FRANCE. (HISTORY.) 



259 



riinilar to that of some families in the middle ages, 

 who seated themselves on conquered thrones, but 

 formed no integrant part of the nation. There was, 

 from the beginning, a feeling of distrust between the 

 rulers and the nation a state of things which can 

 never continue long in a constitutional government. 

 During the fifteen years in which the Bourbons once 

 more occupied the French throne, the division 

 between the two parties was constantly widening, 

 and the partisans of the government were becoming 

 more and more explicit in their demands for an abso- 

 lute monarchy. In addition to all this, the public 

 indignation was excited by the absurd theory of legi- 

 timacy, as promulgated by the congress of Vienna 

 a theory of which a definition never could be given, 

 si nd for which, nevertheless, "Sophistry lent her 

 colours to the most extravagant pretensions of tyran- 

 ny," to repeat the words of Sir James Mackintosh ; 

 a theory which offended the deepest feelings of the 

 nation, and declared the struggles of twenty-six 

 years to be nothing but insurrectionary disturbances ; 

 and which, while it declared Napoleon an illegiti- 

 mate ruler, acknowledged the lawfulness of the sway 

 of the kings of Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Saxony, and 

 several others, whom he had created. So entirely 

 was the spirit of the Bourbonists at variance with 

 tliat of the nation, that many individuals, who had at 

 first welcomed the return of the royal family, declared 

 for Napoleon when he landed from Elba, convinced 

 that the Bourbons and France were no longer fit for 

 each other. 



We must be content here with a brief enumeration 

 of the events which have taken place, for a develop- 

 ment of the causes which have produced them would 

 far exceed our limits. Louis XVIII. entered Paris, 

 May 3, 1814. A plan of a constitution had already 

 been adopted by the senate, April 5th, and by the 

 legislative body on the following day. This funda- 

 mental law was to be confirmed by Louis XVIII., 

 before his ascending the throne; but he merely 

 issued the declaration of St Ouen (May 2), in which, 

 as king of France and Navarre, he publicly declared 

 his adoption of the principles of the new constitution, 

 as his brother, the count D'Artois, had already done 

 in the character of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, 

 but reserved for himself the right of revising the docu- 

 ment, which bore marks of the haste in which it had 

 been drawn up by the senate. The new constitutional 

 charter was presented to tiie nation by the king on 

 the 4th of June. It contained the principles of a 

 limited monarchy ; as, the equality of all Frenchmen 

 in the eye of the law ; the equal obligation of all to 

 contribute to the expenses of the state ; the equal 

 right of all Frenchmen to all offices ; personal liberty ; 

 the free exercise of religion, and the liberty of the 

 press ; the security of property ; the oblivion of the 

 past ; the suppression of the conscription. The per- 

 son of the king (in whom was vested the executive 

 power, the command of the forces of the kingdom, 

 the right of declaring war, and making peace, of ap- 

 pointing officers, and proposing and publishing the 

 Jaws) was declared inviolable; the legislative power 

 was vested in him in conjunction with the two cham- 

 bers ; laws relating to imposts and taxes were re- 

 quired to be presented first to the chamber of depu- 

 ties ; the two houses were permitted to petition for 

 the proposal of a law ; the legislature was required 

 to grant the civil list of the king for the period of 

 his reign. The king convoked the chambers, named 

 the peers, hereditary or personal, prorogued the 

 chambers, and dissolved the chamber of deputies, 

 but was required to summon a new one within three 

 months ; the two chambers could only be in session 

 at the same time ; the chamber of deputies was to 

 be composed of deputies chosen by the electoral col- 



leges, one fifth part to be renewed yearly ; to be 

 eligible as a deputy, it was necessary to be forty 

 years old, and pay 1000 francs of direct taxes. The 

 king appointed the presidents of the electoral col- 

 leges, and the president of the chamber of deputies, 

 out of five candidates proposed by the chamber. 

 The chancellor presided in the chamber of peers. 

 On the 14th of May, Louis created the new ministry, 

 and, on the 3d of August, a new council of state. 

 The king's household was newly organized ; and the 

 old nobility were restored to many of their former 

 privileges at court. The royal orders of the Holy 

 Ghost, of military merit, the order of St Louis, and 

 that of St Michael, were revived ; the legion of hon- 

 our received a new decoration (the portrait of Henry 

 IV.) and a new organization, and the order of the 

 silver lily was founded. The peace concluded with 

 the allies at Paris, May 30, 1814, confined France to 

 the limits of January 1st, 1792 ; it retained, however, 

 the territories acquired in its interior by the incor- 

 poration of Avignon and Venaissin, notwithstanding 

 the protest of the pope (see Moureau's Reflexions sur 

 les Protestations du Pape Pie VII. , relatives a 

 Avignon et au comte de Venaissin, 1818) ; Montbel- 

 liard, too, and similar places, remained in its hands. 

 It was also permitted to retain Annecy and Cham- 

 berry, from Savoy. On the other hand, Great Bri- 

 tain retained possession of Malta ; and France re- 

 signed to that power the islands of Tobago and St 

 Lucia, in the West Indies, and the Isle of France. 

 The other colonies were restored to France, who 

 also kept possession of the treasures of art carried off 

 from countries which had been occupied by her arms. 

 A number of ordinances provided for the re-organi- 

 zation of the kingdom. The formation of a new army 

 was to be effected by recruits. Measures were also 

 taken to retrieve the disordered finances ; but the 

 state of affairs did not allow any diminution of the 

 taxes: the droits reunis (q. v.), and the monopoly 

 of tobacco, notwithstanding their unpopularity, were 

 preserved. The civil list of the king was again fixed 

 at twenty-five million francs, and the debts, amount- 

 ing to thirty millions, which the king had contracted 

 during his residence in foreign countries, were as- 

 sumed as the debts of the state. But the freedom 

 of the press, promised in the charter, was subjected 

 to restrictions by the establishment of a censorship, 

 and various police regulations excited the discontent 

 of the nation, especially of the Parisians, who could 

 not tolerate the restoration of the ancient forms and 

 principles. It was soon perceived, that a great dif- 

 ference of opinion prevailed among the members of 

 the royal family and among the ministers. The rising 

 ambition of the clergy was discerned, and bigotry be- 

 gan to raise its head. The honours conferred on the 

 old nobility and the emigrants who had returned 

 with the court, also excited great discontent. The 

 national pride was offended by the public declaration 

 of the king, that he owed his crown to the prince 

 regent of Britain. The army was in the state of the 

 highest irritation ; the remembrance of him under 

 whom they had acquired so much glory and power was 

 yet fresh, when they saw their corps dissolved, their 

 dotations, their pay and their pensions diminished, 

 their importance and their influence destroyed, and 

 they themselves compelled to change.their favourite 

 badges for others, on which they had formerly tram- 

 pled. The holders of the national domains feared to lose 

 them. The people were discontented with the bur- 

 den of the taxes, the alleviation of which had been pro- 

 mised to them. In this state of public feeling, nothing 

 could be more fatal for the royal government than the 

 sudden re-appearance of Napoleon on the coast of 

 France, the 1st of March, 1815. These circumstan- 

 ces explain why, without the existence of an actual 



