XXX. 1832. CHAP. francs (£480,000) for roads in La Vendée, and 17,000,000 francs (£680,000) for other roads in France, and 2,500,000 francs (£100,000) for light-houses on the coasts. Nothing was ever more wise or expedient, even for the Government's own interests, than these splendid grants. It was by a similar policy, in a great measure, that the Romans so long retained the empire which the legions. had conquered; the sway of the emperors was felt chiefly by the munificent grants in aid of public works in the provinces, which flowed from the imperial treasury. It is painful to think how blind the selfishness of ruling power so 1 Moniteur, often renders it to the expedience, for its own sake, of 1833; Cap. this wise and magnanimous policy; and how strong is the 180; Ann. tendency of those in authority in the metropolis to concentrate the benefits of taxation upon themselves, and leave only its burdens to the distant parts of the empire.1* The finances of France experienced a sensible ameliorIncome and ation in the course of this year; but the great military armaments which were still kept on foot, and the immense grants to public works, brought the public expen April 30, vii. 179, Hist. xvi. 257,258. 19. expenditure of 1833. * The credits adopted by the Chamber for the Public Works were as follows: -Annuaire Historique, xvii. 257; and CAPEFIGUE, Dix Ans de Louis Philippe, vii. 179, 180. XXX. 1832. diture to a very high level. The budget, as finally CHAP. arranged, presented an income of 1,133,870,547 francs (£45,900,000), and an expenditure, ordinary and extraordinary, of 1,120,394,804 francs (£45,800,000); exhibiting a trifling balance in favour of the exchequer, which, as usual in such cases, was brought out only to keep up appearances, and was more apparent than real. A more solid ground of confidence was afforded by the details of the receipts, which exhibited a marked and gratifying INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF FRANCE FOR 1833, 1834, AND 1835. * After this year, Public Worship was united to Justice. -Ann. Hist. xx. 67, App. 1" Partie; and xxi. 87; Doc. Hist., 1r Partie. 1832. CHAP. increase in all the principal branches of revenue, indiXXX. cating the immense benefit which had been conferred upon the nation by the defeat of the Republicans, and the establishment of the Government upon a more solid foundation. But the shock of recent events was still 1 Ann. Hist. painfully felt; and the income required to be brought up xvi. 90, 94; to the expenditure by loans to the amount of 167,000,000 1r Partie. francs (£6,700,000), contracted during a period of general peace.1 Doc. Hist. 20. The King made two journeys this year-one to NorKing's jour- mandy, and one towards Calais; and in the course of mandy, and these progresses, several answers he made to addresses answers to presented to him were singularly indicative of the sound ney to Nor felicitous addresses. ness of his judgment. The mayor of Rouen having contended, in his speech, for the absolute freedom of commerce, Louis Philippe replied: "I am disposed on principle to wish that commerce should enjoy the greatest possible freedom: I wish it was possible to emancipate it from every restraint; because I believe that its liberty is one of the chief means of augmenting capital, of founding great fortunes, and of increasing the general prosperity by means of their circulation. Nevertheless, we cannot advance in that path but with great circumspection; we must hear and consult all interests; and all I can say at present is, that the subject occupies my most anxious consideration." The president of the civil tribunal of Bernay having addressed him on the attachment of the people to liberal institutions, and the necessity of truth reaching the ear of princes, the King replied, with dignity: "Yes! without doubt it is fitting that truth should reach the ears of kings, but it is fitting it should reach those of nations also. Now, nations have their flatterers as kings formerly had; and these new flatterers know well how to pervert the truth by flattery, or to intimidate it by insult, or obscure it by calumny.2 xv. 302,303. It is for time and public reason to do it justice; and it is only by rejecting the eyes of passion and of partiality 2 Cap. vii. 191, 192; Ann. Hist. XXX. that the public mind can succeed in arriving at a sound CHAP. judgment, and discerning its true interests. It is then, 1833. also, that it can appreciate justly the real advantages which it enjoys, and learns not to put them in hazard by pursuing chimeras, and recalling the misfortunes which they have caused to weigh upon France." 21. which the propagand ism as What pains soever the French Government may have taken to repress the spirit of insubordination, to the New form triumph of which it owed its origin, it could not extin- spirit of guish it, and the more it was kept down in France itself, the more it sought vent in foreign states. The spirit of sumed. propagandism, however, now took a new direction. It sought out different channels for its operations. It no longer organised open revolt; insurrections in the streets were laid aside. It was by secret committees, public meetings called ostensibly for other purposes, and extensive correspondence, that the new system was to be carried out, and sedition nurtured without incurring its pains. The Polish emigrants, ardent, intrepid, and enterprising, inspired with the most violent hatred at the monarchical party of which Russia was the head, were the chief agents in every part of Europe of this new species of propagandism. Infatuated, as exiles in general are, with the prospects and power of their adherents, they did not see that, in throwing themselves in this manner without reserve into the arms of the Republicans, they were inflicting a wound on their country worse than any it had received from the arms of the Russians, because they detached from its side all the monarchies of Europe, even the most liberal, who with reason apprehended more danger from such allies than 196, 198. from the strides of the Colossus of the north.1 In common with other great cities, a Polish Committee was appointed in Paris, which was soon in close correspondence with those in London, Brussels, and elsewhere, and initiated into all the designs of the Republicans in every part of the world. Naturally it excited VOL. V. T 1 Cap. vii. XXX. 1833. 22. Remonstrances of CHAP. the disquietude of the Russian Government, which represented that the existence and tolerance of such a committee in Paris was a standing menace to the northern powers, and open to all the objections so strongly urged Russia and by Lafayette and the National Assembly against the against the assemblage of Royalist nobles at Coblentz in 1792. To Polish com- these remonstrances of the Russian ambassador, Count Prussia mittees. 1 Cap. vii. 201, 203. Pozzo di Borgo, the Prussian minister added others which belonged exclusively to the Germanic Confederacy. He represented that the Diet had been under the necessity in the preceding year of taking some steps to repress the spirit of propagandism which had appeared so strongly, especially in the lesser states, and that this danger was immensely increased by the Polish and Republican committees so generally established. A secret memoir was at the same time presented by a diplomatic agent of the Court of Berlin to its Cabinet, which portrayed with truth the political state of Germany, and foreshadowed the part it was destined to take on the political theatre of Europe. "For centuries," it observed, " Germany has been regarded as the heart of Europe. So long as the ideas of preserving the balance of power were in vogue, it was generally felt that it was the central weight which made the balance incline to whichever side it adopted. Napoleon in the outset of his career hastened to base his power on the Confederation of the Rhine: it was when it turned against him that he was overthrown. In the beginning of 1832, Germany was in a very unsettled state. French emissaries never ceased to traverse the country from state to state, and their influence was in an especial manner felt in the capitals of the smaller powers, at Munich, Dresden, Würtemberg, and Baden, and in general from the Rhine to the frontiers of Prussia. These facts are sufficiently notorious: several of these agents have been seized in Berlin itself, and sent out of the kingdom. The new theories have in an especial manner penetrated the lesser states, and nothing has con |