XII. 1823, state of semi-hostility has all the inconveniences of war CHAP. without the advantages of peace. Shall we, in obedience to the partisans of peace, withdraw the army of observation? Certes, we are not yet reduced to the necessity of flying before the chevaliers of the Hammer, or giving place to the Landaburian bands. England herself has recognised the necessity of our army of observation, for the Duke of Wellington said at the Congress of Verona, 'Considering that a civil war has been lighted on the whole extent of the frontier which separates the two kingdoms, no one can contest the necessity of establishing the army of observation.' 49. "It was not I who spoke first of the moral contagion, but since it has been mentioned by our adversaries, I con- Continued. fess that it is the most serious and alarming of all the dangers. Is any one ignorant that the revolutionists of Spain are in correspondence with our own? Have they not by public proclamations invited our soldiers to revolt? Have they not threatened to bring down the tricolor flag from the summit of the Pyrenees, to restore the son of Buonaparte? Do we not know the plots, the conspiracies of those traitors who have escaped from the hands of justice in this country, and now pretend to invade us in the uniform of the brave, unworthy to cover their treacherous hearts? Can a revolution which rouses in us such passions, and awakens such recollections, ever fail to compromise our essential interests? Can it be said to be shut up in the Peninsula, when it has already crossed the Pyrenees, revolutionised Italy, shaken France and England? Have the occurrences at Naples and Turin not sufficiently proved the danger of the moral contagion? And let it not be said the revolutionists in these states adopted the Constitution of the Cortes on account of its excellence. So far from that being the case, the first thing they were obliged to do, after having adopted the Spanish Constitution, was to appoint a commission to examine what it was. Thus it soon passed away, as XII. CHAP. everything does which is foreign to the customs of a country. Ridiculous from its birth, it expired in disgrace between an Austrian corporal and an Italian Carbonari. 1823. 50. In "Whence this extraordinary passion for England, and Continued. praise of its constitution, which has suddenly sprung up amongst us? A year has not elapsed since the boulevards were covered with caricatures, which insulted in the grossest manner everything connected with London. their love of revolution, the same persons have forgotten all their hatred for the soldiers who were fortunate at Waterloo little does it signify what they have done, provided now they aid them in supporting the revolutionists of Spain against a Bourbon. How has it happened that the Allies, now so much the object of animadversion, were not then regarded in the same light? Where was their jealousy of the Continental powers when they paraded with so much satisfaction their approval of the coup d'état of 5th September, which revolutionised the legislature; or the prosecutions of the Royalists, which shook the foundation of the throne? Who heard then of the dignity of France, or its being unworthy of her to seek support in the approbation of foreign states? When we had no army-when we were counted as nothing in the estimation of foreign states-when little German states invaded us with impunity, and we did not venture to utter a complaint-no one said that we were slaves. But now, when our military resurrection has astonished Europenow, when we raise a voice in the councils of kings which is always attended to-now, when new and honourable conventions expiate those in which we expiated our victories, we are now for the first time told that we are placing our necks under a humiliating yoke. 51. "I admit at once, France has no title to intermeddle Continued. in the internal concerns of Spain. It is for the Spaniards to determine what species of constitution befits them. I wish them, from the bottom of my heart, liberties commensurate to their morals, institutions which may put their XII. 1823. virtues beyond the reach of fortune or the caprice of men. CHAP. Spaniards! It is no enemy of yours who thus speaks; it is he who had predicted the return of your noble destinies, when all believed you for ever disappeared from the scene of the world.* You have surpassed my predictions; you have rescued Europe from a yoke which the most powerful empires had sought in vain to break. You owe to France your misfortunes and your glory; she has sent you these two scourges, Buonaparte and the Revolution. Deliver yourselves from the second, as you have delivered yourselves from the first. 52. "As to the Ministers, the speech of the Crown has traced the line of their duties. They will never cease to Concluded. desire peace, to invoke it from the bottom of their hearts, to listen to every proposition compatible with the honour and security of France; but it is indispensable that Ferdinand should be free; it is necessary that France, at all hazards, should extricate itself from a position in which it would perish more certainly than from all the dangers of war. Let us never forget that, if the war with Spain has, like every other war, its inconveniences and perils, it has also for us this immense advantage it will have created an army; it will have caused us to resume our military rank among nations; it will have decided our emancipation, and re-established our independence. Something was perhaps awanting to the entire reconciliation of Frenchmen; that something will be found beneath the tent; companions in arms are soon friends; and all recollections are lost in the remembrance of a common glory. The king, that monarch so wise, so pacific, so paternal, has spoken. He has thought that the security * M. de Châteaubriand alluded to the following passage in his Génie du Christianisme, published in 1803: "L'Espagne, séparée des autres nations, présente encore à l'historien un caractère plus original. L'espèce de stagnation de mœurs dans laquelle elle repose, lui sera peut-être utile un jour; et lorsque les peuples européens seront usés par la corruption, elle seule pourra reparaître avec éclat sur la scène du monde, parce que le fond des mœurs subsiste chez elle."—Génie du Christianisme, partie iii. t. iii. c. 4. XII. 1823. 1 Ante, c. iii. § 87. CHAP. of France and the dignity of the Crown rendered it imperative on him to have recourse to arms, after having exhausted the councils of peace. He has declared his wish that a hundred thousand men should assemble under the orders of a prince who, at the passage of the Drome, 2 Ann. Hist. showed himself as valiant as Henry IV. With generous Lam. vii. confidence he has intrusted the guard of the white flag to the captains who have triumphed under other colours. They will teach him the path of victory; he has never forgotten that of honour." 2 vi. 38, 40; 129, 137; Moniteur, Feb. 15, 1823. 53. Immense sensation produced by this speech. 3 Lam. vii. 136, 137; Ann. Hist. vi. 34, 41. 54. rand's speech on the war. This splendid speech made a prodigious sensation in France, greater perhaps than any other since the days of Mirabeau. It expressed with equal force and felicity the inmost and best feelings of the Royalists; and those feelings were on this occasion, perhaps for the first time, in unison with the sentiments of the great majority of Frenchmen. The nation had become all but unanimous at the sound of the trumpet. The inherent adventurous and warlike spirit of the Franks had reappeared in undiminished strength at the prospect of war. Chance, or the skilful direction of Government, had at last found an object in which all classes concurred-in which the ardent loyalty of the Royalist coincided with the buoyant ambition of the people. In vain the Liberal chiefs, who anticipated so much from the triumph of their allies beyond the Pyrenees, and dreaded utter discomfiture from their defeat, endeavoured to turn aside the stream, and to envenom patriotic by party feelings. The attempt wholly failed: the Chambers were all but unanimous in favour of the war; and their feelings were re-echoed from Calais to the Pyrenees.3 M. Talleyrand made a remarkable speech on this ocM. Talley- casion, which deserves to be recorded, as one of the most unfortunate prophecies ever made by a man of ability on the future issue of affairs. "It is just sixteen years to-day," said he," since I was called by him who then governed the world to give him my advice on the struggle in which XII. 1823. he was about to engage with Spain. I had the misfortune CHAP. to displease him because I revealed the future-because I unfolded the misfortunes which might arise from an aggression as unjust as it was inexpedient. Disgrace was the reward of my sincerity. Strange destiny!—which now, after so long an interval, leads me to give the same counsels to a legitimate sovereign! It is my part, who have had so large a share in the double Restoration-who, by my efforts, I may say by my success, have wound up my glory and my responsibility entirely with the alliance between France and the house of Bourbon-to contribute as much as lies in my power to prevent the work of wisdom and justice from being compromised by rash and insane passions." When this counsel on the Spanish war is compared with the result which occurred a few months afterwards, the difference is sufficiently striking. Talleyrand, with his sagacity and experience, proved a more fallacious counsellor than Chateaubriand, with his poetry and romance. Wisdom was found in the inspirations of genius rather than the deductions of experience. The reason is, that Talleyrand thought the result would be the same, because it was an attack by France on Spain, forgetting that the circumstances were materially different, and that the Bourbon invasion had that in its favour which in that of Napoleon was altogether awanting-viz., the support of the great body of the people. A memorable example of the important truth, that events in history are not to be drawn into a precedent unless the material circumstances attending them are similar; and 1 Lam. vii. that it is in the faculty of discerning where that similarity 120; Ann. exists that the highest proof of political wisdom is to be 34, 35. found.1 Hist. vi. 55. credit of The enthusiasm of the Chamber of Deputies in favour of the war did not evaporate merely in vehement harangues Vote of from the tribune; substantial acts testified their entire 100,000,000 adhesion to the system of the Government. They voted, by a very large majority, a supplementary credit of francs. |