, which
afforded him the opportunity of making some ex-
286 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848.
tremely able speeches, in which he adapted himself to
the temperament of the populations in each region,
sometimes by affecting a scrupulous regard for legality,
sometimes by hoisting the Napoleonic flag, and allow-
ing or managing that " Vive 1'Empereur " should be
vociferated along his route. At a review of the
Army of Paris at Satory, near Versailles, this cry,
emitted by some regiments, was at once repressed
by General Changarnier, the Commander-in-Chief.
In consequence there was some thought of re-
moving Changarnier, who was a Monarchist, and
whose presence at the head of the garrison of the
capital might, it was felt, become inconvenient. But
for the moment such a measure would have been too
significant, and the alternative adopted was to set a
snare for the general. In the Presidential message,
on the re-opening of Parliament on the I2th of
November, Louis-Napoleon declared once again his
respect for the Constitution ; but at the same time a
report was cleverly spread that Changarnier desired
to deny to the Assembly its perfectly constitutional
right of demanding troops for its own security.
There was no foundation for such a rumour, and
Changarnier, who was a deputy as well as a general,
on being questioned in the Chamber, not only denied
the report, but plainly said that the Assembly in
making the request mentioned would be well within
its rights. Louis-Napoleon promptly asserted that
such a declaration was contrary to all military dis-
cipline, and when re-arranging his Ministry on the
loth of January, 1851, he dismissed Changarnier from
his command. It may easily be imagined that such
a decision caused a sensation in Parliament.
RESIGNATION OF THE CABINET. 287
A discussion, which lasted from the I5th to the i/th
of January, caused the resignation of the Cabinet
formed on the loth, but the Prince-President was
none the less freed from the incumbrance of
Changarnier's presence. He took care not to select
his new Ministry among the majority. The Cabinet
which met on the 24th was composed of colourless
political personages like Schneider, Brenier, Giraud,
&c., who were not likely to interfere with him in the
pursuit of his personal aims. He spread the rumour,
eagerly credited by Republicans, that if the Assembly
had shown itself so favourable to General Changarnier,
that could only be because it had counted on him for
a monarchical coup d'etat as soon as the right moment
came. The President's followers also gave the same
colouring to a proposal in the Assembly which was,
however, rejected on the 1st of March that the
decree of exile against the Orleans and Bourbon
princes x should be rescinded, and the refusal of a
request made by the President for a supplementary
grant, for expenses incurred in representing the
nation, was described as an act of unworthy jealousy.
Louis-Napoleon was, however, not yet prepared to
cross the Rubicon. Not knowing how a violation of
the Constitution might be received by the country, he
wished, very sincerely no doubt, to revise the offensive
clause by legal methods. But the Ministers appointed
1 The debate on this proposal gave rise to the final division
between the Legitimists and the Orleanists. The latter warmly
favoured the abrogation of the law of exile, but the former main-
tained that a Bourbon could not live in France as a simple citizen,
and that failing a throne he should accept exile. The Legitimists
consequently voted against the Bill with the Republicans.
288 THE DEVOLUTION OF 1848.
on the 24th of January had not the authority required
for a Parliamentary debate of such importance, so on
the I ith of April he dismissed them in favour of Leon
Paucher, Rouher, Baroche, Fould, Buffet, &c. The
complicated formalities necessary for the revision z
have been described. The Legitimists desired a
revision because they believed that they could turn it
to the advantage of their cause ; but the Orleanists
were opposed to it because all they could offer to the
country would be a regency during the minority of
their Prince. And if some cautious spirits wished by
the revision to give a legal colouring to the ambitious
projects of the President, the Republicans on the
other hand were determined not to vote for the
measure as long as the law of the 3ist of May, 1850,
by which one-third of the electorate had beea dis-
franchised, remained in force.
On the i Qth of July the revision was voted by a
majority which yet fell short by one hundred of the
three-fourths required by the Constitution. From
that moment there was certain war between the
Prince-President and the Assembly. Already the
newspapers favourable to Louis-Napoleon stirred up
the animosity of the electorate against the reactionary
and anti-democratic law of the 3ist of May. Already
the Prince in his speeches complained that Parlia-
ment always supported him when he had to repress
disorder, but never when he desired to improve the
condition of the nation.
These methods displeased the Cabinet of the nth
of April, which resigned on the I4th of October, and
1 See p. 247.
MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT. 289
was succeeded on the 2/th by a Ministry composed
of very insignificant persons for the most part, but
into which Louis-Napoleon had introduced a man of
whom he was absolutely sure, General St. Arnaud,
the new Minister of War. All he needed now was to
find a specious ground of quarrel with the Assembly,
and his message of the 4th of November was expressly
designed for this purpose. He announced to the
Chamber an immense demagogic plot which was to
disturb the elections and the ballot for the President
in 1852, and he urged the instant abrogation of the
law of the 3ist of May. There was an evident con-
tradiction between the two parts of this message, but
the first portion was intended to alarm the bourgeoisie,
and the second was a bid for the favour of the masses.
In the double character of a representative of public
order and a defender of universal suffrage, the Prince-
President could henceforth confront the situation
without danger to himself.
The proposal to rescind the law of the 3ist of May
was rejected by the Assembly. Similar treatment
was dealt out to the demand of the Qusestors, 1 who,
beginning to fear a coup d'etat, had asked that copies
of the decree of the 6th of May, 1848, which
empowered the President of the Assembly to make
requisition of troops, should be posted up in all
barracks (November 14 and 17). . There was, in
fact, no longer a majority of any kind. Sometimes
the Monarchists prevailed, and gave a free rein to
1 Quaestors are members of the Chamber elected by their
colleagues to superintend the administration and guard the security
of Parliament.
20
THE REVOLUTION OF 1848.
their hatred against universal suffrage ; sometimes
the Republicans and the partizans of Louis-Napoleon
took vengeance on the Monarchists by denying
them the means of defence against the intrigues of
the Executive. Mutual suspicion and weakness
paralysed the Assembly, which was discredited in the
eyes of the country, and Louis-Napoleon had but one
further step to take before becoming master of the
situation.
During the night of the ist-2nd of December he
appointed his faithful friend De Morny Minister of
the Interior. On the morning of the 2nd, after the
most prominent deputies had been arrested, a pro-
clamation posted on the walls of Paris announced the
dissolution of the Chamber and the abrogation of the
law of the 3ist of May, 1850, and summoned the
people to ratify by their votes the measures taken by
the Prince-President and the Constitution modelled
on that of the Year VIII. which he proposed to confer
upon France.
XII.
SECOND EMPIRE, 1851-1860.
First Period: December 2, 1851 November 23, 1860.
ON the 2Oth of December, 1851 when the law of
the 3 1st of May had been rescinded, and the electorate
restored to its former condition of universal suffrage
the following form of plebiscite was voted by 7,440,000
fr votes against 641,000: " The French nation desires the
maintenance of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's authority,
and delegates to him the necessary powers for estab-
lishing a Constitution on the basis proposed in his
proclamation of the 2nd of December, 1851."
Thus was the coup cfetat ratified if not legalised.
Louis-Napoleon seized the opportunity to bestow
upon France a Constitution which guaranteed his
own authority against all effective interference.
This Constitution, promulgated on the 1 4th of
January, 1852, aped the features of that of the Year
VIII. Its preamble stated that it was necessary to
revert to the political institutions of the Empire of
which the administrative institutions were still in
vigour. The parliamentary system was to be sup-
pressed, and its place filled by a Consultative
Assembly barely if at all representative.
391
SECOND EMPIRE, 1 851-1860.
The President of the Republic would remain re-
sponsible to the country, but his ministers would
cease to answer for their acts to the Chambers of
Legislature.
A Senate, of which the President named the
members for life, was to safeguard the Constitution,
and, with the consent of the Head of the State,
might modify it in detail if not in essentials.
A Council of State, whose component members
were also chosen by the President, was empowered to
prepare projects of law and to undertake their defence
before the Legislative Body. The latter, elected by
universal suffrage and uninominal ballot, was deprived
of the right either of questioning ministers or initiating
any Acts, and could not even suggest amendments
to the bills presented by the Council of State, except
with the permission of this body.
Such a machinery of government was clearly
intended to serve the personal policy of the Prince-
President alone. His responsibility to the nation was
purely nominal, since he alone had the right of ap-
pealing to the people, while they were unable to
appeal against him. His ministers became the
mere tools of his will. They held no councils :
they had not even access to the Chambers, and
when the Government wished to defend its own
acts, it was reduced to the device of written mes-
sages, " inspired " paragraphs in the press, or semi-
official pamphlets.
The Senators, who deliberated in secret, had some-
what less authority than their predecessors under the
First Empire since the President, the better to
THE CONSTITUTION OF 1852. 293
sway them, reserved to himself the right of fixing
their salaries at variable amounts.
The Legislative Body, without any real power of
control or adequate legislative functions, was even
debarred from expressing an opinion, and the only
form in which its work could be communicated to
the Assembly was a succinct and colourless minute,
the very terms of which had been dictated by the
President of the Chamber himself a nominee of
the Head of the Republic.
There remained the Council of State, which, strong
in composition and functions, was an admirable ad-
ministrative machine, but in no sense an organ of
national life, and it naturally formed no counterpoise
to the power of the President. A decree of the i/th
of January, 1852, had gagged the press by subjecting
it, according to circumstances, to securities, prelimi-
nary authorisations, warnings, suspensions, and ad-
ministrative or judicial suppressions, as well as by
denying it the privilege of trial by jury. Two other
decrees, of the loth of January and 2nd of April
respectively, forbade cafes and wineshops to remain
open or the smallest public gathering to be held
without a permit from Government, which could be
revoked at a moment's notice. Universal silence, in
short, was the order of the day succeeding to a
system of free discussion.
All these measures had been taken with the one
object of re-establishing the Empire, and although
the principle of hereditary monarch is radically
opposed to that of responsibility of the Head of the
State, this was a small matter when the responsibility
294 SECOND EMPIRE, 1 851-1860.
was apparent merely, and when all principles and
theoretical distinctions had gone by the board. And
the transformation aimed at was not long in taking
place. As early as the 4th of November, 1852, the
Senate was called upon to take the question in^o
consideration ; and an ingenious senator, Troplong
by name, was found to declare that the Empire
would be nothing else but a " crowned democracy " ;
and on the 2ist of the same month, the French
people, by a somewhat larger majority than on the
2Oth of December previously, affirmed the desire to
see the Empire " re-established in the person of Louis-
Napoleon and his descendants." The Prince-Presi-
dent immediately assumed the title of Napoleon III.,
although Napoleon II. King of Rome, the son of the
great Emperor had never reigned, and conferred
upon himself, together with an ample Civil List,
various rights which the Constitution had omitted
to bestow upon him. Among these (decree of the
25th of December) was the power to conclude treaties
of commerce, and also to dispose freely of the supplies
which the Legislature was to vote annually en bloc for
each ministerial department.
The docile senators received a uniform salary, and
sums were assigned to all the deputies. These measures
completed, the Empire became an accomplished fact.
The conditions of its existence, however, were totally
different from those prevailing at the beginning of the
century. Between Napoleon III. and Napoleon I.
there was, to begin with, all the difference which can
obtain between a man of genius, imperious and
masterful, a great soldier and consummate admini-
FIRST AND SECOND EMPIRE CONTRASTED. 295
strator, and a man of mystical, dreamy temperament,
tortuous, elusive character, mediocre courage, and
undefined intelligence.
Between the institutions of the two periods, again,
the opposition was fundamental. Napoleon I., push-
ing the logic of his system to extremes, had so clearly
grasped the functions of an executive as to confide to
it the task of forming the Assemblies which, in the
capital, in the departments, and in the communes,
were to second governmental measures.
Napoleon III., while aspiring to equal power,
allowed these Assemblies to be elected by the popular
vote, a blunder which very promptly resulted in con-
tradictions and conflicts.
Napoleon I. had been able to make tabula rasa
of all the political past of the country, since neither
under the ancient regime nor under the Republic? had
France enjoyed any real public liberty, but in 1851
the nation had learnt, by thirty-five years of passionate
struggle, to take a more active share than formerly in
the management of its own affairs, and Napoleon III.,
in the absence of the military glory wherewith his
uncle had dazzled the multitude, was forced, at every
crisis, to seek in internal readjustment for the means
of repairing injury to vested interests and appeasing
the impatient demands of the masses. And these
crises were for ever recurring. Besides the ordinary
difficulties of every government, difficulties of finance,
international relations, and so on, the Empire born of
the events of the 2nd of December had embarrass-
ments of its own which were due chiefly to its origin,
and to the mutually destructive principles which it
296 SECOND EMPIRE, 1 851-1860.
had endeavoured momentarily to combine. By the
coup d'etat Napoleon III. had assumed various in-
compatible attitudes, inasmuch as he professed to be
at one and the same time the elect of the sovereign
people, a son of the Revolution, a champion of uni-
versal suffrage which the Monarchists had attacked,
and an adversary of demagogues. In the first of
these characters he was bound to justify his elevation
by economic and social reforms, and even by pander-
ing to the democratic jingoism which the governments
that succeeded to Napoleon the Great had sedulously
repressed. In his second character he had to destroy
the last trace of political liberty, and to deprive the
middle class, the Conservative majority and the Liberal
minority alike, of any share in public business, so that
he might remain in his own person the supreme and
uncontrolled arbiter of the nation's destinies. As
long as the masses were satisfied with the Emperor's
concessions or the hopes which he held out to them,
and as long as the middle classes were a prey to the
terrors which they had conceived in 1848, the Empire
might be expected to achieve a measure of success ;
but the day that the masses found themselves deceived
in their expectations, and the middle classes saw that
their interests were betrayed or their prejudices dis-
regarded, a reaction became inevitable, and the
Imperial system was forced by the pressure of
public opinion to undergo a process of transforma-
tion.
Up to 1860 the Empire remained absolute, but
after the Italian war and the treaties of commerce, it
was committed to Liberalism and self-destruction.
NAPOLEON Ill's FIRST ACTS. 297
In the beginning, Napoleon III. Napoleon the
Little as he was nicknamed by Victor Hugo in a
celebrated pamphlet met with an almost unanimous
acceptance. If some foreign powers, such .as Russia
and Great Britain, were inclined at first to fear that
France might return to the wars and conquering
expeditions of the First Empire, such doubts soon
gave way to satisfaction at the thought that the
spectre of democracy evoked throughout Europe by
the events of 1 848 was laid at last ; and these con-
gratulations were echoed by Germany and Austria.
In France itself no class desired, and no political
party was able, to attack the new Government. The
clergy, who had obtained from liberty only a very
small part of all they aspired to, hastened to acclaim
and obey the Emperor, and even such pretended
Liberal Catholics as Montalembert loudly expressed
the hope that he would govern to the honour and
glory of the Church. And Napoleon's first acts
seemed to justify these expectations. He rescinded
various decrees of the Monarchy of July, restored
the Pantheon to the Church, reappointed chaplains
to the army, admitted cardinals to the Senate, ordered
that Sunday should be a day of rest in Government
dockyards, suppressed the teaching of philosophy in
the Lycees (December, 1851 April, 1852), and in-
creased the authority of the administration over pro-
fessors of all orders. Such measures were naturally
welcomed by ecclesiastics, who, like everybody else,
were far from foreseeing the serious dissensions which
the Italian war was destined to sow between the
Empire and the Church. The belief spread that
298 SECOND EMPIRE, 1851-1860.
Napoleon III. was to resemble Charles X. in
favouring the "party of the priests."
Simultaneously among the middle classes the
greater number felt confidence in a Government
strong enough to cope with all elements disturbing
to the public peace, and were further reassured by
the marvellous expansion of industry and commerce
which resulted partly from the general tranquillity,
and partly from the introduction of railways, cheques,
new systems of registering commercial societies, and
the abolition of arrest for debt. By these means the
middle classes were kept actively employed, even
while losing the habit of self-government ; by degrees
they began again to assimilate the religious ideas
which had formerly been distasteful to them, and
they soon became devoted adherents of a system
which was sure to command their obedience as long
as it continued to enrich them.
A fraction, indeed, composed of the leaders of the
old parties was the reverse of conciliated by the
brutality with which it had been deprived of political
liberty. But these men were obnoxious to the
Democratic section as being Legitimists or Orleanists,
while the feebleness which they had recently shown
in the Assembly, and their lack of authority in Parlia-
ment or the Press, reduced them to utter impotence
as enemies of the Empire, and condemned them to
a merely private opposition witty perhaps, but abso-
lutely sterile.
As to the masses, it is certain that they hailed
the new Government with pleasure. Napoleon III.
in their view was their creature, the saviour of uni-
NAPOLEON III. WELCOMED BY THE MASSES.
versal suffrage against the intrigues of Monarchists,
and elected by the people as a defence against the
perils of reaction.
The population of Paris had not made one serious
effort to resist the coup d'etat on the 2nd of December ;
their deputies were quite discredited in their eyes, and
Louis-Napoleon appeared as the faithful servant of
Democracy, the restored right of universal suffrage
being here again potent to persuade. Moreover, the
writings of the Prince were full of a mystical socialism
which bred many illusions. A current remark of the
time was : " Barbes asked a milliard from the rich for
us : Bonaparte will give it to us."
The name of Bonaparte was also synonymous with
hatred of those Treaties of 1815 which still rankled
in the heart of many a partisan of that principle of
nationality which passed for being a legacy of the
great Revolution. This thought alone sufficed not
only to quiet, but actually to attract the masses.
While the banishment of some deputies, and the
exile beyond seas of some hundred uncompromising
Republicans, prevented all organised resistance in
Paris or the provinces, 1 the decree of confiscation
pronounced on the 22nd of January, 1851, against
the property of the Orleans family, which was
bestowed on various military and working-class
charities, appealed to the popular hatred of Monarchy
and confirmed the prevailing belief in the third
Napoleon's humanitarian proclivities.
1 In the south-west and south-east alone was there any necessity
for vigorous repression. And even there it was applied administra-
tively.
3OO SECOND EMPIRE, 1851-1860.
Once again was the cause of political liberty in
France sacrificed to the idea of equality, and a fresh
complication was now introduced by a more or less
definite aspiration towards fraternity. 1
Although the new Constitution was promulgated
on the 1 4th of January, 1852, formal legislative pro-
ceedings only began on the 2pth of March, and
Napoleon utilised the interval to fortify his position
by the measures against the Press and Public Instruc-
tion which have already been described.
The elections to the Legislative Chamber took
place at the end of February, and they were marked
by the apparition of a personage destined- to endure
until the end of the Empire, the official candidate,
namely, whom the Government recommended to the
electors, and whose candidature was supported by all
the means of which public functionaries could dispose.
Nevertheless, three Republicans were elected, two in
Paris and one in Lyons, but as all three refused to
take the indispensable oath to observe the Consti-
tution their election was declared invalid, and the
Legislative Chamber finally counted but one opponent
in its ranks, and this was Montalembert, whom the
confiscation of the property of the Orleans had al-
ready cured of his friendship for the new Governmerit.
With such a chamber Napoleon had little to fear.
During the first years all went well, and various
laws, some of which were useful, enriched the French
code. In 1854 literary copyright and extended
powers for the Juges de Paix ; in 1855 registration
1 This, however, was only in keeping with the old revolutionary
device : " Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity."
FINANCIAL LAWS AND SOCIAL REFORMS. 3<DI
of mortgages, and in 1856 joint-stock companies
(Societis en Commandite) were objects of reform,
and various penal and administrative measures also
passed, such as increased severity of punishment for
attempts against a reigning house (1853); abolition
of civil death ; organisation of hard labour ; trans-
portation of convicts (1854); and the pensions of
civil functionaries (1853).
There remains to be mentioned also the law of the
5th of May, 1855, on the municipalities, which, as
might have been expected, gave increased power to
the Prefects by enabling them, for instance, to nomi-
nate mayors who did not sit on municipal councils,
and deprived Paris and Lyons of all local elective
representation.
In the direction ot social reform, finally, an attempt
was made at a system of Old Age Pensions (1853 and
1856), but it was accompanied by a vexatious order
to all workmen to furnish themselves with a book in
which the dates of their entry into, and departure
from, a workshop should be entered (June 22, 1854),
thus placing them to all intents and purposes under
perpetual observation by the police.
Some incidents, even at this early date, might have
suggested to an attentive observer that the political
horizon might not always remain serene.
In spite of the small amount of liberty enjoyed by
the Legislative Chamber, Montalembert found means
on various occasions of warmly attacking the men
and the measures of the time. Two notable ex-
amples were the speeches he pronounced, one in
1854, after an action had been brought against him
302 SECOND EMPIRE, 1851-1860.
for the publication of a political pamphlet, and the
other in 1856, when he drew attention to the abuse
of Government interference in the elections.
At other times Commissions of the Assembly
complained of being fettered in their action by the
Council of State, which would not allow them to
introduce any amendments into Acts, or even to
reduce the supplies demanded on the presentation
of the Budget.
For the time being, however, these incidents might
furnish a few days' subject of conversation, but they
could not agitate the country as long as foreign
affairs were of a nature to distract the public mind.
The Crimean War was. in progress, and this under-
taking, which had not even been discussed when the
Chamber voted the necessary amounts of money and
of men, was fortunate in being applauded almost
unanimously, for the reason that it served the interests
of France as well as of the Empire.
Napoleon III. had been aware from his first acces-
sion to power of the latent mistrust with which all
Europe regarded him. His protests against the
Treaties of 1815, his very name created such a pre-
judice against him, that he was constantly forced
to try and reassure the other nations by affirming
pacific intentions.
But his neighbours still held aloof, not knowing
what dreams or ambitious projects might haunt his
brain, and he consequently found himself obliged to
prove his good intentions by joining in a war, which,
by its very nature, excluded all idea of conquest on
his part, and had for object to preserve the balance
THE CRIMEAN WAR. 303
of the Powers, by protecting Turkey against Russia.
The war had also the additional advantage of draw-
ing him closer to Great Britain, the only country
where the Press was free enough to become, in certain
eventualities, inconvenient to the government of
Napoleon, by affording encouragement to his victims
and opponents.
The Emperor was sure, finally, that in France
itself the war would be popular. Turkey was an
ancient ally, and while the old parties must be favour-
able to the preservation of this alliance, the Liberals
were pleased at the friendship which would result
from it with the Mother of Parliaments ; and even the
Republicans hailed an attack upon autocratic Russia,
and vaguely hoped that from this very conservative
enterprise some revolutionary movement would follow
in Italy or in Germany. As to the mass of the
population, it could not suffer from the war, since as
yet there was no universal conscription, and the
subsidy was to be obtained not by taxation but by
a loan two circumstances which gave free play to
the prevailing curiosity to see whether Napoleon III.
was likely to revive the glorious memories of his
uncle.
Hostilities began with the victory of the Allied
forces at Alma on the 2Oth of September, 1854; but
the chief interest in the war centred in the long and
difficult siege of Sebastopol, which only fell on the
8th of September, 185 5, and in various demonstrations
of French and English ships before Bomarsund,
Kinburn, and Petraupolosk.
The Czar Nicholas died before seeing the ruin of
304 SECOND EMPIRE, 1 851-1860.
his designs upon the Danubian Provinces and Con-
stantinople. His son Alexander II. hastened to
demand peace, which was signed at the Congress of
Paris on the 3Oth of March, 1856. Russia was for-
bidden to keep a fleet on the Black Sea, liberty of
navigation on the Danube was guaranteed, and the
commerce of neutrals in time of war assured.
These diplomatic and military triumphs, together
with the prevailing intense commercial development,
were very favourable to the Emperor, and largely
influenced the elections to the Legislative Chamber
in 1857. The Imperial Government had so far been
spoilt by fortune, and the hour had not yet come for
the stricken opposition to rise from the dust.
Nevertheless six candidates hostile to the Empire
were elected in Paris and Lyons, a significant symp-
tom of the growing feeling in the large towns. Sub-
sequently the six deputies were reduced, by death or
by the refusal to take the oath, to five, namely, Dari-
mon, Emile Ollivier, Henon, Jules Favre, and Ernest
Picard. They formed the celebrated " Opposition of
Five " who began the attack against the institutions
of 1852. But although opposition had made its
way into the Legislative Chamber, it was still too
much enslaved by legal restrictions to be able to
speak or act; and before Napoleon III. could be
induced to accord it liberty of expansion, he had to
make the discovery that his foreign policy was dis-
tasteful to his own adherents, and was undermining
his popularity with the nation in general.
On the 1 4th of January, 1858, three bombs thrown
by Orsini, intended for the Emperor, killed or
THE ITALIAN INDEPENDENCE. 305
wounded one hundred and fifty people, but left
Napoleon himself unhurt. Orsini was seized, tried,
condemned, and executed ; but his attempt revealed
two facts, to wit, that he had accomplices outside
France, and that the Emperor's death had been re-
solved upon in order to punish him for having allied
himself with Conservative states, and thus been led
to neglect the cause of Italian independence.
But Napoleon had not forgotten Italian indepen-
dence. In his youth he had taken part in many
conspiracies in the Peninsula, and when, in mature
age and at the height of power, he engaged in the
Crimean war, he had done his best to benefit Italy
by inducing Piedmont to join in the expedition.
No sooner had peace been signed than, taking the
neutrality of Austria for his text, he endeavoured
diplomatically to stir up various diplomatists against
the Court of Vienna ; but the pressure of other affairs
and the fear that a war with Austria would leave
him isolated in Europe and deprive him of the
position which the Crimean war had assured to
him, combined to prevent his taking instant action.
While he hesitated, Orsini threw the bombs, and
impressed upon the Emperor the necessity of a
decision. But first he profited by the crime to con-
solidate the system of repression which he had
inaugurated in France. In defiance of all truth, he
chose to attribute Orsini's attempt to secret societies
and republican intrigues, and then proceeded to
suppress various journals, to divide France into
five great Military Districts, and to make General
Espinasse Minister of the Interior (February 7, 1858).
21
306 SECOND EMPIRE, 1851-1860.
These preparations having caused universal alarm, he
next induced the Council of State and the Legislature
to pass the terrible law of General Safety (Surete"
Generate), dated February 27th, which allowed the
authorities to imprison anywhere, and even to expel
from France and her colonies, any person who had
been condemned for political offences since 1848.
And to avoid the recurrence of incidents which had
affected him disagreeably, he caused the Senatus-
Consulte of the i/th of February to decree that
candidates to the Legislative Chamber should take
the oath to observe the Constitution before they
could present themselves for election.
The excessive nature of these reprisals injured the
Emperor more than they served him. For they were
aimed not merely at revolutionary parties, who, when
all was said, agitated rather than acted, but even at
steady-going Liberals. To condemn Montalembert
to six months' imprisonment for having praised
English institutions in a review was to exasperate the
most moderate, who could not be appeased even by
the Emperor's instant revocation of the sentence.
Men began to ask themselves whether a system
which needed to support itself by such measures
could really be as strong as it pretended. The
Government saw its mistake, and tried to remedy
it, as early as June, 1858, by appointing a civilian
to the Ministry of the Interior. But the impression
made could not be easily effaced, and the moment
was a bad one for any bold venture. Yet it was
precisely this moment which Napoleon III. chose for
undertaking the Italian campaign. The Crimean
THE ITALIAN INDEPENDENCE. 307
war had somewhat intoxicated him ; he was anxious
to recover the ground which he had lost in public
opinion, and could see nothing but advantage to
himself in a fresh attack upon the Treaties of 1815
which would weaken the house of Austria, still re-
garded as the hereditary enemy of France, and drive
her from Northern Italy, where her presence offended
the populations.
The Emperor employed the autumn and winter
months in preparing the mind of the public for his
undertaking, but the preparation consisted, as was
usual with Napoleon III., in giving hints which did
not clearly reveal his intention. Sometimes he caused
the publication of semi-official articles and " inspired "
pamphlets discussing the Italian question, and at
other times the newspapers contained paragraphs
denouncing remarks which were disquieting to com-
mercial circles and likely to disturb the friendly
relations of France with her neighbours.
Several months passed thus in marches and
counter-marches, with insinuations thrown out one day
and withdrawn the next, when, all at once, on Austria
ordering Piedmont to discontinue its military pre-
parations, the Emperor declared war. The Crimean
campaign had been, as we have said, very popular
in France, but the exact contrary was the case with
the war of Italian Independence. Apart from the
Republicans, who hailed a policy likely to bring about
a return to the old traditions of Freedom and Nation-
ality, nobody was able to perceive the benefit likely
to accrue from such an undertaking to France.
In the Legislative Chamber, when permission to
308 SECOND EMPIRE, 1 851-1860.
contract a loan was demanded, apprehension was
visible even in the ranks of the Imperialist majority,
for was it not likely that on the pretext of defending
Piedmont from Austrian aggression a blow might be
struck at the independence of the Pope ? And by
art alliance with the revolutionary section in the
Peninsula, might not France disquiet, and perhaps
disturb, the whole of Europe ?
Nevertheless the loan was voted, and Napoleon
III. set out upon the war, after issuing a proclama-
tion in which, playing for once into the hands of
the Republicans, he expressed the desire to see Italy
" free to the shores of the Adriatic " (May 3, 1859).
Two months later, although victorious at Monte-
bello, at Magenta (June 4th), and at Solferino (June
24th), Napoleon, III. abruptly put an end to the
campaign by signing with Austria the preliminary
peace of Villafranca, which later became the Treaty
of Zurich (November 10, 1859), and was completed
by the further Treaty of Turin, signed on the 24th
of March, 1860, between France and Piedmont.
In virtue of these conventions, Austria ceded
Lombardy to Piedmont, but kept Venetia ; France
annexed Nice and Savoy on condition that the
population of these provinces should signify their
consent to the arrangement by a plebiscite (which
they did), and the remaining Italian States were
directed to form a Confederation under the honorary
presidence of the Pope. The explanation of this
sudden failure to fulfil such brilliant promises was
various. Prussia had assumed a threatening attitude,
and Great Britain had remained coldly neutral. Also
THE EXPEDITION TO ITALY. 309
Napoleon III. had hardly set foot in Italy before
he became aware of national aspirations in the people
which neither he nor anybody would be able to
restrain. In other words, he awoke too late to the
manifold consequences of his act.
The net result of the Italian expedition was that
of all half-completed enterprises, inasmuch as it left
everybody discontented. The Italians were frustrated
in their hopes of unity and independence ; their
French supporters shared their disappointment ; the
enemies of Italian unity saw plainly that a movement
had been set on foot which could not be arrested,
and Europe fancied that the annexation of Nice and
Savoy indicated a revival of the old conquering
spirit of France. What was to be expected happened.
The people of Tuscany, Parma, and Modena de-
throned their rulers, and demanded to be united to
Piedmont ; the Romagna shook off the Papal yoke,
Garibaldi's volunteers took possession of Sicily in
May, 1860, and in September of the same year a
Piedmontese army entered the Roman Campagna.
Napoleon III., feeling himself really guilty towards
the Italians, and sympathising in his heart with their
cause, did nothing to arrest the torrent which his
own act had set flowing. He even advised Pius
IX. to give up the Romagna, and in a speech at
Bordeaux in October, 1859, he spoke of ordering
the recall of the French garrison which had occu-
pied Rome ever since the events of 1849. This
was aH that was wanted to show what evil conse-
quences at home were to ensue from a war which had
already excited hostility in Europe. The Catholic
3IO SECOND EMPIRE, 1851-1860.
party in France, with whom the temporal power of
the Pope was an article of faith, rose in revolt, and a
long and bitter struggle began between them and the
Imperial Government.
By the end of 1859, and throughout 1860, the
supporters of the Church were up in arms, and their
demonstration provoked repressive measures of the
implacable nature to which the Empire had ac-
customed its subjects. Catholic journals were sup-
pressed or suspended ; collections in favour of the
Pope forbidden ; bishops severely rebuked by the
Minister of Religion, and their episcopal charges
brought under the action of the Press-laws. If
only some hundreds of believers enrolled them-
selves as soldiers under the papal banner, on the
other hand the few Liberals who had been languish-
ing in drawing-room obscurity since 1852 hastened
to extend the hand of friendship to the Church, and
to join in denouncing the violence to which it was
subject, in the hope that the clergy might prove
useful allies in the anti-Imperial campaign which
was beginning anew.
Another very powerful and active group of mal-
contents arose at the same time in France. With
the object of reviving the somewhat hesitating friend-
ship now shown him by England, the Emperor
pressed on the negotiations which he had begun a
considerable time previously with Richard Cobden,
and on the 23rd of January, 1860, he signed the
famous Treaty of Commerce which, without realising
the whole programme of Free Trade, yet diminished
to a large extent the protection hitherto accorded to
COMMERCIAL TREATY OF i860. 3! I
French industry. The Protectionists, above all in
the cotton-spinning districts, were enraged by this
economic revolution thus imposed upon them with-
out warning by the arbitrary will of the sovereign,
unaccompanied by any sign from the body which
was supposed to represent the national mind of
France. And here again, as in the case of the
Catholics, it became evident that men are little dis-
posed to uphold autocracy when it attacks their inte-
rests. The Parliamentary session of 1860 brought
this fact into relief. The Government was reproached
with the hesitation, the tortuousness and the impru-
dence of its Italian policy, and at the same time
complaints were heard from the Protectionists at
the abuse of the Imperial prerogative. Napoleon
III., under this cross-fire of attack, was not slow to
perceive that he had lost touch with public opinion,
and that if he continued to impose silence upon the
nation he would end by digging an abyss between
it and himself. As a result he issued the Decree
of the 24th of November, 1860, for which nothing
had prepared the public mind, and which was
described by a contemporary as being a " Coup cCetat
born of the solitary meditations of the Emperor."
By this decree the Senate and the Chamber
acquired the right of discussing and voting each
year an address in reply to the Speech from the
Throne, and the publication in extenso of the debates
in the Chamber was promised a promise carried
out by the Senatus- Consul fe of the 2nd of February
following. It was also determined to allow ministers
without a portfolio to represent the Government
312
SECOND EMPIRE, 1 851-1860.
during the sittings of the Chamber. All this may
seem little in theory, but it was a great deal for the
period. It meant that the Empire had inaugurated
a new epoch, and was to pay for the excesses it had
committed by renouncing the very principles to
which it owed its existence.
XIII.
SECOND EMPIRE, 1860-18/0.
Second Period: November 24, 1860 September 4, 1870.
THE decree of the 24th of November, 1860, which
was completed by some slight mitigations of the fiscal
laws and the repressive regulations imposed upon the
Press (Acts of the 2nd of May and 2nd of July, 1861),
accorded liberty of speech to the political assemblies
once a year, that is to say in the debate on the
Address.
Although the first legislative body which benefited
by this favour had been elected in 1857, it soon gave
the measure of the rate at which the public mind had
travelled since the last General Election, and showed
the confusion generated in the Government majority
itself by the policy lately pursued by the Emperor.
Old official candidates, emancipated at last, joined
the famous Five in attacking the Government or
resisting its measures. In vain the Emperor affirmed
through his ministers that henceforward his policy in
Italy would be one of non-intervention. While both
in the Legislative Chamber and the Senate certain
orators were openly attacking the Temporal Power
313
314 SECOND EMPIRE, 1860-18/0.
as dangerous for the spiritual independence of the
Pope and contrary to the interests of Italy, it was
clear that the Catholics would require from Napoleon
III. something else than an attitude of laisser-faire.
In vain the Government announced an equilibrium
in the Budgets ; the Emperor's own friends rose to
denounce both the abuse of supplementary credits
which had introduced deficits in all preceding Budgets
and the absurdity of the supplies en bloc which the
Chamber was expected to vote for each Ministry.
On this second point the Emperor afforded satis-
faction to public opinion by ordaining that in future
no supplementary credit should be granted without
the consent of the Minister of Finance, and also that
the Budget should be presented and voted upon in
sixty-five " sections," each self-contained and defi-
nitely fixed (December I and 31, 1861).
But with regard to the Italian question, it was
infinitely more difficult to take up an attitude which
should conciliate the country. Napoleon III. ex-
hausted himself in vain efforts to find a common
ground of agreement between the Pope and Victor
Emmanuel, who had caused himself to be proclaimed
King of Italy (February 18, 1861), and every time
that the Roman question was brought up in the
French Chamber there was always on the one side a
group who ardently advocated the withdrawal of the
garrison, 1 and on the other a band of defenders of the
Pope, while between the two the Ministry never found
1 This measure was specially advocated in the Legislative
Chamber by Jules Favre, and in the Senate by Prince Jerome
Bonaparte, the son-in-law of Victor Emmanuel.
THE CATHOLIC OPPOSITION. , 315
anything else to say than to recommend an attitude
of patient expectation.
The uneasiness of Parliament at this ambiguous
policy was shared by the country, and the Catholic
clergy never ceased agitating in favour of the Holy
Father ; nor did the Government desist from its
reprisals, on one occasion going so far as to dissolve
a vast religious association long tolerated in France,
which employed itself especially in collecting funds
for Peter's Pence.
Moreover, the growing opposition of the Catholic
world found an echo in other centres which were
strangers to the merely religious question. Com-
merce and industry, long so flourishing, were much
affected by the results in the whole world of busi-
ness of the War of Secession in the United States.
And further uneasiness was generated by the restless
humour of Napoleon III., who not only despatched
troops to Syria in 1861 to protect the Catholics of
Lebanon, and to China in 1860 to open certain ports
to European trade, but also engaged in 1862 in the
mad enterprise in Mexico, where he hoped to make
the Archduke Maximilian of Austria the ruler of a
Latin empire a project which collapsed in bloodshed
and ruin after four years of costly struggle.
All these questions and many more were debated
with passion by the " Five " in the French Chamber,
and discussed more calmly by various members of
the majority.
These debates were not immediately productive of
reforms, since they could not influence either the
hidden will of the sovereign or the composition of
3l6 SECOND EMPIRE,
his ministries, but they sufficed to rouse public opinion
and to show that the Empire had entered upon troub-
lous times.
And sometimes unexpected results followed. One
day the Legislative Chamber was in such an obstinate
mood that the Government had to withdraw a pro-
posal to bestow a life pension upon General Cousin
de Montauban, Count of Palikao, who had commanded
the Expeditionary Corps in China. 1 On another occa-
sion one of the ministers without portfolio, whose duty
it was to defend the acts of the Government before
the Chamber, considered it incumbent on him to
resign because he was in public opposition to the
Minister of Finance an act which revealed the
need of a certain ministerial unity. But these small
triumphs could not blind the public to the realities of
the situation. Since the Chamber had obtained the
right of speech and its voice was heard outside, men
were surprised that there should exist constitutional
hindrances to the realisation of the desires which it
expressed.
The few business measures voted during this period,
such as the Conversion of the Rentes (1861), the abbre-
viation of Civil and Commercial Procedure (1862), the
Limited Liability Societies Act, the law on Flagrant
Offences {flagrants delits, 1863), &c., were not of a
nature to appease the public appetite, so lately and
suddenly revived. Indecision reigned in all quarters
1 It was on the return of this expedition, in which England had
concurred, that the French troops completed the conquest of Cochin
China. A treaty with the Emperor of Annam in 1863 consolidated
the first French establishments in Indo-China.
GENERAL ELECTION OF 1863. 317
in the nation at large as in Government circles, and
while the one was a prey to confused aspirations, the
other was tossed about by contradictory opinions.
Such was the situation on the 3 1st of May, 1863,
when the General Election took place. The Govern-
ment resorted on this occasion to the same preliminary
machinations as in 1852, and deliberately refused its
support to those deputies who, in the outgoing Parlia-
ment, had given the smallest sign of independence.
But this time the official circulars were as eloquent
in praising the recent liberal reforms of the Imperial
Government as, eleven years previously, they had
proved themselves in boasting of overwhelming
authority.
The old Liberal party of opposition had recovered
courage, and by alliance with the Church, which
could not forgive the Emperor's Italian policy, it
embittered the struggle in many constituencies.
The best representative of this fraction of oppo-
nents was Thiers, who was standing for Paris, and
who was less anxious to change the form of govern-
ment than to place it on a basis which should ensure
its exercise of normal functions.
As to the Republicans, some advocated abstention
in order not, as they expressed it, to " legitimise " the
Empire by participating in its administration ; while
others threw themselves into the struggle, and, while
recommending a more decidedly revolutionary and
nationalist attitude abroad and social reforms at home,
they were so shocked at the Imperial abuse of power
that in their discussions they frequently forgot the
essential conditions of all government.
SECOND EMPIRE, 1 860-18/0.
All dissidents, whether Liberal or Republican,
Thiers equally with Jules Favre, were opposed tooth
and nail by the Government. Their newspapers were
seized, their meetings dissolved, and, frequently, their
electoral operations interfered with ; but in spite of
all, forty different opponents of the Empire, including
the Legitimist Berryer, the Orleanist Thiers, such
Republicans as Jules Favre, Pelletan, &c., succeeded
in being elected, and the final result of the ballot
showed that if the rural populations still supported
the Government, the smaller towns were rapidly
becoming Liberal, and the larger centres Radical.
To remain blind to this manifestation of public
opinion was impossible. In Government circles, indeed,
satisfaction was affected, but all the memoirs of the
time betray the real apprehension which underlay
these professions. There might, perhaps, have been
an attempt at reaction had the general position of
affairs been favourable to such a course. But the
international horizon was lowering. The Roman
question remained unsettled ; in spite of pressure put
upon him the Czar Alexander II. had not made any
concessions to Poland ; in the north the Schleswig-
Holstein difficulty had begun, and was to end in the
following year with the annexation of those terri-
tories to the Germanic Confederation ; in short,
everywhere there were complications to face which
the Government needed to be supported both by
the Chamber and by the whole country.
Moreover, it was desirable to conciliate the work-
ing classes, whose confidence in their political masters
had begun to wane. Resistance under such circum-
ROUHER, THE " VICE-EMPEROR? 3 1 9
stances was not to be thought of, and at first there
was no attempt at it.
The Government took quite another course. On
the 23rd of June the Emperor cast off Persigny, the
Minister of the Interior, who had erred during the
elections by excess of zeal, and seized the oppor-
tunity to suppress the ministers " without portfolio"
who, had been appointed in 1860. There was, in
truth, a certain absurdity in having the acts of the
Government defended in the Chamber, not by re-
sponsible ministers, the authors of these acts, but by
a species of official advocates.
For the moment the right of addressing the
Chamber was not granted to all ministers, but one of
their number, the so-called Minister of State, was
permanently empowered to speak for them.
This was a move in the direction of naming a
president of the Council, and Rouher, who was
entrusted with the new functions, gave evidence
during many years of an intellectual and oratorical
fertility and of resource which was, unfortunately,
not accompanied by a corresponding force of character.
The " Vice- Emperor," as he was later nicknamed,
was chiefly remarkable for extreme docility towards
his Sovereign.
Another appointment made at this time was that
of Victor Duruy to the Ministry of Public Instruc-
tion. A man of broad and thoughtful mind, he
removed the drawbacks from which education had
suffered since 1852, by restoring Philosophy to a
place in the scholastic programme, and by intro-
ducing the study of contemporary history.
320 SECOND EMPIRE, 1 860-1870.
To him also was due the institution of literary and
scientific lectures, and courses of instruction for
young girls, by means of which new life was intro-
duced into the University ; and had he been able to
overcome the opposition of the Court and the clergy,
he would have carried out a project for free, obligatory
Primary Schools.
Still more direct bids for public favour were two
Bills, one which conceded the right of strike to
artisans, and another, addressed more particularly to
the agricultural populations, increased the preroga-
tives of municipal and general councillors.
The first part of this scheme became law on the
25th of May, 1864, when it ceased to be an offence for
workers to strike, although they were not yet to be
allowed to meet for the purpose of deciding on con-
certed action to this end ; while the second portion
was partially realised by the Act regarding Councils
General of the i8th of July, 1866, the reforms in
municipal assemblies being carried out a year later.
All these measures, however, failed to appease
the impatience of the public, who longed to obtain a
larger share of political liberty. In the debate on
the Address in 1864, Thiers, in a masterly speech
on what he called " necessary liberties," had clearly
formulated the Liberal demand.
He had shown how the public and the press were
at the mercy of the police; how administrative harsh-
ness or administrative favours rendered universal
suffrage inoperative ; how the Chamber, hampered
by legal restrictions, was unable to exercise any
effective control; and he had pointed out that the
THE ROMAN QUESTION. 321
evolution of Liberalism must inevitably lead to
ministerial responsibility, which was also the crown-
ing guarantee for every other form of freedom
demanded by the country.
This programme, which was announced for the
first time as a whole in 1864, and was advocated,
partially or entirely, on different occasions by
speakers of all shades of opinion, even by warm
supporters of the Empire, rapidly gained adherents,
but from Rouher it was always met with a cate-
gorical non possumus. He did not wish, he said, to
deprive the Emperor of the right of governing in
order to return to " superannuated constitutional
fictions." The "Vice-Emperor" was encouraged to
hold this language by a certain improvement which,
towards the end of 1864, had taken place in the
general situation of affairs.
The commercial crisis came to an end when the
American war ceased ; the quarrel about the Duchies
was, at least, temporarily adjusted by the treaty of
the 3Oth of October, 1 864 ; and a convention con-
cluded on the 1 5th of September of the same year
between France and Italy seemed to close the Roman
question by stipulating that the French troops should
evacuate Rome within two years, and that Italy should
guarantee possession to the Pope of all that remained
to him of the Pontifical States.
The calm was, however, not destined to last. The
convention of the I5th of September had been con-
cluded without the consent of the Pope, and Pius IX.,
who was unanimously supported on the point by the
French clergy, saw in it the practical abandonment
22
322 SECOND EMPIRE, 1860-18/0.
of the sacred cause of the Temporal Power. He pro-
tested in his own fashion by publishing the famous
encyclical Quanta cura, better known as the Syllabus,
in which, after an exaggerated defence of the ancient
regime, he denounced and anathematised as factious
all doctrines based upon national sovereignty, uni-
versal suffrage, and liberty of conscience.
The French Government was disturbed by this
publication, which attacked the very foundation of
the Imperial edifice, and French priests were for-
bidden to read it from the pulpit. Hence arose,
between the Empire and its Catholic subjects, a
renewal of the old controversy, for while the Radi-
cals began to agitate in favour of a separation
between the Church and State, the majority of French-
men repeatedly declared that they wished the Tem-
poral Power to be preserved.
France would probably have remained a long time
in this condition, without acquiring any fresh degree
of political liberty, if serious complications had not
arisen abroad.
In 1865 and at the beginning of 1866 Rouher had
just promised that the Legislative Chamber should be
endowed with more extensive powers of amendment, 1
but he still refused to listen to any Liberal demands.
This was the situation when, all at once, the public,
which had remained somewhat indifferent to the
quarrels between Prussia and Austria on the subject
of the Danish Duchies, learnt, with alarmed surprise,
that Prussia, in alliance with Italy, was making war
1 These concessions were actually given by the Scnatiis-Consultc
of the i8th of July, 1866, but they were of no great importance.
BATTLE OF SADOWA. 323
on Austria, and that the latter had been beaten on
the 3rd of July at Sadowa, with the result that Francis
Joseph had to cede Venetia to Italy and the Duchies
to Prussia, and withdrawing finally from the Germanic
Confederation, had allowed this to fall under the
hegemony of the Court of Berlin (Preliminaries of
Nikolsburg and Treaty of Prague, 27th of July and
23rd of August, 1866). Throughout this business the
Government of Napoleon III. had remained neutral,
neither intervening to prevent the war nor showing
any prevision of the crushing victory which Prussia
was about to carry off. The Emperor, who during
all his reign had been chiefly preoccupied with the
Italian question, allowed himself now to be swayed
by sympathy for that country, and flattered himself
that by an alliance with the States of Southern
Germany he would be able to counterbalance the
influence which a now homogeneous Prussia was
obtaining in the North.
In vain at the first lowering of the storm Thiers,
Jules Favre, and even Emile Ollivier, who on other
points was being gradually won over to the Em-
peror, had spoken warning words in the Chamber.
In the mind of Napoleon III. dreams were more
potent than any conception of the true interests of
France.
The suddenness of the shock, however, and the
profound impression produced in France by the
battle of Sadowa disturbed and disquieted him. He
perceived very clearly the necessity under which he
would find himself, in order to be prepared for graver
eventualities still, to demand sacrifices in men and
324 SECOND EMPIRE, 1 860-1870.
money from the nation, with the object of augmenting
the army.
But how to obtain such sacrifices, when belief in
the infallibility of the sovereign existed no longer
either in the mind of the nation or of the emperor
himself?
It became indispensable to give something to the
anxious country in return for all that was to be asked
of it, and to this necessity was due the decree of the
1 9th of January, 1867, which, like all its predecessors,
was published after a period of absolute silence. By
this decree the Address from the Throne was sup-
pressed, and there succeeded to it a general right of
question which, although hedged round by compli-
cated formalities, at least allowed the Chambers to
discuss the policy of the Government not merely once
a year but whenever the occasion arose. On the other
hand ministers acquired the power of offering personal
explanations to Parliament, 1 and two bills were
promised for according a greater measure of liberty
to the press and to public meetings.
This step in advance was hardly taken when the
Government seemed to stand still, if not to draw back.
The year 1867 was principally remarkable for the
Universal Exhibition and the numerous receptions of
royal personages to which it gave rise. In political
1 By a Scnatus-Consultc of the I4th of March, the Senate also
acquired wider legislative powers. Since 1852 this assembly had
been debarred from rejecting any Act voted by the other Chamber
unless it were unconstitutional. Henceforth it would be empowered
to examine all Acts on their merits , and, without being able to amend
them, could at least return them to the Legislative Body for further
consideration.
THE POLICY OF RESISTANCE. $2$
matters it was full of hesitations and contradictions.
There was a Court party round the Emperor and
another party in the Chamber which watched with
regret the demolition by the sovereign himself of the
Constitution originally established by himself. Every
time that it was possible to check him in his course
towards Liberalism the effort was eagerly made, and
Napoleon III., prematurely old, and always unwil-
ling to act unless under pressure, yielded at intervals
to the reactionary influences brought to bear upon
his mind, and thus lost the benefit of the rare wise
acts which he was still capable of initiating.
Rouher, too, was only progressive under protest,
and too deeply committed to the policy of resistance
to be able to alter now, except with an immeasurable
loss of importance. His chief preoccupation, moreover,
was to defend his position against the growing influence
which Emile Ollivier was acquiring over the Emperor.
The session of 1 867 consequently passed without any
realisation of the promises made on the ipth of January.
The long-expected Municipalities Act became law,
another giving a large degree of liberty to commercial
associations was also passed, but neither the press
nor public meetings were released from their legal
disabilities, and the Government failed to obtain a
favourable vote for a project regarding the army, which
was yet of the first importance.
Once again did considerations of foreign policy
oblige the Government to carry out the promised
reforms. Almost immediately after Sadowa, Napo-
leon III. hastened to recall the troops which he had
left in Mexico. They had hardly embarked on their
326 SECOND EMPIRE, 1860-18/0.
homeward journey before the Emperor Maximilian
was seized and shot by his subjects of an hour (June
19, 1867). At the same time the French Cabinet,
humiliated and alarmed by the consequences of the
battle of Sadowa, had sought for a compensation and
a guarantee in the annexation of the Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg ; but later, tricked by Prussia, which at
first had maliciously encouraged the enterprise, it had
to renounce the idea of annexation, and content itself
with a mere neutralisation of the territory (Conven-
tion of London, May u, 1867).
To crown all, a body of Garibaldian volunteers
had attacked the Pontifical States, and France had
been forced hastily to despatch two divisions for the
protection of the Pope (November, 1 867).
Such an uninterrupted series of checks was not
of a nature to restore the declining prestige of the
Empire. Not only did it disclose an international
situation of extreme peril, but it gave rise in France
to passionate discussions, wherein Rouher, in spite
of his infinite dexterity and imperturbable optimism,
only succeeded, when all was said, in revealing the
powerlessness of his master.
The Government was at last forced to keep its
engagements : and the Session of 1868 was devoted
partly to the Army Act and partly to the improve-
ment of the laws on the press and public meetings.
The Army Act (February i) had reference chiefly
to the Reserve Forces, of which the number was to be
increased by incorporating all young men hitherto
dispensed from active military service either in return
for 5 a money payment or for any other reason.
ACTS OF 1868. 327
The object in view was to form an Auxiliary
Army to which summary instruction should be given
annually in time of peace.
As to the press (May 11), it was freed from the
necessity of preliminary authorisation, and exempted
from administrative penalties. As to public meetings
(June 6), preliminary authorisation was in their case
only maintained when political or religious questions
were to be discussed, out of the electoral season.
These various Acts did not pass the Chambers
without difficulty. Opposition to the extension of
obligatory military service was carried beyond
bounds ; and while the Radicals were denouncing the
other two Acts as inadequate and unreal, the Extreme
Right, which had lately undertaken the task of de-
fending the events of 1852 against the Emperor
himself, attacked them as being dangerous to the
Crown and to Society. The Acts passed all the
same ; but while the Empire was thus contradicting
its first principles, and forcing its servants to eat their
own past words and nullify their own past acts,
certain prominent Imperialists were found to declare
that the constitutional responsibility of the Chief of
the State was a myth, and must in any case become
a menace to the future stability of the dynasty.
Ministerial responsibility was demanded in circles
where formerly it had been most energetically op-
posed, the object being to protect the Emperor
against contentions of the hour and relieve him from
the burden of the errors which had been committed.
By the end of 1 868 everybody foresaw a crisis.
The first use made of the new liberties showed that
328 SECOND EMPIRE, 1860-18/0.
problems cannot be solved by denying their exist-
ence, or peace be established by imposing silence.
The ideas of 1848 which were believed to be extinct
had simply smouldered underneath ; and public
meetings revealed a Socialist movement which was
all the stronger for having been so long repressed.
Formidable strikes had to be put down by force,
and multiplied sentences did not avail to silence the
revolutionary utterances of various new journals. In
the streets of Paris itself there were Republican
demonstrations, and the Government discredited
abroad, served by bewildered functionaries, assailed
by an embittered clergy and an Opposition, already
divided indeed, but as intemperate as it was inex-
perienced, and supported only by a majority weary of
defending a policy which it no longer understood
the Government drifted helplessly from one rock to
another, at the mercy of every wind that blew, and
soon to be engulfed by the worst storm of all.
The elections of 1869, prepared amid general con-
fusion and agitation, disclosed the full extent of the
crisis. Representatives of various shades of opposition
were put forward in all constituencies, and carried
off victories the more surprising that there was no
cohesion in the ranks of the Government's enemies,
Liberals and Catholics struggling as fiercely against
Radicals as against official candidates. The last-
named only obtained 4,636,000 votes throughout
France, while the various sections of the Opposition
among them numbered 3,270,000 suffrages.
There entered into the New Legislature twenty-
eight members of the Left, mostly returned by large
THE NEW LEGISLATURE.
towns, and all more or less irreconcilable, and
264 " dynasties," among whom, however, almost the
half were Parliamentary Liberals, who with the Left
made up the numerical majority of the Chamber.
Personal government lay prone. Had he been
wise, Napoleon III. would at once have confided
the direction of the movement to the " dynastic "
Liberals : that was the only chance left to him of
saving the Empire. But he shrank from so decided
a capitulation : once again he hesitated, and when
he at last made up his mind to complete the evolu-
tion begun in 1860, it was too late.
The Chamber was convened for the 28th of June
with the sole object of verifying the powers of its
members. On the 8th of July, 116 deputies, all
belonging to the " dynastic " Liberals or Third Party,
among whom were Buffet, Emile Ollivier, &c., moved
to ask the views of the Chamber " as to the neces-
sity of satisfying the wishes of the country by allowing
it a larger part in the management of its affairs," an
object which the movers considered could only be
attained through the constitution of a responsible
Ministry, and the concession to the Chamber of the
right of specifying the conditions of its own labours,
and of its communications to the Government.
The Government was alarmed at this energetic
claim to Parliamentary liberty, and prorogued the
Chamber so as to avoid replying to the motion, while
at the same time announcing the intention of study-
ing the means of gratifying the desire which the
deputies had expressed.
The study thus undertaken had a double result.
33 SECOND EMPIRE, 1 860-1870.
Rouher left the Ministry to become President of
the Senate, 1 and a Senatus-Consulte of the 8th of
September, 1869, decreed that henceforth the
Chamber should share with the Emperor the right
of initiating laws, that it should be accorded the right
of integral amendment, that ministers should be re-
sponsible, that the right of interpellation should be
freed from the restriction to which it had hitherto
been subject, that the Legislature should elect its
committee (bureau) and manage its own internal
affairs, that treaties of commerce should be submitted
to Parliament before ratification, and that the Budget
should be voted in separate heads.
Thus was the Constitution of the year 1852 almost
completely destroyed. Napoleon III. solemnly dis-
avowed the principles which he had once declared to
be essential to the government of the country, and
virtually made a public and radical confession of
weakness and error.
But how could France believe in the sincerity of
this confession when seeing the Emperor still sur-
rounded with the men who had professed and
practised contrary principles ?
Rouher, indeed, had withdrawn himself, but his
subordinates and collaborators remained in posses-
sion of the various ministries. There are hours in
the life of nations when changes of persons are more
important and more significant than modifications of
constitutional texts.
1 The confusion in the Government is proved by the fact that
during the last- two years of the Empire the Minister of Foreign
Affairs was changed arbitrarily six times.
ANARCHY IN THE PARLIAMENT. 33!
But Napoleon III. was now afflicted with that sort
of senility which cannot accustom itself to new faces ;
and this completed the exasperation of the Third
Party, who were disappointed in their hopes of coming
into power.
The Emperor, however, perceived at last that he
could not hope to dispel the uneasiness of the country,
unless he summoned new men to his councils. On
the 27th of December he wrote to Emile Ollivier
begging him to indicate some persons who would be
prepared to join him in forming a Cabinet " fully
representative of the majority in the Chamber, and
determined to carry out, in letter and in spirit, the
Senatus-Consulte of the 8th of September."
The task was already more difficult than it would
have been six months previously, for, thanks to the
hesitations of the Government, the anarchy of Parlia-
ment had rapidly increased. The Extreme Right, led
by Jerome David and Granier de Cassagnac exhibited
more and more discontent at the Empire's departure
from old principles. The One Hundred and Sixteen
had become One Hundred and Fifty, and then
divided, two-thirds forming a kind of Right Centre
under Emile Ollivier, the remainder a Left Centre
which chiefly followed the lead of Buffet. The Left
itself had also broken up into two groups, of which
one, under the guidance of Jules Favre and Ernest
Picard, was disposed to treat the reforms of the
Empire with favour, while the other, headed by
Rochefort, Raspail, &c., already advanced claims to
an unbridled democracy.
Nevertheless on the 2nd of January, 1870, Emile
332 SECOND EMPIRE, 1860-1870.
Ollivier succeeded in forming a Ministry composed
of elements from the two Centres, and at once
proved his sincere attachment to Liberalism by
dismissing a great number of functionaries compro-
mised through excess of zeal ; and by presenting
two Bills, one of which forced the Government to
choose the Mayors from among the members of Muni-
cipal Councils, and the other conferred on Councils-
General the right of electing their Presidents and of
publishing a Report of their meetings (22nd and
23rd of July). The Chamber even voted a reduction
in the Stamp Duty for the Press, and referred news-
paper offences once more to juries ; but these mea-
sures, delayed in the Senate, had not time to pass
before the tragical events which marked the months
of August and September.
The position of Emile Ollivier was far from an
easy one. The public excitement was so great
that the smallest pretext sufficed to cause riots in
the streets. In the Chamber the Ministry was
attacked by the Left, which regarded Emile Ollivier
as a deserter, and only tepidly supported by the
Right, who accused him of having abandoned the
most cherished principles. He had bitter enemies
among the immediate advisers (entourage] of the
Emperor, and his will being inferior to his talent as an
orator, he yielded too often to Court influences to be
able to assume in the eyes of the bewildered public
the attitude of one who could dominate the situation.
He yielded particularly on one ever-to-be-regretted
occasion. Of all the alarming signs of the times,
Napoleon III. saw but one : his own waning personal
THE PLEBISCITE OF THE %TH OF MAY. 333
power. The idea occurred to him that he might
renew his force by means of one of those appeals to
popular opinion which eighteen years previously had
crowned his omnipotence.
On pretence that the innumerable constitutional
reforms introduced since 1860 required the ratifica-
tion of the country, on the 2ist of March he ordered
Emile Olliver to prepare a Senatus-Consulte codify-
ing all these reforms, and affirming at one and the
same time the Emperor's continued responsibility
to the nation, and his exclusive right to introduce
modifications into the Constitution. And at the
beginning of April it was decided, at the instigation
of Rouher, that this Senatus-Consulte should form
the subject of a plebiscite. Emile Ollivier did not
approve of this course, which did, in fact, belie all
the recent parliamentary reforms of the Empire,
but he could not make up his mind to oppose it, and
even accepted the resignation of the members of his
Cabinet who belonged to the Left Centre rather than
enter upon a struggle with the Emperor himself.
The plebiscite took place on the 8th of May. It
was insidiously worded in the following terms: "The
people approve of the liberal reforms which the
Emperor has introduced into the Constitution, and
ratify the Senatus-Consulte of the 2Oth of April." As
the votes were taken en bloc, the formula had either
to be rejected in its entirety, or the people had
simultaneously to signify approval of the Emperor
and his reforms and the imperfections still subsist-
ing in the Constitution. Consequently an important
section of the Left and a notable group of "dynastic"
334 SECOND EMPIRE , 1860-1870.
Liberals preferred to abstain from voting, and there
were finally 7,359,000 affirmative suffrages, against
1,572,000 negatives and 1,900,000 abstentions.
This victory determined the ruin of the Empire
and the mutilation of France. Napoleon III. believed
that he still possessed the confidence of the country,
and that a little external glory succeeding to so many
reverses would restore his shaken authority. He was
encouraged in this idea by his family and by the
Imperialist majority, who felt the ground giving way
beneath their feet. For the rest, ever since Sadowa
and the Luxemburg affair everybody was persuaded
of the imminency of a quarrel with Germany, and
that country, energetically directed by Bismarck,
preferred to precipitate events, rather than wait until
the action of the law of 1 868 should have increased
the military strength of France.. In such a situation
the smallest spark was able to provoke an explosion.
The Hohenzollern candidature to the throne of
Spain, which had remained vacant in consequence of
the revolution which overthrew Queen Isabella, was
the opportunity desired by almost everybody on
the two sides of the Rhine. . Wisdom would have
counselled France to wait upon events. Spain would
certainly have hastened to get rid, unassisted, of any
foreign prince, as she had done in the beginning of
the century with King Joseph, and as she did again
some years later with King Amedeus. But France
had been subjected to many affronts within the past
four years and could not show herself reasonable.
Active negotiations passed between the Cabinets
of Paris and Berlin, and from the very first day the
THE HOHENZOLLERN CANDIDATURE. 335
former solemnly declared that it would never consent
to the presence of a German sovereign in Madrid.
The King of Prussia, head of the House of Hohen-
zollern, then ordered his cousin to withdraw his
candidature. Emboldened by this success, the Duke
de Grammont, French Foreign Minister, advanced
fresh pretensions. He required a promise from
Prussia never to allow the candidature to be renewed.
This King William refused, and Bismarck, abetted by
the unscrupulousness or the simplicity of De Gram-
mont, allowed a report to be spread throughout
Europe that the French Ambassador had been ill-
treated by the Prussian monarch. This report,
absolutely baseless as it turned out, put the crown
to public excitement in France. Since the 5th of
July not a day passed that either the Corps Legislatif
or the Senate had not shown some warlike tendency,
and when, on the I5th, De Grammont announced the
mobilisation of the reserves, it was in vain that
Thiers, Jules Favre, Buffet, and others called for
explanations and delay. On the ipth war was
officially declared, and the Chamber prorogued.
Nothing was in readiness for such a tremendous
undertaking. The Empire had neither "soldiers nor
allies. Its precipitation in acting had not allowed
it to make sure of the assistance of Austria. The
military magazines were empty, and the army which
had figured since 1868 on paper had not received
the necessary instruction. The defeats at Weissen-
burg, Reichshoffen, and Forbach, on the 2nd, 4th,
and 6th of August, opened the eyes of the most
blindly optimistic. The Chamber was hastily re-
33^ SECOND EMPIRE, l86o-l8/O.
summoned, and on the pth overturned Ollivier's
Ministry. The next day a Cabinet, presided over
by General Count de Palikao, was formed out of the
elements of the Right Wing and Centre, and imme-
diately began to organise the defence of Paris, which
was felt to be already in danger. Napoleon III. left
to place himself at the head of one of his armies,
and while Bazaine, beaten several times beneath the
walls of Metz (at Borny, Gravelotte, and Vionville,
I4th to 1 8th of August), finally allowed himself to
be shut up there, the Emperor marched on Sedan,
was there vanquished on the 1st of September and
surrendered with his whole army to the Prussian
King the next day.
Thus less than six weeks after the commencement
of hostilities France found herself without a ruler, or
means of defence. A disaster, unparalleled in rapidity,
continuity, and extent, left the country disabled and
a prey to invasion.
In the Chamber the panic-stricken majority
allowed the more moderate among the Deputies
to propose a Provisional Government, and the con-
vening of a Constituent Assembly (motion of Thiers,
4th of September). But the Parisians, over-excited
and already long alienated from the Empire, sus-
pecting treason everywhere, invaded the Assembly,
demanded the deposition of the Empire, and then
proceeding to the Hotel de Ville, proclaimed a
Provisional Government, which the Republican
members for Paris hastened to establish, under the
presidency of General Trochu, Military Governor of
the Capital.
FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 337
The Empire had fallen, in shame and degradation,
the victim even more of its own ineptitude than of
the attacks of its adversaries, after having killed
liberty at its rise, and mutilated the country in its
fall.
The Emperor, always dreaming, always resigned,
was conveyed as a prisoner to Wilhelmshohe. He
in the words of Jules Lemaitre " had confusedly
ruminated on the enfranchisement of nations, and
the establishment of a Socialist and yet Caesarian
Democracy. These great designs were vaguely
conceived by his imagination the imagination of
a gentle fatalist who, dazzled by the prodigious
destiny of which he was the plaything while
believing himself to be its hero, had indolently
confided in the virtue of his star."
XIV.
THE NATIONAL DEFENCE THE NATIONAL
ASSEMBLY.
(September, 1870 December 31, 1875.)
THE Empire had been wrecked by the self-contra-
dictions of its origin, not having known how to find
an equilibrium between the conservative prejudices
which it had used for its own ends, and the revolu-
tionary passion to which it owed its birth.
The autocratic system of government as embodied
in the Empire had not allowed this equilibrium to
establish itself through the free action of social forces,
and consequently an hour came in which the ruler,
no longer able to stem a double current, found
leagued against him the Conservatives whom he had
injured in their interests, and the Democrats whom
he had disappointed in their hopes. But Napoleon
III. in his fall left to his successors a very different
France from that of 1848.
By creating a vacuum in which to reign as
master, and representing as an unhealthy agitation
all that political action can show on its noble, dis-
interested, and generous side, Napoleon III. had
338
THE MIDDLE CLASS IN l8/O. 339
only too completely succeeded in belittling and mis-
leading the middle class. This class had already lost
social prestige through the paltriness of the struggles
in which it had engaged from 1848 to 1851, and now,
deprived of all participation in public life, it parted
with the last remnant of authority which it might still
have boasted.
Under the influence of the speculative fever which
the economical movement of the Second Empire had
provoked, the bourgeoisie became more practical-
minded, more self-seeking and selfish than before,
and to such a degree that when the Military Act of
1868 was debated in the presence of national peril, it
endeavoured to drive a hard bargain with the Govern-
ment for the military services of its sons.
A few members of the middle class had remained
attached to Liberal principles, but they constituted
such a small minority, that in order to be victorious
they had to seek alliances in quarters from which
they would once have shrunk with horror. After
the Italian war, they made common cause with the
Catholics, and thanks to this unexpected alliance
the French bourgeoisie ceased to be Voltairian, and
borrowed from the Church many points of view and
not a few rules of conduct. And, finally, as lawyers
alone had preserved some right of free speech, the
middle class caught from them the infection of ora-
torical flights, which, being unpractical and irre-
sponsible, naturally produced no lasting result.
As to the Democratic party, it had been exasper-
ated by the long waiting for the golden vistas which
the events of 1848 had disclosed for a moment, and
34O THE NATIONAL DEFENCE.
towards which it was hoped that a Bonaparte would
lead the way. Not having been allowed to learn
anything from experience, this party had failed to
perceive which of its aspirations were too visionary
for human nature to realise, and which might be
susceptible of an early application. Socialists were
just as wild, as intemperate and as ignorant in 1870
as in 1 848 perhaps more so, and they were nourished
on sentiment and appeased with words, for the simple
reason that no theory had been reduced to practice,
and nothing had been attempted for the political
education of the masses.
In Socialism there were strong forces, still inexperi-
enced, incoherent, and undisciplined, distrustful also
of Parliamentarism which had been adopted only by
the adversaries of universal suffrage, and the investi-
ture of these forces with sovereignty and freedom
naturally involved strange and terrible surprises for
the public.
But in September, 1870, the moment had not yet
come for the discovery of these unknown quantities
bequeathed by the Second Empire. The upright
men who, in an hour of universal surrender and
poignant anxiety, undertook the provisional govern-
ment of a country invaded by the foe, proclaimed
their own mission when naming themselves " The
Government of National Defence." Before thinking
of any political task, they had to consider how they
might save their country, and try to restore the
honour of their flag.
From a military point of view this is not the
place to recount the events that took place between
THE SIEGE Of PARIS. 34!
the 4th of September and the conclusion of peace.
While Thiers was travelling here and there in Europe
in a vain effort to gain help for France, and the
majority of the members of the Provisional Govern-
ment remained in Paris during the siege, sparing
no effort to maintain the moral and physical energy
of two millionvS of people, other officials installed
themselves first at Tours, and then at Bordeaux,
and, inspired by the courageous direction of Gam-
betta, a young advocate whom nothing had prepared
for such a part, but who in the pressing peril of
the hour displayed extraordinary eloquence and a
marvellous faculty for organisation, they improvised
soldiers and commanders, and showed themselves the
equals of the old Convention in their patriotism, while
rising superior to it by the perfect humanity of their
behaviour.
For five months and a half Paris endured the siege,
the bombardment of its walls, and the pangs of hun-
ger, while making useless sorties ; for five months and
a half the provinces furnished armed levies, which
under Generals d'Aurelles de Paladines, Chanzy,
Faidherbe, and others fought with honour if not
with success. But all was useless. The capitula-
tion of Metz, on the 2/th of October, was followed
by that of all the large Alsatian towns ; and after
a success at Coulmiers on the 9th of November, the
Army of the Loire was defeated at Beaune-la-Ro-
lande (November 28), at Orleans (December 3), at
Le Mans (January 12, 1871), the Army of the North
at Villers-Bretonneux (November 27), Pont-Noyelle
(December 23), St. Quentin (January 19, 1871),
342 THE NATIONAL DEFENCE.
and the Army of the East at Villersexel and Dijon
(January, 1871). Paris, famished, had at last to
capitulate on the 29th of January, 1871, when the
preliminaries of peace signed on that day at Ver-
sailles, and confirmed by the Treaty of Frankfort on
the loth of May, deprived France of all of Alsace
except Belfort, and a portion of Lorraine which
included Metz, without speaking of an indemnity of
war amounting to five milliards, until full payment
of which the German army was to continue the
occupation of the territory.
Twice, during this trying period, the Government
of National Defence had desired to summon the
electors for the choice of a Constituent Assembly,
but in order to do this an armistice was necessary,
and Bismarck on each occasion refused to accord this
except on conditions so exorbitant and so injurious
to the military action which was proceeding, that the
idea had to be abandoned.
It was only after the capitulation of Paris that it
became possible to hold a General Election. This
was carried through on the model of 1849, that is to
say by departmental ballot, and as the responsibility
for the prolongation of the war, of which the nation
on the whole was tired, seemed to rest with the
Republicans, these were generally defeated, and when
the Assembly met it was composed of a majority
of landed proprietors (the " rurals " as they were later
called), most of whom were Conservatives and even
Monarchists, and all resolutely bent on peace.
The country to the north of the Loire being occu-
pied by the enemy, the Assembly met on the I3th
THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 343
of February at Bordeaux, and, after taking over the
powers of the Government of National Defence, it
elected, on the i6th, Jules Grevy for its President.
On the I /th, Thiers so lately distinguished by his
mission to Europe as well as by his consistent oppo-
sition to the foreign policy of the Empire was
appointed " Chief of the Executive of the French
Republic." This was a choice which the Assembly
could not evade, Thiers having been elected to the
Assembly by twenty-six departments, and the title
bestowed on him borrowed all its significance from
the vote given, on the 1st of March, by the Assembly
with only six dissentients, by which the Empire was
declared to have fallen, and pronounced " responsible
for the ruin, the invasion and the dismemberment of
France."
But this was only a preamble. The question was :
what would the Assembly do henceforward ? Its
composition was anomalous, for, while elected with
the object of concluding peace, it did not possess a
majority on a single other point. On the political
side no Chamber could have been more hetero-
geneous. Out of 750 members there were barely
250 genuine Republicans, and a dozen of these
were irreconcilable, almost Revolutionists, like Louis
Blanc, Rochefort, &c. Of Bonapartists there were
about thirty, and even .these hardly dared call
themselves by a name so unpopular at a moment
when the disasters brought about by Napoleon III.
were still fresh. Some thirty more deputies were
known as "savages," and their convictions followed
whither the wind blew ; a hundred or so were
344 THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
Legitimists, whom the clergy had pushed to the
front, but who lacked proper leaders ; three hundred
were mostly Orleanists, and as such were destined to
form the Right Centre ; and the surplus consisted of
Liberals, who were later, under the direction of Thiers,
to constitute the Left Centre, and who, beginning by
distrusting the Republic, were eventually won over to
it through detestation of the Empire. In other words,
there was a monarchical majority, which could not
establish a Monarchy because divided into three great
rival groups, each with a Pretender ; and a republican
minority, which profited by the divisions among its
adversaries to achieve the form of government pre-
ferred by itself. On all sides mutual suspicion
reigned, causing the Assembly to waste its energies
in sterile investigations.
Liberal inclinations found voice only in the decen-
tralising Act, on the Conseils Generaux, of the loth
of August, 1871, and left untouched such questions
as the Press arid Municipal Franchise, 1 besides always
drawing back decisively the moment the Assembly
thought it saw an opportunity of proclaiming any
kind of monarchy.
Sympathy with the Catholic Church led to the Act
of the 1 2th of July, 1875, on Secondary Education,
which for several years gave the clergy a degree of
authority unknown at any previous period in the
history of France. There was, in short, in all direc-
tions a great display of passion and a great amount
1 An Act of the I4th of April, 1871, decreed , however, that mayors
should be elected by the Municipal Councils in all communes of
less than 20,000 inhabitants.
THIERS, CHIEF OF THE EXECUTIVE. 345
of industry, many conflicting aspirations, and conse-
quently much impotence ; but, on the whole, the
Assembly was one of the most remarkable which
France ever possessed, and the task of national re-
construction which it eventually accomplished assumed
proportions well-nigh superhuman. The weakened
and impoverished country had to be reorganised, the
army reconstructed, the finances restored, the enor-
mous indemnity exacted by the conqueror paid, and
the territory liberated from the army of occupation.
To this immense task Thiers addressed himself with
marvellous energy and patriotism. On the I9th of
February he formed a Ministry consisting of three
Republicans and six members of the Right Centre,
thus inviting the co-operation of all parties in his
enterprise. In a great speech delivered on the nth
of March he summoned the representatives of the
nation to defer all discussion of constitutional ques-
tions until such time as the national resources should
be reconstituted. The truce thus proposed, and which
is known as the Compact of Bordeaux, was accepted
by all. Leaving aside all patriotic considerations
although these indisputably prevailed the Republi-
cans had everything to gain by obtaining time for
the country to live under a Government known by
their name, while the Monarchists were by no means
anxious to impose upon their princes the responsibility
of the taxes and military subsidies which it was indis-
pensable to require from the country.
On the same day the Assembly decided to adjourn
until the 2Oth, and to transport the seat of government
from Bordeaux to Versailles. On arriving in the
346 THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
last-named town, it was found that the situation of
affairs had become greatly aggravated through the
Parisian insurrection.
Machiavelli remarked with acumen that almost all
the great sieges known to history have terminated
with seditions, for the moral and physical sufferings
of the people predispose them to be influenced by
agitators, while the arms with which they are un-
avoidably provided, furnish the weapons for a rising.
Paris was unfortunately to offer no exception to the
rule. Already during the siege, on the 3ist of
October, 1870, it had been necessary to employ
force for the repression of a popular rising, and by
degrees, as military operations were prolonged, the
opinion began to gain ground that the chiefs were
traitors. On the conclusion of the peace various
incidents completed the public excitement. The
triumphal entry of the German troops was a bitter if
brief trial ; the announcement that the National
Guard was to be disarmed disquieted those who had
no other means of livelihood than their pay as
soldiers ; the sudden resumption of economic exis-
tence, with all Its obligations and tributes, after such
a long period of suspension, precipitated many small
traders into bankruptcy ; finally, the political ten-
dencies of the National Assembly suggested fears for
the future of the Republic. As always, there were
agitators and conspirators who sought to use this
mood of the public for their own ends, and when the
Assembly inflicted on Paris the affront of preferring
Versailles as the political capital of France, the situa-
tion became ripe for insurrection. It broke out on
THE COMMUNE OF PARIS. 347
the 1 8th of March, and showed itself immediately to
be so serious, that the members of Government who
were still in Paris departed for Versailles with the
regular troops of the garrison, and thus left the
ground clear for the Commune.
Some days were consumed in vain negotiations
with the object of preventing the Parisians from en-
gaging in any political action, while endeavouring to
afford them satisfaction in the matter of municipal
franchises. But as soon as they had elected a Muni-
cipal Council, on the 28th, the leaders of the move-
ment unmasked themselves, and advanced a claim to
act everywhere and in everything in the place of the
regular Government. The answer of the latter was
prompt. On the 6th of April, with an army hastily
composed of the troops which had evacuated Paris
on the 1 8th and the prisoners returning from Ger-
many, the second siege of Paris began, Frenchmen
being arrayed this time against Frenchmen, in the
presence of the Germans who still occupied the
northern outskirts of the town. The siege lasted more
than six weeks : it was only on the 28th of May that
the Versailles troops succeeded in occupying Paris.
In the interval the Commune had given a repetition
in miniature of the National Convention embellished
by the Socialism of 1848. Jourde and his following
of Socialists properly so-called, who formed a minority
and were soon effaced by the purely revolutionary
element, spoke of seizing for the proletariate the
workshops which had been abandoned and of fixing
a minimum wage. Cluseret, Delescluze, Paschal
Grousset, and the other revolutionaries, were satisfied
34 8 THF ' NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
with occupying administrative posts and governing as
energetically as possible, while suspecting, watching,
and execrating one another, and pushing their deter-
mination as far as murder and incendiarism when
they found themselves finally brought to bay by the
Versailles troops.
On both sides the struggle was sanguinary, even
savage. Foot by foot all the principal centres of the
town were disputed, and when Paris was at last won,
eleven thousand prisoners were brought before the
Councils of War. 1
These lamentable and tragic events were not of
a nature to convert the majority of the National
Assembly to Republican ideas. For a long time a
sombre memory brooded over the Chamber and the
country in general, but more particularly the par-
tisans of a monarchical restoration, profited by this
mood to denounce the Republic as a permanent
source of disorder. Nevertheless the credit of
France was less shaken than might have been
expected, and when, in the very same year, the
first enormous loan was issued for the payment of
the various expenses of the war, its success, both
in France and abroad, exceeded all anticipation.
The vitality of the country was truly marvellous.
Without murmur or hesitation it bore the burden of
750 million francs of new annual taxation, which was
employed either in paying the interest on loans or in
building up anew the material of war.
1 Similar revolts had broken out in the principal working centres,
such as Lyons, St, Etienne, Limoges, and Marseilles. They were
everywhere promptly repressed.
ACT ON THE rKIMARY EDUCATION. 349
The army needed to be completely reorganised, and
on the 2/th of July, 1872, a law was passed to this
effect, which was a tardy emulation of the example
given by Prussia the day after the battle of Jena, inas-
much as it established universal compulsory military
service for all citizens between twenty and forty, with
five years of active service for all except certain so-
called " capacitaires," who were allowed to remain for
one year only under arms.
To complete these reforms it would have been
necessary to pass an Act for the immediate instruc-
tion of all young Frenchmen. In spite of the efforts
at primary education made by Victor Duruy, there
were stilt five hundred thousand totally illiterate
children. Jules Simon endeavoured vainly to induce
the Assembly to decree that instruction should be
compulsory, without exacting that it should at the
same time be gratuitous and lay (December, 1871).
The hostility of the majority to all teaching not
primarily religious was such that the Assembly,
not feeling certain of being able to hand over all the
public schools to ecclesiastical congregations, simply
dropped the project.
Although there was as yet no desire to attack
true constitutional problems, it appeared advisable
to define the relations of the head of the Execu-
tive with the representatives of the nation.
A law of the 3rd of September, 1871, decided that
the " President of the Republic " should be responsible
to the Assembly, which might remove him at will ;
also that he might address it which was a thing he
had never been supposed to do since his election. At
350 THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
the same time the law proclaimed perhaps the most
important point of all that the Assembly was pos-
sessed of constitutional powers. This statement was
a clear answer to certain recent pretensions of the
Republicans. The greater number of the bye-elec-
tions had been favourable to this party, which, feeling
the country to be with it, desired to contest the right
of an Assembly, where it was in a minority, to pass
laws for a Constitution. The Monarchists, for pre-
cisely contrary reasons, were all the more determined
to accomplish their political mission, that they were
sensible of having lost influence. Moreover, believing
that Thiers, by the simple fact of his presence at the
head of affairs, would be able to facilitate the im-
pending evolution of opinion, they began to batter
in his defences.
As regarded Thiers himself, the suspicions of the
Monarchists were not unfounded. The more the
President came to understand the situation, the more
he perceived that no monarchical restoration would be
possible in the present divided counsels of the As-
sembly and in the state of mind of the country. But
as he also perceived that it would not be difficult now
to organise a Republic without handing over the
government at once to the most revolutionary sec-
tion, he began to lean more and more on the Left,
just as the Right became more and more self-centred.
Hence arose a series of secondary conflicts. Every
now and again Thiers would be constrained to give
up one or other of his ministers of the ipth of
February, such as Jules Favre or Ernest Picard, and
to replace them with members of the Right Centre ;
THIERS.
[From a Photo, by E. Appert, Paris.
35 2 TH E NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
or he had to threaten to resign (indeed, he did so
twice, when the election of mayors or the imposition
of new taxes was in question) in order to influence
the decisions of the Assembly.
The latter always ended by yielding, because
it felt that until the territory was liberated, that is
until the indemnity should be paid off, Thiers was
indispensable to the country ; but the opposition of
the majority to him grew greater as it was embittered
by all these forced concessions, and the clergy, ex-
asperated by hope deferred, multiplied its noisy
demonstrations, and even went so far as to petition
for the re-establishment of the Temporal Power as
if France, weakened and dismembered, could be
launched upon such a crazy adventure !
On the 1 3th of November, 1872, order being
restored, the finances reconstituted, and the army
within measurable distance of reorganisation, Thiers
submitted the constitutional problem to the Assembly
in a message which must ever be celebrated. To the
Republicans he said : " You especially should passion-
ately desire order, for if the Republic, which has twice
been essayed without success, is this time to succeed,
you will owe it to order." And to the Monarchists his
words were : " The Republic exists. It is the legal
Government of the country ; to desire anything else
is to desire a revolution of the most formidable
sort. Do not let us lose our time in proclaiming
the Republic, but let us employ our time in giving it
the necessary desirable form. Every government
should be conservative, and no society could live
under a government of another kind."
COALITION OF THE MONARCHICAL GROUPS. 353
This clear and decided pronouncement hastened
the outbreak of the storm. If the more advanced
Republicans had the wisdom to see that their duty
lay in following the lead of Thiers, such was not the
case with the Monarchists, who had not the courage
to renounce their hopes. They showed their inten-
tions in the Act of the I3th of March, 1873, which
made an apparent concession to reasonable ideas by
promising the institution of two Chambers to succeed
the Assembly, but aimed immediately at protecting
the majority from the effect of Thiers' persuasive
eloquence, by stipulating that henceforward no vote
should be taken in a sitting wherein he had spoken.
And having learnt on the i/th of March that in recent
conventions concluded with Germany that country had
fixed new and earlier dates for the payments of the
indemnity, and the consequent evacuation of French
territory, the majority thought the moment had
come for dispensing safely with Thiers' services.
The campaign against him was ably conducted by
Buffet, the Duke de Broglie, Ernoul, Magne, &c. ;
that is to say, by a coalition of the three monarchical
groups. The first move was to overturn Jules
Grevy and place Buffet in the presidential chair
(April 4) ; then, on a motion to censure the Govern-
ment for making terms with the most violent
Radicals, a majority of sixteen was found to pro-
nounce against Thiers. He was replaced at once by
Marshal MacMahon, who had been kept carefully in
reserve for such an opportunity (May 24, 1873), and
he on the following day formed a ministry under
the Premiership of the Duke de Broglie, which was
24
354 THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
to combat Republican ideas, to govern resolutely and
energetically on conservative lines, and to undertake
the re-establishment of " moral order " before setting
about to solve the constitutional problem.
Numerous and significant changes among the
holders of government posts, the administrative
suppression of several journals (in certain depart-
ments the state of siege still existed), the prohibition
to sell or circulate (colporter) others, a marked indul-
gence towards the Catholic agitation an indulgence
which often went so far as to overlook the rights of free-
thinkers, were all features of the new Government.
But the Republican party, now dominated by
the growing influence of Thiers, had the sense to
oppose to this gross effort at reaction, a patience and
a discipline which cut the ground from under their
adversaries' feet. There were no longer any riots,
no longer any tumultuous gatherings, only a firm
determination to win over the country by degrees
to desire the definitive establishment of a Republic,
and to impose their will in this respect upon their
representatives. No effort even was made to con-
test the Assembly's right to draft a Constitution, as
it was hoped that the Right Centre would detach
itself from the majority and give its vote for a
democratic form of government.
On their side, the Monarchists deferred as long
as possible the inevitable debates upon the Consti-
tution, in the hope that one at least of the three
Pretenders would come to an understanding which
might facilitate the Restoration, to which in their view
MacMahon's Presidency was merely a stop-gap.
THE COUNT DE CHAMBORD. 355
And, in fact, in 1873 as in 1850 the more able
Monarchists' brought about a fusion between the
elder and younger branch of the Bourbons. As the
Count de Chambord, heir to Charles X., had no
children, it seemed quite simple that the Count de
Paris, grandson of Louis-Philippe, should let him
come first to the throne. Already on the 8th of
June, 1871, the Assembly had annulled the Acts of
1832 and 1848, by which the members of the Bourbon
and the Orleans families * were excluded from French
territory, and it seemed as if only a slight effort
would be necessary to restore a monarchy in France.
But in 1873 as in 1850, even the ablest left out of
account the uncompromising attitude of the Count
de Chambord. He accepted the submission of his
rival and cousin, but refused absolutely to bind him-
self in advance by any promises to the country of
constitutional guarantees, nor would he even accept
the tricolour flag. He desired to reign by Right
Divine alone, and before the end of October he
broke off all negotiations. Out of all these treaties
only two things then remained : the anger of the
Bonapartists at having been excluded, not without
good reason, from the conferences of the colleagues
of the Right ; and the irritation of the country which,
ever since the first mention of a Restoration, had
1 The Assembly had even restored to the latter the value of the
property which had been confiscated from them during the Second
Empire, a measure to which Thiers had consented in the well-
founded belief that the Orleans would discredit themselves in the
eyes of the nation by accepting money at a moment when the
country was burdened with a heavy war indemnity.
356 THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
lost no opportunity of returning Republicans at the
bye-elections.
It was not possible, however, to leave France for
ever under the Provisional Government which had
been proclaimed at Bordeaux on the day after the
war. And the leaders of the majority consequently
conceived the strange idea of establishing another
Provisional Government rather more regular, perhaps
even definitive, which should allow the Count de
Chambord to die in peace and carry the white flag
to his grave, while leaving the throne open to the Count
de Paris. Hence the Act of the ipth of November,
!873, which instituted the " Septennate." Article I
laid down that Marshal MacMahon should continue
President for seven years ; Article 2 stipulated that
within three days the Assembly should nominate a
commission to study the question of Constitutional
Laws. The Cabinet immediately and spontaneously
resigned, so as to leave a free hand to the Marshal ;
but on the 26th it was reformed once again under
the Duke de Broglie, having as before for its mem-
bers representatives of the different sections of the
Right.
This solution which did not deserve the name
excited so much discontent among the Legitimists,
that on various occasions they united with the
Republicans simply out of hatred to the younger
branch and its adherents. On the other hand it
restored courage to the Bonapartists, who, as the
lapse of time since the war increased and the
weakness of the Monarchists grew more evident,
began to hope that they might turn the conservative
DUKE DE BROGUE OVERTHROWN. 357
instincts of the country to their own advantage, and
led them to commence an electoral agitation, which
in 1874 resulted in their reacquiring a small number
of seats.
At the same time the Catholic press, furious at
the failure of the attempt at fusion, began to grow
restive, and on pretence of discussing the Kultur-
kampf laws against Prussian Catholics, attacked
Germany with such violence, that the Ministry found
itself constrained to curb these expressions so as to
avoid foreign complications. In vain the Duke de
Broglie gave the most incontestable proofs of his
'* conservatism," by supporting in the Assembly a
motion for reducing the number of electors, in
accordance with a system resembling that of the
notorious law of the 3ist of May, 1850, 1 and by
carrying through the Municipal Act of the 24th of
January, 1874, which restored the right of nominating
mayors in all communes to the Executive, 2 and
allowed of their being chosen outside the municipal
councils. In spite of all this zeal, which gave the
exact measure of the pretended Liberalism of his
party, De Broglie did not succeed in recovering
his leadership of the majority, nor in appeasing the
rancour excited by the Septennate. On the i6th of
May, 1874, he was overthrown by a coalition of
Republicans with an important group of Legitimists
and some Bonapartists. The previous coalition, that
which had defeated Thiers twelve months earlier,
was already broken up. The new one, however, was
too heterogeneous to assume the direction of affairs.
1 See above, p. 283. a See above, p. 301.
358 THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
Marshal MacMahon had to seek his new Ministry
in the minority which had supported the De Broglie
Cabinet up to the last thus establishing a precedent
which has frequently been repeated since. He
gave the Premiership to General de Cissey (May 23),
as if to accentuate the transitory nature of the
combination. But the General was clever enough,
and the monarchical majority still disciplined enough,
to succeed in adjourning once again the discussion
of the Constitution (July 23), and thus prevented the
Assembly from pronouncing on the form of govern-
ment to be given to the country.
There was no reason why the Parliamentary game
should not continue indefinitely. When the Assembly
was requested to make a declaration on the subject
of the Constitution, it refused, and repeated this refusal
when urged to allow the country to declare itself by
means of a General Election (Proposition of the Left
Centre, July 29, 1874). Not being able to establish a
Monarchy, it did not choose to consent to a Republic;
and as the law placed no limit to the duration of its
powers, the unstable equilibrium now existing would
probably have continued until the longed-for tardy
death of the Count de Chambord, had not the Bona-
partist agitation suddenly taken proportions which
alarmed such of the Monarchists as still allowed love
of public liberty and hatred of the Empire to over-
ride their desire for a Restoration.
The Bonapartist agitation took the form in Paris
of a Central Committee of Propaganda which de-
manded a plebiscite, and, supported the demand with
such violence in the press that the Government had
THE RIGHT CENTRE. 359
several times to resort to suppression. The party
also obtained some electoral successes which,
although not numerous, proved that there was a
certain Imperialist reawakening in the rural districts.
This revival in militant shape of the Napoleonic
idea brought reflection to the Right Centre, whom
Thiers had vainly endeavoured to rally to the
Republic, and towards the end of 1874 this group
threw as much zeal into demanding a Constitution as
it had shown in opposing any such movement during
preceding sessions. Fear prevailed where reason had
been impotent.
There is something both dramatic and comic in the
history of the months of January and February, 1875,
during which this conversion of the Right Centre was
gradually taking place. It was dramatic owing to
the primordial gravity of the interests involved, and
the uncertainty and narrowness of the voting which
more than once threatened the destruction of all
hopes. It was comic because of the negotiations and
the compromises to which both sides resorted, the
obstinacy of the Monarchists in rejecting the Repub-
lican chalice when offered, and their dismay at finding
themselves vanquished in the end.
Two Acts, however, resulted, one on the Senate
(February 24) and another (February 25) on the
organisation of the Government. These Acts, joined
to a third on the relation between the various powers
of Government which passed on the i6th of July, form
what is usually known as the Constitution of the year
1 875, and this, although twice revised, has continued to
exist without essential alteration from the time of its
3^0 THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
foundation up to the present day. It conferred upon
France a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, both
elective, which meet in National Assembly either
to elect a new President at the expiration of that
functionary's seven years of office, 1 or to introduce
such changes into the Constitution as both Chambers
have previously agreed upon.
The President is held to be irresponsible, except in
cases of high treason ; and an outgoing President
may be re-elected for another seven years. He
appoints and dismisses ministers, who sit in Parlia-
ment and are jointly and individually responsible to
it for their acts. The President, with the consent of
the Senate, may dissolve the Chamber.
The Senate is elected for nine years, but one-third
of its members are renewable every three years by
the vote of an electoral body in the chief town of
each department, composed of Deputies, of members
of the Councils-General and District Councils
(Cornells cT Arrondi$sement\ and delegates from the
Municipal Councils. 2
1 This rule, known as the Wallon Amendment, was passed by a
majority, in the Assembly, of one vote. The Monarchists desired
that, at the expiration of MacMahon's term of office, the Constitu-
tion might be legally revisable by a Congress formed of the two
Chambers, as they hoped by this means to bring about the Restora-
tion. The resolution to transmit regularly the presidential power
from one holder to another was regarded, not without reason, as a
definitive establishment of the Republic.
2 Two alterations have been made in this process. Up to 1875
each commune had but one delegate : in that year the number was
increased for all the more populous communes. In 1875 also, one-
fourth of the Senators, that is 75 out of 300, were irremovable.
Having been elected for life by the National Assembly, their suc-
cessors , ui case of death, had to be named by the Senate itself. But
CONSTITUTION OF 18/5. 361
The Deputies to the Chamber are elected for four
years by direct universal suffrage. 1
Both Senators and Deputies are salaried at the rate
of 9,000 francs a year, and, with very few excep-
tions, they are debarred from holding any adminis-
trative, judicial, or military post.
Parliament sits for, at least, five months in every
year, counting from the second Tuesday in January,
and may be summoned to an extraordinary session
by the Chief of the State.
To Parliament and the President together belongs
the initiative of laws. Parliament questions ministers,
discusses the Budget section by section, and gives
or withholds its consent to declarations of war and
to treaties of delimitation or commerce, none of
which may be carried without its authorisation. The
Senate has to try ministers whom the Lower Chamber
accuses, and, at the instance of the President, takes
cognisance of attempts against the security of the
State. 2
The Constitution thus described is certainly far
from perfect, and one could certainly desire improve-
ment in one or two particulars. But it is the most
in 1884 these fixtures were suppressed, and their seats were dis-
tributed among the more important departments.
1 From 1875 to 1885 elections were by uninominal ballot (scrntin
d'arrondissemcnt), each cir -conscription having to return one deputy
only. From 1885 to 1889 the ballot was departmental, but since
1889 this has been dropped and the earlier method resumed.
2 The Constitution of 1875 made Versailles the seat of Govern-
ment, but this was altered in 1879, when Paris once again became
the capital. The legal age of Deputies is twenty-five, and of
Senators forty. No member of royal families formerly reigning in
France can be elected to either Chamber, or appointed President.
362 THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
elastic and adaptable of any which France has known
since 1789. It is free from the rocks on which
previous Governments have been wrecked, and it
leaves room for inevitable fluctuations of public
opinion while sparing the country the experience of
unduly sudden shocks. And having sprung from a
National Assembly of monarchical tendencies which
found itself forced to accept a Republic, it does not
represent the particular doctrines of one faction more
than of another ; while its component parts, to the
formation of which the experience of different
countries and periods have contributed, are of such a
nature as to restrain and counterbalance one another.
To this Constitution the world is indebted for a
Parliamentary Republic, a conjunction until then
unknown to contemporary history. No abstract
principle is embodied in the Constitution, which
chiefly set a legal stamp upon the conditions prevail-
ing at the moment of its birth, and adapting these to
the needs of the situation, it sought to give them the
plasticity indispensable for the satisfaction of future
requirements. An experimental Constitution if one
will, but which precisely, because of this, differs from
any other attempt of the same nature in France.
Laborious as was the task thus undertaken, it by
no means exhausted the mission of the National
Assembly of 1871. There were Acts to be passed of
secondary importance, but none the less necessary to
the working of the Constitution as, for instance, the
electoral procedure for Senate and Chamber (Acts of
August 2 and November 20, 1875).
The Assembly profited by this prolongation of life
THE BUFFET MINISTRY. 363
to give fresh indications of its state of mind. The
day after the voting of the Constitution, the Cissey
Cabinet, having been always in a minority, thought it
was becoming to offer its resignation to the President.
Marshal MacMahon then called upon Buffet, the
President of the Assembly, to form a Ministry.
Buffet chose the greater number of his colleagues
(March 10, 1875) from among the minority which
had voted against the Acts of the 24th and 25th of
February. This was a singular method of inspiring
in the country some confidence in the stability of its
laws. Buffet, a former Orleanist, whom circumstances
had obliged to inaugurate a form of government
opposed to his own dreams, increased the general
uneasiness by clearly showing that he wished to
govern not only without the Republicans, but in a
sense hostile to their views.
The Higher Education Act (July 12, 1875),
although excellent in principle, appeared in the
light of a new and unwarrantable concession to the
pretensions of the Catholic Church, inasmuch as it
accorded to that establishment peculiar privileges,
denied to laymen, for the institution of schools for
instruction in law, medicine, science, and art, and failed
to reserve to the State the right of conferring degrees. 1
The law on the Press (December 29, 1875), while
restoring trial by jury in a certain number of cases,
still (five years afte/ the sad events of 1871) preserved
the state of siege in Paris, Marseilles, and Lyons, and
1 The bestowal of degrees is of particular importance in France,
where there is no distinction, such as exists in Germany, between a
scientific degree and a certificate of professional ability.
364 THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
thus testified to an uncalled-for distrust of the results
of the coming elections.
Consequently when the National Assembly at last
separated on the 3ist of December, 1875, the country
hailed its departure with a sense of positive relief.
In spite of eminent services in the beginning of its
career, when the nation had to be reconstituted, the
outgoing Government was destined to be chiefly
remembered for its waste of time and labour in the
hopeless attempt to restore the French Monarchy.
In overturning the Liberator of French territory on
the 24th of May, 1873, the Assembly had been guilty
of the blackest ingratitude, and by failing to replace
Thiers by a monarchical prince it had simply accentu-
ated the folly of its own desires. And there was a
clear defect of acumen and patriotism in measures
which, after keeping the country in suspense as to its
political destiny for three years, had finally brought
it back to the very point aimed at by Thiers on the
1 3th of November, 1872.
Indulgence towards the intrigues of the clericals,
an incurable distrust of the democracy, an inter-
mittent and merely apparent Liberalism, discontent
at not being able to lead France, and total inability
to win the confidence of the country, all contributed
to render the Assembly unpopular to a degree which,
if exaggerated, could not be described as unjustified.
XV.
THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
{January I, 1876 January \ 1895.)
THE period which opens with the Constitution of
1875 does not yet belong to history proper, being too
near to us for the events or the men distinguishing
it, to be judged without prejudice or party spirit.
The reader will understand that the author, who is
engaged in political life, must limit himself to salient
facts, without entering into chronological details, or
attempting to pronounce any circumstantial judg-
ments on persons who are, for the most part, still
living.
The period to be described falls naturally into three
distinct parts, of which it will be sufficient to note the
principal characteristics in order to make clear the
actual condition of the public mind and conduct.
From the end of 1877 almost until 1879 what we
find is the epilogue^of the dissensions of the National
Assembly, the death-throes of the irreconcilable
partizans of the Monarchical Restoration. From
1879 to 1885 the triumphant Republic settles down,
organises itself, and confers upon the country all that
365
366 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
it requires for the education of the Democracy ; while
at the same time France, now thoroughly reconstituted,
throws herself into colonial enterprises. Since 1885
the Republic has vanquished its internal enemies, and
restored its external situation, but it has not been
equally successful in reducing Parliamentary institu-
tions to a normal state of activity or bringing legis-
lative machinery into regular working order.
The General Elections of 1876 promptly revealed a
division of parties which was to prevent France for
a long time from obtaining a Parliamentary majority,
and consequently a stable form of government.
The Monarchists, unable to resign themselves to
the existence of the Republic, were already agitating
for a revision of the Constitution. A small group,
of which the members called themselves Constitu-
tional, and were often composed of impenitent
Orleanists, inspired doubts of their sincerity by the
ardour with which they endeavoured to marshal
anew the forces of Conservatism, and counted in
their ranks some of the Republic's most determined
adversaries. The Left Centre, led by Thiers, loyally
accepted the new constitutional methods, and claimed
to have rallied to them not only those who were never
opponents, but also a certain number of old opponents
who were now converted. The Republican mass at
whose head was Gambetta usually supported the
Centre, and rejected all idea of revision, but demanded
reforms above all in popular education and in the
organisation of the finances. The Extreme Left, small
as yet but very active, insisted, in the name of old
Republican principles, for a revision by a Constitu-
THE NEW CONSTITUTION ATTACKED. 367
tional Assemoly, which should empower the Govern-
ment to dismiss the Chief of the State at will, and
should submit all fundamental laws to a popular
Referendum, should disestablish the Church, impose
a progressive tax upon capital and income, and, in
compliance with the demands of renascent Socialism,
should hand over the adminstration of the Bank of
France, of railways, and mines to the State.
It will be seen consequently that the new Constitu-
tion was hardly proclaimed before it was attacked
simultaneously by two opposing but irreducible
factions, both of which were inclined, in spite of their
radical differences of opinion, to join in negative votes
while remaining incapable of concerting any action
towards a definite end.
Responsible Ministers, selected from the Parlia-
mentary mass, thus found themselves confronted
simultaneously on the right by reactionaries, who had
no real conservative tendencies, but only sought to
overturn the Government with the object of effecting
a Restoration ; and on the left by irreconcilables
struggling violently for what they called principles,
wild to exercise some influence over the centralised
administration which had survived all political changes
in France, and, so far from facilitating the accomplish-
ment of any necessary reforms, persisting in always
asking something more than, or different from, that
which was offered to them.
The situation was aggravated by yet two other
political factors one a legacy from the past, and
the other determined by initial accidents in the work-
ing of the Constitution of 1875. The first was the
368 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
prejudice on the subject of personal power which a
century of struggle has rooted in the French mind ;
the second was a feeling of suspicion regarding the
Senate which began to spread from the first, and was
attributable to the very composition of that body.
If there is one salient fact in the history of con-
temporary France, it is that the greater number of
governments since the Revolution have perished
through the abuse of personal power, while at each
successive crisis the nation has cherished the illusion
that it only needed to affirm its sovereignty in order
that all might go well. Such was the case under
Charles X. and Louis-Philippe, and, to a still greater
degree, under both Empires.
Now the country did not realise the fact that, after
1875, the governing bodies having become elective
and consequently responsible at a given moment for
their actions, all there was to be done was to wait
until the elections, in order to give expression to the
national will.
The Executive, still burdened with the memories
of bygone monarchies, and having, through the fault
of one man and a clique, infused fresh life into these
memories in 1877, has incurred suspicion through the
mere fact that it is an Executive, and has enjoyed
neither the credit nor the authority necessary for the
work it has had to do. By degrees it has grown
feebler in the face of fragmentary parliaments, and
as the first and only use made of its power of
dissolving the Chamber (in 1877) was discredited
by a shameless electoral pressure as well as by an
avowed desire for reaction, the effect has been to
UNIVERSITY
DISCORDANCE BETWEEN THE TWO
falsify the Constitution from the beginning, ministers
preferring to succumb before accidental and ephemeral
coalitions rather than incur the suspicion of exercising
pressure, or seeking to cause a reaction when only
making a loyal appeal to the country.
On the other hand it was difficult to gain acceptance
for two Chambers from a people exceptionally favour-
able to simple ideas and to abstract logic. If a
people, properly represented by its deputies, is
really sovereign, why should the deputies be con-
trolled and restricted in their actions by a second
Chamber? This is the specious argument of the
French, and the only answer to it lies in considera-
tions of empirical politics such as are little likely
to influence our modern irreconcilables.
The argument in question moreover gained a
peculiar force from circumstances. For at the very
moment when it had been decreed that power should
be terminable at a fixed time everywhere, even in the
case of the President of the Republic, the National
Assembly, in the hope of surviving in substance
though not in name just as the Convention had still
existed in the Constitution of the Year III. conferred
election for life, without responsibility of any sort,
upon one-fourth of the Senators. And just as the
people, in enjoyment at last of universal direct suf-
rage, had returned to the Chamber 350 Republicans
against 1 50 Monarchists of different sorts, the majority
of the Senate, elected by a less representative body,
remained attached to monarchical traditions, up to
the partial renewal of 1879. This was surely enough
to generate and keep alive a feeling of suspicion
25
[From photo by E. Appert, Paris.
MARSHAL MACMAHON.
ULTRAMONTANE DEMONSTRATIONS. 3/1
towards the Senate, which was thus paralysed in its
action, and prevented from occupying in the Re-
public the. position anticipated by the authors of the
Constitution.
The General Election of 1876, thanks to which
this essential discordance between the two Chambers
arose, did not discourage the Monarchists. They
remained convinced that the establishment of the
Republic was a simple accident, and that encouraged
by the Senate, and perhaps on occasion instructed by
Marshal MacMahon, the President, public opinion
would soon veer round to their side. Consequently
while keeping up a spirit of resistance in the im-
mediate adherents of MacMahon, they joined the
clergy in preparing the ground for a new and speedy
electoral conflict. An extraordinary religious agita-
tion began throughout France immediately after the
first ballot. Ultramontane demonstrations and peti-
tions for the restoration of the Temporal Power
abounded, while the Bishops in their circulars did
not wait for an anti-Catholic spirit to show itself in
the Republic before beginning to denounce it. In
this manner, each day added to that fundamental
difference between parties which had been marked
enough already in the National Assembly, but
became still more profound as the struggle between
the partisans and the adversaries of the Republic
became more embittered.
The Monarchists of all shades turned for support
to the powerful hierarchy of the Roman Church,
while mere Liberals and simple Democrats alike were
forced into opposition to the Church in order to
deprive the reactionaries of their last refuge.
372 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
This state of things as early as 1876 led in
Parliament to frequent sharp conflicts, and to a
Ministerial instability which was unfortunately de-
stined to endure.
The Buffet Cabinet resigned after the General
Election, feeling that its composition was no longer
consonant with the wishes of Parliament.
But in face of the masked hostility of the President
and the open opposition of the Senate, where was a
new Ministry to be found ? Dufaure, who undertook
at last to form the Cabinet of the loth of March,
thought it better to select its members from the most
moderate and numerically least important fraction of
the Republican party. In other words he turned to
the Left Centre, and thus pleased neither the Presi-
dent, nor the Senate, nor the majority of Republicans.
He succeeded in carrying an Act to the effect that
mayors should be elected by the Municipal Councils
in all communes not chief towns of departments,
arrondissements, or cantons (Law of August 13,
1876), being supported in this measure by the Right,
which consisted chiefly of large landed proprietors,
who saw in the Act an opportunity for making their
authority felt in small rural districts. The Ministry
failed, however, in inducing the Senate to restore to
the State the monopoly of the bestowal of degrees,
and, assailed on all sides, it finally ceded its place to
a Cabinet presided over by Jules Simon (December
12, 1876).
The new Ministry being more decidedly Republi-
can than its predecessor, was for that very reason
more obnoxious still to the Senate. Its term of office
DUKE DF. BROGUE MINISTRY. 3/3
was not marked by any legislative measure of impor-
tance, but the few liberal concessions which it was
disposed to make, either in the matter of the press
or the municipalities, sufficed to bring 1 down upon
it all the ferocious hatred of the adversaries of the
Republic. At last, on the i6th of May, 1877, Marshal
MacMahon, under pretence of his " responsibility
towards the country," abruptly dismissed the Cabinet
and summoned a new one under the premiership of
the Duke de Broglie, which undertook to " make
France step out," to restore that "moral order"
which it affected to consider compromised, and to
bring back men and things to the point where they
had been when Thiers fell in 1873.
This ridiculous undertaking, marked in its different
phases by the prorogation of Parliament, the disso-
lution of the Chamber, an odious electoral pressure,
and innumerable press trials, resulted in a lamentable
fiasco. On the I4th of October the electors returned a
Republican majority which was about equal to that
of 1876, but the infatuation of the Monarchists was
such that even this unmistakable verdict did not suffice
to crush them. The Duke de Broglie resigned indeed,
but MacMahon, on the 23rd of November, formed
an extra-parliamentary Cabinet, directed by General
de Rochebouet, and a coup d'etat was hinted at.
Only the refusal of the Chamber to vote the budget
and the threats of the little constitutional group in
the Chamber induced the Marshal to surrender, and
the crisis came to an end without further complications
on the 1 3th of December, when Dufaure succeeded in
forming a Ministry. But the length of time during
374 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
which it had lasted, and the flagrant abuse of power
which had marked it, impressed the memory of the
crisis ineffaceably on the public mind. Neither the
Senate nor the President inspired any further con-
fidence, and the recent .dissolution had taken place
under such conditions as to render any repetition of
it impossible for a long time. The pretended Con-
servatives, leaders of the late criminal and inglorious
campaign, were destined henceforward to be the
objects of public mistrust and resentment, while the
Republicans, taken by surprise, and forced to defend
themselves with desperation, had been exasperated by
the share taken in the struggle by priests and func-
tionaries, and, with the resolve that there should be
no renewal of such proceedings, they adopted almost
unanimously the device of Gambetta : " The enemy
is clericalism." They had, however, to temporise for
some time yet. Thiers, whom they would have liked
to instal as President in the place of MacMahon, had
died in September, 1877. The Marshal remained at
the helm, and hoped, perhaps, that the first triennial
reconstitution of the Senate, which was to take place
at the beginning of 1879, would leave a majority to
the Right in that assembly, thus enabling him to
renew, by other methods, the abortive attempt of
May 1 6th. Moreover, there was to be a Universal
Exhibition in Paris in 1878, and Frenchmen of all
parties attached a peculiar importance to this, the
first' international fete, since the disasters of 1870.
There was consequently a momentary truce, or
rather all parties were seeking to fortify themselves
in the country rather than to agitate in the Chamber.
A/. JULES GRiVS PRESIDENCY. 3/5
The Dufaure Ministry owed its lease of existence
to this premature calm, and endeavoured chiefly, not
without success, to heal the wounds left by the last
crisis.
In 1879 the scene changed.
The partial renewal of the Senate having resulted
in a Republican majority, Marshal MacMahon seized
the first pretext which presented itself to resign ;
and the two Chambers, meeting at Versailles, ap-
pointed Jules Grevy as his successor. 1 Shortly
afterwards it was decided to transport the seat of
government once more to Paris. This time the
Republicans were triumphant everywhere, and the
question arose, what would they do with their power ?
A great work, which may be considered the
organisation of the Republic, was accomplished in
the following years. By an Act of the I7th of
June, 1880, Government interference was removed
from hawking (colportage) and the sale of liquors ;
public meetings were henceforward to be freed
from the necessity of any preliminary authorisation,
and submitted merely to the formality of a simple
declaration on the part of their organisers (June
30, 1881). The Press, thoroughly enfranchised,
was to meet with such favourable treatment that it
became almost impossible to bring any infringement
of the law home to it, so complicated and slow was
the judicial machinery brought to bear upon it, and so
novel the definitions given of Press offences (July 29,
1 M. Jules- Grevy was then President of the Chamber, after having
occupied the same position in the National Assembly in 1871. He
vyas succeeded in the Chamber by Gambetta.
3/6 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
1881); the Municipal Councils, endowed now with the
right of electing mayors in town and country (March
28, 1882), received a great accession of administrative
power (April 5, 1884); professional syndicates, or
Trade Unions, obtained, for the first time in France,
permission to constitute themselves freely (March 21,
1884), while to all other citizens the right of associa-
tion was still denied, or at any rate made conditional
on the consent of Government ; divorce, which the
Restoration had struck out from the Civil Code, was
re-established (July 27, 1884) ; and if the suppression
of military chaplaincies in time of peace (July 8,
1880), and the dismissal of six hundred magistrates
who had been compromised politically (August 30,
1883), on the face of them seemed militant measures,
the list of legislative reforms enumerated must, on
the whole, be considered the most complete and
consistent which France has ever witnessed.
The same may be said of the educational reforms.
It was not sufficient to bestow facilities for the
exercise of their political rights upon the present
generation ; the Government wished to render future
generations better educated and equipped for the
fulfilment of their civic duties.
The Acts of the 2/th of February and the i8th
of March, 1880, on the Supreme Council of Public
Instruction, and on the sole right of the State to
confer degrees, freed the University of France from
all clerical interference without diminishing in any
way true liberty of instruction. A law passed on the
2ist of December, 1880, placed the secondary in-
struction of girls on the lines formerly indicated by
LAWS ON EDUCATION. 377
Victor Duruy. The training of teachers for elemen-
tary schools had formed the object of an Act of
the pth of August, 1879, by which the number of
Primary Normal Schools had been greatly increased,
and when by the Laws of the i6th of June, 1881, and
the 28th of March, 1882, it had been decided to render
this instruction gratuitous, compulsory, and lay, the
greater part of the programme to which Jules Ferry
had given his name was realised. 1
The victory had not been obtained without
difficulty, however, for Monarchists and Catholics
alike, still smarting from their recent defeats, had
obstinately resisted the introduction into the law of
the country of gratuitous and compulsory instruc-
tion.
On their side the Republicans, disturbed at the
preponderance afforded to the clergy by the law of
1850, had made it a point of honour to exclude from
the Public Schools the least trace of the influences of
the confessional. Hence arose violent discussions,
in which the clerical party declaimed against the
"wickedness" of "atheistic" instruction, while their
opponents, while not going so far as to threaten the
liberty of instruction assured by the laws of 1833,
1850, and 1875, made a vain attempt to refuse this
liberty to non-authorised religious associations. 2
1 The Acts of the 3Oth of October, 1886, on the organisation of
teachers, and that of the igth of July, 1889, on salaries, only crowned
the edifice. Mention must also be made of the considerable reforms
introduced into the programmes and methods of Higher Public
Instruction, and the fresh vitality infused into professional education,
as well as into agricultural, industrial, and commercial schools.
2 Religious congregations have no legal existence apart from a
THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
All the same, France now possesses in all its
communes public schools for girls and boys, wherein
the programme of instruction and the staff are ex-
clusively lay, but anybody is free to open a competing
private school and to impart the religious instruction
which may best please him.
For the accomplishment of all these reforms much
money was needed, both for building schoolrooms and
for meeting annual expenses. Still larger funds were
required for the enormous number of public works,
such as railroads, canals, improvement of ports, &c.,
which were carried out during the same period ; and
not a few were also wanted for keeping the army
abreast of incessant new scientific inventions, and
for constantly renewing its material and armament.
Although delighted with the grandeur of all
these enterprises, and by the spectacle of the
nation's marvellous economical recovery, the Re-
publicans felt compelled to suppress more than a
third of the taxes levied after the war. This
measure, extremely popular at first, eventually landed
its authors in serious difficulties. A too frequent
recourse to loans, joined to the deficits following on
unexampled expenditure, and the necessity every-
where of increased taxation, caused the Government
to regret, when too late, that it had diminished
preliminary authorisation accorded them by the Government.
Many having disregarded this rule, and the Senate having refused
to forbid them and especially the Jesuits to educate the youth of
the country, a decree of the 2Qth of March, 1880, ordered the
dissolution of all such associations. They were accordingly dis-
solved amid much excitement, but have almost all been reconsti-
tuted since.
FOREIGN POLICY. 379
the receipts of the Treasury while adding to its
burdens.
Nor was this all. Hardly had the difficult battle
of liberty been won, public works carried out, and the
network of schools established, before France, or
rather the Government of the day in France, realised
that the country could not, without loss of moral
prestige or danger for the future of its sons, remain
an indifferent or passive spectator of the colonising
impulse which was driving all the nations of the old
continent to Asia or Africa, or in any other direction
where outlets for trade were to be found.
But little desirous, in spite of all assertions to the
contrary, of seeking new European adventures, France
had remained scrupulously neutral in the Eastern \var
of 1877. Her diplomatists had simply joined their
efforts to those of other cabinets in order to save
what could still be saved of the Ottoman Empire,
and they had issued from the Congress of Berlin with
"clean hands " (1878). But France could not allow
her Algerian colony to be menaced by Italian ad-
vances in Tunis, nor that old treaties which she had
concluded in Tonquin or in Madagascar should be
indefinitely disregarded ; and at the same time French
explorers were as active in Africa as those of England,
of Germany, and other countries. The expedition
to Tunisia (i 880-81), to Tonquin (1882-85), a first
attempt upon the island of Madagascar (1883-85),
the foundation of French Congo (1884), tne increase
of territory in Senegal towards the Soudan, were
all enterprises which added enormously to French
colonial possessions,
380 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
But from all time democracies have been indifferent
to foreign glory and averse to distant enterprises,
and this forward policy, of which the future alone
can reveal the wisdom, brought many bitter disap-
pointments to its authors, especially to Jules Ferry,
and, joined to religious dissensions and the financial
difficulties of 1884, it furnished a powerful weapon to
the adversaries of the Republic and the irreconcil-
ables of the Extreme Left.
All that we have been describing, however, took
place amid utter Parliamentary confusion by a kind
of collective and anonymous action, and without the
possibility of attributing any particular act or event
to any one person.
Jules Grevy, influenced by an old prejudice against
Gambetta, had not chosen to mark his own assump-
tion of the presidentship by confiding the formation
of a Cabinet to the only man who really led the
majority in those days. The Ministries of Wadding-
ton (February 4, 1879), of Freycinet (December 28,
1879), of Jules Ferry (September 23, 1880), succeeded
one another without giving the impression that
France was being governed by the men of her choice.
One of these ministries would be a little harsher,
another a little more indulgent towards the Radicals,
but in reality the policy pursued by all was identical,
for all had to purchase support by alternate concessions
either to the Radical or Right " fringe," and carried
out more or less the average aspirations of the Repub-
licans. A situation so essentially false threatened to
fatigue the country in the end, and it exhausted the
patience of Gambetta, who, when the time for the
ELECTIONS OF 1 88 1. 381
normal renewal of the Chamber in 1 88 1 approached,
conceived the justifiable hope of grouping round him-
self at last a compact majority which might be inde-
pendent of either extreme wing. To this end he
induced the Chamber to vote for the re-establishment
of the departmental ballot for the election of deputies,
judging this measure to be the most favourable to
good party organisation, but the Act was thrown out
by the Senate.
The elections of 1881 took place under the same
conditions as before (scrutin darrondissement, namely),
and Gambetta, much annoyed at this check, himself
sounded the first blast for a revision, and demanded
above all that the Senate should be reformed in a
manner which might make it more truly representa-
tive of public opinion. Such a demand was not
calculated to simplify things. The elections of 1881 x
resulted in a decisive victory for the Republicans,
who carried off four-fifths of the seats, but Gambetta's
motion for a revision had thrown the ranks of the
Republicans into confusion, and the Chamber was
still at the mercy of coalitions of the extremists.
The President of the Republic resigned himself to
the necessity of calling upon Gambetta to form a
Cabinet, but the credit of the tribune had been
exhausted in the eyes of the public before being used
in the real task of governing. The new Ministry
lasted but three months (November 14, 1881 to
January 26, 1882), and Gambetta died on the 3ist of
1 We have no longer to speak of the partial renewals of the
Senate. After 1879 every renewal brought an increase in the num-
ber of Republican members, so that now the Monarchists in the
Upper Chamber are reduced to less than forty votes.
382 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
December, 1882, without having had the opportunity
of showing exactly what his value in power might
have been, and leaving without a leader an important
group of deputies whom his personal ascendency
had kept united. While he was still alive, but not
in the Government, a Freycinet Ministry had been
formed, which fell for want of having known how to
preserve French influence in Egypt and act con-
jointly with Great Britain in the valley of the Nile.
It was succeeded by a Cabinet under the premiership
of Duclerc (August 7, 1882), which did its best to
repair the evil wrought. After Gambetta's death the
disorder in the Chamber was so great that two
ministries perished in the space of two months. But
at last Jules Ferry succeeded in forming one (Feb-
ruary 21, 1883), which braved the storm for a year
and a month, succumbing finally in a sort of Parlia-
mentary cyclone provoked by the announcement of a
defeat inflicted on the French forces in Tonquin
(March 30, 1885).
This Cabinet, the most durable and the most
energetic which has governed France since 1875,
had had to settle not only the different legislative
and colonial matters already mentioned, but also to
undertake the delicate question of revision raised by
Gambetta. This was finally decided in 1884 by the
law of the I3th of August, which modified the com-
position of the Senate by suppressing the life-mem-
bers, and emitted a special decree for increasing the
elective representation of the more important com-
munes. 1 The sudden fall of Jules Ferry, caused by a
1 See above.
FA 1.1. OF JULES FERRY.
telegram which was immediately afterwards contra-
dicted (peace with China being concluded, in fact, a
few days later on advantageous terms), left both Par-
GAMBETTA.
liament and the public in a deeply disturbed condition
of mind, from which neither have yet recovered.
The Radicals seized the opportunity to form a
384 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
Ministry with Brisson for chief (April 7, 1885), while
the Monarchists hastened to make capital out of the
public uneasiness at the state of affairs in the colonies.
The departmental ballot (scrutin de liste] for deputies
had been re-established just at the moment when the
disorganisation of the Republicans was at its height,
and the consequence was that at the General Election
of 1885 more than a third of the adversaries of the
Republic were returned to the Chamber. The result-
ing tension almost entirely paralysed Parliamentary
action. The first symptom of weakness was the
re-election of Grevy as President for yet another
seven years, in spite of domestic considerations
which ought to have caused him to be replaced.
Perpetual ministerial crises (a Freycinet Cabinet on
January 7, 1886; a Goblet Cabinet on the iith of
December in the same year) proved that even nume-
rous concessions would not avail to introduce disci-
pline into the Radical party, and the only Act of any
significance passed during this agitated period was
that of the 22nd of June, 1886, which expelled from
French territory all members of the families who had
reigned in France, and thus gave a not very effectual
answer to the offensive tactics lately renewed by the
Monarchists.
The Radical Ministry had brought into notice a
war minister who was infinitely more of a politician
than a soldier. General Boulanger for he it was
making capital out of jingoism and the growing
public discontent, tried to climb into power, and at
the same time caused uneasiness to the neighbours
of France by his ambiguous and fantastic attitude.
DESIGNATION OP Af. J. GR&VY. 385
The late colonial policy had possessed the ad-
vantage of appeasing the legitimate ambition which
lies at the bottom of all human hearts. Since its
cessation, and, above all, since the alliance between
Germany, Austria, and Italy had drawn an iron
circle round France and, on pretence of repressing
bellicose tendencies which she had never shown,
refused her the right of free speech and almost of
existence, men's minds had revolted more and more
against a position of apparent menace to their
country. Internal difficulties, both political and
economical, 1 increased this irritation, and prepared
the ground for agitation in favour of a Dictator.
The Chamber at last perceived its danger, and
after a frontier incident which, for a moment,
threatened the peaceful understanding between
France and Germany, the Cabinet, of which Bou-
langer was a member, finally fell (May 30, 1887).
The General, however, did not own himself defeated.
Being on active military service, he stirred up his
friends to lead an attack against the President of
the Republic, who had exposed himself to hostile
criticism through the indulgence he had shown to the
doubtful proceedings of his son-in-law. Grevy, forced
to resign, was succeeded by Sadi Carnot, grandson of
the great Carnot (December 3, 1887), but the activity
of the Boulangists showed no abatement The
1 At this period France was undergoing a formidable agricultural
crisis, due in great measure to the ravages of the phyloxera in the
vineyards. This gave rise to a movement in support of Protection,
which, overthrowing the tariff of 1860, resulted in 1885 in a return
to import duties for cereals and cattle, and finally, in 1892, to protec-
tive duties on everything except raw material.
26
386 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
General, dismissed from his military functions, formed
a so-called National Committee, into which flowed
bewildered Radicals and impatient Socialists, rein-
forced by Monarchists of all shades, Legitimist, Or-
leanist, and Bonapartist, all delighted at the prospect
of overturning the Republic, and, by recommencing
the tactics of 1851, prepared to hand over to an ad-
venturer such fragments of good reputation as they
still retained. This motley crew, gathering from all
points of the horizon, rallied round the banner bear-
ing the inscription, " Dissolution Revision " ; and
such is the power of words over disunited and dis-
tracted men, that various departments, including
even Paris, were found to elect the chief of this so-
called " National Party " as their deputy.
\ The danger was becoming serious. In the Chamber
the debates were of unexampled violence. Succes-
sive Ministries (Rouvier's of the 3Oth of May, 1 887 ;
Tirard's of the I2th of December, 1887, which was
chiefly moderate ; and Floquet's of the 3rd of April,
1888, of more Radical tendencies) all failed to obtain
la stable majority. A supreme effort was needed to
{save the Republic and political liberty from being
'carried off in the whirlwind of a plebiscite. Already
in anticipation of the coming General Election, the
Floquet Ministry had re-established the ballot by
arrondissement (February 13, 1889); and the Tirard
Cabinet, which succeeded to power a few days later
(February 22nd), completed this precautionary
measure by the law passed on the I7th of July,
which forbade any candidate to present himself for
election in more than one constituency at a time,
THE BO UL ANGER AGITATION. 387
The Ministry also had the resolution to summon \
Boulanger before the High Court of Justice in the
Senate on a charge of conspiring against the safety)
of the State. Thus accused, Boulanger revealed his
real nature. He fled, and was condemned in con-
tiiinacia, ending his career by suicide two years later
in Belgium when his adherents were beaten at the
General Election of the 22nd of September, 1889.*
Such a political convulsion, requiring such strenuous ^
efforts from the Government, constituted a grave
warning to the Republican majority, while simul- '
taneously testifying to the solidity and elasticity of
the institutions of 1875.
Outside France, the lesson went home. Convinced
at last that the Republic was a reality to be treated
with, the Pope, Leo XIII., ordered his bishops to
cease their open attacks, and the Czar Alexander III.,
by his solemn reception of the French squadron at
Cronstadt (1891), inaugurated the Franco -Russian
alliance. In France itself the recent experience was
not quite as fruitful as might have been hoped. The
Chamber elected in 1885. had hardly done anything
beyond passing two laws : one, of the 24th of July,
1889, for the protection of deserted children, and
another on the 1 5th of the same month which reduced
the term of .active service in the army to three years,
and abolished all the dispensations accorded by the
law of 1872, thus rendering compulsory the bearing of
arms even for teachers, seminarists who are preparing
for the priesthood, and the eldest sons of widows.
1 A brilliant Universal Exhibition, got up to celebrate the centenary
of the French Revolution, took place in Paris during the last months
of this crisis.
388 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
The Chamber of 1889 showed itself somewhat
more capable than its predecessor in achieving a
relative ministerial stability, but neither in financial
matters nor in what are known as " social reforms "
did it pass many useful measures, and generally it
may be said that it knew better how to state pro-
blems than to solve them. Among the Acts of this
period were the suppression of the police certificates
(livrets) for workmen, the institution of delegates to
be elected by miners for the surveillance of mining
operations, and a modification introduced into Article
1780 of the Code Civil which put an end to the unjust
dismissal of workmen by their masters (July I and 8
and December 27, 1890). Other measures of the
same sort was the Act of the 3ist of October, 1892,
limiting the hours of labour for women and children
in factories ; another of the 27th of December of the
same year which established courts of arbitration and
reconciliation in the case of strikes ; a third, dated
June 12, 1893, which concerned the sanitation and
safety of workshops ; and finally the Act of the 1 5th
of July, 1893, organising gratuitous medical aid in
country districts. 1
But two chief problems on the social side have
remained unsolved. The responsibility of masters
for the accidents happening to workmen in the course
of work has not been determined, and the question of
1 The Act of the 3oth of December, 1894, for encouraging the
construction of cheap houses, and that of the I2th of January, 1895,
which secured a large portion of 'workmen's wages against seizure
for debt, must also be credited to the Chamber of 1889, although
both only actually became law later.
THE FREYCINET AND LOUBET CABINETS. 389
pensions for the old and invalid members of the popu-
lation, although touched upon, has not been settled.
In the same way the financial system has remained
at the point to which it was brought in 1871. On
one side it consists in a too extensive imposition of
indirect taxes which weigh heavily on the small con-
sumer, and on the other it has neglected to lighten
the load of direct taxes borne by the poorer members
of the population.
As to the machinery of administration, that has
not been sensibly altered for twenty-five years past,
but while remaining unduly centralised, it is now
directed by ministers whose tenure of power is so
unstable that they have no time to master the de-
tails of government, while the functionaries in the
departments have constantly to take into account
the influence likely to be exercised by the senators
and deputies of their respective constituencies.
Two Cabinets, one presided over by Freycinet
(March 17, 1890), and the other by Loubet (February
27, 1892), had followed Tirard's without the changes
of persons bringing with them any important altera-
tions in method or revealing any practical importance
in the incidents which had caused the different minis-
terial crises, when all at once, at the approach in due
time of the General Election, a new storm broke
out, with consequences which are not yet entirely
exhausted.
Certain financial scandals, in which some members
of Parliament had been involved, furnished the text
for a series of outrageous accusations, calumnies, and
defamations which were used to ruin, if possible,
PRESIDENT CARNOT.
GENERAL ELECTION OF 1893. 39 l
whole political parties rather than to mete out proper
punishment to the really guilty. These manoeuvres,
begun by the impenitent Monarchists, did not serve
the purpose for which they were designed, since
when the General Election took place on the 2Oth
of August, 1893, the reactionary party failed to
reconquer the confidence of the country. But the
conditions of the moment were useful to the
Socialists, who returned fifty members to the new
Parliament ; and, thanks to the loss of credit
inflicted on the Government, even the Anarchist
propaganda showed renewed vitality, resulting in
various dynamite explosions in 1892, and in the
assassination of President Carnot in 1894.
Before and after the General Election of 1893
several Cabinets fell in consequence of the incessant
attacks made upon them, and which were favoured
by the atmosphere of suspicion and denunciation
created by political intriguers, who thus introduced a
new element of uneasiness into the time-honoured
neorosis of French assemblies. One Ministry after
another Ribot's (December 6, 1892), Charles
Dupuy's (April 4, 1893), Casimir Perier's (Decem-
ber 3, 1893), Charles Dupuy's again (July i, 1894),
Ribot's again (January 26, 1895) succumbed, and
even the chiefs of the State were not spared.
Casimir Perier, whom the National Assembly had
selected as a successor to Carnot, resigned in six
months rather than submit to the now habitual
insults of Press and Parliament, and the present
President, M. Felix Faure, was hardly installed
before attacks were made upon his reputation.
392 THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
This system of polemics has had the double
effect of nauseating public opinion, and deterring
from political activity various men whose assistance
would have been valuable in affairs of the State ;
and at the same time Parliamentary activity is
paralysed by the innumerable incidents arising in
the Chamber. Prominence i . given to the state of
decay into which all the old parties have fallen,
with a resulting situation of extreme complexity.
A few infatuated deputies cling to the old institu-
tions, and fondly hope that some accident will sooner
or later restore a monarchy and replace on the throne
one or other of the young princes representing fallen
French dynasties. The members of the majority
of the old Right are disposed to accept the accom-
plished fact, but being devoted above all things to
the Roman Catholic Church, they hope one day to
alter the present military and educational systems,
and they are therefore regarded with disfavour even
by the most moderate Republicans, besides being
often led to neglect the real interests of the Con-
servative party. The Republicans proper are agreed
on somewhat nebulous principles of democratic
reform, both social and financial, but being divided
on questions of persons and personal influence, they
frequently fall out when theories have to be trans-
lated into facts, some of their members having the
bad habit of promising their constituents far more
than they can perform, while others are checked, in
the moment of decision, by juridical considerations
which no longer respond to the needs of the day.
Finally, the Socialists noisily espouse the collectivism
THE SOCIALIST PARTY. 393
of the Germans, turn to their own advantage the
strikes which in France and elsewhere periodically
paralyse industry, and have obtained the theoretical
sympathy of some professors, and even of some
preachers, who have at last discovered that it may
be useful to the Church to conciliate the working
classes. But, on the whole, the Socialists alarm
public opinion by their violence, and compromise
the success of necessary reforms by the excessive
nature of their demands.
In reality, no strong political party has been
formed since the spring of 1885, and no Premier
has made any profound or durable mark upon the
country ; nor clo the constituencies, offspring as they
are of universal suffrage, seem to have a very clear
idea of what they expect the Government to do.
But, in spite of all, France is peacefully living and
developing its resources side by side with, and inde-
pendently of, the sterile agitation of her politicians.
XVI.
LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES FROM 1848 TO
1895.
THE first half of the nineteenth century was the
great period of historical renovation. The latter half
was remarkable for literary criticism. Everything
passed through the crucible : romantic idealism,
destroyed in the process ; the form of government,
also ruined ; and manners, which were exposed to
the pitiless analysis of the drama. Sainte-Beuve,
Renan, Taine, Auguste Comte, and Dumas fils, are
the most remarkable corrosive geniuses ever born in
France.
The reaction against romanticism had various con-
sequences. On the literary and artistic side it resulted
in naturalism, in science it produced positivism, and
in social matters it caused politics to prevail over
sociology. Then, as everything in history is mere
flux and reflux, the excesses of naturalism produced
a mystic reaction, and social problems have recovered
the excessive importance which they had at the end of
the Government of July. Such are, broadly stated,
the general characteristics of the period between 1 848
and 1895.
394
THE STAGE. 395
We may remark, once for all, that in all branches
we shall find. representatives of the generation which
reached its culminating point in 1830. It was a
vigorous race, and its works, like its influence, lasted
well over the first half of the century.
LITERATURE THE STAGE.
In the present day journalism and the drama
exercise an almost preponderating influence. Men
have hardly the leisure necessary for serious reading.
They require to be immediately and completely
instructed on all points. And the same necessity
has contributed more than anything else to enlarge
the field of literary criticism, and to transform its
methods.
The theatre, by its direct appeal to the mind and
senses of the spectator, its foreshortened presentment
of the most complicated questions, its illumination of
a thesis by such aids as gesture, expression, costume,
speech, and intonation can afford, has become the
best means of establishing an understanding between
the author and his public.
All writers of fiction in the present day transport
to the boards the themes of their principal novels.
Up to 1850 melodrama reigned; it was presently
supplanted by the comedy of manners. Tragedy
died altogether.
Ponsard's " Chanotte Corday" (1850) is hardly a
tragedy, and still less could his " Lion Amoureux "
(1866) be so described: they are dramas in verse,
partaking of the two styles. The boldness of
structure and the novel disregard of classic rules dis-
39^ LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
tinguishing these works astonished and distressed
the admirers whom the author still retained. But
historical drama was at its last gasp, and could not
be galvanised into life by subjects borrowed from
modern history, even when reproduced with absolute
truth, in a sober and solid style.
The dramatic works which met with an unexpected
success were those of Alfred de Musset, which
Madame Allan-Despreaux brought from St. Peters-
burg in 1847. They were the offspring of irony
the irony of a poet who had been badly received on
his first appearance, and who was now seeking to
defy all conventionality. These exquisite pieces
"Le Caprice" (1847), "Andre del Sarto," " Le
Chandelier," "11 ne faut jurer de rien " (1848), " Les
Caprices de Marianne" (1851), owed their success
chiefly to the eminently dramatic qualities of sim-
plicity, lyrical purity, real feeling, and fine penetration.
Scribe, who had written so many comedies and
roused such enthusiasm among the middle classes
of a former generation by the every-day morality
of such pieces as " La Position," " La Carriere,"
" L'Argent," who passed for being the prince of
dramatists because of the deft construction of his
comedies, put together like machines, no longer wrote
anything but insignificant, even deplorably bad
vaudevilles.
George Sand produced, without great success on
the boards, "Francois le Champi " (1849), " Le
Manage de Victorine" (1851), " Le Marquis de
Villemer" (1864), "Les Beaux Messieurs de Bois
Dore* " (1857), all aristocratic comedies, written in a
THE STAGE. 397
style of finished diction, wherein appear the eternal
themes of man's fundamental selfishness, of woman's
innate devotion, of virtue which survives the deepest
fall, and of pride which defies every form of
misery.
Such were the productions of dramatic authors pre-
viously to 1848. Emile Augier and Dumas fils
inaugurated a new theatrical style, unknown until
near the latter part of the nineteenth century. This
was the "problem play," framed in an exact repro-
duction of contemporary manners.
Of the two, Emile Augier was the less philoso-
phical. He saw correctly, but not far. He was a
liberal-minded bourgeois who excelled in represent-
ing the manners of his time, and laid bare the soul of
the French middle classes under the Second Empire.
His first attempts in the line which was to make his
reputation were unsuccessful. "La Cigue" (1844),
an elegant rendering of pagan customs, " L'Aven-
turiere " (1848), a defence of family life, and
"Gabrielle" (1849), a rehabilitation of that whilom
ridiculous personage the injured husband, were
more remarkable for sentiment than for character-
isation. In the " Mariage d'Olympe" (1855), for the
first time Augier frankly adopted that framework of
contemporary manners and passions of which Dumas
fils had already furnished the example. " Le Gendre
de M. Poirier" (1855) has for its theme the meanness
of an upstart who uses the social position of a ruined
nobleman to secure his own advancement " Les
Lionnes Pauvres " (1858) is a masterpiece which
brought into the strong light of the stage a type
LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
already created by Balzac in Madame Marneffe,
the vile woman who barters her conjugal fidelity for
the means of maintaining a luxurious home. " Les
Effrontes" (1861) was based on the intrigues of a
venal press.
In the " Fils de Giboyer " (1862) Augier sought to
write a social drama, taking for his argument the
unholy alliance of clericals and legitimists. This
attack upon the Jesuits was repeated in "Lions et
Renards" (1869), wherein a tremendous battle wages
around a dowry of nine millions. Meanwhile, Louis
Veuillot had recognised himself in Giboyer. There
followed a series of violent polemics which extended
to the provinces, where each representation of the
piece, made more successful by each fresh scandal,
gave rise to challenges, duels, and legal proceedings.
But the new manner he had adopted did not suit
Augier, who, in seeking to render his pieces more sig-
nificant, fell into the error of over-generalisation, and
produced false and conventional characters. He
recovered his former skill in " Maitre Guerin " (1864).
He never did anything better than this cunning,
crafty notary, who excelled in twisting the sense of
the law, and passed long for being a model husband,
yet indulged his sensual appetites as soon as business
was disposed of. Augier's next undertaking after
pointing scorn at the courtesan was, in " Les Four-
chambault" (1878) and "Madame Caverlet " (1876),
to follow in the footsteps of Dumas fils, and approach
the burning questions of the seduced girl whom
maternity ennobles, the apotheosis of the natural
child, the duties of illegitimate paternity, and the
THE STAGE. 399
advantages of divorce. These pieces had a great
influence.
No writer surpassed Augier in showing that plague-
spot of our time the ravage worked in a modest,
respectable household by the greed of luxury, or in
representing the tyrannical sway of great financiers
over the modern world. Augier was not a writer of
the first order, for although his style in prose was
strong, clear, and pure, his verse is heavy, laboured,
and unrhythmical. But he is a finished artist possessed
of the instinct of composition, knowing how to give
their proper value to the smallest elements of his
subject, and concealing the means by which, with
consummate address, he leads up to the capital scenes
forming the pivot of his comedy or his drama.
In the hands of Alexandre Dumas fils, contem-
porary manners made a startling entry upon the
boards. "La Dame aux Camillas" (1852), "Diane
de Lys " (1853), and " Le Demi-Monde " (1855),
showed Augier and others the direction in which lay
success. The first-named of these pieces was of a
strongly romantic type, for Marguerite Gautier, the
courtesan purified by love, had been dear to the
school of that name. But Dumas, who had genius,
invented an original manner in which he has so far
never been equalled. He had a kind of evangelical
austerity which not only stamped the concise and
rapid dialogue of his dramas, but inspired the eloquent
pages of his prefaces. In " Diane de Lys " he already
developed the theory more fully stated with greater
force and elevation still in " La Femme de Claude "
(1873) that an adulterous wife should be punished
4OO LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
by the hand of the husband she has outraged. " Le
Demi-Monde " was an exhaustive study of a hitherto
little known and misunderstood world the world of
those women who hold a middle place between the
entirely venal and the entirely respectable of their
sex.
" Le Fils Naturel " was yet another and a stronger
illustration of Dumas' pet theory that the theatre
should be the mouthpiece of social reform. He dwelt
on the inefficacy of the present law to punish the fathers
of natural children, or to ensure to such offspring
either the moral or educational training to which
they are entitled. " To give life is in some cases more
barbarous than to give death," was one of his phrases.
The same conviction inspired " Les idees de Madame
Aubray" (1867) and "Monsieur Alphonse " (1873).
"La Visite de Noces " (1871) and "La Princesse
Georges" (1871) render with a terrible intensity all
the bitterness, the shame, and the resentment born
of illicit love ; and all the disgust of a woman too
late enlightened falls from the lips of Madame de
Morance in the sentence " Pah ! if we only knew
sooner what I know now ! " " Monsieur Alphonse,"
already mentioned, and " L'Etrangere " (1876), drew
an inexorable picture of unredeemed and naked
perversity, while " La Princesse de Bagdad J ' (1881),
"Denise" (1885), and " Francillon " (1887), gave
dramatic expression to social theses and physiological
problems of the boldest sort.
Dumas' primary intention was to be a moralist.
He hurled violent invectives at prostitution, " that
sordid monster which undermines society, breaks up
THE STAGE. 4OI
the family, smirches love, dismembers the country,
enervates men, dishonours women whose face and
appearance it apes, and destroys those who do not
destroy it."
Money which poisons marriage, the morality which
is indulgent to men, the education which fails to
prepare either men or women for domestic life, the
laws which sacrifice women and children to the
selfishness of men, the prejudices which find excuses
for hidden frailty but are inexorable towards the sin
springing from ignorance, and are not pacified even
by repentance such were the subjects on which
Dumas exercised by turn his powers of denunciation.
But the truths thus nakedly and pitilessly presented
alarmed the public instead of converting it. The
questions of general morality raised with the delibe-
rate intention to irritate were fruitful of misconcep-
tions. They were bitterly contested and passionately
denounced. The public is not by nature philosophical,
and it failed to reflect on the immense importance of
these studies of manners. If moved for an instant,
it forgot this impression the moment the curtain had
fallen. But what it did not forget were the pictures,
intensified by scenic artifices, which had been pre-
sented in all their cruel verity to its gaze.
Some truths may be wisely suppressed, or at any
rate softened in the telling. They teach nothing to
those who already know them, and too much to those
who learn them for the first time ; and we may ask
if there is not some danger in revealing on the boards
all the hidden springs of social life.
With these reservations we may admit that,
27
4O2 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
taken altogether, Dumas' dramatic works are ad-
mirable from the literary as well as from the pro-
fessional point of view. He is a master of style,
abounding in brilliancy, incisivertess, and vivacity,
besides being a consummate artist, enamoured of
expedients, and an expert in stage effects, with all
the vigour, the precision, and the unfailing penetra-
tion of a profound psychologist. He released comedy
from its ancient trammels, and made it capable of
expressing everything that can be said.
Victorien Sardou abuses the freedom thus con-
ferred. He is always challenging his public, always
irritating and dominating it with the airs and graces
of a lion-tamer. He began, so to speak, as a
caricaturist, in the style of Gavarni or Daumier,
exaggerating all his strokes in such pieces as
"Les Pattes de Mouche" (1860), " Les Ganaches "
(1863), "Les Pommes du Voisin " (1864), and has
since tried all styles, from the spectacular to the
heroic, from the comedy of middle-class life to
the Vaudeville. But whether trifling or in earnest,
whether describing manners or creating characters,
whether seeking to raise a laugh or to cause
pathetic emotions, in " La Famille Benoiton "
(1863), "Les Vieux Galons " (1865), "Rabagas"
(1872), "La Patrie" (1869), " L'Oncle Sam" (1873),
'Divorgons" (1880), "Fedora" (1882), "Theodora"
(1884), "La Tosca" (1887) ; or " Thermidor " (1891),
he makes such excessive use of tricks and sleight-
of-hand and puppet-strings, and is so prodigal
of great surprises, that even his personages seem
mannikins, and their sentiments artificial. Sardou
THE STAGE. 403
interests, amuses and sometimes even moves his
hearers, but he never makes them think.
Labiche is full of natural gaiety, carried sometimes
to the verge of indecency (" Le Chapeau de Faille
d'ltalie" 1862 ; " Le Voyage de M. Perrichon," 1860 ;
"La Cagnotte," 1864; "Celimare le Bien Aime"
1863). But even when most farcical he is an observer
of good sense, free from pretension or pedantry, and
never attitudinising as a moralist. And although his
philosophy is of the light-hearted order it does not
lack penetration, nor ever lose touch with the human
element in comic things. " We have (with Labiche),"
writes M. Lanson, "an uneasy feeling that the
imbeciles, the eccentric and bewildered people
whom he presents to us, are very like ourselves."
An exact account of contemporary drama should
include a host of lesser, but still talented authors,
who have had their hour of celebrity ; but we
must limit ourselves to mentioning the graceful
proverbs of Octave Feuillet, almost always turning
on the interesting struggles of women of thirty-five
years against the sentimental passions assailing them
when just on the threshold of old age ; the charming
drama, enlivened by touches of comedy, of Madame
Emile de Girardin, entitled " La Joie fait peur "
(1854); the piquant, satirical creation of Edouard
Pailleron, " Le Monde ou Ton S'Ennuie " (1881) ;
the bright and lively productions of Meilhac and
Halevy ("Frou-frou," 1869; "La Boule," 1874;
"Lolotte," 1879); "Le Nabab" (1880), "Sapho"
(1885), and "L'Obstacle" (1890) of Daudet ; " Le
Passant" (1869), " Severo Torelli " (1883), and
404 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
"Pour la Couronne" (1895) f Francois Coppee ;
and finally such sensational melodramas as Dennery's
"Deux Orphelines" (1865), and even " Le Maitre
de Forges" of Ohnet both of which had a great
popular success.
There remains to be noticed only the naturalistic
drama, which, while ostensibly representing the
reality of life, pictured vice in all its naked hideous-
ness. The first of these attempts, " L'Assom-
moir," 1879, obtained a prodigious success. Later
the " Theatre Libre " was especially founded with a
view to giving scenes so coarse, not to say obscene,
that they would not have been tolerated on any
public stage. But the spectators were soon wearied
and disgusted by this display, and the unmitigated
realism of these dramas had a short lease of life.
The " Theatre Libre," falling then into the oppo-
site extreme, became the home of symbolism, and
great success attended the productions of authors
from the misty North, such as Ibsen and Bjoernsen,
as well as the miracle plays of Bouchor (" Tobie,"
"Noel," "La Legende de Ste. Cecile," 1889-94),
played by marionnettes.
It is outside our province to predict what may be
the future of French drama. At present there is no
sign of any new movement, although two dramatists
have lately shown themselves possessed of psycho-
logical insight, true emotional faculty and originality
of style ; namely, M. Jules Lemaitre (" Revoltee,"
1889; "Le Depute Leveau," 1891; " Le Manage
Blanc," 1891 ; " Le Pardon," 1895), and M. de Curel
("Les Fossiles," 1892 ; "L'lnvitee," 1893 i " L'Amour
Erode," 1894).
FICTION. 4O5
FICTION.
The novel has occupied almost as important a
place as the theatre in the literary history of the last
fifty years. The two styles have, in fact, been con-
stantly and intimately mixed. Romanticism was
definitively vanquished by naturalism, but the latter
did not succeed in destroying idealistic fiction, which
existed concurrently with the modern school until
1890, and then made a new spring forward.
Victor Hugo and Theophile Gautier were the last
representatives of Romanticism.
In 1862 Hugo published " Les Miserables," an
immense work, crowded and confused, containing
twenty novels in outline and not one completed.
The most divergent elements meet in this work.
Various theories are set forth in it, one being an
attack on those invincible prejudices which grant no
pardon to the evildoer, another the justification of
the criminal by repentance, a third the vindication
of the claims of the people as opposed to the bour-
geoisie. In addition there is an idyll, a celebrated
description of the battle of Waterloo, interminable
digressions on the Revolution, furious onslaughts on
the Church, stirring episodes of street fights in Paris,
a sketch of Louis-Philippe, and, above all, a true and
deep compassion for the weak.
Ten years later Victor Hugo published " Quatre
Vingt-treize," wherein he depicts scenes from the war
in La Vendee, and succeeds, perhaps for the first time,
in creating characters of flesh and blood instead of
mere abstractions. There is life in the democratic
406 LETTERS^ ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1845-1895.
gentleman, the rebellious aristocrat, and the un-
frocked priest who becomes a fanatical jacobin.
All Hugo's works are crammed with antitheses
and caricatures, and their style is declamatory and
deformed by a constant effort at extraordinary
effects. But they are so vigorous, so original, so full
of "go," that, in spite of their unnatural lengthi-
nesses, one reads them with passionate interest.
Gautier published " Le Capitaine Fracasse " in
1863, after thirty years' patient labour at it. There
exists nothing more artistic than this charming novel,
wherein realistic comedy and unbridled fancy are
found side by side. But in these adventures of
strolling players in the time of Louis XIII. one
must be content to seek nothing beyond a collection
of marvellous woodcuts, pictures, so to speak, of
which the best is " The Castle of Misery."
Gautier exactly describes his own work when he
admonishes the reader to imagine that he is " turning
over etchings by Callot or engravings by Abraham
Bosse, illustrated by legends." " Spirite," the story
of the ideal loves of extra-human personages, laid
on in low tones and misty outline, appeared
in 1866, and had been preceded in 1858 by the
" Romance of a Mummy," which describes the
ancient life of Egypt with a wealth of local colour-
ing. These works were the early manifestations on
the one hand of that strange taste for the super-
natural prevailing of late in England and France,
and on the other of those reconstructions of old
Byzantine and Alexandrian life which have appeared
on the stage or in the guise of novels, and of which
FICTION. 407
Flaubert's " Salammbo " and the " Thats " of Anatole
France are examples.
George Sand, after her exquisite pastorals, re-
turned to the novel of fashionable life. Age calmed
her, and her novels became simpler, and were free
from the old passionate protests against marriage
and social injustice. She came to resemble the kind
old lady who tells touching stories to her grand-
children. The "Marquis de Villemer" (1860) de-
scribes the love arising between a poor young girl
and a great nobleman; "Valvedre" (1861) rehabili-
tates a husband rising superior to ridicule through
inherent force of character, and " Les Beaux Mes-
sieurs de Bois Dore " (1858) is a story of old days, a
gracious picture of the eighteenth century with its
dainty, gallant, and generous ways. But if George
Sand's vision of life altered, her descriptions of nature
remained unsurpassed, and her style was supple, clear
and harmonious to the end.
Our next idealist is Octave Feuillet, who, when
materialism in literature was already pronounced,
struck a note that was almost unnatural. The
scene of his novels is laid in the fashionable world
of aristocracy or wealth. His personages are all
heroic-hearted, with exceptional passions, unfailing
good breeding, and a somewhat finikin grace. The
framework is always the same : beautiful gardens,
correct cascades, pleasant plantations, and as the
episodes of the story are also of little variety,
the reader is fatigued by a sense of monotony.
" Le Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre " (1858),
"Julia de Trecceur " (1872), "Les Amours de
408 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
Philippe" (1887), are all romantic, passionate, witty,
poetical, and delicately written. Vice in these
pages is amiable, and virtue a seductive coquette.
They seem expressly written for those fashionable
ladies who, in the words of X. Aubryet, " love to talk
of the forbidden fruit, but are careful never to taste
it. M. Feuillet," continues the same writer, "has
invented for their benefit the libertinage of chastity."
We must omit "Monsieur de Camors " from this judg-
ment, that being Feuillet's greatest work, wherein the
two principal characters, an ambitious and sensual
politician and a guilty, almost cynical woman, are
drawn with a vigour unusual in the author.
Theuriet, who is a pleasing, amiable writer, may
be regarded as a faithful disciple of George Sand.
Passionately fond of nature, he prefers above all
to describe the woods and streams of Lorraine.
Against this fresh, umbrageous background he has
placed charming middle-class idylls, such as " Le
Mariage de Gerard" (1875), " Raymonde " (1877),
" Sauvageonne " (1880), or little dramas diversifying
the existence of Government functionaries a subject
in which he is quite at home. Examples of the latter
sort are: " Le Journal de Tristan" (1883), " Eusebe
Lombard" (1885), " L' Affaire Froideville" (1887).
Cherbuliez weaves complicated plots of which the
scene is usually laid in foreign countries (" Le Comte
Kostia," 1863; " L'Aventure de Ladislas Bolski,"
1869 ; " Meta Holdenis," 1873). He has a light touch
and a fine irony, and excels in diversifying his story
with piquant conversations on the art, the science,
and sociology of the day.
FICTION. 409
Alexandra Dumas fils is an idealist in his elevated
sentiments and moral didacticism, but a realist in the
cruel truth of his pictures of life. As we have already
shown, his chief productions are dramatic, but he
began his task of legal and social regeneration by
such novels as "La Dame aux Camelias" (1848),
"L'Affaire Clemenceau" (1867), "La Dame aux
Perles" (1853), and "Sophie Printemps " (1853), which
rank in literary history through the brilliancy of their
style, the precision and lucidity of their language, and
their amazing flow of penetrating and original wit.
Chamfleury was the first realistic novelist, but his
commonplace style renders " Les Bourgeois de Mo-
linchart" (1855) alone worthy of mention among his
works.
The same may be said of Henri Monnier, who
created the famous type of " Joseph Prudhomme."
Gustave Flaubert gave an original turn to fiction,
and his masterpieces have served as types and models
for the Naturalist school, which during the last twenty-
five years has exercised a predominating influence
in Literature and Art. Nevertheless he fell more
than anybody under the spell of Romanticism, and
derived from Theophile Gautier his horror of the
bourgeois, his vigour of speech, and his theory of Art
for Art. Flaubert owed to Romanticism his richness
of colouring and consummate power of expression ;
but differed essentially from it in his uncompromising
artistic principles which forbade his introducing his
own personality into his works, and made him pre-
serve an attitude of complete impassibility in the
midst of the most perfect expression. The success of
410 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
"Madame Bovary " (1857), the finest of contemporary
novels, ruined romantic fiction. The minute study of
the sentimental heroine brought into relief the con-
clusion that the vague aspirations and transcendental
emotions suggested by romantic literature may en-
gender immorality and be responsible for abject falls
and sordid misery. The analytic truth, and sober
yet energetic style of " Madame Bovary," leave an
impression on the mind of the reader compounded of
strength, of tragic grandeur and profound sadness; and
this impression is deepened to the point of pain by
" L'Education Sentimentale " (1869), which describes
in the same coldly impersonal manner the slow and
progressive extinction of a fine nature under the
monotony and purposelessness of provincial middle-
class life. This same theme is resumed in " Bouvard
and Pecuchet " (1881), where the effect produced
is absolutely stupefying. " L'Histoire d'un Cceur
Simple" (1877) is marvellous for refinement of style
and psychological analysis ; while " Salammbo "
(1862) reproduces in a brilliant and picturesque form,
almost too richly coloured, the life of a vanished
civilisation. Neither of these works, however, are in
the peculiar style of Flaubert, who endeavoured, by
an attentive study of the texts at his disposal, by
erudite research, and a journey to the scene of his
novels, to realise the manner in which the Cartha-
ginians lived, and all that he offers to the reader is
the result of this patient inquiry, presented without
any preconceived idea or any effort of imagination.
Flaubert produced but little owing to the slowness
with which he worked and his literary conscientious-
FICTION. 411
ness. He never would offer anything to the reader
which was not .as perfect as possible. He created
immortal types through the care which he took to
bring into relief the smallest details of his personages'
individuality. Art was his only religion the art
which consoles for all miseries, moral or psychological.
The brothers de Goncourt pretend to be the inventors
of Naturalism, but that is not absolutely the case.
Like Flaubert they endeavoured to banish imagina-
tion from their works, and to copy nature faithfully.
Replacing psychology by physiology and pathology,
their method, like that of a superior sort of reporter,
was to collect all possible documentary evidence
regarding the fashions, modes of dress and states of
mind of the persons with whom they proceeded to
fill their books. " Soeur Philomene " (1861), " Rene"e
Mauperin" (1864), " Germinie Lacerteux" (1865),
" Manette Salomon " (1867), " Les Freres Zemganno"
(1879), and " La Faustin" (1882), simply display the
booty which the writers picked up in the hospitals, the
almshouses, the social Bohemia, and the world of
" hysterics," studio " devils," and charlatans which they
frequented. The Goncourts were very successful in
painting the modern young girl, especially the fashion-
able Parisian variety, with all the artifices of mind
which she owes to an excessive refinement of civilisa-
tion. They created the so-called "impressionist"
style which eliminated from the language all the
colourless words unproductive of sensations.
Emile Zola has always been the uncontested master
of the Naturalist school, having established his claim
not only by the talent which inspired his works, but
412 LETTERS, ARTS. AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
by the programmes and manifestoes in which he
explained his doctrines. He maintained the possi-
bility of experimental fiction, derived from experi-
mental physiology. He adopted the conclusions and
the theories of Claude Bernard, of Taine and Comte.
" The experimental novel," he said, " is a consequence
of the scientific evolution of our age. It continues
and completes physiology, which in its turn is based
upon chemistry and physics. It replaces the study
of abstract, metaphysical man, by the study of the
natural man, the resultant of physico-chemical laws
joined to the influence of his surroundings. Just as
classical and romantic literature corresponded to an
age of scholasticism and theology, so does the experi-
mental novel correspond to the present predominance
of science."
On this foundation Zola has built up a vast monu-
ment entitled " Les Rougon-Macquart ; the natural
and Social History of a Family under the Second
Empire" (1871-93), wherein he sets forth the laws
which govern temperaments, such as heredity and
pathological accidents. If Zola has not thoroughly
applied his fine scientific theory, it is because it is
inapplicable to a novel. It is impossible, it is even
puerile to attempt to establish a similarity between an
experiment made in a laboratory upon definite quan-
tities, and a fictitious experiment of which the scene is
an author's brain and which proceeds upon pure hypo-
theses. Zola consequently has only succeeded in
collecting an enormous quantity of human documents,
which he has used in successive chapters of his
history of the Rougon-Macquart family none of
FICTION. 413
whose members are otherwise related than by an
artificial genealogical tree to describe professional
peculiarities, pathological cases and social strata.
" La Cur6e " (1872) is an account of the fast fashion-
able women of the Second Empire ; " Le Ventre de
Paris "(1873) describes the great Parisian provision
markets ; " La faute de l'Abb Mouret " details the
consequences of priestly celibacy ; " L'Assommoir "
(1877) deals with the working-classes and the disas-
trous results of alcoholism ; "Pot Bouille" (1882) is a
picture of middle-class life; "Au Bonheur des Dames"
(1883)15 a picture of the great shops; "Germinal"
(1885) describes the life of miners, " La Terre" that
of French peasants ; "La Bete Humaine" (1890) is a
narrative of railways, " L' Argent " (1891) of the
Bourse, and " Lourdes " (1894), of a great pilgrimage.
Zola is no psychologist, and all he sees in his
personages are appetites or physiological disorders.
The women whom he loves to describe without dis-
guise have only sensations or temperaments (" Therese
Raquin " is a sanguine temperament, " Madeleine
Ferat " a nervous specimen). But he possesses a
potent imagination which exaggerates reality to the
pitch of prodigy. His descriptions and they are so
voluminous as to occupy in each work almost as
much space as the narrative itself are of such force
and intensity as in certain cases almost to attain to
hallucination. He endows inert things with life, with
will, with thought. A locomotive, a mine, a big shop
become in his hands fantastic giants which threaten,
crush and devour poor human creatures. For the
same reason he excels in describing masses, crowds,
41 4 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
and collectivities, or such incidents as strikes, riots,
pilgrimages or racecourses. These events become
for him colossal beings with a life of their own. The
same method was employed by Victor Hugo in
"Notre Dame de Paris," and it has been said, not
without reason, that Zola's novels are sociological epics.
It is this which makes their greatness, joined to
the immense pity they reveal for the poor victims
of surrounding influences, at a time when science
has proclaimed these influences to be the law of
individual development. And we may attribute to
the same qualities the enormous success achieved by
Zola, not only in France, but in England and
America, rather than to a depraved enjoyment of
those brutal realisms of description by which the
general applause has too often been explained. In
the matter of style our author is deficient, but he is
vigorous and incontestably exact in his choice of
terms, and redeems, by delicate gradations, original
imagery, and convincing enthusiasm the brutalities,
audacities, and wearisome prolixities of his works.
Alphonse Daudet has emancipated himself on
some sides from the influence of naturalism, while
submitting to it fully on others. He also makes use of
human documents and employs the same system of
notation as the Goncourts, but soul and sensibility
enter largely into his picturesque realism. With
contagious emotion, in brilliant, incisive language,
and by means of accumulated little pictures of which
the effect is like marqueterie, he reproduces the
existence of people of no importance, such as
employes, workwomen, or small shopkeepers, in all
FICTION. 415
the phases of their hard struggles and the poignant
episodes of their daily fight with want (" Le Petit
Chose," 1868; "Jack," 1876; " Fromont Jeune et
Risler Aine"," 1874). Thanks to the patient series
of observations made when he was secretary to the
Duke de Morny, he was able in " Le Nabab" (1877)
to describe the voluptuousness and selfishness of
Paris under the Second Empire ; and in " Les Rois
en Exil " (1879) to recount the grandeur and pathos
of the existence of dethroned sovereigns ; while
" LTmmortel," published in 1888, deals especially
with the famous Institute of France. He dwells
lovingly on the sunny landscapes of Provence,
as well as on its manners, its legendary types, its
good-humour, its incorrigible fanfaronade, and its
spirit of enterprise and intrigue (" Tartarin de Taras-
con," 1872; "Tartarin sur les Alpes," 1885; " Numa
Roumestan," 1881). In "Sapho" (1884), a painful
study of illicit relations, he revealed himself as a
profound and keen psychological observer, and his
" Evangeliste," published in 1883, is a masterly
description of religious fanaticism.
Guy de Maupassant, if not the true master of the
Naturalist school, may fairly be entitled its classic.
He most resembles Flaubert, in his sobriety, his
force, his absence of. sensibility, his simple, vigorous
style, and the exactness of his observation. A
haughty, ironical pessimist, with a scarcely concealed
contempt for mankind, his only conception of the
world is that of the constant pursuit of material
advantages, comfort, enjoyment, and happiness. He
excels in creating vulgar types (" La Maison Tellier,"
41 6 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
1881; "Mdlle. Fifi," 1882; " Les Soeurs Rondoli,"
1884 ; " La Petite Roque," 1886). " Une Vie " (1885)
is a masterly account, exact and mournful, of one
of those many colourless lives of middle-class women
who know only brief and commonplace joys, only
mean if painful disappointments. Maupassant has
pitilessly exposed the real existence of the politicians
and journalists too common nowadays to whom
all means are good so long as they lead to success,
that is to money, power, and pleasure (" Bel-Ami,"
1885).
Maupassant is the last serious exponent of Natura-
lism. After him the idealists come once more to the
front. Anatole France, who resembles Renan in his
irony and scepticism, and is himself witty and very
artistic, introduces once more into novels the per-
sonality of the writer. " Le Crime de Sylvestre
Bonnard " (1881), " Thais " (1890), " La Rotisserie de
la Reine Pedauque " (1893), " Le Lys Rouge " (1894),
merely recount the episodes and sensations suggested
to the author's own supple and perspicacious mind
by his enchanted wanderings through various worlds,
old and new, Paris and Florence, the Thebaid and the
Institute, the Schools of the eighteenth century and
those of Alexandria.
Bourget is an ardent psychologist, and fiction is
to him a vehicle for the analysis of those most inde-
finable of all sentiments, the refined feelings of the
heart, for discourses on love and dissection of souls,
the souls of women with perverse and complex
natures ("Cruelle Enigme," 1885; " Mensonges,"
1887; "Un Cceur de Femme," 1890; " Un Crime
FICTION. 417
d* Amour," 1886; "Cosmopolis," 1892), the souls of
young men whom a philosophical education has per-
verted (" Le Disciple," 1889) or who are consumed
with hatred, as in " Andr6 Cornell's " (1887). Bourget
is far from being a naturalistic writer. He prefers
describing depth and delicacy of feeling to the
dryness of studying the physiology of passion.
Pierre Loti is a curious reversion to the style of
Bernardin de St. Pierre and Chateaubriand, although
differing essentially from them by his modern spirit
and his profound pessimism. Nature is nothing but
a succession of phenomena, therefore man should
make haste to enjoy his sensations, which are at
once doubled by the idea that they cannot last, and
diminished by the certainty of their approaching
annihilation. Hence the deep melancholy of Loti
a melancholy which must not be confounded with
that mal du siecle oppressing Rene. Loti paints
nature admirably. His descriptions of Senegal in
" Le Roman d'un Spahi " (1881), his pictures of the
ocean and of Brittany in " Mon frere Yves" (1883)
and " Pecheurs d'Islande " (1886), and of the extreme
East in "Madame Chrysantheme " (1887) and " Le
Manage de Loti" (1882), are full of a picturesque-
ness which nobody since Chateaubriand has rendered
so faithfully.
The realism of Balzac then passed by degrees into
the elegant realism of Flaubert and the naturalism
of Zola. Fiction contented itself with celebrating
natural forces, animal life, and even mechanical
organisms such as a locomotive or the shaft of a mine.
Then little by little once more idealism resumed its
28
41 8 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
sway. But naturalism will at any rate have achieved
this much, that henceforward the least realistic of
novelists will be forced to observe life. And at present
there are no schools. Every writer works on his own
lines.
P. Hervieu, author of " Feints par Eux-memes "
(1893), " L' Armature" (1865), and M. Prevost, to
whom we owe " Lettres de Femmes" (1892), " Les
Demi-Vierges " (1894), "Notre Compagne " (1895),
are keen and not too indulgent analysers of aris-
tocratic devices ; while P. Margueritte in " Pascal
Gefosse " (1887), "La Force des Choses" (1892),
and "La Tourmente " (1893), as wel1 as Rosny in
" L'Imperieuse Conte " (1894), and " L'Indomptee "
(1894), bring to the consideration of the social
problems of the day a sincere and remarkable
sympathy for the weak, the suffering, and the poor.
POETRY.
In poetry, Romanticism, thanks to Victor Hugo,
took a fresh lease of twenty-five years of life. From
his retreat in Guernsey, whither the disappointed
ambition to play a political part had driven him,
Hugo hurled against the Empire his satirical lyric,
"Les Chatiments" (1853), which, inspired by anger
against those who had sacrilegiously attacked his
person, and by the bitterness of ten years' deluded
expectation, contained magnificent affirmations 01
Right against Might, sublime vindications of justice
opposed to violence, and a superb expression of
confidence in the reparations promised by a future
life.
POETRY. 419
Three years later, in 1856, appeared " Les Con-
templations." Here Hugo appears as appeased in
his wrath and resentment, as absorbed in meditation
on his Ego and satisfaction at duties accomplished,
and consoled by belief in the grandeur of universal
progress. In 1859 he began, and completed between
1877 and 1883, "La L^gende des Siecles," a poem
unexampled in French literature, which, in a series
of magnificent symbolical pictures, sums up all the
poet's humanitarian philosophy, his belief in God,
his devotion to the people, his scorn of kings and
priests. Later he underwent that strange erotic
crisis which Renan and Michelet also experienced
at one time, and he abandoned himself in his
"Chansons des Rues et des Bois " (1865) to an out-
burst of Rabelaisian gaiety.
On the fall of the Empire he returned to Paris,
and was moved by the horrors of the siege to write
" L'Annee Terrible" (1872), while family affection
inspired " L'Art d'etre Grandpere " (1877). Living,
he " entered upon immortality," and his funeral
was an apotheosis. He had become the idol of the
people, not only through his genius but through his
exile, his love for humanity, his pity for the humble
and the miserable, the opportuneness of his political
conversions, his rather coarse temperament, his
passion for puns, his knack of unmeasured invective,
his surface familiarity, his adoration, over-advertised
perhaps, for his grandchildren, the little Georges and
Jeanne, his immoderate pride, his imposing solemnity
and his green old age.
Victor Hugo filled the nineteenth century with his
420 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
personality and writings, just as Voltaire did the
eighteenth. On literature his influence was immense,
as he gave Romanticism a formula and traced out
the path it was to follow, while enriching the imagi-
nation and the language of his contemporaries. But
he remained to the end the man he had been in
1830, while the taste of the public changed, and
although as long as he lived in Guernsey his books
were eagerly read as having all the flavour of for-
bidden fruit, from the moment that he returned to
France they received merely a respectful attention,
to which he was not blind and which annoyed
him.
By the year 1848 Romanticism was a fashion of
the past Theophile Gautier himself had abandoned
it, and in his " Emaux et Camees," published in
1852, he thought only of applying thoroughly his
theory of Art for Art's sake, which, dispensing with
ideas, was concerned exclusively with beauty of form.
And Theodore de Banville, that marvellous juggler
of rhymes and rhythms (" Odelettes," 1857, and
" Odes Funambulesques," 1857), who had also at
one time been a fervent " Romantic," repudiated all
sentiment and attached himself simply to the jingle
and colour of words and sounds.
With the exception, then, of Victor Hugo all the
poets underwent a transformation. The bold and
startling symbolism of Baudelaire, the beauty of
form and deliberate bizarrerie of his " Fleurs du
Mai " (1857), formed a connecting link with the
purely impersonal and objective art of Leconte de
Lisle, as expressed in " Poemes Antiques" (1883),
POETRY. 421
" Poemes Barbaras " (1859), and " Poemes Tragiques "
(1884).
This poet, so pessimistic, ironical, and lofty,
traversed the whole cycle of illusory religious beliefs,
none of which brought him the assurance of eternity
since they all passed in succession like the phe-
nomena of life. There is mournfulness in the
spectacle of these various fugitive shapes, under
which humanity, shrinking from the idea of death,
has sought to perpetuate itself. But the phenomena
of life are attractive in appearance, and Leconte de
Lisle transcribed them, as they passed, with a wealth
of colouring and a stateliness of form which no other
poet has ever equalled.
He was the founder of a school, and drew around
him the so-called " Parnassiens " (1866-76), who
turned to Ancient Greece for their inspiration,, and
were all remarkable for beauty and purity of form.
Objective poetry thus created took various forms.
Leconte de Lisle had sought his subjects in archae-
ology and history ; but Sully-Prudhomme, in " La
Justice" (1878) and " Le Bonheur" (1888), inclined
to philosophy and science, revealing himself, once
more, therein as a profound pessimist deeply sensitive
to human misery and compassionate towards all the
weak and suffering.
Francois Coppee gave a naturalistic turn to poetry,
and in "La Greve des Forgerons " (1869), " Les
Humbles" (1872), and "Promenades et InteVieurs "
(1872) he endeavoured to reproduce the humbler
forms of popular life, but lacks the sentiment and the
breadth which such subjects require.
422 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES. 1848-1895.
J. M. de Heredia (" Les Trophees," 1893) resembles
Leconte de Lisle and Theophile Gautier in his perfec-
tion and the brilliancy of his verse, each small line of
which is admirably finished.
Verlaine, who is at once simple and refined,
straightforward and complex (" Jadis et Naguere,"
1885 ; " Parallelement, 1889), is nearer to true
naturalism than Coppee. Everywhere around us
now are interesting groups of symbolists and
decadents, enamoured of art and mystery, but
bizarre, involved and obscure. We have no longer
any great poet.
CRITICISM.
Criticism, as we have already remarked, exercised
a preponderating influence over the second half of
the nineteenth century. Since the apparition of
Romanticism, erudition had increased enormously.
The past literature of France was more extensively
studied and compared with the treasures of foreign
literature. In history, philosophy, and science a rich
harvest had been reaped ; writers grew in numbers
and their productions showed the vigour of youth
and strength.
Criticism underwent a corresponding transforma-
tion, and instead of contenting itself, as in the last
century, with offering accepted models to the writers
of the day for imitation, it proceeded to effect a
synthesis of the results of the far-reaching, recent
investigations into all branches of human science.
Sainte-Beuve is the great creator of this objective
and realistic criticism. His marvellously wide and
CRITICISM. 423
flexible intelligence was possessed with the desire
of understanding all things and making all things
understood. He studied individuals with intense
curiosity, so as to retrace, if possible, the causes of
the dawn of literature. Instead of judging by general
principles, as Villemain did, and finding the historical
explanation of a writer in the period wherein he
lived, Sainte-Beuve first of all tried to understand his
existence, inquired into his ancestry and education,
asked who was his wife or mistress or friends, what
his children were like, what had been the incidents of
his career or the nature of his temperament, and with
the help of these details he reconstructed the author's
works. Then after taking the living machine bit by
bit to pieces, and showing all its wheels, he would
put it together again, and with consummate ability
make the organism he had thus re-endowed with
vitality perform all its functions under our eyes.
From that moment the most complicated machine
had no longer any secrets for us, and we can under-
stand why Sainte-Beuve has left no later critic any-
thing to say about the writers whom he dissected.
Pursuing and extending his peculiar method, he
discovered groups of minds, and endeavoured, so to
speak, to write their natural history. Thus, in his
own way, he followed that great scientific current of
the century which had already suggested to Balzac
the idea of writing his " Comedie Humaine." Indeed
we may well quote M. Sorel, and say that the
famous " Lundis " (1857-62) were another and
greater " Comedie Humaine."
Sainte-Beuve left a surprising collection of word-
424 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
portraits. If he did not succeed in imparting a really
scientific character to criticism, it was because original
people amused and interested him more than abstrac-
tions. Consequently his systematic pretensions are
not to be taken seriously, a really scientific form of
criticism being quite as impossible to achieve as a
really scientific novel. The experiment, nevertheless,
was resumed by Taine, who, with his philosophical
determinist tendencies, sought to apply to literary
criticism the methods and terminology of science.
" Here, as everywhere, the problem is purely
mechanical," he said ; " and the resultant is deter-
mined by the amount and direction of the forces
producing it."
Now the determinant causes of literature are race,
and surrounding influences and period. Shakespeare,
Milton, and other English geniuses (" Histoire de la
Litterature Anglaise," 1863) could only arise in the
climate peculiar to England, under certain historical
conditions and the pressure of peculiar religious
beliefs.
The fables of Lafontaine (" Essai sur Lafontaine
et ses Fables," 1853) are the inevitable resultant of
many causes, such as the writer's country and native
place, his mode of existence, the state of manners
and literature under Louis XIV., &c. Sainte-Beuve
saw only individualities ; Taine is deliberately blind
to them or rather, if he takes into account the
particular character formed by the period, race, and
surrounding circumstances, he disregards the origin-
ality which" is essentially its own, and to which none
of these circumstances have contributed, and finally
.CRITICISM 425
fails to explain why Shakespeare or Lafontaine
should be geniuses instead of mediocrities.
The method of Taine is, however, fundamentally
experimental, and, as such, of incomparable effective-
ness, and would indeed be perfect if it could be
applied by an absolutely impartial mind. "Very
small facts, carefully chosen, important and significant
in themselves, largely circumstantiated and minutely
described, form in the present day the material of all
science." But the evil is that such small facts may
be collected with a preconceived notion, and applied
to the demonstration of a foregone conclusion. They
recall too much the documentary evidence which
Benjamin Constant had gathered together against
an attack on the part of the Church, and which,
when his ideas changed, turned out to be easily
susceptible of constituting an apology. Taine had
an immense influence over our generation, and con-
tributed more than anybody to the development
of naturalism. From him have been borrowed the
note-book, the ardent interest in nevrosis, the scien-
tific attitude and the pessimism of contemporary
writers, many of whom also owe to him the lofty idea
they have of their mission.
Fromentin adopted in art criticism the methods
of Sainte-Beuve. To Taine he is indebted for his
subtle psychology, and the share of influence over the
artists which he assigns to the period, race, and
surrounding influences, but differs from him on the
important point of individual originality to which he
does full justice (" Les Maitres d' Autrefois," 1 876).
F. Brunetiere, succeeding to Sainte-Beuve and
426 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
Taine, was the author of an innovation which intro-
duced into criticism the scientific theory of evolution.
Although a pessimist, like all the greater minds of
this century-end, he is by nature a combatant rather
than a dreamer, and, with a reasoned conviction
which is a force in itself and a rather rough mode
of argument, he undertook to revive the classical
traditions of the eighteenth century, by attacking and
overthrowing naturalism (" Histoire et Litterature,"
1883 i " Le Roman Naturaliste," 1883 ; " L'Evolution
des Genres," 1890). He even broke a lance with
science itself by demonstrating its inability to
explain or to satisfy the thirst for an ideal which
devours humanity.
J. Lemaitre, curious, ironical, and highly artistic,
loves clearness and truth, and pursues them even
while appearing only to be juggling with ideas
(" Les Contemporains," 1886, et seq.\ "Impressions
de Theatre," 1888, et seq^}. He is also soft-hearted,
but masks his very fine sensibility under an appear-
ance of sceptical raillery.
F. Sarcey has for thirty years been the high-priest
of dramatic criticism. His method is simple. He
limits himself to the technique of the theatre, and
finds fault with everything which does not conform
to it. His only tribunal is the taste of the public,
to which he always bows, and he applies this
favourite test with intelligence, good-humour, and a
peculiar competence which has never been surpassed.
PHILOSOPHY.
Under the influence of Comte and Claude Bernard
PHILOSOPHY. 427
philosophy became more and more deeply imbued
with science. In 1852 Comte published his " Positivist
Catechism," in which, modifying his original tendency
to disregard everything but phenomena, he inclined
to attribute more and more importance to Cause.
Littre", Comte's principal disciple, upheld against
the master the original principles of Positivism, and
yet he also came to recognise eventually that " organs
only arise through or for an adaptation of organised
nature to its ends," which almost amounts to the
admission that living nature has intentional move>
ments, and that every phenomenon of life reveals a
Thought.
Taine began the demolition, piece by piece, of the
Eclectic school (" Les Philosophies Fran^ais du
XIV me Siecle," 1857). He completed Positivism by
applying analysis to the study of intelligence (" De
LTntelligence," 1870) and making mental analysis
the one method of acquiring knowledge. The mind
in this theory, which, when all is said, explains
nothing, is "only a flux and group (faisceau} of
sensations and impulses which, when seen on another
side, are merely a flux and group of nervous vibra-
tions." The Idea is merely an image, and the image
a sensation. By this system psychology is brought
back to physiology, and we are plunged in sheer
materialism. Taine's theory nevertheless had a
marked influence on literature, and forced philo-
sophy to take into account, more fully than before,
the very close bonds existing between the moral and
physical worlds.
Renan has affirmed the determinism of phenomena
428 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
with more energy than Taine ("Averroes," 1852;
" L'Avenir de la Science," 1890, and other works).
Phenomena, he maintains, are to be explained by
natural laws whose regularity excludes the idea of
all superior and exceptional intervention. With such
a system metaphysics cannot exist. On the other
hand, science is not absolute ; our ideas are all
relative, and truth and falsehood only differ by
degrees. Philosophy should simply be a form of
criticism limiting itself to investigation and com-
parison, but never pronouncing a judgment. Let us
now consider the application of this general theory.
The world in its primitive state was composed of
atoms whose properties were purely mechanical. It
has reached its present condition by a series of slow
and continuous transformations, through which life
became more and more complex and more and more
perfect. But time alone does not suffice to explain
these transformations. To the real factor a hypo-
thetical one must be added, and this we call the
universal tendency to progress, which brings us back
to a kind of transcendental idealism.
Renan's determinism, applied to religious belief,
proves by scientific, historical, and philological reason-
ing that religions are all relative and of human origin,
and the very luminous working-out of this idea has
caused it to be generally accepted. For the rest,
Renan admits faith, which is indestructible by criti-
cism, but he has cleared the ground of all misunder-
standings. " One must either believe like a child,"
or one must be a determinist. One of the most
remarkable consequences of this alternative is the
PHILOSOPHY. 429
broad and true tolerance to which it leads in matters of
belief. Renan has made it impossible for men, whom
Revelation does not satisfy, to believe, but he has also
made wars of religion equally impossible. Practically
he has taught that the end of thought should be the
search for truth which excludes all miracles, while
the object of the Will should be Good, which excludes
egotism. Renan has been very badly judged, but
the world has come to a better understanding of him
since the publication of his letters. The public in
general is not very accessible to elevated and rather
abstract ideas, and it only saw in Renan a sceptical
dilettante who applied himself with incomparable
grace and a dazzling wealth of imagination and
beauty of style to juggling with the most formidable
problems and the emptiest futilities. To tell the
truth, he rather encouraged this misunderstanding
by the ironical indulgence which he never could help
exhibiting towards frivolous women of fashion and
fools of all worlds. This was a survival of his
ecclesiastical education.
Criticism is so entirely the dominant characteristic
of this century-end that Renouvier, adopting and
continuing the method of Kant, has based it upon
philosophy (" Essais de Critique General," 1854-64),
and by means of this doctrine energetically combats
both positivism and idealistic spiritualism, of which
the first only considers the Represented and neglects
the Representative, while the other has regard merely
to the Representative and excludes the Represented.
Renouvier's views lead to liberty, immortality, and a
belief in the existence of God. "All beings have
43Q LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
evidently a destiny ; a general law of finality is an
essential part of the order of the world." All the
individuals of which the world is composed should
perfect themselves by everlasting progress, and the
existence of a Supreme Being, God, is necessary for
assuring the means of realising particular ends, as
well as for constituting and maintaining the moral
order of the world.
Caro was the most uncompromising of the Spiritual
school. He found immaterial elements even in matter,
and rendered nature more complicated by attributing
Mind to it.
At the present day France has Positivists, "Criti-
cists," and an infinite number of Psychologists who
seek their inspiration in Taine's method of mental
analysis and in the recent discoveries of Biology.
And in this group of men even some metaphysicians
are to be found.
The best known of these philosophers is A. Fouillee,
who is a good writer and an ingenious, sometimes an
adventurous, thinker. His masters are Kant and
Spencer, and, since he is neither a decided mate-
rialist nor spiritualist, the conciliatory attitude of his
mind satisfies a great number of intellects.
Guyan deserves separate mention. This thinker,
who died prematurely, left some very suggestive
studies on the sociological problems of the day. He
summed up in himself all the doubts, all the hopes,
all the negations, and all the beliefs of our time. He
foresaw very original discoveries in the moral world,
as important perhaps in their way as those of Newton
and Laplace in the sidereal sphere, which would
HISTORY. 431
reveal "attractions between sentiments and wills,
solidarity among intellects, and penetrability of con-
sciousness." The future will show if he was right
HISTORY.
History also has changed with the age, Taine the
philosophical, and Renan the critical, historian suc-
ceeding to Michelet with his creating force.
Michelet could not resign himself easily to the
shipwreck of his political illusions, which had been
swallowed up in the storms of the Republic and
the events of the coup d ctat. He took refuge in
the study of nature and composed the charmingly
original works known as " L'Oiseau " (1856), " L'ln-
secte" (1857), " La Mer " ( l86l )> " La Montague"
(1868), besides " L' Amour" and " La Femme," in
which, perhaps intoxicated by material delights, he
was guilty of some disconcerting indiscretions. In
the interval he terminated his " History of France "
(1855-67) from Charlemagne to the French Revolu-
tion. As we already remarked with reference to his
history of the Revolution, his manner had undergone
a great change. Kings, priests, and nobles are hence-
forward objects of suspicion to him, and he attacks
them with the ferocity of a Jacobin fanatic, even
going so far as to attribute baseness and crime to
them. He magnifies the importance of small physio-
logical causes, such as the health of Francis I. or the
fistula of Louis XIV., but in spite of all this he writes
admirable pages on the Renaissance, on Luther, or
the Wars of Religion and the Court of the Valois.
Such is the fire of his genius and such the force of
432 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
his style, that one reads what is bad as what is good
in him with the same intense interest. What will
never perish is all the first part of this history, the six
volumes containing the narrative of the Middle Ages,
with the splendid picture of France, the story of Joan
of Arc, whom nobody ever understood like this savage
anti-clerical, and the account of the reign of Louis XI.
In these pages Michelet has indeed " resuscitated " the
entire past.
Romantic history is now at an end. Tocqueville,
in "L'Ancien Regime et la Revolution" (1856),
renews old ties with tradition, with Montesquieu.
He shows that the Revolution is not an isolated fact
in the history of France, not, as certain schools have
affirmed, a series of symbols without historical pre-
cedents, but is the last term of a movement which
slowly for centuries had been leading to equality and
centralisation. Tocqueville also wished to explain
how the fragments of ancient France were used in
the process of reconstruction, but he died without
having carried out this great design.
Taine took up the unfinished task in his " Origines
de la France Contemporaine " ( 1 875, et seq.). Apply-
ing his system of scientific determinism to history, he
places himself in front of his subject like a doctor in
front of his patient the metaphor is his own. He
collects in regard to this sick France a number of
small, significant facts, then combines them in a
manner to demonstrate the following theorem : "The
French Revolution is the first application of moral
science to human affairs."
Moral science in 1785 was barely sketched out, and
OF THK
UNIVERSIT
HISTORY.
the solutions found for its problems were false ; conse-
quently they led to the catastrophe of 1789 and the
imperfect reorganisation of 1800. But since then
methods have changed, solutions have become true
and practical, and in future all will be changed in
politics. "The legitimate Queen of the future world
is not that which in 1789 was called Reason, but that
which in 1878 in known as Science."
This phrase is the key to Taine's work, which is a
great and solid production, in spite of some partiality
apparent in the judgments pronounced on the connec-
tion between certain facts. The style is picturesque
and romantic, in singular contrast to the logical strict-
ness of the author's reasoning. But the perpetual
resort to a pitiless method of analysis ends by
producing a painful impression on the reader, who
feels himself discouraged, embittered, and saddened.
Fustel de Coulanges was yet another philosophical
and learned writer. But, unlike Taine, he does not
pursue a theory through infinite ramifications, or
collect numberless small, suggestive facts. In his
view, history should simply investigate the past by
means of texts submitted to unsparing criticism
and the strictest verification (" La Cite Antique/'
1864; "Institutions Politiques de 1'Ancienne France,"
1875, et seq.}. He is the least subjective of all our
historians, and grasps realities without being either
dry or prejudiced only admirably simple.
Renan is an eminently philosophical historian
("Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse," 1857; "Origines
du Christianisme," 1863, et seq. ; " Histoire du Peuple
d'Israel," 1888, et seq.}. He is a great critic of tradi-
29
434 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
tions, documents, and facts ; assigning to them their
limitations and their proper place. For him there
is more certainty in the general character of a
period than in particular facts to which he inclines
to attribute only a symbolical value. By the
magic of his style, and through his erudite archae-
ological and exegetic equipment, he succeeds in pre-
senting a living picture of the past. Before his time
the comparative study of religions was reserved for
theologians, but Renan found for it a place in history.
We have already shown the importance of this revo-
lution. Renan is an admirable writer, flexible and full
of the sense of gradation. His descriptions of scenes
and personages are marvellous, and his style, though
eminently picturesque, is simple, and interfused with
a singularly delicate artistic perceptiveriess.
The marked tendency of history to follow the
general organic direction of the century and become
scientific, exposed it to the danger of becoming a mere
abstraction. And, in fact, the historians who issued
from the Ecole des Chartes fell into an exaggeration
which lasted too long, and considered that the highest
form of history was to reproduce minutely verified
texts, without any interpretation which might incline
to diminish the strict precision of dry facts.
Fortunately, the brilliant success of naturalism in
literature and the discovery of experimental physi-
ology, joined to the progress of natural science, main-
tained a tendency to concrete reality and knowledge of
life. On the other hand, the introduction in too large
doses of determinism and philosophy into history
might have distorted its true nature, but a move-
HISTORY. 43$
ment of reaction against these two forms of excess
has already revealed itself. Fustel de Coulanges is in
reality more literary than philosophical.
In the same way M. Lavisse excels in showing
human will pitted against facts ("Etudes sur la Prusse,"
1879; "La Jeunesse du Grand Frederic," 1891);
" Le Grand Frederic avant I'Avenement" (1893).
And M. Sorel, author of " L'Europe et la Revolution,"
1885-92, is another writer of the same sort. His
studies of history, of strong and conscientious quality,
sober and yet elegant in style, accord to documentary
evidence the importance which belongs to it and no
more, while leaving the reader to make the reflections
and draw the conclusions which naturally suggest
themselves to his mind.
POLEMICS AND ORATORY.
Since journalism has become a power, newspapers
have played the part formerly filled in political
polemics by books and pamphlets.
Louis Veuillot, editor-in-chief of the " Univers,"
never ceased from 1848 onwards to attack the
University, and to defend the Church and Papal
Infallibility in articles full of rather coarse power
and caustic penetration. He was a writer of original
talent, self-formed through the study of classics ; and
he left some remarkable books such as " Les Libres-
Penseurs" (1848), "Dialogues Socialistes " (1849),
''Les Odeurs de Paris" (1862), and "Rome pendant
leConcile"(i872).
Two other celebrated controversialists of the time
belonged to the University, and had passed through
43^ LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES. 1848-1895.
the Ecole Normale. One, the ironical and sarcastic
Prevost Paradol, made war upon the Empire in the
" Journal des Debats"and the"Courrierdu Dimanche,"
but was reconciled to the Government on its becoming
more liberal. He was the author of some subtle
studies on "The French Moralists" (1865) and
" Modern France." In the last-named work (" La
France Nouvelle," 1868) he predicted the outbreak
of the Franco-Prussian war, and deplored the con-
sequences which would follow on the accession to
power of the democracy with its creed of equality.
Edmond About, who wrote in " Le Figaro," " Le
Moniteur," " L'Opinion Nationale," and " Le Gaulois,"
and founded " Le Dix-Neuvieme Siecle," was a
brilliant writer, full of alertness, wit, and fancy. In
the beginning he was an anti-clerical Bonapartist, but
rallied to Republicanism after the war of 1870. The
world will always find pleasure in reading " La Grece
Contemporaine " (1855), a satire as amusing as it is
unjust; and "Tolla" (1855), an interesting novel which
was accused, not without some reason, of being a
plagiarism.
The three men we have mentioned were the last of
the great journalists. At the present day, newspapers
tend more and more to become mere sources of
information, and as pamphleteers our only examples
of literary talent are Drumont and Rochefort.
In Parliament, under the Second Republic, some of
the great orators whom we have already mentioned
reappeared. At first the eloquence of Lamartine was
wont to subjugate the public and sway the passions of
the multitude, in whom it produced sudden changes
POLEMICS AXD ORATORY. 437
of opinion, even rallying round the tricolour the very
men who were previously brandishing the red flag.
In the course of Parliamentary debates the poet
showed a wide knowledge of political economy,
such as could hardly have been expected from the
nature of his genius. He took up the most com-
plicated questions, and, his imagination aiding, he
foresaw or predicted even the distant consequences
which were likely to follow on them.
Victor Hugo displayed in the Chamber all his
passion for antitheses, and unexpected comparisons,
for declamation, excessive solemnity, and tragic
gestures. His powerlessness to improvise a state-
ment or to make a retort left him at the mercy
of the laughter and loud remarks provoked at times
by his theatrical effects and immeasurable vanity.
Political eloquence was temporarily suppressed by
the Coup d'Etat, but it revived when the Empire
became liberal and orators made furious attacks
upon the Government.
Thiers, always clear and ready, was accustomed to
expose the blunders and incoherence of the Empire,
and as early as 1864 he prognosticated the military
disasters which were to overwhelm it.
Jules Favre, whose principal qualities as an orator
were amplitude and correctness, ardour and senti-
ment, contributed to the unpopularity of the Mexican
expedition ; while the impetuous Gambetta, with
his tongue of fire, succeeded in levying armies and
reorganised France by restoring her confidence in
the future. The narrowness of party prejudice and
the base envy of the majority, composed of mediocre
438 LETTERS. ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
minds, prevented his realising his full programme of
reforms.
As the Republic became consolidated, general
questions and struggles for principle were replaced
by speeches on business, and this change in the
nature of Parliamentary eloquence brought many
men of talent to the front. To mention them all
would make too long a list, and we can only
mention Jules Simon, whose clever phrases and
emotional, caressing manner touched more hearers
than they convinced ; Jules Ferry, whose clear,
incisive, solid, and somewhat rugged speech was
lightened by sudden outbursts of poetry, which he
owed to his Vosgian ancestry ; Leon Say, so
lucid and witty that he could make even figures
interesting ; and, finally, the Count de Mun, that
bold and ardent Catholic whose discourses were like
so many cavalry charges against the policy of the
Republic.
To-day, once more, questions of principle tend to
give way to questions of interest. The great battle
is raged round Socialism, and it is possible that this
movement may lead to the rise of great orators.
Socialism already has its spokesman in Jaures, who
unites to the sonorous and glowing periods of the
meridional a sense of harmony, of purity and literary
beauty.
In the pulpit there are no such famous preachers
as formerly, although some good ones are still to be
found. Pere Hyacinthe is betrayed into illogical
recantations by his own ardour and seductive speech,
by his excessive romanticism and the success which
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 439
has attended his career. Pere Montsabre* is enthu-
siastic and poetical, if somewhat inclined to over-
subtle moralising ; and Pere Didon, the best of all,
is at once earnest and intrepid, fervidly interested in
social questions, and convinced of the necessity of a
living and practical religion.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
In this department of thought the historical school
originated by Auguste Comte found conditions more
favourable to its development in Germany than in
France.
The orthodox belief triumphed with us, and its
exponents limited themselves chiefly to waging war
against Socialists and Protectionists. To the spirit of
controversy thus resulting we may perhaps attribute
the want of any great work.
We may mention "Les Ouvriers Europeens" (1856)
of Le Play, which is a remarkable description of work-
ing-class family life ; the "Reforme-Sociale" (1864) of
the same author, an attempt at founding Christian
Socialism; " L'Ouvriere " (1861), by Jules Simon, a
moral and literary, rather than economical, work, in
great request among Socialists, as it furnishes number-
less statistical facts and is instinct with pity for the
poor ; "Un Traite d'Economie Politique," published in
1860 by Courcelle Seneuil, who endeavours to sepa-
rate his subject from its practical applications and
place it on a more purely scientific basis ; finally the
various works of Paul Leroy-Beaulieu (" Essai sur la
Repartition des Richesses," 1880; "Traite de la
Science des Finances," 1877; " L'Etat Moderne,"
440 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
1889); "L'Histoire des Classes Ouvrieres," by
Levasseur (1867) J a "d " Les Solutions Democratiques
de la question des Impots," by Leon Say, which was
issued in 1886.
ART.
Art in France has followed precisely the same lines
as Literature, only remaining longer under the influ-
ence of Romanticism. This was followed first by
Realism, then by all the exaggerations of the Impres-
sionist school, which, by a natural reaction, resulted
in a return to Mysticism.
PAINTING.
Some of the masters who were known before 1848
still fill the scene, among others Ingres, who in his
green old age produced that dream of plastic beauty
" La Source " ; and Horace Vernet, who painted the
Battle of Alma for Napoleon III.
Historical pictures continued to improve. Artists
no longer consulted chronicles of the past, but re-
corded the events of the Crimean, Italian, and Franco-
Prussian campaigns in some fine paintings, such as
Barrias' " Disembarkation of the Troops in the
Crimea" (1859), " Storming of Malakoff" (1859), an d
" Charge of the Cuirassiers at ReichshofTen " (1871) ;
Yvon's "Battle of Inkermann" (1857); Protais'
" Capitulation of Metz " ( 1 870), and the various
spirited and correct battle-pieces of Detaille
("Retreat," 1873 ; "The Dream," 1888; "A Battery,"
1890) and of de Neuville ("The Last Cartouches,"
1873).
Antiquity still claims many votaries Boulanger
PAINT/NG. 441
("The Crossing of the Rubicon," 1857), Tony Robert
Fleury ("The Last Days of Corinth," 1870), GeVome
("Ave Cesar" 1859; "King Candaules," " Phryne,"
1863; "Cleopatra and Cesar," 1874), Cabanel ("The
Birth of Venus," 1863), and Bouguereau ("The
Triumph of Venus," 1856), handed on the classical
tradition of Ingres.
Meissonier deserves separate mention. His talent
lies in microscopic genre pictures executed throughout
with minute and almost excessive care. "The Reader"
(1841), "A Game at Bowls" (1849), "The Smoker"
(1850), "The Quarrel" (1855), "Eighteen Hundred
and Seventeen " (1890), form a series of small master-
pieces which met with a prodigious if not entirely
unambiguous success, and were sold for enormous
prices.
Landscape is, however, the style of painting which
under the influence of Romanticism has progressed
the most. A school which made its headquarters in
the forest of Fontainebleau went simply and directly
to Nature for its inspiration. Theodore Rousseau
has drunk deep of the poetry of woods, and repro-
duces their beauty in his canvases, which are remark-
able for their strong, delightful colour, their breadth
of touch, and their solid brush-work, as instanced by
"After Rain" (1852), "Oak Trees at Apremont"
(1855), " An Avenue " (1855).
Millet, the friend of Rousseau, regarded landscape
as only a fitting background for his labourers and
shepherds, true men of the fields, whose existence and
whose character he studied day by day till he trans-
ferred them to the well-known pictures, so surely
442 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
executed and full of quiet tone, " The Angelus "
(1867) and "The Knitting Lesson" (1868).
Corot returned to classic sources and fell in love with
nymphs, and dryads, and naiads (" Dance of Nymphs,"
1 849). He is particularly successful with small can-
vases, such as " A Morning at Ville-d'Avray," a canvas
instinct with the poetry of dawn and sunset, and
painted with a delicacy which appeals to the cultured
rather than to the crowd.
Troyon is more particularly an animal-painter.
There is power in his "Labouring Oxen" (1853),
"Touque- Valley "(1853), and "Return to the Farm"
(1859)-
Diaz, a brilliant yet harmonious colourist loves
evening landscapes, shadowy underwoods, and sunlit
glades. Examples are: "Lower Breau" (1844),
"Forest Depths" (1846), "The Viper-Pool" (1859),
"The End of a Sunny Day" (1855).
Daubigny displays a natural and rustic talent in
"The Harvest" (1852), "Moonrise" (1859), "An
Evening at Andresy" (1867), and so on.
To Rosa Bonheur we owe remarkable pictures of
animals, ploughed lands, and wastes, among which we
may mention her " Nivernais Oxen " (1849).
With Flandrin the painter, " Harvest-time" (1869),
"A Reminiscence of Lower Breau" (1875), and
"Shade" (1885), Romanticism began to decline;
and Courbet, a native of Franche-Comte, who had
trained himself unaided by observation of nature,
gave the first impulse to a reaction in favour of
Realism. Himself a rough peasant, he flaunted his
contempt for the Classicists, the Romanticists, and
PAINTING. 443
even for those who, in imitation of him, called them-
selves Realists, and asserted that Art consists above all
in exaggerating and magnifying, and that to produce
a masterpiece one has only to observe well.
" I do not know if I am a Realist, as has been said
repeatedly. All I know is that I mean to paint my
impressions of the world which I see. I do not wish
to be only a painter ; I wish also to be a man a
living man." This declaration produced a paroxysm
of rage in all the schools.
Courbet's Franche-Comte peasants, coarse, prosaic,
deliberately brutal in appearance, clothed in rags
and wearing muddy or broken boots, his peasant-
women, with bare, dirty feet ; his ultra-naturalistic
female bathers, were described as revolutionary
(vide " An Afternoon at Ornans," 1 849 ; a " Burial at
Ornans," 1850; "Women Bathing," 1853; "Rustic
Lovers," " Stag-Hunt," 1857 ; "Young Ladies on the
Banks of the Seine," 1857; "Stone-Breakers," 1850;
" The Return from a Conference of Parish Priests,"
The strong and striking talent of Courbet exercised
an immense sway. He recalled the established
schools to the paths of truth and sincerity, and
dealt a deathblow to the prejudice which had hitherto
prevailed against reproducing on canvas the realities
of modern life, the types and customs of the day.
Henri Regnault, who fell, while quite young, at the
battle of Buzenval, might perhaps have formed a
school side by side with that which was inspired by
the bold example of Courbet. Regnault's colouring
was extraordinary "The palette," wrote Gautier,
444 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
"belonged to him." He laid upon it colours unknown
before his time, and obtained effects which one would
have thought impossible, but for seeing them produced
with so prodigious a facility. Regnault's " Portrait du
Marechal Prim " and " Salome " are well known.
Edouard Manet, outstripping Courbet, was the
creator of Impressionism, which starts from the prin-
ciple that reality strikes us not through its form but
its colour. This theory abolishes draughtsmanship
all that is necessary is to make or prick dots upon
the canvas. Manet, truly admirable as a colourist,
succeeded in reproducing the most subtle effects of
light and found differences even in the colour of
shadows, but his figures are very carelessly executed
("The Absinthe Drinker," 1860; "A Breakfast on
the Grass/' 1863; "A Woman with a Sunshade,"
1868 ; " A Good < Bock/ " 1873).
Bastien-Lepage painted remarkably true rustic
scenes, as in " Les Paysans," and admirable portraits.
Almost all the younger painters have felt the
influence of Manet and Bastien-Lepage, as may be
seen by Conserre's portraits of actresses, true colour-
symphonies ; Feyen-Perrin's luminous " Fisher-
women " ; Henner's effects of chiaroscuro in " A
Woman Recumbent" (1869), "Mary Magdalen in
the Desert" (1874), "Eclogues" (1879), "A Woman
Reading" (1883), and "Melancholy" (1890); Roll's
open-air scenes, so full of life and movement ("Feasts
of Silenus," 1879, and "The Strike of the Miners,"
1880).
Excess of colouring, however, and scenes of
brutality naturally provoked a reaction in favour of
PAINTING. 445
reveries and mystical aspirations, and Puvis de
Chavannes in his decorative mural paintings, with
their delicate pale colouring and purity of designs,
has attained a delightful effect of simplicity, nai'vete,
and freshness ; as, for instance, in his " Saint
Genevieve," in the Pantheon (1876, et seq.\ "Pro
Patria Ludus " (1880), and "The Sacred Wood"
(1884).
Gustave Moreau in " CEdipus and the Sphinx "
(1864), "The Young Man and Death" (1865),
"Orpheus torn by Maenads" (1866), "The Sphinx's
Riddle Solved" (1878), and "Helen" (1880), has
sought in brilliantly executed pictures to give expres-
sion to lofty philosophical and literary ideas.
BLACK AND WHITE.
After 1852 Gavarni's satire became almost savage,
the text of his drawings being to the last degree
caustic, as in " Children who Bite " and " Parisian
Physiognomies."
The great designer of the age was Gustave Dore, a
marvellous artist, who would have been a genius had
he known how to restrain his impulse to production,
and who excelled in painting and sculpture. He was
full of imagination, of fancy, and vigour, and was
endowed to the highest degree with the sense of
dramatic effect.
The masterpieces which may be cited as examples
of his versatility are the illustrations to Rabelais
(1854), to " Les Contes Drolatiques" of Balzac
(1856), to "Don Quixote" (1862), and to Dante's
"Divine Comedy" (1861-68).
446 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
Bida, who was a distinguished Orientalist, succeeded
better in drawing than in painting. Being endowed
with a sense of values and good powers of observation,
he rendered scenes, attitudes, and costumes with great
precision and verisimilitude. His "Gospels" (1873),
illustrated with the true Oriental landscape, architec-
ture, and costume, were a revelation.
Caran d'Ache, who is careful, strong, and original,
has created a remarkable form of cartoon without
texts. The politics of the day have suggested some
amusing compositions to him, but his talent in this
line is somewhat monotonous, and lacking in the
depth of thought and satirical keenness of his prede-
cessors. On the other hand, his magic-lantern slides
for the " Chat Noir," such as " The Temptation of St.
Anthony" and others, produced an extraordinarily
clever impression of life and mass and perspective.
Forain follows more closely the traditions of
Daumier and Gavarni. As a moralist he is bitter
and cynical. His texts are true and pungent, and
his satire plays round the habits and types of the
day, political events and personages, middle-class
men and women, demi-mondaines> actresses, Stock
Exchange speculators, and fast men. He is one of
the social forces of the hour.
SCULPTURE.
French sculptors, whether romanticists or realists,
show a knowledge of drawing and anatomy, and a
power of execution, which have won for them a
reputation throughout Europe.
SCULPTURE. 447
Long after 1848, Cle\singer continued to produce
works as full of merit and as unequal as of yore, and
in 1856 executed a colossal equestrian statue of
Francis I., which is a crowning example of his talent
and its defects.
Barye allowed himself to be discouraged by the
ill-will and the barely concealed jealousy excited by
his superb studies of animals. He devoted himself
to the commercial side of art by executing small
bronzes, candelabras, tazzas, and candlesticks of an
original character. In 1851, however, he completed
a serious work of art in his " Jaguar Devouring a
Lion," and formed some good disciples in Cain, who
produced "A Young Fawn Chasing Rabbits" (1859),
"A Lion of Sahara" (1865), and in Fremiet, a
sculptor of profound anatomical knowledge, among
whose more remarkable works are " A Wounded
Hound" (1850), "A Man of the Stone Age" (1872),
"A Bear and a Man of the Stone Age" (1885).
Carpeaux follows Rude in his love of violent
movement. He reached his highest point in the
"Neapolitan Fisher-Boy" executed in 1858, a work
full of expression and animation ; but fell into some
exaggeration in his famous "Dance" (1869), which
has been described as u a whirling group of mad
Bacchantes." Perfect examples of his talent are the
bas-reliefs of the " Pavilion of Flora," where the
young and gracious goddess is represented sur-
rounded by frolicsome children ; the central group
of the Observatory Fountain, entitled the " Four
Quarters of the Globe"; and finally the busts so
living and real of the Princess Mathilde (1863), the
448 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
Duchess de Mouchy (1868), and Alexandra Dumas
fils(,8 74 ).
Carrier-Belleuse did graceful and delicate work in
his "Angelica" (1866) and his "Sleeping Phoebe"
(1869). His terra-cotta busts of young girls,
soubrettes, coquettes, and arch Parisiennes are
expressive, but rather finikin.
Gauk disdained to follow the fashion of the
moment, and kept to the purity and correctness of
the lines of great art in his " Bacchante and Satyr "
(1859), "Faun" (1861), "Victory" (1864), "Twilight"
(1870), "Youth and Love" (1884), and "Admiral
Coligny."
Guillaume tempered classical traditions with the
spirit of a rare critic ("The Guests of Anacreon,"
1853; "A Roman Marriage," 1877; "Orpheus"
1878.)
Antonin Mercie was happily inspired by patriotism
in his "Gloria Victis" (1874), "Even So" (Quand
Meme, 1882), and "William Tell" (1892).
Barrias, in addition to many historical busts and
statues, produced some fine monuments. We may
mention "The Defence of Paris" (1881), "The De-
fence of St. Quentin" (1882), "The Child Mozart"
(1883), "The Oath of Spartacus " (1877), "Fortune
and Love" (1872), "The First Funeral" (1878).
Dalou, somewhat rough but extremely expressive,
is best seen in his "Triumph of Silenus r/ (1885),
" Mirabeau Replying to Dreux-Breze " (an alto-relief,
1883), and the monument to Eugene Delacroix in the
Luxembourg (1890).
Falguiere in his "Ophelia" (1869), "Egyptian
A RCHI TEC TURE MUSIC. 449
Dancer" (1873), "Woman with a Peacock" (1890),
and " Diana" (1890), sought to avoid mere prettiness
and to find in a conscientious study of nature some
eternal type of beauty.
Dubois is something of a mystic, as proved by his
"Narcissus at the Fountain " (1863), "A Florentine
Singer" (1865), "The Virgin and Child" (1867),
"The Birth of Eve" (1873).
ARCHITECTURE.
In architecture there are doubtless some remark-
able monuments from a technical point of view, but
no novelty : only successful imitations of the past
One may mention Visconti's completion of the
Louvre (1853) carried on in the three following years
by Lefnel, the new H6tel de Ville by Ballu (1873),
and Viollet le Due's masterly restoration of the
Castle of Pierrefonds. Davoud rebuilt the theatre
in the Place du Chatelet, and the Trocadero Palace ;
Abadie constructed the fortress of the Sacred Heart ;
and Charles Garnier made an effort at originality in
the Opera House (1861-75) a building of which
the details are interesting but the ensemble is dis-
appointing.
MUSIC.
Meyerbeer terminated his magnificent career by
"Le Prophete" (1849), " L'Africaine " (1865), and
"Le Pardon de Ploermel " (1859) in which works he
showed himself by turns tempestuous and gentle,
melancholy and exuberant.
Berlioz, destined to be always misunderstood,
appeals to the most mystical side of Christianity
30
45O LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
in " L'Enfance du Christ" (1854) ; and showed him-
self tender, graceful, and pleasing in " Beatrice et
Benedict" (1862), and full of poetry and melody in
"La Prise de Troie" (1863) and " Les Troyens a
Carthage" (1863).
Felicien David succeeded better with the theatre-
going public than Berlioz, because of his greater
clearness. His " Perle du Bresil" (1851) and " Her-
culaneum " (1859) are expressive and picturesque ;
while "Lalla Rookh " (1862)13 a masterpiece of
Oriental languour and sensuous poetry.
After these masters music became more and more
objective, in obedience to the tendency which we
have found everywhere, in literature, philosophy, and
art. It endeavoured to give the impression of some
definite sentiment or passion, and consequently the
symphony assumed immense importance.
Gounod, with his large, rich, varied style, drew
inspiration from the antique for his " Sappho " which
appeared in 1850. "Faust" (1859) and "Romeo
and Juliet" (1867) are full of poetical charm, and
"Mireille" (1862) is finely finished.
Ambroise Thomas, in style supple and graceful,
gentle and dreamy, but always correct in method,
published " Le Caid " in 1 849, and followed that up
with his masterpieces, " Un Songe d'une Nuit d'Ete "
(1850), "Mignon" (1866), and "Hamlet" (1868), all
remarkable for melody, rhythm, and delicate harmony.
Bizet, who died too young, left works of an extra-
ordinary richness of colouring, as in " La Pecheuse
de Perles" (1863), and of great melodiousness, as in
MUSIC. 45 1
"L'Arlesienne" (1872) and the dazzling "Carmen"
(18/5).
Victor Masse showed himself original in "Galatee"
(1852), and more imitative in " Les Noces de
Jeannette" (1853).
Reyer boldly followed the lead of Berlioz in " La
Statue" (1861), "Sigurd ".(1886), and the ballad of
"Sacountala" (1858).
Massenet, whose talent was elegant and charming
yet restrained, wrote " Le Roi de Lahore" (1879),
"Herodiade" (1884), " Manon Lescaut " (1884), and
expressed in "Marie Magdeleine" (1893) the purest
sentiments of the Christian religion.
Saint-Saens showed himself austere, yet bold and
dramatic, in " Etienne Marcel" (1879) and "Henri
VIII." (1883), and sought to give a pictorial value
to music in " Le Rouet d'Omphale," " Le Deluge,"
and " La Danse Macabre."
A special style, the operetta, was born under the
Second Empire, at a time when the pursuit of
pleasure and the satisfaction of material wants were
the great preoccupations of society.
Offenbach, although a German, was the creator of
a novelty which seemed entirely Parisian. The
librettos written by Meilhac and Halevy were highly
humoristic, coarse, and witty at one and the same
time, and showed a scanty respect for the most
venerable traditions. " Orphee aux Enfers" (1861),
" La Belle Helene" (1865), " La Grande Duchesse de
Gerolstein " were the offspring of an eccentric muse,
somewhat dishevelled and short-kilted, who later
assumed a rather soberer garb in the hands of
452 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
Lecocq ("La Fille de Madame Angot," 1872) and
Herve" (" Le Petit Faust," 1869 ; " La Femme a Papa,"
1879).
The operetta gained favour rapidly with the public,
and now tends to supplant the comic opera.
SCIENCE.
In the latter half of the nineteenth century,
Science has acquired such importance and developed
along so many lines, that its disciples have been
forced to limit themselves entirely to their respective
branches. The universal, encyclopaedical man of
learning has disappeared and been succeeded by the
specialist, who devotes his intellect, his genius, and
his life to studies of a strictly limited description.
Thanks to this division of labour, this concentra-
tion of intellectual effort, magnificent discoveries
have been made in every department of human
knowledge.
MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY.
Mathematicians have devoted almost all their
attention to the lofty abstractions of analysis.
Hermite studied the theory of numbers, as well as
of elliptic and abelian functions, and published
treatises on these subjects. Poincare turned his
attention to differential functions, and applied
infinitesimal methods to the theory of numbers and
to celestial mechanism. One of his treatises made a
sensation in the learned world. It was a study of
the problem of the Three Bodies and the Equations
of Dynamics (1889).
MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 453
Foucault, in 1851, invented the gyroscope for
observing the oscillations of the pendulum. He
established on a firmer scientific basis than ever the
truth of the earth's rotation ; and in collaboration
with M. Fizeau calculated ane\v the distance of
the moon from the sun, by means of the velocity of
light.
Janssen studied the telluric rays of the solar
spectrum, and by his observations on eclipses es-
tablished the existence of a new solar corona. In
1891 he ascended Mont Blanc with the purpose of
setting up an observatory, which is now in full
working order.
Cornu measured the velocity of light ; determined
the mean density of the earth, and carried through
various experiments in spectral analysis serving as a
basis for conjecture on the composition of stars.
Faye, who had discovered a comet in 1 843, demon-
strated that these bodies are attracted or repelled by
the sun, and that this double phenomenon is present
in the relations between all celestial bodies. He
studied solar cyclones (1873), meteorological pro-
blems, and formulated some very curious hypotheses,
much controverted since, on the origin of the world
Tisserand (1888-90) published a masterly treatise
on celestial mechanics.
PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY.
Cailletet liquified gases hitherto considered per-
manent (such as oxygen and hydrogen) by sub-
454 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
mitting them to enormous pressure in an apparatus
of his own invention (1877).
Becquerel made interesting investigations on the
solar spectrum and electric light, and on the
refrigerating capacity of liquid bodies. In 1873 he
published a remarkable memoir on the intervention
of physico-chemical forces in the production of
natural phenomena.
Marcel Deprez utilised electricity as a motor force,
and by its means succeeded in transporting to a
great distance the power generated by a waterfall,
a steam-engine, &c. (1881-85).
Lippmann studied the relations existing between
electrical and capillary phenomena (1875), invented
the capillary electrometer, published important works
on magnetism, electricity, and thermodynamics,
besides discovering a mode of reproducing colours
by photography.
The singularly analytical and critical character of
the age is proved by the surprising progress made in
chemistry.
J. B. Dumas laid the foundations of a new classifi-
cation of metals and metalloids ; formulated a fruitful
theory of alcohols, and discovered the law of substi-
tution, one of the fundamental principles of organic
chemistry.
Wurtz was the apostle in France of the atomic
theory, which he explained in a lucid manner. He
left many important works, such as " A Treatise
on Medical Chemistry " (1864-65) and " A Dictionary
of Pure and Applied Chemistry " (1868 et seq^.
Henri Sainte-Claire Deville invented some simple
PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 455
processes for the industrial production of aluminium
(1854), and was the discoverer of the law of dis-
integration acting upon atoms.
PASTEUR.
Moissan, after some beautiful experiments on the
properties of cyanogene in its various combinations,
succeeded in isolating fluorine (1886-89).
Pasteur discovered the causes and formulated the
456 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
theory of vinous, alcoholic, and acetic fermentations,
and exhaustively studied the nature of tartaric acids
and moulds. His investigations, so important from an
industrial point of view, finally led to his great dis-
covery of the causes of infectious maladies, to be
described further on.
Berthelot, the greatest chemist of the age, estab-
lished the true part played by synthesis in the
creation of new beings, methodically constructed in
harmony with the same general laws as those
governing natural bodies of which analysis has
revealed the composition. By this new conception
of synthesis and the application of its principles,
organic chemistry was placed upon its present basis,
with definite compartments and an unlimited series
of combinations.
Until the time of Berthelot, organic chemistry
isolated the immediate principles contained in living
things, and imposed on them a series of decomposi-
tions and transformations intended to result in a
reduction to elements. But Berthelot, by his
experiments with heat and electricity, was able to
build up all the fundamental organic compounds
which contribute to the formation of bodies.
("Syn these des Corps gras Naturels," 1854;
"Synthese de 1'Alcool Ordinaire," 1854, &c.).
His investigations into affinities (1856-62) cleared
the path for a multitude of observations leading to
important discoveries in chemical mechanics. Pur-
suing his study of the formation of organic principles
by vegetables, he succeeded in discovering that
electricity at a low tension fixes free azote upon
PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 457
organic matters, while microbes do the same thing
for vegetable soil.
Finally, he was one of the founders of Thermo-
chemistry and Chemical Mechanics. His works,
written in a beautiful style and inspired by a philo-
sophic spirit, prove that all chemical phenomena
are finally due to the action and reaction of the final
particles of bodies, atoms or molecules, and to the
forces generated by this movement. The amount of
energy involved may be measured by the heat set
free or absorbed in the moment of transformation,
and which has itself a mechanical equivalent. Hence
the chemical action is found to be reducible to the
same definition, the same unity as all natural forces,
and chemistry ceasing to be a merely descriptive
science, becomes classed with the other branches of
physics and rational sciences.
NATURAL SCIENCE.
Mines and mineralogy formed the subject of im-
portant investigations by M. Daubree, who discovered
the formation of veins of tin and, contemporaneously
of veins of iron in lakes and marshes. He also
demonstrated the presence of arsenic in combustible
minerals, in volcanic rocks, and in sea-water. He
studied the chemical composition of planetary bodies,
and introduced experimental synthesis into geology.
De Cloizeaux, the eminent mineralogist, studied
crystallography and the optical properties of minerals,
with interesting results.
Lacaze-Duthiers has devoted himself to the study of
LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
zoophytes, and revealed their life history and organi-
sation under a new point of view. He published,
among other works, a "Natural History of Corals"
(1863), and advanced the cause of science by estab-
lishing zoological laboratories on the coast (1873).
"The World of the Sea and its Laboratories" (1889)
is the title of another of his volumes.
Blanchard published some remarkable observations
on worms and insects. The best known of his works
is one on Insects, their Metamorphoses, Habits and
Instincts (1867).
Flourens showed that animals have not only instinct
but also intelligence which, however, although incon-
testable, cannot reach the degree of a reasoning
faculty.
De Quatrefages, after devoting himself for a long
time to the study of annelids, turned his attention to
anthropology, and was led to dispute the conclusions
of Darwin. His principal works are " Physiologic
Compared" (1862), " Polynesiens " (1866), " L'Espece
Humaine" (1877), " Histoire Gen^rale des Races
Humaines" (1886-89).
Milne Edwards demonstrated the principle of the
physiological division of labour, and showed that the
degree of division should be the criterion for judg-
ing the stage of perfection reached by each species
and its rank in the scale of creation. He also rejected
the doctrine of evolution and transformation. His
chief works treated of crustaceans, corals, and
polypi. Two very remarkable books are those
respectively entitled " Recherches pour Servir a
1'Histoire des Mammiferes " (1866-74) and "Lemons
NATURAL AND MEDICAL SCIENCE. 459
sur la Physiologic et 1'Anatomie Comparee de
1'Homme et des Animaux" (1855-84).
In botany Chatin was the creator of the compara-
tive anatomy of vegetables, of which the immediate
aim is to classify vegetables by the anatomical
characters corresponding to their morphology
(1854-66). Chatin's researches into iodine (1850-
60) demonstrated the existence of this body in
streams and rivers, in the soil, in plants, animals,
and the atmosphere, instead of, as formerly supposed,
only in the sea.
MEDICAL SCIENCE.
Anatomy has remained stationary; but the ever-
growing use of the microscope has led to various
histiological discoveries. Ramier and Cornil pub-
lished an excellent manual on Pathological Histio-
logy (1869).
Physiology, thanks to the application of the ex-
perimental method, has become a true science.
Vulpian's learned study of the physiology of the
brain (1867), and Brown-Sequard's researches into the
physiology of the spinal marrow led the way to
new discoveries.
The most mysterious functions of life revealed
themselves to Claude-Bernard. For him medicine,
equally with physics and chemistry, must be based
not upon observation alone but also upon experiment.
We can only have cognisance of the relations ex-
hibited by phenomena, consequently the words life,
death, health, disease " are purely literary expressions
460 LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
which we use because they represent to our minds the
appearance of certain phenomena, but which do not
stand for any objective reality." Phenomena are
represented by physico-chemical facts.
The object of experimental physiology is conse-
quently to determine the preliminary physico-chemi-
cal conditions indispensable to the manifestations of
life. These conditions can be learnt by directly
experimenting on living animals. Once known, their
manifestations can be foreseen and mastered. Claude-
Bernard gave to his method the title of " Principle
of Universal Determinism." We have seen what a
powerful influence it had over contemporary philo-
sophers and writers. It created physiology and
completely transformed medicine.
The special discoveries made by Claude-Bernard are
innumerable. We may instance his investigations into
gastric juice, the pancreas, the glycogenic properties
of the liver, the spinal nerve, the great sympathetic,
the vaso-motor system of nerves, local circulation, and
the nervous system generally. He laid the founda-
tion of a science of toxicology (as in his famous
experiments with Curare), and broke down the old
barriers between animal and vegetable functions.
Claude-Bernard had also begun to study fermenta-
tion, but his experminents were resumed by Pasteur,
who recognised the presence and influence of living
beings bacilli, bacteria, and microbes. This dis-
covery raised an animated debate between the
partisans of spontaneous generation and those of
cellular generation. Pasteur demonstrated that all
animalcules are derived from pre-existent germs, and
MEDICAL SCIENCE. 461
he went on to prove that they are the cause of altera-
tion in wine, beer, &c.
These discoveries led him to make investigations
into infectious maladies, and he found a microbe to
be the cause of anthrax in sheep and oxen. By
cultivating the virus he succeeded in attenuating its
force progressively, until he obtained a principle
which by vaccination ensured immunity from the
disease (1881).
Pasteur followed up these conclusive experiments
with others on cholera among fowls (1880), and rabies
(1881), and the discoveries he made revolutionised
medicine and surgery. Antiseptic treatment and
dressings were adopted which prevented the contami-
nation of wounds by infectious germs. Pasteur's
pupils, Chamberland, Roux, and others, by con-
tinuing his system, brought down the death rate
from the most terrible maladies such as diphtheria
and phthisis.
Mental maladies and disturbances of the nervous
system have also been the subject of curious investi-
gations. Moreau, of Tours, had already shown that
madness is a lesion of the faculty of attention, that
genius is a form of nevrosis, and that lofty concep-
tions arise from the same source as mental alienation
and instinct.
Charcot, by a series of brilliant experiments on the
subjects of such nervous maladies as hysteria, hypno-
tism, somnambulism, &c., furnished materials for a
scientific explanation of phenomena which had long
been considered supernatural.
Marey brought a mathematical precision to the
462 LETTEKS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, 1848-1895.
study of the phenomena of life. With the aid of
ingeniously contrived instruments he was able to
illustrate graphologicaliy the pulsations of the heart
and the movements of the respiratory system, while
photography enabled him to obtain examples of each
component of movement in men and animals and in
the flight of birds (" Physiology of Movement," 1889).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
I.
POLITICAL HISTORY.
Revolution and First Empire.
Historians : Thiers, Mignet, Michelet, Lamartine, Louis
Blanc, Lanfrey, Albert Sorel.
Restoration.
Historians : Duvergier de Hauranne, De Vielcastel, De
Vaulabelle, Lamartine, Nettement, Dareste, Eugene Pierre.
Monarchy of July.
Historians : Thureau-Dangin, Hillebrand, De Nouvien,
Louis Blanc, Elias Regnault, Du Bled, Guizot
Republic of 1848.
Historians : Daniel Stern, Victor Pierre, Spuller.
Second Empire.
Historians : P. de la Gorce, " Annuaire des Deux Mondes."
Third Republic.
Th. Duret, " Histoire de Quatre Ans "; J. Simon, "Le
Gouvernement de M. Thiers"; Andre Daniel, " L'Annee
Politique " (1874 to our day).
463
464 BIBLIOGRAPHY.
II.
ART AXD LITERATURE.
Gustave Lanson, " Histoire dc la Litterature Francaise " ;
Merlet, "Tableau de la Litterature Francaise de 1800 a 1815" ;
Emile Faguet, " Etudes Litteraires sur le XIX ve Siecle."
Politicians and Moralists of the Nineteenth Century : Sainte-
Beuve, " Chateaubriand et son Groupe Litteraire" (Paris, 1860,
2vols.); Albert Sorel, "Madame dc Stael" (Paris, 1890);
Pellissier, " Lc Mouvement Litteraire au Dix - Neuvieme
Sucle" ; Th. Gautier, " Histoire du Romantisme" ; Godefroy,
"Histoire de la Litterature Francaise au XIX ve Siecle";
Jules Lemaitre, " Les Contemporains " ; Charles Blanc,
"Histoire de la Peinture"; Arsene Alexandre, "Histoire
Populaire de la Peinture."
THE LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND SCIENTIFIC
MOVEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY FRANCE.
SCIENCE.
I. 1789-1815.
Mathematics
Physics
and Astronomy.
and Chemistry.
Natural History.
Medical Science.
BAILLY.
LAVOISIER.
DE JUSSIEU.
BICHAT.
(Satell.de Jupiter),
Nomencl. Chim.
Genera Plantes
Anatomy.
H. d e 1'Astron.
(1775-87).
(1787); Traite de
Chimie (1789).
(1789).
LACEPEDE.
CABANIS.
Physiology.
CONDORCET.
Calcul. des Proba-
bil. (1785); Pro-
gres de 1' Esprit
Humain (1795).
LAGRANGE.
Mecan. Analyt.
BERTHOLLET.
Philos. Chim.
(1792).
FOURCROY.
Syst. de Conn.
Chimiques (1781).
GAY LUSSAC.
LAMARCK.
D. de Botan.(i78o-
1823); H.Nat. In-
vert. (1815-22).
G. ST. HILAIRE.
Descr. (1808-29) ;
Philos. Anat.
PlNEL.
Therapeutics.
BROUSSAIS.
CORVISART.
Surgery.
DESAULT.
(1788).
LAPLACE.
Diet. Physico-
Chim. (1811).
(1818-22).
RlCHERAND.
Mecan. Celeste
(1799-1825).
THENARD.
Traite Chim.
Anat. Comp.dSoo-
5) ; Rev. du Globe
LASSUS.
LARREY.
MONGE.
(1813-16).
(1812) ; Oiseaux
Geom. Descrip.
O79S)-
ARAGO.
fossiles (1812).
CARNOT.
Calcul. Infinit.
(1799) ; Gom. de
Position (1803).
LEGENDRE.
Elem. de Geom.
(1794); Theorie des
nombres (1798).
DELAMBRE.
Mes. d u Monde
(1792-99) ; Basedu
Sys. Metr. (1806-
10).
464 A
THE LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND SCIENTIFIC
SCIENCE.
II. 1815-1848.
Mathematics Physics
and Astronomy. and Chemistry. Natural History. Medical Science.
CAUCHY. BIOT. GEOF. ST. HILAIRE. BECLARD.
Appl. du Calcul. Traite de Phy- Philos. Anat. Anatomy.
Infin. (1826-28). sique (1816). (1818-22) ; D6bats
avec Cuvier (1830).
PONCELET. FRESNEL. Physiology.
Cours de Me- Travaux sur la lu- CCVIER.
,,. ., T T>* A i MAGENDIE.
canique (1826-29). miere. Le Regne Animal
LIOUV,LL.. AMPERE. <' 8 ' 6) < | tt ' des FLOURENS '
, , ,.. , Sciences Natur- _
Journal des Ma- Decouv. sur . BOUILLAUD.
thematiques(i846) I'ElectricitedSaz); Therapeutics.
Ph^nomenes e 1 .- LACEPEDE.
LE VERRIER. \ ELPEAU.
dyn. (1816). Hist. Nat. de
Theorie du 1'Homme (1827- GCERIN.
Mouvement d e CHEVREL-L. _ eg v '
Mercure (1845) ; Contraste Simult. BOUCHARDOT.
Nature (1830).
Decouv. de Nep- des Couleurs Pharmacy.
tune (1846). (1839). ELIEDE BEAUMONT.
ORFILA.
Carte geol. de T !,..
ARAGO. Legal Medicine.
T~' j it France.
Dec. du Magnet.
par Rotation
(1824).
BALARD.
D6c. du Brome
(1826).
PELOUZE.
Trait6 de Chimie
Gen. (1826-65).
BECQUEREL.
Trait^ Exp.
Electr. et Magnet.
(1834-40).
464B
MOVEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY FRANCE.
SCIENCE.
III. 1848-1895.
Mathematics
Physics
and A stronomy.
and Chemistry.
Natural History.
Medical Science.
HERMITE.
CAILLETET.
DAUBREE.
RAMIER.
POINCARE.
Liqu6f . dez Gaz.
Mineralogy.
Anatomy.
Prob. des Trois
BECQUEREL.
LACAZE DUTHIERS.
CORNIL.
Corps (1889).
Forces, Phys. et
f^\
Coraux.
SAPPEY.
FOUCAULT.
Cnim.
BLANCHARD.
Physiology.
Pendule.
M. DEPREZ.
Les Insectes.
VULPIAN.
JANSSEN.
Etoiles et Soleils.
LlPPMANN.
Photog. des Cou-
DE QUATREFAGES.
Races Humaines.
CLAUDE BERNARD.
CORNU.
leurs.
MILNE EDWARDS.
PASTEUR.
J. B. DUMAS.
H. des Mammi-
CHARCOT.
FAYB.
Origine du Monde.
Chim. Organ.
feres.
MAREY.
TISSERAND.
Mecau Celeste
WURTZ.
Diet, de Chimie
CHATIN.
Anat. Comparee
Therapeutics.
VERNEUIL.
(1888).
(1868).
Ve-gfctale.
RlCORD.
STE. CLAIRE DE-
VILLE.
BOUCHARD.
Aluminium (1854).
Roux.
u
NELATON.
Fluor (1886).
Surgery.
PASTEUR.
Fermentations.
PfiAN,
TRELAT.
BERTHELOT.
Synthese Chi-
LABBE.
mique.
OLLIER.
TARDIEU.
Legal Medicine.
BROUARDEL.
4640
THE LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND SCIENTIFIC
ART.
I. 1789-1815.
Architecture.
RAYMOND.
Proj. Rest, du Louvre ;
Rest. St Cloud and Meudon.
CHALGRIN.
Arc de 1'Etoile (1809-11).
LEPERE AND GONDOUIN.
Vendome Column (1805).
FONTAINE AND PERCIER.
Arc du Carrousel (1807).
BRONGNIART.
Bourse (1808).
Sculpture.
CLODION.
Bas-reliefs of Carrousel.
HOUDON.
Ney (1804) ; Josephine (1808).
CHAUDET.
Allegories ; Bas-reliefs on front of
Pantheon.
Bosio.
Bas-reliefs of the Vendome Column ;
Love and Innocence.
CARTELLIER.
Chastity (1801) ; Glory (1810) (Bas-
relief).
464 D
MOVEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY FRANCE.
Painting.
DAVID.
The Oath of the Tennis
Court (1790) ; Rape of
the Sabines ; Coronat. of
Napoleon (1808).
REGNAULT.
Educ. of Achilles (vari-
ous Greek subjects).
CARLE VERNET.
Battles: Marengo (1804);
Austerlitz (1808) ; Rivoli
(1810) ; Passage of the
St. Bernard.
ISABEV.
Congress of Vienna.
GERARD.
Napoleon I.; Corinneat
Cape Misenum (1819).
GROS.
Plague of Jaffa (1804) ;
Battle of Eylau (1808) ;
Josephine (1809).
PRUD'HON.
Justice and Vengeance
pursuing Crime ; Myth-
ological Subjects.
GIRODET.
Sleep of Endymion
(1791); The Deluge
(1806) ; Burial of Atala
(1808).
ART.
I. 1789-1815.
Drawing.
Music.
ROUGET DE L'ISLE.
The Marseillaise.
DALAYRAC.
Nina (1787);
Camille
MEHUL.
Stratonice (1792) ; Joseph
(1807).
LESUEUR.
Paul and Virginia (1794) ;
The Oreads (1804) ; Ora-
torios.
CHERUBINI.
Lodoiska (1791) ; Two
Days (1800) ; Faniska
(1806).
464 E
THE LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND SCIENTIFIC
ART.
II. 1815-1848.
Architecture.
Sculpture.
LENOIR. RUDH.
Restoration of Cluny Museum (1853) \ Mercure (1827-34) ; Le Depart (1838).
Archaeology.
PKADIER.
VISCONTI. Les Trois Graces (1831).
Louvois Fountain (1835) ; St. Sulpice DAVID D* ANGERS.
Fountain (1842); Tomb of Napoleon Busts . Medallions ; Fa S ade of Louvre ;
< l8 42)- Pantheon.
LASSUS. LES DANTAN.
Restoration of the Sainte Chapelle (1840 (i) Young Girl Working ; (2) Statuettes.
et seq.)\ Restoration of N6tre Dame
*_/r/^--_ CLESINGER.
Femme Piquee (1847) ; Bacchante
(1848).
BARYE.
(1845 et seg.).
464 F
MOVEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY FRANCE.
Painting.
GERICAULT.
Raft of the Medusa
(1817-24).
DELACROIX.
Scio Massacres (1824) ;
Algerian Women; Jew-
ish Wedding in Morocco
(1841).
INGRES.
Martyrdom of St. Sym-
phorian (1827).
ARY SCHEFFER.
Francesca da Rimini
(1835).
PAUL DELAROCHE.
Death of the Duke de
Guise (1835).
HORACE VERNET.
Battlepieces.
DECAMPS.
Turkish Children leav-
ing School.
THE Two DEVERIA.
Religious and Historical
Subjects.
J. GIGOUX.
Historical Subjects.
ART.
II. 1815-1848.
Drawing.
CHARLET.
The Guard Dies.
RAFFET.
Waterloo Death Roll.
GAVARNI.
Parisian Students ; En-
fants et Parents Ter-
ribles.
CHAM.
Garrison Reminiscences.
DAUMIER.
The Legislative Belly;
A Pear.
GRANVILLE.
Criminal Traits; Small
Human Miseries (1845).
Music.
Influence of Foreign Mu-
sicians.
Rossini.
Bellini.
Chopin.
BOIELDIEU.
Dame Blanche (1825).
AUBBR.
Muette de Portici (1828).
MEYERBEER.
Robert le Diable (1831) ;
Huguenots (1836).
HEROLD.
Zampa (1831) ; Pr aux
Clercs (1836).
ADAM.
Chalet (1834).
HALEVY.
Lajuive (1835).
BERLIOZ.
Ben. Cellini (1838); Dam-
nation de Faust (1846).
464 G
THE LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND SCIENTIFIC
ART.
III. 1848-1895.
Sculpture.
A rckitecture.
VISCONTI AND LEFNEL.
Architects of the Louvre.
BALTARD.
Halles Centrales.
BALLU.
Rebuilt H6tel de Ville (1873).
VlOLLET LE DfC.
Restoration of Pierrefonds.
DAVQUO.
Trocadero (1878).
ABADIE.
Sacre Coeur.
MAGNE.
FORMIGE.
DUTERT.
BOUVARD.
CLESINGER.
Francis I. (1856).
BARYE.
Lion and Jaguar (1851).
CAYN.
Falcon (1859).
FREMIET.
Coursing Dog (1858).
CARRIER BELI.ETSK.
Bacchante (1863).
CARPEAl'X.
The Dance (1869).
Gt'ILLAl'ME.
Anacreon (1859).
CHAPI-.
Joan of Arc (1870).
FALGl'IERE.
Diana (1891).
BARRIAS.
Spartacus (1872).
CRAUK.
Youth and Love.
MERCIE.
Gloria Victis (1874).
DALOU.
Mirabeau (i88 3 >.
DUBOIS.
Florentine Singer (1865).
464 H
MOVEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY FRANCE.
ART.
III. 1848-1895.
Painting.
Drawing. Music.
BARRIAS.
GAVARNI. MEYERBEER.
Troops in Crimea (1859). Modern Types. L'Africaine (1865).
YVON.
G. DORB'. BERLIOZ.
Malakoff (1859).
Rabelais (1854). Enfance du Christ
PROTAIS.
(1854).
BID A.
Inkermann (1857).
Gospels (1873). F. DAVID.
CHENAVARD.
Dc. of Pantheon.
Lalla Rookh (1862).
CARAN D ACHE.
GOUNOD.
Phryne (1863).
Faust (,8).
WlLLETTE. _,
TONY ROBERT FLEUR
y_ * "OMAS.
Last Days of Corinth. Mignon (1866).
MEISSONIER.
BIZET.
(1807-1890).
Carmen (1875).
REGNAULT.
REYEK.
Salome (1871).
Sigurd (1886).
CABANEL.
_..,_. LEO DELIBES.
Birth of Venus (1863).
BOUGUEREAU.
C^SAR FRANCK.
Triumph of Venus ST SAENS.
(1856).
CAROLUS DURAN.
MASSENET.
In the Dew (1874).
VINCENT D'!NDY.
FLANDRIN.
OFFENBACH.
<j
Bas Breau (1875).
COURBET.
HERVE.
c
'*
Burial at Ornans (1850). LECOCQ.
1
MANET.
BASTIEN LEPAGE.
v
COROT.
2 E
DUPRE.
11
ROUSSEAU.
*
MILLET. j
.
DETAILLE.
DE NEUYILLE.
PUYIS DE CHAVANNES.
HENNEK.
BONNAT.
464
THE LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND SCIENTIFIC
LITERATURE.
I. 1789-1815.
Theatre. Poetry. Fiction. Criticism.
BEAUMARCHAIS. DELILLE. B. DE ST. PIERRE. LA HARPE.
Mere Coupable Jardins (1782). Paul and Virginia Cours de Litt.
(1797) ;LeBarbier (1787); Indian Hut (1799-1805.
de Seville (1775) ; | atir " s !*p$ tres> ( X 79o)- MME. DE STAEL.
LeMariagede PIGAULT LEBRI-N. De la Litt^rature
Jigaro (1784). ANDRE CHENIER. , , _ , , .
Enf. du Carnaval (1800).
_ _ See following pe- .
Jos CHENIER ri od (18x9). ( ' 792) ' GINGUENE.
Calas (1791); Cams X. DE MA.STRE. Hist. Litter.
Gracchus (1793). MILLKVOVE. Voyage autour de d'ltalie (i8i.- 9 ).
ALEX. DUVAL. ECOUCHARD LEBRUN machambre(i794); ^ CH^NIER
Various Comedies Chansons. Ldpreux (1801). '' * .
of Manners (1791 DESAUGIERS . CHATEAUBRIAND. L^r.^S).
" *) P.A f,Q~,\ . Mor_
GEOFFROY.
Dibats (1800-1816)
LAYA.
Ami des Lois
PlXERECOURT.
_^ f -ixciic v *.&.* i . IA
BERANGER. f \ ,
. tyrs (1809).
(Commencement.)
MME. DE STAfiL. '
Delphine(i8oa);
Corinne (1807).
ANDRIEUX.
Meunier de Sans
Souci (1797); La
Comedienne (18x6)
COTTIN.
DE KRUDENER.
DE SOUZA.
DE RfiMUSAT.
DE DURAS.
464 J
MOVEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY FRANCE.
LITERATURE.
I. 1789-1815.
Polemics
and Eloquence.
Philosophy.
History.
Political Economy.
RlVAROL.
B. DE ST. PIERRE.
BONALD.
BABCEUF.
SlEYE^
E" tat de la Nature
The"orie du Pou.
Tribun. (1794-97)..
Tiers E"tat (1789).
MME. DE STAL.
(1784-1801).
VOLNEY.
Ruines (1791) ;Loi
Pol. (1796); Le-
g i s t-p rimitive
(1802).
GARNIER.
Proprie'te (1792);
Econ. Pol. (1796).
CHATEAUBRIAND.
Naturelle (1793).
Jos. DE MAISTRE.
ROEDERER.
Genie d u Chris-
DE GERANDO.
Consid. sur France
Mem. d ' Econ,
tian. (1804).
DesSignes (1800).
(1796).
Pol. (1796-99).
MlRABEAU.
DANTON.
MAINE DE BIRAX.
Infl. de St. Habi-
ANQUETIL.
Hist. Universelle
J. B. SAY.
Econ. Pol. (1803);
MARAT.
tude (1803).
(i797)-
Cat6chisme(i8is).
ROBESPIERRE.
DESTUTT DE TRACY.
Ideologic (1801) ;
MARMONTEL.
JOMINI.
FOURRIER.
The'orie des Qua-
ST.- JUST.
Logique (1805).
LACRETELLE.
t r e Mouvements-
VERGNIAUD.
ROYER-COLLARD.
DAUNOU.
(1808).
C. DESMOULINS.
Cours (1811).
MICHAUD.
ST. SIMON.
CL. MAVRY.
MME. DE STAEL.
Reorg. de la So-
ciete (1814).
SILV. DE SACY.
NAPOLEON.
LARCHER.
464 K
THE LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND SCIENTIFIC
LITERATURE.
II. 1815-1848.
Theatre.
Poetry.
Fiction. Criticism.
CAS. DELAVIGNE.
LAMARTINE.
BENJ. CONSTANT. GEOFFROY.
Ecole des Vieil-
M6ditations(i82o);
Adolphe (1816). Cours de Litt.
lards (1823); Louis
XI. (1832); En-
fan ts d'Edouard
(i833).
VICTOR HUGO.
Preface to Crom-
Harmonies (1830-
33).
VICTOR HUGO.
Orientales (1829) ;
Feu Hies d'Au-
tomne voix Int6-
(1815-20).
CHATEAUBRIAND.
Abence>ages(i826) ST. MARC GIRARDIN
Natchez (,828). VlLLKMAfK<
A. DE VlGNV.
. ., , SAINTE-BEUVB.
Cinq Mars (1826).
well (1827) ; Her-
rieures.
STENDHAL.
nani (1830).
DUCANGE.
T rente Ans, ou
La Vie d ' u n
Joueur (1827).
A. DE VlGNV.
Poemes (1826-29).
A. DE MUSSET.
Poesies (1820-36).
Rouge e t Noir
(1830) ; Chartreuse
de Parme (1839).
VICTOR HUGO.
N6tre - Dame d e
ALEXANDRE DUMAS.
Tour de Nesles
AUG. BARBIER.
lambes (1830).
Paris (1831).
BALZAC.
(1832).
BRIZEUX.
Peau de Chagrin
EUGENE SUE.
Marie (1836).
(1831); Com^die
The Vaudeville.
LAPRADE.
Humaine.
Odes (1843).
G. SAND.
TH. GAUTIRR.
Poesies (1845);
Chanson.
Indiana (1832) ;
Mare au Diable
(1846); Fadette
(1848).
BERANGER.
Mt'SSET.
Songs (1815-33).
Confessions (1836).
ALEX. DUMAS.
T r o i s Mousque-
tP.ires(i844); Monte
Cristo (1845).
EUGENE SUE.
PAUL DE KOCK.
464 I.
MOVEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY FRANCE.
LITERATURE.
II. 1815-1848.
Polemics
and Eloquence.
Philosophy.
History,
Political Economy.
J, DE MAISTRE.
MAINE DE BIRAN.
THIERS.
FOURIER.
Pape (1819) ; Soi-
Rapport du Phys.
Hist, de la Revol.,
Harmonic Uni-
rees de St. Peters-
et du Moral (1834).
Consulat, et Em-
verselle (1849).
burg (1821).
pire (1846-69).
ST. SIMON.
LE.MENNAIS.
Electicism.
GUIZOT.
Industrie (1817-
Indifference (1817)
VICTOR COUSIN.
Revol. d'Angle-
18; Nouveau
LACORDAIRE.
Du Vrai, Du Beau,
terre (1827-28);
Christ (1825).
Conferences a N6-
Du Bien (1815-20);
Civilisation.
CABET.
tre Dame (1835).
Eludes sur Pascal
MICHELET.
Credo-Comm.
MONTALEMBERT.
(1842).
Hist, de France.
(1841) ; Voyage en
St. Elizabeth
(1836).
AUG. COMTE.
Cours de Philo-
TOCQUEVILLE.
Dem ocratieen
Icarie ; Le Vrai
Christ (1846-47).
DE RAVIGNAN.
Conferences de
N6tre Dame(i837).
soph. Positive
(1839, 1842).
Amerique.
AUG. THIERRY.
Merovingiens,
LEROUX.
De 1'Humanite
(1840); Plutocratic
(1848); Du Chre-
Law
P. L. COURIER.
Louis BLANC.
tien (1848).
Pamphlets (1832-
38).
A. CARRELo
DUPIN.
Lib. de l'E"glise
Gall. (1824).
Hist, de Dix Ans
(1841-44); La Rev-
olution (1846-62).
PROUD'HON.
Propriete (1840-
41) ; Con trad.
Le National(i8 3 6).
E. DE GlRARDIN.
DALLOZ.
Jurisprudence
DAUNOU.
Eludes Hist. (1844-
Econ. (1846-49).
BASTIAT.
La Presse (1836.)
(1824).
49).
Sophismes Econ.
BERRYER.
Rossi.
Droit Penal (1829).
V. DURUY.
Hist, des Ro-
(1846-51) ; Harmo-
nies Econ.
GUIZOT.
maines.
Louis BLANC.
B. CONSTANT.
H. MARTIN.
Catech. du Social-
THIFRS
Hist, de France
isme (1849).
'
(1833 et seq.).
J. GARNIER
ROYER-COLLARD.
BOISSONNADE.
Traite d ' E c o n .
LEDRU-ROLLIN.
D. NlSARD.
Pol. (1845).
MANUEL
V. LECLERC.
CAS. PERIER.
CHAMPOLLION.
-
LETRONNE.
BURNOUF.
BOTTA.
464 M
THE LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND SCIENTIFIC
LITERATURE.
III. 1848-1805.
Theatre.
Poetry.
Fiction.
Criticism.
PONSARD.
TH. GAUTIER.
MERIM&E.
SAINTE-BEUVE.
Charlotte Corday
Emaux et Camees
Nouvelles(i852-55)
Lundis (1850-69).
(1850).
(1852).
VICTOR HUGO.
MUSSET.
11 ne faut jurer de
rien (1848).
SCRIBE.
Adrienne Lecouv-
reur (1849).
G. SAND.
VICTOR HUGO.
Les Chatiments
(1853) ; Contem-
plations (1856) ;
Legendes des Sie-
cles (1859).
BAUDELAIRE
Miserables (1862).
TH. GAUTIER.
Capitaine Fra-
casse (1863).
G. SAND.
M. de Villemer
(1861).
O. FEUILLET.
TAINE.
LaFontaine(i8s3X'
Litt. Anglaise
(1864).
SCHERER.
Eludes sur la Litt.
Contemp. (1863).
Frangois le Cham-
pi (1850) ; Marquis
deVillemer(i864).
EM. AUGIER.
L'A ven turiere
(1848); LeGendre
de M. Poirier
(1854) ; Les Four-
chambault (1878).
Fleurs du Mai
(1857)-
BANVILLE.
Odes Funambul-
esques (1857).
LECONTE DE LISLE.
Poemes Antiques
(1852 ) ; Poemes
M. de C amors
(1867).
A. DUMAS fils.
Dame aux Came-
lias (1848).
ABOUT.
Tolla (1855).
BAR BEY D'AURE-
YILLY.
FLAUBERT.
P. DE ST. VICTOR.
Hommes et Dieux
(1867 et seq.}.
SARCEY.
(1867 etseq.)
FROMENTIN.
Maitres d'Autre-
fois (1870).
DUMAS fils.
La Dame aux Ca-
melias (1852) ; Le
Demi Monde
(1855); Le Par-
nasse (1865-66) ;
L'Etrangere (1870)
LABICHE.
Le Chapeau de
Barbares (1862) ;
Poemes Tragiques
(1884).
F. COPPEE.
Reliquaires (1866).
SULLY PRUDHOMME.
Justice (1878) ;
Bonheur (1888).
Madame Bovary
(1857)-
BROS. GONCOURT.
Ren6e Mauperin
(1864).
H. MONNIER.
Jos. Prudhomme
(1857).
ZOLA.
BRUNETIERE.
(1880 et seq.}
J. LEMAITRE.
(1885 etseq.).
FAGUET.
Etudes Litt. sur le
XIX. Siecle.
Faille d' Italic
(1850).
SARDOU.
Nos intimes(i86i);
Daniel Roc hat
RICHEPIN.
Chanson des
Gueux (1876).
DE HEREDIA.
Les Rougon-Mac-
quart (1871-93).
A. DAUDET.
Fromont J e u n e
(1874); Sapho
(1880).
Trophees (1893).
(1884).
ERCKMANN-CHAT-
BROS. GONCOURT.
VERLAINE.
RIAN.
Henriette Mar6-
Parallelement
Romans Nation-
chal.
(1889).
aux (1865).
D'ENNERV.
CHERBULIEZ.
PAILLERON.
Meta Holdenis
Le Monde oil Ton
Songs.
(1873)-
THEUKIET.
s e'nnuie.
PIERRE DUPONT.
Mme. Heurteloup
COPPEE.
(1882).
DAUDET.
G. NADAUD.
G. OH NET.
Sapho (1886).
JJoTTY
Batailles de la Vie
~OHNET.
. J UL \ .
(1881-83).
Le Maltre des
Forges.
XANROF.
G. DE MAUPASSANT.
Une Vie (1883).
P. LOTI.
J. LEMAiTRK.
BOURGET.
ANATOLE FRANCE.
HERVIEU.
ROSNY.
M. PREYOST.
464 N
MOVEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY FRANCE.
LITERATURE.
III. 1848-1895.
Polemics
Political Economy.
and Eloquence.
Philosophy.
History.
WOLOWSKI.
VEUILLOT.
PREVOST PARADOL.
RENAN.
CEuvres (passim).
A. THIERRY.
Tiers E\at (1883).
Econ. Pol. (1848).
J. GARNIER.
ABOUT.
TAINE.
Philosophic au
TOCQUEVILLE.
Ancien Regime
Trait^ des Fi-
nances (1857).
DUPANLOUP.
P. HYACINTHS.
XlXme Siecle In-
telligence.
(1850).
MlCHELET.
COURCELLE SENEUIL
Econ. Pol. (1859.)
P. MONSABRE.
P. DlDON.
LITTR.
Aug. Comte (1863),
Fin de 1'Hist. de
France (1855-67).
LEON SAY.
Impdts (1886).
J. SIMON.
MIGNET.
LAMARTINE.
Le.Devoir (1854).
RENAN.
F. PASSY.
Econ. Pol. (1860-
V. HUGO.
RENOUVIER.
Orig. du Christian-
61).
THIERS.
Critique Gener.
(1854).
ismejPeuple d' Is-
rael.
LEVASSEUR.
J. FAVRE.
FOUILLEE.
TAINE.
Les Classes Ou-
vrieres (1867) ;
PICARD.
AvenirdelaMdta-
Origines de la
Science des Fi-
DUFAURE.
phys.
France.
nances (1877).
J. SIMON.
RlBOT.
FUST EL DE Cou-
P. LEROY BEAULIEU.
GAMBETTA.
L'HeVedite- (1870).
GUYAU.
LANGES.
CiteAntique(i864)
DUNOYER.
Econ. Polit.
J. FERRY.
Morale Sans Obli-
LAVISSE.
WALDECK-ROUS-
gation (1884).
Le Grand Frederic
(1891)
SEAU.
ALLOU.
Law.
SOREL.
DE MUN.
TROPLONG.
L'Europe et la
Revolution (1885
LEON SAY.
DEMOLOMBE.
ft seq)
JAURES.
FAUSTIN HELIE.
DOMANGET.
A rchaology.
LEON R^NIER.
BATBIE.
MARIETTE
LAFERRIERB.
DE ROUGE.
GLASSON.
OPPERT.
MASPERO.
BOUCHER DK
PERTHES.
BURNOUF.
4640
.ere,
, -j, Barras,
jBarthelemy, Carnot, Merlin (de Douai), Francois
(de Neufchateau), Gohier, Roger - Ducos,
General Moulins.
September 4, 1797. Coup tfitat of the i8th
Fructidor.
November 9, 1799. Coup d'etat of the i8th
Brumaire.
1799-1814. CONSULATE AND EMPIRE.
Bonaparte, Sieves, and Roger Ducos, Consuls.
December 13, 1799. Consular Constitution. First
Consul : Bonaparte. Second Consuls : Cam-
baceres and Lebrun.
August 2, 1802. Bonaparte Consul for life.
May 1 8, 1804. Napoleon I. Emperor of the
French.
1814-1830. RESTORATION.
April n, 1814. Abdication of Napoleon I.
April 14, 1814. Louis XVIII., King of France
and Navarre.
May 13, 1814. Dombray-Talleyrand Ministry.
June 4, 1814. Constitutional Charter.
March 19, 1815. Flight of Louis XVIII.
March 20, 1815. Return of Napoleon I. to Paris.
Hundred Days. Cambaceres Ministry
April 22, 1815. Additional Act to the Constitu-
tions of the Empire.
June 22, 1815. Second Abdication of Napo-
leon I.
July 8, 1815. Second Restoration of Louis XVIII.
GOVERNMENTS AND MINISTRIES IN FRANCE. 467
July 9, 1815. Talleyrand, Prince of Bcnevento,
Premier.
September 26, 1815. Duke de Richelieu, Premier.
December 29, 1815. General, Marquis Dessolle,
Premier.
November 19, 1819. Count Decazes.
February 20, 1820. Duke de Richelieu.
December 14, 1821. De Villele.
September 16, 1824. Death of Louis XVIII.
Accession of Charles X.
January 4, 1826. Viscount de Martignac, Premier.
August 8, 1829. Prince de Polignac, Premier.
July 29, 1830. Duke de Mortemart, Premier.
Flight of Charles X.
July 31, 1830. Ministry of Dupont (de 1'Eure).
1830-1848. MONARCHY OF JULY.
Louis- Philippe King of the French.
August 14, 1830. Constitutional Charter.
Premier's under Louis-Philippe.
August n, 1830. Dupont de 1'Eure.
November 2, 1830. Lafntte.
March 13, 1831. Casimir Perier.
May 17, 1832. Count de Montalivet.
October n, 1832. Marshal Soult, Duke de Dal-
matic.
July 18, 1834. Marshal Count Gerard.
November 10, 1834. Duke de Bassano.
November 18, 1834. Marshal Mortier.
March 12, 1835. Duke de Broglie.
February 22, 1836. Thiers.
September 6, 1836. Count Mole (with Guizot).
April 15, 1837. Count Mole (without Guizot).
March 31, 1839. Girod (de 1'Ain).
May 12, 1839. Marshal Soult.
March i, 1840. Thiers.
October 29, 1840. Marshal Soult (with Guizot).
September 19, 1847. Guizot.
468 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF
February 24, 1848. Odilon Barrot.
Flight of Louis- Philippe.
1848-1851. SECOND REPUBLIC.
Provisional Government (February 24 May 3,
1848), under the Premiership of Dupont de
1'Eure.
May 4, 1848. Meeting of the Constituent Assembly.
Executive Commission (May 10 June 24, 1848),
Francois Arago, Gamier- Pages, Marie, Lamar-
tine, Ledru-Rollin.
June 24, 1848. General Cavaignac, Minister of
War, is entrusted with the Executive.
November 4, 1848. Constitution.
December 20, 1848. Election of Prince Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte to be President of the
Republic. Odilon-Barrot Ministry.
May 28, 1849. Meeting of Legislative Assembly.
June 2, 1849. Second Odilon-Barrot Ministry.
October 31, 1849. Rouher and d'Hautpoul
Ministry.
January 9, 1851. Rouher and Drouyn de Lhuys
Ministry.
January 24, 1851. Ministry under Royer and
General Randon.
April 10, 1851. Ministry under Rouher and
Leon Faucher.
October 26, 1851. Ministry under Corbin and
General de St. Arnaud.
December 2, 1851. De Morny's Ministry. Coup
d'etat.
1851-1870. SECOND EMPIRE.
January 14, 1852. Constitution, with President-
ship conferred for ten vears upon Prince Louis
Napoleon.
December 2, 1852. Transformation of the
Republic into an Empire.
Napoleon III. Emperor of the French.
GOVERNMENTS AND MINISTRIES IN FRANCE. 469
Principal Ministers under Napoleon III.
1852. De Persigny, St. Arnaud, Fortoul, Magne,
Fould, Drouyn de Lhuys.
1854. Billault
1855. Rouher, Count Walcwski.
1858. General Espinasse, Prince Napoleon.
1860. Thouvenel, Baroche.
1863. Duruy, Behic.
1865. Marquis de la Valette.
1866. Marquis de Moustier.
1867. Marshal Niel, Forcade de la Roquette.
1869. General Le Boeuf.
January 2, 1870. Emile Ollivier, Premier.
August 9, 1870. General Count de Palikao.
1870-1871. GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE.
September 4, 1870. Proclamation of the Republic.
Formation of a Provisional Government, com-
prising General Trochu (President), Emile
Arago, Cremieux, Gambetta, Garnier- Pages,
Eugene Pelletan, Ernest Picard, Henri Roche-
fort, Jules Simon.
1871-1895. NATIONAL ASSEMBLY (January 13, 1871 March
8, 1876).
February 17, 1871. Thiers is elected chief of
the Executive, and, on August 31, President of
the Republic. His principal Ministers were:
Dufaure, Jules Favre, E. Picard, Jules Simon,
Pouyer-Quertier, V. Lefranc, De Remusat, Aug.
Casimir Perier, Leon Say, De Fourtou, etc.
May 24, 1873. Marshal MacMahon, President of
the Republic, Vice-President of the Cabinet
until the beginning of the Constitution of 1875.
May 25, 1873. Duke de Broglie.
May 22, 1874. General de Cissey.
March 10, 1875. Buffet.
February 23, 1876. Dufaure.
March 8, 1876. Commencement of the present
Constitution, voted in 1875 by the National
Assembly.
4/0 LIST OF GOVERNMENTS AXD MINISTRIES.
Marshal MacMahon
(elected May 24, 1873).
CONSTITUTION OF 1875.
Presidents of the Republic. Premiers.
March 9, 1876. Dufaure.
December 12, 1876. Jules Simon.
March 17, 1877. Duke de Broglie.
November 23, 1877. General de
Rochebouet.
December 13, 1877. Dufaure.
February 4, 1879. Waddington.
December 28, 1 879. De Frey cinet.
December 23, 1880. Jules Ferry.
November 14, 1881. Gambetta.
January 30, 1882. De Freycinet.
August 7, 1882. Duclerc.
January 29, 1883. Fallieres.
February 21, 1883. Jules Ferry.
April 6, 1885. Brisson.
January 7, 1886. De Freycinet.
December 10, 1886. Goblet.
May 31, 1887. Rouvier.
December 12, 1887. Tirard.
April 4, 1888. Floquet.
February 22, 1889. Tirard.
March 17, 1890. De Freycinet.
February 27, 1892. Loubet.
December 6, 1892. Ribot
April 4, 1893. Ch. Dupuy.
December 3, 1893. Casimir Perier.
. May 30, 1894. Ch. Dupuy.
Casimir Perier (elected \
o N v \ July i, 1894. Ch. Dupuy.
June 27, 1894).
Felix Faure (elected ( January 26, 1895. Ribot.
January 17, 1895). t November i, 1895. Leon Bourgeois.
Jules Grevy (elected
January 30, 1879 ; re-
elected December 28,
1885).
Carnot (elected Decem-
ber 3, i887).
INDEX.
Abadie, 449
Al>ensberg, battle of, 102
Abd-El-Kader, 193 et seq.
Aboukir, naval combat of, 63 ;
battle of, 65 ; General Menou
defeated at, 83
About, Edniond, 436
Acte Additionel of June 1814,
Adam, Adolphe, 252
Additional Act of April 181 5, 1 20,
I2 3
Alexander I. , Czar of Russia, 83 ;
at Austerlitz, 95 ; continues
the war, 96 ; interview of, at
Tilsit, 98 ; rupture with Na-
poleon, 105
Alexander II., signs the treaty of
Paris, 304 ; refuses to make
concessions to Poland, 318
Alexander III., reception of the
French squadron by, 387
Algeria, conquest of, 193 et seq.
Algesiras, battle of, 84
Algiers, capture of, 169
Alma, battle of, 303
Altenkirchen, battle of, 58
Alvinzi, General, 57
Amiens, Peace of, 84 et seq
Ampere, 236, 255
Ancelot, 208, 212
Ancients, Council of, 49 etseq., 67
et seq.
Ancona, occupation of, 179
Anjou, agitation in, 35
Antwerp, improvements in the
port of, 93 ; seizure of, by the
English, 103
April, the 2Oth of, 1792, 29
Arago, 196, 255 et seq.
Aranjuez, insurrection of, 101
Arcis-sur-Aube, battle of, 108
Arcola, battle of, 57
Anny Act, February 1868, 326
Artois, Count of, brother of Louis
XVI., 24
Assembly, the National, of 1789,
5 et seq.
Assembly, the National, of 1848,
267 et seq.
Assembly, the National, of 1871,
343 et seq.
Assignats, 20 et seq. ; excessive
emission of, 53
Auber, 252
Auerstadt, battle of, 96
Augereau, General, 60
Augier, Emile, 397 et seq*
Aumale, Duke of, 194
Aurelles de Paladine, General,
341
Aures, a part of Algeria, 194
Austerlitz, battle of, 95
Austria, France declares war
against, 35 ; defeated at Wat-
tignies, 45 ; campaign on the
Rhine, 54, 56; Bonaparte drives,
from Italy, ^J et seq. ; peace of
Campo-Formio, 62 ; campaign
of 1800 and treaty of Luneville,
8 1 et seq. ; campaign of 1805
472
INDEX.
and treaty of Presburg, 94 et
seq. ; adheres to the Continental
Blockade, 100 ; defeated at
Wagram, 102 ; joins the Allies
in 1813, 1 06 et seq. ; defeats
Piedmont at Custozza, 279 ;
defeated by French arms, 305
et seq. ; peace of Villafranca,
308 ; the Schleswig-Holstein
dispute and the war with
Prussia, 323
B
Baboeuf s communist agitation, 59,
J35
Bailly, mayor of Paris, 14
Balard, 256
Bale, treaties of, 45
Ballu, 449
Balzac, 146, 203 et seq.
Bank of France, establishment of,
Banville, Theodore de, 420
Barbe-Marbois, 155
Barbes, 183
Bar bier, Auguste, 219 et seq.
Barnave, 23
Baroche, 288
Barrias, 440, 448
Barthelemy, 60
Barthelemy, Abbe, 129
Barye, 250, 447
Bassano, battle of, 57
Bastiat, 229
Bastien -Lepage, 444
Bastille, 2 ; storming of, 14 et seq.
Baudelaire, 420
Baylen, capitulation of, 102, 117
Bazaine, General, 336
Beaulieu, General, 56
Beaumarchais, 139
Beaumont, Elie de, 258
Beaune la Rolande, battle of, 341
Becquerel, 454
Belgium, 31 ; ceded to France,
62 ; General Brune in, 67 ;
Revolution of 1830 in, 177
et seq.
Benjamin Constant, 80, 115, 119,
172
Benningsen, General, 98
Beranger, 219 et seq.
Beresina, passage of, 106
Bergen, landing of English and
Russians at, 67
Berlin decrees, the, 96 et seq.
Berlioz, 253, 449 et seq.
Bernadotte, General and Marshal,
I0 5
Bernardin de Saint Pierre, 129,
U9
Berry, assassination of the Duke
of, 1 60
Berryer, 173, 178, 235, 318
Berihelot, 456 et seq.
Bessieres, General, 101
Bichat, 150
Bida, 446
Biens Nationaux, the, 20
Biot, 254
Bismarck, 335, 342
Bizet, 450
Blanc, Louis, member of the
Provisional Government, 196,
226, 231 ; president of the
Luxembourg Commission, 269
et seq.
Blanchard, 458
Blanqui, 183
Bliicher, Generc , 96 ; invades
France, 107 et seq. ; routed at
Ligny, 122
Boissy d' Angles, 49, 60
Boieldieu, 251
Bologna, Legation of, 57
Bomarsund, demonstration before,
303
Bonald, de, 137
Bonaparte, Jerome, King of
Westphalia, 99
Bonaparte, Joseph, made King of
Naples, 95 ; and of Spain, 100
et seq. j beaten at Vittoria,
1 06
Bonaparte, Louis, made King of
Holland, 95 ; deprived of his
kingdom, 104
Bonaparte, Napoleon (see Napo-
leon)
Bonapartist agitation in 1874, 358
INDEX.
473
Bonheur, Rosa, 442
Bordeaux, rising in, 38 ; the
Constituent Assembly at, 343 ;
compact of, 345
Borghetto, battle of, 56
Borny, battle of, 336
Borodino, battle of, 105
Bosio, 148
Bouguereau, 441
Bouillaud, 258
Bouillon, France deprived of,
I2 5
Boulanger, Louis, 440
Boulanger, General, 384 et seq.
Boulogne, camp at, 84, 86
Boulou, camp at, 46
Bourget, Paul, 416 et seq.
Bourmont, General, 122 ; minis-
ter, 167
Bremen, united to France, 104
Brenier, 287
Brest, fictitious blockade of, 97
Brienne, battle of, 108
Brindisi, French garrison in, 82
Brisson, Premier, 384
Brizeux, 218
Broglie, Ch. Victor, Duke of, 157 ;
minister, 180; orator, 254
Broglie, Albert, Duke of, 353 ;
premier, 356; overthrown, 357;
premier again, 373
Brongniart, 148
Broussais, 150
Brown-Sequard, 459
Brueys, Admiral, 63
Brumaire, coup d'etat of, 68
et seq.
Brune, General, 67 ; in Italy,
82
Brunetiere, 425 et seq.
Brunswick, manifesto of the Duke
of, 29
Buffet, 288, 335 ; president of the
Constituent Assembly, 353 ;
premier, 363 ; resigns, 372
Bugeaud, Marshal, in Algeria,
194 j appointed to the com-
mand of Paris, 196
Burgos, battle of, 102
Burgundy, the revolution of 1789
in, 15
Cabanel, 441
Cabanis, 150
Cabet, 231.
Cadoudal's attempt, 86
Caen, rising in, 38
Cahiers de Doleances, 5
Cailletet, 453
Cairo, occupied by Napoleon, 63 ;
by Kleber, 83
Calder, Admiral, 94
Cambaceres, consul with Bona-
parte, 73
Cambon, accused by Robespierre,
40
Cambrai, Proclamation of, 124
Campo-Formio, treaty of, 62,
67, 82
Canopus, battle of, 83
Caran d'Ache, 446
Carnot, plans and orders for
defence, 38, 45, 54 ; accused by
Robespierre, 40 ; exiled, 60
Carnot, President, 385, 391
Caro, 430
Carpeaux, 447
Carrel, Armand, 233
Carrier Belleuse, 448
Cassagnac, Granier de, 331
Cassano, battle of, 66
Cassation, Court of, 76
Castiglione, battle of, 57
Catalonia, invaded, 46 ; retaken
from the British, 102
Catholic opposition to Napoleon
III., 310
Cattaro, mouths of, 99
Cauchy, 254
Cavaignac, General, 272 et seq.
Cayenne, deputies exiled at, 60
Caylus, Count of, 129
Czarnovo, battle of, 98
Cevennes, revolt in the, 38
Ceylon, kept by the English, 84
Chalgrin, 148
Cham, 248
Chamberland, 461
Chambord, Count of, 171, 284 et
/' 355, 358
Chamneury, 409
Chamfort, 130
474
INDEX.
Champaubert, battle of, 108
Champ de Mars, demonstration
in the, 24
Changarnier, General, 286
Chanzy, General, 341
Charcot, 461
Charette, 59
Charles Albert, King of Piedmont,
279
Charles, Ar.chduke, campaign of
I79 6 54J campaign of 1797,
58; of 1799, 66; of 1805,95;
of 1809, 102
Charles IV., King of Spain, IOI
Charles X., King of France, Count
d'Artois, 113, 115, 127 ; ascends
the throne, 162 ; domestic policy
of, 1 66 ei seq. at Rambouillet,
170
Charlet, 246 et seq.
Charter of 1814, 114 et seq. ; 153,
156, 168, 172
Charter of 1830, 172, 192
Chateaubriand, 124, 139 et seq.
151, 166
Chateau-Thierry, battle of, 108
Chatin, 459
Chenier, Andre, 80, 129, 137, 147
Chenier, Marie, Joseph, 138
Cherasco, armistice of, 56
Cherbourg, improvements in the
port of, 93
Chevreul, 256
Cherbuliez, 408
China, expedition to, 316
Church, before 1789, 4. See
Clergy
Cisalpine Republic, 62 ; Napoleon
president of, 85
Cissey, General de, premier, 358 ;
resigns, 363
Civil Code, the, 93, 112
Classic School, the, 208
Claude-Bernard, 459 et seq.
Clergy, before the Revolution, 2
et seq. ; Civil Constitution of,
22, 28, 35, 78
Clesinger, 250, 447
Cleves, given to France, 95
Clichy, Royalist association of,
60
Clodion, 148
Cloizeaux, de, 457
Cluseret, 347
Clubs, during the Revolution, 23,
130 ; in 1848, 267
Cobden, Richard, 310
Commerce, treaty of, with Eng-
land, 310 et seq.
Commune, of Paris, in 1793, 39>
46; in 1871, 346 et seq.
Comte, Auguste, 229, 237 et seq. t
427
Concordat, 79, 141
Conde, occupation of, 38
Conde, Prince of, 24
Condillac, 136
Condorcet, 41, 130, 150
Congo, foundation of French, 379
Coni, batlte of, 56
Conseils Generaux, Act of 1871
on, 344
Conserre, 444
Conservators, College of, 7 1
et seq.
Conservatory of Arts and Crafts,
foundation of, 48
Conservatory of Music, founda-
tion of, 48
Constant, Benjamin, 199
Constantine, siege of, 193
Constituent Assembly, of 1789,
meeting of, 7 ; night of August,
15; constitutions of 1791, 25;
end of, 27
Constituent Assembly of 1871,
342 et seq.
Constitution, the French, before
1789, zetseq.
Constitution of 1791, 24 et seq.
Constitution of 1793, 40 et seq.
Constitution of the Year III., 48
et seq. ; destruction of, 60 ; re-
ligious liberty under. 78
Constitution of the Year VIII. , 73
et seq. ; Bonaparte's modifica-
tions to, 80 ; becomes an im-
perial form of government, 88
et seq.
Constitution of 1848, 273 et seq. ;
revision voted, 288
Constitution of 1852, 291 et seq.
UNIVERSITY
INDEX.
Constitution of 1875, 359 et se( I- >
attacked by the factions, 367
et seq.
Continental Blockade, the, 97 et
seq.
Convention, the National, meeting,
33 ; Louis XVI. summoned to
the bar of, 34 ; the first Coalition
and, 35 et seq. ; struggle be-
tween the parties into, 37 etseq. ;
Constitution of 1793, 41 et seq. ;
the Committee of Public Salva-
tion, 45 ; success of the French
army, 46 et seq. : Constitution
of the Year III., 48 et seq. ;
Royalist reaction, 51 ; end of,
52 f
Coppee, Francois, 404, 421
Copenhagen, battle of, 83 ; bom-
barded by the English, 100
Corbiere, 161 et seq.
Cordeliers, club of, 23
Cormenin, 233
Cornil, 459
Cornu, 453
Corot, 442
Corsica, Island of, retaken from
the British, 57
Corvisart, 150
Coulmiers, battle of, 341
Courbet, 442 et seq.
Courcelles-Seneuil, 439
Courier, Paul- Louis, 130, 233
Courvoisier, 157
Cousin, Victor, 115, 162, 166,
236, et seq.
Craonne, combat of, 108
Cremieux, member of the Pro-
visional Government, 196
Crimean War, the, 302 et seq.
Cronstadt, the French Squadron
at, 387
Curel, de, 404
Custozza, battle of, 279
Cuvier, 257
Dalayrac, 149
Dalou, 448
Dalmatia, 62 ; ceded to the king-
dom of Italy, 95
Danish Duchies quarrel, 321 et
seq
Danton, 23 ; the 2oth of June
and, 29 ; the National Con-
vention and, 33 et seq. ; death
f 39J orator, 131
Dantzig, fall of, 98
Darimon, 304
Daubigny, 442
Daubree, 457
Daudet, Alphonse, 414 et seq.
Daumier, 247
Daunou, 49, 80
David d' Angers, 249
David, Felicien, 253, 450
David, Gerome, 331
David, Louis, 129, 147
Da\>ust, Marshal, 102
Debt, Book of the Public, 48
Decamps, 245 et seq
Decazes, Duke, 155 et seq. ;
premier, 159; resigns, 160
December 2nd, 1789, decree of,
20; coup d'etat of, 1851, 290;
its ratification, 291
Defence, the Government for
National, 342
Dego, combat of, 56
Delacroix, Eugene, 241 et seq.
Delambre, 151
Delaroche, Paul, 244
Delavigne, Casimir, 208 et seq.
Delescluze, 345
Denmark, League of Neutrals
and, 83 ; adheres to the Con-
tinental Blockade, 100
D'Ennery, 404
Departments, France divided into,
1 8 ; functionaries in the, 53
(note]
Deprez, Marcel, 454
Desaix, General, 82
Desault, 150
Desmoulins, Camille, in the Palais
Royal, 13 ; the Press and, 23 ;
orator, 133
Dessoles, General, 159
Detaille, 440
Deveria, Eugene, 246
Diaz, 442
Didon, Pere, 439
4/6
INDEX.
Dijon, battle of, 342
Directory, creation of the, 5 5
first acts of, 54 ; domestic
policy of, 59 ; returns to re-
volutionary methods, boetsey.;
ruin of, 70, 78
Divorce, Law of, 156
Donne marie, combat of, 108
Dore, Gustave, 445
Dresden, battle of, 107
Drumont, 436
Dubois, Paul, 449
Duclerc, premier, 382
Dufaure, premier, 372 et seq.
Dumas, Alexandre, 205 et seq.
Dumas fils, 399 et seq.
Dumas, Jean-Baptiste, 256, 454
Dumouriez, General, 29, 36
Dunoyer, Charles, 229
Dupin, 172
Dupont, .member of the Con-
stituent Assembly, 10
Dupont, General, 117
Dupont, de 1'Eure, premier, 178 ;
member of the Provisional
Government, 196
Duport, 23
Dupuy Ministry, 391
Dupuytren, 258
Duruy, Victor, 319, 349
Duvergier de Hauranne, 195
Eckmiihl, battle of, 102
Eclecticism, a philosophical
system, 238
Education, Act on Higher, 363 ;
Primary, 349 ; Secondary, 344
Egypt, French descent in, 62 et
seq. ; lost to France, 83 ; Me-
hemet AH and, 186 ; the ques-
tion of, under the Freycinet
Ministry, 382
Eighty-nine Club, 23
El-Arish, convention of, 83
Elba, Island of, 85 ; Napoleon
escapes from, 117
Elchingen, battle of, 94
Elections, Act of 1831, 172
Election, General, of 1863, 317
Election, General, of 1876, 366,
371
Election, General, of 1881, 381
Election, General, of 1893, 39 1
Elector, Grand, 71 et seq.
Emigres, 17, 47 > measures against,
49
Engen, battle of, 81
Enghien, arrest and death of the
Duke of, 87
England, constitution of, 8 ;
France declares war against,
35 ; Hoche on the coast of, 54 ;
continues the war after the
peace of Luneville, 58, 62, 67,
81, 83 ; makes peace with
France in 1802, 84 et seq. ;
breaks with France in 1803, 86;
enters the third coalition, 94 ;
bombards Copenhagen, 100 ;
invades France in 1813, 107 ;
defeats Napoleon at Waterloo,
122 ; joins France and Russia
to bestow freedom on Greece,
169; protects Turkey against
Mehemet Ali, 186; against
Russia, 302 et seq. ; signs com-
mercial treaty with France, 310
et seq.
Essling, battle of, 102
Espinasse, General, 305
Espinosa, combat of, 102
Etruria, kingdom of, 82
Ettlingen, battle of, 54
Exhibition of 1867, 327
Exhibition of 1878, 374
Exhibition of 1889, 387 (note)
Eylau, battle of, 98
Faidherbe, General, 341
Falguiere, 448 et seq.
Faraday, 255
Faure, President, 391
Favre, Jules, 304; deputy, 318,
33 1 , 335J orator, 437
Faye, 453
Ferdinand, Prince of Astunas, 101
Ferdinand VII., King of Spain,
162
INDEX.
477
Ferrara, legation of, 57
Ferronays, de la, 166
Ferry, Jules, premier, 380, 382 ;
fall of, 383 ; orator, 438
Feuillants, 27, 29
Feuillet, Octave, 403, 407
et set/.
Fey en Perrin, 444
Fieschi, infernal machine of,
182
Finisterre, naval combat of Cape,
94
Fiscal system, reconstruction of
the, 20
Five, Committee of, 71
Five Hundred, Council of, 49 et
seq. , 67 el scq.
Fizeau, 453
Flandrin, Hippolyte, 246, 442
Flaubert, Gustave, 144, 409
et seq.
Fleurus, battle of, 45
Floquet, 386
Floreal, 22nd, 65
Flourens, 258, 458
Flushing, seized by English,
103
Fontanes, 130
Fontaine, 148
Fontainebleau, Napoleon at, 108
Foucault, 453
Fouche, 123 j minister, 126,
152
Fould, 288
Fouillee, Alfred, 430
Forestry, Code of, 165
Fourier, 228 et seq.
Forain, 445
Forbach, battle of, 335
Foy, General, 159
France, Anatole, 416
Frankfort, treaty of, 342
Fremiet, 447
Fresnel, 255
Freycinet, de, premier, 380, 382,
384, 389
Friedland, battle of, 98
Friuli, ceded to Austria, 62
Fromentin, 425
Fructidor, coup cCctat of, 60
Fustel de Coulanges, 433
Gambelta, member of the Provi-
sional Government, 341 ; leader,
366, 380 ; premier, 381 ; orator,
437
Garibaldi, 279
Gamier, Charles, 449
Gamier-Page's, member of the
Provisional Government, 177,
196
Gauk, 448
Gautier, Theophile, 201, 218 et
seq., 406, 420
Gavarni, 247, 445
Gaza, Napoleon at, 63
Genoa, 65 ; Moreau in, 66 ;
Massena in, 81
Gensonne, 27
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 257
Gerard, 148
Gericault, 239 et seq., 246
Germany, Confederation of, 35; in-
vaded, 46 ; Jourdan and Moreau
in, 54, 56, 58, 81 ; Napoleon
intervenes in, 85 ; rising of, in
1813, 106
Gerome, 441
Girardin, Mme. de, 403
Giraud, minister, 287
Girodet, 148
Girondins, 27 ; the National
Assembly and the, 33 ; 37 et
seq.
Girondin Ministry, 29
Goblet Cabinet, 384
Golymin, battle of, 98
Goncourt, Edmond and Jules de,
411
Gondouin, 148
Gounod, 450
Gouvion Sairit-Cyr, marshal, 102 ;
minister, 152
Grammont, Duke of, 335
Grandville, 248
Gravelotte, battle of, 336
Greece, freedom of, 169
Gregoire, member of the National
Convention, 160
Grenoble, Napoleon at, 117 ; riots
in, 179
478
INDEX.
Grevy, Jules, President of the
Constituent Assembly, 343 j
President of the Republic, 375,
380 ; re-elected, 384 ; resigns,
385
Grievances, lists of, 5
Gros, 148
Grousset, Paschal, 347
Guadet, member of the National
Convention, 27
Guard, organisation of the
National, 14 ; Convention
disarms some sections of, 46 ;
the Royalist reaction of 1795
and, 51 ; the Revolution of
1848 and, 266, 268
Guillaume, 448
Guizot, 162, 166, 173; premier,
178; governs with Marshal
Soult, 1 80, 1 88 et seq. ; premier
again, 194 et seq. ; historian,
222 et seq. ; orator, 234
Gunzburg, battle of, 194
Guyau, 43
II
Halevy, Jacques, 252
Halevy, Ludovic, 403, 451
Hamburg, fictitious blockade of
the port of, 97 ; the Continental
Blockade and, 104
Hautpoul, General, 281
Hebert, 39
Heliopolis, battle of, 83
Helvetic Confederation, Bonaparte
mediator of the, 85
Henner, 444
Henon, 304
Heredia, J. M. de, 422
Hermite, 452
Herold, 251 et seq.
Hervieu, Paul, 418
Historical school, 8
Hoche, General, on the Rhine,
45 ; at Quiberon, 47 ; on the
coast of Brittany, 54 ; on the
Rhine again, 58 et seq. ; death
of, 6 1
Hochstadt, battle of, 82
Hohenlinden, battle of, 82
Hohenlohe, Prince of, 96
Hohenzollern candidature, 334
et seq.
Holland, France declares war
against, 35 ; occupied by French
arms, 46 ; adheres to the Con-
tinental Blockade, 104; declares
war against Belgium, 177
Holy Roman Empire, dissolution
of the, 95
Hugo, Victor, 144, 201, 209 et
seq. ; 405 et seq. ; 418 et seq. ;
437
Hundred Days, the, 117 et seq.
Hyacinthe, Pere, 438
Illyria, annexed to French Empire,
103 ; Napoleon refuses to cede,
107
India, plans of Napoleon on, 62
Ingres, 240 et seq.
Institute, foundation of the, 151
Instruction, law on primary, 192 ;
Supreme Council of Public,
37?
Invalides, invasion, by the mob,
of the Hotel des, 13
Ionian Islands, 62 ; Napoleon
takes, 99
Isabella, Queen of Spain, 334
Isabey, 148
Isly, battle of, 194
Istria, annexed to Austria, 62 ;
ceded, 95
Italy, Bonaparte in, 56 et seq. ;
Austria attempts to drive French
from, 66 et seq., 8 1 et seq. ; the
Republics of, 84 et seq. ;
Napoleon, King of, 93 j Venice,
Istria, and Dalmatia ceded to,
95 ; expedition to, of 1849, 279 ;
affairs in, 305 ; Austria prepares
war against, 307 : Magenta,
Solferino, Villafranca, 308 et
seq. ; Papal States occupied, 321 ;
allies with Prussia, 322 ; obtains
Venetia, 323
INDEX.
479
Jacobins, 23 ; the Constitution of
1793 and the, 41, 43; the
Councils and the, 52 ; attitude
of, on the i8th Brumaire, 68
Jaffa, Napoleon in, 63
Janssen, 453
Jaures, member of the Parliament,
438
Jemmapes, battle of, 31
Jena, battle of, 96
Jesuits, clergy dominated by the,
165 et seq.
[ews, 79 {note}
fohannot, Tony, 246
Jordan, Camille, 157, 234
Josephine, Empress, 104
[oubert, General, 58 ; death of,
66
Jouffroy, 162, 237
Jourdan, General, 39 ; in Low
Countries, 145 ; in Germany,
54, 56 ; in Alsace, 66
Jourde, and the Commune of Paris,
347
Juan, Napoleon lands near Gulf
of, 117
July, demonstration of, 1791, 24 ;
Convention of, 1840, 187 ;
ordinances of, 1830, 169
June, 1 79 1, flight of Louis XVI II. ,
24 ; 1792, the mob invades the
Tuileries, 29 ; risings of, 1848,
272 ; of 1849, 279
Junot, General, 100
Justice, administration of, before
1789, 2
"Justice and Love," Law of, 165
K
Kabylie, 194
Kaunitz, Imperial Chancellor, 28
Kinburn, demonstration before,
303
Klagenfurt, Napoleon marches on,
Kleber, General, in Vendee, 45 ;
in Egypt, 65 ; death of, 83
Koch, Paul de, 206
Koenigsberg, capitulation of, 98
Kovno, Napoleon crossing the
Niemen at, 105
Krasnoe, engagement of, 106
Kray, General, 8 1
Kulturkampf, the Catholic Press
and the, 357
Labedoyere, General, 119; trial
and death of, 154
Labiche, 403
La Bourdonnaye, 126 ; minister,
167
Lacaze-Duthiers, 457 et seq.
Lacepede, 257
Lacordaire, Pere, 144, 192, 232,
235 et seq.
La Favorita, combat of, 57
Lafayette, commander of the
National Guard, 14 ; member
of the Eighty-nine Club, 23 ;
the Restoration and, 115;
motion of, 123
Lamtte, premier, 178; resigns, 179
Lagrange, 150
La Harpe, 136
Laine, 157
Lally-Tollendal, 124
Lamarque, General, 159
Lamartine, A. de, 144, 146 ;
member of the Provisional
Government, 196 ; proposes a
national consultation, 264 ;
manifesto of, to the Powers,
267 ; poet and orator, 199, 212
/*??., 235, 435 et seq.
Lamennais, 144, 232 et seq.
Lameth, 23
Landau, ceded by France, 125
Lanjuinais, President of the
Chamber of Deputies, 122
Laon, Napoleon at, 108
Laplace, 1 50 et seq
La Reveillere, 49
La Rothiere, combat of, 108
Launay, de, Governor of the
Bastille, 14
Lavisse, 435
Lavoisier, 136,
480
L\DEX.
Ltbrun, Consul, 73
Lebrun, dramatist, 209
Leconte de Lisle, 420 et seq.
Ledru-Rollin, member of the
Provisional Government, 196 ;
supports a rising in Paris, 279
Lefuel, 449
Legion of Honour established in
France, 77
Legislative Assembly of I7 S ^.
meeting of, 27 etscq. ; end of. 31
Leipzig, battle of, 107
Le Mans, battle of, 341
Lemaitre, Jules, 404, 426
Lenoir, 251
Leo XII I., Pope, 387
Leoben, preliminaries of peace at.
& oi
Leopold, the French Revolution
and Emperor, 28 et seq.
Lepere, 148
Leplay, 439
Leroux, Pierre, 231
Leroy-Beaulieu, Paul, 439
Lesueur, 149
Levasseur, 440
Leverrier, 254
Ligny, battle of, 122
Ligurian Republic, 58
Lille, negotiations with England
at, 58, 6l
Lippmann, 454
Lisbon, Junot at, IOO
Littre, 2*3$, 427
Livre, Grand, 65, 164
Lodi, battle of, 56
Lonato, battle of, 57
Ixmdon, Convention of, 326
Longwy, occupation of, 31
Loti, P'ierre. 417
Loubet Ministry, 389
Louis
Louis XVI., King of France,
.rnment under, I et s^. ;
the States-General and, 7 ; the
Revolution, 13 et seq. ; flight
of the king, 24 ; the Girondin
Ministry, 29; royalty abolished,
33 ; trial and death of the king,
34 ; French literature under,
129 tt
Louis XVI I., death of, 59
Louis XVIII., King of France,
restoration of, in et set/. :
government of, 116-119; re-
stored to the throne in 181 ^,
124 et seq. ; death of, 162
Louis- Philippe, King of France,
accession to the throne of, 171 ;
government of, 184-196
Lubeck, surrendering of Blucher
at, 96 ; joins France against
England, 104
Luneville, treaty of, 82, 85
Lutzen, battle of, 106
Luxembourg, Duchy of, 326
Luxembourg, the Socialist Com-
mission in the Palace of, 269
et seq.
Lyon, revolutionary risings in.
38 ; insurrection of 1831 at,
179 ; of 1834, I So
M
Macdonald, General, 66 ; in the
Tyr>
Mack. General, 04
MacMahon, Marshal, chief of the
executive, 353 : president for
seven years, 356-3/4 ; resigns.
Madagascar, expedition to, 379
Madrid, Joseph Napoleon back
in, 102
Magdeburg, French garrison in,
99
Magendie, 258
Magenta, battle c :
Magnano, battle of, 66
Maine de Biran. -
Maistre. Joseph de, 13; 232
Malouet/the historic school and, S
Malta, blockaded by English.
: taken by French army,
63 : given up "by England, 84 :
finally retained. -
Manet, Edouard, 444
Mantua, besieged by Napoleon,
56 et scq.
Marat, 23': tria. v rator.
IXDEX.
4 8l
Marceau. General, 45
Marengo, battle of, 82
Marey, 461 tt seq.
Margueriue, Paul, 418
Marie, member of the Provisional
Government, 196
Marie Antoinette, Queen of
France, death of, 39
Marie Louise, Archduchess, 104,
1 06
Marienburg, ceded by France, 125
Marmont, Marshal, 108
Marseilles, rising in, iSi
Marttgnac, premier, 166; re-
167
Massena, General, 58 : at Zurich,
67; in Italy, Si, 95; in
Germany, 102 ; in Spain, 106
Masse, Victor, 451
Massenet, 451
Mauheuge, blockaded by the
Austrians,45
Maupassant, Guy de, 415 et seq.
Maury, Abbe. 131
Maximilian, Emperor, 326
May. Manifestation of the 1510,
1848, 2-1
Mayence, capitulation of, 38
Mazzini, 279
Medicine, Foundation of the
School of, 48 (note)
Mehemet Ali, 186
Mehul, 149
Meilhac, 403, 451
Meissonier, 441
Melas, General, 81
Menou, General, 83
Mercie. Antonin, 448
Mrrimee, 200
Metz, besieged, 336 ; capitulation
of, 341
Meyerbeer, 252 et sey., 449
Michelet, 144, 224 etseq., 231
Millet, 441
Millesirao, battle of; 56
Milne Edwards, 458
Mincio, Bonaparte on the, 57
Mirabean, 10; death of, 23;
orator, 129 ft sey.
Modena, Duke ot, dethroned by
Napoleon, 57
Modena, revolutionary movement
in, 309
Moeskirch, battle of, Si
Moissan, 455
Mole, premier, 184 ; resigns, 185
Mondovi, battle of, 56
Monge, 151
Monnier, Henri, 409
Montalembert, 144, 192, 232 ft
*?., 301, 306
Montebello, Melas repulsed by
Bonaparte at, 83 ; Napoleon
III. at, 308
Montenotte, battle of, 56
Montesquieu, 8
Montmirail, battle of, 108
Montmorency, Matthieu de, 162,
2 34
Montsabre, Pere, 439
Moreau, General, on the Rhine,
54-58 ; in Italy, 66 ; in Germany,
8l et y. ; takes refuge in the
United States, 86
Moreau, Gustave, 445
Moreau de Tours, 461
Momy, Duke de, 290
Hotter, General, ipS
Moscow, conflagration of, 105
Mounier, the Historical School
and, 8
Mountain, the Party of the. 55 :
struggle of, with the Girondins,
37-39
Mun, Count of, 438
Municipal Act of January, 1874,
Municipal Act of August, 1876, 372
Municipal Councils, 376
Murat. General, 82 ; King cf
/les, 101
Musset, Alfred de, 144, 199, 217
etseq., 396
Museum of Natural History,
foundation of, 48 (note)
X
Nangis, battle of, 108
Naples, successes of the French
in, 66 ; joins the third Coalition,
94 ; Murat, king of, 101
482
INDEX.
Napoleon I. at Toulon, 54 > sup-
presses insurrection in Paris,
52 ; in Italy against Austria, 56
et seq. ; contemplates invading
England, 62 ; in Egypt, 63 et
seq. ; returns to Paris, 68 ; be-
comes First Consul, 73 ; defeats
Austrians in Italy, 8l ; president
of Cisalpine Republic, 85 ; kid-
naps Duke d'Enghien, 87 ; coro-
nation, 93 ; invades Germany
and hastens to Vienna, 94 ; gains
the battle of Austerlitz, 95 ;
quarrels with Prussia, 96 ; the
Berlin decrees, 97 ; continental
campaign and treaty of Tilsit,
98 ; designs on Spain and
Portugal, 100 ; invades Spain,
102 ; at war with Russia, 102
et seq. ; divorces Josephine and
marries Louisa of Austria, 104 ;
prepares to invade Russia, 104 ;
the Russian campaign of 1812,
105 ; returns to Paris, 106 ;
Lutzen, Bautzen, Leipzig, 106
et seq. ; the campaign of France,
108 ; abdicates and banished
to Elba, 1 08 ; escapes, 117:
triumphant march of, to Paris,
119 ; is outlawed by the Allies,
120 ; defeated at Waterloo,
122 ; is sent to St. Helena,
123 ; death of, 163 ; his remains
are given back to France, 187 ;
orator, 134.
Napoleon II., King of Rome, 294
Napoleon III. at Strasburg, 184 ;
at Boulogne, 187 ; elected
president, 275 ; presidency of,
277 et seq. ; conflict of, with
the Assembly, 281 ; plans of,
285 ; tours of, in the provinces,
286 ; presidential message of
November 1851, 289; coup
d'etat of December, 290 ; pro-
claimed emperor, 294 ; first
acts of, 295 et seq. ; financial
laws and social reforms, 300 ;
the Crimean war, 302 et seq. ;
the Italian independence, 305
et seq. ; economical policy, 310
et seq. : the Mexican war, 315 ;
the Schlesvvig-IIolstein dispute,
323 ; the liohenzollern candi-
dature, 334 ; the Franco-
German war, 336 ; Wilhelm-
shohe, 337
Navarino, naval combat of, 169
Necker, minister of Louis XVI.,
2; dismissed, 13 ; recalled, 14 ;
resigns, 23
Nelson, Admiral, at Aboukir, 63 ;
before Copenhagen, 83 ; at
Trafalgar, 94
Neresheim, battle of, 54
Nerwinden, battle of, 36
Netherlands, th Republicans into,
46
Neufchatel, ceded to France, 95
Neumarkt, Bonaparte forces the
passage of, 58
Neutrals, League of, 83
Neuville, Alphonse de, 440
Neuwied, battle of, 58
Ney, Marshal, 95 ; in Galicia,
103 ; joins Napoleon in 1815,
119; execution of, 154
Nice, 56 ; annexed to France, 308
Nicolas, Czar of Russia, 303
Nikolsburg, preliminaries of, 323
Nobility, the, before 1789, 2 et
seq. ; destruction of, 19
Nodier, Charles, 200
Nonjurant priests, 28 et seq. ;
liberty restored to, 78
Normal High School, foundation
of, 48
Normandy, revolutionary agita-
tion in, 35
Novara, battle of, 279
November, decree of the I2th of,
1792, 35 ; presidential message
of, 1850, 286
Novi, battle of, 67
O
October, the 1st and 6th of, 17
Odilon Barrot, 178 ; 196 ; premier,
277
Offenbach, 451
Ohnet, Georges, 404
INDEX.
483
Ollivier, Emilc, 304 ; premier, 332
Orfila, 259
Orleans, battle of, 341
Orleans, Duke of, Louis- Philippe's
eldest son, 190
Orsini, bomb outrage of, 304 ct
set/.
Otranto, French garrison in, 82
Oudinot, General, 279
Pailleron, Edouard, 403
Palais Royal, Camille Desmoulins
at the, 13
Palikao, General Cousin de Mon-
tauban, Count of, 316 ; premier,
336
Papal States, they become French
departments, 82, 101 ; attacked
by Garibaldian volunteers, 326
Paris, the revolution in, 13-15
royalist reaction of 1795, 51
the 1 8th Fructidor in, 60 ; occu
pied by the Allies, 108, 122
revolt of July 1830 in, 169 etseq.
republican rising of 1832, 180
of 1834, 181 ; popular agitation
of May 1839, 1 86 ; congress o '
1856 at, 304 ; siege of, 341
capitulation, 342 ; commune of
346 et sec/.
Paris, Count of, 196, 355
Parliaments, before 1789, 2
dissolutions of, 18
Parma, revolutionary movement
in, 309
Pasquier, minister, 152
Pasteur, 455-461
Paucher, minister, 288
Paul I., Czar of Russia, 83
Pelletan, Camille, 318
Penal legislation, 93
Percier, 148
Perier, Casimir, minister, 163 ;
premier, 179: death of, 180 ;
orator, 235
Perier, Casimir, president, 391
Persigny, minister, 319
Petraupolosk, demonstration be-
fore, 303
Peyronnet, de, minister, 162
Philippeville, France deprived of,
125
Physiocrats, the, 135 et seq.
Piacenza, battle of, 56
Picard, Ernest, 304, 331
Pichegru, General, 45, 51 ; Presi
dent of the Council of Five
Hundred, 60, 86
Piedmont invited to intervene, 24 ;
defeated by French arms, 46, 56;
annexed by Bonaparte, 85 ;
joins the Crimean expedition,
305 ; war against Austria, 307
et set/.
Pilnitz, declaration of, 28
Pinel, 150
Pitt, William, the second Coalition
and, 66 ; refuses to ratify the
convention of El Arish, 83
Pius VII., Pope, signs the Con-
cordat, 79 ; crowns Napoleon,
93 ; refuses to adhere to the
Continental Blockade, loo
Pius IX., Pope, the Roman revo-
lution and, 278-80 ; the Sylla-
bus, 322
Plain, the party of the, 33
Pluviose, law of 28th, 76
Poincare, 452
Poland, third partition of, 47 ;
Napoleon in, 98
Polignac, de, 126 ; premier,
167
Pondicherry, surrendering of, 36
Ponsard, 212, 395 et seq.
Pont-Noyelle, combat of, 361
Portalis, 60
Portugal, resists Bonaparte, 82;
Junot's campaign in, 100 ;
French troops beaten in, 102 ;
Soult's failure in reconquering,
103
Positivism, a philosophical system,
238
Pradier, 249
Prague, treaty of, 323
Dii
the 30th, 67
Prairial, ruin of the Directory on
Prenzlau, surrender of Bliicher at,
96
INDEX.
Presburg, treaty of, 95
Press, under the Revolution, 23 ;
liberty promised, 1 14 ; deposit
of a security required, 159;
censure restored, 160, 162, 165;
abolished, 166 ; restored again,
169, 172, 182; the Revolution
of 1848 and the, 267 ; law of
July 1850, 263 ; Acts of May
and July 1861, 313 ; of May
1863, 327 ; of December 1875,
363; of July 1 88 1, 375
Prevost, Marcel, 418
Prevost-Paradol, 436
Pritchard, English missionary,
191
Procedure, unification of the
French legal, 93
Protais, 440
Proud'hon, 228, 230
Provence, Count of, 59
Provisional Government of 1848,
196 ; financial difficulties, 267
Provisional Government of 1870
proclaimed, 336 ; at Tours,
341 ; end of, 356
Provost's courts, 154
Prud'hon, 147
Prussia, the French Revolution
and, 24 -8; war declared against
35 ; peace with, 47 ; enters the
League of Neutrals, 83 ; peace
of Presburg, 95 ; Napoleon in,
96 ; peace of Tilsit, 99 ; allies
with Russia, 106 ; war against
Austria, 323 ; against France,
335 et seq. _
Public Salvation, Committee of,i8,
36, 38, 45
Pulstusk, battle of, 98
Puvis de Chavannes, 445
Quatrefages, ,de, 458
Quiberon, landing of emigres at,
47
Quinet, Edgard, 225
R
Radicals, 157 (note)
Raflet, 247
Ramier, 459
Rastadt, battle of, 54
Rationalist school, 9
Ravignan, Pere de, 236
Reactionaries, 157 (note)
Regime, the Ancient, I et seq. ;
destruction of, 15, 18, 24; the
letters at the end of, 129
Regnauft, Henri, 443 et seq.
Reischoffen, battle of, 335
Remusat, de, 195
Renan, 144, 427 et seq., 433
Renouvier, 429 et seq.
Rentes, conversion of the, 183,
3i6
Restoration, the First, iii-i6;
Napoleon's return, 117
Restoration, the Second, 152-70
Revolution, the French, of 1789,
declaration of the rights of
man, 1 1 ; storming of the Bas-
tille, 14 ; night of the 4th of
August, 15; famine and bank-
ruptcy, 17 ; decrees against
emigrants, 20 ; war against
Austria, 29 ; insurrection in
Paris, 31 ; abolition of royalty,
33 ; Louis tried and condemned
to death, 34 ; war with Britain
and Holland, 35 ; Reign of
Terror, 39 et seq, ; insurrection
in Paris suppressed by Bona-
parte, 52
Revolution of 1830, character of,
1 74 ; hostility excited in Europe
by, 177
Revolution of 1848, 195 et seq. ;
social and political consequence
of, 261 et seq.
Revolutionary tribunal, 38
Reyer, 451
Rhenish confederation, 95, 99
Rhine, the revolutionary armies
on the, 54, 58, 61; the left bank
of, ceded to France, 62
Ribot ministry, 391
Ricardo, 136
INDEX*
485
Richelieu, Duke of, premier, 155 ;
resigns, 159; returns to power,
160 ; resigns again, 162
Right divine, doctrine of, 113
Rights of Man, Declaration of
the, II et seq., 15, 24 ; associa-
tion of the, 181
Rio-Seco, battle of, 101
Rivarol, 130
Rivoli, battle of, 57
Robespierre, 23 ; demands the
trial of Louis XVI., 34; puts
Hebert and Danton to death,
39 ; fall of, 40 ; orator,
!33
Rochebouet, General de, premier,
373
Rochefort, 436
Roederer, 92
Roland, Girondin minister, 29
Roland, Mme., 130
Roll, 444
Romagna, revolutionary move-
ment in, 309
Roman, question, 314 ; convention
of October 1864, 321
Roman Republic, 278-80
Romantic school, 208
Rome, occupied, 101 ; French
garrison in, 309
Rome, the king of, 104, 123
Rosny, 418
Rossi, prime minister, 278
Rouget de I'lsle, 149
Rouher, 288 ; premier, 319 ei
seq. ; president of the senate,
330
Rousseau, Theodore, 441
Royer Collard, 157, 163, 173,
236
Rude, 248 et seq.
Russia, joins the coalition against
France in 1799, 66 ; and in
1805, 94 ; continues war against
France in 1807, 96 et seq. ;
invasion of, in 1812, 105; joins
the Allies in 1813, 106 ; and in
1814, 121 ; the Crimean war,
303 et seq. ; friendly relations of,
with France, 387
8
Sacrilege Act, 164
Sadowa, battle of, 323
Safely, Law of General, 306
Saint- Arnauld, General, 289
St. Bernard, Napoleon's crossing
of the, 8 1
St. Dizier, battle of, 108
St. Etienne, rising in, 181
St. Helena, captivity of Napoleon
at, 123 ; Napoleon's death in,
163
St. Jean d'Acre, siege of, 63
Saint- Just, 133
Saint Marc Girardin, 228
St. Ouen, declaration of, 114
St. Quentin, battle of, 341
Saint-Saens, 451
Saint-Simon, 228 et seq.
Sainte-Beuve, 144, 199, 227, 422
et seq.
Sainte-Claire Deville, 454
Salvandy, 192
San-Domingo, 46 ; insurrection at,
86
San-Giorgio, battle of, 57
Sand, Georges, 144, 201 et seq.,
396 5 407
Saragossa, French troops beaten
at, 102
Sarcey, Francisque, 426
Sardou, Victorien, 402
Sarrelouis, France deprived of,
125
Savoy, 56 ; annexed to France,
308
Saxony, at Tilsit, 99 ; at Vienna,
103
Say, Jean Baptiste, 136
Say, Leon, 438, 440
Schefier, Ary, 244
Scherer, General, 66
Schneider, minister, 287
Schwarzenberg, 107
Scribe, 396
Sebastiani, General, 159, 172
Sebastopol, siege of, 303
Security, Committee of General,
36
Sedan, capitulation of, 336
486
INDEX.
Senegal, France increases her
territory in, 379
September, the 3rd of, 1791, 24 ;
decree of the 5th of, 1816, 156;
laws of, 182
Septennate, 356
Serre, de, 157 ; orator, 239
Servan, Girondin minister, 29
Sicily, Garibaldian volunteers in,
39
Sieyes, 23 ; judgment cf, upon the
National Convention, 32 ; con-
stitutional projects of, 69 etseq.\
President of the College of
Conservators, 73
Simon, Jules, 349; premier, 372,
438 et set],
Smith, Adam, 136
Smolensk, Napoleon enters, 105
Socialists, in 1848, 268 ; party in
1893. 395
Soissons, battle of, 108
Soldau, battle of, 98
Sorel, Albert, 435
Soult, Marshal, 102 ; premier, 180,
1 86, 1 88; resigns, 194
Soumet, 210
Souvaroff, General, 66
Spain, invited to intervene in
France,*24 ; hostilities declared
against, 35 ; invaded by French
arms, 46 ; peace with, 53 ;
affairs of, 100-106 ; war of 1823,
162
Spanish marriages, 191
Stael, Mme. de, 129, 137, 139-44
et seq.
States General, composition of, 2 ;
summoned, 4; meeting of, 5 etseq.
Stendhal, 199 et seq.
Steyer, armistice of, 82
Stofflet, Vendean chief, 99
Stokach, Jourdan defeated at,
66 ; Kray defeated at, 81
Sue, Eugene, 205
Supreme Being, cult of, 40
Suspects, law against, 38
Sweden, League of Neutrals and,
83 ; enters the third Coalition,
94; supports Alexander against
Napoleon, 105
Switzerland, 84 ; constitution of,
85
Sydney Smith, Admiral, 83
Syene, Napoleon at the cataracts
of, 63
Syllabus, the, 322
Syria, Napoleon in, 63
Tabago, surrender of, 36
Tafna, treaty of, 193
Tahiti, incident at, 191
Taine, 424-8 ; 432 et seq.
Talavera, battle of, 103
Talleyrand, 72 ; the proclamation
of Cambrai and, 124; minister,
126 ; minister again, 152 : signs
the preliminaries of peace, 155
Taranto, French garrison in, 82
Temple, the royal family in the
prison of the, 29 ; death of
Louis XVII. in, 59
Tennis Court, session of the, 7
Terror, Reign of, 18, 31 et seq., 39,
45, 51 ; the White, 154
Thabor, battle of Mount, 63
Theatre Libre, 404
Thermidor, fall of Robespierre on
the 9th, 40 ; Senatus-Consult
of, 80
Theuriet, Andre, 408
Thierry, Augustin, 220 et seq.
Thiers, 173 ; the Right Centre and,
178 ; minister under the premier-
ship of Marshal Soult, 180;
remains, 182; resigns, 184;
summoned, 187 ; opposed to
Napoleon III., 318 ; speaks on
the Address in 1864, 320 ; calls
for explanations and delay,
before the declaration of the
Franco-German war, 335, 336 ;
travels in Europe, 341 ; chief
of the Executive, 343 et seq. ;
leader of the Left Centre, 366;
death of, 374 ; historian and
orator, 225 et seq., 235, 437
Thibaudeau, 49, 75
Third, Consolidation of the, 65
Third Estate, 2 el seq.
INDEX.
487
Thortias Ambroise, 450
Tilsit, treaties of, 98 et seq.
Tirarcl ministry, 386
Tisserand, 453
Tocqueville, de, 223 et seq., 432
Tolentino, peace of, 58
Tonquin, expedition to, 379> 3^ 2
Tony, Robert Floury, 441
Torres- Vedras, combat of, 106
Tortona, occupied by France, 56
Toulon, surrender of, 38 ; siege
of, 54 ; the French army leaves,
for Egypt, 63
Toulouse, battle of, III
Trade guilds, suppression of, 1 8,
19
Trade Union Act, 376
Trafalgar, naval combat of, 94
Trebbia, battle of, 66
Tribunal, 76 et seq. ; partial
renewals in the, 80 ; loses
publicity for its meetings, 90 ;
suppressed, 91
Trinidad, kept by England, 84
Trocadero, storming of the, 163
Trochu, General, 336
Troplong, senator, 296
Trousseau, 258
Troyon, 442
Tudela, battle of, 1 02
Tuileries, the mob invades the, 29
Tunisia, expedition to, 370
Turgot's memorial to the king, 2
Turkey, defeated in Egypt, 63, 65,
83 ; Alexander concludes peace
with, 104
Turin, 56 ; Moreau forced to take
refuge in, 66 ; treaty of, 308
Tuscany, 82 ; revolutionary move-
ment in, 309
U
Ukerath, battle of, 58
Ulm, General Kray driven behind,
8 1 ; capitulation of Mack at,
94
Ultramontane manifestations, 371
University of France, foundation
of the, 77 ; laws of March 1850
on, 281 et seq.
Valencia, battle of, 102
Valenciennes, occupation of, 38
Valmy, battle of, 31
Varennes, arrest of the king at, 24
Vatimesnil, de, 166
Vauchamps, battle of, 108
Velpeau, 259
Vendee, royalist insurrection in,
35 ; troops despatched to, 45 ;
attempt at insurrection in, 78 ;
insurrection of 1815, 121 ;
legitimist movement of 1832,
1 80
Vendemiaire, I3th, 52
Venice, Republic of, 58 ; ceded to
Austrians, 62 ; to Italy, 95, 323
Verdun, occupation of, 3 1
Vergniaux, member of the National
Convention, 27 ; orator, 133
Verlaine, Paul, 422
Vernet, Charles, 148
Vernet, Horace, 245, 440
Verona, seized by Bonaparte, 56 ;
combat of, 57
j Versailles, meeting of the States
General at, 5 ; Louis XVI.
leaves, 14; returns to, 15;
famished crowd at, 17 ; pre-
liminaries of, 342; the Con-
stituent Assembly in, 345
Veuillot, Louis, 435
Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy,
3M
Vienna, 54 ; Moreau advances on,
82 ; Napoleon enters, 94 ; enters
again, 102 ; treaty of, 103 ;
Congress at, 1 21
Viennet, 212
Vigny, Alfred de, 144, 199, 200,
211, 217
Villafranca, preliminaries of, 308
Villele, minister, 161 ; premier,
162 et seq. ; resigns, 166
Villemain, 171; minister, 192;
critic, 227
Villeneuve-Bargemont, 228
Vilna, Napoleon at, 105 ; engage-
ment of, 106
Villers Bretonneux, combat of, 341
488
INDEX.
Villersexel, combat of, 342
Vimeira, battle of, 102
Yincennes, Duke cTEnghien shot
at, 87
Violle,. le Due, 449
Vionville, battle of, 336
Visconti, 250, 449
Vitloria, battle of, 106
Vitrolles, de, 126
Volney, 130
Voltaire, 128, 144
Vote, Law of the Double, 160
Vulpian, 459
W
Waddington's ministry, 380
Wagram, battle of, 102
Wallon amendment, 360
Warsaw, acquired by Prussia, 47;
Napoleon at, 98
Waterloo, battle of, 122
Wattignies, battle of, 45
Wissemburg, the, allies driven
back at, 45 ; battle of, 335
Wellington, General, 106 ; in-
vades France, 107; at Bordeaux,
in ; at Waterloo, 122
Wertingen, battle of, 94
Westermann, General, 45
Westphalia, creation of the king-
dom of, 99
Wesel given to France, 95
William, King of Prussia, 335
Witepsk, occupied by Napoleon,
IO S
Wurmser, General, in Italy, 56
et seq.
Wurtemberg, Duke of, 95
Wurtz, 454
Wurtzburg, battle of, 56
Yvon, 440
Znaym, armistice of, 103
Zola, Emile, 41 1 et seq.
Zurich, battle of, 67 ; treaty of, 308
TP^
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