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j» O O:
THE MONARCHY
THE MIDDLE CLASSES.
FRANCE
SOCIAL, LITERARY, POLITICAL,
SECOND SERIES.
BY HENRY LYTTON BULWER, Esq. M.P.
Nature and truth are the same every where, and reason shows them everj'
where alike. But the accidents and other causes, which give rise and
growth to opinions both in speculation and practice, are of infinite variety.
Boliiigbruke on the true Use of Retirement and Studu.
Keverere conditores Deos, numina Deorum. Reverere gloriam veterem,
et hanc ipsam senettutem quae in homine venerabilis, in urbibus sacra est.
Sit apud te honor antiquitati, sit ingentibus facti, sit fabulis quoque, nihil e.\
cujusquara dignitate, nihil ex libertate, nihil etiam ex jactatione decerpseris.
Pllnius Majcimo Siio S.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON :
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
I63G.
LONDON:
SCHULZE AND CO. 13, POLAND STREET.
-DC
CONTENTS
OF THE SECOND VOLUME
BOOK V.
SOCIAL CONDITION.
CHAPTER I.
Page
The two questions still left to trial — The condition
of society and the method of government among
the French people 3
MANNERS.
CHAPTER n.
The sociabihty of the French — Charm of French
society — Descriptions, traits, sayings — Facts. ... 6
inr^soo9
IV CONTENTS.
YOUNG FRANCE.
CHAPTER III.
Page
Modem Cataline — Journalist — Dramatist — Suicides
— Son of a tallow-chandler — Monsieur Marmote
Fathay — Baron de Royalist — Doctrinaire —
Artist — Young Doctors, and Philosophers of the
hour 41
SOCIAL STATE. ^
CHAPTER IV.
Describe different classes of French society — The
middle class is different in France from the mid-
dle class elsewhere, and more embrued with the
spirit of other classes — Still the character of the
shop-keepers on the whole prevails — Chamber,
Jury, National Guard, etc. in the hands of this
class 74
THE ARISTOCRACY.
CHAPTER V.
Aristocracy still found in the drawing-room — Driven
from the forum — Origin of government of the
middle class — Bonaparte's two aristocracies —
CONTENTS. V
Page
Destruction of majorats — Impossibility of here-
ditary peerage in France — Law respecting present
peerage and fault of 82
STATE OF THE WORKING CLASSES.
CHAPTER VI.
State of Working Class more favourable than for-
merly — Di\nsion of Property — Sa\ang Banks and
Associations — Population in Towns and Country
— The Population in the former require Poor
Laws — System existing — But though the people
in towns are badly off, this is rather on account
of dissipated habits than want of wages — How
to remedy this — Immediate necessity for im-
proving the Working Classes, since the govern-
ment which has passed the Aristocracy must
descend to them — Police regulations promoting
order amongst them — Causes of late disor-
ders, &c 101
EQUALITY.
CHAPTER VII.
Equahty to be discovered in the preceding Chapters
— King of England first gentleman in his king-
dom — King of the French first citizen — The
effect of the law does in France what the law
did by compulsion in Florence — Social advan-
vi CONTENTS.
Page
tages of equality — Political results uncertain —
Struggles between opinions and manners, be-
tween local government and centralization 129
BOOK VI.
CENTRALIZATION.
CHAPTER VIII
La Revolution a desosse la France — Idea of the
Convention — of Bonaparte — Circumstances of
France and England in respect to centralization
— Late changes in system in France — Existing
administration 137
CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
CHAPTER IX.
Minister of Finance and system of Taxation —
Minister of Justice and Judicial system — Mi-
nister of Police, and the origin, effect and attri-
butes of that office — Minister of Commerce,
Commercing Chambers, etc. — Minister of In-
struction, system of education, etc. — Minister of
the Interior, and departmental and government
divisions 144
CONTENTS. VU
MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
CHAPTER X
Page
The Army — ^The Legion of Honour — The National
Guard 196
CENTRALIZATION.
CHAPTER XI.
Conchiding Remarks 254
CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.
CHAPTER XII.
Right of Election — Mode of electing — Eligibility —
Proceedings of the Chamber — Laws and proposi-
tions — Constituency considered and Chamber
dissected 268
SUMMARY.
CHAPTER Xm.
Review of past work — The amalgamation of dif-
ferent effects proceeding from different causes
— Modern France the consequence of former
history and recent institutions — Whether equality
sprung from one and coloured by the other is
viil CONTENTS.
Page
compatible with free government — Tl\e effects
of centralization and of a small constituency —
Monarchy of the middle classes as it is, as it
might be 281
POLICY
OF PRESENT ADMINISTRATION.
CHAPTER XIV.
'flie existing government in France a government of
resistance, and why it is so — Considered as to
where it should resist, and how resist — Has re-
sisted open violence, popular representation and
the press — How far justifiable — Recent laws
against the Press — How far Avrong — Character
of administration — Necessary poUcy of govern-
ment 29^
POSTSCRIPT.
CHAPTER XV.
Two comparisons between France and England. . . .
Appendix 3i
NKRALaDMINISTR
NUMERICAL STATEMENT OF THE INDIGENT POPULATION OF PAKIs!
AND STATISTIC INFORMATION RESPECTING THE SAME.
FOR THE YEAR 183.'.
DET.-llLS OF INFORM.\T£ON.
ARRON DISSE.M ENTS.
10 II 12
#
idigent to the general Population
1 f Annually
(Women
Girla..'..
CIVIL CONDITION, fMarried Persons..
1 Widowers
1 Bachelors
13,096
63,966
It married in Paris
eil, •
Bom oui
J Bom 01
. ) mai-ried out of Paris, or widowi
I whose [ilace of marriage ia unknown
Under the age of 60
Orphans. . .
from OO to 64 years .
from 65 to 71 years .
from 75 to 79 years .
from 90 to 99 years .
,N LNUKRia l3 Cluldrcn
e OP agk. U Cliildren and above.,
i \vilhout children under 12 years
Aged sen-i
Chanvoroe
Children's
Porters and Bnskct-womeii
y Without trade or husineas
c
s if-l
I fU
I i!i
16' S?-
Ill i;l
'■l M
h III
■ '■ t~^
: ! : ?E.S.
g.ggga , „ „ --_„ . „ „_
1 1
piHiHiii Pii It mil
'■'P ■ til! •■« ^p^l
g ?f S" ari II
1 " i
|Uf}p-t|!t llll I il lit
i 1 1
not fined.
do.
by the work
bythe^work
length of
days.
r ?fsf ss 1 s
1 ' i
Workmen generally spend from 20 to 30 sols a day for their food.
their lodging is fr. a-monlh. But it will readily be understood, that
This applies to those who live at the colore/—
nothing is fixed on this subject — that is to say,
ugh dissipation ; but the mean terra is from
5 "^ S
Limoiisin
Paris
do.
m
i ■• • = = 1 1 s 8 = si i si 8
iis-g |i is
'rissl'i'i";''
•iJil J rii i! W^ifJ! i fli
Quarcllers, violent in their
hatreds.
Pretty good; but as they
have not much confidence
they attuch thcmselvea to
no particular mastec.
Good workmen.
Frequently beg in order to
save — sober — wanting
Very laborious.
Idle.
Amimreofall.
Vicious and dissatisfied.
1
1 ? I
? ° J
|frpUi||-f-||||i
If
i i
j
5» »»- J
i I
2|
1
f "ll
^i!!Witlf!fiP![HpP!!rl
only apply to the fine
withrcapcct to work-
men employed in
houae-lmilding. In
bad weather, they
work according to the
length of day, and a
deduction (s made
from their wages, for
the difference between
1
SCHEDUtS «, THE EP.C.E.ED NUMOE. O, .OLD...,.
" CONDEMNED.
1 l_
1
1
<
^•S"
1
1
■s
1
1
8
1
1
i
f3
1
1
all
Pi
ill
587
9
181
ii
96
aJ7
437
339
1.362
1
247
706
176
K"™'" {'°',Ji"'"i™;'.:::' ■•;:;:
SuljstitutM . . . . •[ f",'| ' ' . "■ ' *" "
Piipilsof themiUlar)J i .
coUtfges I r..i
Gagistes., |fur*<,ilier'olk'me<
922
466
1.871
Total
6,858
75
?3
391
130
308
1.149
2.556
4.627
14
2.217
6,3SS
0.933
106
395
■ 32
308
1 152
2.562
4.655
.4 J2.26.
r'"""
e line, and light comjianie
Foieign legiun and Zoua
3.996
56
247
75
213
667
1.558
2,816
,
1172
3,996
260
626
493
1S4
176
493
97
198
1 i 7
','. 1 15
t
!i
79
65
109
::
87
97
199
15
••
■^
.,
le
43
3
3
2
18
5
^31
^
^?2
43
il
9
26
g
9
106
133
97
i'
90
li
6.858
11
391
130
308
1.140
2.556
4.627
'!
2,21
6.858
6.933
106
396
132
308
1.152
2.562
4.655
14
2.364
6.933
Non-commissioDecI officer
Corporals or brigadiern . .
Soldiers, rank and Hie, mi
peters, workmen, recnii
Natives of conquered c<
Total . . .
GrandTolal ,6,
1 J^
176
1 216
|6,451
86
16
if
I
1,137
i
79
14 2.002
176
219
6,451
1 0.853
1 '^
93
391
130
308
1.1,9
2.556
4.027
'.*. '■ «
6,858
76
1 0.933
106
395
132
308
1.1.52
2.502
4.055
14 2.264
6.933
iban 1 year J for other offences. .
Having served from 1 for denertion
4 years j for otlier ofiencee. .
Having served (roralfonles
6 to B years J for otlier offences. .
Having served above 1 for desertion
8 years J for other oSences, .
897
5
5«
,„,
Ma
515
.,
378
897
817
2°06
19
195
65
'u
,?iS
1,116
V
746
049
3,466
169
116
169
'%
5
'!
29
18
19
405
039
3
227
140
869
7a
64
6
20
■i
'!
27
16!
2"
V
139
374
6.858
93
391
130
308
1.149
2.550
4.027
14
«,?17
6.858
75
13
''
^
28
■•
47
7S
0.933
lOO
395
132
308
..152
2.502
4.055
2.26.
0.933
(jrand Total..
6th TABLE. PERSONS CHARGED CLASSED UNDER '• L'INSTHUCTION PRIMAIRE."
Having b
Not lim-in
g signed t
«ign their exatninat
on 3.070
3.257
39
67
162
66
67
112
560
592
1:220
2'.204
«
'985
3.676
0,933
106
395 133
30.
1,152
2,502
4.055
1.
2,204
6,933
2.
3- -;
4.-
4.-
6.
7. C
8—1
9.
1 0. (
To-
9
9
95
258
385
5
344
490
726
75
52
326
11
784
1,255
12
394
460
666
92
68
472
20
1,154
Comr
11 T
12. A
13. R
14. C
al
I 1,950 2,787
1,839
45
873
1,266
2,033
84
46
477
11
1,155
157
87
6
67
148
87
81
6,056
401
235
18
223
1,783
21
753
1,195
1,912
145 784 70
1,312 8,625 „
30
1,625
i 2,267 3,111
6,93 3
5,664
190
153
14
160
3,381
99
4,192
5,299
240 „
17,070 „
28,762 45
572 50
24,942 10
31,146 30
6,268 1 32,914 82
19,2391 118,338 17
nnulled.
s heard.
6,181
126
1,892
1,228
159
886
15,167 8
15,504 1
947 60
6,260 30
23,404|!156,217 97
660
6,307 24,064
[To face i.:i!;i>217— vol. ii.
SPECIFICATION OF CHIMES.
i
■ C„.„V,.,: O, THE ...ECIFIEO NUMBER O, »OI.,„E»S CONDEMNS,..
■■n'i'°
DCLE
FTH.
.AMI
i
s
1
:
1
^ CONDEMNED.
11
m
1
1
IJi
1
1i
1
-,.--" —
Si
1
1 i
1
■2
i
^
1
}
1
^
"■1-
1
l.s
1
ii
1
•s
i
1
1
Militarj' offences (provided against by the
military code.)
1. Desertion to the enemy, or in face of
92
68
4?2
16
I
56
2
3
67
339
646
;;
7
92
68
472
7
9
9
9S
7
76
326
784
92
68
472
46
477
37
1.625
3. — to the interior by change of resolution
4. — to the interior ivith arms and uniform
4. — to the interior, not singly, but with
others
6.- 10 Ihe interior singly
784 70
8,625 „
17,070 ,','
Total of desertion
7. OffeiKe-; cki-^-ed under the heads o
S. — II' ■ . '. !■ -iihiirdination.,
9,-1,1 ' ■ ! ■1. ft-;, breach o
um-i. .li-l, -r iii.l bribery
ICi. OaeiiLTs other than tliose above speci
1,839
S73
1,266
2,033
9
299
36
91
9
462
290
117
623
1,146
1.129
1,633
=
706
369
374
399
1,939
873
1,266
2,033
199
316
726
460
666
1,839
873
1,266
1,7S3
753
1.195
1,912
3,381
4,192
6,299
6,26s
28,762 45
572 SO
24,942 10
31.146 30
Total of military offences, indusive of
6,056
■:
16
7
'i
',
2.177
206
106
4,165
[
i
1,319
96
61
75
1,950
157
87
6
67
2,787
87
6,056
5,664
190
14
19,239
1.892
159
886
Common offences (provided against by the
civil courts)
1 1 Thefts from private cilinens
12. Assassinations and assaults
13. Rapes, and offences against morals . .
14. Common offences, other than those
above specified
15,167 8
'947 60
6,260 30
Grand Total. ...
6.933
106
395
.32
308
1,152
2.56 2
4,655
"
2,264
6.933
1,555
2,267
3,111
6,93 3
126
6.307
660
24,064
1156,217 97
Total of sentences declared, and of witnesses heard.
m
EKRATA TO VOL.. II.
Page 1, line 1, /or trial reai treat.
10, „ 13, for Englishmen read Englishman.
19, „ 25, for suite of rooms you enter are fine read rooms
you enter fine.
32, „ 11, /or lady with Ihree daughters re<z(Z lady with her
young !st daughter.
'0, „ 1, /or prostitutioi reurf promiscuous intercourse.
74 to 134. There is a mi take in the heading — since the
title " Social Condition" ought still to have
continued on one page, and the subject of the
different chapters on the other.
123, „ 22, for impossible read possible.
■ 144, „ 4, for commercing read commercial.
government read governmental.
150, „ 23, for central read control.
163, „ 8, for A jury of thirty-six read A jury of thirty.
167, „ 12, for constitution read construction.
172, „ 11, for their condemnation read the confinement
they were condemned to.
180, „ 13, for there are in France read there are in France
for secondary instruction.
181, „ 18, /or commercial college reacJ communal college.
209, „ 25, for 44 read \\.
210, „ 3, for half-pence read pence.
229, „ 11, /or altogether rea<f almost.
244, „ 8, for half- penny read id.
246, „ 5, for am painting read have painted.
25.3, „ 19, for at once as an aid, a check,rea(i at once an
aid and check.
259, „ 22, for every private establishment read all private
establishments.
VOL. II.
BOOK V.
SOCIAL CONDITION.
But we'll descant on general nature.
This is a system, not a satire. — Prior's Poems.
VOL. II.
THE MONARCHY
MIDDLE CLASSES,
SOCIAL CONDITION.
CHAPTER I.
The two questions still left to trial — The condition of
society and the method of government among the French
people.
The reader who has kindly followed me thus
far, will be sensible that I have very imper-
fectly, but still with some industry, attempted
to bring before him a variety of subjects which
lead me naturally to those I am now entering
upon.
In the first volume, after a description of the
gay capital of France, to which a voyager's
B 2
4 SOCIAL CONDITION.
attention is first directed, I sought for the
peculiar characteristics of the French people.
Those characteristics, partly the effect of tem-
perament, f3ut partly likewise the effect of ac-
cident and custom, induced me to travel back
over such events as it was fair to presume the
present generation had been affected by. The
state of existing parties, (the postcript to all
past history,) furnished me then of necessity
with a few pages. But, from the character and
history of a people arise certain influences by
w^hich present parties, sometimes sensibly,
sometimes less visibly, are directed towards the
future.
Such influences I ventured to describe. One,
however, was omitted ; for I felt anxious to
trace its power through the organs by which
an age expresses itself, before I treated directly
of itself. Literature in its various branches,
including the press — religion, and those new
doctrines Avhich are called philosophies — all
furnished me with proofs that the state of pro-
perty in a country extends over every thing
within it. Thus I came to the state of pro-
perty in France; — and of that I have just been
speaking.
Now, it is on the character, on the history,
on the state of property in a nation — expressed
MANNERS. 5
in various ways — that the social condition,
and the method of government in that nation,
depend.
These are the two questions still left to us:
The condition of society — the method of go-
vernment — in France !
SOCIAL CONDITION.
MANNERS.
CHAPTER 11.
The sociability of the French — Charm of French society —
Descriptions, traits, sayings — Facts.
The first thing that strikes one in social
France, is the characteristic sociabihty of the
French people. A Frenchman cannot be alone ;
he lives for the movement of a crowd and
the clang of conversation. You would hardly
find, from Calais to Marseilles, three persons
of that large class in England, but more es-
pecially in Germany, who pass their lives
with their own thoughts. No reputation that
Frenchmen possess — no situation in which
they are, can reconcile them to the loss —
not of friendly intercourse with those whom
MANNERS. 7
they esteem and love — that we all prize : — no :
what they pine at losing is — the jargon and
chatter of a parcel of persons totally indiiferent
to them. There was Madame de Stael, who
saw only, in the success of her works, the
filling of her drawing-room* ! and so, even in
the woods of America, " my countryman," says
Lemontey " will often quit his cabin, and take
a walk of five hundred leagues, just to have a
chat in New Orleans ! !"
The German dislikes conversation, for it
distracts him from his meditations. The Eng-
lishman dishkes conversation, for it distracts
him from his affairs. The Frenchman both
thinks and acts, in order to talk about what he
has done and reflected upon.
Thus, society is divided into small cliques
and classes, where every one, by tacit arrange-
ment, is allowed to speak of himself, and to col-
lect around him a kind of social republic,
each member of which takes a conventional
interest in the other's affairs. Every circle has
its great men, its very great men, and its
GENIUS, — like the Chinese, considering all
* " Mon salon redevint peuplee et je retrouverai ce
plaisir de causer a Paris, qui j'avoue, a toujours ete pour
moi le plus piquant de tous."
8 SOCIAL CONDITION.
without it but the corners of the world. This
renders France the only country, perhaps,
where a foreigner, going from place to place,
and from house to house, may form a juster
estimate of persons and opinions, than a na-
tive can do; for the native is less a citizen
of his city than of his clique. He sees
things through a glass, which can only carry
to a particular distance, and which only re-
presents through the medium of a particular
colour. Nothing is so happy for inferiority, or
so fatal to superiority. The one is flattered
into the belief of talent, the other into the
behef of perfection. But if the statesman and
the author suffer, it is impossible to say, with-
out experience, how much social intercourse
gains. Society becomes, in fact, a family,
invested with the charm, and yet relieved
from the monotony of relationship. The poet
feels a pride in the success of the orator, the
orator in that of the poet. The mineralogist
is enchanted with the discovery of the chemist;
and the chemist rejoices in that which has been
made by the mineralogist. The beauty takes
an interest in the conquests made by her circle,
and the chaperone, in the marriages. The stran-
ger who enters a certain drawing-room, finds
himself immediately amongst a number of
MANNERS. 9
friends, and becomes, in an instant, if he
pleases, the friend of all.
You, who observe the world, will frequently
have seen, that no one admires gaiety so
much as a person of a serious turn of mind,
and that in two bosom friends you may often
find the pattern of joviality and ease, and the
model of frigidity and formality. I believe
there is much of this in the way in which
an Englishman is struck by France, and the
attachment which, if he reside there, he will
be apt to feel for it.
Tlie easy and uncreaking manner in which
the world moves on all its hinges, the facility
with which you may see every thing that is to
be seen, and go to every place that is to be
gone to ; — the noiseless step with which yovi
glide into the circle accustomed to receive you^
and to which you are ushered by no trumpet-
sound of in\^tation; — the carelessness vnth
which you can slip from society into solitude,
and from solitude into society, without any
question as to where you have been, or any
effort to regain your dropped acquaintance ; —
the familiarity, and yet the variety, which
attends your steps, as you drive from house to
house, in search of one that shall occupy you
for the evening ; — the happy way in which
B 3
10 SOCIAL CONDITION.
letters, and science, and even politics and the
arts, are mingled together in happy and clas-
sical confusion; — all this — so different from
the well-dressed drudgery with which we toil
to keep in sight of a monotonous crowd — the
perpetual effort and the perpetual failure to be
amused — the miserable Morning Post notoriety
which ghmmers upon a miserable race, as the
substitute for reputation 5 — all this, which,
concentrated, forms a kind of sun for society,
and breathes upon it the lazzaroni feeling of
careless, voluptuous, independent enjoyment —
all this — by the worn, and stiff, and jaded Eng-
lishmen — accustomed to nothing of pleasure
but the wearisomeness of its chace — is wel-
comed with a grateful sense of delight, such
as he never before experienced, and never after-
wards forgets.
There is one difficulty, in a chapter of this
kind, which a writer necessarily has to en-
counter. Some people expect him to depicture
every drawing-room he has entered, and as a re-
turn for the civility lie has met with, to set forth
with severity the eccentricities of his hosts : —
others again accuse himof frivolity, if he descends
from dissertation, and deem that the dignity of
an author should elevate him above all descrip-
tions. A miserable and frivolous curiosity I
MANNERS. 11
should be loth to indulge ; but my object is
to interest all classes of good-natured persons ;
while I do not deem any thing beneath a
writer's attention, which amuses a reader
without perverting him, and pourtrays a
country without insulting it.
DESCRIPTIONS.
A Public Sitting of the Institute — Eloge funebre.
Behold that old grey-headed academician
in spectacles, and that young and smirking
coquette in feathers ; and that dandy with a
gold-headed cane ; and that veteran with the
grand cross of the legion of honor ! But you
are not at the Opera — nor at the Theatre Fran-
9ais — nor at the Varietes. You are at the
Institut! At a public sitting of the Institut
— and sages and soldiers, and beaux and beau-
ties, are all come to listen to yonder gen-
tleman with a manuscript before him and two
glasses of water ! Thus it is that science, as
smart as fashion, talks to the world with
the air of the world, about one of her de-
parted professors. For in France she is not
a recluse ; the finest gentlemen and ladies are
on terms of visiting acquaintance with her.
12 SOCIAL CONDITION.
THE CHAMBER OF PEERS.
This room at one of the extremities of Paris,
and in that hotel of the Luxembourg, where
the Directory, entering upon their functions
with two chairs and a table, maintained the
war fearlessly against Europe — is pretty and
unimposing, in the form of a semicircle,
and surrounded by boxes like a theatre.
Every peer has his chair and his bureau,
and from the quiet that reigns on all occa-
sions — state trials excepted — you may guess
pretty well that this assembly, though it con-
tains many of the most distinguished men of
the day, has no very active share in the
government. The most inspiring thing about
it, is the Austrian flag, which now once again
waves over the president's head, enlivened, to
all appearance, by its long sojourn in M.
de Semonville's cellar.*
THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.
" Monsieur .... gesticule beaucoup et crie
* These trophies were supposed to have been taken from
Paris at the time of the occupation ; but no : they had
been carefully and secretly — very carefully and secretly
preserved by the Grand Referendaire, who, when his
patriotism is doubted.appeals to this glorious exhumation.
MANNERS. 13
vivement de sa place ;" from this very common
and descriptive phrase, our idea of a French
deputy is taken, and if we drew from our
imagination, we should paint, as the Chamber
of Deputies, an assemblage of little gentle-
men, all gesticulating very much, and shriek-
ing from their places, in accompaniment to
one gesticulating still more, and shrieking
still louder at the tribune. But this would
not be a fair portrait. The newspapers whiteh
give these descriptions are far more gesticu-
latory than the orators they describe. The
French chamber notwithstanding the " id le
President sonne" — "■ ici la chambre est en
emeute" is upon the Avhole more orderly than
ours. No gentleman ever testifies his natural
propensity to bray or to crow, nor are there
even such \'iolent coughs caught there, as the
air of the House of Commons is frequently —
and as it seems to me, I confess, sometimes very
naturally — impregnated Mith. The interrup-
tions too, that "the orator" (to use the mag-
nificent expression given the gentleman speaking
in France,) meets with — are rather of a nature
to animate and draw him on, than to put him out.
It is not inattention, but attention which is
apt to be noisy. It is only the person ac-
customed to the agitations of popular assem-
14 SOCIAL CONDITION.
blies who experiences interruption, and he, who
if a skilful master of his art, has frequently
studied how to procure a remark, a contradic-
tion, or a smile, gladly seizes the occasion to
bring forth as an impromptu retort, the more
elaborate part of his discourse.
What would our discussions appear, if the
countenances of the audience were watched,
and its whispers noted?—" Here Mr. O'Con-
nell frowned,"—" Here Lord Stanley started,"
— " Here Sir Robert Peel looked attentive," —
" Here Lord John Russell smiled," — " move-
ment of impatience to the left" — " movement
of anger to the right," ^' the House much agi-
tated,"— the speaker evidently aifected, cried
" order three times in a sonorous voice." The
difference is more in the reporting than the
proceedings. The ringing of the bell to be sure
is indecorous, and the president's manner
too much that of a schoolmaster, who says,
" hold your tongue ! be quiet sir ! don't talk !
mind your lesson ! " etc. The tribune,
also, though less formal than one imagines
it, still gives a theatrical and rhetorical tone
to the discussion, which is admirably avoided
in the simplicity of our own debates.
MANNERS. 15
FRENCH ELOQUENCE.
The style of French eloquence, indeed, in this
popular assembly, is that which strikes an Eng-
lish listener the most, because it is what he least
expects, or is least accustomed to. With the
exception of Monsieur Dupin, who, with a
good deal of pedantry, mixes up the ease and
abruptness of our own way of speaking, re-
minding you, now of Lord Brougham, and now
of Mr. O'Connell, — with the exception of
M. Dupin, and I must add M. Thiers, who
carries into discussion all that is witty, brilliant,
and striking in conversation — with these two
exceptions, the parliamentary men of France
proceed with a stately and solemn march, totally
inconsistent with our ideas of the most frivol-
ous, and hvely, and volatile people upon earth.
Certainly it woiild be very difficult for any
one who read the two discourses translated into
German, and who was acquainted solely with
the characters of the two countries, to believe
that Lord Brougham's hght-hearted and pas-
sionate effusion on Reform was delivered by
the Lord Chancellor of England, or that Mon-
sieur Iloyer Collard's profound metaphysical
disquisition on the peerage was the popular
speech of the Chamber of Deputies. The two
16 SOCIAL CONDITION.
nations, on crossing the threshold of their re-
presentative assemblies, seem to exchange cha-
racters. The life, the animation, the action
of the French citizen passes into the English
orator. The cold, abstruse, and deeply re-
flective spirit of the English philosopher trans-
toigrates into the volatile person of the French
statesman. And this is to be remarked — even
in the first French Revolution, (except in
moments of peculiar excitement, when men
were striving for their lives, rather than
contending for any legislative theory,) the
same cold and philosophic tone was percep-
tible. The usual style of the passionate and
impetuous Mirabeau himself, whose character
and energy were rather displayed in short,
abrupt, and timely exclamations, such as the
reply to M. de Breze, than in lengthened
discourses, wore so much the appearance of
the calm meditation of the closet, that he
was commonly accused of repeating the lec-
tures of Monsieur Dumont.
How is it that the character and the elo-
quence of a people are in such direct oppo-
sition ? To say that the orator reads in the
French chamber and extemporizes in ours,
is not sufficient, since most of the French speak
•extempore, without any very apparent preme-
MANNERS. 17
ditation. Besides if the Ex-cathedra species of
oratory were not in some degree conformable
with the genius of the place, it would not
occasionally be received and admired there.
To account for this, we must remember, that —
that love for detail, and that passion for
generalities by which the two countries are
respectively characterized, are singularly re-
markable in their respective constitutions.
In England, the progress of improvement
has been slow and piecemeal; we have added
on a little here, we have cut off a little there,
and we have continued mending, and sometimes
though not frequently, adding, from casual
motives of expediency. We have argued upon
legislative questions as upon turnpike acts, but
with one exception only, we have never solved
the elements of society in order to recompose
it. We have never taken abstract views of
our form of Government, and attempted to
base it on general principles. Even in mo-
ments of change, we have adopted the lan-
guage of Burke, and considering our consti-
tution " a sacred legacy ,^^ rather asserted the
justice of restoration than the necessity of
improvement.
It rarely happened, therefore, previous to
the few last years, that in the questions
18 SOCIAL CONDITION.
agitated, there was wherewithal to engross
the whole mind and faculties of the states-
man, or deeply to excite the attention of
the assembly or the public. Doddington's
Diary furnishes us with amusing instances
of the manner in which an opposition went
about looking for a grievance. The subjects
ordinarily brought forward derived their im-
portance less from themselves than from the
opportunity they aflforded to two parties of
delivering battle. The excitement was in the
strife, and not in its cause. A personal,
passionate, amusing way of speaking, there-
fore, naturally introduced itself, wthout the
charm and colour of which a debate would
frequently have resembled Uncle Tom's dis-
pute with nephew John on the dilfFerence
between a chesnut horse and a horse ches-
nut.
In France, on the contrary, when the builder
in 1789 took the trowel into his hands, the
first stone of the building was not laid. The
principle on which it was to be deposited and
consecrated was the subject of long deliber-
ation. The rights of man were declared,
before any attempt to deduce social happi-
ness and political power from them was made.
There was enough in the gigantic questions
MANNERS. 19
which started every instant into discussion,
to fill the mind of the politician, and to
arrest the attention of those to whom he
was communicating new and important truths.
A philosophical treatise was wanted, rather
than a spirited harangue ; and it was only
at the fall of the Girondists, when princi-
ples were forgotten and persons were contend-
ing — less indeed to obtain the honors of the
state than to escape the revolutionary scaffold —
that we find frequent specimens of another
eloquence in those beautiful and impassioned
bursts — one of which escaped from Madame
Roland's unfortunate admirer, who vainly
hoped and declared that his voice — " qui plus
d'une fois avait porte la terreur dans ce palais
d'ou elle avait precipite la tyrannic, la porte-
rait aussi dans I'ame des scelerats qui vou-
laient substituer leur tyrannic a celle de la
royaute."
A BALL AT THE TUILERIES.
You drive into the court-yard, get out at
one of the great doors. The staircase to the
right is broad and straight, with two columns at
the top. The suite of rooms you enter are fine.
The first, white and plain; the second, sur-
20 SOCIAL CONDITION.
rounded by a kind of balcony and pannelled
with the pictures of different marechals. The
third, very large and handsome and leading to
another that contains a velvet canopy and
throne ; the fifth is the last.
Before you is company — such as it is des-
cribed — of a mixed kind ; " one might fancy
oneself in Heaven," said a lady near me — " for
there also, there is no distinction of persons."
This is abused and sneered at ; very ignor-
antly and ridiculously as it seems to me. A
gentleman or nobleman has his society; but
a king is of all societies. He is the head of
the nation and not the head of a clique.
At all events these balls represent France*
and the epoch, and are interesting on that
account.
A MINISTER'S RECEPTION.
Here you are struck, in most cases, by the
splendid hotel of the minister, and the manner,
simple and plain of the man. In fact you see
two parts of society, the manners of old times
and the ideas of new, but ill-joined together.
There is not a courtier but speaks the lan-
* The most magnificent balls were those of Charles the
Tenth — the best regulated and acted, Bonaparte's.
MANNERS. 21
guage of a republican,, nor a republican who
does not sit on a chair rich wdth the luxurj^ of
Louis XV.
The ministers of one end of the town receive
one night, those of the other end another.
The same troop rushes from salon to salon —
diplomats and deputies, generals and procu-
reurs generaux.
But the person for whom these soirees are
really wanted is — the provincial gentleman,
who would honestly imagine that no govern-
ment existed, if he coidd not see it, and
talk to it, and court it.
Tlie bow and the smile he receives is
hailed as ' la loi vivante,' and he enters the
court yard of the president of the council
with the same sacred feeling of security, vrith
v.hich he lays his hand upon the code of the
constitution.
A MEMBER OF THE OPrOSITION.
Monsieur lives au troisihne in a small
apartment, the salon of which opens, as is fre-
quent in France, to the chambre a coucher.
Every thing is as decent and simple as possible
in the furniture and arrangement of the apart-
22 SOCIAL CONDITION.
ment, and there is an air of respectability about
it and the owner, completely English.*
" Did you read my article in the National ?"
" I ought to know, for I was in the last cam-
paign in Spain, and I say that the array is in
a state of the most deplorable insubordination.^'
" We have nothing to do with her, (the
Duchess de Berri) she ought to be taken be-
fore the proper tribunals." " Oui, la dissection
etait tres-belle" — " of course you have a box
for Victor Hugo's new drama" — were the min-
gled sounds that I once heard, and which pro-
ceeding from no common assemblage of jour-
nalists, generals, deputies, doctors, lawyers,
and men of letters, gave an idea of the manner
in which professions in France are intermingled,
as well as of the ranks of which the opposi-
tion is composed.
BEAUTY OF THE EMPIRE.
The apartment of Madame filled with
large fauteuils, beautiful porcelaine, book-
cases, statues, bronzes, etc. is a model of
♦ Monsieur is altogether worthy of his reputation ;
moderate, sagacious, active, eloquent, and liked by all
parties, though known to be devoted to his own. On
Madame, at once remarkable for her virtue, her wit, and
her charms, even a still longer eulogium might be written.
MANNERS. 23
luxury and good taste. The lady herself
equally celebrated for her manners and her wit,
and exercising at one time no inconsiderable
influence, retains many of the charms and all
the originaHty for which she was once distin-
guished. Never was person more quick,
more vivacious, more powerful, or more extra-
ordinary in conversation.
She jumps upon a subject, kicks it here,
and kicks it there; thumps it about, "«athout
respect and in all directions; then she stops
breathless, and before you can collect yourself
for reply, seizes another subject and treats it
in the same manner. Nothing can be com-
pared to her eloquence, her fire, her manner
of deciding a question in a phrase, or painting
a person by a word. A stranger, however,
might be startled to hear her speak of Bona-
parte.
Oh ! le petit homme il etait charmant ! dents
comme des perles, toutes petites, toutes
petites — des mains mignonnes — il se parfumait
— oh ! il etait gentil, il etait gourmand — le
petit homme !
THE SUCCESSFUL JOURNALIST.
Monsieur de first hit upon a method,
since become common, of making his fortune
24 SOCIAL CONDITION.
by a paper. He announced formally, that a
society of good royalists was formed, with a
journal — his own journal of course, for their
organ. The society was generous, prizes were
to be given for the best essays, the literary
youth of France were invited to enter a noble
field of comjjetition, and the less lettered gen-
tlemen of Vv'ealth were also invited to subscribe
funds for this very laudable undertaking.
Such was the project announced during the
restoration, and when loyalty was at its height.
The prospectus took, contributions flowed in,
the society received and answered a very flowery
and golden correspondence — and who formed
the society ? and who wrote the journal ? and
who received the subscriptions ? and who
gained the prizes ?
Monsieur de alone formed the society ;
Monsieur de alone wrote the journal;
Monsieur de alone touched the subscrip-
tions; Monsieur de alone gained the
prizes.
A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD REGIME.
The Marquis de , Avith powdered hair
and a great deal of very fine linen, was all the
fashion in the time of Louis XVI, and saw
Mme. Dubarri dine with Louis XV.
MANNERS, 25
" What do you think of society now and so-
ciety then, ]Marquis r^'
" For society — to those who Hved when I did,
there is no society now. How can there be,
when here was my young friend, (bowing to a
young gentleman opposite) who was near cut-
ting my throat just now, because we do not
quite agree in pohtical opinions ? When I was
a young man, Sir, the only thought and occu-
pation was — how shall we most amuse our-
selves? All the wit, all the talent, all the
energy, which is now working itself out in such
a variety of ways, was then concentrated in
creating pleasure." " And luxury, Marquis r"
" How can you talk of luxury ? — the only
luxurious creature of modern society that
I remember, is gone, disappeared altoge-
ther. The courtezan is as antideluvian as the
mammoth. In my time she kept her carriages,
had her most beautiful and classically epicurean
apartment, or her dehghtful petite maison;
where she gave soirees far more difficult to get
to, than those of the queen. She studied the
art of giving pleasure as a science ; every thing
about her breathed that volupte and that de-
sire to which she devoted iierself — and then
her conversation Avas as piquant as her
person \"
VOL. II. C
26 SOCIAL CONDITION.
"But how did she support all this ex-
travagance }" " Oh ! she lived either with
a gambler or a grand seigneur." " I re-
member your father, Monsieur de saying,
when he had lost everything — au moins puis-
je garder Julie et un cabriolet! " " The Prince
de Soubise, in my time, kept seven figurantes
who had each their allotted night. He allowed
them lovers in the meantime, but they were
peremptorily to be of the noblesse. Poor
Segur, 1 remember, was very much in love
with one of them. Mile. Adele. " Oh ! Prince,"
said some one to him, " if you knew the pain
you give poor Segur every Tuesday !" " Mais
qiia-t-il done ?" '■'■II aime AdHe" "Quels enfans !
et pourquoi ne me Vont Us pas dit ? Elle
ne viendra jjlu^Jusqu'tl ce que cela soit passe —
cela passer a. ^^
A NOTARY.
Is my English reader a ward in chancery ?
if so, he has been more than once in Lincoln^s-
Inn. What comfortless chambers are those of
his most respectable solicitor !
Well, he goes to Paris to a small entresol in a
large hotel ! He is shewn into a little boudoir ;
— the table is covered with splendid pieces of
J
MANNERS. 27
Sevres, and the chimney-piece loaded \^'ith or-
moulu. A book-case surmounted by every va-
riety of Venus, fronts the chimney, and contains
the most richly bound, and the most splendid
gilt books in the world.
Is he at his lady's? — no j he is at his lawyers
— who will be with him in five minutes in the
splendidly brocaded dressing-gown of the cour-
tier of Louis XY.
A LITERARY LADY.
Chmb up two or three pair of stairs — pull the
bell at a small door — and enter a little room,
simple and in good taste. There is a doctor,
a couple of journalists, a poet, a bookseller,
and a mathematician ! The doctor cures his
patients by magnetism ; the journalist intends
sa"\ang his countiy by a war, a bankrujDtcy,
and the guillotine ; the poet writes long
romances, which he calls lyrics ; the bookseller
despises Walter Scott and Lord Byron, but
respects the manner in which they are printed.
The mathematician is a clever man and makes
love to the lady ; and the lady, half poet, half
journalist, half physiologist, half author, and
half coquette, talks to the doctor about magne-
tism, to the journaHst about guillotining,
to the poet about romances, to the bookseller
c 2
28 SOCIAL CONDITION.
about printing, to the mathematician about
love, and to the last visitor about all these.
A PHILOSOPHIC MODIST.
The Demoiselle F...... modist, aged twenty
years, living Rue du Faubourg St. Martin, had
contracted the bad habit of play. Gay and
pretty, she had many adorers, and some had
presented money with their heart; but her
passion for play was such, that in less than
three years she lost G0,000 francs. She
then began to seU her furniture ; and alas !
the more her distress was known, the less
pressing her lovers became. At last,
too idle to work, and too distressed to live
without it, she determined to put an end to
her existence, and chose the first day of the
year for her project.
But before lighting the charcoal, she wrote
the following letter to her mother : —
" My dear Mamma,
" Tlie year just passed has been to nie a very
^' unhappy one — I hope that the one now com-
" mencing will bring you those consolations
" you stand in need of. You know, my dear
" mamma, that for some time past my re-
" sources have been daily diminishing. It is
MANNERS. 29
" painful to live in privation after one has been
" accustomed to luxury. It is disagreeable to
" work after one has been free, and accustomed
" from early youth, to follow one's pursuits, and
" one's pleasures. Then forgive me, my dear
^' mamma, if having lost all those advantages
" I ought to have been careful of — I do not
" now want to sigh over my misfortunes.
" Alas ! my pen refuses to obey my will,
" or I would paint to you all my past tribu-
" lations. But death is waiting for me, and
" I shall be gone before midday. So I kiss
" you, my dear mamma, as I love you, that is
" to say, with all my soul.
" Your respectful daughter,
"Josephine .
"Paris, Jan. 1, 1885."
— Gazette cles Trihunaux.
A WISE COCHER DE CABRIOLET.
" They want to make me join them, Sir,
in their emeutes and nonsense.
" Ma foi," I said to myself, " Et qu'est-
30 SOCIAL CONDITION.
ce que tu as ete, toi, sous I'empire ?" " cocher
de cabriolet." — " And under Charles X ?''
" cocher de cabriolet." — " And under Louis-
Philippe ? " " cocher de cabriolet ;" — " And
if there were a republic, what would you be ?"
'' cocher de cabriolet. Alors que la dy-
nastic aille comme elle pourra. Je ne m'en
m^lerai point, moi qui ne serai jamais que
cocher de cabriolet."*
A MILITARY PORTER.
" I met my porter, yesterday," said a gay
officer to me, " my porter, who is an old soldier
of the ' vieille garde' with my sword in his hand."
" It is as bright now as ever it was," said
he. " I did not know it had ever been
soiled," said I. " Alas ! yes. Sir, I had some
words yesterday with a carabineer ; we met in
* " Faith," I said to myself, " and what have you
been — you — under the empire?"" cocher de cabriolet." —
And under Charles X ?" " cocher de cabriolet." — " And
under Louis-Philippe?" "cocher de cabriolet;" — "and
if there was a republic, what would you be ?" " cocher
de cabriolet. Then let the dynasty go on as it will.
I'll not meddle with it, who will always be — cocher de
cabriolet."
MANNERS. 31
the morning, and this weapon that you see
passed through his body.
" Pauvre gar9on ! il est tombe la raide mort."
TRAITS.
IMPORTANT NEWS.
" My dear Cecile,
" THE FATHER left yesterday the port of
" Marseilles, in the ship called ' Le Prince
" Hereditaire.' The captain's name is Vianello.
" You first announced to me his departure
" from prison. I announce to you his depar-
" TURE from the west.
" THE FATHER has quitted the west!
" let this great fact resound in the ears of all
" men and of all women ! ! ! —
" &c. &c. &c. &c.
" RODREGUER BaRRAULT.
" 24th September, year of the mother.*"
A READING.
This kind of demi-publicity still conti-
nues, and keeps the vanity of the author in
breath until he has finished his work. If he
is writing a tragedy, he will read it scene
by scene ; if a novel, chapter by chapter.
* Copied verbatim.
32 SOCIAL CONDITION.
Nobody is invited who is not a good admirer,
except on very rare occasions. I remember
one of these — a gentleman had written a
comedy which he thought too indecent for
the stage— and in order to make up his mind,
invited the most modest of his female acquaint-
ance to hear it.
A PENSION.
The persons one meets at these places
are on an average — a French colonel on half-
pay — an English shopkeeper — a couple of jour-
nalists — and a respectable old English lady
with three daughters.
The English mother does not know French,
and has gone to a ' pension' in order that her
daughter may learn it. The French colonel sits
at dinner between the two — and seduces the
simpering girl under the mother's unsuspect-
ing apron.
THE ENGLISH AT THE CAFE DE PARIS.
I remember being seated at the window of
tliis cafe near a very decent English family.
" Very good chicken ! capital wine ! it's Vol-
ney," says the gentleman^, " Volney, you know
MANNERS. 33
my dear, (very loud !) called after the famous
traveller."*
* I would not pass by this subject without one or two
words of regret given to my unfortunate countrymen. Go
to Calais, Boulogne; any of the British-visiting provincial
towns, or even to Paris itself, and see the queer figures
who are passing themselves off as models of English ele-
gance. Just look at their pinched up, or broadened out
brim'd hats, their indescribably cut coats, their whiskers,
their mustachoes, their swagger, their ignorance, their
insolence, and recollect to your horror that the costume,
and the ton that would hardly be tolerated in Burlington
Arcade or Covent Garden saloon, are very soberly con-
sidered by the French people who have never passed the
channel as a fair specimen of the tip-top taste and breed-
ing of their outlandish neighbours. Again, pass where
you will on the continent, and be sure, if anything very
extraordinary, very ridiculous, very impertinent be done,
be sure it is one of your countrymen who has the honorof
doing it ! If any man live in more scandalous indecency
than the habits even of Italy will allow, be sure it is a
native of that country which prides itself on its especial
prudery and morality. If anybody be noted for a greater
freedom of language, and a more unconscionable incon-
tinency than another, ten to one but it is a lady of that
land which is so proud of the modest purity of its women.
England abroad and England at home, thank heaven !
are in this respect two countries as different as Kamchatka
and Otaheiti. People of all sexes and all classes seem to
take a pride in convincing the world, that they change
their skins with their climate, and that if they conduct
c 3
34 SOCIAL CONDITION.
DUELS OF THE CHAMBER.
You can buy what are called " les balles de
depute/' These balls evaporating in the air,
are sure to do no mischief to the senatorial
combatants. Was there ever such a criticism
on the age ? Men fight for honor and cheat
it,
SAYINGS.
CARLISM.
Cette pauvre princesse (the Duchess of Berri)
elle donnait de si jolis bals ! such is the attach-
ment of one half the Faubourg to the heroine
of la Vendee.
LOVE OF NATURE.
A young Frenchman was abusing Italy as
nothing extraordinary. — " Ah !" said Madame
— " you were not there when M. de Laval
was minister."
CONJUGAL VIRTUE.
" La vertu d'une femme mariee, c'est de gar-
der son amant m^me quand il lui deplait."
themselves with decency and propriety in May Fair and
Fleet Street, they can be guilty of every species of -inde-
corum when in sight of the Champs Elysees and the
Coliseum.
MANNERS. 35
OBEDIENCE.
" Certainly," said a young lady, very seriously,
to one then about to be married — " Les fem-
mes doivent ob^ir dans les petites choses, mais
les hommes assurement dans les grandes."
ABSENCE.
" I do not love my husband enough to leave
him."
ANCESTRY.
" Je me moque de mes ancetres ; jugez done,
mon cher, ce que je dois faire des votres."*
TYRANNY.
" What a tyranny we Uve under ! " says a
gay carlist. ^' And where have you just come
from. Sir ?" " Oh ! from Prague ; two liundred
of us went to offer our homage to Henry V."
" And is this generally known?" " Certainly,
every body knows it."
" To be sure it is a terrible tyranny you live
under."
TIES OF RELATIONSHIP.
An enraged husband was about to slay the
lover of his wife — "Arrdte, malheureux !" cried
the lady, " Tu vas tuer le pere de tes enfans."t
* I laugh at my own ancestors, judge then, my dear
fellow, what I might do with yours.
t Stop, unhappy man ! you are about to kill the father
of your children.
VOL. II. C 6
liG SOCIAL CONDITION.
PARAGRAPHS THAT SUCCEEDED EACH OTHER IN A
NEWSPAPER.
STATISTIQUE -LEGION OF HONOUR.
Difference between 1831 & 1833
Great crosses
7
Grand officers
12
Commanders
. 99
Officers . .
. 419
Chevaliers .
.5,831
INSTRUCTION PRIMAIRE.
There are in France 1,935,000 chil-
dren, who receive primary instruction.
There are 41,000 schools; and upwards
of 11, private.
LES ENFANS DE
MARSEILLES.
A report of
M. Ip Maire de
Marseilles, re-
lates to us the
yrave inconveni-
ences and acci-
dents thai residt
from the pitch-
ed hatiles fought
daily between the
tiro parties among
THE CHILDREN in
different quarters
(f the town.
MODES
We omitted,
by mistake, in
our last number
to speak of tlie
dress which th
Queen wore al
the court ball
We hasten to
repair this error.
Not only was
Her Majesty's
toilette magnifi-
cent but elegant.
The gown was —
WHITE SATIN EM-
BROIDERED WIIH
EOSES, &C. &C. 1
MANNERS. 37
Then follows a list of the Jury for the
dei^artment of the Seine.
Surely these paragraphs thus running and
blended together, give no bad picture of France
as it is.-— Her impetuous youth, her military
honours, her primary instruction, her jury
list, and then — tJie gown embroidered with
roses ! ! !
Thus have I sketched, as illustrations to my
subject, two or three scenes and portraits, and
even noted a few traits and observations. I will
now throw together a few facts.
Of books published in 1833, I find
Poetry of different kinds . . 275
Modern law, the sciences, natural
history, and administrations . 532
Romances, Novels, and translations
of the same .... 355
Histories, narratives and the like 213
Philosophy, metaphysics . .102
Travels and fine arts . . .170
Devotion, Theology, etc. . . 235
Theatrical pieces in verse and prose 179
Foreign books of different languages 604
Pamphlets, libels, prospectus^ and
speeches ..... 4,346
Total 7,011
38 SOCIAL CONDITION.
What do we see here ? — in the first place,
an enormous appetite for momentary and fri-
volous discussion; that one expected ; — but by
the side of it behold a love for the sciences,
for natural history, and the theories of govern-
ment, which we might have supposed less ge-
neral amongst so volatile and excitable a
people !
Then again, novels, poetry, and the drama,
those branches of literature that, judging from
the surface of things, we should have deemed
most in abundance, furnish less than metaphy-
sics, devotion, history, and the arts.
Novels, etc. including transla-
tions ..... 355
Poetr)^ 275
Drama . . . . .179
709
Metaphysics .
. 109
Devotion
. 235
History .
. 213
The arts
. 170
720
And now if we take the theatres ! there we
find the returns of :
MANNERS. 39
The Opera, (dancing and French music.)
The Porte St. Martin, (M^lodrame.)
Vaudeville. "l
Varietes. Slittle farces.
Gymnase. J
to be as much as the twelve other theatres
of Paris, including the Theatre Fran9ais, the
Opera Comique, and the Italian Opera put
together.
Turn we to the Institut ! who are the candi-
dates ? ^
M. Ch^teauneufF,* an historian.
M. de Salvandy, a very remarkable periodical
writer, t
And M. Scribe, the well known and happy
farce writer — on this occasion as on others
successful.
In the exposition at the same time, I re-
mark — nor is this unuseful in tracing the ha-
bits of a population —
15,000 clocks, average price 250 francs
40,000 pairs of flambeaux . 20 „
3,000 do candalabres . . 200 „
* Author of " the History of the great Captains."
t The author of " Alonzo," which also had four
editions, and of " the History of Poland."
40 SOCIAL CONDITION.
60,000 glass cylinders . . 10 frs.
Lustres and lamps to the value of 1,000,000
Small articles of bronze . . 1,800,000
More costly do ... . 2,000,000
In all this, there is a strange mixture of
different and opposing qualities, such as are
to be found in a nation not moulded in a
day, but which on the contrary, has passed
through a variety of changes, and presents in
its molten mass, a variegated and heterogenous
composition. We see old tastes by the side
of new, and new tastes, which almost seem
incompatible with the old !
The everlasting appetite for scandal and
science
The love for the melodrame and the joke !
The struggle between history, metaphy-
sics, and farce !
The luxury of tastes, and the mediocrity
of fortunes.
YOUNG FRANCE.
CHAPTER III.
Modern Cataline — Journalist — Dramatist — Suicide — Sou
of a tallow-chandler — Monsieur Marmote Fathay —
Baron de Royalist — Doctrinaire — Artist — Young
Doctors, and Philosophers of the hour.
Let us see ! There has been a conspiracy.
Who are at the bar? a cabinet maker, a
certain number of shoemakers, a locksmith,
a painter, a button-maker, an engraver, a
shopkeeper, a doctor, and a lady, whose
more peaceful occupation is to sit at the
counter of a cafe. All eyes are of course
turned upon the lady and the chief of tliis
terrible band, whose plots have disquieted
the dreams of the good citizen King, and
exercised the arms of his valorous national
guard.
Come fortli most renowned Cataline ! " Who
42 SOCIAL CONDITION.
are you?" "lam the son of a proletaire,
(peasant). I belong to that class which the
rich repudiate and misunderstand. My tem-
per is irritable and nervous ; — chafing at
little obstacles — calm before a battalion with
fixed bayonets. I do not know so much
as I should wish to know, for education is
not gratuitous in France.
" You ask me my fife. — A boy, enlisting as
volunteer, I fought under Napoleon's eagles.
The restoration came, I returned to my fa-
ther's cottage, and shared the rude labours
of the old man. From that cottage, the
Revolution of Jxdj called me. The charter was
violated. I wished for a republic. Wounded
on the 28th, I leaped into the Louvre on
the 29th, — In the Tuileries, a sabre-cut
maimed this hand. In the rue de Rohan,
a ball entered this shoulder. As I behaved
in July, so I behaved in June."
President. " You are accused at that time
of homicide with premeditation."
Republican. " I know it."
President. " You ran about the streets,
shouting ^ To arms !' "
Republican. " Yes."
President. " Did you distribute car-
touches ?"
YOUNG FRANCE. 43
Republican. " When they were wanted."
President. " Did you not fire upon a batta-
lion of the line ?"
Republican. " 1 traversed with ten com-
rades the whole of the first line. Eight fell,
and I retired by the street."
Such are the answers of a slight young man,
with hollow cheeks, penetrating eyes, and
black moustaches.
He had fought for a repubhc. What did
he want ? A government without appointments,
without taxes. Things, he thought, would
go well, if left to themselves.*
Here is one of your " Young France,"
a type of that reckless and imaginative youth,
ever ready to rush on the cannon.
Bom of poor parents, with but little educa-
tion, of daring character, impracticable ideas
and good intentions ; — consumed by unem-
ployed energies and dissatisfied ambition.
Requiring action from his temperament; —
the very soul of a state at war ; — a canker into
its repose in peace.
Let us turn to another class and another
type !
" It happened to me," says M. Janin, " as it
has happened to all men of letters, present
♦ See National, 30th October, 1832.
44 SOCIAL CONDITION.
and past — I entered a literary career with-
out knowing it, and Avithout wishing it. I
was a writer in ignorance that I did write ; — by
necessity, as every body is."
" Oh ! I remember my mother, her cot-
tage by the Rhone side, and the dihgence
which carried me to Paris, on a specula-
tion ; for my father, and my uncles, and all
my family thought me a real prodigy^ and so
did the ladies of my village, to whom I wrote
verses, and who said that all I wanted was, —
a little education.
" Thus was I sent to the ^'■famous" college
— (for my friends were determined that every
chance should be in my favour) — to the ''^famous"
coUege — which had gained the prize that year,
and which I and my friends considered it a
matter of course that I should gain the year
following.
" I passed three years at that college, did
not gain the prize, and learned little for
my pains ; — that is to say, I learned neither
mathematics, nor languages, nor history, nor
indeed any kind of literary lore ; but I learned
something, I confess, of the world's lore ; — for
I learned how one makes friends, and how
one keeps them, and also with how little
science, and how little merit, and how little
industry one may get on in life.
YOUNG FRANCE. 45
" This, after all, was no despicable kind of
knowledge. My comrades had friends, and
prospects dependant on friends. What alas!
has become of most of them r*
" I had no exj^ectations, no friends, be-
yond the walls of that memory-haunted
place — no friends, save an old grand-aunt,
eighty years old, who, hobbling along, the
dear old creature ! by the aid of her hooked
stick, came, at last, to take me to her
garret, au quatrihne, to which she had
brought all our old country furniture, — the
chairs, the table, and the little sofa and bed,
the very same I knew so well ; — and there
we lived four happy years of my life : — Oh !
what four happy years those were ! How many
passions given to the wind ! how much use-
less poesy ! what sighs v/afted to the clouds !
* " Some bandied on the sea, slain in battle; some fell
in Greece, taken by surprise ; many have fallen in the
Bois de Boulogne, by a sword's stab in a corner be-
hind a tree ; others again have lost their memory; — and
then, what a host have perished by different modes of
suicide — the vaudeville, the song, the epic, the hazard
table, and love.
" I saw them on the threshold of our college, I saw
them quit it so beautiful ! so laughing ! so gay ! so
full of youthful folly.
" Let us pray for them !"
46 SOCIAL CONDITION.
what labour too, to gain my little livelihood
as I could !*
" Those years passed by me like a day. I
desired nothing, I feared nothing, I envied
nothing. Living with my friends, having now
and then Avith them a joyous and savoury re-
past, happy in the happiness of my old aunt,
and sticking up against the wall, when I
could buy them, great red and blue daubs,
which I thought very beautiful, and which
were called Greeks then, as they would be
called Poles now.
" That was life ! ! and what heroines ! with
what names ! Alexandrina, Rose, Lili, — Ger-
man, Spanish, French, — great lady, or little
grisette — all suited us.
" Thus I and those like me lived from day
to day, trusting to chance ; with little effort, no
variety, and but slight privations.
* " In the first place, I gave lessons, at so much a lesson;
I taught a thousand things I knew little about ; for instance,
Latin, Greek, History, Geography, and heaven knows what
besides ; I'd have taught Hebrew or Syriac, if I had been
asked ; any thing but mathematics. Mathematics one
cannot teach without knowing them, and this is why I
have ever had a great respect for mathematics.
I made my scholars understand little from my lessons ;
but they taught somebody — they taught myself."
YOUNG FRANCE. 47
*' But I meant to speak of my entry
into literature, how was it ? Many volumes
could be written on a literary life in France !
I mean merely to Avrite of my own. It is
short, but it ivill give a pretty good idea of
the lite^'ary life of my epoch.
" One evening, I remember it well, I was
walking backwards and forwards before that
theatre, which I then thought the perfec-
tion of the dramatic art, " I'Opera Comique,"
revolving in my mind, with no small degree
of agitation, whether I would or would not
give the 44 sous, that the Opera Comique
at that time exacted at its portal.
" At this critical moment, whom should I
see but a young man, whose acquaintance
I had made in the Luxembourg, by my
dog making the acquaintance of his dog,
and who had then under his arm, the arm of
an elegant and beautiful lady. What were
rav feehngs when he proposed to me a
place in his box, a place by the side of
that elegant and beautiful lady, who was no
less, — my heart thrilled, than a singer at
the opera !
" My friend was a journalist — his happiness
decided my profession : I became a journalist
too ; and a journalist I shall die, because I
48 SOCIAL CONDITION.
was walking one beautiful summer's evening
before the door of the Opera Comique*.
" It is but the first step that makes us fear —
in a balloon, on a railroad, as the editor of a
paper ; — there you are seated comfortably and
calm ; and there is the crowd below you, trem-
bling and affrighted — voila tout !
*' Our age is the age of free thought, of inde-
pendence — our age is the age of the press —
the golden age for the periodical writer. Happy
then, and proud am I to Ijclong to that press,
to be a periodical writer.
* Not that I complain, in saying this, of a hterary
life. I am far from being so ungrateful towards the
noblest career in this age of liberty. A literary life in
France has, at all times, been a life apart and amidst
the grandeurs of the world ; it is better than that now ;
it is a life apart amidst the powers of the world.
The man of letters is what the Grand Seigneur was.
They have both taken their place in our institutions —
they are both citizens, but citizens out of the crowd, in
spite of the crowd — citizens apart — citizen aristocrats, to
say the truth, by passion, by sentiment, by thought, and
by reputation.
The man of letters of to-day, has, with his pen, an
existence assured and gained quite as much as has the
advocate, or the notary.
The constitution could not exist without debates and
discussions of all kinds, for and against!
YOUNG FRANCE. 49
*' When I commenced, what existed in France
had an immense appearance. It appeared a
universe to a gay journahst of twenty. Well,
it is all gone — all — vanished — gone, heaven
knows where — gone, and devoured by the
journal, that power so frail and dwarfish when
I commenced my career, exposed as it was to
the arbitrary will of a censor, who would cut
you off a thought as an executioner does a
head.
" By what ruins am I surrounded ! What a
gulph between the time when I first mended
my pen to write, and now when I take it up to
trace the recollection of things gone by !
The journal to-day is more than a want, it is a duty.
It is a necessity of every morning, of every evening, of
every hour. The journal is the reproduction of a vvrhole
life, public, literary, philosophic, taking all the shades
of society, from the first to the last. This power
guides at will, and violently, every one and every thing ;
power inexorable, devouring itself when it has nought
else to feed upon ! Do you know how many m riters,
active, passionate, and devoted, it requires to suffice for
all its exigencies, and all its wants, and all its life :
Do you know into what a gulph without bottom, are
thrown at every instant such a multitude of passions, of
ideas, of paradoxes, of follies, of every thing which is
engendered by the heart, soul, passion, vices, and virtues
of mankind ?"
VOL. II. D
50 SOCIAL CONDITION.
" At first, I was a writer unknown, a writer of
the opposition by epigram — harrassing and
attacking the ministers, of whom I knew little,
and who knew less of me.. Later, I rose from
the little newspaper to the great newspaper —
from the popular journal to the aristocratic
journal, always the same man, in spite of what
people have thought proper to say, always of
the opposition, now here and now there.
" They who reproach me with having passed
from one paper to another, cannot reproach
me with having changed from one opinion to
another; always attacking whatever I thought
strong ; the enemy of the powerful ; never
guided in my hostilities by my interest, and
ever quitting that side which became the vic-
torious one. This is why 1 left my little liberal
journal of the opposition when it triumphed
under M. Martignac ; this is why I left my
great royalist journal of opposition the day
that M. Polignac came into power.
" Opposition has been my life as to others
is the support of power."*
Such is the most popular journalist's des-
cription of his life and opinions.
* This writer seems to consider that to be always in the
opposition is always to be consistent, and that it matters
not what you oppose.
YOUNG FRANCE. 51
And now we will pass from the journalist
to the dramatist — to the criticised from the
critic; — and here again we find a gentleman
his o\\Ti biographer.
" I was not twenty years old when my mother
one morning entered my room, came to my
bedside, kissed me weeping and said —
" * Mon ami, je viens de vendre tout ce que
nous a^^ons pour payer nos dettes*.^
" ' Eh bien ! ma mere ?'t
" ^ Eh bien ! my poor child, our debts paid,
there remains to us 253 francs — '
" ' A year ?'
My mother smiled bitterly —
" ' In aU ?' said I.
" ' In all.'
" ' Well, my mother, I will take the fifty-three
fi*ancs and start this evening for Paris.'
" ' And what will you do there, mon pauvre
ami?'
" 'I'll see the friends of my father, the
Due de Bellune, Sebastiani, Jourdan.'
" ' Do as you 'wdU,' said my mother, kissing
me once more — 'perhaps it's the inspiration
of God' — and she went out.
• " My child, I have just sold everything we had to
pay our debts."
t " Well, my mother."
d2
52 SOCIAL CONDITION.
" My first visit was to Marshal Jourdan ; he
liad some vague recollection of my father, it is
true ; hut had never heard that he had a son.
I left him in ten minutes, very imperfectly con-
vinced of my existence.
" I next went to General S^bastiani.
" The General was in his ' cabinet de travail ;*
four or five secretaries were writing under his
dictation, each of whom had upon his bureau,
besides his pen, his paper, and his pen-knife, a
gold snuff-box, which he presented to the gene-
ral whenever he stopped before him in those
perambulations which, like the malade imagi-
naire, he conducted across his chamber noAV in
one direction, now in the other.
" My visit was short, whatever might be my
consideration for the general, I had no wish to
become his snuff-box bearer.
" The day after, I presented myself at General
Foy's—
" I was introduced into his library ; he was
then occupied with his History of the Penin-
sular War. At the moment I entered, he was
writing on one of those tables which lift up
and down at pleasure ; scattered around him
were speeches, maps, and half open volumes.
^'Turning round with his accustomed viva-
city, on hearing the door of his sanctuary open,
YOUNG FRANCE. 53
he fixed his penetrating eyes on me — ■! trem-
bled.
" ' Monsieur ******?' said he, * are you
son of the General who commanded the army
of the Alps }'
" ' Yes, general.*
" ' Cetait un brave. "What can we make of
you V
" ' Any thing you hke, General.'
The next day I returned to the hotel of the
General, he was my sole hope.
" ' Eh bien,' said he, your business is settled.
You are supernumerary clerk with an appoint-
ment of 1,200 francs per annum*, in the office
of the Duke of Orleans !"
This is the opening scene in the theatrical
life of one of the first writers of the French
stage.f But there are other pretenders less
fortunate.
"A few days ago," says a late journal, "a body
was dragged from the Seine, near Pont St. Ni-
cholas, the dead body of a young man aged
twenty years. It was the body of a young
poet, by name — Jides Mercier. In his pocket
was found an elegy entitled, ^ A Emma, and
bearing the date of April last.
« About £50. t M. Alexandre Dumas.
54 SOCIAL CONDITION.
" At the bottom of the elegy was the follow-
ing note — ^ This piece ought to have been part
of a collection that my editor should publish
immediately.'
'^ It is now about a month," continues the
journal, " since a young man presented himself
at our bureau, and asked to speak to the editor
of our paper. The editor was absent, and one
of our contributors received him.
" He was a young man, about twenty
years old, with a countenance pale, inter-
esting, and betraying suffering. This young
man was — Jules Mercier.
" He offered with a timid air a little roll
of paper; the roll contained some verses,
entitled, ' To Lelia !' These verses we
could not receive, having already, a few
da^^s before, inserted some on the same
subject, and bearing the same title. A
week after, the young man returned, bring-
ing another set of verses, which he begged us
to admit ; though the space they would occupy
was considerable.
" This piece was called " The Gulph."
We promised that it should be examined.
*' The young poet seemed well satisfied, and
promised to come the next day and receive our
observations.
YOUNG FRANCE. 55
*' We expected him the next day — he
did not come. We are never to see him
more."
But what dark and cadaverous gentleman
is yonder, with a sUght moustache, pointed
beard and tuft, and long hair, stuck up in
the middle and combed down on each side, so
as to hang upon his shoulders ?
That gothic chevaher is the son of a tal-
low chandler, corner of rue St. Denis. He
does not think that the reign of chivalry is
gone. No ! but that he, the son of the tallow
chandler, has become the chevalier.
Thus, here and there the prestige of an aris-
tocracy remains ; but then every one thinks he
may be an aristocrat.
Just listen ! —
Monsieur Marmote Fathay, the respect-
able son of a respectable bookseller, pub-
lishes some poems. ' Fathay,^ pronounced
' Fatty ' is a most unpoetical name, and the
poems have little success. What happens ?
56 SOCIAL CONDITION.
Behold, in a new edition, ' Fathay,' odious
appellation ! has disappeared, ' de' is before
the ' Marmote,' and ' Alphonse' before the
' de,' and read instead of ' Poems by Marmote
Fathay,' —
' Poems by Alphonse de Marmote.' Al-
phonse de Marmote ! Who would dream that
a name so aristocratic and so sonorous should
have been forniuled, (I use the French ex-
pression) from plain Marmote Fathay, the
plebeian signature of a good-natured young
bookseller.
But so it is, and half the world who doubt
in Christianity believe firmly in the nominal
identity of —
" Alphonse de Marmote !"
Nor is this a singular transmogrification !
I was sitting the other day at the cafe de
Paris ; a tilbury with red Avlieels drove up to
it, and a gentleman, with a Brobdignagian
beard and whiskers to match, descended there-
from.
His hat, of singular shape, was nicely
balanced on one side of his head, displaying
an immense chevelure on the other. His
YOUNG FRANCE. 37
coat built about the skirts in the stern fashion
of a Dutch frigate, was ' bleu de del'* His
waistcoat, as variegatedly dazzling as a well
shaken kaleidescope, opened in the middle to
display a green satin neckcloth, be-pinned
and be-chained from the top to the bottom
like a lady's stomacher. This individual was
nearly six feet high, and having taken a care-
ful survey of his undusted boots, entered the
cafe, humming a tune, and pulling about
his curls, and brandishing his cane, and
making as much as possible of all that ap-
pertained to his large and magnificently ap-
parelled person, — ^ Eh ! honjoiir, Baron!' said
a creature, to all seeming of the same genius,
who was standing at the entrance of the
small room to the right picking his teeth.
" Do you know who that is ?" said the friend
I was dining with. We were sitting at one
of that line of tables to the left, and nearly
opposite the door, which the Baron had
entered.
" Not I indeed," said I.
" Well, I'll tell you more about him than
• Sky blue.
d3
58 SOCIAL CONDITION.
he thinks, I dare say, that any body here is
acquainted with.
" A lady, — do not ask about her virtue !
first pointed out to me yonder hero. It
was at the Varietes, — we were in a httle dark
box, and could not be seen ; he was, as you
may suppose, in the most conspicuous part
of the theatre.
" ' Voila un homme,' cried the lady, ' qui
me doit beaucoup, — beaucoup, — beaucoup.'*
" Now, as I suspected my friend of being
rather more addicted to borrowing than to
lending, I uttered with great naivete a rather
surprized ' Comment ? 'f
" ' Oui, oui' said she.
'^ That young gentleman was the son of a
French washerwoman, who said his father
was an English general. For many years
the old man had the malice to doubt this
very creditable fact, and for many years, in con-
sequence, mon ami, que voila !% ran about in very
ragged deshabille, carrying, not unfrequently, a
• See there, a man who owes me a great deal — a great
deal.
\ How is that ?
X My friend, whom you all see.
YOUNG FRAN'CE. 59
well-filled basket, now of clean and now of dirty
clothes from and to the maternal garret.
" The aptitude, however, which a death-
bed creates, to beUeve in miracles, convinced
the old gentleman, when he was about to
die, that he might have, could have, and
must have begotten the unfortu nate and long
forgotten Albert.
" A will, in consequence was made, a
fortune bequeathed, a soul, perhaps, saved,
and a dirty lad who went to bed with five
sous in his pocket, awoke the heir to
100,000fr. per annum, inscribed sur le grand
livre.
" Albert was then 19 years old. His
mother washed for me !
" ' Take my advice,' said I to the mo-
ther, ' return this very night aU your cus-
tomers' dirty linen, and start you by to-
morrow's dihgence, off to your pro\ance. As
to your son, I will make a gentleman of him.'
The old lady Ustened to my counsels, which
I actually advanced 500 francs in support
of; and Monsieur Albert was told that two
little rooms in my apartment were at his
service. Well, I kept him quiet, and had
him taught to read and write, — he never
made a very good scholar; — and to ride and
60 SOCIAL CONDITION.
to walk ; — Oh ! mon Dieu, what pains I had
with his elbows ; and to put on his hat,
and to swing his sticky — you see he is always
swinging his stick ! and then -what drives
we had in the Bois de Boulogne before I
could make him sit decently in a cabriolet,
or hold the reins like a christian.
"At last Albert only wanted four months
of coming of age. * Go and travel,' I said :
' that is, go to my aunt in the country, (I have
got an old aunt in Auvergne,) and wait there till
I write to you,'
" Well, I took a large apartment for him on
the Boulevards, and had it magnificently fur-
nished, with a little boudoir engoth\que. I had
then all his table-cloths, and all his knives and
forks, and all his porcelain, and all his pocket
handkerchiefs, handsomely worked with a
coronet, and the day before his arrival came a
large packet from the country — to the Baron
" Would you believe it ? for the first week of
his arrival I sent him, — in different handwriting
too — some by the twopenny post, some by the
general post, some by a page, some by a groom,
and some by a commissionaire — five hundred
and sixty-two letters, all properly addressed,
' To the Baron * * */
YOUNG FRANCE. 61
" From that week he was ' Baron' to all the
world. His servants said, ' Monsieur le
Baron/ I said ' Monsieur le Baron/ his new
acquaintances said ' Monsieur le Baron/ and
he hii:^self signed himself ' Le Baron de' with
all the natural dignity of a hero whose history
was incorporated Avith the crusades.
'' The young gentleman who walked into the
cafe just now/' continued my friend, " is the
identical Baron, who owes so much to the
good lady to whom I owe his history."
This is a fact !
But some titles are more ancient, and ac-
companied with greater worth.
The young M. de — , who was lately com-
promised in the affair of La Vendee, is a liberal
royalist of the school of Chateaubriand and
Martignac, and one of the most distinguished
among the young nobility.
Never seen at the Tuileries during the pros-
perity of Charles X, immediately on arriving
from Algiers, he hurried to Lulworth, and dis-
daining, as he says, to control a sentiment
which he thinks chivalrous and noble, by pru-
dential calculations, he has ever since been
ready for any enterprise, however desperate,
which the misguided family in exile have felt
inclined to sanction. He will neither permit
G2 SOCIAL CONDITION.
himself nor any one else to reason with him on
this subject. ' If the mob had been reason-
able,' he says, ' they would never have ventured
with an army of hackney coaches to overthrow
the ancient dynasty at Rambouillet,'
One observes in this young man. more strongly
than in any instance I ever saw, how much
depends on circumstances : the benumbing,
soporific effects of prosperity, and the advan-
tages which, in the development of intel-
lect and character, adversity has the merit to
bestow.
Five years ago — was a French dandy
— occupied with little but his horses, his til-
bury ; — his neckcloths, his waistcoats, and pan-
taloons. Hurrying from amusement to amuse-
ment ; — the only thought that ever came across
him at times — was that he was bored. With an
easy income, and one of the most illustrious
names in France, (at that time a fortune), hand-
some, graceful, and just married to a wife
in every way accomplished, he had all that
could be desired; and yet, despite of this,
there is no comparison in the measure of
respect which he received from those who knew
him then, and that which is paid him by those
who know him now.
The life he leads and has led since the
YOUNG FRANCE. 63
revolution of 1830 — is curious as a specimen
of that pursued by many of his class. For the
last two years he has spent eight months of
each year in a lonely chateau in the country,
with his thoughts and books. He has dis-
missed even the appearances of pleasure —
horses, equipage, etc. In Paris he goes no
where but to the club : at home, he never re-
ceives visitors, and is only to be found by one
or two friends, whom he invites to a dinner
which is nowise changed on their account. If
"he has any society, it is that of artists and
men of letters, who, as he feels by a cer-
tain instinct, throw a dignity and poesy
about his position. Such, too, is in general
the society of that set of royalists to which he
belongs — partly because the head of their party
(M. de Chateaubriand) inspires a respect for
his distinction — and partly because there is in
their own feelings, and politics, and hazardous
situation, a something noble, imaginative, and
dangerous, which seeks for thoughts and sym-
pathies higher than those of the ordinary kind.
But hostile as are the ardent and high spi-
rited youth of the Faubourg St. Germain to
the Prince chosen by the nation— there are few
amongst them who attach any divine right to
the principle of hereditary succession. They
64 SOCIAL CONDITION.
consider it simply as a link between the past
and the present; as a guarantee of stability
and durability^ as a decoration and illustration
to the throne, but not as the sole foundation
on which a monarchy can be founded.
As the party of Henry V has some few
rational adherents amongst the young nobility,
so the party of Louis-Philippe enlists from
the higher ' bourgeoisie' and the gentry, a cer-
tain number of young men of serious habits and
very extensive information.
These, as a class, however, belong rather
to the Young France of the old regime which
they opposed, than to the Young France of the
new regime, which has embraced them. They
were the young men who wrote in the Globe,
and frequented the salon of the Due de Broglie ;
a cold, enlightened, reasonable, pale-faced set
of young men, who dream of liberty in a
quaker's uniform, and have a code of politics
as prim as their persons.
Born to be the partizans of the juste-milieu,
they support conscientiously and with intelli-
gence, the government of Louis-Philippe, and
only commit the error of mis-judging the cha-
racter and the temperament of the French.
They will always be respected ; they can never
be beloved J and in a career which will be
YOUNG FRANCE. 65
honorable, they must resign the hope of being
popular, among their fellow countrymen.
I know, many of my friends in France ! that
you blame the juste-milieu ; you detest, you
abhor the juste-milieu ; there is much to say
against it, I accord to you. But good heavens !
to what is not one driven as an anchor from
the restless nonsense which I have heard pro-
mulgated with the frantic air of philosophy, by
some of those who are for launching the state
vessel, rudderless, and compassless — and bal-
lastless — on the immense ocean that lies im-
measurable before you ?
Monsieur D * * *, a young artist, a hero of
July, and decorated with the blue ribbon, called
on me the other morning. He hates the
government — why ? — " It is not noble and
pure." He wishes for another — ^but what?
" That is not his business ; all he under-
takes is, to destroy." Then a constituent as-
sembly is to be called together; a constituent
assembly nominated by the poorer classes,
because the poorer classes are the most intelli-
gent.
" Well," said I, " what would you first abo-
lish?"
" Oh ! les charges surtout ! Les honn^tes
66 SOCIAL CONDITION.
hommes feront les affaires pour rien. II ne
faut point de droits, ni d'impots, ni de police.
Le peuple est conservateur ; on I'a vu a Paris et
a Lyon. C'est inutile de prendre des precau-
tions contre le bon peuple.'**
"And what is your especial grievance
now ?"
*' Some people have not enough, and some
have a superfluity — and this must be remedied."
" How ?"
" Oh ! that is not my affair. Les peres de
famille arrangeront tout cela. D'ailleurs I'ddu-
cation doit ^tre gratuite."t
" But you say the people are already so well
educated ! Besides, if you educate the people,
somebody will pay; if they (the people) do not,—
the state must ; but if the state pays, there must
be taxes, and then, where's your theory V
" C'est ^gal ! — Je r^ve de belles choses ;
nous les verrons. II faut chasser cette canaille ;
* Appointments above every thing. Honest men will
manage the public affairs for nothing. We must have
neither excise, nor taxes, nor police. The people is con-
servative ; -we saw this at Paris and Lyons. It is useless
to take precautions against the people.
f The fathers of families will arrange all that. Besides,
education should be gratuitous.
YOUNG FRANCE. 67
tons les gens d'energie pensent comme moi.
II y a des associations !"*
" What is the aim of your associations ?"
" To associate — to know our number."
" But have you no especial idea attached
to these societies ?"
" Yes ; que le monde soit plus heureux.^'f
And many young men in France are like
M. D * * *, and talk of great things and subhme
things — vast pyramidal speculations — enormous
at the base, imperceptible at the conclusion.
There they go, promising you a new future,
a new political deluge, and a new pohtical
creation ; the Noahs of their time, and carr}'^-
ing about the ark of salvation from the
Boulevards to the Palais Royal, from the Vau-
de\'iUes to the Varietes — sauntering at a cafe —
ogling a grisette — flourishing a switch — hum-
ming an opera, telling you are a brute if
you do not admire the extravagances of Victor
Hugo, or a rogue if you do not confess that
M. should be first Consul of the Re-
public.
Reader, if I wished to give you an idea of
this section of "Young France,^^ I could do so
* Never mind. I dream beautiful things. We shall
see them yet. But, first, let us rout these rascals. Every
body with energy thinks as I do. There are associations.
t That the world may be more happy.
68 SOCIAL CONDITION.
exactly. Look at Mile. Dejazet,* in the uniform
of Napoleon ! ! !
There is, however, a darker and more serious
group in this otherwise unimposing picture.
I have spoken of the brave and ignorant
republican, of the clever and careless man
of letters, of the adventurous and suc-
cessful poet, of the sensitive and enthusi-
astic suicide, of the vain and would-be-fashion-
able sonneteer, of the expensive and nameless
noble, of the chivalric and rational royalist,
of the calm and sensible ministerialist, of the
wild and vague, and imaginative and well-
meaning artist ; every character I have sketched
is a mirror of m.any more. But lo ! with arms
folded and lips compressed, a more thick-
browed, and deep-thinking youth !
Here is the band which from a good educa-
tion and an ardent temperament, build up — with
much learning and labour — impossible theories.
Strange to say, even in that science which
has taught us to look with intelligence into the
Heaven above our heads, which has led us from
consequence to consequence through the mys-
terious system of a thousand worlds. — Even
in this exact and sublime science, there is, (on
account, perchance, of its very subHmity, and
* A very clever, impudent-looking little actress.
YOUNG FRANCE. 69
exactitude,) but a deceitful guide, when we
would thread the labyrinth of human philo-
sophy, or navigate the storms of political life.
Strange to say, much that we blame as
vague speculation, has been derived from
looical and dogmatical conclusion. Much that
we have considered as the wild ravings of
a distempered imagination, has resulted from
the desire to introduce a precise and mathema-
tical absolutism into thought and action.
Hence, of late years, in France, the singular,
and to many, unaccountable spectacle, of the
greatest theorists among men least addicted
to vision ar)^ pursuits.
Go into yonder salon, where you meet the
young doctors and philosophers of the hour !
This legist caiTies the principle of equality
so far, that he believes there is no differ-
ence in intellect; that philosopher imagines
the superiority of one indi\adual over another
so divine, that he would have set no limits to
Bonaparte's despotism. Here is the christian
geologist, who has just composed a new Gene-
sis ! There is the practical experimentalist,
who has just performed a new miracle ! The
philosopher proves we shall have tails,* and
* See " New Philosophies."
70 SOCIAL CONDITION.
the moralist counsels prostitution. There is
a mixture of sense and nonsense, of virtue
and vice, of learning and want of sound wis-
dom about this race which sometimes asto-
nishes a foreigner, and sometimes amuses.
True ; they are free from what the man of
books, or the man of solitude would call
' ignorance.' They have learned most that
study teaches, or meditation inspires. But
there is a knowledge of human kind and of
human affairs, which the practical mingling
with the one in its variety of climes and races,
and the practical handling of the other, except
in rare and almost miraculous instances, can
alone give.
It is this knowledge which sets us on
the right side of that almost invisible line
which separates the possible from the im-
possible ; the ingenious theory from the pro-
found reality ; the lofty speculation on what
will never happen, from the sober and de-
rivative divination of what is about to come
to pass. It is this knowledge which ele-
vates the sophist into the philosopher; the
speculator into the statesman : it is this
knowledge which alone decyphers the myste-
rious scroll on which Providence writes — THE
NECESSITY OF THINGS.
YOUXG FRANCE. 71
When Pythagoras and Plato conceived the
idea of preaching a philosophy to their coun-
trymen, they considered it a necessary part of
their undertaking to visit Egypt and the Indies,
and to acquaint themselves \^'ith the countries,
and with the history, and the civilization of the
countries which surrounded them. Not so
the more positive and impatient founders of
systems in Paris !
They live in a " set," they talk in a " set,"
they think in a " set," and their thoughts are
thus frequently most bounded, when they con-
ceive they are most enlarged, and their lan-
guage next to uninteUigible, when they deem
that they have arrived at the ne plus ultra of
perspicuous expression. They believe those
ideas to be most general, which they hear
most frequently repeated, and those terms to
be most exphcit, which they have invented as
mere pass-words among themselves.
As for other countries, they never take them
into account.
Tlie M'ants of the present epoch, and the
philosophy of the present epoch — always sup-
posing that these are to affect humanity in
general — are never considered but as the wants
of the present epoch, and the philosophy of the
present epoch in France.
72 SOCIAL CONDITION.
Christianity is to disappear, and a system of
universal association to take place, because
there are in France symptoms unfavouraljle to
the one, and favourable to the other. The
mind of England, the mind of America, the
mind of Germany, at least as influential over
the world's doctrines, as that of our enlight-
ened, but somewhat variable neighbours, are
considered as natural effervescences from the
solid spirit of a French imagination.
I do not say this in despite, nor am I in-
clined to throw even a momentary ridicule upon
the powerful workings of generous and ingenu-
ous persons, whom I believe to be actuated by
the noblest desire, viz. that of elevating and
improving mankind.
But the mischief of jejune creeds, is their
ever accompanying intolerance; and when I
see young men, who have thought much, but
who have beheld httle, altogether ignorant of
other lands, having but a partial knowledge of
their own, necessarily unacquainted with the
practice of Government, not easily delivered of
even their own visions of philosophy, set up
unhesitatingly some newly invented standard
for every man's honesty and intelligence, and
deem without scruple that all who do not sub-
mit to it are rogues or fools, or despots, or
YOUNG FRANCE. 73
aristocrats, I own that I do feel a strong desire
to speak, not against the preaching of great
changes in society and religion, if the necessity
for these changes should force themselves after
long and deep meditation upon our sober con-
sciences ; but against the adopting hastily, and
preaching intemperately, such strange and
startling doctrines as those which it is impos-
sible for the philosophers of the medical and
Polytechnic school to have imbibed, except on
very superficial reasonings, and very brief ob-
servation.
" Stand upon the ancient roads," says Bacon,
" and see which is the good and the right one,
and walk on in that."
Antiquity deserveth so much reverence as
that we should rest thereupon, and first disco-
ver which is the best way; then — when the dis-
covery is well made, we may take progression.
But if a man will begin with certainties, he
will end \^^th doubts, whereas, if he be content
to begin with doubts, he will end with cer-
tainties.
VOL. II.
SOCIAL STATE.
CHAPTER IV.
Describe different classes of French society — The middle
class is different in France from the middle class
elsewhere, and more embued with the spirit of other
classes — Still the character of the shop-keepers on the
whole prevails — Chamber, Jury, National Guard, etc.
in the hands of this class.
I WILL now divide what remains for me to
say on this subject into a view of the different
classes of French society.
THE MIDDLE CLASS.
The middle class in France holds a particular
position, and is different from any body that
we should call by the same name in any other
country.
SOCIAL STATE. 75
In England the middle class is entirely com-
posed of persons engaged in trade, the lower
branches of commerce, farmers, attorneys, and
persons retired from business, and living on
the small capital they may have acquired in it.
Their respectability is great, their views and feel-
ings, sensible and moderate, but their influence
has been much exaggerated; it is crushed
between the great fortunes of the aristocracy
on the one hand, and the extensive elective
franchise of the working classes on the other.
In America there is no especial middle class ;
all the nation is composed of our middle class.
This class were its original founders, and have
been its constant settlers.
In France there is a middle class, not like
the nation in America, not like the middle class
in this country, but a middle class composed
of the ruins of an old, and the elements of a
new, state of society. We see there, as in
those strata of the earth, where we find the
mingled fossils of animals, and of fish, and of
herbs, some antediluvian, the traces of a mighty
shock which threw into unexpected companion-
ship things, once heterogeneous, and buried the
witnesses of a former world in the womb of the
present one. Not only did the revolution of
89 break down the fortunes which separate
E 2
76 MIDDLE CLASS.
ranks — it broke down the habits. During that
terrible reign, in which a noble name was a title
of proscription, the lower classes lost all defer-
ence for the upper, and the upper all contempt
for the lower.
The feelings which, on either side, had kept
the two portions of society apart, disappeared ;
and as the victories of the consulate succeeded,
elevating the peasant to the command of pro-
vinces and armies, and carrying a successful
soldier of fortune to the topmost pinnacle of
power, even that halo which sheds itself .upon
the aristocratic mansion and the princely palace,
descended upon the cottage. High place and
great consideration obtained by a quality —
which, for the very reason, perhaps, that it
is the most common among men, is the most
commonly respected, — high place and great
consideration — the consequence of successful
valor — created a nobility without ancestors,
and which had frequently its relations among
the humbler orders of the people.
Here the daughter of an illustrious race,
brought up by a mother almost starving, with
no fortune and little education, was too happy
to espouse the son of a grocer, whose bill it
would have been difficult to pay. Here, too,
the son of a grocer, risen into a distin-
SOCIAL STATE. 77
guished general, emulated the equipage, lived
in the society, and perhaps married into one of
the families of that courtly set, who enchanted
the modern master with the ancient recollec-
tions of Versailles. All men had been every
thing, and connected with every body during
those few eventful years, which only form half
the life of this generation, but which will be
the history of a republic and an empire — to
posterit}\ The middle class in France then —
I mean that class, who have a moderate or what
we should call a small fortune, and move in an
ordinary sphere of life — cannot be said to have
altogether one particular set of habits, or one
particular set of recollections, or one particular
set of desires.
The seigneur has fallen into this class, the
serv'ant has rwe^i into it, and these changes have
taken place, and this amalgamation has been
brought about, not by the steady hand of Time,
that great but slow revolutionist, but by the
running blow of Fortune, which, altering the
position of men, still leaves their manners and
their memories.
Thus, though the middle class in France
may to a certain degree represent what may be
called the shopkeepers, still it does not wholly
represent them ; — while the shopkeepers them-
A
78 MIDDLE CLASS.
selves are not, if I may thus express myself,
so completely shopkeepers as in other countries.
They are more connected and more in the habit
of mixing with other persons and other
classes. They have less of frugality and cau-
tion, and more of elegance and luxury in their
tastes and pursuits. They live in intimate com-
panionship with the artist, the litterateur, the
soldier; and feel no sort of barrier, either between
themselves and those who have not yet risen
into their sphere, or between themselves
and those whose fortunes are superior to
theirs.
It is because they are not so much a body
apart in France as in other countries, that they
better fill the station that is assigned to them in
the French nation. They have not, to the same
extent, those feelings of caste' which belong to
the middling order in governments where ranks
have been less mingled, and history is less vio-
lent and confused. They do not feel so ahen
to the lower classes, nor so distinct from the
higher.
Still, the man who has sunk from opulence
to mediocrity, or the man who is rising from
indigence to wealth, is equally partial to order
and tranquillity; and here the middle class in
France, though composed so differently from
SOCIAL STATE. 79
that elsewhere, is moved by the same impulse.
Containing the soldier, it is averse to war,
and springing in part from the lower ranks of the
people, it is averse to revolution. Besides,
though the middle class in France is not ex-
clusively a class of shopkeepers, though the
shopkeepers in France are different in many
respects from those in countries where they
form a rank, as it were, of their own, — yet it is
the shopkeepers who compose the most
bulky and important part of this class, nor are
they wholly without the feelings and disposition
natural to their calling. The government of the
middle class, then, is sometimes called " the
government of the shopkeepers," and repre-
sents sufficient of its characteristics, when we
oppose it to w^hat might be called " the govern-
ment of the army," or " the government of the
aristocracy," or "the government of the working
classes," to justify such a description.
I say " the government of the middle class,"
— for it is the object of the present constitution
in France to give this class (though within a
very limited sphere) the legal and representa-
tive power of the state. The chamber of depu-
ties, the municipal councils, the juries, are all
the representatives of this body — voting the
public money, regulating the provincial admi-
80 MIDDLE CLASS.
nistration, Mdelding the judicial power, and thus
maintaining in the ^Adll of the government that
unity, which a centrahzed administration gives
to its force.
"The law takes a fair estimate of the different influences
and opinions, which in our state of society are the most
proper to advance the cause of civilization and the inter-
ests of the country. Is it necessary to say that these
opinions and these influences are the opinions and the
influences of the middle classes, whose accession to power
is the greatest and most prolific result of our fifty years
of revolution ?
" And when people, in a spirit more philosophic than
politic, reproach us for not establishing between all the
opinions and all the influences a perfect equilibrium —
when, in the name of the people who take no part in the
dispute, these persons complain that the law gives to
what they call the shopkeepers a decided preponderance,
they only, in my idea, declare that the electoral law, as
it exists, is good, just according to the principles of the
revolution, and adapted to the wants of society.
" To whom indeed ought power to be given, if not to
that bourgeoisie of whom we speak ? — To the aristocracy ?
I am far from undervaluing the services that those classes
have rendered in former times, or to deny the kind of
historical pomp which still surrounds them. But the
blindest must see that the time for an aristocracy is gone by.
" To the classes the most numerous and the poorest ?
" I know not, for my own part, if these classes will ever
arrive at such a degree of intelligence, of civilization, and
SOCIAL STATE. 81
of leisure as will give them the power of governing in-
stead of being governed ; but this I know that at the
present time they are not arrived at this state of capacity ;
that at all events we must govern, not by them, but for
them.
" To the middle classes, then, to the middle classes alone
belongs the government of France !"
Such is the language of Monsieur Duvergier
D'Hauranne, one of the most distinguished
among the young deputies of the juste-milieu.
£3
THE ARISTOCRACY.
CHAPTER V.
Aristocracy still found in the drawing-room — Driven
from the forum — Origin of government of the middle
class — Bonaparte's two aristocracies — Destruction of
majorats — Impossibility of hereditary peerage in Fiance
— Law respecting present peerage and fault of
" An aristocracy in France," says Mon-
sieur Duvergier, "is gone by." —
Let us go to Paris with this idea ! Who is
at the head of society there ? The king ? The
court? that handsome and well-favoured
prince whose apartments are so tastefully
adorned in the Pavilion Marsan ?
To the king, and his court — to the prince
who is to be king and to have a court — behold !
yonder salons of the elect are barred, banned !
To whom does the banker ])ow so low ? To
SOCIAL STATE. 83
the lady in favour at the illuminated Tuileries
— or the dame who receives in a dark hotel in
the Rue St. Dominique ?
You tell me, Monsieur Duvergier, that the
aristocracy is gone by. I know no country
where it is more alive — in the drawing-
room.
There is a club at the corner of the Rue de
Grammont, composed of the persons best
known in society at Paris.
The Due de Luxembourg, the type of the old
aristocracy, is chosen president by a great
majority.
But enter a new arena ! a complimentary
address is to be presented to M. de Chateau-
briand.*
The address is to produce a sensation : who
should present it ? The young royalists hold
council together.
What person do they select to place at their
head — this time ? Do the young journalists
and bankers and rentiers select Monsieur de
Luxembourg, or Monsieur de Fitz- James, or
Monsieur de Montmorenci ? No j but the Due
* On account of the pamphlet containing that famous
phrase —
" Votre fils, Madame, est mon Koi,
Addressed to the Duchesse de Berri.
84 ARISTOCRACY.
de Luxembourg^ the Due de Montmorenci,
the Marquis de Fitz-James, select — Monsieur
— Thomas.
" We have got a capital person," said a Car-
list to me. " We have got a capital person
to present the address ; a Monsieur Thomas ! ! !
Dieu'merci il n'y a rien d'aristocratique dans
ce nom l;i."*
This is the circumstance to be remarked
in France, a circumstance puzzling to most
strangers.
That class, which we call the aristocracy, at
the same time takes the lead in private society,
and the tail in public affairs.
Defeated in the market place and the forum,
it has entrenched itself in the salon ; and if
driven from the chamber finds a consolation in
breaking the hearts of the deputies' wives.
An aristocracy then and the pretensions of
an aristocracy, still exist in France, where an
aristocracy and its pretensions can do little
harm. When I say ' harm,' I may be using a
wrong expression.
That elegant and graceful clique which flitted
but five years ago, in all the suavity of power —
for it is not power that is insolent and exclu-
sive — round the royal person ; hostile as a
* Thank God ! there is nothing aristocratic in this name.
SOCIAL STATE. 85
favored band to the interests of the people,
forms as a discontented faction the best oppo-
sition to a court. They who would sneer at
the just rebuke of M. Odillon Barrot, will
writhe beneath the courtly satire of Madame
de Noailles ; and even Napoleon, after unhesi-
tatingly crushing the constitution and the press,
halted more than once Ijefore the whispered
censure of a little brocaded circle, who respect-
ed his power to make kings, and smiled at his
efforts to make chamberlains.
We may trace the fall, I mean the political
fall, of the old nobility in France to Richelieu
and to Louis XIV ; undoubtedly they humbled
the pride and weakened the provincial power
of the feudal chieftains ; but it is singular, as
an historical fact, that the rise of that com-
mercial class, on which M. Duvergier states
the present government to be based, and
which certainly placed the present monarch
upon his throne, was more especially owing to
the accidental reign of a Prince of the House
of Orleans.
" In the middle of a populous part of the
town, between the streets of St. Denis and St.
Martin, extends in the same direction an ob-
scure passage, 450 feet long and 5 broad, bor-
dered on either side by about ninety houses.
86 ARISTOCRACY.
" It is called Rue Quincampoix 5 at a cele-
brated epoch it was called, la rue as Rome was
called la ville. The two extremities of this
street or passage were occupied by a guard,
and fortified by an iron grate which opened at
six in the morning and closed at nine at night.
The nobility entered by one end, the vulgar by
another ; but the barrier once passed, the most
fraternal equality reigned ivithin."*
This was the vortex amidst the hissing eddies
of which the materials of two revolutions were
first forged.
At the head of a banking company sat
Philippe, Regent of France, and grands seig-
neurs and sovereigns petitioned to be intro-
duced, under such illustrious auspices, to the
mines and the mysteries of jobbing.
What was an aristocracy ready to sell its
birthright for a mess of pottage, and which
threw the prestige of its nobility at the feet of
a set of swindling Jews and brokers ? — Every
consideration had been sacrificed for the sake
of money, and money became, in consequence,
the sole measure of consideration.
In vain then were the velvet hats, and nodding
plumes, and graceful mantles of the ancient
* See Lemontey — Louis XV.
SOCIAL STATE. 87
chivalry of France ! on the plain and simple
body, which represented the interests of in-
dustry and commerce, all eyes in 1789 were
fixed ; and, when the Tiers-Etat declared them-
selves the National Assembly, every one felt
that in fact they did represent the nation.*
And now, over the gorgeous superiorities of
the past, roll heavily the wheels of the revolu-
tion ; Napoleon, after the 18th of Brumaire, be-
comes first magistrate of France ; but what is
society around him ? — to use his own expression
— •" a mass of pulverized ruins," — no part does
he find more solid and elevated than the rest, on
which the seat that he holds may repose, or the
throne to which he aspires may be raised. He
sought then to form an aristocracy ; but a new
aristocracy — consistent with — nay, naturally
arising out of — the new ideas, by which the old
one had been consigned to the tomb.
In the "Legion of Honour'^ was incorporated a
body, which, distinguished for arms and letters,
possessed the two titles which at the time ob-
tained national respect.
*Law it was who founded that reign of the bourgeoisie
which expired with the Gironde, began recommencing
after the empire, and has existed since the revolution of
July, amidst, as I have elsewhere said, a variety of in-
fluences and opinions that are opposed to it.
88 ARISTOCRACY.
But the empire succeeded to the consulate :
an hereditary principle was to govern the state,
and not wishing that the transmission of his
sceptre should be a political anomaly, Bonaparte
placed the fortune of his favorites upon the
pedestal to which he had raised his own power.
Hence the institution of majorats : which,
lying for the most part in a conquered territory,
were given with the double object of attaching
the nobility to the crown, and its conquests
to the empire.*
* Majorats were unknown in the old French law, and
were first instituted under the imperial regime.
The emperor, by the decree 30th August, 1806, created
a number of different great fiefs, but in foreign countries,
which were to be given to great services, and descend by
order of primogeniture from male to male.
The alienation of these fiefs in foreign countries was
authorised on the condition that other estates should be
acquired in France and transmitted in the same manner.
A clause always enjoining the acquisition of such pro-
perty by the man in case of defect of male issue.
This was one species of majorat.
There was also another ; the emperor being authorised
to create a majorat in favour of any citizen who should
have distinguished himself, which majorat was to be
founded with the citizen's own private property.
In respect to entails, they were first limited to the
second degree by an ordinance 1747, and afterwards pro-
hibited 14th August, 1806. But they were again intro-
SOCIAL STATE.
In the first instance this extraordinary per-
sonage was governed by the opinions of his time ;
in the second he endeavoured to impose upon
that time his own ideas.
duced by a law 3rd October, 1807, in an exceptional case
thus expressed : —
" Neanmoins les biens libres formant la dotation de
titres hereditaires que I'empereur aurait erige en faveur
d'un prince ou chef de famille pourront etre transmis
hereditairement."
In all these laws the emperor, as is evident, had the
object in view: — of creating and perpetuating an aris-
tocracy founded on merit.
ITiey were attacked in discussion on three different
grounds : —
1. As contrary to the best principles of political
economy.
2. As opposed to the best rules of legislation.
3. As hostile to the soundest interests of morality.
On the first ground it was said that, by making any
property inalienable, you took it out of commerce and
circulation. The revenue of those majorats that were
founded on the property of the emigrants was valued at
four millions of francs.
On the second ground, it was urged that it established
in perpetuity an unequal lot amongst families, and an
impediment to merit.
On the third, the numerous social evils arising out of
the poverty of one part of a family, and the exorbitant
wealth of another, were demonstrated.
90 ARISTOCRACY.
But in the attempt to turn back the current
which had carried him so far forward, even the
greatest man whom history has recorded was
unsuccessful ; and thus the reign of Bonaparte
remains — but an episode in the history of the
French revolution.
Hark! at the very moment that I write, a new
crash is heard among that feudal echafaudage,
which this Charlemagne of the nineteenth cen-
tury sought to raise amidst the ideas of Rous-
seau and the recollections of the convention.*
* LAW RELx\TIVE TO THE ABOLITION OF
MAJORATS AND SUBSTITUTIONS OR ENTAILS.
Article 1. All majorats are interdicted for the future.
2. All majorats, or portions of majorats, founded with
private property before the promulgation of the present
law, and which before such promulgation shall not have
been transmitted, will return to their founders.
3. The majorats of the same nature, created before the
promulgation of this law, shall only have effect in favour
of those who shall be in possession of the properties thus
affected, or who shall have acquired the right to claim
them.
4. Nevertheless,* in the case foreseen (by the article 2
* This and the following article was inserted in favour
of the women, who, since marriages are always an affair
of calculation in families, had been induced most probably
to marry under such considerations and expectations.
SOCIAL STATE. 91
Surely if any proof were wanting for the
justification of those who, five years ago, pro-
claimed the impossibility of supporting an
above), the property cannot be alienated or mortgaged
by the founder, if he is married since the creation of the
majorat, or before the present law, or if, having become
a widower, he has children from the marriage he con-
tracted.
So also in respect to the incumbent, when he shall
have married since the institution of the majorat.
Nevertheless, the possessor of the majorat can, with
the consent of his wife, dispose of the property, for the
establishment of their common children, within the limits
of the civil code.
5. If, at the time of the present law being promul-
gated, there exist expectants in succession, married since
the creation of a majorat, there shall be in their favour an
exception to articles 2 and 3, and they will in consequence
receive the majorat, and enjoy it in conformity with the
restrictions contained in article 4.
6, The shares which the younger children or widows
shall have acquired over property composing such majo-
rats shall be preserved to them.
7.* The dotations, or the portions of dotations, con-
sisting of property subjected to the right of returning to
the state, will continue to be held and transmitted ac-
cording to the article of investiture, and without preju-
dice to the expectations opened by the law of 5th
October, 1814.
* In the preceding articles mention only has been made
of majorats founded on private property.
92 ARISTOCRACY.
hereditary peerage in the country of which I
am writing, such proof would be found in the
present enactment of laws, — laws dictated less
by the head than the heart of the nation, — laws
the most popular among that middle class which
M. Duvergier says must reign, — laws destroy-
ing the sole foundation on which an aristocracy
of descent can be maintained.
Let us be sure of this ! when there exists
any body in a state, mingled up in the people's
concerns, but about which the people feel no
interest — a body, the opinion of which can be
crushed by the will of a minister, without exciting
a murmur in the nation — the persons whose
titles, under such circumstances, the monarch
may attach to the peerage, are of no more import-
ance than those whose names he, with the same
benevolence, affixes on the pension hst. They
are delators to the royal bounty, but they are
not invested with public consideration.
8. The disposition of the five above-named articles are
applicable to the entails made in virtue of the law 27th
May, 1826.
9. Abolished in every thing contradictory to the present
lavr the act imperial of 30th March 1806, the " senatus
consulle" of the 14th August foUovsring, and the decrees
of the 18th of March 1808, and the law of 17th May
1826.
SOCIAL STATE. 93
The object of a second chamber is the insti-
tution of a court of national appeal. For its
decisions to be valid, such a court must be in-
dependent of the crown, and respected by the
people; — for its decisions to be just, such a
court must be intimately connected with the
habits, the state of property, the sentiments,
and the state of society in that country where
it exists.
But, even before these later edicts, during
the haughtiest times of the restoration, what, in
France, was the hereditary chamber ?
There it stood ! the image of Nebuchadnez-
zar's idol. On its front M^ere written great
names and historical recollections ; its head
was of gold ; but its feet were of clay !
It could not be an efficient body in the go-
vernment of France, for it was not a body
analogous with the society of France.
If the property of the peerage were allowed to
undergo the ordinary rule of succession, royalty
had before it a small numljer of families whom
it might be necessary to gain for political pur-
poses, and easy to gain by ministerial and
courtly favors.
If, on the contrary, laws were made for the
continual accummulation of wealth in these
families, there was created, in a state where the
94 ARISTOCRACY.
whole nation was interested in a particular dis-
tribution of fortune, and the social and political
consequences resulting from it, — a small band,
perpetually alone, and aloof from that nation —
a band which must have ideas, and habits, and
interests totally different from those for whom
they were legislating.
Leave this body in the ordinary condi-
tion of their fellow citizens, and you deliver
them into the hands of the sovereign ; se-
parate them and their childrens' children
from their fellow citizens, and you destroy
that identity which is necessary between the
governor and the governed.
Besides, in forming a chamber which ought to
comprize the superiorities of a country, it is al-
ways necessary to consider what, in that country,
will most readily be considered superiorities.
If ancient descent, if large fortune form
those distinctions which the people most wil-
lingly acknowledge — on ancient descent and
on large fortune base your upper chamber !
The possessor of a large fortune maybe looked
up to for protection in a country where there
is a great class possessing large fortunes.
Such is still the case in England.
The possessor of ancient descent is looked
up to in a countr\', the great nobles of which
SOCIAL STATE, 95
enjoy an independent existence, and are by action
and history connected with the popular cause.
Such was the case in England.
But shew me a state with thirty-two millions
of inhabitants, and where there are not above
1,500 landed proprietors with 1,200/. a year!*
What sentiment will a great fortune, entailed
on a few families, create ? Respect and con-
fidence ? — no ; suspicion — suspicion, because
instead of being the guarantee to a large class
that their condition will be maintained, these few
families will exist as a perpetual source of fear to
the country, that its existence will be changed.
So, if I find amongst a nation, become deeply
attached to popular privileges, a nobility which,
during the days of its grandeur was nourished
by courtly favour, I know that the names which
revive national antipathies will not be proper
conductors to public respect ?
The two conditions necessary to hereditary
legislation exist not in France ; and if you give,
as a reason for its institution, the advantages it
once produced in England, you may as well ad-
vocate the culture of the sugar cane in Norway,
because it flourished in St. Domingo.
* About 939 properties pay from 4000 to 5000 francs —
the 6th of their revenue ; but as other properties joined
are in the hands of the same possessor, from 1400 to 1500
96 ARISTOCRACY.
But the most amusing circumstance in the
very remarkable discussion which took place a
short time ago in respect to the nature of the
peerage in France, was this ! —
All the necessities on which an hereditary
assembly is founded — nobody desired. A dif-
ferent distribution of property, a great respect
for privileged orders — God forbid !
The state of society out of which such an
institution naturally arises, was declared to be
abominable on all sides ; it was the institution
itself that a few, no doubt very wise statesmen
and philosophers, wanted, without any of its
effects, or any of its causes.
This isolated peerage was not to be directly
connected with the country, but something
separate from the country ; not a body reposing
upon 80,000* great proprietors — this v/as de-
nounced as most atrocious — but a nice little
body of 300 persons, dropping from the clouds,
for there seemed nothing on earth they could
arise from, and totally distinct from every body
and everything around them.
is about the calculation. — See Introduction, France,
' Literary, Social, and Political.' — vol. i. p. xxii.
* Ce n'est pas 80,000 tyrans que nous voulons imposer
au pays, ce sont seulement 300 individus que nous voulons
invester de hautes fonctions. Voila tout. — M, Thiers.
SOCIAL STATE. 97
An aristocracy may be still possible and desira-
ble in France, but not an hereditary aristocracy.
For qualities that confer individual respect in-
diAaduals might be chosen, who would form a
body universally respected ; but these qualities
would not be a pedigree posteriorating to the
crusades, nor a fortune accumulated under laws
at variance with the habits and ideas of the ex-
isting generation.
As the passion for military glory was stronger
during the olden time than the pride of birth, so
is it stronger at the present time than the pride
of equality.
In the reign of Louis XIV, the court
sav,', without a murmur, the title of 'duke,^
which was a right, submit to the title of ' mar-
shal' which was a gift. In the reign of Louis-
Philippe, the nation elevates the distinctions
of the camp above the doctrines that denounce
distinctions among the people.
Nor is the sentiment inspired by success
in letters, less than that which follows success
in arms.
" Les dieux que nous avons raaintenant,"
said a person of no small celebrity lately —
" ce sont la science et I'art ; nous sommes
secoues dans les th^^tres et dans la cour
comme nous etions jadis dans les ^glises, les
VOL. II. P
98 ARISTOCRACY.
coeurs que nous avons enleves aux pretres,
nous les devons tout entiers aux philosophes
et aux poetes."
The French have one chamber composed of
the mediocrities of their country ; — a chamber
neither elected by the people, who are always
attached to the pomp and circumstance of
talent ; nor by the great proprietors, who, what-
ever their faults, usually take a noble aspect of
public affairs. The chamber of deputies, chosen
by a small body of the middle classes, repre-
sents the mediocrities of France.
If you wish for another assembly, which
the king and the people shall respect, and to
which the chamber of deputies can be appealed
from, it must be an assembly composed — not of
the superiorities of past times, nor of foreign
states, but of the acknowledged and existing
superiorities of France.
To create such an assembly, was the intention
of those who founded the present chamber of
peers ; but I cannot but think there is a radical
vice in the very origin of this institution.
You wish for an independent body, com'
posed of persons whose distinctions shall im-
pose a popular authority upon the sovereign's
opinions, or give the sanction of superior ca-
pacity and intelligence to the counsels of the
people's assembly.
SOCIAL STATE. 99
You wish for this, and what do you do ? you
organize the existence of your pohtical crea-
tion so as to cripple it at its very birth. Will
those who are named by the king receive the
faith of the people, or can they be firm against
the sovereign's displeasure ? — The head which
should be crowned with popularity, is disho-
nored by suspicion, and the hand that should
be armed with independence, is paralyzed by
gratitude .
LAW CONSTITUTING THE PEERAGE OF THE
MONARCHY OF THE REVOLUTION.
Louis-Philippe, King of the French, to all
present and to come — salut !
The chambers have adopted — we have or-
dained, and ordain as follows : —
ARTICLE UNIQUE.
Replacing 23rd Article of the Charter.
The nomination of Members of the Chamber
of Peers belongs to the King, ivho can only
choose among the notabilities following *
The number of peers is illimited.
* For Notabilities, see Appendix.
F 2
100 SOCIAL STATE.
Their dignity shall be given for life and is not
transmissible by order of nomination.
L. Philippe.
Palace of the Tuileries, 29th Dec. 1831.
STATE OF THE WORKING
CLASSES.
CHAPTER VI.
State of Working Classes more favorable than formerly —
Division of Property — Saving Banks and Associations
— Population in Towns and Country — The Population
in the former require Poor Laws — System existing —
But though the people in towns are badly oflF, this is
rather on account of dissipated habits than want of
wages — How to remedy this — Immediate necessity
for improving the Working Classes, since the Govern-
ment which has passed the Aristocracy must descend
to them — Police Regulations promoting order amongst
them — Causes of late disorders, &c.
The monarch,* whose solitary statue escaped
the revolution of July, owes great part of his
* Henry IV.
102 WORKING CLASSES.
popularity to the wish, which no doubt he as
honestly expressed as easily forgot, viz. " that
every peasant should have a chicken in his pot
for his Sunday's repast ;" — and still, the desire
which every philanthropist feels to arrange so-
ciety under a law that shall protect the interests
and advance the happiness of the multitude —
and the difficulty which every legislator finds
in carrying into practice such benevolent in-
tentions — makes us look with peculiar interest
on any community, whence instruction is to be
derived, in this, the great lesson, to be taught
the rulers of mankind.
From what I have already said of " the lower
classes" in France, it may be concluded
that I have formed a favourable opinion as to
their condition ; but I would now enter into
the present state and future prosperity of this
body with more detail.
What a different picture shall I have to draw
from that given us by Rousseau, when quitting
the divided soil of Savoy, he first placed his
foot on that country over which he was destined
to exercise so powerful a sway, and which he
then found in the possession of a bankrupt
nobility and a starving people !
In the first place :
Tlie period of human existence has increased
WORKING CLASSES. 103
by seven years, since the calculations made in
1780; and when we consider that this increase,
here taken in the average, ought to be almost
entirely given to the poor, who have chiefly
profited by it, we shall have some idea of the
increased comforts and advantages they enjoy.
And now, much that I have said on the divi-
sion of property comes again under considera-
tion.
The number of landed proprietors may, cer-
tainly, be calculated at five millions.
The number of persons, who, as the head of
some trade or industry, paid the tax on patents
in 1832, were 1,118,500; — add the number of
persons not included in either of the above
denominations, and who possess mortgages,
houses, or shares of houses, or capital invested
in the funds !
Surely I may say, if to these holders of
patents I add the various possessors and pro-
prietors of land, of houses, of funded property,
and of mortgages, there will, at the lowest esti-
mate, be 7,000,000 persons, which, allowing four
for a family, make 28,000,000 interested, be-
cause, according to the French law of succession,
a share of this property will come to them —
in some species of property or other : there
104
WORKING CLASSES.
remain then but 4,500,000, who have not pro
perty, or the expectation of it.
How many of these have accumulated, and
are still accumulating the means of independ-
ence in those banks, institutions worthy of the
social epoch in which we live — banks formed
by the benevolent intelligence of the rich, in
order to relieve the burthens, and at the same
time encourage the industry of the poor —
banks already existing in Amiens, Avignon,
Besancjon, Bordeaux, Douai, Dunkerque,
Havre, Lyons, Luneville, Metz, Mulhausen,
Nantes, Orleans, Paris, Rennes, Rouen,
Rheims, St. Etienne, Toulon, Toulouse,
Versailles, — and demanded in Annonay,
Carcassonne, Cherbourg, Lille, M&con,
Montargis, Nancy, &c. &c.
savings' banks formed.
From 1818 to 1830 . . .11
1832 . . .4
' 1833 . . .12
1834 . . .20
Since . . .39
86*
• It is to be remarked, that the lottery decreased in
almost the same proportion — in the three first months in
1834, it had diminished by 3,687.000 francs : — it is now
abolished.
WORKING CLASSES. 105
In 1826, eight years after the creation of
these estabhshments, in a hundred persons de-
positing their savings, there were not above
16 of the working classes j in 1831, there
were 43.
A considerable portion of this body indeed
in Paris, has savings deposited in the savings'
banks,* and a great number also belongs to
some kind of benevolent society.
The progress of these benevolent societies is
worthy of notice :
From 1 8 1 to 1 830, were authorized 1 85
From 1830 to 1834 ... 32
During . . 1834 ... 27
244
They are generally formed amongst workmen
of the same profession, paying a small monthly
contribution, (from 1 to 3 francs) in consider-
ation of which relief is to be afforded (about 1
franc a day) when sickness, infirmity, or acci-
dent deprive them of employment.
The earliest associations of this description
are : —
* In 1830, the savings' bank of Paris alone received
93,284,325 francs, subdivided into 751,567 deposits
made by different persons at different times.
VOL. II. F 3
106 SOCIAL CONDITION.
That of St. Anne, founded for all professions
in 1694, and containing 160 members. -
That of cabinet makers founded 1760.
That of typographists, founded 1789, pos-
sessing 80 members, and an income of 1,750
francs.
The most numerous are : —
That of the hatters, that of the paper makers,
that of the printers, and that of the painters on
porcelain ; some of these have a capital of 15,000
to 16,000 francs.
The persons absolutely dependent upon their
daily labour for support — who if thrown out of
employment have no kind of resource — must
necessarily then be small. The population of
the rural districts are frugal, sober, ' and labo-
rious, anxious to obtain a piece of ground, or
to extend that which they possess ; proud of
the title of " peasant " which is usually linked
with that of " proprietor,'^ simple, indefatigable
and independent. Here you will hardly find a
pauper, except from malady or accident.
In rural villages, indeed, I have frequently
found, upon inquiry, not more than two or three
poor (I mean supported by charity) in a popu-
lation of 1,500 — and these were persons cor-
responding with Mr. Cobbett's account, not
WORKING CLASSES,
107
unable to find work, but incapable of perform-
ing it.
In towns, however, the case is difi"erent.
M. Bigot de Morogues, in a work lately
published, gives a curious notice of this dis-
tinction, and, according to him, indeed, the
number of j^oor is almost relati^'e to the num-
ber of large towns in any particular district.
In the towns of above
50,000 inhabitants,
and in the depart-
ments they belong to,
we find, he says, on
10,000 inhabitants.
lu 26 departments which
have towns above
20,000 persons, on
10,000.
In 30 departments which
have towns above
6,000 persons, on
10,000.
In those departments
which have no town
above 5,000 persons,
on 10,000.
Beggars
or Indigent.
1,040
Under the
" Surveillance"
of the Police.
170
560
490
380
130
110
60
Monsieur de Villeneuve draws similar con-
clusions : —
In towns of above 1,500 persons, he esti-
mates one tenth as paupers.
And in the rest of France one thirtieth.
In the northern departments, where land is
less divided than in general, and cultivated with
larger capitals, there is by far the greatest
108 WORKING CLASSES.
number of indigent ; and in the towns of this
division, pauperism has even risen to an alarm-
ing extent.
" Here," says M. Villeneuve, " the poor
consist of workmen, ignorant, improvident,
brutified by debauchery, or enervated by ma-
nufacturing labors, and habitually unable to
support their families."
These statements are curious, for they cor-
roborate nmch that we find, and which I have
ventured to remark, in England — shewing that
in France also the greatest misery is frequently
to be seen in those spots where wealth is on the
most rapid increase.
A new consideration here arises, which, as it
is connected M^th a question exciting deep in-
terest amongst ourselves, I shall take the liberty
to speak of. People have occupied themselves
much with discussing whether there should be
' poor laws,' or whether there should not be
' poor laws,' — paying little attention, for the
most part, to the state of society to which such
institutions are to be applied : though it is
precisely that state of society which may render
them altogether useless or imperatively re-
quisite.
When we look at France, which has no law
upon the subject, we find a certain necessity
WORKING CLASSES. 109
making regulations, and preparing the minds of
men for regulations, according to the various
circumstances it has to provide for.
In the rural districts, and in those rural dis-
tricts more especially, where property is in the
greatest degree divided, the proposition of a
poor law would be treated as absurd.
Because, first ; — the labourer is not altoge-
ther dependant upon wages ; he has something,
when out of employ, to fall back upon, and his
patch of ground supplies the place of the poor
rate.
Because, secondly; — the great mass who pos-
sess property, have no fear of the small num-
ber who have nothing : and because, thirdly ; —
the very small number who are out of em-
ploy, and have no bit of ground, or who, from
sickness or accident, are incapable of working
for themselves or others, are of the same
class, and frequently of the same parentage, as
those from whom relief is to come ; therefore
no law is required to oblige persons to an act
of duty and charity, which their own feeling,
and affection, or the opinion of all around them
would compel them to perform.
But just in the degree that you approach
other places, where the labourer has nothing
to depend upon but his wages — where the
110 WORKING CLASSES.
possessors of wealth are few, and naturally
in dread of the desperation of the greater
number; — and where, moreover, the different
distribution of fortune has so separated
the classes, as that the poor can appeal to
no one among the rich, except on some regu-
lation made among the rich themselves ; — there
you observe, as in the Department du Nord, for
instance, where the greatest capitals are found,
and where four towns.
Lisle "j
Valenciennes I Population.
Cambrai j 121,389.
Dunkirk J
furnish 36,230 paupers ; — there, I say, you
observe, to use the words of M. Villeneuve,
" que la taxe des pauvres s'est forcemeni in-
troduite ; " — and so, let people reason as they
will, it must introduce itself, as a wise and
prudent policy of the wealthy, wherever so-
ciety is fluctuating, and the many have no-
thing to depend upon more certain than their
casual employment.
Paris, the natural reservoir for theenterprize of
the kingdom, (out of 3,347 persons reheved in
one of the arrondissements of Paris, (1834)
2,196 were not of Parisian birth, and 179 not
of French extraction,) gives no idea of the state
WORKING CLASSES.
Ill
of tranquil sufficiency which prevails throughout
the countr}^ in general ; but it is there, that
the present system for the relief of the poor is
most developed, and can best be studied.
The budget of that metropolis contains a
charge of 10,186,388 francs for the poor ;* the
aid given being under the following heads :
1. Public estabhshments 24; 13 being hos-
* This charge is supplied by the following
sources : —
Revenus en argent, loyers, fermages, etc.
1,136,271
Fermages en nature. ....
295,000
Rentes sur I'etat. .....
1,201,472
Rentes sur les particuliers.
11,000
Dons et legs. ......
100,000
Interets de capitaux. .....
12,000
Journees de malades, pensions payees pour
I'admission. .....
386,100
Produits interieurs, successions hospitalieres.
81,200
Mont-de-Piete
231,970
Spectacles. ......
600,000
Marches crees. .....
296,300
Recettes diverses. .....
30,000
Subvention par la ville de Paris.
5,238,000
Subvention par le departement pour les en-
fans trouves. ....
400,000
Subvention extraordinaire pour grands tra-
vaux. ......
92,000
Emploi des capitaux de I'administration.
75,075
10,186,388
112 WORKING CLASSES.
pitals destined to the sick, and containing 5,337
beds ; and 11 " hospices" or houses where the
indigent and infirm may be received to the
number of 11,740 persons.
2. Rehef sent to persons at their own
houses.
3. Les enfans-trouv^s.
The movement, 1833, of the population in
these estabhshments, was as follows :
Hospitals. Hospices. Total.
Individuals there 1st Jan. 4,170 9,557 13,727
Admitted during the year 61,765 3,190 64,955
65,935 12,747 78,692
To these numbers are to be added —
1. Enfans trouves, in the country or at Paris, on the
1st Jan. (orphans included) .... 17,435
2. Enfans trouves, abandoned during the year 5,693
3. Children placed out to nurse by the bureau
des nourrices * ...... 1, 760
4. Indigent assisted at home . . . 68,986
Total number altogether being I72,566t
• A bureau to which persons desiring children to nurse
can apply. The applicants are submitted to certain regu-
lations, and must be monthly examined.
■f i.e. one to eleven persons in Paris, double the propor-
tion which the poor bear to the population in France in
general.
* WORKING CLASSES. US
There are also at the outskirts of Paris, large
establishments, or houses of repression, where
all persons, without employment or profession,
are received — but these originally intended
as charitable, are almost become penal institu-
tions, and chiefly contain persons whom the
pohce deem it expedient thus to dispose of.
The most interesting part of the statement
1 have entered into, is that relating to the aid
given the indigent at their own houses, and
which is extended, as it appears, to no less than
68,986 individuals ; concerning whom I refer to
the annexed statement.
This relief is chiefly administered in kind,
and mostly through the medium of tickets upon
the baker, the butcher, etc. ; relief in money
being reserved chiefly for the aged and in-
firm.
This is done by the aid of 12 bureaux of
charity or benevolence, one to each of the
arrondissements of Paris.
These bureaux are under the superintend-
ence of the prefect of the department, and the
council general, which has charge of the general
administration of the hospitals, hospices, etc.
Each bureau is composed :
1st. Of the mayor of the arrondissement,
(as president) and his two adjuncts of the
114 WORKING CLASSES.
curate of the parish, and his desservans (curates
or assistants.)
2nd. Of 12 other administrators named by
the minister of the interior, renewed every
year by one fourth, according to the order of
their nomination.
8rd. Of an indefinite number of visiters to
the poor, and " ladies of charity" (ladies who
give up their time to charitable pursuits) named
by the bureau, but not assisting at its delibera-
tions except when invited.
4th. In those arrondissements where there
is a protestant church, of the protestant cler-
gyman.
5th. Of a responsible agent, under the title
of secretary and treasurer, who receives a
salary and is obliged to give security.
Out of Paris —
Houses of repression, as estabUshed in
1 793,* have been found not to answer, and they
* By a decree of the 20th of May, 1790, two convents
were provisionally assigned, one for the reception of the
infirm poor, one for the reception and employment of
those who were not unfit for labour.
18th of October, 1793, " houses of repression" were
formed — establishments in which every able man was re-
ceived and employed at 3-4ths the ordinary wages
given in the canton.
Every " Chef-lieu" of a department was to have
WORKING CLASSES. 115
now only exist where a number of different
communes unite to form one.
one of these houses of repression, and every one beg-
ging, was to be punished in the first instance with one
year's, in the second, with two years' imprisonment.
But the most remarkable attempt at a really wise poor
law made in these times, was by a decree published May
11th 1794, commanding the formation of '' a book of
national benevolence," divided under three heads :
1. Cultivators, old and infirm.
2. Artizans, old and infirm.
3. Mothers and widows of the same having
children.
Under the first head, every poor man, sixty years old,
furnished with a certificate attesting that he had been
employed for twenty years in the cultivation of the soil,
was to receive 160 francs a year.
The number of such persons was fixed at 400 for each
department, and a sum of 7,544,000 francs for this pur-
pose was placed at the disposal of the commission of
public charities.
Under the second head, all artisans under sixty years
old, infirm and poor, and who had exercised any industry
for twenty-five years, were entitled to ] 20 francs per ann.
The number of these was fixed at 200 per department,
and the sum allotted 2,040,000.
In respect to the mothers and widows having children,
all mothers having two children under ten years, and a
third at breast ; all widows having one child under ten
years and a second at breast, had a claim to the annual
charity of sixty francs, and twenty francs additional, if
116 WORKING CLASSES.
Here too they act like the two establishments
I have mentioned at the outskirts of Paris,
less as charitable than as penal or restrictive
institutions, and are principally maintained with
a view of preventing the circulation of improper
characters through the country.
Each commune has a bureau of charity or
bienfaisance, similar to those bureaux I have
described in Paris, and a hospice or house of
reception.
These are supported partly by charitable be-
at the expiration of the year, they presented their child
alive to the agent of the commune.
Six hundred and fifty wives and widows thus situated,
and one hundred and fifty widows, who had no children,
and who received considerably less.
The sum here allotted was 3,060,000.
A recompense was also given by the same law to
any " mere filles," to virgins with children !
The expense of this project, however congenial to the
spirit of the time that produced it, was found more than
the state, burthened with a war, could bear — and it only
remains as a monument of the great and beneficent designs,
which the madmen of the republic, at the very moment
that they were sending their fellow citizens by battalions
to the guillotine, no doubt contemplated : — such are the
contradictions of mankind ! and such the injustice of
history when it praises or condemns without restriction.
WORKING CLASSES. 117
quests which form a permanent fund, partly by
charitable donations, and partly by the sum
voted by the municipal council, a sum regu-
lated by the wants of the poor and the capacity
of the commune.
The law still punishes any valid beggar with
imprisonment, and the punishment becomes
heavier if he begs out of his commune.*
Invalid beggars also, may for the act of beg-
ging, be sent to the hospice or house of recep-
tion, which, if they have any other means of
subsistence, though the accommodation in
most of these houses is good, they hate and
avoid.
Thus, there are two methods of rehef adopt-
ed, the one administered at home, to persons
accidentally reduced to want, and who wish
not to sink into the class of beggars in
perpetuity ; the other, given in houses of
refuge, to persons less sensible of shame,
and who would be inclined to imitate indi-
gence in order to obtain the occasional luxuries
of wealth.
* But this law, except in extraordinary cases, where
the beggar is a known vagabond, or takes no pains to
find employment, is rarely enforced. A calculation that
gives 198,000 beggars in France, states that 500 were
convicted of begging
118 WORKING CLASSES.
But though the people in towns, and more
particularly in manufacturing towns, seem liable
to distress, it is fair and necessary to say, that
this seems less caused by the real wants than
the iml^ro^ddent habits of the people. I may
cite one instance at Lyons.
The whole land-tax of the department of the
Rhone (in which Lyons is situated) is 2,876,300
francs, and for 10 years prior to 1830, the an-
nual amount of money put into the lottery in
the town of Lyons alone, was 3,400,000 francs.*
I subjoin a table which I have taken much
pains to form, and which states many parti-
culars relative to the class I am describing
at Paris.
As it may be seen from this table, the
characteristic weakness of the working classes
in France, is the desire for amusement, and
for such amusements as cannot be enjoyed
without expense. Tliey waste the Sunday,
very frequently the Monday or Tuesday, in
the guinguettes, the theatre ; there is no con-
* It might be said, that it was the richer and not the
poorer classes by whom this money was subscribed ; this
objection, however, is met by the fact, that since 1830,
when the price of the lowest shares was raised to two
francs, the produce of the whole decreased by one half.
WORKING CLASSES. 119
trol over this habit. There is no duty, no
passion to counterbalance it, for there is no
religion, or little rehgion, in the cities more
especially; neither has the education hitherto
given to the working classes, offered more intel-
lectual resources than the tavern at the harr'^re^
or the spectacle on the Boulevards. The
child, taking to any trade, having received little
instruction during his boyhood, starts at
eighteen, to make the tour of France. He
passes from town to town, contracting, as it is
easy to suppose, more %'ices than virtues in his
way, and ends either by setthng in the capital
or returning to his native towni, with the infor-
mation he has thus acquired.
It does not so often happen then, that a
fair subsistence cannot be acquired in the
towns, as that it is either extravagantly ex-
pended, or not sought to be procured. The evil
to remedy is a moral e^^l, which can only be
remedied by moral improvement. The new
law on education, must produce its effect -, but
there is a particular species of education
adapted to the working classes, adapted espe-
cially to the working classes of France, and
which, existing in France, to a certain extent
it is to be expected, that an intelligent and
philanthropic government will attempt to im-
120 WORKING CLASSES.
prove. If you tell the man and his wife, who
are just starting off for their Sunday's debauch,
that they would do much better to come and
hear a lecture on painting or chemistry, they
will not be likely to listen very patiently to
your injunction. But if you shew them a
beautiful picture, explain its subject, mark and
make them remark the characteristics, and the
talents of the artist, they will receive your
lesson as an amusement, and have the -satisfac-
tion of learning without the suspicion of being
taught. The same may be said of chemistry, even
of astronomy, the illustrations of which I re-
member seeing when a boy, with a kind of mys-
terious pleasure, resembhng, but far exceeding,
that which I should have received from a play.
Monsieur le Chevalier, an officer in the en-
gineers, of very considerable attainments, in-
stituted shortly after the revolution of July, a
gratuitous course of lectures upon this plan,
and especially adapted to the working classes.
These lectures were delivered in the Theatre
Mohere, and attended by about 3,000 of
the working classes of Paris. M. le Che-
valier would sometimes conduct these men to
the Louvre, point out to them the pictures
most deserving attention, recount the his-
tory of the artist, the subject of the piece, and
WORKING CLASSES. 121
every clay so entertaining a professor found
himself surrounded by new disciples.
It is to be regretted that these lectures,
which commenced with the simple intention
of improving the moral condition of the poor,
were afterwards converted to political purposes.
The government then found itself obliged to
discourage them, and M. Le Chevalier himself
abandoned his voluntary professorship. Since
which time, though still continued, they are
little attended, and only exist as a memorial of
what might be achieved on a similar plan, and
which, if instituted by the government, would
be under its controul.*
* I shall be much misunderstood, if it be supposed that
I mean to deny amusements to the poor, and condemn
them, as the condition of their destiny, to unceasing toil.
But there are amusements which elevate the character,
and there are amusements which debase it ; amusements
which strengthen the body, amusements which enfeeble
it. There are expenses also which lead to improve-
ment and comfort, as there are expenses which lead to
idleness and want. The money spent in drinking, which
is an amusement, is better spent on a book, which, read
to the family, is an amusement also. A more comfortable
piece of furniture, a larger and more healthy apartment,
warmer clothing ; — these are not amusements certainly,
but the poor man would frequently do well in these res -
pects to sacrifice a day's pleasures, in order to procure
what will add considerably to his year's happiness. It
VOL. II. G
122 WORKING CLASSES.
It may be asked, of what use is painting, of
what use is history or chemistry to the poor ?
I answer that all knowledge is useful in soft-
ening the mind, in opening the intelligence ; —
all knowledge is useful moreover which comes
as a substitute for some more \acious gratifica-
tion. But a practical illustration is now before
me ; — the best proof for or against a disputed
theory''.
Travel over France, visit every great town of
that great empire, where ■v^^ll you find the
working classes most decent in their behaviour,
most respectable in their appearance ? at Metz ;
and why at Metz ? There, there are lectures
established and supported by the respectable
inhabitants and officers of the town, — lectures
on chemistry, histor^'^, &c.*
The change which has been produced among
the working classes of Metz by these means
is something marvellous. It is to be traced
immediately in their manners. If you meet a
is not that I wish to circumscribe the relaxations of the
poor there, I only wish to give them such relaxations as
will not withdraw them from industry nor deprive them of
their comforts.
* Every person may have a ticket on applying for it ;
but if he misses three times, his name is erased from the
list, and the ticket is forthwith refused to him.
WORKING CLASSES. 123
working man, you find him polite, polished,
correct in his language, easy without being
confident in his conversation. You would take
him, if he were not worse dressed and better
informed, for a respectable bourgeois of
Paris.
There seems, I admit, something theoretical
in these projects of excessive perfection ; but in
France — attention is invited to them, not by any
benevolent dream of distant philanthropy, nor
any prospective consideration for future genera-
tions. The wisdom and policy of the day, of
the hour, call the legislature to active and in-
cessant preparation for that great scheme of
democracy, now in the first stage of its de-
velopment, but which is likely, even during the
lifetime — of us whose eyes are now open — to
have a prosperous or fatal trial.
There is that sanctity in great names and
deeds, there is so natural and almost holy a
veneration implanted in us for antique recollec-
tions and superstitions, that it is impossible for
society long to make a stand on the fine which
separates the mass from the nobility. But that
barrier once passed, who can for a moment pre-
tend that all others will not shortly give way ?
Monsieur Thomas and Monsieur de Montmo-
rency stand already in the same position before
G 2
124 WORKING CLASSES.
the state ; — can Monsieur Thomas, who pays
200 frs. of dh-ect taxes, and Monsieur Thomas,
who pays 100 frs. stand long in a diiferent one ?
It is to this sentiment of their force — and
also to the presentiment of their destiny — it is
to the conviction (forced on them from the
tribune, and the stage, by the press and the
revolution of July) — it is to the conviction that
they have a power unacknowledged by the
state, which power is daily becoming greater,
that we may attribute those transient disorders
that for the last four or five years have broken
out among the working classes, now exercised
against the government, now against their
masters.
Few countries, indeed, are so called upon to
watch over their manufacturing population, as
that France which adds all the fickleness and
fierceness of its own character to the frequent
variations and occasional severities of com-
merce.
Prior to the first revolution, all disputes
between the different orders in trade were con-
fined to the corporations which had each their
own banner, (forming thus — so few institutions
are there without their precedent — a species of
national guard) their own government, their
own laws, their own hierarchy — an hierarchy
which repressed industry, but regulated its
WORKING CLASSES. 125
movements, and infused the conservative
spirit of an aristocracy into the breast of the
artisan and the mechanic.
The revolution which visited the chateau did
not spare the workshop — those bodies, the
constitution of which it might have been wiser
to alter and modify, v/ere at once destroyed.
None could any longer say that their talents
were unacknov/ledged and repressed by the
society they belonged to ; but none could any
longer say that they belonged to a society
which had a right to redress their grievances
and relieve their wants.
These old associations — condemn them as we
may — gave to every class and to every age an
assigned and an expected place. The lad on
quitting his parents found a family in the pro-
fession into which he entered — a family which
profited by his labour, and provided for him
when he was incapable of finding employment.
The master and the workmen then united to-
gether to support their trade, instead of strug-
gling, as now, to divide its profits. Industry
was confined within certain channels and order
given peculiar securities.
The al^rupt abolition of a vast assemblage of
old laws, some of which must, even from their
12(5 WORKING CLASSES.
long continuance, have created necessities — was
followed shortly afterwards by a succession of
new laws, having for their object the restoration
of that discipline which had been too suddenly
disarranged.
The decree of 22 Germinal an XI (12 April
1803) and of 9 Frimaire, (I December, 1803)
established the livret — a certificate which every
workman, under the penalty of being treated as
a vagabond, is obliged to have.* On this certi-
ficate is written his age, the place of his birth,
and the name of the person whom he last
served, or to whom he was apprenticed.
Here too the money he receives, the debts
he incurs, the agreements he enters into, the
character he has deserved, are all recorded.f
On quitting one master, he presents it to the
other, whose service he is about to enter : — the
manufacturer knows the antecedents of the man
he employs, the police of the man who travels,
soi-disant, in search of employment. In this
manner the surveillance of the old corpora-
tions has been in some degree restored ; so
* The livret has been extended to soldiers and servants
in large towns.
+ On entering any service, the master writes the date
on the livret ; it must be visited by the police within
twenty-four hours.
WORKING CLASSES. 127
also in some respect, have been their tribu-
nals.
Formerly the mayors, or achevins des villes^
sometimes the syndics, used to decide upon the
disputes between workmen and their masters.
Such disputes are now decided by the conseils
des jprud'hommes, first formed 18th March
1806. These judges composed in a fair pro-
portion of manufacturers, chef d'ateliers, and
workmen, form a popular court, of which it is
difficult to over-estimate the utility.
At Lyons in 1828, out of 3,362 cases, all,
except 22, were terminated at once, without
expense, to the satisfaction of both parties ; aud
the jurisdiction of these councils, the best proof
of their advantage, has been extended from
affairs of 60 to affairs of 100 francs.
Owing, as manj believe, to such regulations,
there were not in France, until within a very few
years, any of those disputes between the manu-
facturer and his workmen, against which we
have abandoned all hopes of legislating.*
In a report of the committee appointed in
1819 to inquire into the exposition and the
* Any violent attempt at raising wages subjects the par-
ticipator to one, two, or three months' imprisonment,
the promoter to three, four, or five years' imprisonment.
128 WORKING CLASSES.
state of manufactures, I find it especially as-
serted — " que la France a le bonheur de n'etre
point affligee par ces dissentions qui, dans
d'autres contrees, divisent la classe ouvriere et
les manufacturiers qui la font travailler,"
And if the artisan be less satisfied now, it
is not because the events that have since oc-
curred, have lowered his fortunes, but because
those events have increased his expectations,
and given him the idea that his situation is to
be raised by a greater share of power from the
government, and a greater share of profit from
the capitalist.
The same cause is at the bottom of the as-
sociations which are for procuring the " rights
of man," and the heightening of wages — an
equality, first founded on theories, and now
daily establishing itself in practice.
EQUALITY.
CHAPTER VI I.
Equality to be discovered in the preceding Chapters — King
of England first gentleman in his kingdom — King of the
French first citizen — The effect of the law does in
France what the law did by compulsion in Florence-
Social advantages of equality — Political results uncer-
tain — Struggle between opinions and manners, between
local government and centralization.
What have we seen in France ? A popular
literature that acknowledges no privileged order
of critics ; a cheap press that addresses itself to
all classes of readers ; a church establishment
that embraces all sects of religion ; strange phi-
losophies founded on the association of all
capacities ; a soil partitioned amongst all ranks
G 3
130 EQUALITY.
of persons ; an upper class, whose exclusive
pretensions are treated with ridicule ; a middle
class possessing great political authority ; a
working class almost independent, and de-
manding an increase of riches and power, —
And are not these things the sign of that fact
which I take as a title to this chapter ?
" The King of England," said M. Odillon
Barrot, " is the first gentleman in his king-
dom; — the King of the French, is the first
citizen." The one is the chief of a long aristo-
cratic hierarchy, the other the ruler over a
people who recognize no other than personal
distinctions.
The principle of equality as understood, and
as existing in France is this — A man may be
everything ; but he has no right to be any
thing ; he may be every thing by ability, he has
no right to be any thing by privilege.
What is the question you ask of any one in
England ? — is he gentlemanlike ?
What is the question you ask of any one in
France ? — A-t-il de V esprit ?
In these two questions lie the genius of two
nations, which I do not compare, but con-
trast.
In one, the nobility descends into the arena
where power is acquired by talent.
EQUALITY. i;il
In the other, talent, as the consequence of
its power, mounts into the nobiUty.
Does any one want to know what is repub-
lican in the institutions of the French ?
That which the law did by compulsion in the
republican days of repubhcan Florence, is the
simple effect of the law in the intelligent days
of monarchical France.
The Capponis were enrolled on the books of
the plebeians, and the Fitz-James's have
descended into the Chamber of Deputies.
" Tous les hommes naissent egaux et libres ;
aucun d'eux n'a plus de droit que les autres de
faire usage de ses facultes naturelles ou
acquises ; ce droit comraun a tous n'a d'autre
limite que la conscience meme de celui qui
I'exerce, laquelle lui interdit d'en faire usage
au detriment de ses semblables."
These were the words of Mirabeau in jiro-
posing that famous declaration " of the Rights
of Man," with which the discussions of the
National Assembly opened, and which the
existing government has ultimately adopted.
For the pleasures of society, and by society
I mean every relation of social intercourse,
there is certainly no comparison between the
effects of those feelings which, in France, bring
to the same talkie every variety of character and
132 EQUALITY.
station, and the effects of those opposite feel-
ings which, in England, draw a barrier as fear-
ful as the Rubicon betM^een Mr. Roberts and
Mr. Rogers, who are both wholesale or retail
dealers in mutton suet.
There is a fretfulness about every man's
position with us, which is positively friglitful.
He is never easy, for there is always some
little line of demarcation between himself and
his neighbour, which he toils to pass over.
The aristocracy descends through every link,
from the golden to the copper of the country.
The Duke of Devonshire is not more exclusive
than the Duke's poulterer. Society is a long
series of little uprising ridges, which, from the
first to the last, offer no valley of repose.
Wherever you take your stand, you are looked
down upon by those above you, and reviled
and pelted by those below you. Every crea-
ture you see is a farthing Sisyphus, pushing
his little stone up some Liliputian molecule.
This is our world !
The social advantages, then, that result from
equality, are great ; the political consequences
that may arise from it are more uncertain.
For there is this to be said of the French :
a marked difference exists between the ideas
and the habits of that people.
EQUALITY. 133
The ideas date from the revolution of 1789,
the habits develope a longer history.
The ideas prevent the grand seigneur from
assuming a superiority over the stockbroker.
The habits have carried down to the stock-
broker all the luxuries and some of the airs
of the Grand Seigneur.
Who has the best box and the prettiest
dancers at the opera ? Who has the best horses
at the race course ? Who is " the fashionable,"
the petit marquis of the epoch ?
That young ' agent-de- change/ whose out-
spread coat-skirts obscure the fire at the club in
the Rue de Grammont, dressed ^vith a simple
pretension, and talking, with a doctrinal air, of
the merits of lobster soup, and ministerial
stability.
The Hotel de Montmorency has not been
destroyed but let out in apartments, and you
see the traces of the ancient regime in modern
society, as you find on modern furniture those
curious and beautiful old damasks which deco-
rated our grandfather's apartments.
The struggle then, is, and has been since the
directorship of Barras between new opinions
and old manners.
Equality is in itself neither republican, as
some people believe, nor anti-republican as
13 1 EQUALITY.
others suppose. It is republican among the
poor, anti-republican among the rich ; the first
it makes jealous of power, — the second it makes
anxious for place.
The opinions that agitate one body would
estabUsh a democracy — the desires that prevail
among the other would re-establish a court.
What reigns is a system of compromise. There
is no hereditary House of Lords, and there is a
very unpojiular law of election. The lower
classes are excluded from the government be-
cause the middle have not left an upper. Nor
is this all ; where there is no aristocracy to
ease the government of part of its affairs, there
must either be an active and intelligent demo-
cracy ruling in every village, or a powerful ad-
ministration concentrated in the executive
authority. As the government at one time
stripped the people of power, so the people
have lately been acquiring some rights from the
government. But still there is a conflict here —
not, as with us, between the middle orders,
who begin to proclaim equality, and the upper
who would maintain privileges ; but between
the community who demand greater local au-
thority, and the minister who contends for pre-
serving centralization.
BOOK VI
SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.
" The very best administration must encounter a
great deal of opposition, and the worst will find more
support than it deserves." — Thoughts on French Revolu-
tion — Burke.
CENTRALIZATION.
CHAPTER VIIL
La Revolution a desosse la France — Idea of the Con-
vention — of Bonaparte — Circumstances of France and
England in respect to centralization — Late changes in
system in France — Existing administration.
Every thing in France is small ; France itseli
is great.
Individual existence in this country is insig-
nificant ; for where there are no prejudices of
l)irth, no great fortunes, no established and
fixed positions, as it were, one man is the centre
of but a small circle of considerations. Nor
are there any bodies, so formed and organized,
as to interpose between the great masses of the
138 CENTRALIZATION.
community, and the executive power of the
state. The first revolution, to use an cxjores-
sion attributed to M. de Talleyrand, unboned
France. The great corporations, to which I have
alluded, and so also the ancient provincial divi-
sions and administrations, every institution, in
^hort,. which, having local power, placed any
check upon, or created any barrier against
central power, was swept away.
All that law could alter — habits and manners
are not within its immediate jurisdiction — it
did destroy and alter in a moment. Nor was
the terrible Triumvirate, over whose doors
were written : — " liberty, indivisibility, and
death," without a great idea, an idea always
difficult to realize, difficult then; but pressed
upon their attention by foreign war, domestic
discord, and that turbulent and sanguinary
spirit which it was at once their object to
nourish and controul. " Liberty to all, tyranny
over all," was in fact their motto — words not so
incompatible as w^e may suppose ; for they
simply determine that in proportion to the
check which the people have on the .govern-
ment, should be the power which the go-
vernment has over the people.
What the men of those times wished, was
to make the authority which they said should
GOVERNMENT. 139
represent the masses, strong ; the citizens over
whom that authority extended, equal.
An enemy's bayonets gleamed on their
frontier, a hostile aristocracy lurked in their
capital, jealous rivalries agitated their pro-
vinces. To drive back that enemy, to put
down that aristocracy, to tranquillize those
jealousies one thing was wanted — a system of
centralization. Who shall blame them for
adopting it ?
Bonaparte arrived with a genius just
proper to consolidate and regulate what his
predecessors in the revolution had con-
ceived ; but into their plans he carried a new
idea.
He looked at things with the eye of a great
captain.
He saw less perhaps the necessity of
making the nation, over which he was to rule
powerful, than that of gi^^ng a quick and
rapid impulsion to its power. What he wished
was to have a government that vibrated at his
touch, whose whole force he was a1)le to com-
bine instantaneously, and to drive in one di-
rection. Hence the civil and military system
of the empire, intended to unite so many radii
round a common centre, bv the action of
140 CENTRALIZATION.
which they were all to be imperatively con-
trolled*
There have been various doctrines pro-
pounded, of late years, amongst ourselves, as
to the excellencies or evils of that system of
unity uAder which French affairs are adminis-
tered, and many have considered that we have
something to learn, in this respect, from our
neighbours, while others have thought that
they had rather much to imitate and adopt from
us. In any consideration we give this subject,
let us carefully separate the circumstances of
the two countries to which we would apply the
same principles.
I have already spoken of the differences na-
turally created by a great landed gentry, who,
from their property and station take the place
of the government, as it were, and are fre-
quently able to discharge its duties ; besides,
heavy hands have weighed on England.
The dominion of the Tudors coming at a time
* The principle of centralization, though established
on very different grounds, pervades, to a certain extent,
our own government, though this fact is generally over-
looked. A committee of the House of Commons is but a bad
tribunal to decide upon the propriety of provincial im-
provement. Here, however, the supreme authority is the
popular assembly ; in France it is the executive power.
GOVERNMENT. 141
Avhen, enfeebled by her civil dissensions, she
was plastic to every impression, destroyed many
of the differences then remaining of her ancient
divisions. And now, the multiplication of roads,
of canals, the facility and the expedition of
conveyances, have so mingled and mixed up
the various provinces together, that a slight
accent is all that continues to distinguish their
inhabitants one from another. England, more-
over, defended by her insular position and her
maritime superiority, has no occasion, in the
administration of her civil government, to con-
sider what may be required as a security from
foreign aggression. France, on the contrary, is
a continental empire, more likely than any
other, from its situation, and the character of
its inhabitants, to be called to arms, and de-
manding, therefore, even in the administration
which is to govern it in peace an attention to the
administration which might be required in the
event of war ; moreover, it is impossible for
the most casual observer who visits them not
to be struck by the motley character of those
various races now collected under one sway,
and held together by the Northern Ocean, the
Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Rhine.
The Briton speaks of France and the French
as distinguished from himself, and tells you
142 CENTRALIZATION.
that a Frenchman lias bought this chateau,
or hves at that place. In a great part of
France, French is not the language spoken by
the people ; the west, since the revolution of
1830j may be looked upon as a hostile and
subdued country. Ruled by its priests and its
women, served by its chivalric nobility and its
martial peasantry, superstitious, adventurous,
determined, difficult to be subdued, — the in-
stitutions which made it independent would
render it hostile and dangerous. To keep the
fanatic south, the irreligious north, the repub-
lican east, and the royalist west together and
quiet, no doubt a strong government, quick in
its action, and determined in its purpose, is
necessary, and no wise Frenchman would desire
a perfection in the laws of a country that would
tend to the disorganization and dissolution of
the state.
Looking, then, at the equality among the
French people, which prevents the local govern-
ment of an aristocracy — at the position and
divisions of France, which render dangerous the
uncontrolled local government of a democracy —
centralization if an evil, is almost an evil of
necessity, and cannot be abandoned, though,
perhaps, it may yet be capable of further
modification. Already, as I have said many
GOVERNMENT. 143
changes have taken place since the destruction
of the empire, and more especially, since the
revolution of July, and over these changes
a spirit of wisdom and moderation has prevailed.
To maintain the unity of the state, to stimulate
the energies of the provinces, and to set
bounds to the authority of the executive go-
vernment seem to ])e the triple object
under which these alterations ought to have
lieen undertaken, and have been accomplished.
Here the general councils have been made
elective, the judges immoveable. There, the
formation of a local force, on popular principles,
has placed a check upon the unlimited power
of the regular soldiery.
But as the best key to this subject I A\all give
a rapid sketch of the civil and mihtary admi-
nistration of the country.
CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
CHAPTER IX.
Minister of Finance and system of Taxation — Minister of
Justice and Judicial system — Minister of Police, and
the origin, effect and attributes of that office — Minister
of Commerce, Commercing Chambers, etc. — Minister
of instruction, systemof education, etc. — Minister of the
Interior, and departmental and government divisions.
FINANCE.
In the Minister of Finance centres the ad-
ministration of the pubhc revenue^, the national
debt, and the mint.
He superintends the assessment and collec-
tion of taxes, direct and indirect j and as the
GOVERNMENT. 1 45
centre to whom all the other ministries ad-
dress their accounts seems the most proper to
mention first.
It is after having received the estimates of
the different administrations, that this mi-
nister determines how much will be requi-
site for the service of the coming year, and
proposes in advance a budget accordingly.
The budget of the state fixed, the object is
to secure its payment : and in order to un-
derstand how this is done, it is necessary to
know from what sources the public revenue
proceeds.
Tlie most important of these are the direct
and indirect taxes. The direct taxes are :
1. The house and land tax in proportion to
the clear annual income.
2. The poll tax, extending to all but the very
poor, and amounting to the A'alue of three days'
labour.
3. The door and window tax.
4. The licences to trade.*
From the nature of these taxes it is neces-
sary, first, to pro^ade for their distribution, and
secondly, for their perception.
* The licences must be paid for when issued, except in
some particular cases.
VOL. II. H
146 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
In respect to the distribution, the minister
proposes to the chamber in his budget the
contingent of each department for land tax,
poll tax and window tax. The councils of the
departments fix the proportion to be paid by
their arrondissements, and the councils of the
arrondissements the proportion to be paid by
their communes.*
A list of tax-payers is drawn up every three
years, stating the names of each individual,
and the nature, and the amount of the taxes to
Avhich he is liable.
This list, annually supervised, is signed jij
the prefect every year, on or before the J 2th of
January, and then becomes available. The direct
taxes are made payable by twelfths, and the
tax-payer can be called upon the first of every
month for the taxes of the months previous, f
Such taxes are collected by collectors named
in everj^ department by the minister of finance
out of a list presented by the prefect;}: and every
* The prefect fixes the house tax in the departments,
and the sub-prefect in the arrondissements.
f Those who have not paid their twelfth on the first of
the month are liable to proceedings, which consist 1 — Of
a notice. — 2. Summons. — 3. Seizures. — 4. Sale.
X They must, however, be consented to by the re-
ceivers, who are responsible for them.
GOVERNMENT. 147
tenth day, in large towns at shorter periods, they
must pay the sums levied to authorities appointed
for that purpose. These authorities are sta-
tioned in every arrondissement, under the
title of receivers of arrondissement, and are all
subordinate to the receiver-general of the de-
partment, who is responsible for their inte-
grity.*
The indirect taxes are :
1 . On drink (i. e. mne, beer, and spirituous
liquors.)
2. Produce of the sale of the monopolies
of gunpowder and tobacco.f
3. Tenth of aU the commercial octrois.
4. Miscellaneous.
Pubhc carriages.
Cards.
Salt at the pits, and in the country.
On stamps guaranteeing the quality of
articles fabricated in gold and silver.
On passage of bridges, &c.
* A commune which has a revenue of 20,000 frs. has
a receiver also.
t The persons allowed to sell these articles, take them
from the government at a certain price, and are allowed
as their remuneration, to sell them at another,
H 2
148 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION*
5. Registration stamps.*
6. Post and lotteiy.f
The machinery of receipts is the same as
for the direct taxes.
Directors of direct and indirect taxes are
appointed to superintend the method of per-
ception, and functionaries called, " inspectors
general," who, travelling over the countr}'^,
may take any district by surprise, keep a
watchful and constant controul over the ac-
counts.
But the finance ministry is not only charged
with the collection of the public revenue, it
is also charged with the payment of the public
expences. The machinery it employs is there-
fore of a double nature.
By the side of the ' receiver general' of
the department, there is a paymaster for the
department also. The receivers are in fact
the government bankers, and the paym.asters
the government agents.
The receiver general, for instance, has so
much in hand, on account of the treasury'
* The rest of the receipts is composed of the revenues
of public lands, of falls of timber, produce of the contract
from gaming houses, profits from coinage, &c.
t Lottery is now abolished.
GOVERNMENT. 149
in his department. The treasury issues a
mandate, or draws a draft, in favour of the
paymaster, to he apphed to a particular use ;
the paymaster receives the money and exe-
cutes the commission.
But as the speedy transition of the funds,
from the pubhc debtor to the pubhc creditor,
is the great object of the government, a board
is estabhshed, called the ' bureau de fonds,'
for this special purpose. Every ten days the
accounts of the receivers general are sent to
this board, which thus knowing the funds
that the state has to dispose of, in each part of
the country, transmits a daily account thereof
to the ministry, according to which, the public
payments are regulated.*
The different state establishments in each
of the eighty-six departments, therefore, whe-
ther military, clerical, or judicial, are defrayed,
as far as possible, by the receipts of that
part of the country in which they are situated.f
The speedy collection, secure deposit, and
* The minister, therefore, can see at a glance, what
funds are disposeable in every part of the empire.
f But, as this cannot always take place, a transfer of
revenue is sometimes necessary ; and this transfer is
calculated to cost annually 2,900,000 frs.
150 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
rapid j^ayment of the public money, being
thus provided for, the only remaining thing
to desire, is the clearness and correctness of
the accounts through which these different
movements of cash are to be traced.
The svstem of accounts in France, to which
our attention was first called by Sir H. Par-
nell, has since that time considerably occupied
the attention of parliament ; and Dr. Bowring,
commissioned for that purpose, has published
reports that might be more clear and less
voluminous perhaps, but which are still highly
interesting and creditable to their author.
The merit of the French accounts is in
their system 5 a system M^hich comprises the
utmost detail on the one hand, and the utmost
centralisation on the other-
To effect this — the first thing necessary is
that all accounts, based on a recapitulation
of the most minute particulars, should be kept
by all parties in certain similar and specified
forms, and ultimately brought under one well
devised central.
The persons who receive for the receivers,
the receivers, and the receivers general them-
selves, must all then maintain a general journal
and ledger, in which every transaction is first
GOVERNMENT. 151
entered, as it takes place, and afterwards copied
out in an organized shape under leading heads.
The copies of these journals and ledgers, toge-
ther with the statement for which they furnish
the materials, are transmitted at short in-
tervals to the ministry of finance, as are the
receipts and vouchers of the paymasters. In
that office they are entered, and centralised
in the books of the cashier general, who is
at the head of the receivers general, and in
the books of the j^aymaster general, who is
at the head of the paymasters.
Thus, every fact, whether of receipt or pay-
ment, is a matter of daily record and of ar-
ranged report to the central financial authori
ties ; while the cashier's and general paymas-
ter's accounts are again centralised by being
brought before a board ; called the ' compta-
bilite generale P which compares every state-
ment and looks into every account.
The Cour des comptes,* as a judicial board,
acts finally as a check upon the ' comptabilite
* This court is composed of a first president and of
three presidents of chambers, of eighteen master coun-
cillors, and eighty referee councillors, of a king's advo-
cate and a chief clerk ; and was first organised during
the empire, in September J807.
152 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
g^nerale,' which is purely a financial board ; and
as the one sees whether the different trans-
For its ordinary business, the court is divided into
three chambers, each composed of a president and six
master councillors.
The first, or chief president, presides over the chambers
united, or when he pleases, over any particular chamber.
He distributes the accounts to the referees, and indicates
the chamber to which they are to make their report.
He has, in short, the general controul of his court
and the three chambers. In his absence his place is
supplied by the senior president of the other chambers.
The presidents have the direction of the business of
their respective chambers ; and distribute to the master
councillors who form them, the affairs or the accounts
of which they are to report.
The referee councillors are charged with the verifica-
tion of the accounts submitted to them, and may be
said to fulfil the duty of auditors as well as accountants.
The king's advocate takes care that the public officers
and receivers transmit their accounts within the period
prescribed by law. He also sees that the chambers
hold their sittings regularly, and that the referees do
their duty. It is to him that the prefects address the
public accounts of their departments when there are any
disputes concerning them. The correspondence with the
ministers for the excution of the decrees or orders of the
court, is also entrusted to him.
The chief clerk receives the accounts and vouchers
from the public officers, and has the charge of all papers.
GOVERNMENT. 153
actions are rightly stated, so the other deter-
mines whether they formally and legally took
place.
It is after this various superintendance that
the public accounts come back at last, collected
into the hands of the minister, by whom they
were originally proposed, and who is charged
with their defence.
It is impossible, in so short a space, to
do more than give this general outline*, which
will, however, suffice to show the main parts
of that machinery by which the cash concerns
of a mighty state are conducted with a pre-
cision and regularity that is rare in the affairs
of a private commercial establishment.
It now only remains to notice the local
expenses.
These are in part defrayed by a portion of
a general tax, proposed by the minister in his
budget, and called centimes additionnelsf, a
certain amount of which, set apart for such
♦ I have endeavoured to disembarrass this statement
as much as possible, from all minor details.
t The centimes additionnels consist of 36 cents, on the
land tax ; 36 on the personal and furniture tax ; 16 on
the house and windows ; 4 on the patents.
154 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
charges, is paid by the receivers to the pay--
masters who defray them. What remains is
met by the budgets of the departments, of the
towns of chef-heu, and of the communes.
The budgets of the departments have for re-
ceipts the centimes additionnelles, which they
vote as supplementary to those, I have al-
ready mentioned, as voted for their use by the
chambers.
Their expenses are those of the prefecture,
central houses of detention, royal depart-
mental roads, etc.
The towns of chef-lieu have the same species
of receipt and expense as the communes, and
it is to the budget of the latter that we ought
especially to look for local expenses.
These budgets, which must be approved by
the sub-prefect, if the commune has only 100
francs ordinary revenue ; by the prefect, if from
100 to 100,000 francs ; and by a royal ordinance,
if above that sum, are all transmitted to the
minister of finance, who has thus before him
the whole expenses, local as well as general, of
the kingdom.
The revenues of the communes are ordinary
and extraordinary. The ordinary revenues are :
five additional centimes on each individual, claims
GOVERNMENT. 155
on licences, fines for various misdemeanours,
fines fijr non-service in the national guard,
funds, customs, right of location in halles,
fairs, markets, ports, walks, etc., fees for
administration acts, income from woods,
contributions to the service of the high-
ways.
The extraordinary revenues are : credit ba-
lance of last account, interest of funds invested
in the treasury, sale of moveables, immoveables
or funds, legacies and donations, price of ex-
traordinary cutting of forests, rates to supply
deficiency of ordinary revenues, loans and
accidental receipts.
The disbursements of a commune are also or-
dinary and extraordinary. The ordinary dis-
bursements are expenses of local administration
receivers, collectors, payeurs, etc. expenses of
communal property, national guard and barracks,
poor laws, public instruction, religion, public
festivals and unforeseen expenses. The extra-
ordinary disbursements are unusual expenses of
administration, purchase of property, heavy re-
pairs etc. extraordinary expenses of national
guards, extraordinary expenses of })ublic es-
tablishments, public instruction or religion,
payment of arrears, law expenses, accidental
expenses, etc.
156 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
The hospitals and bureaux de bienfaisance,
as far as they have funds of their own, form
a separate budget.
The whole receipts and expenses 1832, were
as follows :
RECEIPTS.
EXPENSES.
frs.
frs.
General budget, in which
are included the centimes
additional, voted by the
departments . . . . :
1,064,031,269
1,106,618,270
Budget of communes . .
161,786,000
147,574,775
Tc^ns of chef-lieu . . .
69,362.870
68,132,000
Hospitals and houses of
reception, either from
gifts, legacies, or the like.
and produce of the work
of persons employed .
51,222,063
48,842,097
Bureaux de bienfaisance* do
10,315,746
8,956,036
Total 1,356,717,975 1,380,123,178
JUSTICE.
To the Minister of Justice is intrusted the
organisation and surveillance of the whole
judiciary system.f
* Bureaux of charity.
t The transmittal of all orders and instructions to the
GOVERNMENT. 157
The judicial system in France, much ca-
lumniated because little understood, is cer-
tainly not so defective as we are apt to consi-
der it, and contains a mixture of diflfused and
centralised power Avell worthy of attention.
There is the authority that pursues and the
authority that judges : we will consider each.
The authority that pursues, is called " the public
royal courts, and other tribunals for the execution of the
laws and regulations promulgated.
For instance, the correspondence with the advocates-
general and advocates of the king on all matters com-
mitted to the surveillance of the minister.
The duty of reporting to the king on matters of legis-
lation, on the administration of justice, on the conflicts
between the civil and judicial authorities, regarding natu-
ralization, marriage, change of name, etc., as well as on
matters regarding pardons, commutations of punish-
ments, etc.
The decisions of the courts royal, which pronounce or
confirm the censure or reprimand of a magistrate, cannot
be put in execution unless they have been approved by
the keeper of the seals, who has the power to order into
his presence the members of the courts and tribunals, as
well as of their officers, to explain all the charges which
may be imputed to them.
The measures of discipline and regulation adopted by
the courts and tribunals must also be submitted for his
approbation, and without it can have no effect.
158 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
ministry," (le minist^re public) and is a great
social power charged with the preservation of
order and tranquiUity, and the punishment of
those by whom the laws, in respect to these
blessings, are infringed.
This power is, in fact, a personification of
the community it protects. An individual is
injured — the public ministry pursues the cri-
minal, not for the sake of the individual, but
for the sake of the public of which he forms a
part ; and the prosecution of course takes
place at the public expense.*
The public ministry though one, in its ob-
ject, is composed of a variety of separate and
divergent authorities. The principal of these
are the procureurs-generaux and the procu-
reurs-du-roi.
There are in France, twenty-seven courts
royal and three hundred and sixty-five tribunals
of the first instance : at the chef-lieuf of each
* There may, however, be two parts of the same case,
one public and one private. For instance, an individual
has been robbed of ,£200— the public ministry pro-
secutes the robber for the crime — the person robbed pro-
secutes him to recover the money. Here the ministry has
nothing to do with the money — the person robbed nothing
to do with the crime.
f Capital
GOVERNMENT. 159
of these courts royal there is a procureur-g6-
n^ral and at the chef-Heu of each department,
a procureur-du-roi.
All the procureurs-du-roi within the juris-
diction of a court royal, are under the control
of the procureur-general, follow his directions,
and act in his name.
The different procureurs-generaux are alto-
gether independent of each other, and there
would be no common bond between them but
for the estabUshment in the centre of France
of a minister of justice.
This minister, however, has not in point of
form, the power of forcing the procureurs-ge-
neraux to act as he wishes.
Still, he has in reality this power, since he can
deprive them of their office if they act contrary
to his wishes.
So far the whole machinery of the prose-
cution is calculated for energy and force, and
might be terrible as an instrument of despotism,
if not placed under some efficient control.
This control over the power that pursues,
exists in the power that judges.
The first is centralized round the executive
authority, the second has a dispersed and in-
dependent existence.
160 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
The procureur-du-roi, who looks up to the
procureur-general ; the procureur-g^neral, who
looks up to the minister of justice, may be
considered one and the same person. But the
procureur-du-roi, removeable at pleasure, can
only bring the culprit before a magistrate who
is immoveable, who has no orders to receive,
either from the procureur-du-roi, or from
the procureur-general, or from the minister
of justice, and this humble and simple magis-
trate can at once disarm all the well organised
and terrible force of the public ministry.
The judicial powers are thus arranged : as
every arrondissement has a procureur-du-roi,
so every arrondissement has one juge d'ins-
truction* and two assistant judges.
In the same manner, as every division has
a procureur-general, it has also a court royal,
and in proportion to the facility and the power
given to the executive authority for prosecuting
the culj^rit, is the difficulty laid in the way of his
being rashly and improperly condemned. The
course of procedure is as follows : John Niles
♦ The number varies according to the importance of
the place, and the business there is to do ; but there
must be three at least.
GOVERNMENT. 161
infringes the law — a police agent, or the party
aggrieved, apphes to a commissary of police,
a chief of gendarmerie, a mayor, or a justice*
of peace, or it may be to the procureur-du-roi.
The procureur sends a minute of what has
been stated to the juge d'instruction ; a sum-
mons to appear, or an order to be brought be-
fore thebench is issued against the accused. Here
the juge d'instruction questions, examines, re-
leases or commits him;t for without a warrant, no
citizen can be confined more than twenty-four
hours. When the juge d'instruction considers
there is good ground for a prosecution, he endea-
vours to find clear proofs of the supposed crime,
and this stage of the proceedings is peculiarly
liable to abuse. The juge d^instruction, M'ith the
natural bias of a lawyer, is too apt to feel a pride
in placing the prisoner's guilt in the clearest light
before the tribunal by which he is to be tried. He
is, therefore, far more anxious to find precise
proofs of the culpability of the accused than fear-
ful to deprive him of liberty if he should be in-
nocent.
* The mayor is only where there is no commissaire
of police.
f llie great fault of this proceeding is that it is private.
162 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
When at last, however, he thinks his case as
clear as it can be made, the prisoner is brought
before the chamber of council — i. e. before
three judges, of whom the juge d'instruction of
the arrondissement is one. This court decides
whether there is ground for proceeding with
the cause or not. If the three judges decide
in the negative, the prisoner is released ; but
he may perhaps have previously endured eight
or nine months' imprisonment without guilt.
There is, hoAvever, a check on this abuse.
Every month the juge d'instruction is obliged
to state to his two assistants why he does not
try the prisoners, and they can either admit
or overrule his reason. Sometimes this is a
mere form, since the three judges may be
very good friends, and confide in each other.
But if a prisoner is urgent for a quick trial, and
the public shew interest in the matter, the
judges apply to the case, and there is sel-
dom avoidable delay. This part of the criminal
law, however, requires reform — abuses may,
and do, arise.
The accused has thus had two opportunities
of being released : one by the juge d'instruc-
tion, at his first examination, the other by the
chamber of council. He has one more. The
GOVERNMENT. 16^
chamber of accusation, composed of so many
members of the cour royale,* an mdependent,
immoveable court, may still declare that there
is no cause for proceeding to judgment. But
should the three courts concur in finding
the prisoner guilty, he is then tried at the
assizes. A member of the cour royale presides.
A jury of thirty-six persons is chosen by
ballot, from tax-payers to the amount of 20()
francs, to which physicians, barristers, etc.
have a right, on account of their profession
merely, to belong. Before trial the pri-
soner and the public accuser each strike off
nine. The president is assisted by two fel-
low members of the cour royale, who weigh
"wdth him the due punishment of the offen-
der, and any mistakes that may have arisen
in the procedure. The procureur - general
opens the trial, states the grounds of pro-
secution, names the Tvitnesses, etc. The
avocat-general then appeals to the jury to do
justice to the outraged community. After
* A cour royale must be composed of at least twenty-
four councillors, and is divided into different chambers —
one at least for civil causes, as I shall mention presently,
one of correctional police, and one chamber of accusa-
tion.
154 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
which the president interrogates the prisoner —
too often*" with an evident desire to entrap, and
convict liim. Questions so put, justify the in-
solence of the accuser, who sometimes answers
impatiently and disrespectfully : thus taking
from justice much of the awe, which, when
gravely and impartially administered, it must
inspire.
The president next examines the witnesses.
The prisoner and his counsel have the great
advantage of cross-examining them, of rebut-
ing or explaining the facts which they depose ;
and, consequently, of dissipating every un-
favorable impression at the very moment it
arises ; but this advantage is more than coun-
ter-balanced by the supposition on which the
* The interrogation of the prisoner too often produces
an unjust or a ridiculous effect. If the president is an
able man, and the accused not so, the latter is too often
self-convicted at the very outset of the trial ; and, if on
the contrary, as sometimes is the case in political trials,
the prisoner has more ability than his interrogator, he
perplexes, confounds, crushes, degrades him, and robs
of all dignity the prosecution by which society vindicates
its rights.
It would surely be more just, more reasonable, to hear
the evidence against the prisoner, and let him rebut it
as well as he could, and omit the interrogations al-
together. Girod de I'Aine never questions the accused.
GOVERNMENT. 165
whole trial proceeds, viz : that the prisoner
is guilty until he is found innocent — and not,
as with us, innocent until he has been proved
guilty. After the witnesses have given their
evidence, the avocat-general sums up the facts
against the accused, and endeavours to convince
the reason and influence the passions of the
jury. The prisoner's counsel then rises, and
places his view of the evidence before them.
The prisoner himself may now speak in his own
defence, and is always allowed to speak last.
The president should next sum up, with an im-
partiality more desirable than common, the facts
of the case. The jury then declare the prisoner
guilty or not guilty. This is the extent of their
office. The court determines the punishment
according to law on the demand of the avocat-
general.
I may mention that if the prisoner cannot
pay a pleader, the president is obliged to
appoint one, — who receives 10 francs if his
chent is condemned, and something more if
he is acquitted.*
* It is a very common practice with the counsel thus
Eissigned to give their fee to the poor client. This is a
slight instance of good feeling among the French avocats,
who are often men of great moral courage and worth.
166 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
Should the president assign the first pleader
in the court, common usage admits no demur.*
Those infringements of thelaw which comeun-
der the term 'dents' (or 'oiFences') in the French
code — I have been speaking of crimes : are
punished in a different and more summary way.
The court of arrondissement, in which they oc-
curred, deciding upon them at once, but sub-
ject to an appeal to the cour royale ; — a jus-
tice of peace or a tribunal of poHce can punish
petty offences.f
The courts which serve for the criminal are
also used for the ci\A\ law. The justice of
peace decides questions of trifling amount j
the court of sessions, consisting of the juge
d'instruction and his two colleagues, decides
finally aU cases under 1000 francs, to check the
spirit of litigation that would j^rolong trials of
little consequence. The court royal, a court
* This never occurs in Paris, where the young pleaders
gladly exercise their eloquence for the poor ; but it does
happen, not unfrequently, in the departments.
The length of the trial, and the support of witnesses,
make criminal proceedings very expensive in France. It
would seem just for the public to pay the expense of the
innocent.
•f" ' Delits' (or ' offences') of the press are an exception ;
these are tried by a jury, or by the new law, if liable
to be called ' attentats' (treason) by the chamber of peers.
GOVERNMENT. 167
of appeal, to which may be carried all cases of
more than 1000 francs, is final. But the mi-
nister of justice may object to any decision
that seems to him inconsistent with the written
statute law.
Formerly the parliaments were independent
of each other ; each decided according to its
owTi precedents and vievt^s. Their decisions
therefore not unfrequently clashed ; the law in
different provinces was not the same. To re-
medy this abuse, the King, from time to time,
declared in council that such and such a con-
stitution of the law was the only true one.
Of course this threw the law into the hands of
the King and council.
To secure the advantages A;vathout the defects
of this system, was the origin of the court of
cassation. If a decision in any ci\al or
criminal case appears to the minister of
justice contrary to law, he complains of it to
the court of cassation. If this court declares
that the cour royale has decided illegally, the
whole case is referred to another tribunal. If
the jury in a criminal, or the court in a ci^nl
cause decide contrary to the opinion of the
court of cassation, that court asseml^les all its
members, and reconsiders the case. Its first
decision might be formed by half. If the full
168 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
court of cassation confirms the first decree, the
cause is carried befiare another court, and if
this court decides as the two others, the cause
is finished ; but the minister is bound to lay
before the chamber in the next session a law to
clear up the doubtful point. In civil cases the
aggrieved individual prefers his complaint
against the aggressor, except in the case of
minors, idiots, persons absent, etc. ; for then
the minister of justice is bound to speak in
favor of the plaintiff after his advocate has
spoken. In all other cases, the avocat-gen^ral
has a right, if he pleases, to state his opinion
to the court ; he frequently uses this privilege,
but is not obliged to do so.*
Commerce has its separate tribunals, which.
* There is also at Paris a court, consisting of a juge
d'instruction and assistant, for the dispatch of affairs.
It sits constantly in the Palace of Justice, and decides
whether or no the person summoned before it ought to
be committed or not. The case is then referred to ano.
ther juge d'instruction.
I may observe that the prefect of police, an office
existing only in Paris, has a right of search in private
dwellings, and can put any one under confinement for
twenty-four hours. He cannot, however, imprison any
one for a longer time without the authority of a juge
d'instruction.
•GOVERNMENT. 169
however, are still under the ministry and sur-
veillance of the minister of justice. These
tribunals exist in those arrondissements that
require them.*
They are composed of a presiding judge, of
judges and supernumerary judges, all chosen
among the merchants the most respectable, and
named at a meeting of merchants. The King
ratifies the nomination.
The presiding judge must ])e forty years of
age, and is chosen from the most ancient
judges. The other judges must be thirty years
of age, and have been engaged in commerce at
least five years.
The president and the judges remain but two
years in office, and can only he re-elected after
the interval of a year.
Their functions are honorary .f
Advocates are not allowed to plead before
this tribunal, but any other j^erson can plead
if authorised. Custom has allowed certain
persons to plead who are authorised and ad-
mitted by the tribunal, under the title of agree,
* In those arrondissements where there are no tribunals
of conamerce, the civil tribunals are applied to instead,
f A clerk and attendant officer, named by the govern-
ment, are attached to each tribunal.
VOL.. II. 1
170 * CIVIL ADMINISTRATION..
an individual as the name would imply, whose
duty it is to bring the disputing parties to an
amicable settlement or agreement.
The tribunals of commerce take cognizance
of — first, all disputes relative to engagements
and transactions between merchants and
bankers, and between all personal disputes into
which commerce enters. Secondly, all dis-
putes between commercial agents and their
principals ; and thirdly, all disputes that con-
cern bankruptcy.
The decisions of this court are final in cases
not exceeding 1000 francs, (or £40) and
in other mercantile cases, where the parties
beforehand forego their right of appeal ; other-
wise the appeals from the tribunal of commerce
are carried to the court royal of their districts.
Such is the French judicial system, liable to
abuses, as all institutions are, and more essen-
tially subject to those abuses which are not
abuses of the law, but against the law, resulting
from the mind and manners of the people by
whom and for whom it is exercised.
These are principally the detention of crimi-
nals on inadequate proofs, (though the frequency
of this is rather exaggerated) and the bias
too frequently seen in the mind of the judge in
favor of that power to which he owes his au-
thority.
GOVERNMENT. 171
A great contempt for personal liberty, and a
strong leaning towards the executive govern-
ment result necessarily from the history and
habits of the French ; and to that history and
those habits the present generation must at all
events be subject.
But a time, I hope, will come when a new
generation educated in nev/ ideas will put this
machinery in motion with a different spirit.
The following remarks may not be without
interest.
The expenses of justice amount to about
3,632,000frs.* distributed amongst :
1 . Persons brought before the cor-
rectional tribunal . . . 35,486frs.
2. Brought before the Cours d' As-
sises. . . . . . 7,315 5,
3- Liberated by the chambers of
conseil. .... 10,044 „
4. By the chambers of accusation. 779 „
Total. . 53,620frs.
Giving an expense of about 56frs. 55 cents,
by individual.
In 1833, the number of persons arrested and
dismissed without trial by the chambers of
* The charge is 3,300,000frs.; but of this a certain sura
is subject to recovery.
I 2
172 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
conseil, endured a captivity of 75^ 10 months;
by the chamber of accusation, 1,670 months.
Again the persons judged by the correctional
tribunals were condemned to 34,490 months
imprisonment.
The persons judged by the courts of assizes,
26,350 months. Total 70,4 JO months, i. e.
5,869 years.
From this statement, we see the number of
persons dismissed v^dthout trial, and the time
of their imprisonment ; the number of persons
brought up to trial, and the time of their con-
demnation ; and lastly by comparing the num-
ber of individuals in prison with the number
of months of their imprisonment, and allowing
an expense of about 27frs. 10 sous* to each
individual, and adding that to the 56frs. 55c.
already mentioned, we shall make the sum of
.^I^' ^/^ ' p 89frs. 5c.t as the average cost of
27frs 10c. ^ ^
every person arrested.
* See reports of the minister of justice and budget.
t This is higher than the estimate allowed, viz :
200frs. for each individual — but I add to this the pre-
sumed cost of maintaining the buildings of administra-
tion, &c.
GOVERNMENT. 173
POLICE.
As a fitting instrument of the public minis-
try, which pursues the crime, is the ministry
of police which watches and apprehends the
criminal.
At the head of this ministry is the minister
of police,* who has in the department of the
Seine an active agent in the prefect of po-
lice. And, indeed, as it is chiefly in Paris
that the business of minister of police hes,
the officer, subordinate to him in the capi-
tal, is an important personage, and almost a
minister himself.
Under his inspection are placed all the pri-
sons in the department of the Seine, all the
gambling establishments, all the houses licensed
for prostitution. He sees that peace is pre-
served at the markets, and in places of pubhc
worship — attending in every thing to the clean-
liness and good order of the city.
He can order searches in private houses,
arrest, in urgent cases, and take any means
he may think proper to disperse or prevent
* The functions of minister of police are for the mo-
ment absorbed in the department of the minister of the
interior ; still they are to be considered as attached to a
separate department.
174 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
numerous and tumultuous meetings, and at
once seize, and commit all persons taken en
fiagrant ddit, (in the fact.)
The officers under him, are :
Les commissaires de police. (Commissaries
of police.)
Les officiers de paix. (Peace officers.)
Les commissaires de police de la Bourse.
(Commissaries of police attached to the ex-
change.)
Les commissaires de la petite voiree.
Les commissaires et inspecteurs des halles
et marches. (Commissaries and inspectors of
the market halls and public markets.)
Les inspecteurs des ports. (Inspectors of
harbours.)
In the provinces, except under peculiar cir-
cumstances, such as that of La Vendee, the
police rarely acts, save in its subordinate capa-
cities ; but in ail cases the prefects of the depart-
ments execute in their respective juridictions
the duties that would be required from a prefet
de police ; and the provincial agents of this
ministry are placed under them.
The whole service centralizes itself in Paris
in two bureaux — the one relating to the action
of the police, and the other to its adminis-
tration.
GOVERNMENT. 175
The duties of the minister too, are of a
double nature :
Those relating to the criminal poUce.
Those relating to the pohtical police.
As the head of the criminal police, the gen-
darmerie,* the pompiers, and that class of per-
sons which would answer to our description of
Bow Street runners, are at his orders : as the
head of the political poUce, he directs and corres-
ponds with an army of spies, taken from every
class of society and to be encountered in almost
every scene of life. Tlie system of passports
over which he presides affords to his functions,
where exercised for the preservation of pro-
perty, a peculiar efficiency, which though ob-
tained at the expense of personal liberty, the
citizen, long accustomed to it, is "sviUing to
purchase at that price. But his most despotic
and as it is called important employment is
that of watching over the safety of the state ;
— which is in fact prying into the conduct of
ever}^ individual, who can be supposed hostile
to the administration in power.
Strange to say, this practice, abominable
* This force, centralized in the ministry I am des-
cribing, follows the division of other parts of the French
administration ; every arrondissement has its troop — •
every chef-lieu its colonel.
176 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
and useless as it is, has been preserved througa
a long series of years, and under almost every
species of government without interruption.
Introduced into France by Louis XI, and re-
sorted to by the Medici against the protestants,
it was soon after systematized by Richelieu,
and pursued with equal ardour by the timid
and crafty character of his Italian succes-
sor.
Louis XIV, Louis XV, and even Louis XVI,
continued it, and indeed, one of the first de-
mands of the National assembly was the abo-
lition of a bureau* called especially bureau
du roi, and which was charged with the
shameful duty of opening private correspon-
dence.
The government of the Convention, through
the system of espionage was never perhaps
more infamously practised than by itself, dis-
avowed the principle of that violation of so-
cial confidence, as it did indeed the principle
of all its tyrannies. But the unblushing Direc-
* A curious set of documents, found in the Bastille in
1789, were afterwards published, and among other curi-
ous facts, it was discovered that in one year, and in
Paris alone, two hundred priests had been caught /a-
grante delicto.
GOVERNMENT. 177
tory avowed and justified it, and Bonaparte
multiplied its dignities and duties in a manner
almost ludicrous. Then came the Restoration
keeping the country in a perpetual state of alarm
by plots supposed, sought after, and undisco-
vered : and now, the new government is almost
as active as its predecessors, in the pursuit of
every paltry intrigue; and yet, did all the
agents of Napoleon discover the conspiracy
of Mallet ? Did all the agents of Monsieur de
PoHgnac breathe a warning whisper of the re-
volution of July ? and here again, under the go-
vernment of Louis- Philippe, Don Carlos quietly
traverses his kingdom, and an Itahan adven-
turer almost succeeds in blowing up his family
and his court ; and even M. Thiers — the clever,
active, indefatigable M. Thiers — is just as wise
as the rest of the world about the matter.
INSTRUCTION.
As the system of public prosecution is con-
ducted under the title of ^ ministere public,'
so the system of instruction, which in France
is also an affair of the state, is conducted
in the name of ' the universit)-' — the minister of
I 3
17S CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
instruction* being appointed the grand-master
thereof.
'The university/ to adopt this expression,
is cliarged exclusively with the care of teach-
ing ; and no school of any description can be
carried on without its express authorization .f
Under the minister of instruction then, there
is the ' conseil royal de I'instruction publique,'|
composed of six members, whose duty it is
to superintend every thing relative to the ex-
penses required by the public establishments,
as well as the books to be used and the course
of education to be followed therein.
Such being the central board of administra-
tion, France is divided into divisions of instruc-
tion called ' academies,' (academies) which are
situated in the chefs-lieu of the different courts
* The minister of instruction is also minister of re-
ligion ; but there remains little for me to say upon
that subject.
t In order to keep in use the regulations prescribed by
the university, whether of discipline or teaching, there
are two inspecteurs-generaux who are charged with the
continual examination and inspection of the different
establishments for education — both in respect to the mas-
ters or pupils.
% The royal council of public instruction.
GOVERNMENT. 179
royal, and every academy has a governor
acting as minister of instruction in his cir-
cumscription, and assisted by a ' conseil aca-
demique,' (academic councQ) answering to the
* conseil royal,' (royal council) at Paris.
The different pubhc establishments within
each academy are classed under one of the
following heads :
1. The faculties.
2. The royal colleges. The communal
colleges.
3. Institutions and schools (private establish-
ments.)
4. Primary schools (public or private.)
The establishments for instruction being
thus classed, instruction has also its classi-
fication.
Superior instruction.*
Secondary instruction.
Primary instruction.
Superior instruction consists in the faculties,
divided into classes of theology, droit, mede-
cine, science, and letters which confer the de-
♦ There is also attached to the department of supe-
rior instruction, eighteen secondary schools of raede-
cine, and one establishment for the instruction of pro-
fessors at Paris.
180 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
grees of bachelier, licencie, and docteur, (bache-
lor, licenciate, and doctor).
The places where the faculties are taught,
answer to our universities : — of these there
are in France 35.
Instruction secondaire (secondary instruction)
consists, in philosophy, natural history, ele-
mentary mathematics, latin, greek, foreign lan-
guages, &c.
These are taught in the royal and com-
munal colleges, which answer to our pubhc
schools ; and in some of the private estab-
lishments I have mentioned. There are in
France :
Royal colleges, 39.
Communal colleges, 320.
Private colleges, 2.
Private institutions, 120.
Small private schools, 1,025.
Primary instruction is divided into two
branches, primary superior instruction, and
primary instruction. The first consists in
reading, writing, summing, history, geography,
and some notion of chemistry and surveying.
The second, simply in reading, writing, and
sum miner.
GOVERNMENT. 181
There were in 1832 fifty schools for the
education of masters of primary education,
and sixteen more were then about to be formed :
the number of primary schools is upwards of
45,000 ; of which, nearly 32,000 are com-
munal ; Hie rest are private.
In these different establishments there are
masters, about 10,000.
Scholars :
Superior instruction .... 16,303
Secondary instruction. . . . 71^036
Primary instruction .... 1,935,624
2,062,963
By comparing the number of pupils with the
sum expended in secondary and primary in-
struction, (board of course not included)
Every pupil at a royal college re-
ceives his education for . . . 162f. 65
-commercial college . 87f. 17
primary school . . 4f. 15
The royal colleges are supported by their
own funds, by a grant from the university
and by a royal donation of 601,500frs. Avhich
go to the education of scholars who dis-
tinguish themselves.
182 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
Communal colleges are supported by any
funds they may possess, and by departmental,
and communal contri])utions. It is endea-
voured to have one of these colleges in each
arrondissement.*
The funds then applied to the general ex-
penses of instruction proceed from the vote
of the budget — the monies belonging to the
university, now consolidated and left at diflfe-
* Primary instruction is paid by the communes, by
the departments, and by the state. Every commune is
obliged, either by itself or by uniting with another com-
mune, to have at least one school of instruction priraaire.
All communes having more than 6000 inhabitants are
obliged, besides, to have a school of instruction primaire
superieure and every department is obliged, either by
itself or by uniting with another department, to have a
normal'' school of primary instruction. In the elemen-
tary schools, all the pupils that the municipal council de-
clare incapable of paying, receive instruction gratis.
In every primary superior school, there are a certain
number of places given to pupils who cannot pay, and
who distinguish themselves in examination.
A committee is appointed in every commune, and in
every arrondissement to overlook, and assist the in-
struction of their particular district. Much of this is
stated in the Introduction, Vol. I. France, Social. Li-
terary and Political.
' A school for the education of schoolmasters.
GOVERNMENT. 183
rent times to former establishments, for the
purposes of education — the revenues of the
royal communal colleges — and the votes of the
conseils-gen^raux (general council) of the de-
partments, and of the conseils-municipaux
(municipal council) of the communes ; and
these funds, most of themcalled for by the
government, are all applied under the regula-
tions of the government towards the attainment
of the object in view.*
COMMERCE.
The minister of this department, whose func-
tions have also been sometimes appended to
those of the minister of the interior, had his
duties fixed in 1814, and presiding over every
thing connected with commerce, except its tri-
bunals, is the centre of a variety of chambers
created for the purpose of promoting commercial
and manufacturing interests.
* Besides these establishments dependent upon the
university, there is, independent the 'college of France,'
of which the professors, named by the minister of in-
struction on a double presentation from the establish-
ment, and the Institute are so justly celebrated.
184 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
There are, for instance, in- the great com-
mercial and manufacturing towns, chambers
authorized by the King, and composed of a
certain number of merchants called " cham-
bers of commerce."*
The duty of these chambers is to make
known to the minister, with whom they directly
correspond, their views both as to what would
improve, or as to what injuriously affect the
commercial interests of the towns they belong
to.
There are also chambers of a similar nature,
called " chambers of arts and manufactures,"
which have for their object the improvement
of manufactures by the experiments of art
and science.
The " council general of commerce'' is a
more central council resident at the seat of go-
vernment, composed of one person from each
chamber of commerce, and of twenty persons
from among the principal merchants of France.
This council expresses its opinion to the mi-
nister on all questions of legislation or admi-
* When these chambers are in the capital of a depart-
ment, they are presided over by the government ; other-
wise, their president is the mayor of the commune.
GOVERNMENT. 185
nistration relative to the commerce of the
country, and is consulted on all laws that are
introduced in respect to this subject.
Paris names eight, Lyons, Marseilles, Bour-
deaux, Nantes, Rouen, and Havre, two.
There is then the " conseil general des
manufactures" composed of twenty members
named for three years by the chambers of arts
and manufactures, and of forty members named
by the minister of commerce with the approba-
tion of the King.* This second council holds the
same situation in respect to manufactures that
the council does to commerce.
The " conseil superieur de commerce'^ is
a small body of twenty-four persons named by
the King, a sort of privy council for the mi-
nister, who can consult it in respect to the
demands or views of the two other councils
which are representative.
Thus the whole system beginning with the
chambers of commerce and manufactures, con-
tinues centralizing, through the councils of
commerce and manufactures, and then through
* Ten members of the council of commerce belonging
to the manufacturing town, also have the permission
to enter it.
186 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
the conseil superieur de commerce until at last
it arrives at the minister himself.
THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR.
The duties of this functionary* resemble, in
a great measure, those of our secretary for the
home department, and when stripped of the ac-
cidental functions he is now invested with, his
office is pretty well confined to presiding over
the administration of the interior.
France, as we know, is divided into depart-
ments, which are subdivided into arrondisse-
ments, which are re-divided into cantons and
communes.
* The office of minister of foreign affairs can offer
no details necessary to elucidate this subject. That of
minister of public works is now also engrossed by the
minister of the interior ; but I have not thought it ne-
cessary to enter into details of this department which is
pretty well explained by its title, and answers to our
minister of the woods and forests, with this exception,
that the public roads are under his management and that
all buildings erected, even by the communes, for public
purposes, must have their plans submitted to his sanc-
tion.
GOVERNMENT. 187
There are for each department :
1. A prefect, a council of prefecture, and a
council general of department.
There is for each arrondissement, except in
that in which the prefect resides,
A sub-prefect, and under the immediate
orders of the prefect.
A council of arrondissement.
In each commune there is a mayor, or chief
magistrate.
One or more adjuncts or deputies.
A municipal council.
I proceed to detail the various functions of
these authorities, commencing with the de-
partment.
The Prefect in France, named by the
King, is at the head of the administration of
every department, and in centralising the go-
vernment of the province, he is one of the
links in the central government of the coun-
try.
His duty is to see that the laws are obeyed.
He has the power to suspend from their func-
tions, the mayors of the communes and their
substitutes, and himself dismissable at plea-
188 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
sure, is controlled by the minister of the in-
terior only*.
The council of the prefecture, named also by
the King, is the prefect's council, with whom
he advises, and over whom he presides.
This body decides all disputes or difficulties
between the undertakers of public works and
the administration, as well as all damages due
to private citizens from the erection of roads,
&c. It has also the management of all national
property in the department.
By the side of this assembly there is another
— more popular, viz. the council general ; —
composed of the same number of members as
there are cantons in the department, with this
exception, however, that it must not contain
more than thirty members.
A member of the general council is elected
in each canton by an electoral assembly com-
posed of electors and citizens who are on the
jury list. If their number is under fifty, the
complement is formed by calling to vote such
* His salary sometimes amounts to 80,000 francs.
His office, therefore, is one of the most eagerly sought
after, and bestowed only on persons in whom the govern-
ment can implicitly confide.
GOVERNMENT. 189
other citizens as pay the greatest proportion of
taxes.*
To l)e ehgible to the council general of the
department, the party must be in the enjoy-
ment of all civil and political rights. He
must be twenty-five years of age, and have
paid, for a year and upwards, 200 francs, (£8.)
of direct taxes.
The King can dissolve a council general ; in
which case a new election must take place
within three months from the date of the disso-
lution.
The council meets once a year ; its sittings
are not public, and cannot exceed fifteen days
in duration.
The duty of this assembly is, as I have said,
to divide the direct contributions of the depart-
ment among the arrondissements, and to deter-
mine the demands for reduction made by the
different councils of the arrondissements, cities,
* In the departments, which have more than thirty
cantons, the extra number is joined to others who elect
their representative.
Public functionaries, salaried by the government, can-
not be nominated members of the general council.
The members are nominated for nine years, and are re-
newed by one-third every three years.
The members are re-eligible.
190 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
burghs, and villages under its control. It also,
as I have shewn, regulates, within the hmits al-
lowed, by law, the number of additional centimes
of which the imposition is required for depart-
mental expenses ; receives from the prefect an
account of these sums, and expresses its opinion
of the state and the wants of the department, in
an address to the minister of the interior.
The duties of the sub-prefect resemble
those of the prefect, but are confined to his
own arrondissement.
The sub-prefect receives his orders from the
prefect, and is accountable to him for their
performance.
In each arrondissement, over which the
sub-prefect presides, there is a council com-
posed of as many members as there are can-
tons in the arrondissement.
The councillors are elected in these cantons
by an electoral assembly, composed in the
same manner as that which elects the councils
general of departments.
The qualification requires the persons so
elected to be aged twenty-five years and up-
wards, to be in the enjoyment of all civil and
poHtical rights, and to have been paying in
the department, during a year at least, 150
francs (£6.) of direct contributions, one-third
GOVERNMENT. 191
of which must have been payable in the
arrondissement, wherein their domicile has
been.*
This council assembles once a year, at periods
fixed by the King. The session cannot be
more than fifteen days ; being ten days before
and five days after the meeting of the council-
general.
The direct taxes are distributed by the
aiTondissement among the \dllages and burghs
in its jurisdiction, as in the council-general ;
the direct taxes of the department are appor-
tioned amongst the arrondissements.f
The council of the arrondissement also
replies to all demands for diminution in their
burthen, made by these villages and burghs.
It listens to the annual account of the sub-
prefect as to the employment of the centimes
additionnels for the local expenses of the de-
partment, and expresses an opinion on the
wants and wishes of the arrondissement.
In the commune there are — a mayor and two
adjuncts— chosen from the municipal council,
* The same disqualifications which apply to members of
the council-general api)ly also to councillors of the arron-
dissement.
t See Finance.
192 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
and named by the King in the chef-lieu of an
arrondissement, and in all communes where
the population exceeds 3000 inhabitants.
In the other communes these officers are
named by the prefect.
The appointment is for three years, and the
persons nominated must be twenty-five years
old, and have their domicile in the commune.*
Every commune has a municipal council,
(the mayor and his adjuncts, are comprised.)
This council consists of ten members, where
the commune has no more than 500 inhabitants.
Of twelve, where the commune contains
from 500 to 1,500 inhabitants.
Of sixteen, where the commune contains
from 1,500 to 2,500 inhabitants.
Of twenty-one, where the commune con-
tains from 2,500 to 3,500 inhabitants.
* PERSONS DISaUALIFIED TO SERVE.
The members of the courts and tribunals of the first in-
stance, and justices of the peace.
The ministers of any religion.
The officers of the navy or army in service.
The engineers on service.
The financial agents of the administration.
The commissaries and agents of police.
The mayor sees that public order is maintained, and
the laws executed.
GOVERNMENT. 193
Of twenty-three, where the commune con-
tains from 3,500 to 10,000 inhabitants.
Of twenty- seven, where the commune con-
tains from 10,000 to 30,000 inhabitants.
Of thirty-six, where the commune contains
30,000 inhabitants, and upwards.
The council municipal is chosen by the
electors of the commune.
The electors of communes are tlie most
imposed among its inhabitants in the following
proportions.
For communes of 1100 souls and under,
one-tenth of the population. This number
will increase by five for every one hundred
inhabitants above 1000 up to 5000.
By four for every one hundred above 5000,
up to 15,000.
By three for every one hundred above
15,000.
Besides the persons voting on account of
their taxation, the members of courts of law,
justices of peace, members of any chamber
of commerce, or council of Prud'hommes ;
of any commission of colleges, or charitable
establishments ; all officers in the national
guard, all mem])ers and correspondents of
the Institut, all doctors of law, science or
medicine ; all advocates or notaries, all an-
VOL. II. K
194 CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
cieiit functionaries of state, all officers of the
army or navy receiving pensions ; all scholars
of the polytechnic school declared, on quitting,
admissable to the public service, and who have
resided a year in the commune; all persons
voting for the elective deputies of cou]?cil5i-
general of the departments, whatever be their
contributions in the commune — all these vote
as communal electors.*
The council of the commune is elected for
six years (the members being re-eligible), and
it is renewed by one half every three years.
The King, however, can dissolve it at any
time, and a re-election must then take place
within three months.
It sits four times a year, and each sitting
may last for ten days.
The business of this body is to investigate
the wants, and provide for the expenses of the
commune ; and in this, its jurisdiction is pre-
scribed by the obligation of a definitive sanc-
tion, either from the sub-prefect or the prefect,
who depend upon the central government, or
from the minister of the interior himself.f
* The council municipal must be chosen from the list
of the electors of the commune, and three-fourths must
at least be domiciled within it.
t See Finance.
GOVERNMENT. 195
Thus we see a perpetual series of links —
the mayor in the commune, the sub-prefect in
the arrondissement, the prefect and his council
in the department, all connecting the adminis-
tration of the village with that of the empire ;
and lastly, in the very circumstance where men
may be supposed most free, viz. the expen-
diture of their own money, they are subject to
a control, which is sometimes advantageous
in preventing their extravagances and mistakes,
but which can never form their judgment.*
* The minister of the interior is at tlie head of the
civil force of the country, i.e. the national guard; but
this is mentioned subsequently.
K 2
MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
CHAPTER X.
The Army — The Legion of Honour — The National
Guard.
MINISTER OF WAR, etc.
I NOW come to that part of the pubhc ser-
vice where centraUzation is most wanted, and
its construction most perfect : — I mean the
Army.
The minister of war in France contains
within his jurisdiction, the direction of every
branch of the mihtary service. The armament
the recruitment, the disciphne, the punish-
ments, the movement, the victualhng of the
troops, all come under his inspection and form
the rays as it were that centre in his control.
In his office there is to every kind of service
and species of administration, its separate
superintendence ; — under the following terms :
1. Direction du cabinet du ministre.
GOVERNMENT. 197
2. Direction des archives or du depot de la
guerre.
3. Direction de I'infanterie.
4. Direction de la cavalerie.
5. Direction de I'artillerie.
6. Direction du genie.
7. Direction de la justice militaire.
8. Direction des mouvemens de troupes et
des transports et convois.
9. Direction de I'intendance militaire.
10. Direction de la coraptabilite.*
All these boards thus concentrated in the
ministry of war, correspond with two great
administrations, ^az. Des di\dsions militaires ;
des intendances militairesf — administrations
disseminated throughout the kingdom — which
for this purpose is divided into sixteen juris-
* 1. Direction of the cabinet of the minister.
2. Direction of the archives or of the depot of
war.
3. Direction of the infantry.
4. Direction of the cavalry.
5. Direction of the artillery.
6. Direction of the engineers.
7. Direction of military justice.
8. Direction of the movement of troops, transports,
convoys, &c.
9. Direction of the military intendance.
10. Direction of accounts.
-f- Military divisions and military intendances.
198 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
dictions, each of which has two sub-jurisdic-
tions, formed ordinarily of a department.
" The mihtary divisions," as they are called,
have altogether a military character ; at the
head of each is a Heutenant-general, who has
under him at the head of each sub-division
a mardchal-de-camp. The lieutenant-general
has the control and inspection of all the troops
within the sphere allotted to him. Their re-
cruiting, their exercise and instruction, their
police and distribution into garrisons and de-
tachments ; cavalry, infantry, artillery, engi-
neers, (gendarmerie, even, though that force is
set in motion by a separate authority) are
all and equally under him, and he reports
from time to time to the ministry of war, the
numbers, and discipline; everything in short
relating to the force of the troops under
his command.
These reports are made under their special
heads, and go accordingly to the different direc-
tions allotted to them in the war office.
The chiefs of these directions make a re-
port thereupon to the minister of war, and
he sometimes decides himself, sometimes
takes the advice of the King, respecting
them.
The military intendances are the civil admi-
nistration of the army j and are directed by
GOVERNMENT. 199
intendants and sub-intendants stationed through
the country, in the same manner as the generals
and marechaux- de-camps. Thus the intendant
general resides in the same town as the lieute-
nant-general, and the sub-intendant in the
same town as the marechal-de-camp.
There are as many intendants therefore as
divisions, and as many sub-intendants as sub-
divisions.
The intendant, in the same manner as the
lieutenant-general, communicates with all the
corps stationed in his district and with the minis-
ter of war respecting them ; but his functions
lie wholly in the details respecting the pay and
commissariat of the army, the purchasing
and accounting for all \T.ctuals, etc. etc.
His communications on these subjects pass
through the bureaux de comptabilite, (boards of
accounts) the financial Ijoard of the war office ; —
and are there submitted to the minister of war
himself, who usually confers upon them with the
King. Thus, every thing relating to the army,
arrives at the minister of war by two channels ;
the one relating to the military and the other
to the economical part of the service.
The separate reports he thus receives, he
can compare together, and in this manner
pretty easily acquaint himself not only wdth the
efficiency of the parties reporting ; but also
200 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
with the actual state of the army in the district
referred to. The report of the general specifies
the numbers of the troops in his division ; the
report of the intendant, the pay, provisions
and expense ; one account checks the other.
But in order to have some still further check
upon these officers themselves, there are appoint-
ed inspectors-general; officers of the rank of
lieutenant-general or marechal-de-camp, who are
sent every year into the different divisions.
The inspector- general examines into every
part, mihtary and economic of the service,
enters into the minutest details, passing seven
or eight days with each regiment. There he
receives every man from the colonel to the
private soldier ; listens to all complaints and
demands, and reports in the fullest manner
on what has passed to the minister of war,
who thereby sees the accuracy of the state-
ments already made to him.
The army of France forms so interesting a
part of the power and policy of that country,
that perhaps it wiU not be uninteresting if I go
into further details respecting it.
COMPOSITION OF ARMY.
The French army is composed of infantry,
cavalry, artillery, and engineers.
The infantry is divided into infantry of the
GOVERNMENT. 207
line, and light infantry. The infantry of the
line consists of sixt}^-six regiments, each of
three thousand six hundred and twenty men,
in four battalions of eight hundred and sixty-
two men each. A battahon has eight com-
panies of one hundred and eight men, to each
of which are attached a captain, a heutenant,
and sub-lieutenant. There is attached, be-
sides, to each of these regiments a company
called — * hors-rang' (out of the ranks) — com-
posed of the servants of the small staff, the
musicians, the master workmen, etc.
The light infantry is composed of twenty-
one regiments, each of three battalions only.*
The cavalry is divided into the ' cavalerie de
reserve,' 'cavalerie de ligjie,' et cavalerie le-
gere'-\
The cavalry of the reserve comprises two
regiments oi carabineers, and ten of cuirassiers :
everj' regiment being nine hundred and sixty
men, and seven hundred and sixty-nine horses,
* In the epaulettes of the officers there is also a
trifling difference ; those of the line are gold, those of
the light infantry silver. This forms the sole difference
between the light infantry and the infantry of the line,
with the exception that the light infantry uniform has
yellow, that of the line red, facings.
t Cavalry of reserve, cavalry of line, and light cavalry.
K 3
202 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
strong. The regiment is divided into six
squadrons, each squadron being commanded by
a captain commandant, a second captain, two
lieutenants, and two sub-lieutenants. A ' chef
d'escadron' has two squadrons under his com-
mand.
The cavalry of the line consists of twelve
regiments of dragoons, and six regiments of
lancers. The only difference between these
regiments and the others, is the circumstance
that they are stronger in numbers ; their effec-
tive being one thousand and fifty-six men, and
eight hundred and sixty-five horses.
The light cavalry consists of twelve regi-
ments of ' chasseurs' and six of hussars. These
regiments have the same divisions and force
as the lancers.
The artillery has eleven regiments of four
squadrons each. Each squadron has four bat-
teries ; the numerical force of these regiments
is of two thousand men, and one thousand
horses.
The engineers have three regiments whose
strength is the same as that of the light in-
fantry. A train company is attached to each
of these regime'nts ; there is also a batalhon
of ' pontomiiers' whose duty it is to construct
bridges, etc. during war; six train squadrons
of park artillery; and a train corps for miU-
GOVERNMENT. 203
tary equipages ; but as these bodies are only
useful in time of war, it is impossible now to
state their effective force which varies with
the expectation of their being wanted.
Tliere are, besides what I have mentioned,
a number of corps that also form part of the
army, but which are stationary and not destined
for active service. The '•gendarmerie which
forms the police municipale, (municipal police)
are spread in the sixteen great divisions I have
mentioned over the whole surface of France.
The companies of veterans do duty in forts.
The company of 'garde cotes' (coast guards)
are stationed at sea-ports. The municipal guard
of Paris abides there under the orders of the
prefect of poUce. The company of douaniers,
(Custom-house officers) are in the service of
the custom house. Other small bodies might
also be mentioned of a similar character.
RECRUITING.
Such being the composition of the army, it
is recruited in two manners ; by conscription
(appels) or by voluntary enlistment. The calls
are made once a year in virtue of a law, which
the chambers pass, and which is approved
of by the King. This law calls under the
tricolor from sixty, to eighty thousand men
204 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
per annum, according to circumstances, and
the government distributes between the de-
partments the proper contingent of each to
the general levy. At the commencement of
the year, the different mayors meet at the chef-
lieu (chief town) of their «rrowc?meme>i^ bringing
with them all the young men belonging to the
several communes, who have completed their
twentieth year; the sub-prefect, who administers
in the arrondissement, having already prepared
a list for that arrondissement containing the
names of the young men liable to the con-
scription. After the effective of the contingent
is determined, and the number which each
canton is to supply ascertained, the young men
inscribed on the list proceed to draw lots,
and the first names that come forth are those
to be enrolled. A short time after this, how-
ever, a council of revision is held, at which
claims for exemption and other objections
against the service are heard. A final list is
then made out, and the individuals, whose
names are found in it, are subsequently and
definitively called to the ranks of the army
in virtue of a royal ordonnance.
The military authorities then direct the
young soldiers by detachments, more or less
considerable, to the corps of which they are
GOVERNMENT. 203
to compose a part. Arrived at their destina-
tion they are incorporated in the companies
or squadrons, so as to be properly mixed with
the ancient soldiers. Their uniform is given
to them, and, on the first review of the regi-
ment, they are brought forward to take an oath
of fidelity to the King, to the country, and
to the tricolored flag. The form of the oath
is, " Je jure d'etre fidele au roi, a I'honneur
et a la patrie, et de ne jamais abandonner
les drapeaux !*" The transformation of the pea-
sant, the artisan, the labourer, or the ' bour-
geois' is now complete If
Tlie legal duration of service in the army
is seven years. :]: At the expiration of that
period the soldier receives his discharge, and
generally returns to his native district, and
former employment. Some, however, re-en-
gage in the army for two, or four years, but
* I swear to be faithful to the king, to the honour of
the country, and never to quit my standard.
f None are admitted to the army who have been con-
demned for any disgraceful offence.
X About one sixth, it is calculated, re-enlist for two or
four years. These receive a bounty of 22 francs, for two
years, and 44 francs for four years ; besides, 8 centimes
per day additional, after two years' service, and 10 cen-
times after six. I speak of infantry of the line. The
otiier corps receive something more.
206 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
these are generally of a class who would find
it difficult to gain their livelihood in another
manner.
The conditions of voluntary enlistment differ
in no way from the conditions imposed on
the soldier by conscription. Like him, the
volunteer cannot retire from the service during
the period of his engagement, till he has found
a proper substitute. During the times of peace
the number of volunteers is small. But, in
war, or at a whisper of war, the military
spirit of France revives. Immediately after
the revolution of July, sixty thousand rushed to
the national standard.* In 1832, there were
eleven thousand nine hundred and eight volun-
teers, of whom, one thousand three hundred
and fifty-five were from the department of
the Seine.
In 1833, there were but five thousand five
hundred, and ninety-one — of whom, eight hun-
dred and thirty-nine came from the depart-
ment of the capital.
The persons so engaging, in time of peace,
are naturally men for the most part with-
out employment, persons whose enterprizing
* Most of these, on the chance of war disappearing,
purchased substitutes.
GOVERNMENT. 207
and adventurous character has already em-
barked them in scrapes ; but sometimes young
men of respectabihty, wishing to enter the
mihtary career without undergoing the dis-
ciphne of the mihtary schools, engage in this
humble manner.
The sons of the greatest and richest famihes
of France, of dukes and peers, have not dis-
dained to arrive at the rank of an officer,
by passing through the duties of a common
soldier. And this not in appearance merely,
but in reality. Many are the instances that
could be cited of these young gentlemen doing
their duty in every respect as a private of
the ranks ; supporting the severest fatigues
and privations ; currying their horses, cleaning
their stables, and carrying the forage on their
shoulders ; nor is it extraordinary to meet in
a soldier's room, the descendant of a noble
family and the bearer of a great name, sharing
his bed with the son of one of his domestics.
These examples were frequent under the res-
toration—more so immediately after its over-
throw : — not so frequent at the present time.
THE PAY.
The pay of the army is much the same
now, that it was prior to the revolution of
208 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
1789. The necessity for a great army, and
the difficulty of supporting a great expense,
made this almost a matter of course ; and
under these circumstances it has even required
an effijrt to keep up the ancient scale.
The pay then of the officer and the soldier,
the former perhaps has the least to complain
of, is in France as elsewhere, but a miserable
pittance for the services he has to perform,
and the station he ought to maintain.
At the joresent moment the grade of a ' sous-
lieutenant' of the line — a rank equivalent
to our ensign or cornet, is 1500 francs per
annum, in the foot regiments, and 1/25 francs
in the cavalry. This is about the salary of a
secondary merchant's junior clerk.*
The pay of all the other superior officers
is in the same proportion, as that of the sub-
lieutenant. A colonel has 6,250 francs per
annum in the infantry, and 6,875 in the cavalry.
A lieutenant-colonel 5,275 in the infantry, and
5,875 in the cavalry. A chef-de-bataillon or
d'escadron 4,500 in the infantry, 5,000 in the
cavalry.
INFANTRY.
P , • 5 1st class, 3,600 francs.
L^aptams. ^ ^nd class, 3,000 ditto.
See Manual Legislation Militaire.
GOVERNMENT. 209
Lieutenants i ^^^ ^^^^''' ^'^^^ ^''''"^^•
l^ieutenants. -j ^nd class, 1,630 ditto.
CAVALRY.
p , . j 1st class, 3,750 francs,
i^aptains. -j 2nd class, 3,450 ditto.
T- ^ ^ fist class, 2,175 francs.
Lieutenants, j^nd class, l^SyS ditto.
A marshal of France has 40,000 francs ; a
lieutenant-general, if commanding, 40,000 frs. ;
if not, 15,000 in peace, and 18,750 in war; a
marechal-de-camp has 10,000 frs. in peace, and
12,500 in war.
It is to be remembered that commissions are
not purchased, and that, therefore, the pay,
such as it is, which the officer receives, is whol-
ly reward for his services, and not interest
for his money. As to the soldier, his cost to
the state cannot perhaps be exactly calculated
because his arms, accoutrements, his barrack-
room, the principal part of his clothing, are
furnished by the public magazines and manu-
factories ; but his daily allowance will give
an adequate idea, in other respects, of his
situation.* It amounts, on an average to, 48
centimes, about 4 Id a day. From this pittance
10 centimes, one penny, are withheld as a
provision for the linen and stockings he may
* Nouveau guide des sous-officers. — (New guide for
non-commissioned officers,)
210 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
require, and for the small articles necessary
to his dress and cleanliness ; 30 centimes
three halfpence, are kept for his food, and
he is supplied with one pound and a half
of tolerable bread in addition ; 8 centimes,
about three farthings, are given to him for
pocket money. Such is the state of the French
soldier.*
It will be easily believed, that with resources
apparently so inadequate, it would be impos-
sible for him to exist but under a system
of the most rigid economy. For this purpose,
a subaltern officer is charged in each company
with the control of the sum appropriated for
food, and is in fact the superintendant of the
mess, for it is by messing the food that a
sum so minute is rendered sufficient for the
purpose. This officer purchases himself at
market the articles necessary ; some soldiers
are metamorphosed into cooks, and the dinner
is divided into small tin dishes, and distributed
fairly to each soldier of the company. The
soldier has two meals a day, one at ten o clock,
and the other at five. The first is composed of
* The two flanc companies receive a halfpenny (5 cent)
a day more ; and, as we have seen, those re-engaging
after 8 years service, 8 cents, more.
GOVERNMENT. 211
soup, and a quarter of a pound of boiled beef; the
second of a small portion of vegetables, gene-
rally of potatoes or beans, with a quarter of
a pound of mutton or veal. The only drink
given is water ; wine, brandy, or other spirits
are only distributed, and then, in very small
proportions, on the occasion of public re-
joicings, or on a visit of the General.*
PENSIONS.
As some atonement for the exiguity of his
pay, the soldier has the prospective of a pen-
sion.
* When the soldier is in the colonies a slight difference
in the arrangements takes place. He has 1 lb. 9i oz. of
bread, with 8i oz. of salt or fresh beef, or 7 oz. of pork
daily. V/hen on the war establishment, 1 oz. of rice, or
2 oz. of peas, and half an ounce of salt. Instead of paj'ing
30 cents, for his messing, he pays only 20 in the colonies,
and 14 on the war establishment.
Soldiers of good conduct are sometimes allowed to
absent themselves from regimental duties, and work on
their own account in the towns where they are quartered.
They pay, in this case five centimes per day to the mess,
and six francs a month to the soldier who does their duty,
and cleans their arms. They must also pay for their
linen, etc. unless their stock be complete.
212 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
In time of peace this is earned by thirty
years^ in time of war, by fifteen years' service.*
Besides this, the orphans and widows of those
who have perished in battle,t receive a portion
(about one-fourth) of the pension that their
husbands, or fathers would have been entitled
to for retirement, whatever may have been the
period of their service, in the rank they held. The
widows and children of pensioners are also paid
according to the same regulation ; and the pen-
sion to a soldier's wife cannot be less than
100 frs.
The pensions of course vary according to
rank, and the following table will exhibit their
rates and proportions.
* Two years in the colonies are counted as three
years.
t There is also for the officers what is called " Traite-
ment de reforme," (half-pay allowance,) in which he is
in a middle state, between being in the army and out of
it. Those who have served 20 years may receive this
pay for ten, without being called upon to re-enter the
service ; those who have six years, for three, etc., etc.
The allowance for a colonel is 1,200 frs. ; for a sub-lieu-
tenant, 320 frs.
GOVERNMENT.
21.'{
STATEMENT OF HALF-PAY ALLOWANCES, SHEWING
THE RATE ACCORDING TO RANK AND CORPS.
Maximum.
Minimum.
Francs-
Francs.
General Staff . . |
Lieutenant-general
Marechal-de-camp
6,000
4,000
5,000
3,500
^
Colonel
3,000
2,500
Lieutenant-colonel
2,400
2,000
Royal Staff Corps /
Chief of battalion .
Captain
2,200
1,600
1,800
1,200
Lieutenant .
1,200
1,000
>
Sub-lieutenant
1,000
800
Military intendance |
Military intendant
Sub-intendant
4,000
3,000
3,500
2,500
Commandants of /
Towns. 1
Colonel
3,000
2,500
Chief of battalion .
2,000
1,800
Town Adjutants . <
Captain
1,500
1,200
Lieutenant .
1.200
1,000
I
Sub-lieutenant
1,000
800
Board of Health . |
Head surgeon
2,000
1,600
Assistant surgeon
1,000
800
r
Colonel
3,000
2,500
Chief of squadron .
2,200
1,800
Captain
1,600
1,200
Gendarmerie . . *•
Lieutenant .
1,200
1,000
Quarter-master
450
400
Brigadier
360
310
\
Gendarmie .
320
220
f
Colonel
3,000
2,500
Lieutenant-colonel
2,400
2,000
Infantry of the Line
Chief of battalion .
2,000
1,800
Captain
1,600
1,200
Light Infantry
Lieutenant .
1,200
1,000
Veteran Non- com-
missioned officers
Sub-lieutenant
1.000
800
Adjutant non-com-
missioned officer
1 600
500
Serjeant-major
500
400
Veteran Fusileers
Serjeant
400
300
Corporals
350
250
Artillery . . .V
Soldiers
300
200
f
Colonel
3,000
2,500
Lieutenant-colonel
2,400
2,000
Chief of squadron
2,000
1,800
Cavalry .
Major .
2,000
1,800
Cajjtain
1,600
1,200
Artillery . .)
Lieutenant .
1,200
1,000
\
Sub -lieutenant
1,000
800
Artillery Train
Adjutant
600
500
Head quarter-master
500
400
Quarter-master
400
300
Brigadier
350
250
\
Soldiers
300
200
214 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
DISCIPLINE.
We now come to the discipline of the French
army.
ADMINISTRATION OF A REGIMENT.
The administration of each regiment is con-
fided to a council, composed of the colonel, a
chef d' escadron or de bataillon, a major, a cap-
tain, and the officer ^ dliabillement .'* All these
officers are convoked by the colonel, and de-
liberate, in common, on such matters as are con-
nected with the administration of the regiment,
excepting of course those which belong to the
sovereign authority of the colonel, to whom the
times of exercise, the rewards, punishments,
and the general power over the troops is re-
served. An account, however, is rendered by
him once a week to the mar^chal de camp of
all matters regarding his regiment. He cor-
responds also with the minister of war, who,
in very extraordinary circumstances, communi-
cates his instructions directly through him.
Without orders, however, he can do nothing or
importance, forming merely a link in the sys-
tem, which passing through the general and
the intendant, centres at last in the war de-
partment.
* Who attends to the dress, &c.
GOVERNMENT. 215
PUNISHMENTS.
In every country, but in France particularly,
military legislation must be severe. The
principles of equality which have circulat-
ed among all classes, oppose and weaken
the principles of military obedience. The
military code, therefore, is necessarily more
terrible in its provisions and punishments
than the civil code. Twenty -two cases
are made punishable with death. Revolt — in-
subordination, — a blow from an inferior to a
superior are certain to be followed by that
punishment. Theft, w^hich, by the ordinary
law, is punished by imprisonment, and some-
times by sohtary confinement, according to the
mihtary law, subjects the offender to the gal-
leys. Every enactment is in the same propor-
tion : —in 1832, out of an army composed of
388,402 men, 6,858 w^ere brought up for jus-
tice (proportion to the total, 1 in 70).
Of this 6,858—
14 were sent before the ordinary tribunals,
from the incompetence of the Council
of War.
2,217 w^ere acquitted.
4,627 were condemned : 93 to death — 391
to hard labour — 130 to seclusion — 308
216 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
to the ^boulef* — 1,149 to labour on the
public works — 2,556 to imprisonment.
It is to be observed that 1,555 were tried in
the same month as their offence — 2,267 i^i two
months after their offence and 3,111 sub-
sequently to that period.
24,064 witnesses were heard, and the ex-
penses of the proceedings were 156,217 francs.
The sentences pronounced were not all exe-
cuted.
Of the 4,627 condemned, 496 obtained an
entire p rdon; 656 a commutation of sentence;
and 13 capital sentences were alone put into
execution.
From the report of the minister of war we
learn a very curious fact, \dz. that of the 6,858
persons tried — 2,806 were volunteers^ and
2,359 substitutes for those who had enrolled;
and but 1,693 persons entering by conscrip-
tion, though the great bulk of the army is com-
posed of these. It also appears that in the
persons tried and condemned, there were out
of 17 soldiers :
7 volunteers
6 substitutes
4 conscripts
* To drag the shot.
GOVERNMENT. 21?
This sufficiently shews the great superiority
of the conscripts over the other two classes of
soldiers.
There M-as but one of the scholars from the
military schools tried, and he was acquitted; and
from the gendarmerie, a force of 15,514 men,
but 15 were brought to trial. Two facts import-
ant to France — as well in respect to the disci-
pline of her troops as the security of her citizens.
The officers of rank brought to trial, offering
a total of 16,642 — 15. Of the sub-officers, of
a total of 20,524— 176.
Of the corporals, &c. 26,012 — 216.
The annexed tables give these and other
particulars.
MODE OF PROCEDURE.
In every division, there are established, two
permanent coimcils of war, and one council
of revision — which is to the military courts
what the " cour de cassation," (court of cassa-
tion) is to the civil.
The permanent councils are formed from
every rank, and contain a colonel who pre-
sides, a chef-de-bataillon, two captains, one
lieutenant, one sub-lieutenant, and one non-
commissioned officer.
The council of revision consists of five
VOL. II. L
218 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
members : one general officer who presides,
one colonel, one chef-de-bataillon or d'esca-
dron, two captains.*
The mode of proceeding is as follows : di-
rectly a person, subject to military law, is
accused of an offence, his commanding officer
arrests him, and institutes an enquiry into his
conduct. Then, if against the person accused,
there appears a fair probability of guilt, he, (the
commanding officer) convokes the permanent
council in his division — and before this council
the offender is brought.
The tribunal hears the accusation, the wit-
nesses on both sides, the defence, and then
pronounces sentence. If three out of seven
members declare the accused innocent, he is
at once discharged — if five pronounce him
guilty, the commissary of the King demands
the apphcation of the law against him.
The president reads the law, and again, if
five determine on the same punishment, that
* For generals-in-chief or of division, for colonels,
majors, and chef-de-bataillon or d'escadron, as well as
for permanent military intendants, and sub-intendants,
the councils of war are rather differently composed. In
besieged towns, in departments in a state of trouble or
civil war, councils are formed on the same principle of
the best materials that can be found.
GOVERNMENT. 21 »
one is adopted, if not, the opinion in favour
of the mildest sentence is the one acted upon.
The criminal is then told the result of his
trial, and twenty-four hours allowed him for
demanding his case to be brought before a
council of revision.
The council of revision can annul the sentence.
1. When the permanent council of war has
not been formed on a legal manner.
2. When it shall have passed beyond its
competence, either in respect to the criminal,
or the laws.
3. When it shall have declared itself incom-
petent in the case.
4. W^hen the trial has not been conducted
properly.
5. When the punishment adjudged is not
a legal one.
Within twenty-four hours after the decision
of the permanent court, if the case be not
adjourned to the court of revision — and im-
mediately after the judgment of the court
of revision, if it be — the criminal, if sentenced
to be put in irons, or to be sent to the galleys,
or to proceed to a ' compagnie de discij^line,'*
* There are about 2000 men in what are called the
companies of discipline — to which soldiers maiming
L 2
220 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
or to a military penitentiary,* is escorted by
the gendarmes to his destination. Should he
be condemned to death, he is taken back to
his regiment, and there, unless a pardon or
reprieve be anticipated, shot forthwith.f
themselves to prevent serving, or of a refractory disposi-
tion, are sent. In these companies, which are alv^rays in
fortified towns, besides the ordinary military duties, the
soldiers are emploj'ed in works of fortification, where the
latter is in general very severe.
* The military penitentiaries are recent and experi-
mental institutions, to which soldiers, whom there may
be the hope of reclaiming, are sent to instead of to the
galleys. Here the prisoners are employed in difl'erent
useful trades, receive the elements of instruction, and
have a careful attention paid to their comparative
conduct.
t There are, besides the great military tribunals that
I have described, two for the officers, and one for the
soldiers of a secondary description.
Those for the officers are called ' conseils d'enquete,'
(councils of inquiry) ; and those for the soldiers ' comeils
de discipline,' (councils of discipline.)
The ' conseils d'enquete' are divided into ' conseils de
divisions,' (councils of division,) and ' conseils tie regi-
ment,' (regimental councils.)
The first concerns all officers in a division as high as
the rank of colonel, the second the inferior officers of
a regiment.
These councils take cognizance of such offences as
become sufficiently serious to disturb the good order of
GOVERNMENT. 221
I believ^e great severity is required in the
French mihtar^' code ; it has, however, been
considered unnecessarily great, and whatever
might be required in time of war, it appears
possible to many military men in France, to
do without the punishment of death in time
of peace, except in cases of murder, or perhaps
treason. Acts of mere insubordination are
rarely the result of calculation or delibera-
tion before hand. They result in most cases
from some momentary effervescence ; and then
the punishment of death, or any other penalty,
is never thought of or cared for by the
excited soldier.*
If some offences, however, are punished so
severely in the French army, others receive a
mild and honorable chastisement, directed es-
the army, though they do not subject the offender to the
military code. And they can punish by suspension of
rank or employment.
The ' Cornell de discipline' (councils of discipline), is for
offences of the same description, and may send a soldier
to the ' compagnie de discipline,' (discipline compajiy.)
* It may be here worth observing that in the same
year which I have been speaking of in France — as giving
the result upon 388,000 men, of 6,858 committals on se-
rious offences, there were within our force in Ireland and
Great Britain, (about 50,000 men,) 920 soldiers in gaol,
while 370 corporal punishments took place in the same
year.
222 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
pecially at the mind of the soldier and that
sentiment which is the basis of his service.
These smaller punishments are the corvee,
(excessive labour) a consigne au quartier — (con-
finement to his quarter) — la salle de police, (im-
prisonment,) the cachet, (dungeon) and interdic-
tion to carry his sabre out of the ranks. The
small faults or negligences are all punished by
the corvee, or by confinement to quarters. The
corvee is work imposed on the soldier, who is
obliged when not on duty, to devote himself to it,
and is generally both of a tiresome and fatiguing
description. He is made to bring the soup
into town for his comrades on guard ; to carry
forage, and do any other menial offices re-
quired. The punishment of confinement to
his quarters in addition to his being interdicted
from leaving his barracks, subjects him also to
those portions of the punishment I have just
described, which can be performed in quarters.
He is besides placed in a corps which is desig-
nated the ' peloton de panition^ which ^ peloton'
is commanded by a wow-commissioned officer
equally confined; and here the sergeant and
soldier, if they do not pay the same attention to
their duty, as in ordinary exercise, are sub-
jected to a continuation of their punishment.
Sometimes the nature of the offence will be
printed in large letters, and the soldier made to
GOVERNMENT. 223
appear with it on liis jacket turned inside out ;
a punishment sufficiently humiUating to him,
especially when the exercise which he is obliged
to go through, is performed in some public
place out of the barracks,
" La salle cle police'^ includes the above pu-
nishments; but the culprit, in addition, is de-
prived of his room and bed, and obliged to sleep
on bare plank — his duty and exercise continuing
as before. The jjrison only difters from the salle
de police, in this, that the oiFender is immedi-
ately locked up when he has performed either his
military service, or the degrading duties of the
other punishments. " Le cachoi'^ is close
imprisonment. The prohibition to carry his
side arms when off duty, another punishment
which I have mentioned, attacks the ' amour-
jjropre' of the French soldier, and is invari-
ably found to be equally severe and eifective.
In order, indeed, to give it the appearance
of great degradation, the colonel has only the
power of interdicting the soldier from carry-
ing his side arms for the space of sixty
days ; it requires the general of the division to
prolong that term.
Every superior has the right to punish his
inferior for any fault he may be guilty of. But
224 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
the law provides and specifies the amount of
the punishment, which cannot he exceeded.
From the corporal, who can inflict four days'
confinement to the barracks, or two days to
the ' salle de police,' up to the colonel, who can
sentence to a month's confinement to the bar-
racks, and fifteen days to the ' cachot f the
different powers of the various ranks of officers,
in everything concerning these punishments
are explained and determined by miUtary regu-
lations ; at the same time the colonel has, of
course, the power to augment or diminish the
punishment, or to pardon the offence if he
thinks proper. He is entitled also to punish
the superior officer who has exceeded or abused
his authority in inflicting an extravagant or
unmerited punishment on his inferior.
The faults of the most frequent occurrence
are generally the lightest, and are punished as
soon as committed. But even when any of these
trifling delinquencies are frequently repeated by
the same individual, and when any species of in-
corrigibility is exhibited, the punishment very
properly becomes more severe. A non-com-
missioned officer, or corporal, or soldier of
the first class, is degraded. This punishment
which affects the future prospects of the offen-
der is, however, considered an exceedingly
GOVERNMENT. 225
severe one, and but rarely inflicted, except
when all other means of correction have been
tried and failed. The degradation is inflicted
in the French army in presence of the regiment
on parade.
PUNISHMENT OF OFFICERS.
The severer punishments of the oflicers are
regulated, of course, by the ordinary provisions
of the military code : the minor punishments to
which they are subjected, are, simple arrests, re-
primand, close arrests, imprisonment. The simple
arrests oblige the officer to confine himself to his
chamber, without authority to leave it, but
when called to perform his military duty,
from which it would appear he is not even
provisionally suspended. The reprimand, which
must proceed from the colonel, or officer in
command of the regiment, is given to the
officer in presence of one or more of his
brother officers. Close arrest does not per-
mit the officer to leave his room under any
pretext, nor receive any person there, but under
express authorization of his commanding officer.
A sentinel is generally placed at his door, and
an inferior officer is sent to demand and take
away his sword. Confinement in prison, is
L 3
226 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
only resorted to in very serious cases. The
colonel can sentence an officer to fifteen days ;
— the lieutenant-general or the minister at war
can only exceed that period.
One peculiarity which I may notice is that,
it is the duty of the officer punished, when
that punishment has been undergone, to make
a formal visit to the colonel or commandant
by whose orders it was inflicted. He must
be accompanied by an officer of his own rank,
and by another of a superior grade, and the
visit must be gone through with all the es-
tablished forms of politeness. It will not do
to leave a card at the colonel's door; the
colonel takes care to inform the punished officer
f the day and the hour on which he wiU
have the honour of receiving him.
The military ordonnance, which prescribes
these details, has had in view the wish to
re-establish, by the visit, the good under-
standing which it supposes the punishment
of the officer may have broken ; this may be
a reasonable supposition, perhaps, where the
fault and the punishment have been both trifling,
or where the officer is conscious of his error
and is glad of the opportunity to redeem it.
But it too often happens that this formal visit
renders more inveterate the pivate feelings
GOVERNMENT. 227
of hatred that may have existed before. When
an officer conceives that he has been unjustly
treated, or punished ■\\dth unnecessary severity,
such a visit, it may easily be imagined, can
only be regarded by him as an addition to
that treatment he complains of; and he can
scarcely be expected to use such language,
or to conduct himself so guardedly, as to
fulfil the praiseworthy object for which the
Aasit was ordered. It happens, therefore, but
too frequently, that in place of friendship being
renewed, and peace restored among the par-
ties, a new and more implacable enmity
commences, finally terminated by the death
of one or other of the parties.*
HABITS, ETC.
Exercise of the person, racing, dancing,
horsemanship, and all the exercises which are
calculated to strengthen the constitution, and
to develope address and agihty, and daring on
horseback, are encouraged among the troops.
Gymnasiums have been established for this
purpose in the principal garrisons, where a mas-
ter in each of these different sorts of exercise
* In some cases, indeed, "where this visit is con-
sidered too painful for the feelings of the officer forced
to make it, it is dispensed with.
228 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
directs the young soldiers. In fine weather
they are occupied daily in learning to swim, and
in the exercise of swimming, as well as in
swimming their horses across a river or a pond
of sufficient depth. It is especially in the art
of fencing that the soldiers are taught to excel.
To be a good fencer is considered a great
honor in the French army. Care is taken to
give great solemnity to the competitions among
the good swordsmen, so as to preserve the taste
for this sort of exercise. It is easy to suppose
that the practice of this art renders quarrels of
very frequent occurrence — nothing, in fact, is
more common than duelling among the soldiers.
It might be in vain to oppose this propensity,
but the chiefs of the corp^ seem rather to
encourage it than otherwise, for, although they
punish the offender with fifteen days' imprison-
ment, if he accept a challenge, they are the
first to testify their contempt, and endeavour
by all means in their power to expel him the
array, if he decline one.
The life of the soldier in some measure resem-
bles that of a monk. He passes as much time in
the barrack as the monk does in the monastery.
He has no connexion with the interior of a city.
Scarcely has he time to make a shght acquaint-
ance in the place where he is in garrison.
GOVERNMENT. 229
before he receives orders to march to another
quarter, where he is an utter stranger. The change
of garrisons takes place very frequently, and it
would seem as if the government adopted the
plan for the purpose of isolating more and more
the soldier, and preventing his forming too close
a relationship with the people. The very
ties which bind him to his family are at-
tempted to l)e broken, for he is only permitted
under the most pressing circumstances to visit
his relations ; and to marry is altogether pro-
hibited him. The officer, it is true, may marry,
but only on the avithorisation of the minister of
war, who never consents but in cases where the
pecuniary interests of the officer are to be bene-
fited. The colonel of a regiment has also the
power of granting permission to the non-com-
missioned officers, and even to the soldiers un-
der him to marr}^ ; but it is only under very
peculiar circumstances that this favour is
allowed ; it occurs, therefore, but very rarely ;
and, in fact, is almost entirely confined to the
soldiers who wish to marry some woman who
may be useful to the regiment as cantonni^re
or washer woman.*
* These regulations, it is to be observed, are not so severe
as they may, with our own military habits, at first appear.
230 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
But while every endeavour is made to break
the hnks which connect the soldier with the
mass of the people, every incitement and en-
couragement to maintain '''^V esprit du corps" is
given. The men of the same company, or
troop, live together ; they are expected to sup-
port and defend each other mutually, and the
chief subaltern of the party is instructed to keep
up this sentiment of fraternity, by punishment,
as well as by recompense. If one man conduct
himself badly, it often happens that all his party
come in for a share of his punishment, as if the
whole company were considered responsible for
the conduct of any one of its members. If, on
the contrary, the man acquire merited praise,
either from some act of public service or private
conduct, the company again comes in for
a share of the eulogy to the individual, and is
recompensed in a body, by some small fa-
^'ours, as an exemption from roll-call and the
like.
What I have said of the company applies
equally to the battalion, to the regiment, and
to the brigade. It not unfrequently happens,
when there is an unusual assemblage of troops,
because the soldier passes merely through the army in
transition, and can in a short time return to the affec-
tions and habits of a civilian.
GOVERNMENT. 231
that some quarrel may spring up between two
regiments, and it is then observed that other
regiments take part on one side or the other, as
they seem to be connected with the immediate
parties, in respect to their similarity of military
discipline. I remember seeing a singular quar-
rel of this description, which almost ended in a
general battle between the infantry and cavalry
at Versailles.
PROMOTION.
We are now^ come to the distinguishing fea-
ture of the French army, the principle of
which, in fact, regulates and remedies the
various parts of the system we have been con-
sidering.
The small pay, the severe disciphne of the
French soldier must have struck us on the one
side, the constant appeals to his honor, and his
love for his profession must also have struck us
on the other. What makes this severe discipline
and small pay supportable ? From what cause
does the military pride which characterizes him
proceed ?
It is his method of promotion. The man
who enters at four-pence halfpenny a day in the
ranks, may become, nay, has become, one of the
232 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
highest persons in the state. " The soldier
carries on his gibei'ne'' (cartouch box) said
Napoleon, " the baton of a marshal of France."
During the empire, the battle quickly
cleared the intermediate spaces between sub-
altern and superior ranks. The restoration,
desirous of encouraging the young nobility to
arms, would gladly have given the same celerity
to favour that had attended upon peril : here,
however, the nation interposed.
In 1816 a law was passed regulating pro-
motion; and this law anxious only to fetter
the court, cramped and depressed the military
ardour, which the natural spirit of the people
and their long train of conquests had tended,
of late more especially, to develope. By this
law, no person could pass from one rank to
another without four years service in the pre-
ceding grade. Not the greatest favorite could
obtain the rank of colonel until eighteen years
had been passed in climbing the long ladder
of inferior steps.
Nothing was more fatal to the old monarchy
than this very law ; for it drove all the nobility,
and the richer and higher classes of society
out of it, and thus, with the exception of
a few regiments, the army in general was en-
tirely democratic and easily disposed, when a
GOVERNMENT. 233
contest arose to take the same views, and the
same course as the people.
In 1832, the new government, though com-
posed of many of the men who contended for
the law of 1816, presented another law en-
tirely opposed to it. It is no longer, then,
now, as under the restoration, an interval of
four years of service in each grade, that ren-
ders the officer qualified for promotion. It
is sufficient that he has served two years in
an inferior, or three years in a superior, to
be eligible to higher rank. There is also this
difference between the two laws, that the present
law requires a longer service in the superior
rank than in the inferior ; while the law of
1816, on the contrary, required longer service
and, in consequence, more experience from the
subaltern than from the superior officer, which
was evidently an absurdity. This law has
likewise guarded against favoritism, by being
more favourable to seniority. The law of
1816 allowed only a third of the nominations
to seniority, that of 1832 gives the moiety;
with the exception however, of the ranks of
colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and general, where
age cannot reasonably be taken as the title
for elevation.*
* It seems sufficient for officers to arrive to the rank of
major with no other title to merit than their age.
234 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
According to this new law, the time neces-
sary to pass from one grade to another, is
thus regulated :
Six months ser\nce for a soldier to become
a soldier of the first class.
Six months for a soldier of the first class
to become corporal, in the infantry, or brigadier
in the cavalry.
Six months for a corporal or briga-
dier to become sergeant in the infantry, or
marechal des logis, or fourrier in the ca-
valry.
Six months sergeant or marechal des logis,
to become sergeant major, or marechal des
logis chef.
Six months sergeant-major, or marechal des
logis chef, to become adjutant-sous-oficier.
Three years service to become sous-lieute-
nant — the first and lowest rank of a com-
missioned ofiicer.
Two years service as a sub-lieutenant, to
become lieutenant.
Two years lieutenant to become cajjtain.
Two years captain to become chef-de-batail-
lon in the infantry, or chef-d'escadron in
the cavalry.
Three years major, (the above ranks are
equivalent to that of major in our service)
to become lieutenant-colonel.
GOVERNMENT. 235
Three years lieutenant-colonel to become
colonel.
Three years colonel to become marechal-de-
camp.
Three years in this last rank to become
lieutenant-general ; — that grade in the mihtary
hierarchy, above which the only dignity is
marechal de France.
It is thus seen, that the simple soldier
rises as the rest, if his education and good
conduct qualify him for promotion. Indeed,
the law I have been quoting assigns a third
of the nominations of sub-lieutenant to sol-
diers rising from the ranks* — the remaining two-
thirds being reserved, one for the pupils of
the mihtary schools ; and the other for the
particular choice of the King.
Since the revolution of July, it has so hap-
pened that many officers of different corps
having left the service : it became necessary to
raise a great number of non-commissioned
officer in each regiment, to the rank of officers.
This circumstance has been considered highly
favorable to the good disposition of the army,
and has awakened in the body of the non-
* Not only docs the soldier in these cases give nothing
for his commission, he is made an allowance, when he
receives it, for his equipment.
236 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
commissioned officers, those hopes of distinc-
tion and promotion which attached them to
the empire, a circumstance of which it is im-
possible to over-estimate the effects.
The non-commissioned officer Hves with
the soldier j and there being no aristocratic feel-
ings operating against him, exercises almost
an absolute authority over his inferior. A
body of unruly or undisciplined non - com-
missioned officers carry with them in a re-
volt the entire regiment, and can equally
in times of trouble secure its discipline and
obedience.
I have said that one third of the commis-
sions are given to the military schools ;
it will be interesting to say something of
these.
The Ecole Polytechnique (Polytechnic school)
at Paris, is exclusively for artillery and en-
gineers, and on quitting it, the young officer
goes for two years to the Ecole d' application
d'Artillerie et du Gdnie, (the school for the
artillery and engineers) at Metz.
The Ecole Militaire de St. Cyr, (the military
school of St. Cyr) is for young officers of the
line, who, if they pass an examination at the
end of two years are made sub-lieutenants.
The admission to this school is in itself sub-
GOVERNMENT. 237
mitted to an examinatiorij and can only be
the result of successful competition.
On the 20th July every year this examina-
tion takes place in all the principal towns in
France, the names of the candidates having
been previously inscribed on the 10th June.
The candidates must be not less than eighteen,
nor more than twenty-one years of age.
The examination is in Latin, French, German,
arithmetic, algebra, chemistry, geography, and
history ; and after these different local examina-
tions a jury at Paris, composed of three general
officers, four special examiners, the commandant
of the school of St. Cyr, the director of the
studies of that academy, and a president, de-
cides on the various claims.
The pupils pay 250 francs on admission for
their trousseau, and 1,800 francs per annum;* on
quitting St. Cyr, some are engaged in the duties
of sub-lieutenant in the infantry, and others, a
privileged class, in consequence of having ob-
tained the prizes at the school competitions, pass
two additional years at the ^ Ecole speciale de
I'etat major,' (school special for the staiF) after
which they can serve in the capacity of aide-de-
* One in every twenty-five is received and educated
gratuitously. These must be persons in distress, and the
children of officers in the armv.
238 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
camp to a general, or be employed on the staff.
Some again, destined for the cavalry, are sent
to the Ecole de Cavalerie de Saumur, where they
are taught riding and the service of the cavalry,
and there qualify themselves to take rank among
the officers of the cavalry regiments. In this
school, which is one of the finest establishments
of the sort in Europe, three classes receive a
complete military education. The first class
is composed of captains, lieutenants and cor-
nets of each regiment, who, at the end of
two years' study, rejoin their corps and carry
there, in quality of instructors, the knowledge
which they have acquired during their resi-
dence at Saumur. The second is formed
of young officers from St. Cyr, and the third
of young volunteers who at the end of two
years proceed, with the rank of non-commis-
sioned officers, to the regiments of cavalry,
as ' marechaux des logis instructeurs,' (instruc-
tors) and assist the principal instructeur (in-
structor) in the education of the soldiers.
The ' Ecole d'etat Major' (school for the
staff) is for officers destined for that branch of
service. The scholars are admitted after an
examination, at which, out of 60 candidates, 22
are chosen.
The candidates are of two descriptions, — 30
GOVERNMENT. 239
from the military schools, and 30 from the
army.
To these, three are added from the Ecole
Polytechnique. The 25 entering form the
first division ; the 25 who have already been
a year, the second. At the end of two years
the scholars leave.
The military professors are : —
i Professor of topography and of geodesia.
i idem of geography, astronomy, and
statistics.
1 idem of artillery.
1 idem of the military art, and of ser-
vice of the staff-major.
1 idem of fortification, attack, and de-
fence of fortresses.
1 idem of military administration.
Besides, the chef de bataillon, charged with
the police of the school, explains the theory of
the manoeuvres of infantry, and one of the capi-
taines-adjoints, the theory of cavalry manoeuvres.
The civil professors are :
1 Professeur de machines, et de lavis.
1 idem of drawing landscape, shades,
and perspective.
2 idem of the German language.
The scholars are in barracks, but enjoy every
liberty compatible with their studies.
240 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
Besides these principal schools, there are
still others, called ' Ecoles regiment aires' which
serve for the instruction of non-commissioned
officers and soldiers ; teaching reading, writing,
arithmetic, geography, history, etc.
I have now run shortly over the principal
features of the French army.
First, its administration which is very re-
markable.
Secondly, its composition and formation
the striking circumstance of which, is the su-
perior class of persons, which by conscription
it obtains.
And thirdly, its discipline sustained by the
balance of severe punishment on the one side,
and great encouragement on the other : but, in
reference to the encouragement given to military
talent I ought to say something of that institution
which, though not wholly military, has been the
greatest incentive to military ability, and fur-
nishes at the present moment an example in
every respect worthy of imitation to the rest
of Europe ; — I mean " the institution of the
Legion of Honour."
LEGION OF HONOUR.
The royal order of the Legion of Honour
was instituted by the law of the 2^ flor^al, year
GOVERNMENT. 241
10, to recompense military and civil virtues
and services.
The order is composed of :
Chevaliers, of whom the number is un-
limited.
Officers .... 2000.
Commanders . . 400.
Grand officers . . J 60.
Grand crosses . . 80.
Neither foreigners nor Princes of the Royal
Family are included in these numbers. The
members swear fidelity to the King, to the
charter and the laws.
No one can be admitted but with the first
grade as chevalier, and the ordinary regulation
requires twenty-five years service during peace*
in ci\al or military functions. In time of war,
a brave or brilliant action, or a severe wound,
are deemed sufficient authorization for admis-
sion. The exception to the former rule is indeed
so frequent that it is sufficient to say the King
can grant the honor of the order to any per-
son distinguished for his services, in the mili-
tary or civil departments, or for any benefit
he may have conferred upon the sciences or arts.
But to rise to a superior rank, it is indispen-
* A year in time of war counts to the soldier as two.
VOL. II M
242 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
sable to have passed through the inferior ranks,
viz :
1. For the rank of officer, it is necessary to
have serA'ed four years as a chevaher.
2. For the rank of commander, — two years as
an officer.
3. For the rank of grand officer, — three years
as a commander.
4. For the rank of grand cross, — five years
as a grand officer.
When any promotions are to take place, the
King determines the number of decorations of
each grade — and a distribution is made by the
grand chancellor of the order, in the folloA^ing
proportion, 40 in 40.
2 to the Minister of Justice and Religion.
1 " Foreign Afiairs.
5 " Home Affairs.
2 " Pubhc Works.
2 " Finances.
20 " War.
5 " Marine.
1 " Pubfic Instruction.
2 " the Grand Chancellerie.
40
To every person decorated with this order
certain mihtary honors are due on all public
GOVERNMENT. 243
occasions, and at all times a soldier on duty
presents arms on seeing the decoration.
The salaries are as follows :
Officers 1000 francs.
Commander .... 2000 ditto.
Grand Officers . . 5000 ditto.
Grand Crosses. . 5000 ditto.
All other members of inferior grade, 250 frs.
A colonel may recommend the officers and
soldiers of his regiment in the subjoined pro-
portion.
Infantry line.
1 Officer for the cross of officer.
6 Officers ^ R at f 3 ^ ^^^ ^^^®
3 Subaltern officers < -o f.'r s Cross of
1 ,. ) Battahons. J rn t
or soldiers ( C Chevalier.
4 Officers C -n^^^ f •? ^ ^^^ *^^^
2 Subaltern officers < -„ ?, 'r " < Cross of
ij. ) Battauons. J r^•^ ^■
or soldiers ( ( Chevaher.
Cavalry.
1 Officer for the Cross of Officer.
3 Officers C ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^
1 Subaltern officer j Chevalier.
or soldier (,
There are, besides the order of the Legion of
Honour, —
The Order of St. Esprit.
St. Michel.
M^rite Militaire.
M 2
ZU MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
It is with extreme deference to military au-
thorities that I venture on a few concluding
remarks.
What I have been saying will have struck
three classes of persons, 1 imagine, in three
different manners.
The economist will have compared the four-
pence half-penny a-week given to the French
soldier, with the thirteen pence given to the
British.
The philanthropist will have compared the
mental punishment inflicted on the French
soldier, in many instances, and which raises his
character, with the corporal punishment, in the
same cases, inflicted on the British soldier, by
which his character is degraded.
And the soldier himself will have compared
the facilities for attaining military distinction
in the one country, and the impediments placed
in the way of his attaining military distinction
in the other.
Exaggeration ujDon all these subjects is no
doubt likely to arise.
The British soldier is not paid so much more
than the French soldier, when you consider,
first, the different expenses of washing, and
many minor necessaries in France ; especially
when you see that the messing of the British
GOVERNMENT. 245
soldier is eight-pence, and that of the French
three-pence.
Neither is the punishment so much less se-
vere in the French ser\'ice than in the English,
because, if the EngUsh soldier is sometimes
flogged when the French soldier would not be
so, the French soldier is sometimes shot where
the English one would be flogged.
Neither is the hardship in respect to promo-
tion entirely the same, as long as the two sys-
tems remain upon their present footing.
The English army is recruited by volunteers
from the working class of England; that is to
say, it is from the most destitute of a class, the
great bulk of which is in a miserable state, and
removed almost altogether, as well from the
habits as the feelings of their country, from
rising much above their native condition.
The French army, on the contrary, is re-
cruited, not by volunteers of the working class,
but by conscripts from every class, and the in-
justice would be terrible if you forced a man of
fair prospects and education, to whom all pro-
fessions were open, to engage in the army, and
then did not allow him any chance of advancing
himself in the service into which you had com-
pelled him to enter.
The two armies are not to be compared as if
246 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
the state of government and the state of society
were the same in the two countries ; they are
to be contrasted as the results of two govern-
ments and two states of society entirely different.
I am painting in deplorable colours the con-
dition of the British soldier. He is shewn me
in the heart of Asia panting beneath a tropical
sun, subjected to the lash, unvisited by any
gleam of promotion ; and I am asked, is twenty-
five years such service the melancholy vista
through which he has to look for sixpence a
day ?
God knows, I think the case cruel and severe
enough !*
But see what his case would have been at
* If any effective regulations can be made to remedy
this, they might be, first, in relation to corporal punish-
ment ; secondly, in respect to pensions, and time of
service. Better men might possibly enter the army,
if the release they expected was of shorter date ; and
at all events it would be fairer and kinder to give
a more frequent opinion. A scale of pensions, not dis-
advantageous to the government, might easily be devised,
favouring this, — allowing more than we now give after
twenty-five years of service, and admitting the retire-
ment on a small pension, or by purchase, at much shorter
dates.
GOVERNMENT. 247
home ! Would he have been happier as a Sus-
sex labourer, or a handloom weaver, or even a
cotton spinner, in his native country?
Now starved, now intoxicated, with his chil-
dren here in the workhouse, and there in the fac-
tory ! the situation of the British soldier is rela-
tive to the situation that he would have held if he
had not been a soldier, and of this you have the
best assurance in the voluntary nature of his
service. His punishments, his advancement
are all according to the ideas which prevail in
respect to the class he belongs to, and the po-
sition which, if a citizen, he would have filled.
You offer him a decent maintenance ; this
he expects, if he works, because, as a peasant,
he can get a scanty maintenance by law, if he
does not work. You subject him to a life of
much hardship and much constraint ; this he
submits to, if he is paid, because, as a peasant,
he would have also been subjected to severe
toil, and much constraint.
You do not offer him much prospect of rising
in the army, because he enjoyed, poor fellow,
little prospect of rising in the world ! He
is the creature of your laws and your habits,
which declare that no man is to be compelled
to any thing except by poverty, and, at the
248 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
same time, subject the great masses of society
to this law of voluntary compulsion.
All is liberty, if you please to call it so, and
inequahty.
In France it is just the reverse. In the first
place, the law, by what we should call an ar-
bitrary enactment, has diffused the advantages
of fortune amongst all persons ; and, in the
second place, it has, by another arbitrary enact-
ment, forced all persons to be soldiers.
You are not, then, in looking at the army, to
consider merely the army, but the state of so-
ciety from which the army comes.
Every part of a system is much more inter-
woven with the whole than we are at first sight
disposed to imagine : we place property in a
few hands. Our next consequence must be^ —
in order to preserve property — to place power
in a few hands also.
What follows ? — the high ranks are for the
rich, the low for the poor. —
Apply this to the army ! — Your officers buy
their commissions ; — your ranks are filled with
the desperate and the starving. This army for
a time serves the country it belongs to well,
in spite of all theories to the contrary, because
it reflects the society of that country where the
rich are used to command and the poor to
GOVERNMENT. 249
obey. But other notions in respect to society
and government spring up ; we discover things
which we deem ought to be remedied. The
first practice in medicine and legislation is to
attack symptoms ; it is not until after much
experience that we really assail the disease.
But the same distemper shews itself differently
in different persons, and is met for a time in
different ways.
You wish to elevate the working classes, and
you make laws against pauperism ; you wish to
elevate the soldieiy, and you make regulations
against flagellation. You will come at last to
some fact which lies at the bottom of all this,
NATIONAL GUARD.
I shall now say one or two words on the
ci\'il force of France, which has occupied more
or less of our attention of late years.
The National Guard was re-organized by a
law of the 22nd March 1831.
Every Frenchman, aged from twenty to sixty
years, is obliged to serve in the district in which
he is domiciled, with a few exceptions provided
for by the law.
The ser^•ice is divided into — service in the
interior of the commune j and into — service by
M 3
250 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
detachment out of the territory of the com-
mune; i.e. the service of detached corps for
the purpose of aiding the troops of the line.*
There is the ordinary service, comprising all
citizens who pay a personal contribution ; and
there is a reserve, comprising all citizens for
whom the habitual service would be too one-
rous ; these latter are only called out under
extraordinary circumstances.
A national guard of cavalry may also be
formed in any commune or canton where it
may be judged useful or necessary, always pro-
viding that ten persons will undertake to equip
and furnish themselves with horses at their
own expense.
In all fortified places there are companies
of artillery.
There are besides, companies of sapeur-pom-
piers in places where they do not exist, as
belonging to the line ; and in the sea-ports, com-
panies of marines are also formed.
The punishments, in cases of disobedience
* When the national guard furnishes detached corps
on the defence of fortified towns on the frontiers, the ser-
vice can only last for twelve months. In such cases, the
national guard are subject to the laws of the army, and
receive the same treatment and pay.
GOVERNMENT.
^51
or infraction of the regulations, are applied by
a council of discipline, composed of a captain, as
president, a lieutenant or sub-lieutenant, a ser-
geant, a corporal, and a private.
The government furnishes clothing, arms,
and equipment, on the demand of those who
have not themselves the means to purchase
their outfit.
The national guards wounded in the servnce
are entitled to the same indemnities as the
troops of the line.
The King has power to dissolve the national
guard at his pleasure, either entirely or by
companies in the different districts.
The object of the government in respect to
this force is, to have it as much a local one as
possible; and its formation is subject to the
regulations most likely to effect this.
A commune where it is possible, furnishes a
company, and the adjoining parts of it a sub-
division of a company.
FORMATION OF COMPANIES.
SUB-DIVISION OF A COMPANY.
14 years
15 to 20
20 to 30
30 to 40
Lieutenants .
1
Sub-Lieuts. .
1
1
1
Serjeants . . .
1
1
2
2
Corporals . .
1
2
4
4
Drummers . .
1
40 to 50
1
1
3
6
1
252
MILITARY ADMINISTRATION.
The ordinary force of a company is from 60
to 200 persons, according to the populousness
of the locahty ; but if a commune can only
furnish 50 men, that number forms a com-
pany.
A COMPANY CONSISTS OF
1st Captain
2nd Captain
Lieutenauts
Sub-Lieuts.
Serj. Major
Serj.Fourrier
Serjeants . .
Corporals . .
Drummers. .
50 to 80
80 to 100
100 to 140
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
6
6
8
12
12
1
2
2
140 to 20
1
1
2
2
1
1
8
16
2
BATTALIONS.
A battauon must be formed of four com-
panies at least and eight at most.
The staff of a battahon is as follows : —
A chef de bataillon.
Captain adjutant major.
A standard bearer sub-lieutenant.
A surgeon adjutant major.
An adjutant subaltern officer,
And a tambour maitre.
If more than one company is formed in any
commune the companies coming from the
same commune cannot be allotted to different
battalions.
GOVERNMENT. 253
In those cantons or towns where there are
two battalions of 500 men each, these may be
united into a legion, and in those communes
which furnish more legions than one, these may
be united under a commander-in-chief — who is
named by the King.
All the officers up to, and including the cap
tain in each company, are chosen by the per-
sons designated to form it.
The chef de bataillon, and standard bearer of
the battalion, are chosen by the officers and
non-commissioned officers of that battalion.
The chefs de legion and the lieutenant-colonels
are chosen by the King, out of a list of ten
candidates, designated by the persons who
choose the chef de bataillon.
These are the principal regulations in re-
spect to this municipal force intended to be at
once as an aid, a check upon the army of the
line, and placed under the authority of the
mayors, prefects, sub-prefects, as delegates of
the minister of the interior; — who is to the
national guard what the minister of war is
to the army.
CENTRALIZATION.
CHAPTER XL
Concluding Remarks.
I TRUST that I have not proceeded thus far,
wading as a matter of necessity through many
dry details, without conducting the reader, who
has been patient enough to accompany me,
to some knowledge of the matter we set out
in quest of.
I mean, the civil and military administration
of France — under a system of centralization.
We have seen the whole receipts and ex-
penditure or t]^g government managed by one
GOVERNMENT. 255
office, and the accounts of a country thus
kept with the exactitude of a counting-house ;
while every local budget is also brought under
the eye of the executive, which learns in this
manner, not only how much the state requires
for its common purposes, but how much the
village requires for its especial ones.
We have seen all the tribunals of the law
centralized in a particular court, and the ad-
ministration of the laws also centralized in a
particular ministry ; the one preserving a uni-
versality in the decrees of justice, and the
other, a universality in its motion.
We have seen too, the system which de-
tects or prevents the crime in harmony with
that which judges the criminal; all the powers
of pursuit directed by one hand, and all the
duties of inspection centered in one great eye,
which casts its regard over the whole empire,
tracing by an especial process the footsteps
of every individual, and watching with equal
vigilance the petty felon who is stealing a
watch, and the state criminal who is plotting a
revolution.
We have seen the instruction of the people
as well as the prosecution of the criminal, also
considered a state aifair, and entrusted to a
ministry, the centre of a variety of ramifica-
256 CENTRALIZATION.
tions, by which the branches of education are
at once controlled and provided for
We have seen even commerce and manu-
factures connected by a series of links with
the department which presides over their pros-
perity, carried from the country to the towns
— from the towns to the capital, and in the
capital placed under a pul)lic functionary with
whom they communicate.
We have seen the administration of the
interior, of the country extending like so
many branches from a parent tree — which
defends the region where it flourishes from
many evils by the extent of its vast sha-
dow — but prevents the growth of many ad-
vantages, therein, by the extent of its vast
roots.
W"e have seen, moreover, the elements of
conquest combined in the same manner as
the elements of peace. The military admini s-
tration conducted on the same principle as
the civil ; and an immense army paid, punished,
promoted, maintained, disbanded by one public
officer, before whom every possible consideration
is brought, and by whom every order is given.
The force which is to preserve France from
aggression, is framed indeed on different prin-
ciples from that which is to carry out its ideas
GOVERNMENT. 257
of conquest, but it has still, even in its local
fractions, a connexion with the head of the
state, and while the inferior officers are named
by the people, its superior officers are chosen
by the monarch.
The system of public receipt and expendi-
ture in France, such as I have described it,
the result of many experiments and altera-
tions, is not only good in itself, but especially
excellent for the country which adopts it,
where long habits of financial j)eculation ren-
der it impossible to give great authority to
subordinate functionaries, and yet where from
the absence of local banks and the smallness
of general credit, it is necessary that the go-
vernment should make every effi)rt for the
local receipt and payment of all monies where
it is possible and for their rapid circulation
where it is not.
The judicial system possesses some faults
doubtless, but is frequently blamed not be-
cause it is bad, but because it is badly admi-
nistered.
There is no legal reason why the president
of a ' court royal,' should assail a prisoner
as if he were a prosecutor instead of judge
— there is no legal reason why the judge of
a court of the first instance, before whom a pri-
258 CENTRALIZATION.
soner must appear within tw^enty-four hours
after his capture, should keep that prisoner
in confinement, if he ought to let him loose.
Here we can only say that the law, though
favourable to freedom, is not sufficient in
many instances to counterbalance the manners
which are favourable to power.
But, take the judicial system as a whole —
with the superb fiction of a public ministry
charged with the prosecution of crimes — and
which extending throughout the kingdom, has
a procureur-du-roi in every arrondissement, and
a procureur-gen^ral in every judicial division
— with the local courts that offer such an
easy access to justice, and where the govern-
ment, (as is generally the case) is not con-
cerned, justice is invariably dealt out — with
the prompt and conciliatory process on all
minor civil cases, where the judgment of the
magistrate is definitive — with the clearness,
simplicity and unity of the law, which is main-
tained and defined by one ultimate and central
court of appeal — take the judicial system as
a whole, I say, and it must be admitted to
contain great advantages, which might be ren-
dered greater ; — but which a people may be
well content to purchase with some defects.
The criminal police, with its passports and
GOVERNMENT. 259
gendarmerie, considered as attached to the sys-
tem I have just been mentioning, might be a
wise and beneficent, but is an immense exer-
tion of power; such as a community accus-
tomed to it might do well to continue, but
which it would be fatal to transmigrate to
other countries, long accustomed to pri\'ileges
of individual freedom.
The political jDolice is, I feel convinced, at
once dangerous and useless. It sometimes
creates plots, it never discovers them when
they are worth discovering ; it destroys social
confidence ; it creates a perpetual suspicion of
the executive power, and sometimes teazes a
nation into revolt when there really exists no
great cause for disaffection.
The ministry of instruction, -vnth that incon-
gruity that pervades most of the French in-
stitutions, exercises rights the most arbitrary",
and aims at objects the most popular. That the
government should assume to itself the power
of dictating to every private establishment
the course of education they should pursue,
and even the ver}^ books through which they
should pursue it — would be considered by a
nation such as ourselves, one of the most
serious infringements of social lil)erty ; on the
other hand, that a state should charoe itself
2e0 CENTRALIZATION.
with the careful provision of education for
every one of its inhabitants, the poor as well
as the rich, oftering every encouragement,
whether in the military or civil service, or
through literary institutions, for every success-
ful exercise of talent and assiduity, is a policy
so enlightened and so paternal, that it is diffi-
cult to distrust the hand it proceeds from. In
fact, the abuses such a ministry might be
guilty of, are checked by that public opinion
it must create ; but though a liberal legislator
would propose such a plan without hesitation, I
doubt much whether a country long accustomed
to freedom would be willing to receive it.
The scheme of commercial administration
has many benefits. It brings the minister into
direct and practical contact with all the wants
and defects of industry. It presents him
through the means of a small and respectable
body, with the state not merely of commerce
and manufactures, but of the manufacturing and
commercial classes throughout the country. It
affords him the opportunity of sifting state-
ments, and comparing interests. In short, it
gives to an able man immense facility in tho-
roughly understanding that important branch
of administration over which he presides. But
it also gives to the interests of the jiroducer
GOVERNMENT. 261
which are centrahzed and represented, a great
superiority over those of the consumer, which
are not so, and has, no doubt, had a sensible
influence over the commercial policy which, in
contradiction to our remonstrances, France
still determines on pursuing.
The interior administration of the country
which is, in fact, the administration of the
minister of the interior, though I mention it
last, more especially deserves our considera-
tion.
Wherever the aristocracy is in England, the
government is in France. The magistrates are
paid by — and attached to — the government. The
Lord Lieutenants are paid by — and attached to
— the government. As far as this goes, there is
much to say not only against but in favour of
the plan. It collects power, but it collects
responsibility also, round one authority. It
extinguishes the influence of all petty and
local passions, and it gives to the administra-
tion, which is answerable for the peace of the
country, a proper control over those who are
appointed to preserve it.
That even the mayor should be an officer
appointed by the crown is defencible; for if
otherwise chosen, he must in many places be
an enemy of the state.
262 CENTRALIZATION.
But the question most disputed and most dis-
putable is the power which the government has,
and which the government exercises, of interfer-
ing in all those minor affairs of expenditure and
improvement which it would appear that the
locality itself might best decide on.
Not only cannot a commune determine its
own expenses without the consent of the mi-
nister or one of his deputed functionaries, it
cannot even erect a building, the cost of which
shall have been sanctioned, without the plan
being adopted by a board of public works at-
tached to the central authority, and having the
supervision and direction of every public l)uild-
ing throughout the kingdom.
The arguments in supjoort of this are many
and plausible. In the first place, its advocates
say, " the power of the minister is only an
economic one ; he cannot compel the communes
to any expense, but simply prevent or moderate
the expenses they are anxious to incur. What
motive can he have for exercising this authority
that would make it likely that he should abuse
it ? Is he not rather hkely to sanction, than to
refuse an undertaking which the inhabitants of
the place consent to, and which, if successful,
illustrates his administration ?
Is not the board of works, too, composed of
GOVERNMENT. 263
skilful architects and engineers better able to
furnish an elegant design, or to correct a bad
one than the village mason ?
Is it not in this manner, that France may be
enriched, even in her remote hamlets, by the
taste which presides in her capital ; and edifices,
really beautiful, erected at the same, or even
at a less cost, than some monstrous pile of
bricks and mortar would be, if provincial bar-
barism had no check put upon its inventions ?"
All these are plausible arguments and easy to
find, because, as there it, no good mthout its
evil, so there is no evil without its good. But
they disappear at once, as merely invohang
small questions of detail when taking a broader
view of the question, we look at human na-
ture as the guide to legislation, and consi-
der what breathes into a people, that spirit
and that energy which are the real elements
of national greatness. The Indians teach their
children to swim by throwing them into the
water beyond their depth. We learn most
things in the same manner, by having to
struggle against difficulties, and being left to
our own resources.
What then is the consideration of a com-
mune's accidental extravagance, or a prison's
284 CENTRALIZATION.
or a hospital's inelegant construction, com-
pared with that habit of acting for ourselves,
and thinking for ourselves, and relying upon
ourselves, which gives not only to indivi-
duals, but to nations, that invaluable moral
property which we call " character,'^ and
which never abandons us in any moment of
our lives.
Centralization in a government is an excel-
lent thing, providing you can place a proper
control upon it, where the object is general ;
but it is upon the whole a foolish and an in-
expedient thing where the object is local.
Of the army, I have spoken at such length
and in such detail, that if I jDause upon it here
again, it can only be to say, that the system
under which it moves, seems the best calcu-
lated to give a terrible energy to this terrible
force ; which strange to say, is less Ukely to be
hostile to liberty from the greatest innovation
of its rights ; for in forcing the citizen to
become the soldier, we leave the soldier also in
a great degree the citizen.
A miUtia or national guard is an institution
well adapted to a military people, like the Prus-
sians and the French, who amused by the drum
and the uniform, give up their time mthout
GOVERNMENT. 265
reluctance, to bearing the duties of a soldier,
while they retain all the tastes and principles
of civil independence, guarding their country
alike from the despotism of a native army,
or the aggression of a foreign enemy. But
to a nation of more commercial tastes and
habits, it would be one of the greatest burthens
perhaps, that could possibly be imposed. Venice,
Holland, and Carthage, had in the days of
their glory a mercenary force — so great, though
they were brave, was their dislike to arms
as a profession. And with us, who have no
army to fear at home, and no aggression to
apprehend from abroad, it would be difficult to
find a more useless and odious, and (as it
would be found to those whose time is more
valuable than the pay of a soldier) a more
expensive invention.*
I have thus passed, perhaps too hastily, over
an immense system, the axis of which turning
by a regular and uniform motion, brings to the
army on a certain day its soldiers, to tiie na-
tional guard its officers, to the arrondisse-
ments and departments their councillors, to
* Colonel Davies, late M.F. for Worcester, had some
idea, I believe, of making the proposition.
VOL. 11. N
266 CENTRALIZATION.
the communes their corporations, mayors,
and adjuncts.
Take to pieces the machinery of this system
— you will see, in spite of the symmetry of the
whole, a vast diversity in the parts; some of
which are of the most democratic, some of the
most monarchical description.
No institution is so insignificant as not to be
connected, in some way, with the crown — none
so exclusive as not oflFer the highest honours to
the people. The mayor of the smallest com-
mune is the king's officer, and the son of a
butcher, in a field marshal's uniform, is the
chief officer in the royal palace.
It may be all very well to say that this is the
same as in Turkey ; there is as much difference
between this and any thing that exists, or
ever did exist in Turkey, as between any two
things the most opposed : for the public spirit
which prevails in France is in favour of intel-
ligence and freedom, as the public spirit in
Turkey is in favour of tyranny and ignorance.
Besides, it is not the King who is all powerful in
France, but the King's government. Here is a
diffi^rence that may alter every thing — for the
government is responsible before a body, which,
according to the meaning of the constitution.
GOVERNMENT. 267
should be popularly elected, and in spite of
which it cannot exist.
The improvements, indeed, that we may
expect in modern legislation — lie in the proper
combination of these two principles : — a great
possibihty of doing good, a strong check upon
the power of doing evil.
It is to the chamber of deputies then that
we have now to turn ; and if that chamber be
not what it ought to be, there is the place
where we should propose alterations.
N 2
CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
CHAPTER XH.
Right of Election — Mode of electing — Eligibility — Pro-
ceedings of the Chamber — Laws and propositions —
Constituency considered and Chamber dissected.
We have been led by the last chapter to
the consideration of the chamber of deputies.
I shall first state its formation, attributes,
and usages, and then consider it in general re-
lation with the government, and the system
of which it forms a part.
RIGHT OF ELECTION.
Every Frenchman, aged twenty-five years,
enjoying his civil and pohtical rights, and pay-
GOVERNMENT. 269
ing 200 frs. of direct contributions, is an
elector.*
The number of electors is ascertained by the
following process, which answers to our regis-
tration :
From the first to the tenth of June the
mayors of the different communes in their res-
pective cantons meet in the chef-lieu of the
canton, and there, with the aid of the collec-
tors of the taxes, revise the list of the year
preceding. This list is sent by the sub-prefect
of the arrondissement with his observations to
the prefect of the department before the first of
July, who in his turn revises it, stating his
reasons for the decisions he comes to ; the list
is then jmnted, and deposed at the mayoralty
of every commune by the 15 th of August; any
claims then made are judged by the prefect in
council, from whom there is no appeal but to a
'cour royale,' which however is obhged to de-
cide the case definitively, and without expense.
* Officers in the army and navy, members and cor-
respondents of the Institut, need only pay 100 frs.
Contributions counted as direct are the land tax, the
personal and furniture tax, the door and window tax,
taxes on patents, and every tax levied under the title of
' centimes adchtionnels.*
270 CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.
MODE OF ELECTING.
The chamber of deputies is composed of
459 deputies,* elected by 459 electoral colleges,
each electing one deputy.
These colleges are convoked by the King, and
in that town in the electoral arrondissement
which he shall appoint ; no discussion is al-
io wed. f
The college elects its president and exami-
ners, and the election commences. A list of
the electors being fixed up in the place of elec-
tion, the president calls on the electors by
name and each receives from him a piece of
paper open ; on this piece of paper he writes
the name of the candidate he prefers, folds it
up, and gives it back to the president, who
puts it in a box placed by him for that
purpose.!
* A deputy accepting a public office at home, va-
cates his seat, but not until the reunion of the electoral
college, by which he is to be re-elected.
A minister changing from one public office to another
does not vacate his seat.
f No armed force can be in the neighbourhood unless
demanded by the college itself.
X As the elector does this, an examiner takes down
his name, as having voted.
GOVERNMENT. 271
The box remains open for six hours, and is
closed at 3 o'clock in the evening, when its
contents are immediately examined.
1. The number of papers is compared with
the number of persons who have voted.
2. An examiner opens each piece of paper,
and gives it to the president, who calls out the
name inscribed on it.
The result is then made public, and the
papers burnt.
A deputy to be elected immediately, must
unite one third of the total number of votes
inscribed in the college, and one half of the
votes taken in his favour.
If the scrutiny, having once taken place,
does not produce this result, the bureau de-
clares the two candidates who have got the
most votes, and no other can then compete
with them ; the one who on the next trial has
the bare majority is elected.* A college is opened
for ten days ; and every matter of dispute that
occurs is taken down and submitted afterwards
for decision to the chamber of deputies.
* Whenever there is an equal number of votes on this
occasion, the eldest has the preference.
272 CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES,
ELIGIBILITY.
To be eligible for the chamber,* the candidate
must be thirty years of age, and pay 500frs.
of direct taxes, (equal to an income six times
the amount.) Half the deputies in a depart-
ment must be chosen amongst those whose
political residence is in that department.f
■ PROCEEDINGS OF THE CHAMBER.
At the commencement of every session, the
chamber is divided by lot into nine bureaux,
composed, as much as possible, of an equal
number of members.
Each bureau names its president and se-
er etary.|
Each bureau discusses the question sent it
by the chamber, and names a member to write
* Neither a prefect, a sub-prefect, nor a receiver-gene-
ral, or a receiver of department, can be chosen deputy by
the district in which he performs his functions. Neither
general officers commanding divisions, nor procureurs-
du-roi, nor procureurs-generaux, nor the directors of
contributions, etc. can be elected within the sphere of
their authority and jurisdiction ; nor if they quit such
post, can they be eligible there till six months after the
time of their having done so.
f Wlien the contrary occvu-s, lots are drawn among
the successful candidates.
X These bureaux are renewed every month.
GOVERNMENT. 273
a report of its opinion. When two-thirds of
the bureaux declare themselves prepared, the
reporters from each meet and discuss the ques-
tions amongst themselves, and then name a
common reporter, who reports to the chamber
twenty-four hours at least before ths general
discussion begins.*
For petitions there is a general commission :
one member named by each bureau ; it makes
its report every week, in which is included the
name and habitation of the petitioners as well
as the object of their request.
Except in case of dissolution, the legislative
measures begun in one session continue on in
the stage in which they were left, to the next.
The chamber is presided over by a president
whom it chooses, and four vice-presidents.
LAWS AND PROPOSITIONS.
Every law proposed to the chamber by the
* Besides these different bureaux, there are commis-
sions : one for the budget, for instance, which is formed of
thirty-six members, four being named by each bureau of
the chamber.
There will be to this commission as many reporters as
there are ministers, each reporting on the expense of
a particular minister.
N 3
274 CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.
King or the chamber of peers, after being read
to the chamber is sent to the bureaux.
Every member who wishes to make a pro-
position must sign and depose it on the pre-
sident's table to be by him communicated to
the different bureaux.
If three of these are of opinion it should
be developed, it will be read at the next
sitting, and the deputy will fix the day when
he will speak upon it.
If then approved of, it will be printed and
sent back again to the bureaux, which discuss
and report upon it.
On all laws the vote is secret, on other
propositions it is open, unless members de-
mand the baUot.
Here then is the chamber of deputies, pro-
ceeding with much clearness and regularity
in its proceedings, having in many of its forms —
the institution of its bureaux for instance —
much that we ourselves might do well to con-
sider, if not to imitate — having in the mode of
its election also, the advantage of that ballot
which we are here contending for, and which
seems to be conducted with perfect safety
and facility* — but only elected by persons, who
* The small number of voters of course aids this.
GOVERNMENT. 2/5
possess in property fifty pounds a year — i. e.
who pay 200 francs of direct taxes — a pro-
portion of about 173-4 electors, in a country
containing 32,500,000 inhabitants.
Whichever way we consider this, the result
seems equally injudicious.
In the first place, the more power you con-
fide in the executive government (and in France,
it appears necessary to confide a great deal
of power to the executive government,) the
more popular ought to be the sources from
which that government rises, and the more
national the control by which its abuses are to
be prevented and judged.
Secondly. The more places which a govern-
ment has at its disposition, and the government
of France has all over France places to dispose
of — the wider you must extend a representation
which should be beyond such influences.
Tliirdly. The more property is diffused, and
property is as we have seen most mdely dif-
fusedin France, the more safely can you diffuse
political power also.
Fourthly. As is the great bulk of the people,
so ought to be the majority of the repre-
sentatives, and yet ])y so confined a qualifi-
cation, you give the towns, about one fifth
of the population, a majority in the repre-
27(5 CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.
sentation over the country where fortunes are
more divided ; in short, I see no kind of
reason; except the shallow, though plausible
one : viz. that if there are only 173,185 electors,
here are only 126,353 who present themselves
tor the exercise of this right.
To a chamber taken by a phrase, this reason
would suffice ; but to any person at all ac-
quainted with the natural consequence of res-
tricted and popular institutions — the argument
used to shew the inutihty of extending the
suffrage demonstrates its necessity. Men act
greatly by sympathy and emulation, and only
take an interest in those affairs, about which
they see their neighbours bestirring themselves.
The more restricted, therefore, you make
the right of election, the fewer wdll be the
persons anxious to exercise their right of elec-
tors ; and an unwarrantable apathy, in respect
to public affairs, becomes the best argument
against the system which produces it.
What then must be the consequences of
a constitution which gives the greatest cir-
cumference to the government, and the nar-
rowest basis to the constituency ?
The following is an analysis of the existing
chamber ; which represents pretty correctly its
condition :—
GOVERNMENT.
277
No. of votes at the last Elec-
tions in favor of.
37,966
21,982
4,005
16,184
80,137
For persons not elected 4 6, 2 1 6
Total voted 126,353
Did not vote 46,832
Electors 173,185
Deputies.
216 juste-mUieu.
125 third party.
25 legitimist party.
95 extreme left (or
liberal).
SOCIAL POSITION OF PERSONS RETURNED
ADMINISTRATION. M.\GISTRATURE.
6 Ministers. 19 Presidents.
2 Secretaires generaux. 3 Avocats generaux.
2 Directeurs or inspecteurs 5 Procnreurs generaiix.
generaux. 7 Procureurs-du-roi.
39 Mayors. 26 Councillors.
1 Adjunct. 8 Judges of ci\il tribunals.
50 Named by government.
37 members of councils general 4 Justices of peace.
not named by government 7 The court of accounts.
89 17 Employed in the council
of state.
96 namedby the government.
ITiat is, named by government :
Administration 50 l
Magistrature 96 /
146
278 CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.
A R M Y.
1 Marshal of France.
13 Lieutenant-generals.
5 Camp-marshals.
7 Colonels.
5 Lieutenant-colonels.
2 Chief-of-battalion.
7 Captains.
3 Military Intendants.
1 Marine Prefect.
1 Captains of corvettes.
2 Engineers.
1
146
45 more or less under go- J
45
vernment influence.
191
COURT.
4 Aides-de-camp to the King.
1 Ordonance officer to the King.
4 Servants of the crown.
9 named by government. I
200
4 Diplomacy.
Named by the government. \
•204
GOVERNMENT. 279
Advocates.
Doctors.
Men of Letters 55
Manufacturers.
Bankers.
Notaries, &c 45
Persons without any particular
professions 118
Not named by government. 216
Under government 204
Not under government 215
Sucli is the chamber !
Now in speaking of the places which the
government had to give away, I stated them
in the analysis to the first volume, at 55,000 ;
this merely takes in the most considerable,
since small places and large places taken to-
gether, there are in the ministry of finance alone
above 57,000.
StiU, for every place to be given away, there
are three persons at least who expect to obtain
it, while there are not much more upon an
average than three electors to each place : —
a constituency then is easily bribed by exjjec-
tations from its representative, and a repre-
sentative, as we have seen, meets with his re-
compense from the minister.
280 CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.
Thus the body I have been considering is
not what it should be — a fair check upon
the executive authority — by being a fair repre-
sentation of public opinion.
SUMMARY,
CHAPTER XIII.
Review of past work — The amalgamatioa of different
effects proceeding from different causes — Modern France,
the consequence of former history and recent institu-
tions — Whether the equality sprung from one and
coloured by the other is compatible with free govern-
ment — The effects of centralization and of a small
constituency — Monarchy of the middle classes as it is,
as it might be.
My title was ambitious ; I undertook a great
task. Is it nearly completed ? — Doubtless mucb
that I intended to say has l)een overlooked and
forgotten ! much remains to say for which nei-
ther time nor space are allowed me ! and
yet, reader, cast back your eyes over the road
282 SUMMARY.
we have traversed — the view is an extensive
one.
Behold again that Paris which we saw from
yonder heights of Ph'e la Chaise crowded with
bacchanahans, monks, cavahers and mobs ! —
the recollections of fifteen centuries !
Behold again that people so gay, so witty,
so warlike, and so vain, whose brow is chro-
nicled with centuries, and whose character is
still in its youth.
Behold again those revolutions, amidst
which passed away a solemn and brocaded
court — a terrible and sanguinary republic — a
glorious and conquering empire — a prosperous
but misguided monarchy ■
Look at the influences which have survived ;
the literature, the religion, the philosophies
which exist ; the manner in which the soil of
France is divided ; the social condition which
the French people enjoy ; the species of go-
vernment under which they are placed ! —
Look, I say, at these things — and here is the
point where we should regard them, not one
by one, but as a whole ; — and combining the
past with the present, try to comprehend a
country motleyed by its manners, its laws,
its history, its ideas !
We see a nation fond of change and of glory
SUMMARY. 283
from characterj attached to luxury and elegance
from education; a soil almost agrarianly dis-
tributed — making of its cultivators a people of
proprietors^ and a people of equals ; a govern-
ment concentrated in the hands of an executive
authority, responsible before two tribunals —
of which it names one, and must find it easy,
except in extraordinary crises, to corrupt the
other; and a public opinion founded on ab-
stract rights, and daily more and more inclin-
ing towards liberal institutions.
In all this we have, in much, to modify the
results of one circumstance, by the results of
another ! a nation fond of change may be given
to violent revolutions : — but a nation of proprie-
tors is hostile to \nolent revolutions. A people
of equals may depress talent as a distinction,
and banish elegance as a vice : but a people
glorious and luxurious, honour Genius as a
di\'inity, and give to Taste a temple among the
Arts. A government concentrated in the hands
of the executive authority, controlling the power
which ought to control it, may become a des-
potism : — but a public opinion favourable to
libert)', if restrained for a time l^y the fear of
its own excesses, can never by any species of
government be ultimately crushed. How shall
I descrilje the amalgamation of so many op-
284 SUMMARY.
posing effects, springing from so many opposing
causes ?
Shall I say that we find the popular feelings
of the street amidst the ancient habits of
a court; — a terrible machinery for despotism
amidst the modern sentiments of democracy ? —
before us, perhaps, is the spectacle of a people
whose manners have been formed under an
absolute government, and whose opinions tend
to a republican government.
Indeed, in turning back once again to the vo-
lumes I am concluding, their subject seems fairly
enough divided, hke they themselves have been,
into two parts ; — the one referring rather to the
effects of nature and of former times, the other
rather to the effects of recent institutions.
Proceeding from the first — were those influ-
ences, female, literary, and military, which have
made the French frivolous, literary, warlike.
Proceeding from the second is — that custom of
succession, which, whether we look at litera-
ture or the press addressing themselves to all
classes — to the state, taking into its bosom
all religions — to society possessing neither
grandees nor paupers — establishes on all sides,
and in all things, an equality — which imbibing
the colours of preceding circumstances, makes
the French people what they are.
SUMMARY. 285
I say ' imbil3ing the colours of preceding
circumstances/ for simply to say that France
is distinguished by the equality that reigns
there, would not be sufficiently characterizing
this peculiar nation.
That equality might exist elsewhere amongst
simple tastes, as here it exists amongst ostenta-
tious tastes, — or amongst peaceful desires as here
amongst warlike desires — or amongst local popu-
lar institutions, as here under a centralized
administration — or amongst ideas favourable
to despotism, as here amongst ideas bordering
upon licence.
Whether for good or evil — that equality
must remain ; for it is based upon the two
things most difficult to alter : the distribution
of property and the natural affections of the
human heart. It has made the French a happy
people ; need it prevent them from being a free
one ? I say — it need not.
The centralized administration I have des-
cribed may be favoured by it, but it is not
caused by it. A people formed into a demo-
cracy may govern in their villages as in their
capital. Of this America is an example — if
they do not wish to do so, it is less because
they are a democracy now, than because tliey
have not been a democracy long ; if they ought
286 SUMMARY.
not to do so, it is not because they are equal
amongst themselves, but because they are
divided amongst themselves, and that a de-
legated authority from the whole of the em-
pire, is necessary to keep together its parts.
Neither need such a system be necessarily, as
I have elsewhere observed, one of despotism.
If the French ministry was the result of a
majority of a chamber which represented the
majority of the nation — that ministry, however
powerful, would be merely the most efficient
organ for w^orking out the popular will. Nay
more, if the French ministry are not this — the
same cause which gives a danger to the tendency
of centralization, places in reality, though not
perhaps in appearance, a check upon its power.
A strong government is not merely a strong
administrative machine for governing the
affairs of a people, it must be a strong admi-
nistrative machine that governs the people as
well as their affairs. Held and directed by
the hands of one man, or of twenty men, it
must descend, if I may use such comparison,
into the nation, like the wheel of yonder vessel
descends into the waters; there is the force of
that mysterious engine — in those free and
stormy waves !
A government, I say, must be popular to be
SUMMARY. 287
strong, whatever the source whence that popu-
larity springs.
Oh ! but Bonaparte !
Bonaparte did not indeed appeal to his
people, through electoral chambers, and liberal
laws ; such was not the genius of the man.
He did not appeal to the reason — he appealed
to the passions of the French, and the drum
beating, .and the tricolour flying, with victory
in the van, all France followed his heels. If
Bonapartes were common, charters would be
waste paper.
A conqueror is beloved by a vain and mar-
tial race as long as he conquers ; he has little
to study but the fortunes of his sword. When
Kings too were anointed with a divine oil —
the vice-regents of god upon earth — their au-
thority was fixed in one of the deepest recesses
of the human heart, and the distant barbarian
worshipped the sovereign, whose sceptre was
a scourge, as he did the god of the storm
which devastated his plains.
It is passed — all this : — the most revered
raonarchs are but men ; and another Bona-
parte may perchance arise in five hundred
years.
Besides a nation cannot always be at Avar ;
and to govern an active and intelligent people
288 BUMMARY.
in peace, you must give a vent to their in-
telligence, a vent to their activity — that acti-
vity, that intelligence should not be out of the
government, or it will destroy the government
— but within the government — where it will
animate the government.
Why is the press formidable to the existing
state of things ? Because the press appeals to
the whole country, and the constitution ap-
peals to one person in every 1 1,850 throughout
the country. Why is the police maintained ?
Because it is necessary to know what the na-
tion is thinking and doing — and the national
chamber can hardly be said to represent the
nation. The most popular institution is put
down, the most unpopular presented, for the
same reason. The strongest species of admi-
nistration that can l>e invented is not strong,
because it does not proceed from a sufficient
number of those for whom it administers.
In summing up the whole system, then, I
stand again before that great fault — a confined
representation. It relieves the government from
a salutary restraint, but it exposes the govern-
ment to a continual danger : it gives the govern-
ment the appearance of arbitrary power, and at
the same time really cripples the government with
just apprehension : it exposes the people to the
SUMMARY. 289
suspicion of oppression, and the state to the
fear of resistance.
Let us look at the restoration !
From J8J5 to 1830 the course followed
was — not to choose a ministry from the majo-
rity of an assembly which represented the na-
tion, but to obtain a majority in that assembly
for some favourite minister in spite of the
nation.
Thus cabinet after cabinet sustained itself.
The men who had been accidentally called to
power were not to be changed on any account
— no; if any thing was to be altered, some
fundamental part of the constitution might
just be remodelled for the day, so as to disarm
their opponents. The representative body be-
came a mere political plaything. Mark the
consequence !
M. de Villele for a long time maintained his
majority. But what was that majority ? a veil
between him and the nation he governed.
Even he himself was actually blinded by that
veil ; — for a small constituency has this double
disadvantage — it is not inaccessible to public
opinion while it deceives a minister as to the
progress of that opinion.
What is in the nation reaches it at last —
VOL. II. O
290 SUMMARY.
slowly, late, but it arrives. One morning the
minister is in a minority in the chamber, which
he has been accustomed to command ; but this
does not happen till he has been for years in
a minority out of doors. Who then shall be
his successor ? a M. de Martignac — who can-
not satisfy by concessions ? A M. de Polignac
— who cannot conquer by resistance ?*
Still let us not exaggerate the evils which
it is a duty to point out.
The monarchy of the middle classes, such as
it exists in France, though susceptible of great
improvements, is not a government (for
the people to whom it is given) that can
wisely be repudiated or justly despised. It
has achieved, and if continued, will more per-
fectly perjietuate, that which legislation long
deemed impracticable.
* But if a government is maintained by the army
and the national guard ! how is a government to know
that it is supported by the army and the national guard ?
because they do not resist it ? but men whose duty it is
to obey will not resist, except in the most urgent cases,
and at the latest moment.
When they resist the government, then the govern-
ment cannot resist them ; and thus only learns that it
is disapproved by a fortunate revolution which upsets
it. Surely, the science of legislation should produce some
more happy result than this.
SUMMARY. 291
I mean, a constitution containing no privi-
leged class, and yet, in which the monarch
is not a cypher and the people are not slaves.
Such is the government at present ; — if called
upon to state what it might be with more
advantage, I should describe something not
wholly different, but which gi^'ing greater so-
lidity, perhaps majesty, to the throne, would
give greater power to the people, greater inde-
pendence and nationality to the chamber of
peers.
I should say, in short, that the best govern-
ment for France, without starting forth in quest
of any of those extraordinary changes which
are to produce theoretical perfection, would be
a popular and splendid monarch]) ^ supported here
by a national army, there by a citizen guard
— administered by a centralized administration,
and having for coadjutors — a chamber of Peers
electedfrom the superiorities of the country , which
vjould represent, as it were, its moral interests :
and a chamber of deputies, elected by a large
constituency, which would represent its material
interests.
Such a government would be consistent
with the manners and the ideas I have des-
cribed ; it would make what belongs to old
times compatible with the birth of new ; and
by placing despotism under the legitimate con-
o 2
292 SUMMARY.
trol of a democracy, which now agitates so-
ciety in opposition to the law — render possible
the union of free institutions, with a confi-
dence in the executive power.
Such a government would no doubt have
its faults; but it would accord with all the
predominant feelings of the French nation ;
and, at such a government, if the present
dynasty be not overturned by some violent
shock, it will — even in spite of itself — arrive.
POLICY
OF PRESENT ADMINISTRATION.
CHAPTER XIV.
The existing government in France a government of resist-
ance, and why it is so — Considered as to where it
should resist, and how resist — Has resisted d^en vio-
lence, popular representation and the press — How far
justifiable — Recent laws against the Press — How far
wrong — Character of administration — Necessary policy
of government.
Having spoken of the present state and pro-
bable prospects of the existing monarchy, I am
called to the consideration of the policy by which
it is now supported.
I confess that this subject is one of difficulty,
and that I approach it with no common diffi-
dence in my judgment — no common hesitation.
294 REVIEW OF OF POLICY.
let me add, in respect to publishing my opinions
— since they differ very essentially, as well from
the party by whom the present French admi-
nistration is attacked with unqualified violence,
as from that party l)y which it is with equal
violence defended.
The nature of all revolutions is to beget —
however necessary they have been, and how-
ever sagely they may have been conducted —
a tendency to revolutions ; for men always
imagine they can again attempt with success,
that which they have seen done in their own
time with facility. It is equally certain that
no country can prosper under a perpetual
series of revolutions ; it follows, therefore, as
a matter of course, that the ministry which
succeeds a revolution, will be by duty and
position, more or less a ministry of resistance ;
or, as I said, nearly two years ago — " the life
of a prince, sprung from a popular convul-
sion will be almost always passed in struggling
against popular concessions."
Indeed, if we look at that revolution in
England, with which the late French revolu-
tion has been frequently compared — we shall
find that severe laws against liberty were not
wanting under the government of a monarch.
REVIEW OF POLICY. 295
from whose accession to power notwithstand-
ing, — our Hberties spring.
It is idle then to expect what neither history
warrants, nor human nature accords. Moreover,
if revolutions were ever likely to have had ene-
mies to oppose, and agitations to subdue, it
was the revolution of July. The government
founded on our revolution of 1688 rested in
some sort on a religious enthusiasm ; the
government founded on that revolution of
1830 had no enthusiasm in its favour. The
superstitions of old times, favourable to here-
ditary right, and of new times, inclined to
impossible perfection, were equally against it.
The present government in France then is, I
repeat it, essentially and necessarily, what its
defenders have frankly declared — a government
of resistance. The only questions that can
arise, are : where it should resist — how it
should resist.
Open violence must of course be met by
violence ; but it is no small praise, and ought
to be no small pride to the party which
through different men, has almost uninter-
ruptedly ruled — that as yet — five years hav-
ing elapsed — three rebellions having taken
place — not a single political scaffold has re-
corded the triumph of a dominant faction.
296 REVIEW OF POLICY*
There are not many such examples in all
history !
The course of civil resistance adopted, has
displayed itself on two points — a refusal to
extend the elective franchise beyond its pre-
sent limits — and an attempt to restrict the
press within narrower bounds than it was
inclined to assign itself.
My own humble opinion in respect to the
electoral law has been expressed, and I own that
I deem a small constituency in a constitutional
government, a very great danger and a very
great evil, inasmuch as that it places that go-
vernment in a false position, and does not
afford it the warning or the assistance it would
derive from the popular sentiment, having a
more faithful organ of expression.
I own that I think some alteration ought
to take place — must at no distant time take
place on this subject — still the government
estabhshed in 1830, though not walking with
rapidity, did make a great step even on this
point beyond the government which preceded it ;
and the present constituency of about 173,000,
however small, is more than double the con-
stituency of about 80,000 to which it succeeded.
That the doctrinal administration should re-
sist here for a time then — may be wrong in
REVIEW OF POLICY. 297
some of our opinions — is wrong in my opinion
— but it hardly affords any just ground of
violent reproach : for I am willing to admit
that the result of nearly all revolutions (there
are some exceptions) has been lost — when lost— -
by the princi^Dles on which they were founded,
having been carried out too suddenly and too
far ; and I also grant, that if there be any
people in the world to whom freedom should
be, if I may use the expression, cautiously
measured out — it is that people, more than
any other, volatile, capricious, prone to excess
— amongst whom it is most necessary to create
habits — and yet amongst whom habits are, with
the most difficulty, created.
I come to the press and the conduct, more
especially within these few months, pursued
towards it.
Now as for the object which the government
had in view by that conduct, it appears a legiti-
mate one. The laws brought forward were pro-
fessedly only aimed at these things ; — to j^re-
serve the person of the sovereign from aljuse —
and the principle of the monarchy from assault.
A state owes it to its own dignity to
preserve, if possible, its first magistrate from
indecent lampoons, and it can hardly be
blamed for sheltering, and, if necessary, de-
o 3
298 REVIEW OF POLICY.
fending — not the manner in which the go-
vernment is administered, but the principle on
which it is founded. Resistance to the press
in both these cases then, would seem justifiable,
if it were likely to attain its end by means
justifiable also.
Here we arrive at that question — " how
should the government resist ?""
I said but a short time since, that the best
defence for those who refuse to sanction im-
mediate constitutional changes rests on this
ground — that it is desirable above all things,
for a people who, in fifty years, have never
ceased changing every thing, to acquire at last,
the habit, even if what exist is not the best,
of conserving something.
But if change be undesirable who should
give the example of enduring inconvenience ?
the minister who tells the people to pause be-
fore attempting to make their institutions yet
more liberal, ought to be most careful in shew-
ing that he is as scrupulously determined not
to make those institutions less liberal.
The rule then which should guide any ad-
ministration in their resistance to alterations
in the charter is — the charter. Now there
are some who think by the laws lately passed
that this charter has been evaded in one
REVIEW OF POLICY. 299
instance, and violated in another. The evasion
they say consists in giving the appellation
of * high treason' to certain offences of the
press, which are thus brought before the
chamber of peers (forming a court in that pe-
culiar instance) whereas the offences of the press
were, by the constitution, expressly assigned
to a jury — the violation, they say, consists
in changing the constitution of the jury itself,
which jury formerly voted openly, and now
votes secretly, which jury formerly condemned
by a majority of four, and now condemns by
a majority of one. I do not, for my own
part, either adopt or defend any exaggerated
party charges, still I cannot help thinking that
any great fundamental alterations for a momen-
tary object must be unwise ; more especially
when it is wished to keep the public mind
in an even course within certain constitutional
channels, which channels, if you dam them up
for a time, will be afterwards dangerously over-
flowed. They unsettle and confound people's
opinions also, and make them consider that
nothing is sacred, or sujjerior to the exigencies
of the hour.
Besides, they have another evil ; — it is almost
always necessary that they should be followed
by measures of a similar nature : for they
3a;> REVIEW OF POLICY.
create exaggerated suspicions which must be
met by exaggerated defences and precautions,
until a minister on one side, and a people
on the other, are driven into a course con-
trary to the inchnations, the interests, and
the intentions of either.*
* This is a question of policy -which should be well
considered before we proceed to laws of repression.
Will they protect us ?
To repress the expression of opinion is not to repress
opinion.
There is a singular fact, to which, as it furnishes no
mean argument of this, I call attention :
Under the empire the secret police cost . 789,000,000
Under the restoration from 1814, to 1818 56,000,000
Afterwards, about 2,400,000
Under M. de Martignac 1,700,000
'(hus in almost an exact proportion with the silence
imposed, was the watch which it was found necessary
to maintain.
There is another consideration not to be forgotten. A
minister should well penetrate himself with the spirit,
and give to himself as it were, the character and the
nature of the government which he administers ! A des-
potism when it is attacked, acts with sense in being
despotic ; it is constituted expressly for such crisis,
and has all the power that is necessary for crushing
every enemy, and stifling every cry. But a government
of popular forms can never long depart from the prin-
ciples on which it is founded : it may exercise a power
REVIEW OF POLICY. 301
It is on this account, indeed, that we should
be more particularly regretful of late events ;
and here I speak, not merely as a man anxious
for the prosperity' of a fine and inteUigent por-
tion of the human race — b\^t as an English-
man also anxious for the maintenance of that
friendship between two nations — first at the
present epoch of the world in arts and arms
— whose alliance has aiforded peace to Europe,
and protection to the growth of hberal insti-
tutions in both countries.
That that alliance is chiefly one of opinion
we well know ; and yet some English journals
have been lately thought treasonable in France !
Deeply then do I regret the circumstances
which have caused this. But would I say
nothing disrespectful of the ministry, from
whose views in some respects T differ.
In those volumes pubhshed in 1834, I ob-
served that this ministry would be difficult to
replace ; and the short administration of three
foreign to its nature for a particular time, but that
temporary power, given with reluctance, is too feeble to
destroy the opposition which it silences. The road of
violence in such governments then is short, and they
who take it are almost sure to find the hostile passions
which they drive before them in their march, collected
and furious — where they pause.
302 REVIEW OF POLICY.
days, which made its sudden appearance, and
disappearance last year, shewed I was not mis-
taken.
It is formed of able and intelligent, and con-
scientious men, the greater part of whose lives
has been passed in struggling for those princi-
ples to which they now, I trust but for the mo-
ment, appear opposed : — opposed, however —
not, I do believe, with any evil or tyranni-
cal intention, but from a disgust at absur-
dities it were wiser to overlook, from a sudden
dread of difficulties almost overcome, and also,
perchance, from that impatience of character
which they share with their countrymen in
general, and which seems the national impedi-
ment to freedom and repose.
One there is more especially, born of the
revolution of 1830, whose elevation fortune
favoured, and who was endowed with many
of those qualities which design the leaders
for troublesome times. Assailed by the most
atrocious calumnies, that private envy could
suggest, his talent broke through the jealous
fetters that would have depressed it, and car-
ried him at once to a high position in the
country, of which he had studied the history —
knew the character, and possessed in his love
of the arts, in his passion for glory, in his
REVIEW OF POLICY. 303
native eloquence and amiability — all the means
of governing with success ; surrounded by
a generous youth whose hearts he might
have won, and whose ardour he might have
moderated, admired by a monarch whose cul-
tivated tastes were in sympathy with his own,
and holding out the hand of good fellowship
to the people from whose ranks he had sprung
— that minister, might have been — I trust
may yet be — precious to his country.
There are certain perils which governments,
placed in a peculiar position, are forced to
undergo; and the monarchy of July— chosen,
in the heat of a revolution, from three par-
ties — must expect the enmity of those whom
it was preferred to, and of those whom it does
not represent ; stiU it has one advantage : its
duties are clearly pointed out; its position plain-
ly determined. This monarchy has to preser^^e
the honour of France with peace ; the internal
tranquillity of France with constitutional go-
vernment. It stands as the representative of
justice, moderation, legahty, amidst the violence
of contending passions and the tumult of perpe-
tual crisis. Tliere is its glory, there its danger.
When reproached with its moderation, its love
of peace and order, it is performing the task
assigned to it; — a task difficult, but honourable ;
304 REVIEW OF POLICY.
and which, owing to the courage and the dis-
cretion of its defenders, it seemed at one
moment certain of accomphshing.
But a government that wishes to perpetuate
itself, must above all things be faithful to its
origin ! One man wished to be an emperor
among emperors — and he fell ; — for he was na-
turally the popular chief among a people of
soldiers. Another man wished to be absolute
monarch over a nation which had received him
as its constitutional king — and he fell; — for
his charter was — his crown.
That charter, picked up from the pavement,
where it had fallen, and blessed by a new
sanction, was again placed — a popular diadem
— upon the head of a monarch — justly chosen
for his citizen-like virtues, his probity, his firm-
ness, his regard for his duties and engagements.
Elected by the multitude who had conquered,
he was consecrated by the press for which
they had fought.
His lot is to conciliate his power with the
causes of his power ! that he will do so
is the belief — that he may do so is the prayer
of one who, no wrangler for theoretical per-
fection, no advocate for successive changes,
deems that having once been chosen sove-
reign, the continuance of his reign is best
REVIEW OF POLICY. 305
adapted to the prosperity of his country and
the general interests of civiUzation and man-
kind.
Placed on the French throne, the head of
the house of Orleans carried there many of
the qualities of a great prince ; prudent, elo-
quent, instructed, courageous, he has the
prospect of leaving a dynasty in repose, beneath
the protecting shadow of an illustrious name.
Yet is there no foundation for our affairs
in desperate courses. Public as well as pri-
vate life has an usurious policy — Avhich, to
satisfy the emergencies of the instant, borrows
too largely from the times that wnll come.
Let all ministers beware of this policy ! it
saves for the moment — but it ruins in the end,
and is equally unworthy of a people who love
freedom, and of a monarchy which, with the
aid of time and Providence, is well calculated
to couple hberty with order.
POSTSCRIPT.
CHAPTER XV.
Two comparisons between France and England.
And now, France disappearing from our
view, as I turn, not unwillingly homewards,
it may not be incurious to enter, though but
cursorily, into certain comparisons that this
work suggests : — i. e, to consider how far
England and France resemble one another at
this moment ; — what period in French history
admits the semblance of a parallel with that
which will soon be English history, and is at
this time passing before us.
At the present moment there can be no
doubt that it would be impossible to find
POSTSCRIPT. 307
two countries, which, with institutions appa-
rently similar, are so entirely different as
those I have just mentioned. This is easily
accounted for — the character and history of the
two people are different, and the distribution of
property amongst them is also totally different ;
— on these three things, which fashion society,
and social habits — the movement, if not the
form, of government depends. There is liberty
and a jsowerful aristocracy in one country — a
powerful aristocracy will never submit to slavery 5
— there is equality and a democracy in the other
— a democracy will never tolerate privileges.
Money and birth are respected here ; power and
talent there. The law does in point of fact and
practice subject the poor man to the rich
man in England ; the law does in point of
fact and practice subject the individual to the
governing authority in France. In either case
the theory of the law would not do this. In
France too, the lower classes have property,
and are tranquil and independent ; the higher
are comparatively poor and servile. Talent,
whether in arms, or literature, or through the
press, governs l:)oth. In England, the lower
class is daring, factious, and intelligent — the
higher, prejudiced but high principled, and cer-
tainly not meanly avid of power — a middle
308 POSTSCRIPT.
order running between them, has hitherto kept
these two extremes together.
In France again, you meet the government
every where — the gend'arme — the prefect —
the pohce. In England all your affronts and
annoyances come from individuals — the great
man elbows you, the pauper taxes you, the
pickpocket j^lunders you. On one side of the
channel the great man takes off his hat to
the government, and asks for a place, but
he calls his valet ' his friend,'* and would not
refuse to fight a duel with his ' decorated '
coachman. On the other side of the channel,
the great man snaps his fingers at the govern-
ment, sends the poacher to prison for a phea-
sant, and pays respect to nothing, save some
greater man than he is : viz. somebody better
born or wealthier.
Much of this will no doubt alter with time
in both countries : nor is it difficult to feel,
as I write, that we breathe the quiet air of
great, but healthy changes.
This brings me to consider what foundation
there exists for that other comparison, not rarely
made, between the period in France of 1789,
and that of England in 1H35.
In 1789 there was in France — a nobility
* " Mon ami !"
POSTSCRIPT. 309
much indebted, too prone to idleness and
dissipation, far alienated by haughty and ex-
clusive habits from the provincial influence it
had once possessed — but proud, courageous —
umviUing to take a place in the new society
which had grown up above it ; lower than that
which its ancestors occupied in the old society
they overshadowed — a nobility which in the
days of its power menaced the authority — in
the days of its decay lived upon the bounty —
and in the hour of its unpopularity clung to
the protection — of the crown.
At this period also there was in France a
middle class rising rich, ambitious, and disgusted
at the pride of an order whose privileges had
lost their charm.
An active race taken from all classes, save
the aristocracy, and who, eager for employment,
found in the army, in the church, in the colo-
nies, in politics in general, that the road was
obstructed to all but the peculiar set they
did not belong to.
A people without property, and from a
variety of circumstances (those which are
operating in England, are different from those
which had been operating in France) utterly
\*ithout attachment to the possessors of the
soil.
310 POSTSCRIPT.
A church, independent of the state, with
immense funds most unequally distributed —
furnishing a worldly provision to the aristo-
cracy, rather than a spiritual comfort to the
people.
Corporations that had outlived their purposes,
already attacked in principle and but weakly
defended, even by the patrons of existing
things.
A public opinion strongly in favour of changes
amongst the great masses of the nation, and
a public opinion as strongly against innovation
amongst the fashionable circles of society.
In the royal family — one prince an advocate
of liberal principles (the Comte de Provence) ;
another forming secret societies in the army (le
Comte d'Artois).
In the senate — a nobility defending itself by
a distinguished and eloquent man sprung from
the people (Casales) ; a people assailing that
nobility, and headed by the great aristocracy of
the land — (the Montmorencys, Noailles, La-
fayettes, Mirabeaus, Perigords.)
So far some persons might fancy they
traced a likeness ; but, as we advance further,
all resemblance disappears : for France had not
a prudent monarch brought up in constitutional
principles, nor a sober-charactered people, who
POSTSCRIPT. 311
had received a long political education, nor a
bold and intelligent minister, equally remarkable
for the sagacity of his \dews and his frank and
manly manner of carrying them into execution.
Yet, if our comparisons fail, we shall have
found in their pursuit two important lessons,
really coinciding, if apparently opposed.
The one—that no class can stand against
the liberal intelligence of its time :
The other — that a people adopting false and
exaggerated notions of liberty may delay for a
century the real enjoyment of it.
APPExNDlX
YUf,. 11.
APPENDIX
LAW CONSTITUTING THE PEERAGE OF THE
MONARCHY OF THE REVOLUTION.
29th December, 1831.
Louis Philippe, King of the French, to all present and
to come salut !
PAGE 100.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies and other
legislative assemblies.
ITie Deputies who shall have been named in three
different Parliaments, and who shall, for si.x years, have
exercised their functions.
The Marshals and Admirals of France.
The Lieutenants-General and Vice-Admirals of the
armies of land and sea, after two years' rank.
The Ministers of any Department.
Ambassadors alter three years' and Ministers Plenipo-
tentiaries after si.x years' functions.
P 2
me APPENDIX.
Councillors of State, after ten years of ordinary
sendee.
The Prefects of Departments or of marine situations
— after six years' service.
Colonial Governors after five years' exercise of their
functions.
The Members of General Coiincils formed by election,
after three elections to the presidency.
The Mayors of towns, of thirty thousand souls and
above, after two elections, at least, as members of
the municipal body, and after five years' performance of
the functions of mayoralty.
The Presidents of the Court of Cassation and of
the Court of Accounts.
The Procureurs-Generaux to these two courts, after
five years' service in this quality.
ITie counsellors of the Court of Cassation, and the
conseillers-maitres of the Court of Accounts, after five
years.
The Avocats-Generaux to the Court of Cassation,
after ten years exercise of their duties.
The Premiers-Presidents of the Coui"s Royales, after
five years' of magistracy in their courts.
The Procureurs-Generaux to the same courts, after
ten years' functions.
The Presidents of the Tribunals of Commerce, in the
towns of thirty thousand souls and above, after four
nominations to these functions.
The titular j members of four ncadcmies of the Instittit.
The citizens to whom, either by any law or on
account of eminent services, there shall have been given
a national recomjiense.
All Proprietors or Heads of any manufacture, or any
APPENDIX. Sir
commercial house paying 3,000 francs of direct contri-
butions, either on account of their landed property
during three years, or on account of their patents
during five years, when they shall have belonged for
six years to a chamber of commerce of a ' conseil-
general.'
Proprietors, manufacturers, traders, or bankers, pay-
ing 3,000 francs of imposition, shall have been named
Deputies of Judges of the Tribunals of Commerce,
can he admitted at once as peers without any other con-
dition.
The Titulary who shall have successively exercised
the functions above mentioned, can add up their services
in all their different branches of employment, in order to
complete the time necessary to their elevation.
It shall be dispensed from the time of employment
required by the paragraphs 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16,
and 17, above mentioned, the citizens who shall have
been named in the year following the 30th July 1830,
to the functions announced in these paragraphs, shall be
disjjensed in the same manner until the 7th January
1837, from the time of employment required by the
paragraphs 3, 11, 12, 21, the named or maintained since
30th July 1830, in the functions announced in these
five paragraphs.
These conditions of ehgibility can be modified into
a law.
The ordinances among peers shall be individual. The
ordinances shall mention the services and state, the
titles on which the nomination shall be founded.
In future, no salary, no pension, no donation, shall l)e
attached to the dignity of peer.
The Present Law discussed, dehberated, and adopted
818 APPENDIX.
by the chamber of Peers, and by that of the Deputies,
and sanctioned by us this day shall be executed as
a law of the State.
L. Philippe.
Palace of the Tuileries, 2Sth Dec. 1831.
LOI SUR LA PRESSE.
(1) Loi dit 17 mai 1819, art V " Quiconque, soit par
des discours, des cris ou menaces profe'res dans des
lieux ou reunions publics, soit par des ecrits, des im-
primes, des dessins, des gravures, des peintures ou
emblemes vendus ou distribues, mis en vente, ou ex-
l)oses dans des lieux ou reunions publics, soit par des
placards et affiches expose's aux regards du public, aura
provoque I'auteur ou les auteurs de toute action
qualifiee crime ou delit a la commettre, sera repute
complice et puni comme tel."
(2) Code penal, art. 86. " L'attentat contre la vie
ou contre la personne du roi est puni de la peine
du parricide. — L'attentat contre la vie ou contre la
personne de.s membres de la famille royale, est puni
de la peine de mort. — Toute offense commise pu])lique-
ment envers la personne du roi, sera punie d'un em-
prisonnement de six mois a cinq ans, et d'une amende
de cinq cents francs a dix mille francs ; le coupable
pourra en outre etre interdit de tout ou partie des
droits mentionncs en I'article 42, pendant un temps
e'gal a celui de I'emprisonnement auquel il aura ete con-
damne. Ce temps courra a compter du jour oii le
coupable aura subi sa peine."
Art. 87. " L'attentat dont le but sera, soit de dctruire
APPENDIX. 319
soit de changer le gouvernement ou I'ordre de succes-
.sil>ilite au trone, soit d'exciter les citoyens ou habitans a
s'arraer contre rautorite royale, sera puni de mort."
(3) Lol dti 17 mai 1819, art. 9- " Quiconque par I'un
des moyens enonces en I'art. l*"^ de la presente loi,
se sera rendu coupable d'offenses envers la personne
du roi, sera puni d'un emprisonnement qui ne pourra
etre de moins de six mois, ni exccder cinq annees,
et d'une amende qui ne pourra etre au-dessous de 500
francs, ni exce'der 10,000 fr. — Le coupable pourra en
outre etre interdit de tout ou partie des droits men-
tionnes en I'art 42 du Code penal, pendant un temps
egal a celui de Femprisonnement auquel il aura ete
condamne. Ce temps coiirra a compter du jour oii
le coupable aura subi sa peine." Voir ci-apres (6).
(4) Loi du 29 iiovemhre 1830, art. ]^' : " Toute attaque
par I'un des moyens enonces en Far tide l''"" de la
loi du 17 mai 1819, contre la dignite royale, ordre
de successi])ilite au trone, les droits que le roi tient
du voeu de la nation fran^aise, exprime dans la decla-
ration du 7 aoLit 1830, et de la charte constitutionnelle,
par lui acceptee et juree dans la seance du 9 aoi'it de
la meme annee, son autorite constitutionnelle, I'invio-
labilite' de sa personne, les droits et Fautorite des cham-
bres, sera punie d'un an d'emprisonnement de trois
a cinq ans, et d'une amende de trois cents francs
a six mille francs." — Art. 2 : " L'article 2 de la loi
du 25 mars 1822 est et demeure abroge."
(3) Loi du 17 mai 1819, art. 8 : "Tout outrage a la
moreile puljlique et religieuse ou aux bonnes moeurs,
par Fun des moyens enonces en Fart. I", sera puni
d'un emprisonnement d'un mois a un an et d'une
amende de IG fr. a 500 fr."
S20 APPENDIX.
(6) Code penal, art, 42 : " Les tribunaux, juajeant
correctionnellement, pourront, dans certains cas, in-
terdire en tout ou en partie I'exercice des droits civiques,
civils et de famille siiivans : 1° de vote et d'clection ;
2° d'eligibilite ; 3" d'etre appele' ou nomme aux fonc-
tions de jure ou autres fonctions publiques, ou aux
emplois de I'administration, ou d'exercer ces fonctions
ou emplois : 4° de port d'armes ; 5° de vote et de
suffrage dans les deliberations de famiUe ; 6" d'etre
tuteur, curateur, si ce n'est de ses enfans, et sur I'avis
seulement de la famille ; 7° d'etre expert ou employe
comme temoin dans les actes ; 8° de temoignage en
justice autreraent que pour y faire de simples decla-
rations."
(7) Loi du 9 Juin 1819, art. 9. " Les proprietaires
ou edileurs responsables d'un journal ou ecrit perio-
dique, ou auteur ou redacteur d'articles imprimes dans
ledit journal ou ecrit, prevenus de crimes ou debts pour
fait de publication, seront poursuivis et juges dans les
formes et suivant les distinctions prescrites a I'egard
de toutes les autres publications." Art. 10. " En cas
de condamnation, les memes peines leur seront ap-
pliquees : toutefois les amendes pourront etre elevees au
double, et en cas de rccidive portees au quadruple
sans prejudice des peines de la recidive prononcees par
le Code penal."
(.8) Loi die 18 juiilet 1828, art. 3 : " Seront exempts
de tout cautionnement :
•' 1° Les journaux ou e'crits periodiques qui ne parais-
sent qu'une fois par mois ou plus rarement.
" 2" Les journaux ou ecrits periodiques exclusivement
consacres, soit aux sciences matliematiques, physiques,
et naturelles, soit aux travaux et recherches d'erudition.
APPENDIX. 321
soit aux arts mecaniques et liberaux, c'est-a-dire aux
sciences et aux arts dont s'occupent les trois academies
des sciences, des inscriptions et des beaux-arts de I'lns-
titut royal.
" 3° Les journaux ou ecrits pe'riodiques e'trangers aux
matieres politiques, et exclusivement consacres aux let-
tres ou d'autres branches de connaissances non specifiees
precedemment, pourvu qu'ils ne paraissent au plus que
deux fois par semaine.
" 4° Tous les ecrits periodiques e'trangers aux ma-
tieres politiques, et qui seront publics dans une autre
langue que la langue frangaise.
" 5° Les feuilles periodiques, exclusivement consacre's
aux avis, annonces, affiches judiciaires, arrivages mari-
times, mercuriales et prix courans.
" Toute contravention aux dispositions du present
article sera punie conformement a I'art. 6 de la loi
du 9 juin 1819." (Voir note 9.)
(9) Loi da 9 juin 1812, art. 6. " Quiconque publiera
un journal ou ecrit periodique sans avoir satisfait aux
conditions prescrites par les articles 1, 4 et 5 de la pre-
sente loi, sera puni correctionnellement d'un empri-
sonnement d'un mois a six mois, et d'une amende de
deux cents francs a douze cent francs."
(10) Lot du 18 juillet 1828, Art. 8 : " Chaque nume'ro
de I'ecrit periodique sera signe en minute par le proprie-
taire, s'il est unique ; ])ar I'un des gerans responsables,
si I'ecric periodique est public par une societe en nom
coUectif ou en commandite ; et par I'un des adminis-
trateurs, s'il est public ])ar une societe anonyme. —
L'exemplaire signe pour minute sera, au moment de
la puljlication, depose au parcpiet du procureur du roi
du lien de I'impression, ou a la mairie dans les villes ou
322 APPENDIX.
il n'y a pas de tribunal de premiere instance, a peine
de cinq cents francs d'amende centre les gerans. II
sera donne recepisse du depot. — La signature sera im-
primee au bas de tous les exeraplaires, a peine de cinq
cents francs d'amende centre I'imprimeur, sans que
la revocation du brevet puisse s'ensuivre. — Les signa-
taires de chaqiie feuille ou livraison seront responsables
de son contenu et passibles de toutes les peines portees
par la roi^a raison de la publication des articles ou
passages incrimines, sans prejudice de la poursuite cen-
tre I'auteur ou les auteurs desdits articles ou passages,
comme complices. En consequence, les poursuites judi-
ciaires pourront etre dirigees, tant centre les signataires
des feuilles eu livraisens, que centre I'auteur ou les au-
teurs des passages incrimines, si ces auteurs peuvent
etre connus ou mis en cause."
(11) Loi du 25 mars 1822, art. 11 : " Les preprietaires
ou editeurs de tout journal ou e'crit periodique seront
tenus d'y inserer, dans les trois jours de la reception, ou
dans le plus prochain numere, s'il n'en etait pas public
avant I'expiration des trois jours, la reponse de toute
personne nommee ou designee dans le journal ou ecrit
periodique, sous peine d'une amende de 50 fr. a 500 fr. ;
sans prejudice des autres peines et dommages-interets
auxquels I'article incrimine pourrait donner lieu. Cette
insertion sera gratuite, et la reponse pourra avoir le
double de la longueur de I'article auquel elle sera faite."
APPENDIX. 223
ALL PASSAGES OR WORDS NOT TRANSLATED
IN THE TEXT WILL BE FOUND AMONG
THE FOLLOWING :
MANNERS.
PAGE 7.
Note. — My drawing-room again had its crowds, and I
once more had the pleasure of conversation, in Paris,
which I confess was ahvays, to me, the most captivating
ofaU.
PAGE 12.
Monsieur , with much gesticulation, and utter-
ing loud outcries from his bench.
PAGE 13.
Here the President rings his bell. — At this moment
the chamber is in confusion.
PAGE 19.
His voice, which more than once had earned terror to
the palace whence it had cast out tyranny, might carry
terror also to the souls of those traitors who desired to
substitute their tyranny in place of the monarchy.
324 APPENDIX.
PAGE 22.
Yes, a fine school of anatomy.
PAGE 23.
Oh ! the charming httle man, as he was ! How white
his teeth, Uke pearls ; small — yes, small — delicate hands
— perfumed ! How elegant the little man was — and how
great an eater !
PAGE 26.
At all events I can continue Julia, and my phaeton.
But what is the matter with him ? He adores Adela —
^^^lat fine children ! — and why did not they tell me of
it ? — She will not return again imtil it is • over — All will
be soon well.
PAGE 31.
Poor fellow ! down he fell, dead !
PAGE 34.
The poor Princess gave such fine balls.
Conjugal virtue. Virtue in a married woman, is to
continue attached to her lover even though he is dis-
agreeable to her.
YOUNG FRANCE.
PAGE 56.
Head of hair.
SOCIAL STATE.
PAGE 89,
Nevertheless estates in possession, which form tlie
grants for support of hereditary titles, which the Y,in-
APPENDIX. 323
peror shall have made to a Prince, or to the head of
a family, must be transmitted to the heir [as an entailed
estate.]
PAGE 96. '
We did not wish to burden the country with eighty
thousand tyrants, but 6nly> three hundred individuals
whom we wished to invest with high functions. That
was all.
PAGE 97.
The gods we have at present are Science and Art ; we
are excited in the theatres and the court as we once
were in the churches : the heart which formerly was
obedient to priests, we now consecrate entirely to philo-
sophers and poets.
STATE OF THE WORKING CLASSES.
PAGE 110.
The poor's rate was raised compulsorily.
PAGE 128.
That France has the blessing of not being distracted
by those dissensions, which in other countries cause
discord betwixt the workmen and the manufacturer
who employ them.
EQUALITY.
PAGE 131.
AU men are equal and free from their l)irth ; no one
has a greater right than others to employ his natural or
VOL. II. Q
324 APPENDIX.
acquired talents ; this privilege partaken by all, is alone
limited by the conscience of the man exercising it, which
forbids him to make any use of it to the detriment
of his fellow-men.
THE END.
LONDON :
SCHULZE AND CO. 13, POLAND STREET.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
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