tinguished part in the war of La Ven- his foresight and arrangement, so far new Minister of the Interior, was a man of vigour and resolution, who imparted to the Royalist side the ardour and determination which had so often proved successful on the popular. A Vendean representative of 1815, and deeply imbued with the passions of that period, he became a minister in 1829 with a resolution to carry those principles into effect. He was a sort of Royalist Terrorist; he retorted upon the Revolutionists their own principles, and made the Liberals turn as pale now with the extreme measures which he was understood to have in contem-cast, his powers of administration great, plation, as he had done the Buonapartists with the lists of proscription he had demanded. His violence, however, was in words rather than action; his fire evaporated at the tribune; and he was satisfied if his burning expres-issue of the convulsion would have sions, circulated from one end of France been different from what it was. He to the other, threw his opponents into possessed great civil as well as military continual alarm. He menaced more talents; he was sagacious in council, than struck; he desired renown rather eloquent in debate, and gifted with the than power; and rejoiced more in the rare quality of fascinating the minds thurder of his eloquence than the of his hearers by the fire of extempore wunds he might inflict upon his ene- oratory. His high forehead and pennies. The King had been misled as sive eye bespoke the ascendant of inthis real character and qualities by tellect; his fascinating smile and grahis sonorous declamations at the tri- cious manners, the polished courtier ; bune. He expected to find in him a his firm and confident step, the consort of monarchical Mirabeau, and dis-sciousness of superiority, and power to covered to his cost, when the hour of trial came, that he had introduced into his Cabinet a man of words rather than deeds, whose vigour evaporated in terse expression, and who made no preparation in action for the support of the changes which he had so strenuously recommended in council. 4. M. DE BOURMONT redeemed an unhappy circumstance, which cast a shade on his life, by the highest military and civil talents. He embodied in his single person the whole spirit of La Vendée; his name recalled the heroic courage, the glorious victories, the tragic_reverses, of its immortal contest. Unhappily, it recalled also the dishonourable defection on the eve of the battle of Waterloo, and the envenomed testimony which he had borne against Marshal Ney, which had gone so far to seal the fate of that unfortunate man. He had borne a dis rule mankind. The brevity and force of his expressions revealed the force of a mind which made itself felt, like that of Burke, in the shortest conversation. Fascinated by those solid as well as brilliant qualities, and regarding it only as a proof of his devotion to the royal cause, Charles felicitated himself upon his choice of such a man as War Minister, and overlooked entirely his defection at Waterloo. But France had not forgotten it, and considering, with reason, fidelity to his colours as the first duty of a soldier, regarded with undisguised dismay his appointment to so important a situation, and trembled at it, as the herald of Royalist reaction and civil war. 5. The other members of the Royalist Cabinet, though all men of talent, did not stand prominently forward like those who have been mentioned. M. de Montbel, new to public life, had the country upon the veil being at been known only as able in the admin-length torn aside, which had hitherto istration of affairs at Toulouse, of which imperfectly concealed the conspiracy he had been mayor. He was an elève which had been going on for six years of M. de Villèle, and was obviously against the liberties and constitution placed in the Cabinet to facilitate his of the country. The Directing Comreturn to power. M. de Courvoisin mittee, under the guidance of M. de was in a peculiar manner the orator of Lafayette, which gave the law to all the Cabinet; and as he had defended the other democratic bodies in France; with vigour and eloquence the system the society "Aidez-toi et le Ciel t'aiof M. Decazes, he was regarded with dera," under the rule of M. Guizot and less jealousy by the Liberals than the M. de Broglie, began seriously to orrest of the Ministry. M. de Chabrol ganise the means of rebellion. Corand M. d'Haussey, who hitherto had responding committees were establishbeen unknown in power, though dis- ed in all the principal towns of the tinguished in subordinate branches of country, to organise a general system the Government, were men capable of of resistance to taxes, and subscriptions discharging with success their respec-opened to defray the necessary expenses tive departments of Minister of Marine and of the Finances; but as they were not master-spirits, and characterised chiefly by their loyalty and fidelity to the King, they might be expected to concur, without difficulty, in any measure which the ruling powers in the Cabinet might propose. of a universal moral and physical warfare against the Government. 7. To take advantage of the universal ferment, General Lafayette made a journey to the south, where he was received with such enthusiasm that it resembled rather the progress of a popular and adored sovereign, than the 6. Deeming the mask now thrown honours bestowed on a subject, how off, and that open war was proclaimed eminent soever. At Grenoble he was between the Government and the coun- escorted into the town by a numerous try, the Liberal press broke out, the body of cavaliers; at Vizille, the mayor very day after the Ministry was an- of the town presented him with a silnounced in the Moniteur, into the most ver crown, in imitation of oak leaves. violent invectives against them. No- At Lyons his reception was still more thing before had ever equalled since enthusiastic, and he made his entry the Restoration, nothing since has ever in an open chariot, drawn by four surpassed, the fury with which they white horses, like a sovereign prince. assailed the new Cabinet. "Coblentz, His speech to the inhabitants and Waterloo, 1815," exclaimed the Journal functionaries, who received him at the des Debats, after giving the names of gate, was remarkable. "To-day," said the Ministers; "the emigration in M. he, with the aristocratic grace which he de Polignac; desertion to the enemy knew so well to assume, “after a long in M. de Bourmont; the fury of pro-diversion of brilliant despotism and scription in M. de la Bourdonnaye: constitutional hopes, I find myself in such are the three principles in the the midst of you in a moment which three leading persons of the Adminis- I would call critical, if I had not pertration. Press upon it; nothing but ceived everywhere on my journey, and humiliation, misfortune, and danger if I did not see in this great and powwill drive it from power. Unhappy erful city, the calm and even disdainFrance! unhappy King!" M. Guizot ful firmness of a great people which and M. Thiers, the one in the journal knows its rights, feels its strength, of Le Temps, the other in that of the and will be faithful to its duties; and National, launched with more ability it is above all, at this very moment, and argument the thunders of their that I love to express to you a devoeloquence against the madness of the tion to which your appeal will never, King. Other writers, less eminent to my latest hour, be made in vain." and more declamatory, congratulated | To counteract the effect of this move ment, a progress of the King into Nor- | ford, to accept a ministry which premandy was projected by the Ministers, saged the possibility of a scaffold. but abandoned, on consideration, as too hazardous. M. tion. He belonged to that small section of very eminent men who, like the Economists in former days, have acquired the soubriquet of the "Doctrinaires," and whose object was to combine the institutions of the ancient monarchy with the wants and requirements of modern society. M. de Barante, M. Vilmain, M. Broglie, and M. de Staël belonged to this school, which was cordially supported by M. Decazes, that statesman being in a manner the acting representative of it. With his colleagues of the same political creed, M. Guizot retired on the fall of that able minister, and betook himself to the composition of the lectures on history, in the University of Paris, which have since been published under the name of Civilisation in Europe, and Civilisation in France, and have laid the foundation of his great reputation. He is a Protestant in creed, and has none of the lustre of nobility in his descent; but some men are made noble by the patent of nature, and no man ever stood forth as a more zealous and intrepid defender of an enlightened Christian faith. 9. Two men appeared at this juncture in the legislature, and entered on 8. It soon appeared, when they took the career of public life, destined to their seats at the Council board, that the highest celebrity in future times, Prince Polignac and M. de la Bour- M. GUIZOT and M. BErryer. donnaye were not likely long to draw Guizot had been employed in the Adtogether. Both aspired to the dignity ministration at intervals since he acof President of that body, correspond-companied the King to Ghent, in 1815; ing to the premiership in England, and and from his known talents for busineither was inclined to waive his pre-ness, as well as powers of oratory, he tensions in favour of the other. Their had already acquired a great reputafeelings and motives of action also were different, though both were equally sincere Royalists. Polignac was the representative of the ultra - Romish party, which, regarding the contest in which they were engaged as an affair of conscience, never stopped to calculate the chance of success, but was equally prepared to accept the crown of martyrdom or the chaplet of victory from its results. La Bourdonnaye, a statesman trained in the contests and desirous of the triumphs of the tribune, was more worldly in his ideas, and was strongly impressed with the opinion, that the one thing needful was, to secure a parliamentary majority, and that any strong measures would be hazardous and misplaced till this object was secured. In this state of matters their co-operation in the same Cabinet was impossible. The complaint made against M. de la Bourdonnaye by the Pope's nuncio and the Parti-pêtre was, that he was not a man of action, however skilful in debate an ominous expression, indicating that he was not prepared to second the desperate measures which were in contemplation. Sensible that he was misplaced in a Cabinet where such designs were in contemplation, M. de la Bourdonnaye voluntarily resigned before the divergence of his opinions with those of his colleagues had been manifested by any overt acts; he was raised to the Peerage, and was not heard of again in public life. He was succeeded as Minister of the Interior by M. Guernon de Ranville, an able and eloquent man, who had courage enough, in critical times, like Straf VOL. III. 10. M. Guizot, as a philosophic historian, is one of the very greatest men that the world has ever produced. Less terse in his style than Montesquieu, less discursive than Robertson, he is more just and philosophic than either. He has drawn his conclusions from a wider induction, and rested his views on a more thorough acquaintance with the progressive changes in the social system. He exhibits that combination of antiquarian research and accuracy in detail, with luminous views H and a thorough appreciation of the | M. Guizot, chiefly because he was more growing wants of the age, which is consistent; for, unfortunately, all hisso rare in philosophical writers, but tory tells us that the men who rise, which, like the union of minuteness of even for a time, to greatness, are often finishing with generality of effect in those who, like Cæsar or Marlborough, Claude Lorraine, is essential to the can accommodate their principles to highest eminence in the sister arts of the varying circumstances of the times; history and painting, and never appears not those who, like Cato or Aristides, without leading to lasting fame. A preserve them unchanged through all laborious antiquarian, an eloquent pro- the mutations of fortune. Connected fessor, an indefatigable journalist, his by birth with the highest society, he eyes were fixed alike upon the past had been admitted into its saloons, and the present, and from the combi- and imbued with its principles and its nation of the two he drew his inferen- graces. His talents for conversation, ces as to the future. His countenance and the charm of his manners, had bespeaks his character. He has nei- acquired for him a great reputation ther the fire of genius nor the ardour of in those elevated circles; and though enthusiasm in his expression, but the bred to the bar, and known as a pubsober steadiness of deliberate thought, lic speaker only in its courts, he was and the calm eye of steadfast resolu- brought forward by Prince Polignac, tion. He was invaluable as a political after his accession to power, with the ally, for he gave to party views the highest expectations of his value as a air of philosophic conclusions, and, political supporter. In this he was perhaps unconsciously to himself, ad- not disappointed, although the time of vanced the interest of a faction when his entrance into public life was unforhe seemed engrossed only with those of tunate, and he became the ornament humanity. Ă liberal Royalist during of a party only in time to share its fall. the government of the Restoration, he His handsome countenance prepostook an active part in the journalist sessed all who approached him in his hostility and open rebellion which at favour; his piercing eye bespoke the length overturned it; and, borne for- internal fire of genius; his lofty foreward to power on the gales of popular- head the power of intellect; his open ity, under its successor he again re- expression the benignity of a magnanverted to his loyal impressions, and, as imous disposition. His courage was Minister of Louis Philippe, stood forth equal to any trial; and he possessed the eloquent and courageous supporter that chivalrous disposition, the sure of conservative principles. But he did mark of a noble mind, which led him so only to share his fall; and he was to embrace without hesitation the precipitated from power in 1848, and cause which honour dictated, and atthe liberties of France destroyed, by tached him only the more strongly to the influence of the very doctrines the throne, from its obvious inability which in 1830 he had done so much to to bestow temporal rewards on its suppromote, and which all his subsequent porters. But his information was not efforts had not been able to arrest-a equal to his eloquence: his reflection memorable example to future times of was inferior to his energy; he often the extreme danger, for factious or spoke before he had thought; his party purposes, of subverting estab- name is attached to no great work lished authority, and of the awful re- either in legislation or literature; and, sponsibility which attaches to those like many other persons similarly giftwho, gifted with the power of launch-ed, his biography leaves only a feeling ing forth the "winged words" which of regret that dispositions so noble and bear thought on their pinions, become talents so brilliant should not have in the end the rulers of their country's realised themselves in a form permadestinies. nently beneficial to humanity. 11. M. Berryer has not obtained the same niche in the temple of fame as 12. Another man destined to future greatness began to rise into eminence connect with them speculations for the present, and projects for the future; the overthrow of the order of things established by the Restoration would overturn all means of existence to the great majority; and, despite the declamations of the journals, no one seriously regards as possible the accomplishment of their sinister predictions. at this period. M. THIERS, like M. a clear exposition of the state of the Guizot, had none of the advantages of country, the difficulties with which the aristocratic birth or connection: what Government was beset, and the grounds he gained and became he owed to him- on which the coup d'état which followself, and himself alone. He raised him- ed was rested by its authors.. "An self to eminence, in the first instance, alarming agitation," it was said, "unby his History of the French Revolution, doubtedly prevails in the public mind, composed in early youth-a party work, but its origin is to be found exclusively often inaccurate in facts and erroneous in the disposition of those who are hain principle, but powerfully written, bitually occupied with public affairs. unscrupulous in politics, and only the As to the mass of the people, they are more likely to be, in the first instance, entire strangers to it, and remain in popular, from its inculcating the doc- that state of impassibility which extrine, convenient to statesmen, but cludes alike applause or murmurs. dangerous to nations, that the horrors Everywhere in the country, as in the of the Revolution were owing to a fa- town, the masses are occupied only with tality unavoidable in such circum- their material prosperity; all interests stances, not the faults or crimes of the find a sufficient guarantee in the instipersons engaged in it. The early celeb-tutions accorded by the Crown; they rity of this work led to his being actively engaged on the Liberal side in the public press, which, with the lead which he took in the Revolution of July, early raised him to power under the government of Louis Philippe. His talents proved equal to any situation however great, any duties however onerous; and he was alternately prime minister with Guizot of the quasi-legitimate monarchy. It is the strongest proof of his ability, that it has proved equal not only to the highest and most varied functions, but has increased in the most remarkable manner in the line in which he originally became distinguished. His History of the Consulate and the Empire is so superior to that of the Revolution, that it is difficult to believe they proceeded from the same hand. The one is the production of a vigorous inexperienced youth, the other of a matured and reflecting statesman. Gifted with a ready elocution and uncommon powers of oratory, he soon acquired a lead in, and in the end almost the mastery of, the Chamber of Deputies. It is to be regretted only that his consistency and candour are not equal to his genius, and that in the pursuit of power he has sometimes sacrificed public principle to private ambition. 13. A very able Memoir on the state of the kingdom was prepared in Prince Polignac's office, and laid before the King at this juncture, which contains 14. "It is the daily press which alone keeps up the agitation in the minds of men, and it gives to that movement an importance much greater than it really possesses. In truth, what can be the object of that agitation? Is it dread of the overthrow of our institutions? No one is thinking of it. Our institutions are the work of the royalty which protects and defends them. The King, whose word embraces all guarantees, has made known his determination to maintain them; his Government is applying itself sedulously to carry his wishes into effect; all the laws are executed, not only literally according to their word, but in good faith according to their spirit. The public liberties are respected, property of all sorts protected with a scrupulous care, which renders it doubly precious from the security which accompanies it. To these facts, which are so notorious that no one can deny them, what do the public journals on the other side oppose? Nothing but suppositions purely gratuitous as to culpable intentions on the part of Ministers, accusations which |