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power which the military part possessed; they had rendered the nation jealous of the army; they had dispersed and dispirited the army itself; they had shown France that she could only obtain a change by a war with Europe, and that for such a war she was too weak; and more than all this, they had furnished a comparison between "the additional act" of the empire, and "the constitutional charta" of the restoration.

If Bonaparte, by his defeat on the field of battle, attached to his name some melancholy and affectionate remembrances, the recollections which Louis XVIII. had left in the legislative assembly; the calm courage and the noble dignity with which, in the presence of his military rival, he had held the charta as a buckler before the throne, were favourable to his person, and threw a constitutional halo round the renewal of his reign.*

The remonstrances of foreign diplomacy, the manifest faults which the royalists had themselves committed, the bitter lesson that Bonaparte brought with him from Elba, the certainty that the nation was neutral and the army hostile-the good sense of Louis XVIII. himself, who saw that his policy must be to unite under the wing of the monarchy the different factions into which an attachment to the old "régime," a prominent part in the revolution, or a situation under the empire, had split his agitated and divided people— procured for a moment the appearance of moderation, which the dismissal of the Duc de Blacas, and the ap

*It was before quitting Paris that Louis XVIII., who had, from the first landing of Napoleon, shown calmness, firmness, and dignity, made the attempt to excite a constitutional enthusiasm by appearing to the chambers, and delivering one of those remarkable discourses which no one better knew how to utter or compose. "Celui qui vient allumer parmi nous les torches de la guerre civile y apporte aussi la fléau de la guerre étrangère, il vient remettre notre patrie sous son joug de fer, il vient enfin détruire cette charte constitutionnelle que je vous ai donnée, cette charte, mon plus beau titre aux yeux de la postérité, cette charte, que tous les Français chérissent, et que je jure ici de maintenir." We'll die for the king," shouted the people; but "liberty" was not at that time a habit, and Bonaparte marched to Paris at the head of his troops.

pointment of Fouché, a regicide, and Guizot, a Protestant, to office, seemed to guaranty. But how often is it deemed impossible to adopt a general system of conciliation without a partial display of force. The party who clamour for punishment must be appeased, while there is something fatally flattering to human vanity in the demonstration that if we choose to be generous we dare to be severe. Hence those fatal executions and proscriptions which overshadowed the great name of the Duke of Wellington, and revived the worst memories of the French republic. Hence the exile of Carnot, the assassination of Labédoyère,* while Nismes, Toulouse, and Marseilles were disgraced by the madness of an infuriated populace,† and the blood of Marshal Brune at Avignon disgraced the cause of royalty and religion.

It was now that a new class of persons, attached to the Bourbons at the commencement of their reign, began to wish and to conspire for their overthrow. The republicans and the more liberal part of the constitutionalists had welcomed the restoration from their hatred of Bonaparte and though the senate felt that the octroyization of the charta was an attack in point of form upon the privileges of the nation, still it felt also that that charta did in fact assure those privileges. We find then that Barras, previous to the hundred days, warned the Duc de Blacas of the catastrophe that was preparing, and that Manuel and Lafayette, after the battle of Waterloo, paralyzed all Napoleon's further plans of resistance. Had it not been for thishad the liberal and the military part of France been at that time united, a battle would have been fought under the walls of Paris, and the army of the Loire might have been still formidable to the invaders.

The persecutions of Louis XVIII. effected that

* Labédoyère was not actually brought to trial until the ministry of Richelieu.

+ It is but justice to observe, that the state of the Protestants in the South excited the attention of the British and Prussian governments, who insisted on the repression of these disorders.

which the misfortunes of Bonaparte had not been able to produce; they united against the restoration the opponent parts of the empire, i. e. the heroes who had formed its glory, the patriots who had objected to its principles. But how far was Louis XVIII. to blame?

Every day made his difficulties more apparent: the government of Monsieur de Talleyrand, notwithstanding the cruel compliances which alienated one party, found it impossible to resist the wrath which its mere reputation for liberality excited in another.

Fouché published his celebrated memorials* among the most important political documents that ever appeared; and finally, the Prince of Benevento found himself obliged to tender his resignation.

The mass of the imperial army, the more violent of the imperial opposition, were now hostile to the Bourbon "régime;" a conflict commenced between the more moderate and the more bigoted royalists, as to who should administer its affairs. At the head of these parties were the monarch now in exile-the monarch then upon the throne.

There had been between these two princes a kind of jealous rivalry from their very boyhood. Celebrated for his grace, his intrigues, the flower of the fashionable nobility of Versailles, the Comte d'Artois had early in his favour all the more brilliant part of the court of Marie Antoinette. The women extolled him, the young men imitated him, and applauded the frankness of his follies, in opposition to the more reserved carriage and the more serious pursuits of the Comte de Provence. Moreover, the aristocracy of the emigration, instituting a kind of periodical hierarchy among themselves, placed the persons who departed after the first triumph of the revolution in a much higher rank than those who subsequently retired.†

The Comte d'Artois then, opposed to any popular compliances, was decidedly the royalist chief. Proud

• See Appendix.

+ Louis XVIII. frequently complained in private of this distinction.

of his situation, vain of his authority, irritated by a restless desire for contention and intrigue, this prince, the presumptive heir to the crown, already disputed the administration of affairs;* and constituting a cabinet of his own, aspired to impose upon the royal councils the resolutions of the "Pavillon Marsan." Louis XVIII. was of a temporizing disposition; the same feelings which made him favourable to a moderate line of policy, made him hostile to an open quarrel with those who urged a violent one. Besides, he was not altogether beyond the influences of his youth, and felt a respect that was involuntary for that man in his family who was most fashionable with his court.

The first and second administrations of the Duc de Richelieu were administrations of compromise between the two brothers and the two parties. But, named twice under the auspices of the Comte d'Artois, the Duc de Richelieu was each time eventually honoured by his disapprobation :-first, when he would not pass a universal sentence of proscription upon all that prince's enemies; secondly, when he would not give all the places at his disposal to that prince's friends.‡

The governments of Dessolle and Decazes-which may both be considered as formed under the influence and representing the opinions of Monsieur Decazesthough under different circumstances and in different degrees the governments of Messrs. Dessolle and Decazes, intervening between the two administrations of Monsieur de Richelieu, represented the ideas of the king, of the more moderate royalists, and stood at once uncompromisingly opposed to the whole power of the "Pavillon Marsan."

He had already assumed, in 1814, the title of lieutenant-general, without authority, to the great dissatisfaction of the king.

That part of the Tuileries where the Comte d'Artois resided.

It was for this reason that this administration was opposed; and the Duc de Richelieu's illness and death were mainly to be attributed, it is said, to the disgust and vexation which he felt at the Comte d'Artois' attack upon his government-a government which he (the Duc de Richelieu) had only undertaken under the express promise of monsieur's support and assistance.

This is the interesting and critical period of the restoration. In the contest at issue were engaged the destinies of the monarchy and the two policies which the restoration had to follow. It was impossible for the moderate party to be more fortunate than it was in its chief. Monsieur Decazes, now placed in so prominent a position, had in early life been secretary to Madame Bonaparte; he was subsequently known as a distinguished magistrate,* and-remarkable during the hundred days for the zeal and ability which he displayed in favour of the Bourbons-had been named "Préfet de Police" under Fouché, at their return. Favoured by accident with an interview with Louis XVIII., the monarch, pleased by his address, struck by his capacity, and anxious to be independent of the political probity of the Duc d'Otrante, desired the "préfet" to submit his reports directly to himself,† and expressed a wish to improve the acquaintance.

This was the commencement of M. Decazes' favour. At the time I am speaking of, that favour was at its height. Monsieur Decazes then was the intimate friend (such was the appellation which Louis XVIII. gave him) of the sovereign: he had great popularity in the country, many friends in the chamber. To these advantages he joined habits of official business, an easy and conciliating eloquence, and the quality, so important in a difficult ministerial situation, of soothing the irritation and satisfying the " amour propre" of a doubtful and displeased adherent. The minister had a graceful manner, an imposing person— a countenance noble, handsome, and agreeable-great tact, considerable talent-and very wise and large views in favour of the industry and the intelligence of the country. Attached to no party, he professed

* De la cour d'assises du département de la Seine.

† Louis XVIII., in common with all the Bourbon family, had a great pleasure in the political gossip with which it is easy for a minister, who has the police at his disposal, to decorate his reports; and here M. Decazes had an opportunity which few in his situation would have neglected, of improving any favourable impression he might first have made,

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