XXV. 1831. the Minister of the Interior praising the Parisians for CHAP. their noble conduct, but recommending "respect aux monuments publics,"-such were the sole steps taken by Government to stop or punish these atrocious crimes. The really guilty escaped wholly unpunished; none of them were even apprehended. The journals, with ser- Feb. 16, vile adulation, vied with each other in praising the 1831; Ann. people, and declared "that never had the sun shone 84, 85; on a more brilliant carnival, or the masquerades been more ravishing."1 1 Moniteur, Hist. xiv. Cap. iv. 301, 304. 47. fitte, and appoint ment of Casimir Périer in his stead. re It was now all over with the ministry of M. Lafitte. The magnitude of the budget had deprived him of all Fall of Lahis popularity in Paris. The disorders of February, and proved weakness of the executive, had sunk him to the lowest point in the estimation of Europe. The King was sensitively alive to the latter danger: he dreaded nothing March 13. so much as being implicated, in the eyes of foreign powers, with the disorders of the Revolution, and deprived of the prestige arising from the idea that he was the only possible barrier against its excesses. He resolved, accordingly, to sacrifice his minister, hoping thus to throw upon the author of the Revolution the responsibility for its consequences. By a royal ordinance, on March 13th, Lafitte was dismissed, and M. CASIMIR PERIER, a great banker and manufacturer in Paris, was appointed President of the Council and Minister of the Interior, in his stead. M. Merilhou also was dismissed from his situation as Minister of Justice, and M. Barthe appointed in his room. Baron Louis was made Minister of Finance, Admiral de Rigny of Marine, and the Count d'Argout of Public Instruction and Worship. Only three of these ministers were new, viz. M. Casimir Périer, Baron Louis, and Admiral de Rigny, the others being merely transposed from one office to another; but the vigour and Moniteur, capacity of the new ministers, especially M. Casimir 1831; Ann. Périer and Baron Louis, impressed a different character 156, 157; upon the Government, and warranted the assertion that 356, 370. it was directed by a new Cabinet.2 2 March 13, Hist. xiv. Cap. iv. CHAP. 1831. 48. Views of parties on On the day succeeding the formation of the new Cabinet, the following article appeared in the Journal des Debats, at that period high in the confidence of Government: For the last four months the Government has been this change without a system; that is the reproach which its adverof Ministry. saries and partisans alike make against it. It is the want of system which has induced its vacillation and irresolutionthat has made its weakness, which was great, and might be fatal. It put the salvation of France in peril. The appointment of the new Ministry signalises the advent of a new system; it at least gives us reason to hope. That system is to govern by the Chambers-to consider their opinion as the expression of the opinion of France, and to disregard all opinion out of it. It wishes peace, but such only as is honourable, and may be lasting. Order is the first necessity of France. Credit is shaken, commerce expiring; order alone can re-establish it. We stand in need of security rather than repose; order alone can re-establish security. Tyranny no longer comes from above; it comes from below."1 There can be no doubt March 15 that these observations were well founded. Experience and suffering had wrenched truth even out of the warmest organ of the Revolution! But what the partisans of that convulsion did not see, or would not admit, was, that the weakness in Government and disorder in the State, which they justly deplored as the immediate causes of the universal suffering, were the inevitable results of what they themselves had done. They ascribed to the weakness of a man what was, in fact, the punishment of the sins of a nation. Lafitte was a person of some powers of speaking and agreeable manners, though of no great energy of character; but had he possessed the firmness of Carnot, the eloquence of Mirabeau, or the energy of Napoleon, the result would have been the same. The minister of the Revolution, he was constrained to bend to its excesses. He became unpopular, and fell, not because he failed in the essential condition of his ministerial existence-obe 1 Journal des Debats, 1831. 15, XXV. 1831. dience to the public voice-but because, in yielding that CHAP. obedience, he had unavoidably conducted the nation to anarchy, misery, and suffering. The people mistook for the delinquencies of a man, what was, in truth, the chastisement of themselves. 49. the Elec In order, however, to carry out the ministerial programme of governing by the Chambers, and regarding Change in them as the sole organ of public opinion, it was indispen- toral Law. sable to take some steps which might render the decision of the representative part of the legislature more in harmony with the majority of the people, which, under the uniform qualification of 300 francs (£12) of direct taxes, was very far from being the case. The Chamber of Deputies had become utterly discredited in public estimation, since the Revolution of July, from the blind submission it had yielded to the demands of Government, and, above all, to the enormous budget and increase of taxes, which had spread such alarm throughout France. As usual, the popular party sought a remedy for this state of things in lowering the suffrage. They thought that would admit themselves, and put all right; not seeing that, as long as the suffrage was uniform, class government would still be at the head of affairs, and all out of that class would find themselves unrepresented. Louis Philippe felt the necessity of yielding in some degree to the demands of the democratic portion of society, but he resolved to make the change as little as possible; and the general intelligence had not yet learned the vital truth, that all attempts to remedy the representative system, while a uniform suffrage is kept up, prove ineffectual. After much discussion and many amendments, it was agreed to fix the electoral qualification at payment of 200 francs (£8) of direct taxes, and for candidates at 750 francs (£30). These payments corresponded to incomes of £40 and £150 a-year;1 and though the evil of uniformity of qua- Ann. Hist. lification, and consequent class government, was not 147. obviated, yet the concession to the popular party was 1 xiv. 121, CHAP. considerable, for it raised the electors from 90,000 to 180,000 over all France. XXV. 1831. 50. A severe law, alike discreditable to the Sovereign who Proscrip- proposed and the Chamber which adopted it, was soon after brought forward in France. tion of the elder branch of the Bour- ing the ex-King, Charles X., his bons. March 24. 1 Ante, c. xvi. § 4. xiv. 173, If This was one banishdescendants, and their relations, for ever from the French territory, and prohibiting them from acquiring, by any title, onerous or gratuitous, any property, or to enjoy any rent or annuity. They were ordained to leave France, and sell their whole effects, within six months, under pain of the confiscation of all their property, without exception, in France. the entire sales were not effected in the prescribed six months, they were directed to be sold by the public authorities, in the same manner as the State domains appointed to be alienated, and their produce applied to the fund for the indemnity of the ancient proprietors, after deduction of what might be awarded to the sufferers by the events of July. After a violent opposition from the Royalists, and the addition of an amendment prohibiting all services on the anniversary of the death of Louis XVI., the law was carried, with the difference of a year being allowed for the sale of the effects, by a majority of 210 to 122. Such was the return, when he had the power, which Louis Philippe made to Charles X. for the generous grant which, on his accession to the throne, restored their whole estates in fee-simple to the Orléans family, by the same title by which the Crown enjoyed the royal domains, and conferred upon its head the much coveted title of "Royal Highness." History has not preserved the record of a more flagrant and disgraceful act of ingratitude; and it only proves what so many events in public and private life concur in demonstrating, that the commission of one great crime leads to that of 2 Ann. Hist. another, and that the guilty party finds himself at length on a rapid descent, from which extrication is impossible and destruction certain. 2 179. XXV. 51. position of Casimir formation tional Asso Aware, from the character of Casimir Périer, as well CHAP. as the declarations with which it set out, that the new Cabinet would prove a much more formidable antagonist 1831. than the last had been, the democratic journals, from the Violent opvery first, denounced it in the most unmeasured terms. the liberal The Courrier Français foresaw, in the coming future, a journals to period even more disgraceful to France than that of the Périer, and Restoration; the National could see no difference between of the Nathe administration of M. Casimir Périer and that of ciation. Prince Polignac. The Tribune called on all patriots to come forward and openly resist it. In pursuance of these suggestions, an association was formed, styled the National Association, the members of which bound themselves, "on their life and honour, to combat the stranger and the Bourbons by all pecuniary and personal sacrifices, to 1Ann. Hist. come to no accommodation with them, to whatever extre- 160. mities the country may be reduced.”1 1 xiv. 159, On the 18th of March, M. Casimir Périer thus an- 52. nounced, both with reference to the interior and exterior, Casimir Périer's the principles of the new Government : "Our principles speech on the princi ples of his ment. are those of our Revolution, neither exaggerated nor lessened. The principle of the Revolution of July, and governof the government which it has established, is not that of insurrection-it is that of resistance to the aggressions of power. France was provoked and defied; it defended itself, and proved victorious. Respect to sworn faith, regard to established right,—such are the principles of the Revolution of July, and of the government which it has established. It has founded a government, it has not inaugurated anarchy. It has not overturned the social order; it has only touched the political order. Its object was the establishment of a free but regular government. Violence, either within or without, is alike adverse to the principles of our government. Within, every appeal to force, without, every provocation to popular insurrection, is a violation of its principle. In the interior, its duty is simple. Our institutions are regulated by the charter of |