XXXIII. 1836. -they fall from their lofty and independent character. CHAP. Like Mr Burke, they possess the solitary independence of real genius they may direct future ages, but they will seldom rule the present. To attain and retain political power, the mind must be much more supple and accommodating it must be equal to affairs, not above them--abreast of the age, not in advance of it. M. Thiers was a great political borrower and critic, 54. rather than a great statesman; and this peculiarity Continued. appears not less in his writings than his career. Like Sir R. Peel in politics, he was a "huge appropriation clause," and largely imported the ideas of others when it suited his purpose to adopt them like Lord Jeffrey in discoursing, he enlarged with admirable felicity on these adopted views, and from the very circumstance of their being adopted, and therefore not original, generally carried the majority with him. The majority of men are always directed by the original ideas of the great of the past, not the present generation. He had vast powers of amplification and illustration, prodigious fecundity of language, and occasionally, when warmed in debate, rose to a very high, though not the highest strain of eloquence. He was often inconsistent in principle, never in ambition. Holding a middle place as the leader of the Left Centre, or more Liberal section of the supporters of the Revolution of July, he inclined sometimes to the one, and sometimes to the other, and was alternately caressed by the Conservative diplomatists of Prince Metternich, and lauded by the Liberal journalists of Paris. Inconsistency was his great defect, as it is with all who are swayed by ambition or impulse, rather than a resolute will and settled conviction. He was vain, fond of flattery, and did not escape the imputation of being desirous of money to maintain the splendour in which he delighted, and little scrupulous in the means which he took to obtain it. His fame in future times will rest on his Histories, where he was truly XXXIII. 1836. CHAP. admirable, rather than his political career, which was often fickle and changeable. Yet is this fault rather to be ascribed to the age in which he lived than to himself, and could not, by a successful statesman, be avoided. Those who applaud the popular regime, and yet demand consistency in statesmen, are themselves inconsistent; for how is consistency to be maintained by one who depends on the ever-changing currents of public opinion? 55. ment of the debt, and strength in ber. As the Duke de Broglie's Ministry had been overPostpone thrown on the vexed question of the reduction of the question re- rentes, it was naturally supposed that the new Adminisgarding the tration would immediately bring in a measure in harmony first trial of with the views of the majority of the Chamber, and that the Cham- on its success the fate of the Ministry would depend. It proved otherwise, however: M. Thiers was too skilful a pilot to split upon the rock on which his predecessor had been stranded. He avoided it, accordingly, by a skilful speech, in which, after strongly enforcing the principle of the measure, he concluded by declaring that it was a step of so much importance, and requiring so much attention to details, that it, of necessity, must be left to be matured in another session. The majority in the Centre, satisfied with having got a Ministry of their own creation, and thereby secured the whole patronage of the State to themselves and their constituents, were content, or professed to be content, with this declaration; and the question recently so fiercely debated, and on which a Ministry had been overthrown, was quietly allowed to go to sleep. A trial of strength soon after took place on the election of three Vice-Presidents of the Chamber, in lieu of M. Sauzet, Passy, and Pelet de la Lozère, promoted to the Ministry, and the majority of the Parti-Tiers was unequivocally evinced; for M. Calmon, who was their xix. 71, 73; representative, had 218 votes; M. Duchatel, who beCap. ix. 6, longed to the late Ministry, had 200; and M. Forte, who had the support of the Gauche, only 165.1 1 Ann. Hist. On the 22d February, M. Thiers made, according to custom, a sort of profession of faith before the Chamber, CHAP. and as it elicited a similar declaration from M. Guizot, 66 XXXIII. 1836. profession Chamber. the leader of the Conservative Opposition, and M. Odillon 56. Barrot, the chief of the Extreme Gauche, their speeches M. Thiers' are in the highest degree interesting, as evincing the of faith beviews of the different parties at this period, when the fore the Government of Louis Philippe had, after repeated strug- Feb. 22. gles, been firmly established. Gentlemen," said M. Thiers, "the Cabinet is at length constituted, and the Chamber will, without doubt, deem it suitable that, without waiting to be interrogated, I should volunteer to state the principles by which it is to be guided. The men who are now placed on the ministerial bench have all acted in the light of day. You will not forget, I hope, that most of us have conducted the country in the midst of great perils, and that, in facing them, we have combated anarchy with all our strength. Those who were not then in the Ministry, seconded our efforts in the bosom of the Chamber. That which we were then we are still. For my own part, I declare it aloud, for I wish to be unknown to no one: I am what I was, the sincere friend of the Revolution of July, and on that very account convinced of the old truth, that to save a revolution you must preserve it from its own excesses. When these excesses appeared in the streets, or in the abusive use made of our institutions, I combated them with all the force of action and legislation. I feel honoured by having combated alongside of the majority of the Chamber; and were it necessary, I would unite with them again to save our country from the disorders which threaten it. I believe that these sentiments are those of the majority of the Chamber. The troubles which have disturbed our country seem to be approaching their termination; better days are in store for us, and we Moniteur shall not again see the days of peace uselessly darkened by 1836; Ann the features and desolation of war.1 Here, again, we shall 71 72. be faithful to the principle of the late Cabinet; it would 1 Feb. 23, Hist. xix. CHAP. not have been abandoned had the Government not become unreasonable and unworthy of its mission." XXXIII. 1836. 57. Declara tion of M. Guizot. The period has come," said M. Guizot, "when every one is called on to declare his sentiments, and I will not be the last to do so. Two charges are brought against our policy. One is, that it is rigorous and retrograde ; but I do not think that progress consists in advancing in the dark. When society has been for long buried in license, progress consists in returning to order-in restoring the sway of truth re-entering the conditions of society. If society consisted in indefinite extension, and required it, and such was the declared and ascertained will of society, then to delay would be to recede; but if society requires something very different, if it desires to regain the principles of conservatism, of which it has long lost sight, the return to conservative principles is progress. It is not progress to go back to 1791; what was then an advance is now a retrograde movement. The wants of that period are all satisfied; what is desired now was unfelt then. We are not required now to plunge afresh into those dark and tortuous ways, and to open a passage which leads to destruction and ruin. Our opponents are going on blindly in the old track; they demand what was demanded before, without perceiving that all is changed: it is we, and we alone, who are really abreast of the age. Revolutions have always been attended with this immense inconvenience, that they weaken and degrade power. When this has been done, what is required is to restore it-to give it fixity, dignity, consideration. It is in that that progress consists. God forbid I should say nothing has been done. Everything has been begun, nothing concluded. Should the majority in this Chamber, which has been so gloriously formed amidst all our struggles, once allow itself to be divided or Feb. 23, broken, you would see in a few months, perhaps in a few ix. 15, 16. days, our whole work-government, peers, deputies, citizens--vanish at once.1 We have but one thing to do, 1 Moniteur, 1836; Cap. and that is to be faithful to ourselves, to advance in the CHAP. line we have taken, and not to recede." XXXIII. 1836. 58. lon Barrot. "I have no liking," said M. Odillon Barrot, "for commonplaces. I will not go back on what has been said of M. Odiland resaid an hundred times. Doubtless the Opposition, since July 1830, has been placed in the most difficult situation. We have taken the Revolution of July in earnest; we regarded it not as a change of persons but of things as the commencement of a new political era -as the solemn consecration of the principles for which we have contended during fifty years. Others have considered it as a mere accidental occurrence-as a thing against which they were to be on their guard; and because the Revolution had been made in the name of the Charter, to confine themselves strictly within its limits, to concede as little as possible, and retard what had been torn from them by victory. We, on the other hand, who beheld in that Revolution an immense change, saw in the charter of 1830, not a bounding charter, but an unchangeable contract between king and people, and we wished that all the conditions of that charter should be faithfully observed. Whenever the promises in that charter came under discussion, we have always voted for its interpretation in the largest sense, without hatred, or a spirit of resistance against the Revolution, because we were convinced that, if that Revolution presented dangers, they would arise from resistance to its principles, not from carrying them out in honesty and good faith. Such is the profound difference of opinion which exists between us and another portion of the Chamber. I know that we have suffered under the position in which the violence of parties has placed us; that we have been represented as the accomplices of the excesses in the streets, and of a tendency to that republican despotism with which our opponents charge us. All that is false. We appeal to Feb. 23, the future and the good sense of the country, and they ix. 17, 18. will not fail us.1 Already the nation feels the necessity VOL. V. 2 R 1 Moniteur, 1836; Cap. |