XXIV. 1830. of the court, his place was beside the King-a supporter CHAP. of the people, why was he not at our head in the Hôtel de Ville, in the Marché des Innocents, at the Porte St Denis, at the façade of the Louvre? What guarantee does his address or that of the Chambers hold out? None but a few vague phrases which in reality mean nothing, and are consistent with the most complete despotism that ever disgraced humanity." Words such as these were in every mouth among the working classes of the citizens, and it was evident to all that, if a government was not immediately established, the chances were that a republic 128, 130. could no longer be averted.1 1 Louis Blanc, i. 31, 344; Cap. ii. 180, 182; Ann. Hist. 1830, 29. Duke of the Hôtel These considerations led the Orléanists to accelerate the visit of the Prince to the Hôtel de Ville, where he Visit of the would meet his most formidable antagonists face to face, Orléans to and an end might be put to the state of uncertainty de Ville. which prevailed concerning the government. Already they had been preparing for his reception there; night and day Lafayette was besieged with representations from the Duke's partisans, that the recognition of him as sovereign was the only possible way of avoiding the dangers which threatened the country. He was still a prey to indecision, when it was announced that the Duke of Orléans, with such of the Chamber as had signed the address to him, were coming to visit him in the Hôtel de Ville. The deputies, in coming to the Palais Royal, had been so ill received by the crowds which filled the streets that they trembled for their lives. The procession set out amidst loud acclamations, however, from the Palais Royal; the Duke on horseback; M. Lafitte, who had been hurt on the leg, carried by Savoyards in a litter. The acclamations continued as they passed the Carrousel, but they sensibly lessened as they went along the quays; and when they approached the Place de Grève, appearances were quite threatening. An immense crowd filled the square, the grave and menacing aspect of which augured ill to the new reign which was about to com CHAP. 1830. 1 Louis Blanc, i. 347, 348; Cap. ii. 183, 184; Ann. Hist. 1831, 76, 77. 30. tion there. mence. Everything was prepared to give him a hostile reception by the Republicans who crowded the Place, and assassins were even prepared with loaded fire-arms to kill him on the spot. Hardly were Benjamin Constant and Béranger able to restrain them. Nor were these sentiments shared only by the humbler classes. "He is a Bourbon!" cried General Lobau; "I am not for him. more than the rest." The crowd was anxious and agitated, and the swell and fall were visible among them which betoken an approaching storm.1 At length the Duke approached, grave and anxious, His recep- but without any visible perturbation. When he alighted from his horse and ascended the steps of the Hôtel de Ville, a loud rolling of drums was heard in the interior of the building, and Lafayette came to the top of the stair to receive him. The Duke of Orléans was deadly pale. Lafayette advanced to him with the studied politeness of the old school. The ceremony commenced with the reading the declaration of the Chambers. When they came to the words, "Jury trial for the offences of the press," the Duke leant forward to Lafitte and said, loud enough to be overheard, "There will be no longer any offences of the press." When the reading was finished, the Duke rose up, and said with a loud voice, "As a Frenchman, I deplore the evils inflicted on the country; as a prince, I am happy to contribute to the happiness of the nation." The deputies loudly applauded these words; the Republicans gnashed their teeth with indignation. General Dubourg then advanced, and, pointing to the square filled with armed men, said, "You know our rights; should Ann. Hist. you forget them, we will remind you of them." General 36 Louis Lafayette then led the Prince out on the balcony of the window, and as the tricolor flag waved over their heads, Sarrans, i. embraced the Prince in the presence of the people. Loud ii. 187, 189. applause followed the dramatic scene. "Vive Lafayette! Vive le Duc d'Orléans!" was heard on all sides.2 "The 2 1830, 78, 86; Blanc, i. 349, 350; 87,92; Cap. part of the people," says the Republican historian, "was CHAP. played out; the reign of the bourgeois commenced." XXIV. 1830. 31. on this in After the Duke had retired, a programme was written out, which contained, as it were, the "social contract" Reflections between the king and people. It was then the famous terview. expression was used, "What France requires is a throne surrounded with republican institutions." M. Lafayette brought it to the Palais Royal for the Duke's signature, but, with the trust of a man of honour, he was satisfied with the Duke's words, and did not require his signature. Lafayette was afterwards warmly reproached for his negligence on this occasion; but he partook the illusion, at that period common among all the philosophic Liberals, as to the possibility of uniting the reality of a republic with the forms of a monarchy. Good God! is it then 1 Louis true," said the old Abbé Grégoire, "we are thus to have 353, 354. both a Republic and a King!"1 66 Blanc, i. The Government of the Bourgeoisie was now consti- 32. ists to popu larise the tuted; but there remained the difficult task of reconcil- Efforts of ing the people to any government in which a Bourbon the Orléanbore a part. To obviate the unfavourable impression new dynasthus produced, the Orléans committee prepared and pla- ty. carded over all Paris a proclamation-not a little surprising, considering that M. Mignet and M. Thiers were members of it." Le Duc d'Orléans n'est pas un Bourbon; c'est un Valois." A memorable assertion to be made by historians of a lineal descendant of Henry IV., and of the brother of Louis XIV. At the same time, the utmost pains were taken to discredit the Republicans in every possible way, and represent their ascendancy as the immediate precursor of pillage, violence, and a second reign of blood. These efforts were eminently successful; the recollection of the former revolution was too recent not to speak powerfully to every rational mind. M. Thiers, M. Guizot, M. Mignet, and the other able writers who at that period directed the liberal press, did their XXIV. 1830. CHAP. utmost to encourage these views, and as they coincided with the ideas of the great majority of the citizens, and of nearly all possessed of property, the Republicans were soon reduced to a small fraction of society, guided, however, by the most ardent and intrepid men. To win 355, 356; over these leaders was the great object, and to bring it about, a meeting was arranged between them and the Duke of Orléans.1 1 Louis Blanc, i. Cap. ii. 88, 92. 33. Conversa tion be Duke of licans. "To-morrow," said M. Boinvilliers, the spokesman on the occasion-" to-morrow you will be King." At these tween the words the Duke shook his head and said, " I have never Orléans and aspired to the crown, though many persons have pressed the Repub- me with ardour to accept it." "But," resumed M. Boinvilliers, "if you should become King, what are your ideas upon the treaties of 1815? Observe, it is not a liberal revolution, it is a national one, which has taken place in the streets. It is the sight of the tricolor flag which has raised the people, and it would be more easy to drive Paris to the Rhine than St Cloud." "I am no partisan of the treaties of 1815, but we must avoid irritating foreign powers." "What is your opinion on the peerage? It has no longer any roots in society; the new law, by dividing properties, has stifled it in its cradle, and the aristocracy has lived out its day." "In hereditary aristocracy," replied the Duke, " is the best basis of society; but it is an open question; and if the hereditary peerage cannot maintain itself, I am not the man who will endow it. I was once a Republican, but I have lived to be convinced it is inapplicable to such a country as France." "In the interest of the crown," interrupted M. Bastide, you should convoke the primary assemblies." To this the Duke made no other answer, but pointed to paintings of the battles of Valmy and Jemappes, at which he had assisted. He then condemned in violent terms the proceedings of the Convention." "You forget," said Cavaignac," that my father was a member of the Convention." "And mine also!" cried the Duke; " and I never knew a XXIV. 1830. more respectable man." Finding they could make nothing CHAP. of him, the Republicans retired. "You will return tomorrow?" said the Duke, in a flattering voice. "Never," replied one of their number. "Never!-that is a word which should never be uttered," said the Duke; and they parted. "He is nothing but one of the two hundred and 1 Louis twenty-one," said M. Bastide, as they regained the 359, 360. street.1 Was Blanc, i. 34. speech of briand. While the Chamber of Deputies was thus substantially disposing of the crown, by conferring on the Duke of Noble Orléans the Lieutenancy-General of the kingdom, the ChateauChamber of Peers was also assembled ; and the last days of the monarchy were illustrated by one of those dignified scenes, that heroic sentiment, which, like the last rays of the sun, sometimes illuminate, ere it sets in darkness, the declining day. "A king," said Chateaubriand, "named by the Chambers or elected by the people, will ever be, whatever pains may be taken to disguise it, a novelty in France. I suppose that they wish liberty-above all, the liberty of the press, by which, and for which, they have gained so astonishing a victory. Well, every new monarchy, sooner or later, will be obliged to gag that liberty. Napoleon himself able to admit it? Daughter of our misfortunes and slave of our glory, the liberty of the press cannot live in safety but under a government which has struck its roots deep into the hearts of men. Will a monarchy, the bastard child of a bloody night, have nothing to fear from the independence of opinion? If one party preaches up a republic, the other a more modified system, will you not be speedily driven to have recourse to laws. of exception, against which no charter can afford any guarantee? What, then, friends of regulated liberty, will you gain by the change which is proposed? Of necessity you will fall into a republic, or a system of legal servitude. The monarchy will be inundated and carried away by the torrent of democratic laws, or the monarch by the movement of faction. In the first moment of success, |