»*«>a*a A g>»w^ the Statt o/ Fj*-«>«*jk\^T^^' 



1831; 



'leave this question to fee resolved fey 

 "Ifie ^evic^rer. 



'^-•'lii pajje 21»t, he continues, " Fifteen 

 -years of military »lory neemed to have 

 ^Itradicated fram the minds of this volatile 

 people all idea of civil liberty. Scarcely 

 -«o individual of the risin? ^neratioo had 

 .heard the name; factions were unknown 

 MVder Buonaparte: but the spell of his 

 power was no sooner broken than the Uto- 

 pian theories of 1789 were revived, toge- 

 ther with the opposite principles of the 

 ©Id monarchy." 

 ,.^ In other words,' the spirit of reform 

 I ('jflitcU had been hushed, not laid., by the 

 jitiigbty genius of Napoleon — the spirit 

 /, of adapt injT our institutions to the want 

 jof the present day, inslead of bein^ 

 regulated by the antiquated wages of 

 ^■our ignorant and illiterate ancestors; 

 that spirit which must, ere long, tri- 

 umph everj' where, in selecting the 

 litlle iLat is good among ancient cus- 

 toms, and in rejecting all tlie barbarous 

 -.jnibbish with which tlie whdom of nnr 

 ■anceitors has encuml)ered us : — tiiat 

 spirit,whichinspiteof both Edinburgh 

 and Quarterly reviews, will ultimately 

 Jjiy prostrate in the dust, so many ve- 

 nerable and absurd institutions'; — in 

 short, that glorious spirit of reform, 

 again revived, the moment the mighty 

 (Hespotism of Napoleon was broken. — 

 ,.ye?ir the " Utopian theories" of 1789 

 'were revived, never again (o be abau- 

 dkiped ! Their roots have taken too 

 deep hold ever to be eradicated by all 

 ^the efforts of all the reviewers, however 

 ^piHch they may admire the wisdom of 

 ' [p]ir ancestors, and regret the downfall 

 jj)f all their venerable nonsense. 

 jj^.As for" the opposite principles of the 

 ..wf monarchy,'^ they undoubtedly did 

 revive at the same time; and for the 

 ctJEse of France and the misfortune of 

 Europe, tliey have, in the mean time, 

 triumphed. The l^oltigeurs of Louis 

 i^uatorze, who seemed to liave been 

 asleep for these last thirty years, have 

 sallied forth from " their hiding places," 

 covered with the rusty armour of igno- 

 rance, and blinded by conceit and folly 

 to fight for tlje restoration of the good 

 old system, with all its blessings of 

 tithes, covv^s,gabeIles, droils de cliasse, 

 and other privileges formerly possessed 

 by their venerable, ignorant, and iu.so- 

 lent ancestors ! 



Never liad a monarch so glorious an 

 oppurtuoily of rendering himself truly 



fopular, ashatl I^wi.s tlie 18th, after 

 is .setmiid restoration. Itonaparlc's 

 «nfeiprizc having fdilcd, in consequence 

 of his having neglected to rallv round 



^%U 



hlin the peopU, hj ^viag ihttm ti 

 truly repiesentative government, hi* 

 party might be deemed as at an ^nd. 

 But rea-ion and gond pMlcy form no 

 part of the vocabulary of thfe ultras: 

 in general, narrow-minded. Ignorant, , 

 and bigotted. they cannot comprehend 

 any plan of ruling, except by brute 

 force. The force of opinion seems to 

 be unknown to them ; and they fool- 

 ishly imagine that men can be r«led 

 now, as they were under that vain- 



irIorious/rtn/(7rrt«Lewis Quatorze. Beset 

 )y them on all sides, the king, whose 

 mind never strong, must now be en- 

 feebled by the mass of corruption in 

 which it floats, has been ttnable to resist 

 their solicitations ; and unfortunately 

 for France, lie gave the first signal for 

 a counter-revolutionary movement, in 

 his memorable speech at the opening 

 of the session in November, 1819 ; 

 in Mhich a change in the law of 

 elections was pointed out as necessary. 

 The fact was, that the law of elections, 

 as it then stood, had an evident tendency 

 to throw into the chamber a majority 

 of deputies chosen among the VbemuX ; 

 and in consequence, the ultras saw 

 themselves, like a man struggling 

 against an ebbing tide, removed farther 

 and farther from their darling privi- 

 leges, by every successive election. 

 This Avas too much for the noble blortd 

 of the f'olligeurs to bear; to see pre- 

 ferred to them and their ancient names, 

 men who had nolhing to boast of but 

 their talents and integrity; and fh^y 

 accordingly resolved, by a bold stroke, 

 lo reach the root of the supposed evil. 

 Arith the help of immense sums pro- 

 perly distributed, aided by all sorts of 

 ministerial influence, small majorities 

 were found to pass the ai-bitrary im- 

 prisonment law, and the law for the 

 enslaving of the press. The first fruit 

 of the discussion of these laAvs, was. 

 the assassination of the Dtre de Berri, 

 l)y a political fanatic, whose dagger 

 would probably have remained guiltless 

 in its scabbard, as it had done for the 

 five preceding years, had it not been 

 that the arbitrary and coimter- revolu- 

 tionary plan of the ultras had confirmed 

 in the iniiul of the assassin, tlie idea of 

 the happiness of France and the reign 

 of the Bourbons being incompatible. 

 So far from being stopped by this ter- 

 rible warning, the ultras fancied that it 

 had proceeded from a want of sufficient 

 vigour in their measures. It was made 

 the war-whoop of the party, who now 

 loudly called for the c«t«blishroent of 



pure 



