None would have been so gratifying as the dismissal of Prince Polignac; and with the facility of enthusiasts, they concluded that Villèle was about to be recalled to the ministry. No such measure was contemplated, at least no evidence of such has ever since been afforded; on the contrary, the conduct of the Polignac ministry became rapidly more infatuated; their intended violence evidently increased in the inverse ratio of their strength, until at last all system or principle of governing appeared to merge in one grand scheme of vengeance. When justice is represented as blind, the property does not refer to a desire of indiscriminate vengeance, but to the calmness of entire impartiality; neither does vengeance belong to the administration of laws in any way, their most cruel consummation is intended for example.

An exhibition took place in the very midst of these dissensions, which is attributable either to the subserviency of courtiers, or deceitfulness of the liberals. This was the anniversary of the entrée of Charles X., when he was Count d'Artois, into Paris, in 1814. The 13th of April was fixed for the celebration, and all the arts of pleasing seemed to be employed, and exhausted, by all parties, to render the commemoration worthy of the event. Addresses were presented by the different public bodies, the most flattering speeches were made in various meetings called to applaud them, and the most satisfactory recognitions were given by his majesty to all these dutiful and loyal demonstrations. There was a contrast rarely exceeded in the annals of revolution, between the love of royalty which these addresses breathed, the pomp of monarchy which the splendid processions exhibited on this occasion, and the total subversion of both, which occurred in a few weeks afterwards, in the same great city, and amongst the self-same citizens.

It has been an usual practice of rulers, when the people became clamorous at home, to divert their attention by some foreign war; the Polignac ministry were not ignorant of the practice, and resolved to avail themselves of the dispute with Algiers for the purpose. In the king's speech this difference was alluded to, that the public mind might be prepared for the occasion; and probably the firmness which his majesty displayed, when danger threatened, was not unacceptable to a nation so accustomed to war as the French had been under the empire. At all events, the ministry desired the Algerine war, whether the people did or not. They had the same reason for so wishing, as in the case of Spain-an expectation of making the army familiar with the name of Bourbon and the chapeau blanc. Other reasons might be added, why the government panted for a war, which appeared likely to be attended with a victorious termination. It would enable them to assemble an army, which, in case of necessity, might be employed at home; and, even if it were absent at Algiers, the military preparations would have been useful for their purposes. It was known that the capture of Algiers was a favourite scheme of the eleventh Louis, and a long-cherished project of Napoleon, nothing therefore ought to have been more popular with the nation. At all events, the royalist party calculated that the Algerine war would divert public attention, and the victory would at once secure popularity, amongst those who had evinced such an enthusiastic admiration of military glory.

Ministerial measures were either taken too late, or carried out without sufficiently

calculating the character of the opposing party, as the result most lamentably demonstrated. Bourmont, the unpopular minister of war, was appointed commander-in-chief of the expedition, and the conduct of the fleet committed to Admiral Duperre. The Moniteur of the 20th of April, 1830, recapitulated the pretended grounds of this aggressive war, amongst which was found "the injustice of the Dey in raising the ancient tribute from seventeen to sixty, and finally to two hundred thousand francs per annum; this sum, it was stated, had been duly paid from 1820 to 1826, yet the dey had been unfavourable during all that period to the interests of France: he insulted the French flag, and violated grossly the laws of nations by striking the French consul. The desire of the French nation to seize that petty state, and add it to the crown of France, was omitted from the reasons and pretexts for making war on Algiers.

On the tenth of May, an army, consisting of thirty-seven thousand foot, and four thousand horse, embarked at Toulon, and a fleet, comprising ninety-seven vessels, of which eleven were ships of the line, and twenty-four frigates, set sail for the African coast; and at four o'clock in the morning of the fourteenth June, after a prosperous voyage, the whole force began to debark in the beautiful bay of Sidi Ferrajh.

The suspense occasioned by the sailing of the expedition, by the uncertainty of its fate, by the hopes and fears that necessarily attend such great and awful movements, might have been improved by a wiser monarch than Charles, or a more cautious minister than Polignac: it was otherwise ordained. On the seventeenth of May, a royal ordinance, dissolving the Chamber, appeared in the Moniteur. At the same time new elections were ordered, and the two Chambers convoked for the third of August. On the fifteenth of June, the Moniteur contained a royal proclamation, in which his majesty called upon all Frenchmen to do their duty in the colleges, and exhorted them to rely upon his constitutional intentions. It was in this proclamation that those remarkable passages occur, which he was never afterwards able to justify. "As the father of my people, my heart was grieved; as king, I felt insulted. I pronounced the dissolution of that Chamber." And again, near the close of the proclamation, "Electors, hasten to your colleges. Let no reprehensible negligence deprive them of your presence! Let one sentiment animate you all: let one standard be your rallying point! It is your king who demands this of you; it is a father who calls upon you: fulfil your duties. I will take care to fulfil mine." The elections proceeded with the utmost alacrity, accompanied, of course, by all that acrimony that belongs to partisanship; and during these political broils, the liberal journals distinguished themselves, if not by talent, undoubtedly by devotion to their cause. Fortune, for a while, appeared to favour the ministry, in granting victory to the arms of France; and it was while election contests were at the highest pitch of excitation, that the capture of Algiers, and the entire success of the expedition, were pompously proclaimed to the nation. Nothing, however, could divert the anti-royalist party from the object of their pursuit; they rejoiced in the glory the army had acquired, but allowed no share of that glory to the ministers who planned the expedition; they rather exulted in depriving their opponents of the merit of sincerity, in having sent an army abroad at such a political crisis, and they made this an additional

ground for doubling their efforts in the electoral struggle. All the returns of the new elections indicated an increased majority against the ministers, so that, in the beginning of July, a change in the ministry was confidently spoken of as an inevitable result, and the funds rose in consequence.

Such were the conclusions of the liberals, but those of the royalists were directly contrary; the king resolved on retaining his faithful ministers, and had commissioned and commanded them to violate the charter, break the social contract, and encounter all the risks of an intestine war, rather than yield a single point. Bigotry blinded the monarch, and placed power in the hands of the priesthood; the ministers were equally blind, not with any direct and intentional vice, but with mistaken loyalty to a priestgoverned prince. The ministerial papers were instructed to use no propitiating terms, hold out no hopes of conciliation; but instead thereof, to let the language of menace prevail in all their columns. They therefore began to assert, that the enemies of France abroad having been subdued by his majesty's brave forces, domestic enemies would soon become the object of his attention, and, that little resistance was to be expected, where skill was so united with bravery in the assailing power. Some journals went so far as to speak of the coup d'etat; and it was asserted by the liberals, that this obnoxious phrase was suggested to the journalists of that period by the monks, who were then the predominant party at St. Cloud.

To withdraw public attention, as far as possible, from the sole object of its pursuit, the destruction of despotism, public festivals were held, and various amusements, in honour, it was asserted, of the King and Queen of Naples, who were then in Paris, were proclaimed by the court; but the effect of these frivolities was only to make their contrast with the aspect of political affairs perilously strong. Even the news of the capture of Algiers produced no effect, although accompanied by the discovery of ninety millions of francs, which amount was discovered in the treasury of the Dey. His Majesty endeavoured to avail himself of the opportunity by causing Te Deum to be sung in all the churches, for the victory his army had won in Africa, and by ordering general illuminations; but there was a gulf fixed between the prince and the people which nothing could close.

The press is an instrument for good or evil, according to the passions of those who are placed to control it; in such circumstances as those of a revolution, when the worst and most desperate find a theatre for distinction, the operation of the press is often calamitous. In several departments, from various local causes, conflagrations took place, evidently the work of incendiaries; the bad portion of the press, unable to defend the cause of liberty by honourable means and truthful reasoning, had recourse to the infamous insinuation, that ministers employed persons to traverse the country, and set fire to the houses of the poor, with the secret intention of imputing this great crime to the republicans. That this infamous conduct was pursued by the low provincial journals there is no doubt; the clamours of the populace, when Polignac was arrested, bear evidence to the fact, for they distinctly called for "death to the man who had burned their houses."

The elections were over, and of the celebrated two hundred and twenty-one, all, save one, were re-elected. The liberals in the new Chamber numbered two hundred and seventy, the royalists amounted only to a hundred and forty-five, and fifteen were undecided. So soon as the result was known, ministers made a report to the king, setting forth, in forcible language, the danger of a free press; they declared that, "at all epochs, the periodical press has only been, and from its nature must ever be, an instrument of disorder and sedition." They demanded of his majesty the extinction of this liberty; a measure, they asserted, authorized by the fourteenth article of the Charter, which declares, "that the king has the power to make all regulations and ordinances, for the execution of the laws, and the safety of the state." "The state," said the ministers, "is in danger, and your majesty has a right to provide for its safety. No government can stand, if it has not the right to provide for its own safety; besides, the eighth article of the Charter only gives every Frenchman the privilege of publishing his own opinions, but not, as the journals do, the opinions of others; the Charter does not expressly allow journals, and the liberty of the press. The journals misrepresent the best intentions of the government; and the liberty of the press produces the very contrary of publicity, because ill-intentioned writers misconstrue every thing, and the public never know the truth." This report, to which its violent consequences have given an historic importance, is one of the shallowest and most unphilosophic state-papers on record in modern times. It is an unconstitutional combination of miserable sophistry with the habitual phraseology of despotism; and despotism must never argue, or it is extinguished in the struggle. The Polignac ministry had bound themselves to a corrupt and arbitrary master, and the magnanimity of the prince ultimately victimized his brother ministers and himself. The king had determined upon violating the constitution, and not possessing ingenuity sufficient to deceive an excited people, he entrusted the task to an unwilling ministry. History has shown that nothing is so violent, and at the same time so blind, as bigotry, religious or political; and this was the characteristic of the monarch, the priests, and the whole royal staff at St. Cloud.

This memorable report, ascribed, not truly, to the will of Prince Polignac, was accompanied by three ordinances, one for dissolving the Chambers," according to the fifteenth article of the Charter." This was indirectly annulling the election, not dissolving the Chamber, because the new Chamber had not been organized. A second ordinance suspended the liberty of the press; and a third prescribed an entirely new law of election, from which ministers expected a return more favourable to the royalists. All the liberal journals published in Paris, except the Journal des Debats, resolved to appear without the authorization of government, required by the recent ordinance. An opinion, deliberately formed and professionally given, by the most eminent lawyers, was published, declaring, that the property in a journal was like any other property, and could only be assailed by regular judicial proceedings. Having dared to oppose, they subjected themselves to the consequence-suppression; and no liberal paper was permitted to appear. This measure was final, and sealed the doom both of ministers and

24

RÉSUMÉ OF THE HISTORY OF FRANCE.

monarch. On the twenty-sixth of July, the bank refused to discount bills, and the manufacturers discharged their workmen. On the twenty-seventh, all the liberal journals were seized, and this event appears to have been the signal for the revolution. An attack by the people on the gend'armes was the first overt act, and the fatal results were deemed a victory by the ministerialists.

All Paris was now in arms, and a civil war had commenced. Marmont, duke of Ragusa, commanded the king's troops; the people were led by principles. The National guard assumed the old uniform, and appointed Lafayette their commander; while the tri-coloured flag was displayed from many of the public buildings. The contest began in the Place de Grève, and shifted thence to the area in front of the Hôtel de Ville. This building, after acknowledging each party masters in turn, finally remained in the power of the people. Faithful to their duty, the Swiss guards, as in the older revolution, defended the Louvre, and the royal lancers held the Pont Neuf. But victory could not long remain doubtful; the soldiers refused to fire on the people; the latter tore up the pavement, to supply missiles; the scholars of the Polytechnic threw themselves into the mêlée, and infused new courage into the exhausted patriots; and on the twenty-ninth of July, when upwards of eight thousand soldiers and citizens had been slain, Paris was conquered.

The Deputies elected by the people issued a proclamation on the thirty-first, declaring that they had invited Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, to become Lieutenant-General of the Kingdorn; and in a few hours after, the illustrious prince entered Paris, wearing the "glorious colours." The king having fled to Rambouillet, and sent his abdication to the Deputies, it was immediately resolved to offer the vacant throne to the Duke of Orleans; and on the ninth of August his royal highness took the prescribed constitutional oath, and ascended the throne as King of the French.

History has but few events to show, which can be compared with the struggle that placed the Duke of Orleans on the throne of France; and perhaps the examples are fewer, of a prince selected under such circumstances, subsequently proving such an eminent benefactor to his country. The Parisians, in that revolution, fought almost without arms, against a skilful general, at the head of the best-disciplined troops in Europe; and the object for which they contended was neither personal safety nor territorial aggrandizement, but purely and entirely a political principle. Viewing their conduct, therefore, impartially, and placing it in juxta-position with similar movements in other lands, the change they effected in the government of France is eminently entitled to the character of a moral revolution.

END OF RÉSUMÉ.