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IX.

1820.

hierarchy, who might be at once a support of the throne CHAP. and a check upon its power. Absolute equality, according to them, was the best possible foundation for Eastern despotism, but the worst for European freedom; you might as well construct a palace out of the waves of the ocean, as a constitutional monarchy out of the absolute equality of classes. Infidelity had been the principle of the Revolution in matters of belief; the only foundation for the monarchy was to be found in the restoration of the influence of the ancient faith. The centralisation of all power in the capital by the system of the Revolution, and the destruction of all power in the provinces by the division of property, threatened, in their view, the total destruction of public freedom, and would leave France no other destiny but that of an armed democracy or an irresistible despotism. The sequel of this history will show which of these sets of opinions was the better founded; in the mean time, it is obvious that they were wholly irreconcilable with each other, and that no harmonious cabinet could by possibility be constructed out of the leaders of such opposite parties.*

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The great military conspiracy, which was to have broken out on 19th August, had its ramifications in the provinces, and in several places the disturbances which ensued

* M. de Châteaubriand, in an article in the Conservateur, on 30th Nov. 1819, has well explained the views and intentions of the Royalists at this period; and subsequent events have rendered his words prophetic: “Voilà donc les Royalistes au pouvoir, fermement résolus à maintenir la charte; tout leur édifice sera posé sur ce fondement; mais, au lieu de bâtir une démocratie, ils élèveront une monarchie. Ainsi leur premier devoir, comme leur premier soin, serait de changer la loi des élections. Ils feraient en même temps retrancher de la loi de recrutement le titre VI.,+ et rendraient ainsi à la couronne, une des plus importantes prérogatives. Ils rétabliraient dans la loi sur la liberté de la presse le mot "Religion," qu'à leur honte éternelle, de prétendus hommes d'Etat en ont banni. Ministres vous fondez une législation, et elle produira des mœurs conformes à vos règles.

"Après la modification des lois capitales, les Royalistes proposeraient les lois les plus monarchiques, sur l'organisation des communes et sur la Garde Nationale. Ils affaibliraient le système de centralisation; ils rendraient une puissance salutaire aux conscils généraux. Créant, partout, des agrégations

+ That regulating the promotion of officers irrespective of the Crown.—Ante, ch. vi. § 47.

IX.

1820.

CHAP. required to be coerced by open force. At Brest, M. Ballart, the deputy, was openly insulted by the populace, and the national guard evinced such symptoms of disaffection that it required to be dissolved. At Saumur, M. Benjamin Constant was threatened by the scholars ternal mea- of the military school for cavalry. Everything indicated sures of the the approach of the most fearful of all contests—a con

89. Disturbances in the pro

vinces. In

Govern

ment.

test of classes. The exasperation of parties, as usual in cases where they are nearly balanced, was extreme; the Royalists were excited by the prospect of ere long attaining power, the Liberals exasperated at the thoughts of losing it. The ruling principle with the Duke de Richelieu, and which had directed the distribution of the honours of the Cordon Bleu, had been to form a new hierarchy, drawn from all classes, around the throne, and thus to interest in its support alike the Liberals, Imperialists, and Royalists. This maxim had been acted upon with great discrimination and success; but now the violent exasperation of parties, and the ascertained conspiracies 110,112; in the army, rendered it advisable to adopt still more vigorous measures of conciliation, and those resolved on were the following.1

1 Cap. vii.

Lam. vii.

8, 9.

A new organisation was given to the household of the king, which embraced a considerable extension. It was d'intérêts, ils les substitueraient à ces individualités trop favorables à l'établissement de la tyrannie. En un mot, ils recomposeraient l'aristocratie, troisième pouvoir qui manque à nos institutions, et dont l'absence produit le frottement dangereux que l'on remarque aujourd'hui entre la puissance royale et la puissance populaire. C'est dans cette vue, que les Royalistes solliciteraient les substitutions en faveur de la Pairie. Ils chercheraient à arrêter, par tous les moyens légaux, la division des propriétés, division qui, dans trente ans, en réalisant la loi agraire, nous fera tomber en démocratie forcée.

"Une autre mesure importante serait encore prise par l'administration Royaliste. Cette administration demanderait aux Chambres, tant dans l'intérêt des acquéreurs que dans celui des anciens propriétaires, une juste indemnité pour les familles qui ont perdu leurs biens dans le cours de la Révolution. Les deux espèces de propriétés qui existent parmi nous, et qui créent, pour ainsi dire, deux peuples sur le moment, sont la grande plaie de la France. Pour la guérir, les Royalistes n'auraient que le mérite de faire revivre la proposition de M. le Maréchal Macdonald; 'On apprend tout dans les camps Français: la justice comme la gloire.'"-Conservateur, 30 Nov. 1819; and Euvres de M. CHATEAUBRIAND, XX. 270, 271.

IX.

90.

the house

divided into six departments, the heads of four of which CHAP. were great officers of the Crown, and the other two great officers of the household. * 1820. The king regulated these departments entirely himself, and never would permit Changes in any interference on the part of his Cabinet Ministers. hold. He said, and not without reason, that as he left them Nov. 1, the disposal of all the offices of state, they might leave him the patronage of his own household. In filling up the situations, however, he carried out to its full extent the system of fusion, on which he was so much bent. M. de Lauriston was put at the head of the household, in reward of his military services, and recent activity in suppressing the disturbances in Brest. His devotion to the royal family, good sense, and discernment, justified the choice. But so far did the king go in his desire to conciliate all parties, that he appointed General Rapp, a brave and distinguished, but rough and homespun veteran of Napoleon's, Grand Master of the Wardrobe. The old soldier, however, soon showed, that if he had been bred in camps, he could take on, late in life, if not the polish, at least the address of courts; for, on occasion of the death of Napoleon, which soon after ensued, having been gently chid by the king for the extreme grief which 1 Cap. vii. he manifested, he replied: "Ah! Sire, I owe him every- Lac. iii. 20. thing even the happiness of serving your Majesty."

113, 115;

91.

nisation of

A more important change was adopted soon after, which tended, more than anything else, to the prolonged New orga existence of the dynasty of the Restoration. This was an the army. entirely new organisation of the army. The object of the former division of the troops into departmental legions had been, to destroy the disaffected spirit of the Imperial army, by breaking up the regiments from whose esprit de corps its continuance was chiefly to be appre

* Viz.: "De la grande Aumônerie, du grand Maître, du grand Chambellan, du grand Écuyer, du grand Veneur, du grand Maître des Cérémonies. Le grand Veneur et le grand Maître des Cérémonies étaient grands officiers de la maison; les autres, grands officiers de la couronne."-Histoire de la Restauration, vii. 114.

1820.

CHAP. hended; and the measure had in a great degree been IX. attended with success. But the military conspiracy of August 19, and the certain information obtained that a considerable part of the army had been privy to it, proved that the new regulations, recently introduced, regarding promotion in the army, which determined it by certain fixed rules, irrespective of the choice of the sovereign, was fraught with danger, and might, at some future period, prove fatal to the monarchy. M. LatourMaubourg, accordingly, felt the necessity of a change of system; and he presented a report to the king, stating a variety of considerations, which, however just, were not the real ones, which determined the alteration he proposed-a return to the old system. According to his recommendation, a new ordonnance was issued, which re-established the army, very much on the footing on which it had stood prior to the great change introducing departmental legions in 1815. The infantry was divided into eighty regiments, of which sixty were of the line, and twenty light infantry. Each regiment consisted of three battalions, and each battalion of eight 1 Moniteur, companies; each company of three officers and eighty Oct. 28, sub-officers and soldiers. Thus each regiment, including field-officers, consisted of two thousand and ten men, and the whole foot-soldiers of a hundred and sixty-one thousand men.1 Fourteen états-majors, six legions, and between two thousand and three thousand officers, were put

Oct. 27, 1820.

1820; Ann. Hist. iii. 233, 234; Ordon

nance, Oct. 27, 1820.

"Que l'appel sous les drapeaux des jeunes soldats donnait lieu, dans le système des légions, à des dépenses considérables, par la nécessité de les diriger sur les légions de leur département, qui en était souvent placé à une grande distance; or en diminuant la distance à parcourir, on obtenait avec une réduction dans les dépenses, l'avantage de compter moins de déserteurs. Dans certaines légions le nombre des sujets capables est si grand, que l'avancement qui leur est dévolu, n'offre pas assez de chances pour les retenir au service, tandis que dans d'autres légions on est totalement dépourvu de bons sous-officiers; et puis, à la guerre, ou dans le cas d'une expédition lointaine un événement malheureux pèserait tout entier sur la population militaire de quelques départements, et rendrait impossible, pour longtemps, la réorganisation de leur corps." -Rapport de M. de Gouvion St Cyr. CAPEFIGUE, Histoire de la Restauration, vii. 115, 116.

IX.

1820.

on half-pay. No change was made on the guards or CHAP. cavalry, the spirit of which was known to be sufficiently good. The ordonnance experienced no resistance in any quarter; very much in consequence of its gratifying the soldiers, by ordering the resumption of the old blue uniform, associated with so many recollections-a change which induced them to hope, at no distant period, for the restoration of the tricolor cockade.

92.

regarding

struction.

A change not less important, both in its effects and as indicating the altered disposition of the Government, was Ordonnance made by the Minister of the Interior in the important public inmatter of public instruction. An ordonnance of the king Nov. 1, re-established the "Secretaries General" of schools, which 1820. had been abolished in 1816. These officers were erected into a royal commission, of which M. Corbière soon became the head; and their duty was to exercise a superintendence over the system of education pursued, and the works read, in all the schools of the kingdom. As they virtually came in place of the old university of Napoleon, and discharged its functions, so they were divided into its departments, and resumed its costume. The object 1 Vide Hist. of this measure, as that of Napoleon had formerly been, c. 1.78, was to bring public opinion into harmony with the exist- 79. ing dynasty and system of government by moulding the minds of the rising generation. An academy of medicine was soon after created by the king, and several stringent Dec. 20. regulations passed, the object of which was to restrain the turbulent and refractory spirit which, in the late tumults, had manifested itself in Paris in the students of law and 1820. physic.2

2

of Europe,

Ann. Hist. Moniteur,

iii. 232, 233;

Dec. 21,

circular to

Oct. 25.

All these matters, however, though most momentous 93. in their ultimate effects, yielded in importance to the The king's elections, upon the result of which the fate of the Ministry, the electors. in a great measure, depended, and which were this year of the greater importance, that they would indicate, for the first time, the working of the new Electoral Law upon the composition of the Legislature. At a Cabinet

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