they themselves repel with indigna- | indefatigable labours of the revolution, and which derive their only cre- tionary Directing Committee. Oppodence from those who advance them sition writers, interested in denying imputing to their antagonists those the existence of that Committee, found wicked intentions as to coups d'état, mainly on the impossibility hitherto by which their own conduct, whenever experienced of specifying the names of they were, even for a short season, in the individuals of which it is composed. power, has been invariably regulated. Assuredly the Directing Committee is 15. "To impute with any show of not an association whose members are reason an intention on the part of proclaimed, or whose meetings are reMinisters to overturn our institutions, gulated by fixed and public statutes; it must be shown that this project has it is modified according to circumsome prospect of success. Can ony one stances, and changes according to the suppose for a single moment that such time its means of correspondence and chance exists at the present day? No action. The electoral body is the conone knows better than the chiefs of the stant object of its measures. At the Administration what profound roots approach of elections, the editors, proour institutions have struck in the prietors, and patrons of the revolutionheart of all Frenchmen, friends of or- ary journals meet and agree on the der and of public peace. These insti- candidates who are to be proposed and tutions conciliate all the feelings of the supported in every college. The jourFrench, and give them entire satisfac- nals publish those lists, and recommend tion. The guaranteed security of pri- them in the most imperious manner to vate interests, the protection afforded the electors. In that singular traffic to industry of every sort, fulfil all the of votes, it constantly appears that the wishes of the people; in a word, it is revolutionary journals make a sacrifice not only in our actual institutions that of their interests, their resentments, they find all they wish, but it is in their preferences, and come to an unthem that they look for all that they derstanding with singular precision as hope. No power is able to tear that to the candidates to be supported. That system from the hearts of the French. of itself is sufficient to demonstrate the It is already so powerful and so solidly existence of a central ruling authoriestablished, that if, by a concurrence of ty, to which all local committees yield unforeseen circumstances and events obedience. In November 1827, the which no human prudence could avert, Liberal committee went so far as to some deviations from our institutions insert in the public journals a letter, might become unavoidable, that devia- by which certain candidates were retion, how slight soever, and though commended to the electors by the perknown to be only momentary, could sons subscribing that letter, and these not by possibility be favourably receiv- persons were M. Dupont de l'Eure, ed, unless the public were thoroughly Voyer d'Argenson, Lafayette, Benjaconvinced that it secured for the future min Constant. on an imperishable basis the whole of our actual institutions. France would never submit to their passing suspension, but in the hope of securing their durable existence down to the latest . posterity. 16. "The chief causes of our present difficulties, and of the agitation which pervades the public mind, are the licence of the public press, and the bad spirit which pervades a part of the electoral body. The last evil is in part the result of the first; in part it is owing to a cause peculiar to itself, which is the 17. "As to the means which the Committee employs to secure in each department the effect of its recommendations, or rather of its electoral injunctions, they are no longer the subject of doubt. In every place of any importance there is to be found what is called an Electoral Committee;' the members of these are known to the Minister of the Interior. These committees exercise a permanent inquisition over the electoral lists-favoured by the right which the law gives to a third party to interfere in the struc ture of those lists. The Committee | duced in 1821, and the success of the use every possible effort to get enrolled war in Spain in 1823, had been soon all of democratic principles, and to obliterated; the colleges of departexclude such as are suspected of Roy-ments had almost fallen as much unalist principles. The class of electors der the direction of the revolutionary upon whom these committees chiefly committees as the colleges of arronact are those who owe their suffrages dissements; and the press, acting upon to patents (trades and professions); it the whole middle class of society, in may readily be conceived what a power- which the electoral suffrage was vestful influence rich merchants and man-ed, had come to acquire the entire diufacturers, who are often in the in-rection of the legislature. The fatal terest of the committees, exercise over mistake of vesting the right of voting such persons. The peasants in the for members of the Chamber of Depurural districts are equally at the mercy ties in one single class of electors, and of the attorneys, notaries, and legal that the most democratic in the state, men out of office, by whom their pro- committed by the coup d'état of 5th perties are beset, and who naturally September 1817, had prostrated the swell the ranks of opposition. In a Commons before the revolutionary word, the representation has become party; the great democratic creation entirely subjected to external influen- of Peers, in 1819, had given it the ces of the most dangerous kind, and command of the Upper House. Deit is no longer in the power of the prived of its natural supporters in King without the aid of the Cham- both branches of the legislature, the bers. The Ministers can do nothing Crown was left alone to maintain a but remove all cause of discontent or contest with a revolutionary party, fear for the future, by causing the bent upon subverting the throne, and agitation excited by the press and the wielding the greater part of the macommittees to be deprived of any real terial and intellectual strength of the foundation." state; and, as if to render the conflict utterly hopeless, the Government was so left when under the guidance of an ecclesiastical Camarilla, whose rashness in adopting extreme resolutions was equalled only by their total want of preparations or foresight in carrying them into execution. 18. Prince Metternich said, in April 1830, when at Paris, "If I were not Prime Minister in Austria, I would be a journalist here." In effect, the influence of the press in France had become such that it was omnipotent; the ruling power had slipped out of the hands of Government and passed into its. 19. The rancour with which the By means of the electoral committees, whole Liberal press of France assailed which were entirely at its disposal, the Polignac Ministry had had no parthey had got the command of the allel even in the past annals of that Chamber of Deputies, nearly two- convulsed country, and it has scarcely thirds of which was arrayed under the had an equal in subsequent times. It banners of Opposition. By incessant was not the resolute determination of action on the public mind, they had men striving to establish a principle succeeded not only in directing but in or secure an object; it was the fierce inflaming it to such a degree as to passion of a woman set upon destroyrender government, by the means and ing a rival. The journals made no atinfluences provided by the constitu- tempt to combat the measures of Govtion, impracticable. An appeal to the ernment; they did not stop to inquire people, to extricate the Crown from either what they were, or what they the meshes of the net in which it was were likely to be; they directed their enveloped, only made matters worse; whole efforts to destroy the men who every successive dissolution augment- composed it. Indefatigable was the ed the Liberal majority. The mo- industry, great the ability, unbounded mentary reaction produced by the the licence, which they exerted or perchange in the Electoral Law, intro-mitted themselves in the pursuit of this object. 66 state of the finances, which had much surpassed expectation, which would enable him to gratify his wishes by alleviating the public burdens. "The first wish of my heart," said he in conclusion, "is to see France happy and respected, developing all the riches of its territory and its cultivation, and enjoying in peace the benefit of the institutions which it is my firm resolution to maintain. The Charter has placed the public liberties under the safeguard of the rights of the Crown; those rights are sacred, and my duty is to transmit them uninjured to my successors. Peers of France, deputies. of the departments, I cannot doubt your concurrence in effecting the good which it is my object to bring about. You will repel with contempt the perfidious insinuations which malevolence has sought to propagate. Should culpable manoeuvres obstruct my government, which I cannot and will not anticipate, I will find the means of surmounting them in my resolution to maintain the public peace, in my just confidence in the French, and in the love which they have always shown for their King." 20. The Chambers met on the 2d March 1830, and their proceedings were looked to with the utmost anxiety in every part of France; for every one foresaw that the decisive struggle 21. There was nothing which could was approaching, and that the legisla- be the object of just criticism or attack ture would be the theatre of the con- in this speech; but the Opposition in flict. The deputies arrived in great the Chamber of Deputies felt themnumber some days before from all quar-selves in such force that they resolved ters; none who could possibly attend to commence hostilities, and in the on the day of battle were absent. The whole pomp of royalty was ostentatiously displayed; peers and commons were arrayed in a dense mass round the throne, which was placed on an elevated platform, and from which the King pronounced the LAST royal speech of the Restoration. He dwelt on his amicable relations with all foreign powers save Algiers, which he was resolved to punish for the insults offered to the French flag; on the prosperous * In April 1830, the following was the LIBERAL. Constitutionnel, very outset hoist the signal of defiance. Their strength appeared on the first division for the election of a President; for the candidate whom the . Ministry supported, M. de Berbes, had only 131, and Delatot 125 votes ; while Royer-Collard had 225, Casimir Perier 190, and General Sebastiani 177. The King, as a matter of necessity, not less than inclination, selected M. Royer-Collard from the list presented to him; for not only was he the circulation of the Parisian journals: ROYALIST. Courrier Français, 5,000 Drapeau Blanc, 666 Le Temps, 4,166 Gazette des Cultes, 622 22. These words necessarily occasioned a storm in the Chamber, for they brought out mildly, but fairly and manfully, the fundamental question at issue between the parties. This was whether the appointment of Ministers was to be vested in the Crown or the Chamber, or rather whether the former was to be obliged to yield to a negative imposed by the latter. This question, so long resolved in favour of the House of Commons in England, and so thoroughly understood in parliamentary practice in that country, was new in France; and the assumption of such a power on the part of the Deputies appeared to many, as probably it was understood by themselves, as but a step to the entire direction of affairs, and the stripping the King of the most important of his prerogatives-that of the choice of his responsible servants. It gave rise, accordingly, to animated debates when the motion was made that the address should be agreed to, in which M. Berryer for the first time mounted the tribune, and by his energy and eloquence produced a profound impression. first on the list, but he had in former | a profound conviction, pour out into days been Royalist in principle, and your bosom the griefs of a people jealCharles could not believe that he ous of the esteem and confidence of would now prove unfaithful to the their King. The royal prerogatives Crown. The address prepared by the have placed in your hands the means Committee, and which led immedi- of insuring between the different powately to the rupture which followed, ers in the state that constitutional harconcluded with these expressions: mony, which is the first and necessary "Sire! in the midst of the unanimous condition of the power of the throne, expressions of respect and affection and of the greatness of France." with which your people surround you, there has appeared in the minds of men a disquietude which disturbs the tranquillity which France had begun to enjoy, dries up the sources of its prosperity, and might, if it continued, become fatal to its repose. Our honour, our conscience, the fidelity which we have sworn, and which we will always preserve, impose on us the duty to unveil to you its cause. The Charter, which we owe to the wisdom of your Majesty's predecessor, and which your Majesty is so firmly resolved to maintain, consecrates as a right the intervention of the country in the direction of the public interests. That intervention is and ought to be indirect, wisely measured, circumscribed within narrow limits, which we will never permit to be passed; but it is not the less real in its results, for it makes the paramount concurrence of the political views of the Government with the wishes of your people an indispensable condition of the regular march of public affairs. Sire! our loyalty, our devotion, compel us to say that that concurrence does not now exist. An unjust distrust of the feelings and reason of the French is at present the fundamental thought of your Administration. Your people are afflicted at it, because it is unjust towards themselves; they are disquieted by it, for it is menacing for their liberties. That distrust can never find a place in your noble heart. No, sire! France does not wish for anarchy any more than you wish for despotism. It is befitting that you should have the same faith in its loyalty which it has in your promises. Let the wisdom of your Majesty determine between those who misunderstand a nation, so calm, so faithful, and we who, with 23. "The projected address," said he, "attributes the disquietude which prevails to the formation of a new Ministry; that is to say, an act emanating from the royal will-the sole act of the executive power which cannot be the object of any responsibility, which is clearly a discharge of the King's duty, and within his prerogative-is represented as the cause of the grief of a whole people. Send to the King, then, a great deputation, and say to him at once: Sire, the use you have made of your prerogatives disturbs our security, dries up the sources of our prosperity, and may become fatal to our repose.' (Loud murmurs on the Left.) Your interruptions," continued he, address- 25. “Whither are we going, great ing the Left, "do not disturb me; they God? Are we to be dragged along satisfy me that I am right. You re-like slaves at the feet of that power coil from the consequences of your own which is called public opinion? If the act. That assures me that the address, power of the Crown consents to sink fraught with such results, will be re- before that influence, it would no longer jected. If there is a want of respect be the Crown; it would have mistaken in its expressions, there is a violation its mission, neglected its duty, abdiof the constitution in the alternative cated its authority. A great duty is in which it places the King. The reserved for the Ministry of the 8th Chamber has no right to demand its August (Polignac's). It is called on to own dissolution. There is something consolidate the work of the Restoration, fearful and withering to the heart in to combat and destroy the spirit of facthe resolution of an Assembly which tion, to found general unanimity on the demands its own ruin; which, be- accord of religion and knowledge, to traying the confidence of the electors, extirpate from our codes the arbitrary wishes to withdraw itself from the principles of the Republic and the Emduties imposed upon it by the country, pire. A Minister who advances on such and which it has to discharge alike a line cannot but meet with the suptowards the Crown and the people. port of the country. Have you any And it is at the very moment when right to compel the King to dismiss his these duties are most imperious that, Ministers? Do you not see that such by a strange infatuation, it is proposed a pretension menaces our whole instito desert the post which has been com- tutions? If it is conceded, what bemitted to you. comes of the thirteenth and fourteenth articles of the Charter? Where is the independence of the executive power? What will remain of the royal authority? The King will not consent to the concession now demanded. He cannot submit to it, because his rights are sacred, because he is bound to transmit them intact to his successors, because he has sworn to maintain our institutions, and he will abide by his oath. His Ministers do not disguise from themselves the difficulty of their duties; but, convinced of their importance, they will not fail in their discharge. He whose power has called them to their posts has alone the right to dismiss them. As long as it seems meet to him to retain them in his service, they will continue faithful to it; nothing will shake their resolution, nothing will wear out their constancy.' 24. "If the Ministers of the Crown inspire distrust-if the Deputies are informed of their secret projects, let them remain at their posts, watch over their projects, and thwart them. What does it signify, when the rights of the Crown are invaded-when the King is outraged-that your address is filled with protestations of devotion, of respect, and of love? What signifies it that you say, "The rights of the King are sacred, if at the same time you control him in the exercise of the powers which you have intrusted to him? What effect can such a sad contrast have but to recall the mind to times of fatal memory; to remind us by what steps an unhappy King was conducted, in the midst of protestations of fidelity and love, to exchange for the palm of martyrdom the sceptre which he had let fall from his hand. I am not surprised that the framers of the address should have said that they feel themselves 'condemned' to hold such language to the King. And I also, more occupied with the future than the resentments of the past, feel that if I should adhere to the address, my vote would for ever weigh on my conscience as a withering condemnation. 26. On the other hand, it was contended by M. Guizot, who, like his great antagonist, made then his first appearance on the parliamentary arena: "One power alone now makes itself felt in France, and feels itself entirely at its ease, and that power is the press. Never, in my opinion, was its action more salutary or necessary. It is it, and it alone, which during seven months |