1839. CHAP. beautiful sketches of French literature during the eightXXXIV. eenth century, and of contemporary character, which have given such celebrity to his name, it in a great degree impeded his ability as a minister, by producing a nervous apprehension of the press, and a feminine desire of approbation inconsistent with the insensibility to everything but the calls of duty, which forms the noblest feature of the masculine character, and is more than anything called for in a minister of state in troubled times. He had acquired great popularity at the tribune of the Peers by his eloquent declamations in favour of the independence of Poland, and against the laws of September 1834, but on that very account he was the less qualified to have a share in holding the helm in troubled times. Like Mr Canning, he looked more to the immediate applause of the newspapers than to the ultimate consequences of his actions, or the lasting opinion of thinking men,-a weakness common to him with most others who live on the breath of public applause, and one which so often disqualifies literary men from taking a place proportioned to their genius in the government of mankind. 40. State of parties after The formation of this Cabinet, in a manner, cast the parties in the Chamber in a new mould, and drew the line this change, more distinctly and irrevocably between them. M. Thiers became the avowed leader of the Gauche and Centre Gauche, and he aspired to nothing less than the premiership, with a cabinet of his own formation, including M. Odillon Barrot. It was foreseen that the It was foreseen that the age and infirmities of Marshal Soult would disable him from long holding his present arduous post, and at any rate he was more a man of action than words, and better fitted to subdue an insurrection in the streets by grape-shot than win a majority in the Chamber by persuasive language. M. Guizot was the man to whom the Conservatives of all shades in the Legislature now looked to form the future head of an anti-revolutionary cabinet, and combat demo XXXIV. 1839. cracy in the Chamber, and with its own weapons of decla- CHAP. mation and eloquence. The press followed this now decided line of demarcation of parties. The National declaimed violently against the ministerialists, and accused M. Odillon Barrot of having deserted his principles, and become lukewarm in the cause of democracy, since he had the prospect of a place in the Cabinet, and the Siècle and Courrier Français in vain defended his cause. But meanwhile the Liberals, who made this violent assault on M. Odillon Barrot, were themselves attacked in rear by a set of journals (the Moniteur Républicain, and l'Homme Libre) still more violent, which spoke the voice of the Société des Familles" and the "Société des Saisons," and openly aspired to overturn the Government and establish a republic. The Constitutionnel and Temps feebly defended MM. Dufaure, Passy, and Teste, and the Liberal part of the Cabinet,-while the Journal des Débats and 66 la Presse openly supported the new Cabinet, as they had 1 Cap. X. done that of Count Molé, with undiminished vigour and 44-47. no small share of ability.1 Barbès and The Chamber of Peers was, by an ordonnance of 14th 41. May 1839, charged with the trial of the parties accused Trial of of accession to the late revolt, and the proceedings the concommenced on the 27th June. Armand Barbès, Martin spirators. Bernard, Bonnet, and fifteen others, were first brought to trial, and the proceedings soon ran into that violent and impassioned duel between the opposite parties, which all the state trials of France at that period became. Barbès, with generous enthusiasm, took upon himself the whole blame of the proceeding, and strove only to exculpate his companions in arms. "I declare," said he, "that all the citizens, at three o'clock on the 12th May, were ignorant of our project of attacking the Government. They had been assembled by the committee without being informed of the reason of their convocation. They believed they were coming to a review, and it was only on arriving at the ground, whither we had previously sent ammų XXXIV. 1839. CHAP, nition and arms, that I put weapons into their hands, and gave them the signal to march. These citizens then were hurried away, forced by moral influence to follow that order. According to me, they are innocent. For my own part, I desire to take no benefit by this declaration. I declare that I was one of the chiefs of the association-I admit that I gave the order for the combat, and prepared the means of its execution-I admit that I took part in it, and fought against the troops; but while I assume on myself the entire responsibility of the general acts, I deny that I am responsible for acts which I neither counselled nor approved. Among these is the death of Lieut. Drouineau, of which I am specially accused. That is an act of which I am incapable. I did not slay M. Drouineau; had I done so, it should have been in open combat, as in the days of chivalry. I am no assassinthat is all I have to say. When an Indian falls into the hands of his enemy, he does not think of defending himself he gives up his head to be scalped." "The accused," said M. Pasquier, "had reason on his side when he compared himself to a savage." "The pitiless savage, v. 419, 420. resumed Barbès, "is not he who gives his head to be scalped, but he who scalps."1 1 L. Blanc, 42. and sen tences of the accused. In these circumstances it was evident that the only Conviction question on which there could be any dispute was the accession of the accused to the death of Lieut. Drouineauas all the rest was admitted, and could not be denied, for they were taken with arms in their hands fighting against the Government. It was very material, however, to obtain a conviction of this offence, because murder was a crime which, unlike treason, it was understood the King could not pardon. After a long trial Barbès was found guilty of insurrection against the State, and "voluntary homicide committed with premeditation." He was in consequence sentenced to death, and the other accused to long periods of confinement, from five to twenty years. The utmost efforts were immediately made by the family July 12, XXXIV. 1839. of Barbès, which was in the highest degree respectable, to CHAP. obtain a commutation of his punishment; but there was much difficulty felt on this point, as, however the Sovereign might pardon attempts on his own life, it was very doubtful how far he was entitled to do the same with the murderer of another. The Council of State were divided on the subject, and the majority were inclined to let the law take its course. At length, however, by the intercession of the Duke of Orleans, at whose feet the sister of Barbès had thrown herself, the King was so far strengthened as to feel authorised to give way to those humane feelings which formed so bright a feature in his character. The sentence of death against Barbès was commuted first into forced labour for life, and then into imprisonment for the same term in the prison of Mont St Michel, on the coast of Normandy. Blanqui, another leader of the Nov. 13, conspiracy, with eighteen others, were afterwards tried before the same court, and sentenced, the first to death, the rest to long periods of imprisonment. The capital sentence against the first was in like manner commuted, by the clemency of the King, into confinement for life in the state prison of Mont St Michel. There, in the solitary chambers which the austerity of the monks in the 1 Cap. x. dark had formed for the voluntary infliction of expia- Blanc, V. tory discipline, did these gallant but deluded men mourn Ann. Hist. incessantly over their fallen prospects, amidst a silence xxii. 163, broken only by the ceaseles surge of the waves by which to Chron. they were surrounded on the iron-bound rock on which 178, 206. their prison was built.' ages 1839. 53-55; L. 425-427; 174; App. and xxiii. Barbes and ates in this This conspiracy threw a light on the attempt of Louis 43. Napoleon at Strasbourg in the close of the preceding Views of year, and the obstinacy with which the Belgian revolu- his associ tionists had braved the hostility of combined Europe, conspiracy. rather than relax their hold of a territory containing only three hundred thousand inhabitants in Limbourg and Luxembourg. Both looked for an outbreak at Paris, which, although directed to different objects from either, XXXIV. 1839. CHAP. Would have operated as a powerful auxiliary to both. Yet were the designs of Barbès, Blanqui, and the conspirators of the 12th May, in reality more at variance with those of the young scion of the Imperial house than even with those of the Government on the throne. Their ideas were an amplification of those of Robespierre and St Just, but without the belief of the latter in the necessity of blood to cement the social edifice. They had embraced the views of Babœuff in the conspiracy in 1797, which so severely tried the Directory; but they were influenced by more humane and philanthropic principles. Their code was founded on a misapplication of that of Christian morality. They applied to the social concerns of men, and the foundations of civil society, the words which our Saviour delivered as a guide for private life, and to combat the innate and universal selfishness of human nature. "The last shall be first, and the first last," they thought was intended to designate, not the next world, but this; and the great object of legislation, in their opinion, in consequence, should be to bring society towards that desirable consummation. They openly inculcated, as a corollary from these principles, the abolition of all gradations of rank, of all capital, and of the invidious distinction of property. All should be equal; and to insure the continuance of that equality, all possessions should be equally divided, and never permitted to accumulate in the hands of one more than in another. The first precept of the Gospel, they observed, was "to sell all your goods and give to the poor." These doctrines are very remarkable, and they heralded another revolution, very different in principle from that of 1789, but perhaps still more formidable in practice. The world was far from the infidel and irreligious spirit which ushered in the first great convulsion: "LIBERTÉ, EGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ," was still the principle; but men now founded that principle, not on 49, 50. the denial, but on the misinterpretation, of the doctrines. of the Gospel.1 1 Cap. x. |