GENERAL 
ship. They transmitted to other 
countries, especially to England, 
memorials of the sufferings to 
which they had been, and still 
were, exposed, and which seemed 
to imply neglect or prepossession 
against them in their own go- 
vernment. 
The crown, in the meantime, 
was gradually establishing _ its 
authority in the midst of con- 
tending parties, and obtaining 
that ascendancy which hereditary 
monarchy can scarcely fail to ac- 
quire, if administered with pru- 
dence and moderation. In Sep- 
tember a considerable change was 
made in the French ministry, the 
Duke of Otranto (Fouche), whose 
service under the late usurpation 
had rendered him obnoxious to 
the royalists, having resigned, 
and the Duke of Richelieu, a 
nobleman who had passed many 
years as a loyal emigrant, being 
placed in the important post of 
secretary for foreign affairs. On 
October 6th the King published 
an ordinance nominating a privy 
council, among the members of 
which were many persons of the 
highest rank. On the 7th the 
Opening of the Chambers took 
place at a royal sitting, where 
the King delivered a speech rela- 
tive to the present state of af- 
fairs. He said that he had con- 
cluded with the powers which, 
“ after having destroyed the 
usurper, still occupy a great part 
of our territory,” a convention 
which would, without reserve, 
be laid before the assembly as 
soon as it had received its final 
ratification. He mentioned hav- 
ing ordered a considerable part 
of his civil list for the year to be 
paid into the treasury of the 
state, and having made similar 
HISTORY. [89 
diminutions in the salaries of his 
servants, andin all other expenses; 
he expressed and inculcated great 
respect for the constitutional 
charter, and touched upon the 
important objects requiring their 
attention in order to heal the 
wounds of the state, and restore 
internal tranquillity. The oaths 
were then taken by the peers and 
deputies, of fidelity to the King, 
and obedience to the constitu- 
tional charter. 
The situation of Louis XVIII., 
although thus surrounded with 
the legal authority of the nation, 
was at this time peculiarly hard 
and difficult. His obligations on 
one hand to the allied powers, 
who had placed him, and still 
maintained him, on the throne; 
and on the other, to his own 
people, now galled and bowed 
down under the yoke of those 
allies, produced a conflict of 
feelings and duties which must 
have proved extremely harass- 
ing. A circumstance which ex- 
posed him to particular mor- 
tification was passing direct- 
ly in his view. The museum 
of the Louvre, rendered by a 
long series of French conquests 
the richest receptacle of the 
arts in Europe, had, notwith- 
standing some reclamations, been 
left untouched at the capitulation 
of Paris in the former year. In 
the convention of the present 
year, the provisional government 
made a demand that it should be 
equally respected ; but the allied 
generals are said to have written 
in pencil opposite to the article, 
not granted; and the general 
article respecting public property 
was afterwards interpreted as not 
applying to the fruits of vio- 
lence. Atleast it may be said, 
