ment of the Celtic race, and whether it can safely be CHAP. intrusted to any other than the Teutonic.* A strong XXXIII. 1837. 82. junction of The Government were extremely disconcerted by this acquittal, the more especially as the evidence, especially Law for disagainst the military, was so decisive, and their conviction trials, which before a court-martial would have been certain. is rejected. sense of the necessity of the case, and of the impossibility of intrusting juries with the trial of military men in political cases, induced them to bring forward a measure on the subject, which excited a very warm opposition, and presented the only feature worthy of notice in the legislative session of 1837. To understand this subject, it is necessary to premise that, by the French law, when several persons were to be tried for their accession to an offence committed in common by several persons, some civil, some military, they required all to be tried before the same tribunal; and it was on account of this necessity that so many political cases embracing both sets of Prince Louis Napoleon, who acted most generously and honourably in this whole affair, was extremely desirous to have shared the trial and fate of the other conspirators at Strasburg, instead of being sent to America. He composed, during the few days he was in prison at Strasburg, a speech in his own defence, intended for the jury, which concluded with these remarkable words :-"J'ai voulu faire la révolution par l'armée, parcequ'elle offrait plus de chances de réussite, et pour éviter aussi les désordres si fréquentes dans les bouleversements sociaux. Je me suis gravement trompé dans l'exécution de mon projet, mais cela fait encore moins d'honneur à des vieux militaires qui revoyant l'aigle n'ont pas senti le cœur battre dans leur poitrine. Ils m'ont parlé de nouveaux serments, oubliant que c'est la présence de douze cent mille étrangers qui les a déliés de celui qu'ils avaient prêté. Or un principe détruit par la force peut être rétabli par la force: JE CROIS AVOIR UNE MISSION A REMPLIR JE SAURAI GARDER MON RÔLE JUSQU'A LA FIN."-Histoire de Louis Napoléon, i. 29, 30. The idea of a destiny, and his having a mission to perform, was throughout a fixed one in Louis Napoleon's mind. No disasters shook his confidence in his star, or his belief in the ultimate fulfilment of his destiny. This is well known to all who were intimate with him in this country after he returned from America in 1837. Among other noble houses the hospitality of which he shared was that of the Duke of Montrose at Buchanan, near Lochlomond, and the Duke of Hamilton at Brodick Castle, in the island of Arran. His manner in both was in general grave and taciturn; he was wrapt in the contemplation of the future, and indifferent to the present. In 1839, the present Earl of W, then Lord B-, came to visit the Author, after having been some days with Louis Napoleon at Buchanan House. One of the first things he said was, "Only think of that young man Louis Napoleon: XXXIII. 1837. CHAP. defenders had been sent to the Supreme Court of the Chamber of Peers, which was competent to both. As the proceedings of April 1835, however, had sufficiently proved the inconvenience attendant on trials before that tribunal, Count Molé now brought forward a bill, the object of which was to allow civilians to be tried before the ordinary jury-courts, and military men before courtsmartial, in the case of political offences committed by them in common. This proposal was certainly no great violation of the liberties of the subject, for it only proposed to subject military persons to the trial of their military superiors, and civil to that of the ordinary tribunals. It excited, however, the most violent heats and animosities, and, like all other proceedings at that period in France, whether judicial or legislative, speedily ran into a debate between the Movement and Conservative parties. Why," said M. Dupin, "when a political offence has nothing can persuade him he is not to be Emperor of France: the Strasburg affair has not in the least shaken him; he is thinking constantly of what he is to do when on the throne." The Duke of N- also said to the author in 1854: "Several years ago, before the Revolution of 1848, I met Louis Napoleon often at Brodick Castle in Arran. We frequently went out to shoot together; neither cared much for the sport, and we soon sat down on a heathery brow of Goatfell, and began to speak seriously. He always opened these conferences by discoursing on what he would do when he was Emperor of France. Among other things, he said he would obtain a grant from the Chambers to drain the marshes of the Bries, which, you know, once fully cultivated, became flooded when the inhabitants, who were chiefly Protestants, left the country on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes; and what is very curious, I see in the newspapers of the day that he has got a grant of two millions of francs from the Chambers to begin the draining of these very marshes." All that belongs to Louis Napoleon is now public property, and these noble persons will for give the author if he endeavours to rescue from oblivion anecdotes so eminently illustrative of the fixity of purpose which is the most remarkable feature in that very eminent man's character. This idea of destiny, of a star, or a mission, which are only different words for the same thing, will be found to have been a fixed belief in most men who attain to ultimate greatness. Whether it is that the disposition of mind which leads to such a belief works out its own accomplishment, by the energy and perseverance which it infuses into the character, and which enables its possessor to rise superior to all the storms of fate, or that Providence darkly reveals to the chosen instruments of great things-"the vessels of honour" to which the working out of its purposes in human affairs is intrusted-enough of the future to secure its accomplishment, will for ever remain a mystery in this world. XXXIII. 1837. 83. of M. Du the law. been committed by a soldier in conjunction with citizens, CHAP. is the former to be subjected to a peculiar and exceptional tribunal ? Is it that a jury is indifferent to discipline in the army? Is it that it prefers disorder? Is Argument it that the proprietor, the merchant, do not know that pin against without order their labour is valueless, and that the discipline of the army is its sole guarantee? Military law, it is said, requires prompt execution. Be it so. Will you renounce the confronting the witnesses with the accused? If, on the other hand, you delay the case for bringing them forward, the proposed witnesses may in the interim be condemned to death. And if not, what can be more cruel than to keep a man during three or four months under the stroke of death? Is not his punishment quadrupled by such barbarity? And if the courts-martial do their work, I see something still more terrible; the public accuser presenting himself with bloody heads in his hand to demand those which have not yet fallen. The proposed law destroys the sentiment which makes a good soldier. What attaches the soldier to his country? It is the memory of the home of his father, of the field of his infancy, of the cemetery which has received the ashes of his father, and is to receive his own. It is the memory of his little country which attaches him to the great one. It is good citizens alone who make good soldiers. 'Justice,' said Napoleon, is one only in France—the citizen precedes the soldier.' Thence it is that the crimes of the soldier should be submitted to the civil courts; to the jury, which is an epitome of the nation. If you make of the army a body apart, as was formerly the case with the clergy-if, after having put arms into their hands, Moniteur, you invest them with the right to employ them in self- 1837; Ann. executed justice, you abdicate the right of judging; you 124; L. invest them with a terrible right, which may ere long be 202. turned against your country and yourselves." 1 66 Every one is agreed," said M. Lamartine in reply, 1 Hist. xx. Blanc, v. XXXIII. CHAP. "that the trials at Strasburg were scandalous in the extreme; but each party seeks to throw the odium off itself upon its opponent. One party accuses the jury, another M. Lamar the Government; all agree that some one is to blame. tine's reply. If the Government were to blame in bringing to trial the 1837. 84. subordinate conspirators when the principal was allowed to escape, did that authorise the jury to violate their oaths by acquitting the persons clearly proved to be guilty who were brought before them? Is there any parity of situation between a simple citizen invested with no powers, charged with no responsibility, executing no functions, and a military commander, who can with a word dispose of two or three thousand bayonets, and at once overturn a government, pillage a city, or violate the whole sanctities of private life ?-who can, by displacing a battery, cause the loss of one hundred thousand men, or, as at Strasburg, seduce his soldiers to violate all laws, trample under foot all oaths, and light the flames of civil war in a happy land? There is no parallelism between the two cases; there should be none between the courts which should try them. The military man has joined to the crime of which the civilian has been guilty a crime of a still deeper dye, which is exclusively his own a crime against military honour and subordination; that crime which the common consent of all nations has stigmatised with the name of treason. The proposed disjunction of the trials is therefore justified by the still more marked disjunction between the crimes with which 1 Ann. Hist. the civil and military accused are severally charged; it is marked out by the immense difference which the nature of things has established between them." 1 xx. 121, 128. 85. and the There was much force in these able arguments on both The bill is sides; but the question was not determined by any such thrown out, considerations. It was in reality a trial of strength between the Ministerial and united Opposition parties; for the Royalists on this question united with the Liberals against the Centre, which had hitherto commanded the Ministry still hold on. March 6. XXXIII. 1837. majority. The result was, that the bill was thrown out CHAP. by a majority of Two; the numbers being 211 to 209! It was the same minute majority which had overturned the Administration of M. Thiers, and introduced that of Count Molé. The excitement, therefore, upon this division was very great, and it was generally thought the Ministers would resign. The ministerial papers, however, announced next morning that the Government would not retire before so small a majority; but it was nevertheless foreseen that it had received a mortal stroke, and that it was only a question of time, when a fresh combination would be necessary to regain the majority in the Chamber. It was emphatically a new combination, not an entire change of ministry, which was required. No one thought of either M. Berryer and the Extreme Droit, or M. Odillon Barrot and the Extreme Gauche, being intrusted with the formation of an administration. It was a slight modification in the Centre, which might change a few votes, which alone was thought of or required, to found a ministry of the ephemeral duration which alone was now practicable; a state of things precisely analogous to that which, at the same period, obtained in the British House of Commons; but which, of course, in both assemblies, was fatal to all projects of important legislation, and deprives their debates for a series of years of much 136, 137. of the interest which had previously attached to them.1 The crisis of the Ministry, which Government foresaw, but strove to postpone, was, however, not long of Modificacoming on. After struggling on several weeks, without Ministry. any real majority in the Chamber, and consequently reduced to the necessity of postponing or abandoning every measure on which opposition might be expected, Ministers found their situation too uncomfortable, and Count Molé resigned his office. It was at first proposed to form a new Cabinet, in which Count Molé should resume his position as Premier, and Marshal Soult, Count Montalivet, and M. Hermann, might lend him 1 Moniteur, March 8, 1837; Ann. Hist. xx. 86. tion of the April 15. |