of commerce and internal activity and enterprise. He consequently threw himself headlong into the former alternative; the climate and war destroyed his army in Russia: the prestige of his invincibility once gone, his allies turned against him, and the French people became unwilling to suffer the loss and damage occasioned by war, not only in their territory, but close to their homes, for the sake of one man.

During Napoleon's reign, some of the requisites for civilisation were augmented. Although he was nearly always engaged in war, yet activity and inland trade slightly increased in France. The Revolution, by causing a subdivision of property, had augmented the middle class; industry, improvement, and the means of acquiring information were spreading rapidly throughout the community. After his unexpected return from Elba, he felt, for the first time in his life, that he must yield to the increasing pressure of public opinion: he therefore calleda meeting in the Champ de Mars, to consider the subject of forming a constitution. He allowed the freedom of the

press, and gave other indications of his desire to act in accordance with the wishes of the nation. All this, however, had little effect; his critical situation was well known, and his former conduct and sentiments were not forgotten. These acts were, therefore, attributed more to the desperate situation in which he was placed, than to any sincere regard for the wishes or liberty of the people.

When in power, Napoleon did not act as he spoke in exile. The following sentiments of his are not, perhaps, out of place when quoted here:

“ The march of civilisation and of knowledge tends to make a people free. This new order of things encourages industry and commerce.

The greater part of the property, both territorial and personal, as well as information and learning, were found in the middle class at the close of the 18th century. Notwithstanding this, however, the noblesse continued a privileged body. They possessed the power of administering civil and criminal justice, and enjoyed various feudal privileges under a variety of forms and denominations; amongst which were entire exemption from all taxation, and an exclusive right to all the honourable employments in the State. Such abuses naturally excited the murmurs of the citizens and of the middle class. The main object of the Revolution was to abolish these unfair privileges - to set aside a partial administration of justice, and to obtain impartiality in that respect. Another object was, to abrogate entirely all those feudal rights which reminded the people of their slavery in former days; and to bring down every class to pay their fair and just proportion of taxes to the maintenance of the state. Another main object of the Revolution was, to obtain for the French an equality of civil rights, so that every individual might, if his talents qualified him, attain the highest employments.” *

* La Cases' Journal de Napoleon, vol. iii. Part vi.

52

CHAPTER IV.

RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS, AND ACCESSION OF

LOUIS-PHILIPPE.

A Charter desired by the French People at the Restoration.

Richelieu, Prime Minister. — Jealousy of Foreign Interposition. — Causes by which Public Opinion was turned against the Bourbons. — Imprudent Acts by Louis XVIII. and Charles X. - Present Law of Inheritance in France. Dangers arising from it. -- Increase of Civilisation in France. – Several Orders of French Society. — Different political Opinions entertained by them. — Deficiency of moral Principle. — Unjust War and profound Peace alike dangerous to the State.- Influence of the French Press on Public Opinion.

Tendency to Centralisation in French Government.— Expediency of colonial Occupation. — Triumph of the Middle Class in France. - State of the Upper Class. — Conflicting political Elements.

WHEN the discomfiture of Napoleon forced his abdication in 1814, and the armies of the Allies brought back the Bourbon dynasty to the throne of France, the people, fatigued by the long and continued wars they had waged, panted for that liberty which they had in vain sought during the Revolution, and were inclined by every means in their power to obtain a charter, and an equality of rights, which the violence of the Revolution, and the military sway of Napoleon, had hitherto kept out

of their reach. The public sentiment in France ardently desired a constitution ; but the entrance of Louis XVIII., backed by foreign troops, and his assumption of regal power under such auspices, were not in accordance with the taste, nor did they suit the pride and dignity, of so great a nation. However, as is cleverly remarked of his accession to the throne in a recent work, 66 The Restoration came at last, and at first it seemed as if the old things were to come back in the old ways. A Richelieu, more almost of a Russian than a Frenchman, who knew more of Odessa than of Paris, was made prime minister, in virtue, it might appear, of his family's prescriptive right to rule beneath the Bourbons. The great charges were restored to their former holders, or to the families in which they had become inherent.” *

The nation panted for peace, and was desirous of being rid of the ambitious and warlike system adopted by the ex-Emperor; yet nevertheless the restoration of the Bourbons, for the reasons given, could not be said to emanate in any manner from public opinion in the French people.

The Revolution of 1830 was most unquestionably the work of public opinion, and of that sentiment exclusively. It has been called a revolution of the barricades and the act of the mob of Paris. This was not the case. The lower classes were certainly the physical force that worked the deed

* Smythe, Historical Fancies, p. 15.

but in so doing they were the organs only, or the tools, if such a term may be used, of public opinion. The members of the middle class, one and all, supported the change. The late disturbances in Lancashire and elsewhere are a contrast to such an event; these were but the effects of popular clamour, and not the result or indication of public opinion.

Let us take a view of the causes by which public opinion was turned so completely against the dynasty of the Bourbon branch, represented by Charles X., who succeeded his brother on the throne of France. The acts of imprudence, if not of folly, committed by the recent monarchs of this race, were so many that all cannot be enumerated. We shall only point to a few of the most remarkable.

Scarcely was Louis XVIII. seated on his throne than he took to himself, for his civil list, thirty-two millions of francs! At a subsequent period this monarch, relying on the 14th section of the Charter, levies on his people one hundred millions of francs without the consent of the Chambers, as they were not sitting at the time. Instead of imitating the example of England, as was the desire of the French people, in regard to the affairs of Spain, the King of France marches an army into that country, to restore a form of government execrated by the Spaniards and by the French equally, and becomes the agent of the northern powers in that affair.