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IX.

CHAP. 422,000,000 to 464,000,000 francs.* The amount of revenue levied during these years could not, by possi1819. bility, afford a true index to the real state of the country, from the enormous amount of the contributions to the allied powers; but in those items in which an increase was practicable, or which indicated the greater wellbeing of the people, the improvement was very conspicuous. So marked a resurrection of a country and advance of its social condition, in so short a period, had perhaps never been witnessed; and it is the more remarkable, from its occurring immediately after such unprecedented misfortunes, and from the mere effect of an alteration in the system and policy of Government.

5.

ment of re

institutions

Add to this, that France had now, for the first time in Thorough its entire history, obtained the full benefit of representaestablish- tive institutions. The electors of the Chamber of Depupresentative ties were few in number-indeed, not exceeding 80,000 in France. for the whole country-but they represented the national feelings so thoroughly, that their representatives in parliament had not only got the entire command of the state, but they expressed the national wishes as faithfully as eight millions could have done. If there was anything to be condemned on the part of Government, it was that it had yielded too rapidly and immediately to the wishes of the people, whatever they were at the moment. The Royalist reaction of 1815; the subsequent leaning to liberal

* EXPORTS AND IMPORTS AND Revenue of FRANCE, FROM 1815 TO 1821.

[blocks in formation]

-Statistique de la France Commerce Extérieur, p. 9; Ibid., Administration

Publique, 116, 121.

IX.

1819.

institutions; the coup d'état of September 5, 1816; the CHAP. great creation of peers in March 1819, had all been done in conformity with the wishes, and in obedience to the fierce demands, of the majority at the time. Weak from the outset, in consequence of the calamitous circumstances under which it was first established, and deprived at length of all support from external force, the Government had no alternative throughout but to conform, in every material step, to the national will, and for good or for evil inaugurate the people at once in the power of selfgovernment. To such a length had this been carried, that at the close of the period the king had come to an entire rupture with his Royalist supporters, and thrown himself without reserve into the arms of the Liberal and anti-monarchical party.

6.

no effect in the Liberal

It might reasonably have been expected that these great concessions would have conciliated the Constitutional Which have party, who were now not only in possession of the bless- conciliating ings of freedom, but the sweets of office, and that they party. would have done their utmost to support a Government which had conferred such advantages upon their country and themselves. Yet it was just the reverse. With every concession made to them, their demands rose higher, their exasperation became greater; the press was never so violent, the public effervescence so extreme, as when the Government was opposing the least resistance to the popular will; and at length the danger became so imminent, from the increasing demands of the Liberals and the menacing aspect of the legislature, that the king, from sheer necessity, and much against his will, was driven into a change of system, and return to a monarchical administration.

7.

Popular acts

The new Ministry, appointed when the Liberals were in the ascendant, being not altogether confident in their stability, and having come to an open rupture with Ministry. the Royalists, did everything in their power to increase

of the new

IX.

1819.

CHAP. their popularity, and conciliate the democratic party, upon whom they exclusively depended. Various measures of great utility, and attended by the very best consequences, were set on foot, which have been felt as beneficial even to these times. To them we owe the first idea of an exhibition of the works of national industry, which was fixed for the 25th August 1819, to be followed by a similar one every two years afterwards, and which was attended with such success that it gave rise, in its ultimate effects, to the magnificent Great Exhibition in London, in the year 1851. A Council-General of Agriculture was established, consisting of ten members, of whom the Minister of the Interior was President, which was to correspond with and direct affiliated societies all over the kingdom. In the choice of its members the most laudable impartiality was shown, and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, the head of the Royalist nobility, was the first person on the list, followed by the Dukes of Choiseul and Liancourt, who were equally distinguished by their opposition to the present Government. A Council-General of Prisons was established, and the attention of the philanthropist directed to the unhappy convicts, a class of sufferers who had been alike neglected amidst the declamations of the Republic and the glories of the Empire. To aid them in their philanthropic labour, a society was formed, under the direction of the Minister of the Interior, which, under the title of the " Royal Society of Prisons," was soon actively engaged with projects for the improvement of prison discipline, and moral and religious instruction of the inmates. Great solicitude was evinced for the advancement of primary instruction; and in no former period, either of the Republic or the Empire, had a greater number of improvements been effected in that important Circulaire department of public instruction. Finally, the attention of the Government was directed, in an especial manner, to the administration of justice, and the numerous abuses

1 Lac. ii.

323, 326; Cap. vi.

145, 155;

aux Préfets, ii. 271.

IX.

1819.

which prevailed in the delay generally incurred in bring- CHAP. ing prisoners to trial; and a circular issued by M. de Serres, the Minister of Justice, deserves a place in history, from the admirable spirit which it breathes on a subject hitherto unaccountably neglected by all the parties who had been successively called to the. helm of affairs.*

8.

Maret and

scribed to

At the same time, nearly the whole persons banished for their accession to the conspiracy of the Hundred Days Return of received permission to return to their country. Maret, many other Duke of Bassano, the principal author of that revolt, ob- of the protained it, and after his return the same indulgence could France. scarcely be refused to inferior delinquents. The king never refused forgiveness to any application from any of his Ministers; rarely to any respectable inferior application. By these means, in a few months nearly all the proscribed persons, excepting the actual regicides, had returned to their country, and these were so few in number, and for the most part so old and infirm, that their absence or presence, except as an example, and indicating the triumph or defeat of a principle, was almost equally an object of 321. indifference.1

Notwithstanding this indulgent administration, and substantial benefits conferred on France by the Government of the Restoration, it was daily becoming more un

* "Des réclamations nombreuses ont signalé dans ces derniers temps divers abus dans l'Instruction des Procédures criminelles. Ces plaintes peuvent n'être pas exemptes d'exagération. Il paraît cependant que plusieurs ne sont que trop fondées. Elles ont porté sur la facilité, la légèreté même, avec laquelle sont faites les arrestations. 2. Sur une prolongation ou un application abusive de l'Interdiction aux prévenus de communiquer. 3. Enfin, sur la négligence apportée dans l'Instruction des procès. Je crois donc utile de retracer sur chacun de ces points les principes, à la stricte application desquels vous devez sans cesse rappeler les Procureurs du Roi, les Juges d'Instruction, et chacun des agents judiciaires qui vous sont subordonnés. . . . Attachez-vous à imprimer fortement cette vérité aux Magistrats Instructeurs que la célérité dans les Informations est pour eux un devoir impérieux, et qu'ils se chargent d'une grande responsabilité lorsque, sans une nécessité évidente, ils la prolongent au delà du temps suffisant pour faire régler la Compétence, et statuer sur la Préconisation en Connaissance de Cause."-Circulaire aux Préfets, 24th April 1819. Circulaire aux Préfets, ii. 271.

1 Cap. vi.

156, 158;

Lac. ii. 317,

IX.

1819.

9.

CHAP. popular, and the general discontent had now reached such a height as seriously to menace its existence. Three elections remained to complete the last renewal of the Increasing Chamber, and the persons elected, M. Daunou, Saintthe Libe Aignan, and Benjamin Constant, were all leaders of the sistance to extreme democratic party. Nor was the hostility to the the Govern- Ministers confined to electoral contests. In the Chamber

strength of

rals, and re

ment.

10.

ing the press.

April 21.

itself the most violent and systematic resistance was made to every proposal of the Government; and every concession they made, so far from disarming the opposition, only rendered it more virulent and persevering. The press was never so violent and undisguised in its attacks on the administration; and to such a length did its hostility proceed, that before two months had elapsed from the coup d'état creating sixty new peers in the democratic interest, Ministers found it necessary to bring forward a lasting law regarding the press, to be a bridle on its

excesses.

It

Although this law was a great concession to the Law regard- popular party, and placed the liberty of the press upon a better basis than it had ever been, since the Restoration gave freedom to France, it excited the most violent opposition in both Chambers and in the public press. abolished the censorship-an immense step in the progress of real freedom-and declared that offences against the laws for restraining its excesses should be tried by juries. This was evidently laying the only true foundation for entire freedom on this subject; but the enactment which it also contained, that the proprietors of newspapers should find security to meet fines or claims of damages. which might be awarded against them, gave rise to the most violent opposition, both in the legislature and the public journals. "The press is strangled," was the universal cry; "give us back the censorship." Yet-markworthy circumstance—the proposal passed into a law; the resistance was overcome; of the whole journals, not

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